Authorities allege that a truck driver arrested in Powell earlier this month kidnapped and tried murdering a female passenger outside Thermopolis.

Hugo A. Luna Aguero, 45, is facing felony charges in Hot Springs County of attempted first-degree (premeditated) murder and kidnapping. Luna, of Peoria, Arizona, is alleged to have strangled a woman he’d picked up in Glendale, Arizona, and left her in a ditch along Wyo. Highway 120.

Luna remained in jail in Thermopolis on Monday, with bail set at $500,000 cash while he awaits a preliminary hearing.

A passerby found the injured woman on the morning of Friday, April 13 about 15 miles north of Thermopolis. She had cuts to her face and neck, along with ligature marks and hemorrhaging in one of her eyes — indicating she’d been strangled, Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation Special Agent Brady Patrick wrote in an affidavit submitted in support of the charges.

The woman reportedly told the agent she’d known Luna for roughly a month and had agreed to travel with him for about eight days in exchange for a couple hundred dollars.

However, the woman said Luna began cutting her off from the rest of the world — stealing her money and cell phone and making her go to the bathroom along the side of the road instead of stopping at public places like rest areas or gas stations, Patrick wrote of her account.

“[The woman] further stated that she observed a substantial amount of blood on the mattress in the sleeper portion of Luna’s tractor trailer, and when she questioned Luna, he became nervous and did not answer her,” Patrick wrote.

In the early morning hours of April 13, the woman says Luna stopped in a pullout along Wyo. Highway 120, allowing her to go to the bathroom. However, when she got back inside the truck, the woman says Luna wrapped something around her throat and strangled her until she passed out, Patrick wrote of her account.

She says she woke up in a ditch along the highway, walked up a hill to the road and flagged down a passerby, who took her to Hot Springs County Memorial Hospital in Thermopolis. The Hot Springs County Sheriff’s Office was notified around 8:30 a.m. and, based on the woman’s description, law enforcement officers around the state began looking for the yellow tractor trailer and white cargo box trailer being drive by Luna.

Wyoming Highway Patrol Lt. Lee Pence, of Cody, soon spotted Luna unloading cargo from his rig at a South Clark Street business. Just after 10 a.m. on April 13, Powell police — who’d received a tip about the trailer from a concerned citizen around that same time — assisted as Lt. Pence approached Luna.

“It all unfolded really fast,” said Powell Police Chief Roy Eckerdt.

Luna reportedly told the troopers and officers that he’d dropped the woman off in Salt Lake City. However, the authorities spotted a purse containing the woman’s Arizona driver’s license, two bags of women’s clothing and apparent blood on Luna’s right shoe, according to court records. Officers eventually took Luna into custody and noticed possible blood on the sleeves of his jacket, too, Patrick wrote.

Luna eventually invoked his right to an attorney after his arrest.

At the pullout on Wyo. Highway 120, Patrick said agents found “tire impressions, foot prints, drag marks and blood.” Luna’s shoes appeared to match the foot prints at the scene and the tread on his trailer’s tires appeared to match two different tire impressions, Patrick wrote.

The woman identified Luna as her assailant, who she said she knew as “Hugo Michael.”

A conviction for attempted first-degree carries a minimum penalty of life in prison, while kidnapping has a minimum penalty of 20 years in prison.

With the two charges, Hot Springs County Attorney Jerry Williams alleges that while “intending to commit the crime of murder in the first degree,” Luna “did an act which was a substantial step toward committing crime” and kidnapped the woman in having “unlawfully removed and/or confined a person by force, threat or deception … to facilitate the commission of a felony.”

Luna is awaiting a preliminary hearing.