John Sandoval

This could have been the perfect murder in which the body of the victim would have never been found, nor would they have found the perpetrator, except for one thing... his stupidity. Everyone knows that when someone suddenly goes missing one of the first people they look at is the spouse, current and/or former. Everyone also knows that even before they go there they go to the last known person to see the victim or was alleged to have seen the victim. When that person happens to be a spouse on top of that it becomes a huge red flag. Now, this does not mean that every person on the planet that is murdered or disappears has a spouse that is involved but we all know that is where investigators start.

On the morning of October 19, 1995 twenty-three year old Kristina “Tina” Sandoval finished her overnight nursing shift in Greenley Colorado and headed to the home she once shared with her husband, John. The couple had split up in August but she was going over that morning to retrieve his half of money the couple owed to the IRS. Tina had expressed to family and co-workers that she was nervous about the meeting. Tina had told people that John had threatened to kill himself when she had finally decided to divorce him and while it is unclear if he ever directly threatened her, she did fear that he was capable of doing so. With this in mind Tina promised to call her sister as soon as the meeting was over. The call never came. By that evening Tina's mother decided to file a missing person's report.

Authorities went to John Sandoval's home and it is not completely clear just what he, or his aunt, who was living with him told them. The aunt's story seemed to have changed over the years. The overwhelming consensus is that she covered for John in the early years but then changed her story later. I was unable to piece together whether she confirmed that Tina had come to the home that morning or not. At any rate, little of that mattered. In fact, the authorities were rather familiar with John Sandoval and they had met him on several occasions prior to his wife being reported missing.

John and Tina had married in 1991 when they were both enrolled at the community college. Long before they ever met though John had racked up several arrests in both Colorado and California. He had been arrested for things such as assault, marijuana possession, sexual assault, burglary, peeking in windows of college students, trespassing, stalking and harassment. Authorities would later say that Tina had finally left him in August of 1995 “when police came knocking one too many times, especially after an allegation that her husband was stalking women in her car overnight in the summer of 1995.” So, when the police went and knocked on his door on October 20^th, after Tina's mother had reported her missing they probably had an idea about the type of person they were dealing with.

At the home they found a few odd things, on him and in his car and home. He seemed to have some very fresh scratches on his neck and upper chest. It is unclear what, if any, reason he gave authorities for those. Inside the home and apparently very visible they found a five gallon bucket and a new shovel with mud on it. They also found Tina's credit cards in his home. In his car they found a loaded 9mm handgun, a rope, and a flashlight that he was able to place around his neck. One of the strangest things they found was a garbage bag of women's underwear in the garage. It is unclear exactly what John told authorities on that day about his whereabouts. At some point it was alleged that he was not home on that morning but in Denver working on a sewer pipe of some sort. But, authorities also knew that John Sandoval worked at a cemetery.

They were able to arrest John on that day but not for anything related to his missing wife. They charged him with breaking into another woman's home. It was said that they did so to collect and preserve physical evidence for Tina's case. Tina's car was also found, although I cannot tell you exactly when, in an apartment complex several blocks away from John's home. However, authorities brought out their tracking dogs and alleged that they picked up John's scent at the car and it led back to his house.

Despite the fact that everything they had led back to John the prosecutor at the time was not willing to file charges just yet. It seems that he was one of those “gun shy” prosecutors who did not think a case was solid without a body. Over the next few years a few tips would come in. At least one referred to his work at the cemetery and it was said that the name Arthur Hert's was brought. Now, Arthur Hert's was a World War II Veteran buried at the cemetery that John Sandoval worked at. In fact, Arthur had been buried right around the time Tina had disappeared. But still, it takes more than a hunch to go through the channels of exhumation and the case tended to linger.

By 2009 a new prosecutor was in office and unlike the previous prosecutor, the fact there was not a body in this case did not scare him in the least. In June of that year authorities went to Las Vegas, where John was now living and arrested him. He was charged with the first degree murder of his wife.

John went on trial in July of 2010. By the time the trial ended early the next month it was the longest trial in the county's history at that time. Prosecutors alleged that the motive was the “old standby”... If I cannot have her, no one can. They did believe that John had buried Tina somewhere but they still had no idea where or how. The defense maintained that he was not in the area at the time and alleged that witnesses, presumably one being his aunt, that had defended him in 1995 had now turned on him. I did have a note that investigators had hired a plumbing company to review the sewer pipe he had claimed to be fixing on the night Tina disappeared but it was unclear when that was done or what conclusion was made. The jury believed the prosecutors and convicted him on the first degree murder charge. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

Now, prior to his trial there had been a discussion about possibly making a deal with him and having him lead investigators to Tina's body but her family did not like that idea at the time. It seems they were hoping that more would come out in the trial. Sadly that did not happen. But, they did get another shot at it later.

In March of 2016 the Colorado appeals court overturned John's conviction. They stated that the judge should have never allowed evidence that John had stalked other women or allowed the expert testimony that had shown the correlations between stalkers and murderers. Prosecutors were not deterred and announced they would try him again.

John's second trial was to begin in March of 2017 but just days before it was to begin the defense attorney's approached the prosecutor about a deal that would include revealing the location of Tina's body for a reduced sentence. Once again the prosecutors talked to Tina's family. It was said that they wrestled with that decision. Of course they wanted to know where their loved one was but would a shorter sentence put more women at risk? After thinking it over and working with the prosecutors they decided that they felt if he was either in prison, or at least being supervised until at least the age of seventy then they could agree to a plea deal.

Just after the agreement was made John led authorities back to the cemetery that he had once worked and to the grave of Arthur Hert. The first order of business was to get permission to exhume Hert's body. Within a few hours Hert's family members had signed the proper papers and the grave was exhumed. About two feet below Hert's grave they found the body of Kristina Sandoval. Her body was wrapped in a comforter and covered with a tarp and then sealed with duct tape. The following day another burial ceremony was held for Hert as he was interred once more, this time alone, as it should have been the first time.

For his cooperation John received a sentence of twenty-five years plus five years on parole. His sentence was backdated to August of 2010, meaning he had served nearly seven years already. Articles that I found stated that through this deal his earliest possible release date would be in 2028. However, according to the Colorado Department of Corrections website his next hearing is in April of 2021 and his estimated parole is in June of that year. To be fair though it does say his mandatory release date (meaning, no matter what they have to release him) is in December of 2033.

As I said in the beginning, this could have been the perfect murder … if the perpetrator, was not like most and was not so stupid. First there was the fact that he was the estranged spouse which made him a prime target from the get go. But, then you have the fact that he had a planned meeting with her for the very morning that she disappeared. Whether he claimed to have actually met with her or not does not matter. The fact is that several people knew this meeting was planned outside Tina and John. Sure, he would have had to overcome the issue and rumor that he did in fact work at a cemetery at the time of the murder, but it was determined that on the morning of her disappearance there were three graves open and dug. As I said earlier, investigators need way more than a hunch before they start exhuming bodies. As is the case in many situations that I come across John's exact age is not clear. It seems that he may have been much older than Tina, who remember was only twenty-three at the time of her death, but even by all calculations based on the ages I found at the time of any particular article I am not certain that her family's wish for him to be incarcerated or under supervision until at least the age of seventy will actually happen. I am unsure if women will be safe upon his release into society.