Third man arrested for murder in missing person investigation
Photo courtesy Redlands Police Department
Ramon Duran
Redlands Police detectives traveled to Nashville this week where they arrested a third suspect for murder in connection with the investigation into the disappearance of a Tennessee man in May of 2023.
Emilio Salem Ghanem was reported missing shortly after he visited a Starbucks restaurant at 625 E. Redlands Blvd. on May 25, 2023. A rented Nissan Frontier pickup he was driving was spotted on surveillance video later that day in Grand Terrace. Detectives later recovered the rental truck burned in the Mojave Desert along with additional evidence.
On Jan. 12 detectives arrested 44-year-old Ramon Ruiz Duran Jr. without incident at his place of employment with assistance from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations, Metro Nashville Police Department and the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office.
Duran was booked into jail in Nashville. He waived extradition and was transported back to San Bernardino County, where he was booked into West Valley Detention Center Thursday for murder and conspiracy to commit murder. He is being held in lieu of $1 million bail.
On Dec. 11, 2025, Redlands Police, in partnership with the California Department of Justice, the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office and the Colton Police Department served search warrants on two locations in the cities of Hemet and Colton and arrested Shelly Bailey “Kat” Martin, 62, and Rudy Franco Moreno, 43, of Hemet for murder, conspiracy and weapons charges. Four other people were arrested on related weapons charges.
On Dec. 15, 2025, Martin and Moreno were arraigned in San Bernardino County Superior Court for murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Ghanem had been a member of “His Way Spirit Led Assemblies,” a religious organization based in Hemet and led by Darryl and Shelly Martin. He left that organization shortly before his disappearance. Ghanem also worked for Fullshield, Inc., a pest control business owned and operated by the group. The business now operates under the name “Maxguard.”
The investigation is ongoing. The case and all evidence were forwarded to the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office for filing.