Summit County judge Reed Owens today upheld all five charges in a grisly holiday murder case from Frisco, where the body of Griselda Lopez-Racancoj, 20, was found partially dismembered between Christmas and New Year’s.
The suspect is her onetime boyfriend, Luis Mendez-Hernandez, 19, of Frisco. Together they have an infant son.
An autopsy through Boulder County Coroner’s Office found Lopez-Racancoj was strangled to death. The coroner ruled her death a homicide.
Today in court local District Attorney Heidi McCollum and her team argued Mendez-Hernandez killed the woman, most likely in front of their infant child, and then stashed her body for at least 20 hours inside of an apartment shared by three others, including the suspect’s mother.
It was also revealed there are no eyewitnesses and DNA evidence from the crime scene is pending.
Two expert witnesses, Luke Gardner, a detective with Frisco PD, and Sarah Poellet, an agent with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, pieced together events using interviews they conducted soon after Lopez-Racancoj’s body was discovered, when one of the roommates made a frantic call to 911.
Lopez-Racancoj was last seen alive Dec. 27 around dinnertime. Later that night, the suspect’s mother and a roommate heard quiet arguing in a closed bedroom. Mendez-Hernandez was seen outside of the room several times over the next 24 hours, including once to feed his infant son, who had stayed overnight in the room. No one else went inside.
When police were called around midnight on Dec. 29, they entered the closed bedroom and found three trash bags. Inside the bags were blood-soaked towels, clothing and Lopez-Racancoj’s remains. They also found a bloody knife. The room had a “distinct odor of decomposition,” detective Gardner testified.
Police detained Mendez-Hernandez and two other men, identified as his mother’s boyfriend and an unrelated roommate. Mendez-Hernandez had scratch marks on his body. No one else appeared injured.
Hours later, during an interview at the Frisco police department in town hall, Mendez-Hernandez told police that he scratched himself in distress after waking up to find Lopez-Racancoj dead in bed next to him. This happened on Dec. 28 around 5 a.m., or maybe earlier. He could not remember the exact time.
The two expert witnesses said his story and injuries were suspicious. CBI agent Poellet has responded to numerous cases where one person wakes up to find another person dead in bed, and in all of them, she said, the surviving person calls 911 “panicked, upset (and) freaked out.”
Even more suspicious, the experts said, was the time between Lopez-Racancoj’s alleged overnight death and the roommate’s panicked call to 911. Detectives grilled Mendez-Hernandez about those missing hours, when phone records show he called his father and a friend. He also tried to unlock Lopez-Racancoj’s mobile phone, later admitting he was looking for messages from a man named Mateo. He believed the two were dating.
After nearly three hours of testimony, the attorney for Mendez-Hernandez asked Judge Owens to dismiss the murder charges, saying the DA’s argument is faulty without eyewitnesses to the crime and solid forensic or DNA evidence.
Judge Owens disagreed, believing the expert testimony is compelling enough to bring this case to trial, although the judge did remind the DA the burden of proof will be much higher in front of a jury.
Mendez-Hernandez was in court today, wearing headphones linked to an interpreter. He never spoke and barely moved until he was escorted back to jail, where he has been held on $5 million bond since his arrest.
The next hearing is July 8 in Summit County court.