Woman’s remains identified; man arrested in Arizona
Ponca City Now - September 6, 2016 4:25 pm
Remains found April 7, 2015, beside Interstate 40 near Hinton have been positively identified as Veneranda Flores of New Mexico.
The Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner extracted a DNA sample from the body during examination. That DNA sample was uploaded to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs). Flores’ DNA matched samples taken from her family.
Flores, 24, was reported missing from New Mexico on Dec. 21, 2014. This identification has jump started the investigation.
OSBI special agents spent part of last week in New Mexico and Arizona tracking Flores’ last steps before her body was found.
Special agents were able to identify a suspect and were present when Glendale, Ariz., police arrested Juan Gonzalez, 40, at his Glendale apartment on Friday.
A warrant had been issued in Oklahoma for unlawful disposal of a human body.
Gonzalez remains in Arizona awaiting extradition.
At the time of Flores’ disappearance, Gonzalez was working as a long-haul truck driver for a trucking company out of Tucson, Ariz.
