STAFFORD, Va. (AP) — A person imprisoned for killing a former girlfriend and federal employee in Washington a decade in the past pleaded responsible Monday to slaying his estranged spouse who disappeared from her Virginia residence in 1989, authorities stated.

Jose Angel Rodriguez-Cruz, 55, entered his plea to second-degree homicide in Stafford Circuit Courtroom, prosecutors stated at a information convention.

Jose Rodriguez-Cruz was charged in October 2019 with killing Marta Haydee Rodriguez, then 28, the Commonwealth’s Legal professional for Stafford County stated on the time. She was final seen in Arlington County 30 years in the past.

Rodriguez’s stays have been discovered alongside a freeway median in Stafford County in 1991, however they weren’t positively recognized till DNA testing was utilized in 2018, information retailers reported, citing proof introduced by Stafford prosecutors.

Jose Rodriguez-Cruz stated on the time that Rodriguez had left the nation, and her stays weren’t recognized for years as a result of the sister of Jose Rodriguez-Cruz’s second spouse had assumed her id, authorities stated. Police stated they made the invention in 2017.

By the point Rodriguez-Cruz was indicted, he was already serving a 12-year jail sentence for killing one other lady, Pamela Butler, at her residence in Washington in 2009, and in addition dumping her physique in Stafford. The 47-year-old Environmental Safety Company worker disappeared “underneath mysterious circumstances,” authorities have stated.

Butler’s brother, Derrick Butler, inspired Stafford authorities to pursue fees within the Rodriguez killing and is credited with being a key issue within the new fees.

“I’m very grateful that this has taken place,” information retailers quoted Derrick Butler as saying Monday.

Commonwealth’s Legal professional Eric Olsen added that “loads of businesses got here collectively to deliver justice to Marta Rodriguez, even whether it is 30 years later.”

Underneath Rodriguez–Cruz’s plea settlement, a first-degree homicide cost was decreased and a cost of concealing a useless physique was dropped. He might face a further 40 years in jail at a Feb. four sentencing, information retailers reported.