Man found murdered after being held for ransom
Armando Mata-Magallanes, 30, male, left his Denver home for work at 5:30 a.m. on July 8, 2011, and was expected back by midafternoon. He never arrived at his job, and by 9:53 p.m. that night he was reported missing. In the hours after he left, he phoned his partner saying he needed money and told her to sell his truck; an unknown Spanish-speaking man then took the line, insisting she sell it for $30,000 and promising “they” would call back at 11:30 a.m. the next day. The call ended as abruptly as it began, leaving behind the first ominous hint that something was seriously wrong.
The next day, July 9, a Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad employee spotted a body near the east side of Interstate 76, about half a mile east of mile marker 27, northeast of Lochbuie in Weld County. Deputies arrived to find the victim was Mata-Magallanes. The coroner determined he died of a gunshot wound, and the death was ruled a homicide. His 1983 blue Volkswagen Rabbit, the vehicle he was last seen driving, was later located on the 1600 block of 29th Avenue in Denver. Investigators also confirmed he had not shown up to work on July 8, tightening the timeline to the brief and unsettling phone contacts earlier that morning.
Public appeals followed in the years after, but the case remains unsolved. Authorities have not announced any arrests, and no suspect has been publicly identified. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation’s cold case listing echoes the basic facts—Mata-Magallanes was found near I-76 south of Hudson the day after calls about selling his truck—without naming a perpetrator. Weld County investigators continue to ask for tips from anyone who might know who made the ransom-style demand and what happened to Mata-Magallanes between the morning of July 8 and the discovery of his body the next day.
