WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah, Oct. 2, 2022 (Gephardt Daily) — A man charged with strangling a 32-year-old West Valley City woman, then dumping her body in Colorado in August 2015 has been arrested seven years after her death.
Francisco Jesus Huerta-Martinez, 41, was taken into custody by West Valley City police and booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on Saturday on several charges, including murder, according to the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
Huerta-Martinez was charged with first-degree felony murder in October 2015 in connection with Maria Maricela Astorga-Chavez’s disappearance and death Aug. 6, 2015.
Astorga-Chavez’s body was found about two weeks later in Colorado, police said. An autopsy later concluded she died by asphyxiation due to strangulation, according to charging documents.
Details about Huerta-Martinez’s arrest Saturday were not immediately available.
Family members told police Astorga-Chavez was last seen dropping off her son at her sister’s house in Salt Lake County on the evening of Aug. 6, 2015, charges state.
Astorga-Chavez told family members she would be picking up her son in the morning and then left in a white Ford Expedition being driven by Huerta-Martinez, also known as Javier Huerta, according to court documents.
On Aug. 6, 2015, Huerta-Martinez met with a friend in Fort Worth, Texas, and allegedly told them he had “strangled a person to death, wrapped the body in a blanket, and dumped the body off the side of the road in the mountains of Colorado,” court documents state.
On Aug. 16, 2015, a Colorado Department of Transportation worker discovered the body of a woman along Interstate 70 in Summit County, Colorado. The body was wrapped in two comforters and tied together using an electrical cord.
West Valley police were notified and the body was later positively identified as Astorga-Chavez, police said.
On Aug. 18, 2015, police searched Huerta-Martinez’s Salt Lake County residence and located comforter bags matching those found around the woman’s body, according to charging documents. At the time of the search, no bedding was found on Huerta-Martinez’s mattress, charging documents state.
Officers also found an iron with the cord cut from it in a closet. The cord found wrapped around the woman’s body “was similar to the portion of the cord remaining on the clothing iron,” charges state.
In addition to murder, Huerta-Martinez has been charged with:
- Aggravated robbery, a first-degree felony, as police say Astorga-Chavez was wearing several rings when she disappeared that were not recovered with her body.
- Obstructing justice, a second-degree felony.
Why did it take seven years to arrest this man when there was so much evidence at his home?