A suspect in the 2007 murder of Chasity Ann Stine of Las Animas was arrested in Lamar and booked into Bent County Jail late Thursday night.

    Mark Anthony Gonzales, 26, Lamar was arrested on suspicion of first degree murder.

    A warrant listing the charge was signed by 16th Judicial District Judge Michael Schifferl and filed in Bent County Court Thursday. Schiferl set bond at $250,000.

    Gonzales was arraigned by video conference late Friday morning before Judge Doug Manley in Otero District Court, La Junta.

    District Attorney Rodney Fouracre said Friday the arrest warrant was the result of a district grand jury hearing and investigation regarding evidence in the murder of Chasity Stine, who was found dead in a secluded area along railroad tracks about two miles east of Las Animas in late March 2007.

    Chasity Ann Stine, 28, the mother of three childrem was last seen at a Las Animas park on March 31. She had driven a relative to Fort Lyon earlier in the day and was supposed to pick up a student at Otero Junior College later that afternoon.

    Her disappearance quickly alarmed relatives, who said Chasity would usually phone relatives frequently during the day from her cell phone.

    A car she was driving was found Sunday morning and by Monday relatives, friends and volunteers began searching for her in the area surrounding Las Animas.

    One of the searchers found her lifeless body at Black Ridge, an isolated area just east of town where young people used to meet and party a few decades ago.

    It was subsequently determined that the murder might have occurred at a Las Animas residence, which placed the jurisdiction of the crime in Las Animas. Subsequently, the investigation was taken over by the Pueblo office of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

    After the discovery of the body, initial investigation had focused on Herny Lee Isom, 32, the father of Chasity’s children and her common-law husband.

    The investigation had seemed to languish since the summer of 2007, except for occasional rumors that a break in the case was looming.

    The Stine children were subsequently placed in the home of a Stine relative, Sonny and Marcella Smith of Las Animas.

    Inquiries at the Las Animas Police Department were referred to Fouracre, the district attorney.

    Fouracre, in turn, declined to comment further on the case, saying his comments were being reserved for court.