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Murder Suspect's Roommate Called Police For Search

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Nov 23, 2008 4:28 pm US/Mountain

Murder Suspect's Roommate Called Police For Search

DENVER (CBS4/AP) ― A man wanted for questioning in the death of a 32-year-old woman has been arrested and now faces a second-degree murder charge.

Nicky Allen Martinez, 28, of Brighton was arrested early Saturday near downtown Denver. He's a suspect in the death of Tanya Ealey whose body was found Thursday night at a Brighton home. She had been reported missing earlier in the week.

The Adams County coroner said she died from asphyxiation caused by blunt trauma to the neck.

It was unclear whether he has hired an attorney.

Martinez's roommates are shocked about the death.

"It's really shocking because Nick was really looking forward to being a father," said Snowden Mathews, a long-time friend of Martinez.

Mathews said Ealey was pregnant with Martinez's child.

Ealy and Martinez were renting Mathew's basement apartment and had only been there a few months. He said Martinez borrowed his car to pick Ealey up from her job at Hopper's bar in Wheat Ridge on Monday.

"He never came back. I thought he'd be back in about an hour and about 8 p.m. the Brighton police showed up and said there'd been reports of Tanya missing," Mathews said.

The police searched the basement apartment early in the week, but when Mathews' wife found Ealey's wallet and purse in the basement, they called police to come back. It wasn't until the second search on Thursday that police made the gruesome discovery.

"When they looked through there they found her body was hidden under the bed and it had evidentially been there a few days," Mathews said. "It was a bit shocking to find out there'd been a body downstairs underneath my bed for a few days that I didn't know about."

Mathews said he never thought Martinez was capable of murder.

Martinez is being held in the Adams County Detention Facility.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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