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Copyright © 2019 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE – An inmate at the Rio Arriba County jail led Santa Fe County detectives to the body of an Albuquerque man who had been missing since late December.

Lucas Culin, 36, incarcerated at the jail since Jan. 4, has not been charged in the disappearance or death of 27-year-old Marshall Naranjo, who went missing Dec. 28.

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But Cullin did lead officers to Naranjo’s body after a witness showed Rio Arriba County Sheriff James Lujan a video of what appeared to be part of a dead body in Culin’s vehicle.

The video shows what looks like a human arm emerging from something covered with clothes on the back seat of what is said to be Culin’s car, according to Sheriff Lujan.

The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office announced earlier this week that it found the body a few feet from the roadway near the corner of Dry Creek Road and Caminito Corto in the Pojoaque area early Wednesday morning.

Naranjo was reported missing by his family Dec. 31 after he was last seen three days before at the Buffalo Thunder Resort Casino in Pojoaque. He had been dropped off at the casino after visiting with his family in White Rock, near Los Alamos, over the Christmas holiday.

Naranjo’s remains have been taken to the Office of the Medical Investigator to determine a cause of death.

Lujan told the Journal on Thursday that a man came to him Saturday with the video. The witness said Culin, 36, had come to his house to give him a ride somewhere and that’s when he saw the human arm in the backseat.

Lujan said the witness told him the arm was cold to the touch. “He could tell it was a person who was not living,” Lujan said. The man said he took the video when Culin wasn’t looking, according to Lujan. He brought the video to the sheriff after seeing a social media post about Naranjo being missing and believed that the body in Culin’s car might have been Naranjo’s.

Lujan said he believes the video was taken just before New Year’s Day, four days after Naranjo was last seen at Buffalo Thunder.

“When I saw the video, that was when I took the guy seriously,” Lujan said.

Culin was then transported from the Rio Arriba County jail to Pojoaque – in Santa Fe County – to help the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office recover Naranjo’s remains, Lujan said.

Culin, who has a long criminal record, was arrested Jan. 3 by Santa Fe sheriff’s deputies on three outstanding arrest warrants for assault and battery against a household member, DWI and felony possession of a controlled substance, according to the sheriff’s office’s online “hot sheet” incident reports. He was booked into the Rio Arriba County jail in Tierra Amarilla on Jan. 4

The Rio Grande Sun weekly in Española first reported about Culin leading detectives to Naranjo’s body.

The Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office says Naranajo’s death is suspicious but is not calling the case a homicide.

Department spokesman Juan Rios on Thursday would not confirm whether Culin is a suspect, and said that it remains an active investigation.

Naranjo’s brother, Fidel Naranjo, said last week that on Dec. 28, Marshall was supposed to catch a regional transit bus at Buffalo Thunder in Pojoaque for a ride to a Santa Fe depot of the Rail Runner Express train, then take the train home to Albuquerque, where he worked rental property as a handyman. The Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office has said an acquaintance took Marshall Naranjo to the casino.