On April 16, 2000, the body of 33-year-old Hispanic woman Aida Quinones was found near an Interstate 84 overpass in Hartford’s Asylum Hill neighborhood. She was discovered lying facedown, partially covered with dirt and gravel; her clothing had been disturbed, with her shirt and sweater pushed up to her chest and her pants pulled down around one leg. Investigators reported abrasions consistent with her having been dragged a short distance.

An autopsy determined she had been murdered by blunt force trauma to the head and manual strangulation, and the severity of her head injuries suggested she may have been stomped to death. Semen recovered from Quinones was profiled by DNA and later matched to evidence from two other women, Rosali Jimenez and Alesia Ford, whose bodies were found within a one-mile radius and in comparable condition.

In January 2002 police arrested Matthew Steven Johnson; in February 2004 a jury found him guilty of the three murders and he was sentenced to three consecutive life terms.