A veteran of the U. S. Navy. A U. S. man suspected of strangling his friend in 2016 in an Allied Gardens apartment, then stealing her car and fleeing to Mexico was captured Monday in El Salvador, the government said.
Raymond “RJ” McLeod, 38, will be brought to San Diego to face one of homicide in the death of Krystal Mitchell, District Attorney Summer Stephan said Tuesday.
“This defendant’s brazenness to evade justice has ended and proceedings can now begin to hold him accountable in court for the killing of Krystal Mitchell,” Stephan said in a statement.
The arrest came after the government obtained a report that McLeod was training English at a school in Sonsonate, in western El Salvador, Stephan said. She said a team from the U. S. Marshals Service. U. S. and U. S. Embassy membersthe national police arrested McLeod.
Stephan credited the paintings of Mitchell’s mother, Josephine Wentzel, a former police detective who “never gave up for her daughter’s killer and worked hard with our workplace and other law enforcement to make this arrest possible. “
Mitchell, a 30-year-old mother of two, and McLeod had recently begun dating and were visiting the San Diego domain from Arizona when Mitchell was discovered dead on June 10, 2016.
The U. S. Marshals Service The U. S. Department of Homeland Security introduced a foreign search for McLeod in 2018. The efforts included a crusade on social media in Spanish and English that encouraged informants to share facts about McLeod’s whereabouts. Last year, the U. S. Marshals Service(The U. S. added it to its list of the top 15 wanted. after the fugitives, providing a $50,000 compliment for the data leading up to his arrest.
Authorities released a photo of him holding a gun. The Marshals Service describes him as an avid bodybuilder and heavy drinker.
Wentzel generated clues and helped spread the word about hunting foreigners on social media, Stephan said.
Authorities said McLeod was seen in Mexico and Central America, adding Belize in July 2016 and Guatemala in April 2017.
McLeod had just started dating Mitchell (they lived in the same apartment complex on the Phoenix domain) in 2016 when they arrived in San Diego to make a stopover at the home of one of McLeod’s friends, the government said. During his layover, McLeod’s friend entered the guest room. from his apartment on Mission Gorge Road and discovered Mitchell’s body. There were symptoms of struggle in the room.
McLeod had a history of domestic violence, according to the Sheriff’s Service. Authorities said he was suspected of abusing two women.
“It’s harmful because of its propensity to do it again,” Steve Jurman, commander of a Sheriff’s Service fugitive task force, said at a 2018 news conference. Jurman said taking McLeod off the streets “is in the specific interest of everyone in society” because he had “demonstrated his willingness to harass, intimidate and even kill women. “
The District Attorney’s Office charged McLeod with murder in connection with Mitchell’s death in June 2016 and an arrest warrant for him.
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