After six years on the run, a fugitive on the US Marshals' 15 Most Wanted list arrived in San Diego County from El Salvador Wednesday where he will a face murder charge in connection with his girlfriend's 2016 death.
Raymond "RJ" McLeod, a former U.S. Marine suspected of killing 30-year-old Krystal Mitchell in an Allied Gardens apartment, was taken into custody in Sonsonate, El Salvador, Monday, the San Diego County District Attorney's Office said. He was booked into San Diego jail early Wednesday morning.
A tip that McLeod had been teaching English at a school there led to his arrest and he confirmed his identity to accompanying U.S. authorities, the U.S. Marshals office said. He is expected to be arraigned in San Diego County court on Friday.
“This defendant’s brazen attempt to evade justice is over and the work to hold him accountable in a court of law for the murder of Krystal Mitchell can now begin,” said District Attorney Summer Stephan.
Get San Diego local news, weather forecasts, sports and lifestyle stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC San Diego newsletters.
Mitchell was found dead in an apartment on Mission Gorge Road on June 10, 2016. Detectives with SDPD's Homicide Unit said they found signs of a struggle and determined the last time Mitchell was seen alive was with her boyfriend, McLeod. Mitchell and McLeod, both from Phoenix, were in San Diego visiting friends at the time.
The San Diego District Attorney's Office charged McLeod in the following days and a warrant was issued for his arrest. After months went by with no arrest, San Diego authorities asked the U.S. Marshals to join in the manhunt and take the reigns in the fugitive investigation.
Local
Federal investigators believed McLeod took off to Central America by way of Mexico after Mitchell died. Before his arrest, he had been reported in Belize in 2018 and Guatemala in 2017. A $50,000 was issued for his arrest and a bilingual campaign on social media encouraged people to submit tips on McLeod's location.
The victim's mother, Josephine Funes Wentzel, is a former police detective who has been fundamental to locating McLeod, according to the DA's office.
“Huge credit goes to the victim’s mother who never gave up searching for her daughter’s killer and worked closely with our office and other law enforcement to make this arrest possible,” San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan said.
Wentzel found leads for law enforcement and used social media to help spread word about the international manhunt. She said a tipster said McLeod was using the pseudonym Jack Donovan.
"I could just hear her laughing from up there and you know, just saying, 'You did it, mom.' Yes, we did it," Wentzel said.
