Man is found guilty of 1995 cold case murder of 14-year-old girl who vanished from her basement before her throat was slashed and her body dumped in a river in Idaho

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A man has been found guilty of the murder of a teenage girl, 26 years after her body washed up on the banks of an Idaho river.

Gilberto Flores Rodriguez, 58, was convicted by a Cassia County Jury on Tuesday of the first-degree murder of 14-year-old Regina Krieger, who went missing from her Burley home in 1995.

Police and a local cold case group announced the news on Facebook, saying: 'The Cassia County jury is in! Gilberto Rodriguez is GUILTY of 1st degree murder in the 1995 murder of 14-year old Regina Krieger! Sentencing 8/26.

'Congratulations to Prosecutors, the FBI, Detectives and all others who made it possible,' the post read.

'To Regina's family and friends, it's been a long time coming. Embrace and remember this beautiful soul.'

The prosecutor and the victim's mother Rhonda Hunnel declined to comment on the verdict until after the sentencing, due for August 26. Rodriguez faces the death penalty or life imprisonment.

Gilberto Flores Rodriguez, 58, has been found guilty of the murder of a teenage girl, 26 years after her body washed up on the banks of an Idaho river

Regina Krieger, 14, went missing from the basement of her father's Burley home in 1995, just two days before her 15th birthday

Krieger went missing from the basement of her father's home on February 27, 1995, just two days before her 15th birthday. 

A large amount of blood was discovered in the basement, but Krieger could not be located. 

Her decomposing body was found on the banks of the Snake River on April 15 of that year by horseback riders in a portion of the river where the water had receded near the Montgomery Bridge east of Rupert.

Krieger's throat had been slashed and she had been stabbed in the heart. An autopsy showed that her body had been in the water for at least 30 days. 

It wasn't until February 2019 that police arrested and charged Rodriguez, also from Burley, with Krieger's killing. 

Three witnesses told investigators that Rodriguez killed Krieger, dumped her body in the river and then buried a knife in a box, Magicvalley.com reported at the time of his arrest. 

Police and a local cold case group announced the news of Rodriguez's conviction on Facebook

It wasn't until February 2019 that police arrested and charged Rodriguez, also from Burley, with Krieger's killing

A then-confidential witness told officials they were with Rodriguez on the night Krieger was killed in her house. 

The witness said Rodriguez went into the girl's home and came back out about a half an hour later and drove to the front of the house.

He later came out dragging something wrapped in a blanket.

The witness claimed that Krieger's body was placed in the car trunk and taken to a bridge by the Minidoka Dam. 

The witness was present when Krieger's body was thrown over the bridge still wrapped in the blanket.

Speaking after the news of Rodriguez's arrest, Krieger's mother told the Idado Statesman that she had waited a long time in her search for answers on the case.

She said: 'I knew we were getting closer and I was fully aware that it was going to happen.

'My excitement level is very high. I couldn't be more pleased.'  

'I'm feeling a little tingly still. When I first got the news, I got a phone call five minutes after he was arrested. Every hair on my head stood up on my arms.'

She added: 'Twenty-four years has been a long time for me to be searching anything pertaining to this case, so we could get to this point where there's an actual arrest.' 

Another witness in the case claimed that they were at a party when Rodriguez showed up upset and covered in blood. 

The first witness told the third witness that they had just killed Regina, court records say.      

It was reported that police made mistakes in their handling of the case, former Cassia County Sheriff Randy Kidd said in 2015. 

A witness said Rodriguez went into the girl's home (pictured) and came back out about a half an hour later and drove to the front of the house. He later came out dragging something wrapped in a blanket

Rodriguez's attorney Keith Roark told the jury during closing arguments this week that the murder case was based on the testimony of 'liars'

Investigators did not consider Krieger's death a murder at first, but instead believed that she had ran away or taken her own life. 

He said the people Regina had become involved with were drug dealers who were using children to deliver drugs.   

Rodriguez's criminal history in Cassia County dates back to the 1990s and includes several drugs charges.

In 2015, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor providing false information to an officer. 

In 1996, he was charged in separate incidents with misdemeanor unlawful carrying of a concealed weapon and misdemeanor battery. 

He also had a conviction for misdemeanor driving under the influence from 1994. 

Various other charges have been dismissed or pleaded down, according to online court records.  

Rodriguez's attorney Keith Roark told the jury during closing arguments this week that the murder case was based on the testimony of 'liars,' and asked the jurors 'which story should they believe after the state's witnesses gave inconsistent statements to police over the years.' 

Roark said one of the state's top witnesses, prison inmate Cody Thompson, said he was 16 years old and Rodriguez was 32 years old when Rodriguez asked him to help get rid of Krieger's body.

Thompson allegedly said he told lies to police, changed his story and committed perjury in court in another case, which Roark used to claim the state presented 'a bunch of lies by jailhouse snitches.'

Cassia County Prosecutor McCord Larsen said Thompson was a teenager when the murder occurred, did not have good experiences with law enforcement and was intimidated and frightened of Rodriguez.

During closing arguments, Larsen asked the jurors to use 'their common sense and their judgment to figure out who is telling the truth.'

Roark also pointed out mistakes made by police over the years, including DNA evidence collected from Krieger's body, which was tested and compared to Rodriguez's in the past, but did not match. 

He also noted said that heavy objects she was hit with and a knife used to cause some of her injuries were never found.

'The only real physical evidence they have doesn't incriminate this man, it exonerates him,' Roark said. 

The attorney also pointed to aspects of the case that remain unknown, including who Krieger had been with on the day she went missing, whether anyone else was in the house when the murder occurred and whether she had unlocked the backdoor to let the murderer into the house, Magicvalley.com reported.  

'No one was interested in that, the police didn't check those possibilities out,' he said.