Nearly 30 years after the death of her 3-year-old daughter, a mother has been arrested in Mexico by U.S. law enforcement officers on first-degree murder charges.
asserted
mother → arrest → charges
Anna Marlene Somoza, 60, was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service after more than 12 years as a fugitive in Mexico.
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Somoza → arrest → Mexico
Her close connections to cartels allowed her to avoid apprehension, authorities said.
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authorities → allow → apprehension
Somoza will be extradited to the United States to face charges for allegedly murdering her daughter, Crystal Reyes, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.
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Somoza → extradite → Service
Before her death, Reyes was subjected to severe abuse, torture and starvation, the agency said.
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agency → subject → abuse
Confined to a small dog kennel, Reyes was bound by her hands and feet, gagged and left for weeks at a time.
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Reyes → confine → time
On Jan. 30, 1997, Reyes was bound, suffocated with a towel taped to her face, and left to die inside a sealed cardboard box, the agency said.
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agency → bind → box
Authorities began investigating after human bone fragments were found in a deserted area of Arizona by a hunter in November 1998.
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fragments → begin → November
Almost two decades passed.
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decades → pass → ?
Then in August 2014, forensic DNA analysis identified the fragments of bone as remains of Reyes.
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analysis → identify → Reyes
Detectives interviewed the child’s biological father and confirmed her identity using his DNA.
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Detectives → interview → DNA
Then, they said, they had sufficient grounds to charge Somoza and Avelino Tamala, her boyfriend at the time of Reyes’ death, with first-degree murder in December 2014.
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they → say → December
Tamala was found guilty of Crystal’s murder in 2016.
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Tamala → find → 2016
He was sentenced to life in prison.
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He → sentence → prison
But Somoza had been deported years earlier.
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Somoza → deport → ?
Criminal past
Somoza had an extensive criminal history before being charged in her daughter’s death.
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Somoza → have → death
She had been connected to a major transnational drug trafficking network active along the southern Arizona border throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
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She → connect → 1980s
After her 1993 arrest for the sale and transportation of marijuana, she agreed to act as a confidential informant for an Arizona law enforcement agency.
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she → agree → agency
Through that, she met Tamala, a narcotics detective, and began "an improper romantic relationship," according to the U.S. Marshals Service.
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she → meet → Service
Not long after Reyes’ birth in Mexico in 1993, the mother and daughter began living with Tamala in Arizona, according to the agency.
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mother → begin → agency
The abuse Reyes endured likely wasn’t caught because she wasn’t attending school, said Stacy Vaughan, vice president of growth and prevention at Childhelp, a child abuse prevention organization.
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Vaughan → endure → Childhelp
"The majority of reports come from the education system in our country, from teachers, counselors, schools," Vaughan told Fox News Digital.
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Vaughan → come → Digital
But a case like this may be prevented with the modern legislation in the United States, she said.
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she → prevent → States
"In the past 20 years, many states have passed laws not only mandating that professionals report any suspected abuse, but…every adult over the age of 18 is considered a mandated reporter."
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adult → pass → 18
In 1999, the year after Reyes’ remains were found, Somoza and Tamala were arrested on drug- and weapon-related charges.
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Somoza → find → charges
Somoza served eight years in federal prison and was deported in 2008.
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Somoza → serve → 2008
After the child’s remains were connected to her as the mother in 2014, investigators from five state and federal agencies began to search for her.
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investigators → connect → her
She’d "taken deliberate and extensive measures to evade detection by law enforcement while remaining at large," according to a statement from the U.S. Marshals Service.
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She → take → Service
In October 2022, authorities obtained an arrest warrant that would allow them to extradite her back to the United States.
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them → obtain → States
But they still needed to find her.
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they → need → her
In 2026, the search for Somoza was designated a major case, "dedicating additional manpower and resources to the investigation," according to the U.S. Marshals Service.
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search → designate → Service
In early September, the agency learned that Somoza was "actively evading detection" in Cuernavaca, Mexico, the agency said.
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agency → learn → Cuernavaca
On Oct. 18, Mexican law enforcement officers caught her in Xochitepec, Mexico.
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officers → catch → Xochitepec
The U.S. Marshals Service now will work with the Mexican government to extradite Somoza to the United States, Russell Lorfing, a former federal prosecutor, told Fox News Digital.
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Lorfing → work → Digital
They have "diplomatic assurances," Lorfing said.
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Lorfing → have → assurances
"But she will physically be handed over, and U.S. marshals will have to fly to Mexico.
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marshals → hand → Mexico
Or they'll arrange a coordinated kind of border handover.
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they → arrange → handover
"
The extradition process usually takes 14 days when it’s within the United States, Lorfing said.
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Lorfing → take → States
But international operations can take months.
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operations → take → months
And they can stretch into years, if the defendant challenges the charges.
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defendant → stretch → charges
…and 5 more, not listed.
The Aporia
