Pair arrested on murder charges

Friday, Aug. 1, 1997 | 10:47 a.m.

Two people have been arrested in New Mexico in the murder of a 29-year-old Las Vegas man whose body was dumped behind a bush along Interstate 15.

Stephen Ray Sanchez, 33, and Lisa Jeanette Perea, 31, were taken into custody Wednesday in Albuquerque on a local charge in addition to Las Vegas arrest warrants of murder with a deadly weapon, robbery and grand larceny auto.

Sanchez and Perea were living in Las Vegas at the time of the murder, and investigators believe it was at the couple's residence that Alfonso Rudolph Marquez, 29, was killed by a blow to his head.

Marquez allegedly drove to the couple's home July 18 in his girlfriend's car to help repair Sanchez's vehicle, but Metro Police homicide Sgt. Ken Hefner said police still don't know what prompted the attack.

Sanchez is accused of transporting Marquez's body to the spot near mile marker 16 where a California couple noticed it about 6 p.m. the next day.

Sanchez and Perea then left town in the vehicle owned by Marquez's girlfriend to return to their home state, Hefner said.

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