The bruised body of Marina Placensia was found on an Amtrak train in 2016. She had been traveling with her husband and children from Wisconsin to Denver. Her widower was charged with her murder this week after seven long years.
Seven years after his wife's battered body was found on board an Amtrak passenger train, a Colorado man has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with her killing, Denver prosecutors announced Tuesday.
Angelo Mantych, 41, is being held without bail. His first court appearance is scheduled for Thursday, according to online court records.
Mantych and Marina Placensia were traveling from Wisconsin to Denver in 2016, along with her four children. As the train pulled into Denver's Union Station, Mantych summoned help, saying he couldn't wake his wife, police said.
Placensia, 28, was unresponsive, authorities said. Efforts to revive her failed, but investigators noted several bruises on her body that were consistent with being assaulted or beaten, according to Denver police.
At the time, Mantych told investigators his wife been bruised as they moved furniture in preparation for their relocation from Wisconsin to Denver, authorities said.
According to a probable cause affidavit filed for Mantych's arrest warrant on Monday, detectives on the scene determined none of the bruising was significant enough to cause death.
An autopsy showed 35 external and internal injuries, including bruising to the stomach, legs, face, chest and head, as well as internal bleeding and broken ribs. The cause of death was listed as inconclusive because none of the traumas were severe enough to kill the woman, authorities said.
For years, detectives questioned friends and relatives of the victim, who told investigators that Placensia had confided several times that Mantych beat her and was paranoid she was seeing other men, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.
The woman had three children with Mantych, and had a daughter who was conceived with another man during a period in which Mantych was imprisoned, the affidavit alleges. Placensia pleaded with her friends and relatives to tell no one about the abuse, saying that would only make things worse, the affidavit claims.
Neighbors also told investigators they often heard screaming, thuds, and children's cries coming from the family's apartment, the affidavit says. On the day the couple was clearing their apartment before boarding the train, some local residents told investigators they'd seen Mantych punching his wife on the sidewalk and knocking her to the ground, the affidavit alleges.
Some neighbors said they didn't intervene because they didn't want to get involved, the affidavit said. Those who said they did try to help, and had driven the woman to the hospital for treatment of her abuse injuries, reported Mantych threatened them, the affidavit claims. One neighbor told investigators Mantych had tried to break down her door and shouted he was going to kill her, the affidavit says.
In September, prosecutors consulted with a medical expert in death by asphyxia, who determined Placensia had been suffocated by pressure to her nose and mouth during an assault, and that her death was a homicide.
Mantych has not entered a plea and there is no attorney of record, according to online court records.
