DENVER (AP) - A 55-year-old man charged in the 1981 rape and strangulation of a woman in a group home for the mentally disabled has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping.
The Denver District Attorney’s Office says Hector Bencomo-Hinojos entered his plea Monday in the death of 32-year-old Patricia Beard, whose body was found in her apartment March 27, 1981. Family and friends of Beard had not seen her for several days before a family member went to check on her.
The Denver Post has reported (https://goo.gl/5S54Cp ) that evidence taken shortly after Beard was murdered was fed into an FBI database. Bencomo-Hinojos’ DNA was taken when he was sent to a federal prison in Pennsylvania. The DNA was fed into the same database, leading to a match.
He is scheduled to be sentenced June 8.
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Information from: The Denver Post, https://www.denverpost.com
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