Breaking News:A Man is accused of planning David Ortiz shooting found dead in Dominican Republic

Victor Hugo Gomez was found dead in January, marking the second suspicious death of a suspect in the case.

The man at one point accused of planning the 2019 shooting of Red Sox legend David Ortiz was found dead in the Dominican Republic in January, a development that was not widely publicized until a woman was arrested this week in connection with the shooting.

Victor Hugo Gomez Vasquez was found dead Jan. 10 in a town near Santo Domingo after he was reported missing by his family, local authorities said. Gomez had been missing since the beginning of December, a local newspaper reported

This is the second suspect in connection with Ortiz’s shooting to have died. Another suspect in the case, Luis Alfredo Rivas-Clase, was shot and killed in 2021. .

Gomez was arrested in June 2019 after authorities said the hit men he hired to kill his cousin confused Ortiz for him. The charges against him were dropped in 2022, and Gomez has denied involvement in the shooting.

A defense attorney connected to the Ortiz case said he was kidnapped and murdered, The Boston Globe reported, but officials have not yet confirmed his cause of death.

This week, Interpol Agents in Santo Domingo arrested 25-year-old Maria Fernanda Villasmil Manzanilla after prosecutors said she was seen on the night of the shooting with other suspects implicated in the attack.

Manzanilla was released from custody Thursday and faces no charges, the Globe reported.

Ortiz, a baseball star who won three World Series titles with the Red Sox, was shot at close range on June 9, 2019, while at a bar in Santo Domingo. He later hired former Boston police commissioner Ed Davis to conduct a private investigation into the shooting.

In 2022, 10 men were convicted in the shooting. The men already convicted include the shooter, his getaway man, and another defendant who paid the shooter.

Davis’ investigation concluded that Ortiz was shot after a local drug lord ordered a hit on him, which contradicted authorities’ accounts of the incident.