Sun, Jul 05, 2009

Tucson Region

Men argued with woman found dead in 3 Points

By Alexis Huicochea
arizona daily star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 10.17.2007
Two men suspected of killing a woman whose decomposing body was found in a Three Points mobile home were helping her clean up her property when an argument ensued, according to court documents filed Tuesday.
Mamie Lim Gong's body was discovered in an abandoned trailer in the 12700 block of West Bristolwood Lane on June 19.
Armando Estrada, 26, was arrested Thursday and booked into the Pima County jail on suspicion of first-degree murder. A first-degree-murder warrant was also obtained Friday afternoon for 24-year-old Rosendo C. Valenzuela, according to the Pima County Sheriff's Department.
Estrada gave the following information to deputies the day he was arrested, according to a search warrant affidavit.
Estrada and Valenzuela were working with Gong, 64, on a property when she and Valenzuela began arguing. He told authorities that he saw Valenzuela hit Gong with a baseball bat or a wooden object in the head and then with a "large brick type object."
The pair then placed Gong in the back of her pickup truck and drove it to the trailer, where she would be found beaten to death after relatives reported her missing.
As they placed Gong in the back of the truck and as she was being unloaded into the trailer, Estrada said he thought she was alive because she was coughing and breathing, the document said. After leaving in Gong's truck, Estrada said he used her debit card and made multiple withdrawals.
Estrada remained in the Pima County jail Tuesday evening in lieu of $200,000 bond.
● Contact reporter Alexis Huicochea at 629-9412 or ahuicochea@azstarnet.com.