Crespin Nene-Perez Extradited From Mexico, Charged In Court In 1998 Denver Murder Of Bonny Baker
DENVER (CBS4) - A 57-year-old man who was extradited from Mexico and is charged in the 1998 murder of his Denver girlfriend appeared in court on Wednesday for a preliminary hearing. Crespin Nene-Perez is accused of killing Bonny Baker, who was 47 when she died.
Baker went missing on June 30, 1998, and the investigation into her disappearance eventually went cold. Her body was actually found in a shallow grave south of the Colorado-New Mexico border the following year, but at the time it wasn't clear it was her. Two boys riding horses in a remote area on Navajo tribal grounds found a skull and reported it to authorities.
Approximately 15 years later, Denver investigators reopened the case and after extensive research concluded that those remains were in fact Baker's. The Denver District Attorney's Office says it is believed she had been buried in that spot the day after she had been reported as missing.
"In 2013, a Denver cold case detective completed a further round of witness interviews and forensic testing and concluded, based on that evidence, that there were sufficient grounds to arrest Mr. Nene-Perez," the DA's office wrote in a news release on Wednesday.
A warrant was then issued for Nene-Perez's arrest, but he was living in Mexico at the time. The extradition to Colorado didn't happen until just recently.
The DA's office didn't say exactly how they think Nene-Perez committed the crime or where exactly it took place. He faces a first degree murder charge and a kidnapping charge.