They were the best of friends and business associates, but something apparently went terribly wrong.
Now, Aurora police have arrested one man as a suspect in the other’s death after finding a body inside the trunk of a burning car in September.
Roderick Deon Bracken, 36, was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder in Arapahoe County District Court.
Bracken is suspected of killing his longtime friend, Alfonso Bernal, 34.
Bernal’s mother, Gloria Rodriquez, is stunned by Bracken’s arrest. He was a man Rodriguez loved as if he were one of her own children, she said.
“They had been friends for 20 years,” Rodriguez said.
Bernal’s body was found after an off-duty police officer on his way to work spotted a burning sedan about 5:20 a.m. on Sept. 25.
The car was in a ditch off South Aurora Parkway behind the Southlands shopping center.
Bracken was taken into custody Sept. 27 for allegedly setting fire to himself and was held on suspicion of arson in the days following Bernal’s death, said Marcus Dudley, a police spokesman.
Rodriguez said the two met when they were teenagers and worked at the old Elitch Gardens in northwest Denver.
According to a business database, Bracken is an officer and registered agent of Cornerstone Mortgage Services. The address of the business is a property that was owned by Bernal, according to property records.
Rodriguez said the friends were involved in real estate deals, but recently they had business and personal disputes.
But no one thought it would end in death.
“We didn’t think it would go this far,” Rodriguez said. “We didn’t think it would come to this.”
Staff writer Kieran Nicholson can be reached at 303-820-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
