A 59-year-old Ignacio man is facing a first-degree murder charge after his wife was found dead inside their home during a weekend welfare check, and investigators say he had been violating a protection order meant to keep him away from her for weeks before her death. Blas Salazar was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder in the death of 31-year-old Herberta Lynn Salazar, whose body was discovered Saturday.
Ignacio police found Herberta dead inside the home after forcing entry during the wellness check, according to durangoherald.com. She was discovered face down in the primary bedroom with a large cut across her neck and a puncture wound on the right side of her chest, the outlet reported, citing details from the arrest affidavit. Suspected bloodstains were found throughout the kitchen and the primary bedroom, as well as in the bathroom, per the same account.
Scene Evidence Points to Attempt to Hide the Crime
Investigators also found that all circuit breakers in the home had been manually turned off, disabling the home's security-camera recording device, the Durango Herald reported. A Colorado Bureau of Investigation agent described the breaker shutoff as consistent with consciousness of guilt and an attempt to prevent the creation or destruction of evidence, according to The Denver Post.
Items were found next to the open doors of Salazar's truck, the Durango Herald reported. The CBI is serving as the lead investigating agency in the case, with the Ignacio Police Department assisting, according to fox21news.com.
Deputies tracked Salazar's truck and found him early Sunday on County Road 521 in La Plata County with what appeared to be self-inflicted injuries, Fox21 News reported. He was taken to a hospital for treatment, the Durango Herald reported. The Denver Post reported that he was held without bail at the Jefferson County jail.
A Protection Order That Allegedly Went Unheeded
There was an active restraining order barring Blas from contacting Herberta at the time of her death, the Durango Herald reported. But deputies allege Salazar violated that protection order dozens of times while he was in jail, according to The Denver Post.
Per the arrest affidavit, Salazar contacted Herberta 26 times through the jail video-visit system between his arrest and Sept. 17, the newspaper reported. The two also exchanged 33 pages of text messages over that same stretch, according to the same affidavit cited in the report.
Salazar now has two hearings scheduled for Nov. 4 at the La Plata County Courthouse for formal charge filings, the Durango Herald reported. Ignacio is located about 25 miles southeast of Durango on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation.
Protection Orders and the Broader Pattern
Colorado's 2026 domestic violence fatality report found that 78 people died in 57 related cases during 2025, six more deaths than the prior year, according to cpr.org. Those deaths accounted for 17% of the state's more than 200 homicides in 2025, the outlet reported, and firearms were the most common weapon, used in 82% of the deaths.
About 36% of the 2025 cases involved a documented history of domestic violence between the people involved, and roughly 30% of perpetrators had previously been arrested for domestic violence, according to cpr.org's reporting on the state data. Twelve of the 57 cases statewide involved an active domestic-relations proceeding at the time of the fatal interaction, the outlet found — a detail that echoes the protection order already in place before Herberta Salazar's death.
