Police seek tips in backpacker's death - body was found in Nonconnah Creek

Police are asking the public to help solve the killing of 22-year-old Dominic Castillo of Albuquerque, who had arrived in Memphis in January with a backpack and a three-legged brown dog.

Castillo's body was found February 11 in Nonconnah Creek in Whitehaven. His death has been ruled a homicide by strangulation, according to a Memphis police posting on Facebook.

He had grown up in Albuquerque, New Mexico and was a "nonconformist" who set out on a cross-country trip accompanied by his dog Lily, his stepmother Deborah Castillo told the Albuquerque Journal. 

He loved Huckleberry Finn and wanted to see the Mississippi River featured in the novel, the newspaper reported. He posted a Facebook picture of the river on January 22. That's the last anyone heard from him, his stepmother said. The dog was found wandering in a local neighborhood and has since been adopted. 

“Dom had some sadness in his heart," his stepmother told the newspaper. "In a way, he was broken and Lily was broken, too. He just loved pouring his love into her and she filled a part of his heart.”

Memphis police are asking anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at 528-2274 or the Homicide Bureau at 636-3300.

Reach reporter Daniel Connolly at 529-5296, daniel.connolly@commercialappeal.com, or on Twitter at @danielconnolly.