A man alleged to have stabbed his estranged wife to death in 1991 surrendered to the US Marshals Service last Thursday, being extradited from Costa Rica after more than three decades on the run.
According to CNN, Jose Lazaro Cruz was arrested in July 2022 in Costa Rica and has now been brought to Fairfax County, Virginia for the murder trial.
In April 1991, Cruz's wife, Ana Jurado, 24, was found dead in West Falls Church from trauma to her upper body. Lazaro Cruz, also 24 at the time, was identified as a prime suspect in the case but fled the country by traveling with the help of a smuggler to El Salvador through Houston, Texas.
Jurado was the mother of three children, including a 3-year-old and 7-month-old who lived with her in the United States, and a 4-year-old son who lived in El Salvador at the time of her death, per the New York Post.
In a press conference given on Monday, Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis announced Lazaro Cruz's capture. “This really isn’t a traditional cold case. It was solved, virtually, right away,” said Davis around the 1:20 minute mark of the video below. “He was on the lam, he was on the run. He avoided accountability for something he did nearly 33 years ago.”
Lazaro Cruz was reportedly working as a truck driver in El Salvador, having remarried to a new wife and welcoming several additional children. He is currently booked in Fairfax County jail while he awaits trial.
