Security footage showed Nick Aaronson returning to his hotel room with suspected murderer
/
Aaronson's body was flown back to Phoenix on its way to his mother's home in California on Wednesday.
The 20-year-old suspect in the brutal slaying of a U.S. Airways flight attendant in Mexico City last week met his victim at a bar and then went with him to his hotel, where he beat, robbed and strangled the young Phoenix native, authorities say.
Front desk workers at the Hilton Hotel Mexico City may have been the last to see Nick Aaronson alive, as security footage showed him signing his suspected killer, Jose Luis Ramirez, in as a guest early Friday morning, police said.
Hotel workers found Aaronson's bound body lying next to the bed in his room some 24 hours later.
Ramirez, who was arrested on Sunday, admitted to entering the 27-year-old's room and beating him, but denied strangling him with a belt and robbing him, CNN reported.
Police say the alleged killer, who has served time for robbery, tried to throw off investigators by shaving his head after the deadly attack.
But the ex-con wasn't clever about covering his tracks. Police busted him near the same pub where Aaronson first picked him up, according to Reuters.
Ramirez is facing homicide and robbery charges.
Meanwhile, hundreds of flight attendants, pilots, friends and other mourners gathered on the runway at Phoenix's Sky Harbor airport on Wednesday to pay tribute to the beloved young attendant as his body arrived on a flight from Mexico City.
"He was the light of everybody's life. He was the firework in everybody's heart. He made everyone smile. He was an amazing caring person," his boyfriend, Kalven Smith, told a local ABC affiliate.
