DNA on toothbrush points to roommate in 2006 cold-case killing, Colorado officials say
When Francisca Perea-Dominguez’s friends went to check on her at her Colorado apartment 16 years ago, they found her lying on her bedroom floor after they entered through an unlocked door, authorities said.
The 42-year-old woman had been stabbed and sexually assaulted, a Thursday, Oct. 13, news release from the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office said.
Among the evidence collected that day in 2006 was a toothbrush, a piece of evidence that turned out to be pivotal in identifying Perea-Dominguez’s roommate, Salvador Hernandez-Morales, 45, as a suspect 16 years after her death, according to the release.
“This defendant has evaded justice for too long,” District Attorney John Kellner said in the news release. “DNA analysis is making it harder for suspects who simply cannot outsmart science and technology.”
Hernandez-Morales has been a person of interest from the outset, Detective Jason McDonald with the Aurora Police Department said at an Oct. 12 news conference.
“It was a matter of confirming that he was in fact the perpetrator,” McDonald said. “And it was a matter of DNA evidence, and items still needing to be tested, that hadn’t previously been tested.”
Among the items to be tested for DNA evidence was the toothbrush, which matched the DNA evidence taken from the sexual assault, the release said.
When asked why it took so long to test evidence from a crime more than 10 years old during the news conference, Senior Chief Deputy District Attorney Chris Wilcox said that with DNA technology available in 2006, it would not have “been possible to get a sample to a lab to test to compare.”
“The evolution in DNA technology and their ability to retest an item that maybe didn’t have a sufficient sample five years ago, or 10 years ago, or 15 years ago, changes literally week-to-week,” Wilcox said.
Officials are now working to extradite Hernandez-Morales, whom they believe to be in Mexico, the release said.
“Over the next several months, we’re going to be working on that process,” Wilcox said in the release.
An arrest warrant has been issued for Hernandez-Morales, who is facing multiple charges, including first-degree murder and sexual assault.
Aurora is about 30 miles southeast of Boulder.
This story was originally published October 18, 2022 at 6:28 PM with the headline "DNA on toothbrush points to roommate in 2006 cold-case killing, Colorado officials say."
