A recent tip about stolen jewelry led to the arrest of a Greeley man in the death of a 79-year-old Platteville woman last month.
Terry J. Sanchez, 42, was arrested Thursday in connection with the daylight murder of Mary Jane Meining, whose son found her April 8 on the kitchen floor of her home.
Investigators said only jewelry and a jar of coins were missing.
Last week, Weld County sheriff’s investigators received a tip that the missing jewelry had been thrown off a bridge into the Cache la Poudre River on the north end of Greeley.
As dive teams prepared to search underwater, they found the jewelry on the embankment, said Undersheriff Margie Martinez.
A tipster connected Sanchez with the jewelry, which he sold for drugs, Martinez said.
Meining’s friends had set up a $25,000 reward for the arrest of her killer.
Sanchez is charged with first-degree murder, first-degree burglary, aggravated robbery, two counts of theft, second-degree burglary and criminal mischief.
Staff writer Mike McPhee can be reached at 303-820-1409 or mmcphee@denverpost.com.