Hedglin reportedly tried to hijack a plane in Utah before committing suicide.
Turns out Hedglin was an employee of SkyWest Airlines on administrative leave. According to the CBS News item linked above, his access cards were deactivated shortly after the discovery of Cornejo, who we're now hearing was stabbed to death.
Nonetheless, Hedglin gained access to the St. George, Utah, Municipal Airport overnight, apparently by using a rug to climb over a security fence. He then climbed aboard a SkyWest jet large enough to hold fifty passengers, although it was unoccupied at the time.While Hedglin was able to get the craft moving, he didn't get it off the ground. Instead, CBS reports that he clipped its wing against the terminal building before crashing into cars in the airport's parking lot. Shortly thereafter, he shot himself to death.
A bizarre end to a horrific story. Get details about what led up to this conclusion in our previous coverage.
Original post, 6:49 a.m. July 17: Not hard to figure out why Brian Hedglin is being sought in connection with the murder last week of 39-year-old Christina Cornejo.
At the time of Cornejo's slaying, the Colorado Springs man was free on $10,000 bond after being accused of harassing her. Among other things.
On Friday morning, according to the Colorado Springs Police Department, officers were dispatched to a residence on the 1000 block of Cheyenne Villas Point. Their mission: to check on the welfare of a woman at that location.
The officers knocked, but no one answered, and evidence at the scene suggested that a crime had taken place. So they busted in and discovered the body of a woman subsequently identified as Cornejo. The following day, they put out an alert for Hedglin, 40, complete with a current mug shot -- one snapped as a result of actions from earlier this year outlined by the Colorado Springs Gazette.
The paper quotes court documents revealing that Cornejo had been dating Hedglin for four years when, in March, she told him she wanted to put the relationship on hold.
Hedglin doesn't appear to have taken this news well. He allegedly followed her back to her apartment, letting himself in with his key, and demanded to be repaid the cash he'd dropped on a ski vacation they were supposed to take together. She agreed, and also acquiesced when he wanted her to return things he'd given to her, all in the name of peacemaking.
But then, Hedglin is said to have grabbed her computer, yanked it from the wall, and threw it to the ground, after which he did the same to her monitor and a printer, which broke after smacking her treadmill.
At that point, Cornejo phoned a friend, who contacted police after hearing screaming on the line.
Cornejo told police Hedglin neither hit nor hurt her during the incident. For that reason, the counts against him were limited to suspicion of criminal mischief, theft and harassment. He was released on a $10,000 bond in lieu of a trial scheduled for August.
Now, however, Hedglin has the possibility of facing infinitely more serious charges. He's regarded to be armed and dangerous. If you know anything about his whereabouts, phone the Colorado Springs Police Department at 719-444-7000. Here's a larger look at his mug shot.
More from our Colorado Crimes archive: "Robert Walters guilty of murdering girlfriend Brittney Brashers, not of putting hit on wife."
