DNA matches body found in Utah to missing Las Vegas woman
A body found in a suitcase on a Utah highway in April was a Las Vegas woman who went missing in November, law enforcement said Wednesday. DNA results received Tuesday determined that the body belonged to Susana Villalvazo, 47, said Lt. Lex Bell of the Unified Police Department in Salt Lake County, Utah. Villalvazo is also known as Susana Villalvazo-Jimenez or Angelica Acosta.
Her body was found on Interstate 80, more than 400 miles north of Las Vegas.
Villalvazo and her mother's husband, Samuel Teran, 75, went missing under "suspicious circumstances" in November, Las Vegas police said.
Employees at a Burger King in 2000 block of Las Vegas Boulevard North, near the intersection at Lake Mead Boulevard, recognized Teran at the restaurant two days after the disappearances, police said. Teran shot himself in the head when officers arrived. He later died at University Medical Center without telling anyone about Villalvazo's whereabouts. After Villalvazo's disappearance, her family had remained hopeful that she was alive somewhere, they told the Review-Journal. When the description of the body matched that of Villalvazo, Metro and the Unified Police Department opened investigations, Bell said. Those cases are now closed.
"Due to the fact that the suspect in this incident is now deceased, this is no longer an active investigation," Metro said in a news release Wednesday afternoon.
Contact Ricardo Torres at rtorres@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0381. Find him on Twitter: @rickytwrites.
