In New Mexico, a man who was on probation and wearing an ankle bracelet to monitor his location, was arrested for the fatal beating of his wife with an ax, state police said. Authorities used data from the bracelet Armando Zamora was wearing to find his wife's body.
Armando Zamora, 35, was jailed last Sunday on suspicion of killing his wife, Erica Zamora. Erica Zamora, 39, was found dead in the Gila National Forest where the couple was chopping wood, New Mexico State Police said in a statement.
Armando Zamora has now been charged with murder.
Erica Zamora was first reported missing on Friday, when she had not been heard from since Sept. 26. On that same day, the couple had gone into the nearby forest.
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Police discovered that Armando Zamora had been convicted for sexual contact with a minor in 2019. As a result of the conviction, he had been forced to wear an ankle monitor. When they learned of the ankle monitor, investigators checked the GPS coordinates to see where he had recently been, the statement said.
"A sergeant searched the area and located a deceased female matching the description of Erica Zamora," the state police statement said.
Armando Zamora said to investigators that he saw his wife last on Sept. 28 after dropping her off at her residence, but her body was recovered on Sunday. It was then that he "admitted to beating Erica to death" with an ax, the statement said.
The police report went on to say that he told investigators the two had argued while driving to the forest, and he killed her after she punched him at the wood cutting site.
In June, Armando had initiated divorce paperwork, according to court records, the Associated Press reported.
