Police investigate human remains found in San Diego home tied to person of interest with a long history

For residents of a usually calm Southcrest cul-de-sac, the last few days have felt like something out of a crime show rather than real life.

As reporter Dana Williams explained in her live report for NBC 7, the small gray house at the end of Newton Avenue suddenly became the center of a major investigation after human remains were discovered on the property.

Neighbors told Williams they watched as the quiet dead-end street filled up with patrol cars, crime scene vans, and investigators in protective gear.

One neighbor said at first they thought it had to be a joke because the scene seemed so unreal.

Another neighbor, Miguel Bernal, told Williams that people in the area “are not used to all this type of movement,” and that the constant police presence made the whole neighborhood feel nervous and on edge.

That sense of unease only grew when residents learned that the remains came from more than one person.

Investigators Spend Days Digging For Answers

According to Dana Williams, California Highway Patrol, San Diego Police, and the FBI converged on the property on Tuesday and spent more than 48 hours working their way through the backyard and the crawl space under the home.

From the ground, most people could only see caution tape, canopies, and personnel moving in and out of the yard.

Williams said the clearest look at what was happening came from aerial views, which showed investigators digging and handling what appeared to be human bones.

She reported that multiple sources familiar with the investigation confirmed that the remains belonged to several people, shifting the case from a single discovery to something potentially much bigger.

Bernal admitted to Williams that hearing it involved multiple individuals made the situation “more scary,” because no one in the neighborhood knew who these people were or what had happened to them.

Even after crime scene tape came down and officers left, Williams said the mood on the street was still heavy, with more questions hanging over the block than answers.

It is one thing to hear about a crime scene on the news; it is another to stand on your own front porch and see investigators pulling bones out of the ground near your home.

Families Lived Above A Hidden Horror

One of the most disturbing details described by Dana Williams came from the current residents of the Newton Avenue home.

Williams spoke with two sisters who moved into the remodeled house about a year ago, along with seven other family members.

They told her that, from time to time, sheriff’s deputies would show up asking if a certain person lived there, and they would explain that they had just moved in and did not know the man officers were talking about.

When the digging began this week, investigators cut a square into the floor under one of the sisters’ bedrooms to access the crawl space.

The sisters told Williams that realizing they had been “living under dead bodies or whatever there is” was terrifying and almost unreal to think about.

That single line, captured by Williams, shows how crime scenes are not just about evidence and paperwork; they are also about real families who suddenly find out their home has a hidden past they never imagined.

It is hard to think of anything more chilling than discovering that beneath the place where you sleep and eat, someone once buried bodies, and no one bothered to tell you before you moved in.

Person Of Interest Named In The Case

While investigators have not publicly explained how the remains were found or exactly what they believe happened, NBC 7’s anchors Monica Dean and Jackie Crea reported that the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office has named 74-year-old Dwight Rhone as a person of interest in the case.

Dean and Crea both stressed on air that Rhone is not charged in connection with the remains at this time, but he is already in jail on a separate murder case from 2023.

According to their broadcast, Rhone is accused of shooting and killing a man and then burning his body near the area where Interstates 5 and 905 meet.

Dean and Crea pointed viewers to NBC 7 Investigates for deeper background on Rhone, including his long criminal history and his past connection to the Newton Avenue house.

The fact that the same address where Rhone once lived is now the center of a multi-victim remains investigation naturally raises questions, but law enforcement has so far declined to go on camera to explain how those pieces might fit together.

In a situation like this, where the public sees heavy police activity, but officials share very few details, the gap gets filled by fear, speculation, and rumor.

A Troubled History Inside The Newton Avenue Home

NBC 7 investigative reporter Shelby Bremer picked up the story from inside the newsroom, focusing on the background of both the property and the man now labeled a person of interest.

Bremer explained that 3443 Newton Avenue was owned for decades by the Monia family.

A woman named Ernie Monia married one of Rhone’s brothers, which is how, according to Bremer, Dwight Rhone ended up living in the home.

Bremer said NBC 7 Investigates pulled court records from multiple jurisdictions and found that Rhone has dozens of criminal cases dating back to 1963 and at least 12 felony convictions.

