The FBI out of Denver confirms that Brian Joseph Heglin is a murder suspect out of Colorado Springs. Tuesday morning he was on the run and desperate. Around 3 a.m. the suspect jumped the fence at the St. George airport and attempted to commandeer an empty SkyWest airlines regional jet.
Brian Joseph Hedglin, 40, was on the run and suspected in the murder of his former girlfriend. Hedglin was a pilot for SkyWest airlines, on administrative leave after his arrest last week for stalking and harassing 39-year-old Christina Cornejo. Cornejo was found stabbed to death in her Colorado Springs apartment on Friday.
Heglin, who has a commercial pilots license apparently forgot to remove the chocks from one set of wing wheels. When he powered the engines the plane went careening sideways glancing into the terminal, continuing through a barrier fence and into a parking area—damaging the plane, the terminal, the fence and several cars.
With no means of escape Heglin apparently shot and killed himself in the aircraft’s cockpit.
Details are still emerging in this bizarre incident. SkyWest tells the salt lake tribune that Heglin is indeed a SkyWest employee, on administrative leave.
Heglin was about to be arrested on suspicion of the stabbing death of his former girl friend Christina Cornejo, whose body was found in her apartment on Friday.
The St. George airport was closed most of Tuesday. Flights resumed late Tuesday afternoon.