The blanket-wrapped body of a woman found Tuesday near a Juárez landfill is that of a missing Socorro woman, who is thought to have been killed by her husband before he died in an apparent suicide Monday.

El Paso County sheriff's officials confirmed Wednesday that the body of Socorro resident Crystal Sarai Lugo, 20, who was pregnant with twins, was found close to a Juárez landfill.

Chihuahua state officials said that according to an autopsy, Lugo was about two months pregnant and was suffocated.

Sheriff's deputies in El Paso discovered the body of Lugo's husband, Johnnyray Nevarez, 27, in a white Nissan Sentra sedan parked off Gas Line Road near Hueco Tanks about 5 p.m. Monday. Detectives determined that Nevarez shot and killed himself while in the car.

Earlier Monday, police in Socorro received a call from a friend of the couple, who said that Nevarez had spoken of killing Lugo, dumping her body in Mexico and then killing himself, a spokes man for the Socorro Police Department said Monday.

State police in Chihuahua said in a news release that the couple had an argument on Friday and that Lugo possibly died on that day in the couple's mobile home on Aaker Street.

When Socorro police arrived at the home on Monday after receiving the call from the couple's friend, they noticed that the couple's car was missing.

Chihuahua state police officials said they found Lugo's body wrapped in a pink blanket on a road leading to the landfill. She had been wearing yellow pants, a gray blouse and white tennis shoes.


Chihuahua police said they had received a tip about the body from El Paso sheriff's deputies with information from a note Nevarez left before killing himself. In the note, Nevarez apparently detailed where he left Lugo's body.

According to El Paso County marriage records, Nevarez and Lugo married on Valentine's Day in 2011. Friends of the couple told Channel 14-KFOX that Nevarez was a former U.S. Marine.

Sheriff's officials said Wednesday that they are working with the FBI, Mexican law enforcement and the U.S. Consulate in Juárez to assist Lugo's family.

They declined to release any more information.
