Man arrested 3 years after pregnant woman was found dead and left in suitcase
11/27/2023 12:09 pm PST
GLADSTONE, Mo. (TCD) -- A 26-year-old man was apprehended three years after his missing pregnant girlfriend was found deceased and left in a suitcase in a remote area of Wisconsin.
According to the Gladstone Police Department, on Nov. 23 right after midnight, a license plate reader flagged a vehicle traveling with stolen plates. At 12:34 a.m., officers tracked the red Ford Fusion to a parking lot and made contact with the male driver. The man allegedly had "multiple ID cards on his person, and gave several different names."
Officers soon identified the man as Jose Eduardo Dominguez-Garcia, who had a warrant out for his arrest in Chippewa County, Wisconsin, on charges of first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree intentional homicide of an unborn child, and hiding a corpse.
The Eau Claire Leader-Telegram reports Rosaly "Cindy" Rodriguez was reported missing in July 2020. Her body was found in October 2020 inside a suitcase on a farm. She was reportedly seven weeks pregnant and was due in January 2021.
According to the Leader-Telegram, Rodriguez was last seen alive July 2, 2020, at her job at Sprecher's Restaurant. Dominguez-Garcia also reportedly worked there. Dominguez-Garcia allegedly told investigators on July 23, 2020, that their relationship ended July 4, 2020, because he found out she cheated on him and another man fathered her child.
On Aug. 26, 2020, police officers reportedly found Dominguez-Garcia's red Volkswagen Jetta with a red fluid in the trunk, as well as maggots and other bugs inside the vehicle. The detective reportedly wrote in a report that "based on his law enforcement training and experience with death investigations that what he was looking at were the fluids released through orifices indicating the beginning of a decaying body that had been in the trunk of the vehicle."
Video surveillance footage reportedly showed Dominguez-Garcia's vehicle in the area on July 23, 2020. Officials issued a warrant for his arrest in December 2021.
Dominguez-Garcia was booked into the Clay County Jail and will be extradited back to Wisconsin.
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