Salvador Hernandez-Morales charged with murder in 2006 Aurora cold case

Authorities this week brought murder charges against a man long-suspected of killing a woman in her Aurora home 16 years ago.

Salvador Hernandez-Morales, 45, was charged Monday with first-degree murder and sexual assault in connection with the 2006 slaying of Francisca Perea-Dominguez, who was 42 when she was killed on July 1, 2006. He remains at large.

Police officers found Perea-Dominguez stabbed to death inside her Aurora home at 12612 East Kansas Drive. She’d been stabbed once in the stomach and sexually assaulted, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

A neighbor told police she heard bumping and what sounded like wrestling in the apartment around the time of the killing. She then saw Perea-Dominguez’s roommate — an unknown Hispanic man — leaving the apartment in a hurry, according to the affidavit. The man drove a white Ford Explorer and often wore a white cowboy hat, witnesses said.

Additional DNA testing last year tied Hernandez-Morales to the crime scene, according to an affidavit filed against him Monday. Investigators found that DNA on a toothbrush at Perea-Dominguez’s apartment matched DNA found in semen collected after she was sexually assaulted.

Investigators tested Hernandez-Morales’ DNA against that sample and found that he could be a match, according to the affidavit. Two other suspects were excluded by the DNA analysis.