A Colorado mother of 3 is murdered On a night that should have been filled with celebration, Rita Gutierrez-Garcia, a 34-year-old mother of three, vanished after a St. Patrick's Day outing with friends in Longmont, Colorado. It was the early morning of March 18, 2018, when she was last seen by friends in a parking lot behind a downtown bar around 2:30 a.m. For more than four years, her family and investigators searched for answers, clinging to hope while fearing the worst.
The young mother, who was studying to become a paralegal, had seemingly disappeared without a trace, leaving her three sons behind.
The investigation soon focused on Juan Figueroa Jr., who was identified early on as a person of interest. Despite the absence of a body, a grand jury indicted Figueroa in June 2021 for the first-degree murder and kidnapping of Gutierrez-Garcia. The case against him was built on a foundation of forensic evidence and damning testimony. A cellmate of Figueroa's came forward with chilling information, stating that Figueroa had confessed to strangling Gutierrez-Garcia and burying her body in a secret location. DNA evidence consistent with Gutierrez-Garcia was also discovered in his vehicle. Wiretapped conversations from prison further implicated Figueroa, as he was recorded making statements about killing her.
A significant breakthrough in the case came in April 2022 when Figueroa, as part of a plea deal, revealed the location of Gutierrez-Garcia's remains. Her body was recovered in a remote area in Weld County, east of Longmont. Preliminary DNA analysis confirmed the remains belonged to the long-missing mother. With this discovery, the missing person case officially became a homicide investigation.
In court, the tragic details of that fatal night were revealed. Figueroa had been attracted to Gutierrez-Garcia and had attempted to speak with her at the bar. When she rejected his advances and called him a 'weirdo,' he became enraged. Later that night, he encountered her alone and offered her a ride, which she again declined. In a fit of rage, Figueroa punched her, knocking her unconscious, before putting her in his truck, assaulting her, and ultimately strangling her to death. On June 3, 2022, Juan Figueroa Jr. pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping. He was sentenced to 48 years in prison for her murder, a sentence to be served concurrently with a 93-years-to-life sentence he was already serving for an unrelated sexual assault and attempted murder case from 2017.
