Nearly seven years ago, in the middle of November 2015, Mexican officials discovered the burnt remains of a woman at the Tabasco State Park in southeast Mexico.
The investigation into the case determined that before her body was set on fire, she had been strangled to death and decapitated, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Osmar Mendez Martinez, 34, was accused in the woman’s death and had eluded captivity until last week when ICE officers transported the alleged murderer from Conroe, Texas, to the Juarez-Lincoln Bridge in Laredo, Texas, on Wednesday and delivered him into the custody of Mexican authorities.
After allegedly killing his fiancé, Mendez Martinez reportedly left the country and crossed into the U.S. unlawfully near Rio Grande City, Texas, on November 15, 2015.
Immigration officers from the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) encountered the fugitive the same day and took him into custody. During questioning, he gave CBP agents the alias of Maximo Garcia-Gutierrez and was deported to his home country, ICE reported.
He reportedly returned to the U.S. a second time and moved to Houston, where he lived under a fake name. Mexican authorities discovered Mendez Martinez’s fake identity and told U.S. immigration authorities about the suspected killer.
Houston fugitive operations officers located Mendez Martinez in north Houston on February 9, 2022, and took him into custody.
On November 1, an immigration judge with the Executive Office for Immigration Review of the Justice Department told ICE officers to send Mendez Martinez back to Mexico.
The extradition was an opportunity for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) to highlight “the extensive work that goes into building these collaborative relationships with our foreign law enforcement officials,” said Pedro R. Crescente III, acting ICE ERO assistant attaché for removal in Mexico City.
Crescente added the investigation and removal of delivery of Mendez Martinez supported ERO’s mission of enforcement. Such collaboration provides safer communities and strengthens international partnerships with foreign law enforcement, he explained.
Anyone with knowledge of foreign fugitives is asked to call ICE’s Tip Line at 1-866-347-2423 or, from outside the United States, at 001-1802-872-6199. Tips can also be sent in via ICE’s online tip form.
