An Arizona woman charged with murder in the 1997 death of her young daughter is in custody in Mexico after more than 12 years on the run, the U.S. Marshals Service said.
Mexican federal agents detained Anna Marlene Somoza, 60, on Oct. 18 in Xochitepec, a town in the state of Morelos, according to a Marshals Service release. Fox News reported details of the case Sunday. Somoza faces a first-degree murder charge in Maricopa County.
What investigators say happened
Somoza’s daughter, Crystal Reyes, was born in Nogales, Mexico, in November 1993. Her birth was never recorded, the agency said. Somoza later moved with the girl to Ahwatukee, a Phoenix neighborhood, to live with her boyfriend, Avelino Tamala. He was a narcotics detective she had met while working as a police informant.
Investigators say the couple abused and starved the child and kept her bound in a small dog crate. The Marshals Service said Crystal was suffocated and left in a sealed cardboard box on Jan. 30, 1997.
- Remains found: A hunter found bone fragments in the desert near Mobile, Ariz., in November 1998.
- Identified: DNA from the girl’s biological father confirmed the remains were Crystal’s in August 2014.
- Charged: A Maricopa County grand jury indicted Somoza and Tamala on first-degree murder charges in December 2014.
- Convicted: Tamala was arrested the day of the indictment. A jury found him guilty in November 2016, and he is serving a life sentence.
How she stayed out of reach
Somoza served eight years in federal prison on drug and weapons charges from a 1999 arrest. She was deported to Mexico in 2008, before the remains were identified.
The Marshals Service said her close ties to cartels slowed the search. A provisional arrest warrant for extradition was issued in October 2022. The agency named the case a major case this year. In September, task force members learned she was hiding in Cuernavaca, Mexico.
“No one can hide from American justice forever,” U.S. Attorney Timothy Courchaine of the District of Arizona said in the release.
What comes next
U.S. and Mexican officials are working to return Somoza to Arizona. No date has been set. A former federal prosecutor told Fox News the process could take months, or years if she challenges it in Mexican court.
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