Two teens in custody in Colorado after death of Missouri woman

WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. -- Two teenagers wanted for questioning in the slaying of a prosecutor's wife in Missouri were taken into custody Tuesday in this west Denver suburb, police said.

A diner at a truck stop called police after he recognized the teens from newspaper photos, police spokeswoman Lisa Stigall said.

Grain Valley, Mo., police chief Aaron Ambrose said authorities were working to return the teens to Grain Valley, the Kansas City suburb where Pamela Marquez, 39, was found stabbed to death Saturday.

Ambrose broke off a news conference without saying if either teen was suspected of involvement in Marquez's death. Authorities had earlier said one of the teens they were seeking was Marquez's son and they believed the youths were armed.

Marquez, wife of assistant U.S. attorney Joe Marquez, was killed about 10 p.m. Saturday. Her husband suffered a scrape on his face in the altercation at their home. Their 5-year-old son, who was home at the time, was not injured.

Stigall said the truck stop patron, whom she did not identify, told police the boys had asked him for a ride at the truck stop on Monday but he turned them down.

When he returned to the truck stop Tuesday morning, he saw the newspaper photos and thought, "Wow, they look just like the kids I was talking to yesterday," Stigall said.

"As he was sitting there drinking his coffee, he looks up, he sees the boys crossing 44th (Avenue) to go to the Roadway Inn," Stigall said.

She said the teens were being held in Mount View Detention Center.

Ambrose said the apprehension of the teens was a relief. He declined to answer questions about when they might be returned, saying only: "We're working on that."

On Monday, colleagues of the couple expressed their support for the family and mourned Pamela Marquez.

"We are all devastated by the recent tragedy suffered by our colleague," the U.S. attorney's office said in a prepared statement.

Pamela Marquez worked in the Blue Springs school district for nine years in a before- and after-school program for elementary students, school officials said. For the last four years, she coordinated the program at Thomas Ultican Elementary School, said district spokeswoman Leslie Evans, where she was well-liked by her co-workers.

"She put her heart out there," Evans said. "She loved the kids, and loved the people she worked with."