A lineup held Wednesday afternoon at the Mayagüez police district headquarters identified Steven Fuster Santana, 41, as the suspect who threw the body of a woman, covered with a sheet, into a wooded area in Mayagüez. Inspector Joel González, who directs the Criminal Investigations Corps (CIC) for that police region, said Fuster Santana has a criminal record for illegal appropriation and burglary.
González said prosecutors were preparing the documents so charges could be filed in court on Wednesday. The victim was identified as Mariel Patricia Crespo Cortés, 33, who had been reported missing by a family member. According to González, the autopsy showed no signs of violence, though studies remain pending, and the evidence gathered so far does not show what relationship, if any, Fuster Santana had with the victim.
Fuster Santana’s father, who was also detained on Tuesday but released, was summoned at the order of the Mayagüez prosecutors’ office; González said the evidence at this stage is not sufficient to charge him. Prosecutors are analyzing whether a crime was committed at the residence where the woman would have been before she was found without vital signs in the wooded area.