For more than 14 years, the stabbing death of Jose Domenech, a 48-year-old handyman found bleeding near the maintenance garage where he worked at the Austin Heights apartment complex, sat unsolved in Waterbury. Then a routine legal requirement tied to an unrelated gun case cracked it open: 59-year-old Heriberto Colon was arrested and charged with murder on September 8, after investigators say his DNA, collected because of a 2024 firearm conviction, matched blood found at the crime scene.
Domenech was discovered on the ground near the Austin Road garage on December 13, 2011, and paramedics pronounced him dead at 10:08 a.m. that day, according to Substack. Police initially believed he had been shot after finding his severely injured body, but the medical examiner ruled his death a homicide once it became clear he had been stabbed repeatedly in the head, chest, neck, throat, back, and abdomen. The garage itself showed signs of a struggle, with overturned furniture and blood-like substances found both inside and outside the space.
Forensic Teams Found a Mystery DNA Profile Early On
Forensic teams collected multiple blood samples from the scene in 2011, and experts identified a second single-source DNA profile alongside Domenech's own blood. That unknown profile did not match anything in database searches at the time, leaving the case cold for over a decade despite the physical evidence sitting in storage. The break finally came through an unrelated event: Colon was convicted of criminal possession of a firearm in November 2024, which legally required him to submit a DNA sample into the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS.
That mandatory submission is required under Connecticut law. Per the RAINN database, anyone convicted of a felony offense in Connecticut — including criminal possession of a firearm — must submit a biological sample for DNA analysis into state and federal databases prior to release. Once Colon's profile entered CODIS, it connected him to the unsolved Domenech case, officials said.
A Search Warrant, an Interview, and a Denial
In May 2025, police executed a search warrant on Colon in Enfield and collected a new DNA sample directly from him. During an interview about the day of the murder, Colon said he had left his Austin Heights apartment early that morning and returned only to change clothes. He told investigators he saw a large police presence and heard about the murder afterward, and said he had never even spoken to Domenech.
By July 2025, forensic analysis confirmed that Colon's DNA matched the blood found inside the maintenance garage. During that interrogation, Waterbury police confronted him with crime scene photos showing exactly where his blood had been detected, but Colon maintained he had never set foot inside the garage, according to the Substack report. He has also denied, according to the arrest warrant affidavit, being at the crime scene at all — a denial he repeated even as he faces the murder charge, telling investigators he never knew, saw, or killed Domenech.
A Witness Admitted Lying Years Earlier
Investigative delays weren't only about forensic science. In September 2025, police reinterviewed a witness who had given a story about the stabbing years earlier, and the witness admitted he had lied back in 2012, falsely implicating several other men in order to get former acquaintances into trouble. Police have said there were no actual witnesses to the crime itself, meaning the false account may have sent the investigation down the wrong path for years. With the witness's admission and the DNA match in hand, police secured a warrant for Colon's arrest.
Colon is now held at MacDougall-Walker Correctional Facility on a $2.5 million bond and is due back in court on Thursday. Waterbury Police Chief Fernando C. Spagnolo addressed the arrest alongside updates on two other city homicide investigations during a joint press conference held Thursday, October 1, according to WTNH News 8. Spagnolo said a tremendous amount of investigative work went into the case and credited the State's Attorney's Office for its assistance, adding that the goal is to provide answers and closure for the families.
Remembering Jose Domenech
Domenech, who was born in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, was remembered as a really nice guy by those who knew him at Austin Heights, where he lived and worked. He was later buried in Aguadilla in 2011 and is survived by his wife, Carmen Cruz, and his son, Jose Domenech Jr.
A Backlog of Cold Cases and a Falling Crime Rate
The Domenech case is one of roughly 40 unsolved homicides and missing person cases in Waterbury dating back to 1980, a backlog shaped by historical detective reassignments and the drug-related violence of the 1980s and 1990s, according to Uncovered. The state has tools meant to chip away at that backlog: the Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice established a central Cold Case Unit in 2004 to work with municipal departments on unsolved homicides and kidnappings, and the division still offers rewards of up to $50,000 for information leading to arrests and convictions in major unsolved homicides across New Haven County and the state.
The arrest also lands amid a broader decline in violent crime. Waterbury recorded 8 homicides in 2024 and 9 in 2025, down from 18 in 2023, per OpenCrime data. Statewide, crimes against persons dropped 15% in the first quarter of 2026 compared with the same period in 2025, marking a five-year low, according to CT Mirror. Nationally, FBI reporting for 2025 showed an 18.1% year-over-year drop in homicides, pushing the murder rate down to levels last seen in 1955 and 1956.
Waterbury police have remained active on other violent crime fronts in recent days. On October 2, they arrested a 39-year-old woman on murder charges in a separate fatal stabbing following a physical dispute on Chestnut Avenue. That arrest came just days after Hoodline reported on the stolen Camry chase near Sylvan Avenue and weeks after a shooting behind Brass Mill Center left an Orlando man wounded, underscoring the steady pace of violent crime enforcement across the city even as overall numbers trend downward.
