Dragged woman left mile-long blood trail, police say

[IRiSHMaFIA]

Dragged woman left mile-long blood trail, police say


DENVER, Colorado (AP) -- A woman was tied to a vehicle with a rope and dragged through suburban streets in a gruesome crime that left a trail of blood more than a mile long, police said.

Neighbors discovered the woman's body before dawn Monday about 20 miles south of Denver. On Tuesday, sheriff's deputies were still trying to learn her identity.

The victim's face was unrecognizable and an orange tow rope was found around her neck, said Nancy Foley, who lives next door to the house where the body was found.

"I was trying to sleep last night, thinking about how this poor lady was dragged, treated worse than an animal," Foley said. "She was really mangled."

Preliminary autopsy results indicated the woman died of asphyxiation and head injuries from being strangled while dragged by a vehicle, sheriff's spokeswoman Kim Castellano said. Toxicology results could take three weeks.

Castellano said investigators Tuesday detained several witnesses for questioning. No one had been arrested or identified as a possible suspect, she said.

A photo of an unidentified couple was found nearby, but investigators did not know whether it was connected to the death, Castellano said.

Investigators were checking missing-person reports for clues.

Authorities stepped up patrols in the once-quiet neighborhood, and residents were locking their doors at night, Foley said.

"It's a very safe neighborhood, or it has been, anyway," she said.

The blood was cleaned off the paved road, but traces remained, upsetting neighbors.

"We don't want to attract any more attention than what we're already getting. This is our little piece of heaven," Foley said.

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I was in utter shock reading this. How could anyone be so cruel to another human? The woman was alive and had to die being ripped apart basically!

Whoever did this completely deserves the death penalty, and that's not something I'd usually say, but in this case they just don't deserve to live amongst humans, because they're anything but!

[fritz]

I undedstand they are looking for her boyfriend.If it was him he should get the same as those red necks who draged that Man behind there pick-up down in Taxes.I think his name was James Byrd.I know some of you hate the death penalty but sometimes its called for. :grr:

[eefanincan]

[faceless]

I'd never agree with the death penalty - not even in a case like this. Killing someone because they killed someone has no morality about it at all, and morality is (apparently) the whole point of having a legal system in the first place.

The person who did this is utter scum, there's no doubt of that, but if there was ever a reason to have prisons (or mental institutions) then here it is. People like this guy need to be punished and 10 years in jail followed by death just doesn't work out as good punishment for me.

There's a lot of opposition to not killing people like this because of the amount it costs to keep people in prison that long, but if they (the judiciary) stopped jailing so many thousands of people for small time drug offences then there wouldn't be such massive costs involved in the whole system.

[eefanincan]

[Gasman59]

[faceless]

[IRiSHMaFIA]

Dragged woman identified, was mother of 3


A neighbor says the woman shown in the photo with the suspect is not the victim, but is his Mexican wife.

CASTLE ROCK, Colorado (AP) -- A woman dragged to her death behind a vehicle was identified as a mother of three from the Mexican state of Guerrero, the Mexican consul general said.

Luz Maria Franco-Fierros, 49, was identified through fingerprints, Consul General Juan Marcos Gutierrez Gonzalez said. Franco-Fierros was from the city of Chilpancingo, the capital of Guerrero.

Her battered, disfigured body was discovered early Monday along a subdivision road north of Castle Rock, about 20 miles south of Denver.

Investigators say Franco-Fierros had been dragged behind a vehicle for more than a mile, leaving a bloody trail. Preliminary autopsy results said she suffered fatal head injuries and strangled as she was dragged.

Jose Luis Rubi-Nava, 36, was being held without bail on a charge of first-degree murder.

Friends told the Rocky Mountain News that the woman lived with Rubi-Nava, even though he had a wife and children in Mexico. Cesar Gustavo Flores, 20, a roommate, said the couple sometimes argued violently.

Spokeswomen for the district attorney, the Douglas County sheriff and the coroner declined to comment Thursday. Rubi-Nava's public defender, Kathleen McGuire, did not immediately return a call.

A judge sealed court documents and said he would consider McGuire's request for a gag order.

In his only public statement since the arrest, Sheriff Dave Weaver did not say how the arrest was made or how the few known clues fit into the case.

Among those clues is a widely circulated photograph found somewhere near the crime scene showing Rubi-Nava standing beside an unidentified woman, his right arm resting on her shoulder. Weaver said Wednesday he did not know whether the woman in the photo is the victim. Flores told the Rocky Mountain News that the woman in the photograph was Rubi-Nava's wife in Mexico.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said they believe Rubi-Nava is an illegal immigrant from Mexico.

Denver police confirmed Thursday they arrested Rubi-Nava on a traffic charge in April but released him.

Police spokeswoman Virginia Quinones said the arresting officer suspected Rubi-Nava's identification may have been forged, but she said the department was not responsible for verifying a suspect's immigration status, and a new Colorado law directing police to cooperate with federal immigration officers was not yet in force.