This week, on August 29, 2022, RJ McLeod, a Marine sergeant who had been missing for more than six years and was one of the US Marshals’ most wanted fugitives, was apprehended in El Salvador.
When the search was boosted last year, McLeod allegedly became the first fugitive to be listed on the Marshals Service’s “15 Most Wanted” list with a $50,000 reward. When visiting friends in San Diego, California, in June 2016, McLeod’s new girlfriend Krystal Mitchell was found dead.
As soon as he learned of her passing, McLeod is reported to have left the country. RJ McLeod, 36, was last seen in August 2022 at Sonsonate, a 71,000-person community about 20 kilometers from the Pacific Coast.
The Deputy Marshals Francisco Barajas and Luis Ramirez went to El Salvador on Monday afternoon to help the local and federal police catch him, according to the authorities.
There are reports that the two are taking him back to the United States. On Monday, August 29, 2022, Wentzel, Mitchell’s mother, thanked the Marshals on Facebook. She remarked:
According to police reports, RJ McLeod was seeing 30-year-old Krystal Mitchell before she passed away in 2016. The body of Ms. Mitchell was discovered strangled by the US Marshals Service. When the alleged murder allegedly took place in the apartment Mitchell and Mcleod were staying in while visiting friends in San Diego.
The three of them had entered a club earlier when McLeod got into a fight with another ex-Marine, forcing them to leave. Also, Mr. McLeod is alleged to have a violent past. Via Mexico and Central America, he managed to elude capture and eventually made it to Belize in 2018 and Guatemala in 2017.
In a statement made last year, US Marshal Steve Stafford of the Southern District of California said:
If anything, the passage of time only enhances our resolve as “Time will never end the Marshals’ fugitive probe into McLeod.” Till he is found, we won’t stop looking for him.
On Monday, August 29, 2022, at 4:30 p.m., RJ McLeod was apparently taken into custody.
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