Overview
- Adams County’s 17th Judicial District Attorney filed counts of first-degree murder, tampering with a deceased human body, two protection-order violations and domestic-violence habitual offender against Thomas Lee Perales.
- Valdez, 37, was found deceased on Dec. 4 inside a trash can off the 12400 block of N. Delaware Street in Westminster and was identified by autopsy on Dec. 5, with prosecutors estimating her death occurred between Nov. 28 and Dec. 4.
- Perales was arrested Dec. 5 and remains in custody after investigators say he admitted moving Valdez’s body in a trash can and told an officer, “You know I killed my wife and paraded her around?”
- The arrest affidavit describes video of Perales removing Valdez’s Ring doorbell, possible blood on the apartment stairwell and witness accounts of a body wrapped in a maroon blanket near a Thornton hotel.
- Records show a long pattern of police responses to Valdez’s residence, including about 67 calls over two years, and note Perales’ Oct. 24 arrest and Nov. 21 probation release shortly before she was reported missing.