Valdez, Cheryl Higgins

In February 2010, Pueblo Police Chief Jim Billings announced that an arrest had been made in the August 1982 slaying of 24-year-old Cheryl Valdez. Thomas Cortinas was arrested in Tennessee 28 years after Cheryl Valdez was stabbed twice and run over by her own car near her place of work. She had received harassing phone calls at work. Cortinas was arrested at the time of the murder but released when the D.A. declined to prosecute. New evidence and witness statements led to the revival of the case according to the Pueblo Chieftain newspaper and Cortinas has been extradited to Pueblo to stand trial. Evidence that was re-examined and witnesses who were re-interviewed at the urging of Cheryl’s family led to the arrest.