Escort on Trial for Killing Client

A trial began Monday in the case of a Craigslist escort accused of strangling a retired Bank of America executive in the San Francisco area and setting his house on fire in order to steal items including a solid gold flute.

According to theSan Francisco Chronicle, the murder of Theodore Neff in December 2008 is known as “the Case of the Golden Flute.”

“The prosecutor, Harold Jewett, said that killer was Alejandro Hernandez Rivera, a 24-year-old masseur whom Neff hired from Craigslist's erotic services section,” reported the Chronicle. “Rivera allegedly strangled the 66-year-old Neff, set his Bay Point home ablaze in an effort to make the death look accidental, and absconded with items that included the woodwind.”

When arrested days after the murder, Rivera was in possession of the $23,000 golden flute that belonged to Neff. He faces up to life in prison with no possibility of parole if convicted.