Pizza deliveryman is lured, robbed, killed

Police found the car at 8:30 a.m. yesterday about 2 miles away behind St. Adalbert Church on River Street in Hyde Park, and said they discovered enough evidence to follow the trail of the three suspects.

“This is a terrible crime for the community and his family, and we’re going to do everything we can to solve it,’’ Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis told reporters in the parking lot beside the church, where investigators were examining the car, a 1995 Subaru Legacy.

A resident who saw news reports about the search for the car spotted it in the parking lot and alerted police, according to Davis.

“Getting this car in such a timely fashion has made it much easier for us to process this scene,’’ he said.

Police said one of the three suspects called Domino’s to order pizza.

They did not identify the Domino’s deliveryman yesterday, but the Globe has learned he is 58-year-old Richel Navo of Hyde Park, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic who lived by himself and worked several jobs. He had delivered pizza for another company before, said neighbors outside his apartment, about 3 miles from the house where he was killed.

“He was always smiling, always singing,’’ said one woman, who asked that her name not be used because the suspects remain at large. She said the deliveryman, a baseball fan, spoke little English, but he tried to address her in a neighborly way.

“He was the nicest, the quietest,’’ the neighbor said.

Another neighbor, Rafael Hernandez, added, “He was a good guy, and what they did to him was wrong.’’

A spokesman for Domino’s, Tim McIntyre , said his company is working with police and expressed sympathy for Navo’s family.

“We are horrified by what happened last night,’’ he said in a phone interview yesterday. “We will do anything we can so that the police can find these suspects and bring them to justice. This was a horrible and vicious thing, and that’s not what we expect when we set out to deliver a pizza. We are very sad about this.’’

A woman who lives next to the vacant house on Hyde Park Avenue where the killing took place told the Globe that she fears she unknowingly played a role in Navo’s death by allowing an unknown woman who was outside her home at about 11 p.m. Wednesday to use her phone.

Marie Clena-Tunis said that she saw the woman outside just after arriving home from church and that the woman said her cellphone charger was dead. Clena-Tunis said that she lent her phone to the woman, who was speaking partly in English and partly in Creole, but that she did not listen to the conversation. Clena-Tunis said she had never seen the woman before.

Soon after, police and other emergency responders arrived at the vacant house, and it was only under questioning by police that Clena-Tunis realized the woman who used her phone may be a suspect in the case.

“She didn’t tell me what it was about,’’ Clena-Tunis said. “Why did she put that on me, to use the phone? She didn’t say anything, she just left.’’

Police would not discuss any details concerning the call.

Police, who arrived at the scene just after midnight, believe that the three suspects lured Navo to the back of the two-family home at 742 Hyde Park Ave., and then inside the house before attacking him. He was stabbed several times and was pronounced dead at the scene.

The house has been vacant for more than two years, said Ralph Sellitto, who owns Hyde Park Auto Electric, a car repair shop next door.

Sellitto said he once owned the house but sold it five years ago. The brothers who bought it fell into financial trouble and moved out about 2 1/2 years ago, Sellitto said.

He said one of the brothers recently returned to cut the grass and bushes, but he has not spoken with them.

The property is listed under the names Matteo and Pedro Lopez on city records. They could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Sellitto said that even though the house was abandoned, he saw no signs of squatters or vagrants inside. There is a for sale sign posted on the property.

“There have never been any problems, and I’ve never seen anybody lingering,’’ Sellitto said. “This is pretty bad. I feel for his family.’’

The robbery and killing were a tragic reminder of the dangers delivery people face by heading into strange houses and neighborhoods, often after dark. In August 2009, Thu Nguyen, a Chinese food deliveryman in Lawrence, was attacked and left with a fractured skull on a sidewalk after he responded to a fake order. He died the next day.

Boston police said yesterday they could not immediately provide the number of delivery persons who have been attacked in the city this year. But after Nguyen’s death last summer, a spokeswoman told the Globe there had been about 30 assaults in the Hub so far that year.

Over the years, as robberies have made headlines, companies have tried different tactics for deliveries at unknown houses, such as requiring customers to come outside to pick up food and making one delivery at a time to limit the amount of money carried.

“This was a person trying to make a few dollars delivering pizza,’’ said McIntyre, the Domino’s spokesman.

Milton J. Valencia can be reached at mvalencia@bostonglobe.com.