Crime Solvers Central
Crime Solvers Central
302 Cases Solved. Advancing justice for missing persons, unsolved homicides, unidentified and unclaimed remains.

Forum Posts for Mario Zelaya-Zuniga:
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On the evening of December 19, 2014, Mario Zelaya-Zuniga, a 32-year-old Hispanic man from Honduras, was shot and killed on the sidewalk near the downtown homeless shelter in Salt Lake City after meeting two men for what investigators say was a drug transaction. Surveillance footage released by police captured the shooter and the vehicle used to flee, and that footage led the driver, Austin James Herring, to turn himself in and identify his passenger.

Police say the passenger, identified as 31-year-old Richard Michael Warner of West Valley City, pulled a gun while Zelaya-Zuniga was speaking with Herring through the passenger-side window and shot him in the neck. Warner later burned his clothes and discarded the firearm in the Jordan River, according to investigators.

Warner pleaded guilty to first-degree murder as part of a plea agreement; two counts of obstructing justice were dismissed, and he was sentenced to 15 years to life. Herring was not charged in the shooting. Does anyone have information about Mario’s last known movements or about the area near the shelter that night?