Pregnant Woman Missing For Over A Week Found Dead, Suspect In Custody

A 34-year-old Colorado man was taken into custody on suspicion of the murder of a 28-year-old pregnant woman who went missing more than a week ago.

The body of Raeanna "Nikki" Burch-Woodhull, an Indigenous woman who had been reported missing was found in the area between Highway 550 and County Road 310, south of Durango, the Colorado Bureau of Investigations said, according to The Journal.

CBI identified Luis Valenzuela as a suspect in the case during the investigation. They believed Burch-Woodhull knew Valenzuela before she went missing.

The woman was last seen on Nov. 27 at around 2 a.m. on Goddard Avenue in Ignacio. An Endangered Missing Alert was sent out for Burch-Woodhull on Saturday, calling on people to be on the lookout for her.

Burch-Woodhull was in the second trimester of her pregnancy at the time of her death. Investigators said she had several tattoos with the name "Luis" on her face and neck. In the photos released by the authorities, Burch-Woodhull was seen with a tattoo that read, "The love of my life Luis" on the right side of her face.

The La Plata County coroner's office identified her remains, according to a police statement, and was investigating the cause of death. No other details, including the motive behind Burch-Woodhull's killing, were released by the authorities.

Valenzuela was arrested Saturday on charges of second-degree murder. He appeared in court Monday via closed circuit television from La Plata County Jail for an advisement hearing. His next court hearing was scheduled for Dec. 12.

"My sister and family deserve justice. I'm not going anywhere and this is going to end the way it needs to end," Burch-Woodhull's sister Felicia Mungia said, as per The Journal. "Things you did to my sister will not (go unpunished). Her babies and her unborn child did not deserve this kind of ending."

Meanwhile, the CBI was investigating the matter with the help of the Ignacio Police Department and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office of the Department of Public Safety.

Ignacio is a small community of 900 people located in the Southern Ute Indian Reservation in southwest Colorado.