A Colorado security guard was caught carrying a severed hand inside his coat pocket while at work last week, just a day after a mutilated and decapitated body was found in a nearby creek.
Salomon Martinez, 26, was arrested at work Jan. 11 on suspicion of first-degree murder in the death of the woman, who is believed to be the owner of the hand, Pueblo police said.
He allegedly admitted to hiring the woman as a prostitute days earlier, but denied committing the murder.
Police quickly zeroed in on Martinez after his roommate caught him covered in dirt and blood at a local car wash before 5 a.m., two days before his arrest.
Martinez allegedly used a pressure washer to clean blood from his hands and asked his roommate to dig a 10-foot hole for him, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by the Pueblo Chieftain.
The roommate, who was allegedly at the car wash to work on his car, told police he asked to borrow tools from Martinez, but the alleged killer refused to allow him to open the trunk of the car to retrieve them.
Martinez allegedly struggled to move “something large” in the trunk out of the way to grab the tools.
Another witness backed up the roommate’s claims, reporting that he also heard Martinez make several comments about needing to dig a deep hole.
Salomón Martínez admitted to the police that he carried his severed hand inside his coat pocket for two days. Pueblo Police Department
The witness, a friend of the security guard, also told police he saw Martinez drag what appeared to be a woman’s body to the creek bed that same morning.
Martinez first asked his friend to help him dispose of the body, and then threatened him with a gun, but the friend refused, records state.
The body was decapitated, but her head was with the body, the friend reported. She recorded a video of the scene to “cover herself” before covering the body with a blanket because she “didn’t know what else to do.”
Martinez’s roommate caught him trying to wash blood off his hands at a local car wash just before 5 a.m. FOX8LIGHT
Police tracked Martinez to his job at a security guard company owned by the former Pueblo County sheriff, who had hired the alleged killer just two weeks earlier.
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That’s when investigators found the human hand inside a plastic bag stuffed in the left breast pocket of Martinez’s jacket, which he admitted to carrying with him for two days, the affidavit shows.
Police noticed that he had cuts all over his wrists and hands, which Martinez tried to explain as injuries caused by Chihuahuas before later claiming they came from small stones while he was picking up after his dog.
Apparently, his car was also covered in blood.
Martinez tried to pin the murder on the friend who filmed the video, which police viewed and noted showed a decapitated body.
He claimed the friend had “borrowed his vehicle,” which also had his gun and phone inside at the time, and then asked Martinez to raise his hand, records state.
When asked if police could find anything incriminating on his phone, Martinez said, “I’m probably afraid to find out.”
Martinez was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder and is being held in the Pueblo County Jail on $1 million cash-only bail.
Pueblo is a city 40 miles south of Colorado Springs.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn