Police say how 73-year-old Hawaiian Gary Ruby ended up dying in a concrete bathtub

A 23-year-old man has confessed to murdering his lover five decades older than him after learning he had HIV – before embarking on a cover-up scheme that included pouring cement and coffee grounds over the corpse. body in the bathtub and arrest him. Hawaiian cars and homes are worth millions of dollars, police said.

Juan Tejedor Baron charged with murder, burglary and a burglary determination for the February murder of Gary Ruby, 73, who police said was found wrapped in cement and coffee grounds in a poisoned soaking tub inside his Hawaii Loa Ridge home. Baron was arrested Wednesday after authorities discovered he was “hiding in a crawl space under an enclosed bench” in the back of a Greyhound bus traveling from Mexico.

He is currently being held without bail pending extradition to Honolulu after allegedly admitting to killing Ruby, with whom he had a romantic relationship. It is not yet clear whether he will retain his attorney.

An affidavit obtained by The Daily Beast states that Ruby’s neighbors and brother are aware of the couple’s relationship — noting that Baron was seen at the home of an elderly man in the community. is controlled.

According to property records, Ruby bought the house in 2020 for nearly $2.2 million.

“He is a man who has worked hard all his life, every day, saving to get the home he wants to be his forever home. He worked so hard, to have your golden years, and two years later, all of that is gone,” said Lore Woodley, the real estate agent who helped Ruby get the property, told KITV.

On the day of the murder, authorities said, “Baron said he had sex with Gary but became angry after Gary informed Baron that Gary was HIV positive.

“Baron said he soon noticed Gary had choked on his food, and Baron responded by placing a belt around Gary’s neck and tightening the belt until Gary lost consciousness,” the affidavit said. more.

Baron said he then dragged the elderly man he was dating into the bathtub, before using “a kitchen knife to slit Gary’s wrist in an attempt to prepare for a suicide.” Desperate to cover up his crime, Baron said he then decided to kill the bathtub with concrete bags he found inside the garage – but only enough to partially cover him.

“Baron then drove to Lowe’s to buy four more bags of concrete and pour more into the tub, covering Gary. The baron claimed that he used coffee grounds to coat the cement in an attempt to mask the smell of decay,” the affidavit reads.

After the murder, Baron admitted to having misappropriated ownership papers for Ruby’s yellow 2020 Audi A6 and had plans to even attempt to buy back the house.

Authorities said they first became aware of the incident on Monday, when Ruby’s brother requested a medical check-up after not hearing from the 73-year-old for three weeks. Ruby’s brother told police his brother mentioned in the email that he had “met a new love interest named Juan” who was “significantly younger”.

When a Honolulu Police Department agent came to Ruby’s home, Baron said he bought the house about five years ago. But when the property forwarding officer showed that Ruby bought the house in 2020, Baron “changed his story, saying he bought the apartment two years ago and had a deed to it.” “.

The conflict prompted officers to enter the home Tuesday, where Ruby was found inside the master bedroom bath. A medical examiner concluded that Ruby’s blood was at the bottom of the tub and deemed his death to be homicide.

The Los Angeles Police Department and US Marshals arrested Baron on Wednesday, shortly before arresting a 34-year-old man who local police said was also seen leaving Ruby’s home. The 34-year-old was later released after evidence that he had nothing to do with the murders.

While the details of how Baron and Ruby met are still unclear, a Hawaiian man told a local newspaper that he met the 23-year-old on a dating app just weeks before the murder. people happen.

“A couple of weeks ago we started texting on Tinder and then we made a date, then we met at a bar,” Kai Johnson told Hawaii NewsNow on Friday, added that he even introduced Baron to his friends. Johnson said Baron told the team that he and his parents are wealthy and that he works as a creative financial advisor – in part to explain why he uses Ruby’s money and pays for tabs .

“We always thought he just had a good job, making good money,” he added. “He’s driving some kind of Audi, like an A6 or A8 or whatever, living in a nice house and so on. We don’t think about it. ”

Johnson said that Baron even invited him and his friends over to the Loa Ridge home – but their visits to a room were always limited. Johnson last saw Baron last Friday, just three days before Baron was named a suspect in Ruby’s murder.

While Johnson admitted to the local outlet that he hadn’t seen any signs of Baron’s misconduct, he and his friends were horrified by the news of the murder.

“It could be me,” he said