A year and a half after a couple discovered the body of 28-year-old Tiffany Ventura under a mattress in El Cerro Mission, sheriff detectives have made an arrest in the case.

David Haidle, 57, of El Cerro Mission, was arrested Thursday on an open count of murder and one count of tampering with evidence. Haidle is being held at the Valencia County Adult Detention Center on a $200,000 cash-only bond.

Haidle was arrested without incident at the probation and parole office.

Detective Aaron Jones said Haidle's arrest was made after his office received information from the state crime lab linking Ventura's DNA to evidence found in Haidle's home on Winston Drive in El Cerro Mission.

"We executed a search warrant in November at David Haidle's home, and were able to get confirmation on the evidence. To me, personally, this is huge," Jones said of the arrest. "I made certain promises to the victim's family, and this is something we needed to accomplish..."

On Jan. 19, 2009, a couple collecting aluminum cans called police after they discovered a hand and foot sticking out from under a discarded mattress.

The Office of the Medical Investigator determined that Ventura died from blunt force trauma to the head. Court records say evidence at the scene didn't indicate that Ventura's death occurred where she was found.

The woman had been missing for several months and the medical investigator said the body had been under the mattress about three months.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Magistrate Court in Los Lunas, Jones interviewed Haidle about a week after Ventura was found. Haidle admitted, the complaint says, that he had Ventura and another friend to his house on several occasions.

The complaint also states that Jones received information from a confidential source that Haidle had admitted to at least one person that "he had killed Tiffany Ventura for stealing from him."

When Jones and Sgt. John Gordon confronted Haidle in November 2009 about his alleged statement, the defendant denied that he was involved in Ventura's death. A few days later, detectives returned to Haidle's home with a search warrant.

"During the course of the search warrant, investigators discovered carpet and flooring in the living room area that appeared to be saturated with what tested positive for blood," the criminal complaint states. "It appeared that the carpet had been chemically cleaned..."

The samples of the carpet and flooring sent to the New Mexico State Crime Lab revealed a positive match of the blood found on the living room floor to the DNA of Ventura.

When Ventura's mother, Margaret Lauer, got word of Haidle's arrest Thursday, she said she was happy with the development, but, at the same time, it didn't seem real.

"It seemed unreal," Lauer said. "To this day, I'm still waiting for her to come to the door, waiting for a phone call. I'm constantly waiting for her."

Lauer, who lives in Peralta, said while she feels relieved that an arrest has been made, she feels that she, and her husband, Andy, and their entire family, will never get closure because they'll never have Tiffany.

"We're still kind of numb," she said. "A lot of emotions are coming out. It's like a wound that's been reopened. The sorrow is just seeping out again. Certainly I've suffered through this, and so has my husband, and our family has suffered through this."

Lauer said she doesn't know the dynamics of the relationship her daughter had with Haidle, but said Tiffany had brought up his name about six months before her body was found. Lauer said she couldn't comment about what her daughter said about the man now accused in her death.

"My husband never forgot his name," Lauer said. "He knew in his heart that this man killed his daughter."

Jones said he's happy to be able to potentially solve this case, not just for the victim's family, but for the sheriff's department and for Valencia County.

"There's nothing more horrific than an unsolved murder case," Jones said. "It helps myself and Sgt. Gordon to know that we're doing our jobs and we have satisfaction in what we're doing for this community."

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