Extreme Makeover: Home Edition designer Eduardo Xol is dead after a shocking stabbing. The TV personality, 58, passed away on Friday, Sept. 20 at Desert Regional Medical Center more than a week after police found him injured in a in Palm Springs, California apartment.
The Riverside County Coroner’s Office announced the news on Tuesday, Sept. 24, revealing that Xol, who is best known for his work on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Season 2, had died at 12:19 p.m. after being brought to the hospital in serious but stable condition on Sept. 10.ย
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The Palm Springs Police Department previously reported receiving a call from a man requesting help in the 400 block of East Arenas Road, according to local newspaper The Desert Sun. When officers arrived at the apartment from which the call had originated, they found Xol, who told police he had been stabbed. He did not identify his attacker, police said.
Officers later arrested Richard Joseph Gonzales, 34, of Cathedral City, on suspicion of attempted murder in connection to the stabbing. Gonzalez got law enforcement’s attention when he called police at 9:13 a.m. the morning after Xol’s attack, claiming to have been assaulted himself. Officers determined after additional investigation that Gonzales was their suspect in Xol’s stabbing, and Gonzales was booked into the John Benoit Detention Center in Indio to be held without bail as police request murder charges be brought against him.
Xol’s family shared in a statement, “We are heartbroken at the tragic loss of our beloved Eduardo Xol. As his family, we know that his kindness has touched the lives of so many.We ask for that kindness returned now allowing our privacy to be respected as we process our grief. In lieu of flowers we ask that donations be made in Eduardo’s name to the Lupus Foundation of America as he spent so much of his life in the service of others.”
Xol’s friends have also begun to pay tribute on social media. Richard Pรฉrez-Feria wrote on Instagram that it was “nearly incomprehensible” to be saying goodbye to Xol. “When I first learned that Eduardo Xol had passed, I went numb. It was impossible to process that information as it didn’t square with my thousands of experiences with him,” he wrote. “Please don’t ask me how or why at this point…what matters most is who he was: A talented, beautiful, passionate friend, brother, son and partner.”
“The millions of laughs, hopes and secrets we shared remain at the fore of my thoughts,” he continued. “I want to honor my dear friend and celebrate his life as one that mattered to so many. He certainly mattered to me. Sending healing love at this horrific time to his circle of friends and family who loved him so. Sadly, tomorrow isn’t promised. Love each other. Rest in peace, Eduardo.”
Xol joined Extreme Makeover: Home Edition as a designer for landscaping and outdoor living in the show’s second season through its eighth. He also had roles in several telenovelas early in his career includingย Acapulco, cuerpo y alma, Sentimientos Ajenos and La Juala de Oro.
