ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. — An Arizona man has been arrested on suspicion of killing his estranged girlfriend after she was reported missing in Holbrook.
Richard Paul Rodriguez, 34, of Holbrook was taken into custody after the body of 54-year-old Christi Romero was found in the trunk of a vehicle located in Orange County, according to the Huntington Beach Police Department in California.
The victim was found deceased after police officers responded to a disturbance Monday afternoon at a local residence.
Romero was reported missing on Nov. 6 after officers responded to her residence in Arizona and noticed signs of forced entry. Romero's vehicle was also missing from the property, police said.
A couple of days earlier, Romero's estranged boyfriend, Rodriguez, was served an order of protection and removed from Romero's residence.
After Romero was reported missing, investigators tracked cell phone data to a vehicle traveling along Interstate 10 toward California. Investigators eventually followed the data to a residence in Huntington Beach occupied by the suspect's parents.
Local police officers reported finding Romero's body inside the vehicle. Evidence collected at the scene resulted in Rodriguez getting booked into jail on a charge of murder, police said.
The investigation is ongoing.
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How big is Maricopa County?
Maricopa County is the United States’ 4th largest county in terms of population with 4,485,414 people, according to the 2020 Census.
The county contains around 63% of Arizona’s population and is 9,224 square miles. That makes the county larger than seven U.S. states (Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey, Massachusetts and New Hampshire).
One of the largest park systems in the nation is also located in Maricopa County. The county has an estimated 120,000 acres of open space parks that includes hundreds of miles of trails, nature centers and campgrounds.
The county’s seat is located in Phoenix, which is also the state capital and the census-designated 5th most populous city in the United States.
The county was named after the Maricopa, or Piipaash, Native American Tribe.