September 22, 2017
By Paragon News Director Paul Joseph –
An Arizona man has pleaded guilty to murdering a woman whose nude body was found two years ago along side the Interstate east of Hinton.
41-year-old Juan Manuel Gonzalez of Phoenix pled guilty to first-degree manslaughter in the death of the woman. Her body was found by an Oklahoma Department of Transportation worker who had been clearing cedar brush from the area near mile marker 103. She was wearing nothing but a pair of socks.
It took a number of months before the body was identified as that of 24-year-old Veranda Flores, a prostitute from New Mexico. She had been reported missing on December 21, 2014. She was going to the movies with a friend but never showed. Flores had, reportedly gotten into Gonzalez’s truck with him in Albuquerque.
Gonzalez was arrested at his apartment in Glendale, Arizona in September of 2016 and was extradited to Oklahoma on a warrant for unlawful disposal of a human body. The former long-haul truck driver pled guilty to first-degree manslaughter charge after it was amended from first-degree murder. He’s been given a 12-year prison sentence for Flores’ death and five years for the removal of a dead body. He’ll be on probation for 30 years following his release.
The two were connected through phone records, according to a court affidavit. Gonzalez told investigators he’d contacted an “internet prostitute” during his down time, but didn’t know her name. They went to a casino north of Albuquerque and cell-phone and tower records for Flores’ phone ended after that.
Gonzalez also told investigators that Flores wanted out of the prostitution business and he had offered to let her come on the road with him if it would help her out. He claimed, however, that he dropped her off before leaving Albuquerque and never heard from her again. Law enforcement, however, thought he was lying because he told several different stories.
Flores’ mother told investigators that her daughter was looking forward to spending time during Christmas with family.
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