A 45 – year-old man was arrested on murder charges after a woman’s body was found encased in a concrete and wooden structure in a Nevada desert.
Christopher Prestipino is facing charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder and first degree kidnapping, according to court records. Detectives located the body in the desert north of Las Vegas on Oct. 8 and connected it to a missing person’s case from late May,according to NBC affiliate KSNV.
The Clark County District Attorney’s office identified the woman as 24 – year-old Esmeralda Gonzalez.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police received a tip in July that Prestipino may have been involved with a woman who went missing on May 31, according to KSNV. Detectives said that the woman was held against her will inside Prestipino’s residence and murdered.
Prestipino was arrested on Friday, just three days after the body encased in concrete was found.
Gonzalez lived within a mile of Prestipino’s residence and was reported missing by her brother after he found her front door unlocked and was unable to reach her for days, according tothe Las Vegas Review Journal. The court documents allege that Prestipino strangled Gonzalez and injected her with pool cleaner, the newspaper reported.
A lawyer for Prestipino did not respond to a request for comment from NBC News.
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