The Weld County district attorney has charged a Florida man in the 1977 abduction and murder of a Greeley convenience store clerk, authorities said.
Marcello Maldonado-Perez, 51, was formally charged Tuesday with first-degree murder, felony murder and kidnapping in the death of Mary Pierce, 22, who was abducted Aug. 25, 1977, from a 7-Eleven in the 1100 block of Ninth Street, said Jennifer Finch, spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office.
Florida, federal and Weld County authorities arrested Maldonado- Perez without incident at his Port Charlotte home just before 8 a.m. Tuesday.
The prosecutor did not charge Maldonado-Perez with rape because the statute of limitations had expired for that crime, Finch said.
Pierce’s body was found in a cornfield west of Greeley two days after she was reported missing.
The autopsy indicated she had been sexually assaulted and stabbed multiple times, Sheriff John B. Cooke said.
Sheriff’s spokeswoman Margie Martinez said Pierce was stabbed 17 times.
In 2003 and 2006, Weld County investigators submitted evidence collected from the crime to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for DNA testing.
In 2009, the CBI received notification that a match from the database had been made with DNA provided by Maldonado-Perez of Port Charlotte.
Maldonado-Perez had served time in a Texas prison on a drug-possession charge, and prior to his release in 2008 DNA samples were entered in the nationwide database, Martinez said.
In July, the Sheriff’s Office fugitive unit and the U.S. Marshals Service found Maldonado-Perez living in Port Charlotte.
He is being held in the Charlotte County (Fla.) Jail without bond, Cooke said.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
