QCOSTARICA — The long arm of the law caught with an American fugitive trying to enter Costa Rica. With more than 32 years on the run for allegedly killing his wife, Jose Lazaro Cruz, 56, is now back in Fairfax County, Virginia, U.S., after being arrested in Costa Rica.
U.S. authorities confirmed during a press conference on Monday that Cru was extradited to the United States on January 19.
Cruz, who was arrested in Costa Rica in 2022, is accused of stabbing his 24-year-old estranged wife Ana Jurado, a mother of three, whose lifeless body was found on the side of a street in April 1991, according to Fairfax County police’s deputy chief of investigation Eli Cory.
Cruz initially tried to flee into Canada but was denied entry when authorities discovered he was using a fake ID. Cruz then traveled to Texas and with the help of a smuggler successfully crossed the southern border into Mexico.
In El Salvador, Cruz avoided being extradited given that that country did not amend its constitution that allowed extradition until 2000, remarried, and started a new family with several children since the 1991 killing and was working as a truck driver.
On July 29, 2022, Cruz was arrested in Costa Rica, after traveling from Nicaragua, when Costa Rican authorities recognized him as he tried to enter the country.
Wanted murder suspect arrested 30+ years later in Costa Ricahttps://t.co/1fqXCxGt2J #FCPD pic.twitter.com/3eOEzufYdx
— Fairfax County Police (@FairfaxCountyPD) January 22, 2024
“This really isn’t a traditional cold case. It was solved virtually right away. He was on the lam, he was on the run,” Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said. “We never forgot the family, we’ve never forgotten the seriousness of this crime.”
After a year-and-a-half-long extradition process, Cruz is currently in the Fairfax County Correctional Center awaiting trial.
