GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Officials said the death of an 18-year-old Colorado woman whose body was found in a suitcase was drug-related.
The Mesa County Coroner’s Office said Kelly Mae Myers, who went missing in December of 2014, died of “mixed drug intoxication” but her manner of death remains undetermined.
Officials said they will not be releasing any more information at this time because the investigation is ongoing.
The West Valley City Police Department is overseeing the investigation because officials said Myers died in a West Valley City motel room.
Police have two persons of interest in the suspicious death of 18-year-old Kelly Mae Myers.
Eduardo Nasario De La Cruz, 30, and Raymond Cordova, 47, were taken into custody in Colorado on unrelated charges.
According to the search warrant, Myers’ body was stuffed in a suitcase and taken from West Valley City to Colorado, where both men left her at a park, 22 miles south of Grand Junction.
The documents state an informant told police about the location.
“At some point, she died in that hotel room,” West Valley City Detective Mike Christenson said.
Myers’ family said the teen planned to travel to Utah for a party in the Salt Lake Valley.
According to the documents, on Dec. 18, Cordova picked Myers up at her father’s home and drove to the Country Inn and Suites in West Valley City, where De La Cruz had rented a room.
As part of the investigation into Myers’ disappearance, the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office in Colorado reviewed the teen’s social media accounts.
While the timeline is not entirely clear, police said they believe Myers died in the room shortly after arriving.
“The last known contact that she had had on social media was on Dec. 19,” Christenson said.
Police interviewed a hotel housekeeper who said after De La Cruz checked out, the staff noticed “a very strong and pungent smell coming from their room.”
“This was a human being; this was my daughter,” Meyrs’ mother Kim Lee said.
Until the arrests, Lee said she had never heard of De La Cruz or Cordova.
“This wasn’t just a piece of trash that you stuffed, and I hate saying that word, but you put in a suitcase,” Lee said. “Shame on you. Shame on you for taking that away from us.”
According to the affidavit, De La Cruz’s name came up during a wiretap investigation that was being conducted out of Grand Junction.
The documents state he was also the suspect in a drive-by shooting that occurred in Utah in February.
It was during that investigation that police discovered the car they believe was used to transport Myers’ body. The car was found at a home in Kearns.
Anyone with information related to this case is asked to call West Valley City police at (801) 840-4000.
