U.S. Marshals Say a Mother Wanted in Her Daughter's 1997 Death in Arizona Used Cartel Ties to Hide in Mexico for 12 Years
Anna Marlene Somoza, 60, was arrested Oct. 18 in Xochitepec. She had been deported in 2008, and an extradition fight could take months or years.
A woman accused of killing her 3-year-old daughter in Arizona was arrested in Mexico after more than 12 years on the run, and U.S. Marshals say her cartel connections helped her stay hidden, Fox News reports.
The arrest. Anna Marlene Somoza, 60, was caught Oct. 18 in Xochitepec by Mexican law enforcement officers. The Marshals Service says it will work with the Mexican government to bring her back to face first-degree murder charges in the death of Crystal Reyes.
The case. Authorities say Reyes was abused for a long period and died on Jan. 30, 1997. A hunter found bone fragments in a deserted part of Arizona in November 1998, and forensic DNA analysis identified them as Reyes in August 2014. Somoza and her then-boyfriend, Avelino Tamala, were charged with first-degree murder that December. Tamala was convicted in 2016 and sentenced to life.
The background. The Marshals say Somoza was tied to a transnational drug trafficking network along the southern Arizona border in the 1980s and 1990s. After a 1993 marijuana arrest she became an informant for an Arizona law enforcement agency, where she met Tamala, a narcotics detective, and began what the Marshals call "an improper romantic relationship." Both were arrested on drug and weapons charges in 1999. Somoza served eight years in federal prison and was deported in 2008.
The hunt. A warrant that would allow extradition was obtained in October 2022. In 2026 the search was made a major case with added staff, and in early September the Marshals learned she was evading capture in Cuernavaca.
What comes next. Former federal prosecutor Russell Lorfing told Fox the handover is likely to be arranged with Mexico, but a challenge known as an "amparo" can pause the process, turning a three-month extradition into a two-year one.
Note for readers: Somoza has been charged, not convicted. The facts above come from the Marshals Service as relayed by Fox, and we did not see its statement.