Nestor Rocha-Aguayo, recently deported from the country, is accused of murdering Talia Benward after returning to Utah. Police found human blood and a missing floor mat in the car Benward borrowed.
The man accused of killing an ex-girlfriend whose body was discovered in a remote area of Tooele County over the weekend had recently returned to Utah after being deported from the country just the week before, according to new information discovered in arrest documents. Nestor Rocha-Aguayo was arrested Sunday, hours after being named a suspect in the murder of 31-year-old Talia Benward.
Police became aware of Benward's disappearance after she borrowed a car on New Year's Day and failed to return it, and then missed two days of work. Benward and Rocha-Aguayo had been dating but 'had several domestic violence incidents,' the arrest report said. Although Rocha-Aguayo was deported on Dec. 24, he had recently contacted Benward to tell her that he had returned to the state. Despite telling Benward's family that he had no contact with Talia upon returning to Utah, a search of her iPad found conversations between the two, including one where he asked Benward to pick him up at a Maverik in West Jordan on Jan. 1. Surveillance video from the Maverik showed Benward arriving at the gas station and Rocha-Aguayo getting into the passenger seat. Soon afterward, the report said the 'two began pointing at each other, they rolled up their windows and it appeared as if they were arguing.' Through phone records, detectives determined the two remained together in Salt Lake County for several hours before heading toward Tooele County. Benward's phone eventually stopped moving off an interstate, while Rocha-Aguayo's phone showed him traveling back toward Salt Lake City. When detectives located the borrowed vehicle outside a Kearns home where phone records showed Rocha-Aguayo had traveled, they found human blood on the passenger door, back rear passenger seat, and on the floor. They added that one floor mat was missing and detected a heavy smell of gasoline inside the trunk but no gas containers inside
MURDER DEPORTATION DOMESTICVIOLENCE MISSINGPERSON UTAH
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