Ricardo Fuentes

RANCHETTES, Fla. — Authorities have recovered a body in southeastern Suwannee County.

According to the Suwannee County Sheriff’s Office, the body of a female that matches the description of 32-year-old Delia Cruz was found Tuesday evening in a shallow grave in the 22000 block of 41st Road with the assistance of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Mobile Crime Lab.

The body is being sent to the Medical Examiner’s office in Tallahassee for positive identification and to determine the cause of death.

Ricardo Fuentes, a 35-year-old that is also known as Ruben Gutierrez and Ruben Portillo Gutierrez, is considered a suspect in Cruz’s death. The SCSO said it is trying to secure an arrest warrant from the State Attorney’s Office in the Third Judicial Circuit.

Fuentes, who is 5-foot-11 and 190 pounds, is listed as a sexual offender according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, stemming from a 2004 sexual battery conviction in Marion County. He was released from prison in December 2017 after serving 10 years for attempted murder.

The suspect was last seen in Alachua County around 1 p.m. Tuesday near Interstate 75 and County Road 234, but is no longer believed to be in that area, according to the SCSO.

Anyone that knows the suspect’s wheareabouts are asked to immediately contact their law enforcement agency.

Cruz was reported missing Monday morning. The suspect said she walked away from their residence on 41st Road around 7 p.m. Sunday, wearing a white and pink shirt and blue jeans.

Suwannee County Sheriff Sam St. John said authorities were supposed to meet with the suspect Tuesday morning but he had left before they arrived.

St. John said Fuentes had met his sister in Gainesville and the sister told the SCSO that he had confessed to her that he had killed Cruz and buried her body.

According to SCSO, officers from the Alachua and Marion County sheriff’s offices were helping along with Florida Highway Patrol, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and Department of Corrections in searching the Micanopy area for the suspect.

He was last seen wearing a dark shirt, jean shorts and a dark baseball cap.