Trial begins Monday for Mosinee man charged with killing missing Clark County woman
NEILLSVILLE – The trial for a Mosinee man charged with killing a missing Clark County woman is scheduled to begin Monday.
Jesus Contreras Perez, 42, faces charges of being a party to the crime of first-degree intentional homicide, hiding a corpse and stalking, all as a domestic abuse incident, related to the disappearance of Cassandra Ayon, who has been missing since October 2020.
Authorities have not found Ayon's body or her car, according to the criminal complaint.
Contreras Perez pleaded not guilty Aug. 24, 2021, to all three charges. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.
The trial is scheduled to last through Friday in Clark County Court.
According to the criminal complaint, Ayon's mother told deputies she last saw Ayon at 1 p.m. Oct. 2, 2020, when the two had lunch together at home in Loyal. Two days later, a friend of Ayon's stopped at her mother's home looking for her. The friend said he, Ayon and another friend had plans to go shopping the day before but that Ayon never contacted them.
A woman told deputies she and Ayon were coming back from a walk together in July when they saw a vehicle parked on the side of the road, according to the complaint. The woman told investigators that Contreras Perez got out, asked why they were there and raised his hand to Ayon, though while she flinched, he didn't hit her, according to the complaint.
The woman said Ayon said she told Contreras Perez to go home, but he didn't; instead, he showed up at Ayon's home where she wound up talking to him for about an hour.
Ayon told a friend she broke up with Contreras Perez because he abused her and cheated on her, according to the complaint. The friend said he saw bruises on Ayon's wrist and arm and that Ayon told him Contreras Perez "freaked out" and threatened her after finding out she was at a tavern with two men.
Ayon told a friend Contreras Perez had been following her from work to friends' homes, according to the complaint. She said if anything happened to her, it would be Contreras Perez who did it.
A friend who said she worked with Ayon for two years told investigators Ayon talked about problems she had with Contreras Perez, according to the complaint. Ayon told the woman Contreras Perez told her he knew where to hide Ayon's body so no one would find it, if she ever cheated on him, prosecutors said.
Investigators tracked Contreras Perez and Ayon's cellphone locations for the day and time of her disappearance and determined they were in the same areas, according to the complaint. Contreras Perez later reported his cellphone missing.
Police went to Contreras Perez's workplace, where his employer said he wasn't there but had worked at the farm for 18 years, according to the complaint. The owner said it was unusual for Contreras Perez to report his work-issued cellphone missing himself; the normal procedure was to go through the company.
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Contact Karen Madden at 715-345-2245 or kmadden@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @KMadden715, Instagram at @kmadden715 or Facebook at facebook.com/karen.madden.33.
This article originally appeared on Marshfield News-Herald: Trial begins for Jesus Contreras Perez in death of Cassandra Ayon
