A Texas man found dead inside a disabled vehicle along Interstate 25 in Colorado Springs in late December had been bound and gagged with zip ties and duct tape, and someone had injected him with heroin before his death, according to the El Paso County Coroner’s Office.

An autopsy revealed that Ivan Maldonado, 30, suffered blunt injuries to his head and neck and bruising along his torso. The Coroner’s Office ruled Maldonado’s death a homicide caused by smothering in the setting of “acute heroin toxicity,” according to the autopsy. 

Police discovered Maldonado’s body Dec. 20 in an abandoned GMC Sierra with Texas plates on southbound I-25 near the Martin Luther King Jr. Bypass. The front passenger tire was flat, and the back passenger door on the driver’s side was left open, officials said.

Someone covered up Maldonado’s body with clothing, and he was “on his knees face down between the back floorboard and the back seat of the vehicle,” according to the autopsy. 

His left shirt sleeve had been cut off, and a needle puncture wound was discovered on his left arm. The Coroner’s Office said it believes that a second party injected Maldonado with heroin. 

“The overall findings are consistent with these injuries being caused by the actions of another individual(s),” according to the autopsy. 

Maldonado’s death sparked the 53rd homicide investigation of 2022, a record-breaking year for homicides in Colorado Springs. 

The investigation is still active, and there has been no word of an arrest.