Missing woman found after husband’s ankle monitor leads New Mexico cops to grim find

A woman who went missing after a trip to the woods has been found, New Mexico State Police say — her husband’s ankle monitor led investigators to a grim discovery.

Silver City man Armando Zamora went to Gila National Forest on Sept. 26 with his wife, 39-year-old Erica Zamora, and an ax so he could chop firewood, outlets reported.

But after their brief stay in nature, Erica wasn’t seen again. Armando Zamora told police he dropped her off at her home, KRQE reported. What happened after that, and where she went, he didn’t know, he said.

Investigators soon learned that Zamora wears a GPS ankle monitor, because he’s on probation for criminal sexual contact of a minor, meaning a child younger than 13, KTSM reported.

That ankle monitor told a different story than Zamora did, police told KOAT.

The tracker showed that he drove to Gila National Forest on Sept. 26, but he never went to his wife’s house two days later as he claimed, the station reported. Surveillance video also captured him in Silver City on the 26th, well before he was due to return.

With his story not adding up, investigators decided to retrace Zamora’s steps, outlets reported. Using the GPS data, they zeroed in on the stretch of woods where Armando had been chopping wood and found Erica Zamora’s body.

On Oct. 3, police brought Armando in for an interview, and they said he confessed to killing his wife with an ax, KRQE reported. They had been arguing all day long, he explained.

Police arrested Zamora on a charge of murder, and he was booked into the Grant County Detention Center, KTSM reported.

This story was originally published October 6, 2021 at 2:39 PM with the headline "Missing woman found after husband’s ankle monitor leads New Mexico cops to grim find."