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Two Charged With Killing U Of I Student From Chicago

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Police in Champaign have arrested two men in connection with the murder of a missing college student from Chicago.

Vicente Mundo, 20, a resident of the Back of the Yards neighborhood in Chicago, was a junior at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He had been missing for a week when his body was discovered on Jan. 31.

Reginald James Scott, 21, of Champaign, and Daniel Gonzalez, 21, of Cicero, have been arrested in connection with Mundo's death. They were ordered held in lieu of $2 million bond each in a court appearance Tuesday afternoon.

Police said Scott and Gonzalez, both Parkland College Students, allegedly targeted Mundo to rob him of a small amount of marijuana and cash, but have not said which of the two suspects allegedly shot Mundo. Prosecutors say Scott and Gonzalez dumped the body along a tree line several miles from campus. The murder weapon was recovered Tuesday morning.

Vicente Mundo
Vicente Mundo (picture provided)

Mundo's family said he left a friend's off-campus apartment in Champaign on Jan. 25, and was never seen again until his body was discovered six days later in rural Champaign County.

More than 200 friends and relatives met at St. Gall Parish in Chicago on Monday to share memories of him.

His sister said her sorrow is unbearable.

"It's so painful to know that he's not going to be here tomorrow when I open my eyes in the morning," Julieta La Malfa said.

Mundo's sister says she called all the numbers listed in her brother's phone when she learned he'd disappeared a week ago and she believes one of her calls went to Daniel Gonzalez.

She says she asked him, "Have you heard that my brother's missing? When's the last time you saw him?"

Police say Gonzalez knew Mundo for about two years.

"I talked to these people and they all told me when the last time that they talked to him was and now I know some of those were lies.

Police have said there is no connection between Mundo's death and the New Year's Eve disappearance of another U of I student, 23-year-old Christian Zamora, who was last seen walking to a Champaign grocery store.

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