Corrales PD gives update on cold case

CORRALES — Corrales Police have confirmed they were able to identify the victim in a 1999 cold case death found near San Ysidro on US 550. 

However, evidence did not justify a case for the district attorney's office.

The Corrales council got an update from the department on the case Dec. 15. However, details of the case like the name of the victim were not revealed. The detective presenting to the council stated more details would be shared in an official media conference in January.

According to the detective, a 19-year-old girl went missing in 1999. She was staying in Corrales and disappeared. They stated her father looked for her every day for years until detectives took over the case.

The case, originally started by village police Chief Victor Mangiacapra, was very difficult, they stated.

"Missing person cases are very, very difficult, especially back in the earlier years before Facebook and GPS and all of that stuff wasn't available to the everyday person," they said.

Sandoval County Sheriff's Office was, at the same time as this detective's part of the investigation, investigating a deceased female found near San Ysidro. The female was not identifiable, so Corrales and Sandoval County had the DNA checked.

The DNA was a very close match to the father's DNA, the detective said during the update. Further analysis of other family members' DNA concluded that this was the missing 19-year-old, they stated.  

Additionally, they explained, the father was not only able to know what happened to his daughter but also lay her to rest. 

"Over the next few months, we located two male subjects who were with our female for a long period of time, and unfortunately, an event took place here in Corrales, and she was deceased," they said.

One individual gave officers enough information to find the other individual, according to the update. And because of that, the detectives from Corrales and Sandoval County were sent to Ohio to interview another individual. Through that interview, they said, they got the information they needed.

But the case could not be prosecuted due to insufficient evidence that was also outdated.