A man suspected of killing a 39-year-old Colorado Springs woman stole an airplane and then fatally shot himself early Tuesday morning in Utah, a spokesman for the St. George, Utah police said.
Capt. James Van Fleet confirmed that Brian Joseph Hedglin was found in the stolen plane with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Hedglin was being sought by Colorado Springs police in connection with the death of Christina Cornejo, whose body was found in the 100 block of Cheyenne Villas Point in southwest Colorado Springs on Friday.
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Cornejo’s death was ruled a homicide, the 13th this year in Colorado Springs, compared to 12 at the same point last year.
Van Fleet said a St. George police officer was patrolling the airport overnight Monday and spotted a motorcyle when he was checking the perimeter fences. The officer drove back to the terminal to investigate the suspicious motorcycle.
“That’s when he observed the plane in the parking lot with several wrecked cars around it,” Van Fleet said.
Upon further investigation, the officer found Hedglin’s body in the SkyWest airplane. Van Fleet said the body had identification with it confirming that the man was Hedglin. Police also looked up the registration of the motorcycle and found it belonged to Hedglin.
St. George officials said they wouldn’t release the make or model of the motorcycle because of the ongoing investigation.
According to a press release from SkyWest, the airplane was a Bombadier CRJ-200, described as a small regional jet. The release said that a SkyWest employee who is “now deceased” was involved in the incident. The employee was on administrative leave, the release said.
SkyWest spokeswoman Amanda Hesse said she could not confirm whether Hedglin worked for the airline or was the employee involved in the incident. A Colorado Springs police release said that detectives contacted SkyWest prior to Tuesday’s incident and had them deactivate Hedglin’s access cards in case he showed up at an airport.
The Utah airport remained closed Tuesday as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and St. George officials investigated.
Hedglin was a food service specialist with the Colorado Army National Guard. He was never deployed.
He was scheduled to stand trial in El Paso County in August on charges of criminal mischief, theft and harassment. Hedglin was arrested in March when Cornejo told police that he invaded her apartment, took some things he gave to her and smashed a computer. He was free on $10,000 bond at the time of Cornejo’s death.
According to court documents, Hedglin and Cornejo had been dating each other for four years when Hedglin was arrested.
Colorado Springs police spokeswoman Barbara Miller said detectives will continue to investigate Cornejo’s death “to tie up all the loose ends and make sure that (Hedglin) was indeed the person responsible.”
“They won’t close the case until they’ve exhausted every lede,” Miller said.
