Arrest made in murder of woman found in Colo. River
A 37-year-old man has been arrested in the murder of a woman whose body was found last year in the lower Colorado River.
According to Yuma County Sheriff ’s Office spokesman Alfonzo Zavala, the arrest of Joseph Franklin Smith in the murder of 29-year-old Stephanie Fedorka was the result of a collaborative investigation between YCSO and the Imperial County Sheriff ’s Office.
Zavala said an investigation into Fedorka’s murder began in October 2014, when her body was found floating in the Colorado River at approximately South Avenue 6½E.
Deputies from the Yuma sheriff ’s office began working the case and after four months located the crime scene and key pieces of evidence in Bard and turned the investigation over to Imperial County deputies.
Zavala said Yuma police arrested Smith on Jan. 15 on a felony warrant out of Cali-
fornia in an unrelated case. Smith was still in custody when he was charged with the murder.
He is currently in the Yuma County jail and awaits extradition to Imperial County.
On Oct. 14, deputies responded to an area near South Avenue 6½E at about 11:20 a.m. after receiving a report of a body in the Col-
orado River.
Deputies, with the assistance of the Yuma Sector Border Patrol’s BORSTAR unit, were able to recover the remains of an unidentified female dressed in blue jeans and an orange tank top. She had no identification or any other identifying marks such as scars or tattoos.
Deputies received a call from someone in the area who led them to the body, which was found floating in the water next to a sand bar.
Investigators for YCSO were present at the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office in October during an autopsy on Fedorka, where she was positively identified and the cause of death was determined to have been a single gunshot wound to the chest.