The Weld County District Attorney has charged a a Florida man with murder in the 1977 abduction and murder of a Greeley convenience store clerk, authorities say.
Marcello Maldonado-Perez, 51, was formally charged this afternoon 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 9th Street, said Jennifer Finch, spokeswoman for prosecutor’s office.
Florida, federal and Weld County authorities arrested Maldonado-Perez without incident at his Port Charlotte home just before 8 a.m. this morning.
The prosecutor did not charge Maldonado-Perez with rape because the statute of limitations had expired for the crime, Finch said.
Pierce’s body was found two days after she was reported missing in a cornfield west of Greeley — what is now the 8300 block of 10th Street.
The autopsy indicated she had been sexually assaulted and stabbed multiple times, Sheriff John B. Cooke said in a news release.
Sheriff’s spokeswoman Margie Martinez said she was stabbed 17 times.
Officers from both the Greeley Police Department and the Weld County Sheriff’s Office investigated the homicide for several years before the case was officially turned over to the sheriff’s office, Cooke said.
In 2003 and 2006 Weld County investigators submitted evidence collected from the 1977 crime to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for DNA testing.
The DNA had been taken from Pierce’s body and clothing. The results from the DNA testing were provided to the Weld County Sheriff’s Office and placed into a nationwide database.
In 2009, CBI received notification that a match from the database had been made with DNA provided by Maldonado-Perez of Port Charlotte, Fla.
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 Jail without bond, Cooke said.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
