Suspect FINALLY charged with strangling Maria Maricela Astorga-Chavez to death in 2015!
Trigger warning: This article contains a recollection of crime and can be traumatic to some. Discretion is advised.
WEST VALLEY CITY, UTAH: Francisco Jesus Huerta-Martinez, 41, a suspect in the 2015 murder of a woman named Maria Maricela Astorga-Chavez, was arrested on Saturday, October 1, 2022. He was booked in the Salt Lake County Jail on felony counts of murder, felony robbery, and obstruction of justice. Police are yet to reveal the details of his arrest.
According to Fox 13, the police have confirmed that Martinez's arrest is in connection with the death of the female. Chavez went missing in August 2015 and later was found dead in Colorado a week later.
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Chavez, 32, was a mother of three children. According to Desert News, the court documents had suggested her family members last saw Chavez on the night of August 6, 2015, as she dropped off her son at her sister's home in Salt Lake County. Later, she got into a vehicle with Huerta-Martinez. Later, she spoke with her cousin over the phone and also left a message. On the other hand, Huerta-Martinez communicated to a friend that he was in Fort Worth, Texas, on August 9, 2015, and claimed he had strangled someone, wrapped them in a blanket, and left the body on the side of the road somewhere in Colorado.
Later, the police who were tracking him realized that Huerta-Martinez has moved out of the country and headed to Queretaro, Mexico on March 10, 2015. Meanwhile, the police also released a statement on August 13, 2015, seeking the public's help finding Chavez. Her body was found on August 16, 2015, by a Colorado Department of Transportation employee working on the side of I-70. Her body was found inside two blankets, one green, and one white. It was well wrapped together by an electrical cord.
A photo of him standing in his bedroom with a comforter in the background that matched the one she was wrapped in appeared as a turning point in the investigation. The iron rod with the cord cut off matched the electrical cord that was wrapped around her body and the comforters, and beer bottles had the marks of the victim and the killer. According to charging documents, the autopsy of the victim stated she died from asphyxiation due to strangulation and that "the manner of death was homicide."
In a statement by the police, it was revealed, "Ms Astorga-Chavez was missing several rings she was known to always wear." A warrant was issued for his arrest with a million-dollar bail in 2015. The court documents showed no developments in the case since then. Huerta-Martinez was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on Saturday on these same charges, along with a "federal detainees" hold.