OAN Roy Francis
UPDATED 1:46 PM PT – Tuesday, December 27, 2022
The FBI has reportedly captured one of its most-wanted fugitives in Mexico after it was discovered that he was hiding in the country for 12 years.
Yoga instructor Leon Ferrara, based in Guadalajara, was reported missing the week before Christmas by his students. They claimed that he had disappeared while walking his two dogs. According to the Spanish newspaper El Pais, when his students and friends filed a missing person’s report, they discovered that “Leon Ferrara” does not exist.
The name “Leon Ferrara” was being used as an alias by Jorge Rueda Landeros. Landeros fled the United States after allegedly murdering Sue Marcum, a professor at American University in Washington D.C. on October 25th, 2010.
Law enforcement found the body of the victim in the basement of her home in Bethesda, Maryland. At first, they suspected that the murder was part of a break-in and robbery. However, they quickly focused on Landeros as their prime suspect for the murder.
The pair, who had met in a Spanish class that he taught at the university, had close financial ties which included life insurance, signaling as a possible motive for the murder. The murder landed him on the FBI’s “Most Wanted” list.
Landeros, who was born in Mexico, returned to the country to hide for the next 12 years. He will now face the charges of first-degree murder and unlawful flight to avoid persecution.
He claimed that he “was not in that place at the time” and that he had been in Mexico when the crime took place. Landeros also said that the reason his DNA was found at the Marcum’s home was because they had a “more or less intimate relationship.”
The FBI made the arrest without incident on December 13th. Landeros is now waiting to be extradited to the United States.