Kayla Chadwick was found dead in Fort Morgan, Colo. Human remains found near the 17-year-old-girl’s home town were found 16 months after she went missing and was presumed dead. Kayla Chadwick was a senior at Fort Morgan High School when she disappeared last March. Police say the cause of death is unclear, but the family of Kayla Chadwick say she was killed by her boyfriend, Ivan Torralba.

Kayla Chadwick was seen having an argument with her 19-year-old boyfriend. The two were both seniors at Fort Morgan High School when she disappeared. Before Kayla Chadwick was found dead,area residents have been searching for her for 16 months. The FBI has been called in to investigate the death and is analyzing evidence.

Kayla Chadwick’s aunt Chris Ferguson told 7NEWS “She was murdered and we’re seeing justice. Biggest thing (Kayla) did wrong was love the wrong person.” Ferguson said Kayla was a good girl who wanted to be a nurse.

In the past few weeks Fort Morgan Police said they were pursuing new evidence in the case but didn’t explain the kind of evidence because they did not want to compromise the investigation. Fort Morgan police confirmed that human remains were found on June 27 in the 19500 block of Morgan County Road W., about a mile east of Highway 52 and the Fort Morgan Municipal Airport. Authorities said they were focusing on Torralba, but gave no further details.

Fort Morgan police Lt. Jared Crone said “Obviously, Ivan was the last one to see her alive … and that is, obviously, the direction we are going to take. We've received recent information within the last three weeks and based on that information we were able to go to a couple locations ... one of which is where we found Kayla's remains. It is more than a missing person, we just don't know the cause or manner of death at this point and that's really going to be key to what direction we eventually take this case.”

Police executed a search warrant at the Torralba family home in connection with the Chadwick investigation on June. Officers rearrested Chadwick's boyfriend, who was free on $75,000 bond, because he was found to be in possession of marijuana and he is under 21, the minimum age a person can legally possess pot under Colorado law, Fort Morgan police Lt. Jared Crone said. The drug charge violated Torralba's bond conditions. Police also arrested Torralba's mother, Lucila Torralba, 46, on perjury charges from her grand jury testimony and for attempting to influence a public servant. She is free on bond. Ivan Torralba is currently in custody on $275,000 bond.

Torralba was the subject of investigation before. In November 2012, a grand jury indicted him for perjury, tampering with evidence, and attempting to influence a public servant. Police said he gave false testimony to a grand jury and tampered with evidence in Chadwick’s kidnapping.

Kayla Chadwick’s ex-boyfriend was on bond for a perjury charge related to Kayla’s death. Torralba has not been charged in her disappearance. Police say violence is rare in the small community.
Fort Morgan police Lt. Jared Crone said “With the 22 years I’ve been here, we haven’t had anything this extensive … any missing persons case for this long .. it’s very unusual. I can’t remember the last homicide we had. I believe it was October 2010 was the last one we had. We've invested so much time and energy into this -- countless man hours, numerous reports. We have well over 200 reports that officers have done at this point and still several in the last few weeks. The case has never been cold in our mind. We've literally, every single week, we've had some kind of involvement whether through information or re-interviewing people that have been related to the case, it's just constant."

Crone said he doesn't believe the public should be concerned about a killer on the loose.

 by Tony Sokol