U.S. Marshals arrest fugitive mother in Mexico after 12-year evasion

Anna Marlene Somoza was arrested in Mexico by U.S. Marshals Service officers on first-degree murder charges, ending a 12-year flight from justice. The 60-year-old woman faces allegations that she killed her 3-year-old daughter, Crystal Reyes, nearly 30 years ago. Authorities stated that Somoza’s close connections to cartels allowed her to avoid apprehension for over a decade. She will be extradited to the United States to stand trial.

The case began in November 1998 when a hunter discovered human bone fragments in a deserted area of Arizona. For almost two decades, the remains went unidentified until forensic DNA analysis in August 2014 confirmed the fragments belonged to Reyes. Detectives subsequently interviewed the child’s biological father and used his DNA to verify her identity. In December 2014, prosecutors charged Somoza and Avelino Tamala, her boyfriend at the time of the death, with first-degree murder.

The U.S. Marshals Service detailed that before her death, Reyes was subjected to severe abuse, torture, and starvation. The agency reported that the child was confined to a small dog kennel, bound by her hands and feet, and gagged for weeks at a time. On Jan. 30, 1997, Reyes was bound and suffocated with a towel taped to her face, then left to die inside a sealed cardboard box. Stacy Vaughan, vice president of growth and prevention at Childhelp, noted that such abuse often goes undetected when children are not attending school, as the majority of abuse reports originate from the education system.

Somoza had an extensive criminal history prior to the charges related to Reyes’ death. She was connected to a major transnational drug trafficking network active along the southern Arizona border during the 1980s and 1990s. After a 1993 arrest for marijuana sale and transportation, she agreed to act as a confidential informant for an Arizona law enforcement agency. Through this role, she met Tamala, a narcotics detective, and began an improper romantic relationship. Somoza and Tamala were arrested on drug and weapon-related charges in 1999. Somoza served eight years in federal prison and was deported in 2008.

Following the 2014 identification of Reyes’ remains, investigators from five state and federal agencies began searching for Somoza. The U.S. Marshals Service stated she took deliberate and extensive measures to evade detection. In October 2022, authorities obtained an arrest warrant permitting extradition. In 2026, the search was designated a major case, dedicating additional manpower and resources to the investigation. In early September, the agency learned Somoza was actively evading detection in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

On Oct. 18, Mexican law enforcement officers apprehended Somoza in Xochitepec, Mexico. Russell Lorfing, a former federal prosecutor, told Fox News Digital that the U.S. Marshals Service will now work with the Mexican government to extradite her. Lorfing explained that while domestic extraditions typically take 14 days, international operations can take months or years if the defendant challenges the charges. Defendants in Mexico can file an amparo, an appeal challenging fundamental constitutional rights, which pauses the extradition process and can extend a three-month procedure into a two-year one.