In the quiet farm country of western Kansas, a grim discovery was made on the evening of October 1, 2018. A farmer in Hodgeman County, about three miles west of the small town of Hanston, came upon a body in his field and immediately contacted the sheriff's office. When deputies arrived at the remote location, they found a deceased Hispanic male, later identified as 21-year-old Bayron O.
Diaz-Bautista of Fort Collins, Colorado.
An initial autopsy revealed that the young man had not died of natural causes, but had been the victim of a homicide. The cause of his death was determined to be from gunshot wounds. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation was called in to lead the homicide investigation. As they delved into Diaz-Bautista's background, they soon focused their attention on his home state of Colorado.
The investigation quickly led to the identification of three suspects, all from the Fort Collins area. In the early morning hours of the following Saturday, Larimer County, Colorado authorities arrested 26-year-old Emilio Nunez-Bahena, 24-year-old Veronica Nunez, and 45-year-old Emilio Nunez-Torrez. The three were taken into custody and booked into the Larimer County Jail on suspicion of first-degree murder, where they were held without bond. The plan was to extradite the three suspects to Kansas to face prosecution by the Kansas Attorney General's Office for their alleged roles in the death of Bayron Diaz-Bautista.
