Officials have identified the woman found dead Monday in Carbondale after a man confessed to her slaying while being airlifted after a crash on Interstate 70.
The Garfield County Coroner said Thursday the victim was Maria Carminda Portillo-Amaya, 30.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation said the name was released following coordination with the Amaya family as well as forensic testing (fingerprints) conducted by the CBI and the Department of Homeland Security.
The man remains hospitalized in Grand Junction with injuries sustained in the traffic accident . The CBI has not released his name and no charges have been filed.
The man crashed his SUV into a semi-trailer in Garfield County on Monday morning before allegedly telling emergency responders airlifting him to medical care that he had killed his wife in an apartment.
Police officers in Carbondale investigating the man’s reports found a woman’s body, dead of what appeared to be knife wounds, authorities said.
The CBI said the exact rellationship between the man and the victim has not been confirmed.
The crash on Colorado 133 happened about 7:15 a.m. on Monday when the man’s Toyota 4Runner collided with the semi-trailer. He was being flown to a Grand Junction hospital when he allegedly admitted to the slaying.
Carbondale police say they found the body in an apartment on Cooper Place several hours after the crash.
Authorities said the residents in the apartment where the man said he killed his wife were unharmed.
Police began searching surrounding apartments and at about 4 p.m., they contacted a woman, later identified as the man and woman’s roommate, as she was arriving home.
While the roommate would not let officers search her apartment, she agreed to go check inside herself and found the body.
Authorities have released few details in the slaying and have yet to identify the victim or the man.
Police Chief Gene Schilling said the woman’s body was found in an apartment she shared with her husband.
The man, whom police call a suspect, has been placed in protective custody at St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Junction.
Photos from the wreck showed the SUV’s front end severely mangled. The Post Independent in Glenwood Springs reported the man rear-ended an empty cattle truck.
The last homicide in Carbondale happened in April 2003, police said.
Jesse Paul: 303-954-1733, jpaul@denverpost.com or
