WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah — Police confirmed on Monday that they had extradited Francisco Jesus Huerta-Martinez to Utah from Mexico after he was initially taken into custody there earlier this year.
FOX 13 News first reported on Huerta-Martinez, 41, being booked into the Salt Lake County Jail this weekend. His arrest was in connection with the death of Maria Maricela Astorga-Chavez, who went missing in August 2015 out of West Valley City and was found dead in Colorado just over a week later. Court documents indicate that Huerta-Martinez admitted to a friend that he killed someone and dumped the body in Colorado and then planned to head to Mexico.
West Valley City Police said investigators exhausted leads into Huerta-Martinez’s whereabouts and the case went cold in 2019. Earlier this year, new investigators learned new information about his location and were able to take him into custody in Mexico City in May.
“Mexico can be very difficult,” said former FBI Special Agent Greg Rogers, when asked about the extradition process. “The issue became then that that’s a type of case that the federal government does a lot of.”
Rogers says the movement on this case is a big win for local law enforcement, as well as the U.S. Marshals Service.
“In a first-degree homicide case, that’s right at the top, so they put in the time and effort to get this guy and they did it successfully,” he said. “I’m applauding them for that — that’s excellent and it brings some relief to the family.”
Members of Utah’s Cold Case Coalition agreed that this is a great get for law enforcement, but it also sends a message to the community.
“I actually think it has a bigger impact on the community because every time that someone is arrested for even a decades-old murder, or someone here that maybe thought that he had gotten away with something gets hauled back in, it sends a message,” said Karra Porter, a co-founder of the coalition.
West Valley City Police worked with the U.S. Marshals Service and the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office on bringing Huerta-Martinez back to the U.S.
They shared a statement on Monday that read in part:
“It is our hope that the extradition back to Utah of Francisco Huerta-Martinez this past week will help bring to a close one painful chapter for the family of Maria Maricela Astorga-Chavez. We are grateful for our outstanding investigative team and their unceasing efforts to bring the suspect in this case to justice.”
