He’s implicated in death of woman whose dismembered corpse was found near Wetmore

An arrest has been made in the death of Rebecca Magallanes, 44, whose headless and dismembered body was found in a secluded area off CR 386 near Wetmore last November.

John Paul Williams, 58, of the Florence-Penrose area, who was apparently Magallanes’ common law husband, has been charged with first-degree murder, a class one felony, in connection with her death. He is being held in the Fremont County Detention Center without bond.

Williams was arrested in Penrose last Thursday, July 22.

Magallanes was originally reported missing in early December when she did not report for work at St. Thomas More Hospital in Canon City and her employer was unable to contact her via telephone.

DNA testing was used to make the identification.

While the body was found in Custer County, it is believed Magallanes was killed elsewhere and her body was deliberately dismembered and transported to the public lands south of Wetmore known as South Hardscrabble.

The missing body parts have not been found and according to the arrest affidavit, an autopsy by the El Paso County coroner’s office indicates they were removed via a saw.  That report also says Magallanes suffered a possible gunshot to the breast.  

After Magallanes’s body was identified and since she lived in Florence, said Custer County sheriff Fred Jobe, Fremont County officials took charge of the investigation.

However, said Jobe, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, the District Attorney’s office and local law enforcement aided in the investigation. 

Jobe said Williams was a person of interest in the case early on in the investigation, and during several interviews with him, he gave inconsistent information to authorities. 

Jobe also said DNA testing was used to determine that blood found in the motor home the two lived in, as well as inside a storage locker Williams was renting and   inside his pick-up, belonged to Magallanes.

According to the arrest affidavit, after she disappeared, Williams had told neighbors and friends that Magallanes had gone to Arizona to take care of her sick mother.

Furthermore, said Jobe, neighbors told investigators they had heard Williams threaten to kill her should she try to leave him.

Jobe said Williams and Magallanes moved to the Florence-Penrose area from Yuma, Arizona, some four years ago.

They had reportedly lived together as a married couple in Arizona for a number of years before moving to Colorado, said Jobe.

Jobe also said that from 1983 to 1996, Williams had been convicted of a number of offenses including alcohol related charges, forgery, assault and tampering with evidence, and as a result he had spent some time in jail and prison.

If convicted of first-degree murder, Williams could be sentenced to life in prison without parole or given the death penalty.                                                      – Nora Drenner