Federal prosecutors, Bremer reported, have specifically noted nine felony convictions in his record in connection with a separate case, and a San Diego County complaint lists 16 other matters.

In 2017, Bremer said, Ernie Monia filed for a restraining order against Rhone, claiming that he threatened her and that she feared he would become violent.

According to the documents Bremer reviewed, Monia alleged that Rhone brought men and women into the home who appeared drunk or on drugs and told her, “I can have whatever drug addict I want there and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

A judge granted the restraining order and ordered Rhone out of the house, Bremer reported, but family members later told investigators that he eventually made his way back in.

What Bremer laid out shows a pattern where a family home slowly turned into a place of conflict, fear, and court filings, with warnings about violence and dangerous visitors that now seem especially troubling.

You can’t help but wonder how many red flags people saw over the years and how many of them were taken seriously enough before the situation reached this point.

From Eviction To Murder Charge

Bremer went on to describe what happened after Ernie Monia died and the property was eventually put up for sale.

She reported that when the home hit the market, the listing clearly warned that any buyer would “need to perform evictions,” meaning people were still living there despite the ownership change.

The current owner told Bremer that those evictions did happen, and that Dwight Rhone was among those forced to leave.

Around the same time the house was changing hands, Bremer said, San Diego police pulled Rhone over in June 2023.

Despite being a convicted felon multiple times over, officers reported finding a loaded handgun in his pocket during that traffic stop.

Rhone was charged for being a felon in possession of a firearm, Bremer explained, but he was released on bail.

While out on bail in October 2023, according to Bremer’s review of the case, the California Highway Patrol responded to a brush fire near the junction of I-5 and State Route 905.

At the scene, officers found the body of Bernardo Moreno, who had been shot in the head and whose body had been set on fire.

Bremer said prosecutors now allege that Rhone killed Moreno after a fight that started when their dogs got into an altercation and Moreno stabbed Rhone’s dog to break it up.

For weeks after Moreno’s death, prosecutors claim, Rhone drove Moreno’s truck with the license plates swapped, tried to use his debit card, and even attempted to rob a woman in a Carlsbad parking lot.

Rhone was formally charged with Moreno’s murder in December 2024, Bremer reported, and has remained in custody at the San Diego County Jail ever since.

Now, as investigators dig up human remains at the Southcrest home where he once lived, that older case casts a long shadow over the neighborhood and the ongoing search for answers.

Cases like this show how one person’s criminal history can stretch across decades, neighborhoods, and even different types of crimes, leaving a long trail that reporters like Bremer and Williams try to piece together for the public.

Waiting For Identification And Closure

In her live shot, Dana Williams explained that all of the remains recovered from the Newton Avenue property are being taken to the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office.

There, experts will begin trying to figure out how long the bodies have been buried, what caused the deaths, and, most importantly, who these people were.

Until that process is complete, neighbors like Miguel Bernal and the families living nearby will have to live with the knowledge that multiple unidentified victims were found just steps from their homes.

Williams acknowledged on air that, for now, authorities are not sharing new details, and even NBC 7’s own questions to law enforcement have gone unanswered.

Anchors Monica Dean and Jackie Crea told viewers that NBC 7 will keep updating the story on air and on NBC7.com as the Medical Examiner and investigators release more information.

Bremer added that she had reached out to both Rhone’s family and the Monia family for comment, but everyone declined, and she was also told that Rhone himself is refusing all media requests from jail.

The silence from key players, combined with the very visible police activity and the shocking discovery of multiple sets of remains, makes this case feel especially heavy for the community.

When you put together Dana Williams’ scenes from the street, Shelby Bremer’s stack of court documents, and the cautious words from Monica Dean and Jackie Crea at the anchor desk, you get a picture of a story that is still far from over.

What started as a quiet cul-de-sac in Southcrest has become the center of a mystery involving a house with a troubled history, a man with a long criminal record, and victims who have yet to be named.

Until those names are known and the full truth is laid out, the uneasiness that neighbors described to NBC 7 will likely linger in Southcrest, long after the last crime scene van has driven away.