Woman’s Body Found Near River In Upper Valley, Sheriff’s Dept. Arrest Man
EL PASO, TX. – A woman’s body is found on a river levee and officials are checking to see if it could be the same woman gone missing weeks ago.
Celia Rico went missing from the Sunland Park Casino back on June 12th. The El Paso County Sheriff’s department will not confirm to ABC-7 if the body found a few miles away is that of Ms. Rico.
Sheriff’s officials tell ABC-7 that they have arresteda man in connection to the death of the woman.
48 year-old Francisco Gonzalez is being held at the El Paso County Jail under a $150,000 bond. Sheriff’s officials will onlysaythe man is an acquaintance of the woman found dead.
Sheriff’s Department Spokesman Rick Glancey told ABC-7,”We have a pretty strong suspect…in terms of this incident that got a lot of markings of foul play and we will continue to develop leads throughout the rest of the day.”
The woman found just before midnight on Friday is described as being in her mid 50’s andfrom El Paso. Her badly decomposed body was found on a river levee near the Texas-New Mexico border, near Anthony.
El Paso Police initially handled the case,but handed the crime scene off tothe Sheriff’s office. Those investigators tellABC-7 that evidence found at the crime scene may belong to Celia Rico, but they are not confirming if the woman they found was in fact her.
Sheriff’s Spokesman Glancey adds, “Even though we’ve found some preliminary evidence that may suggest this may be the missing person, you re never going to be sure until you have a chance to look at some identifiers on fingers and again get an autopsy.”
