Overview

• Jose Lazaro Cruz, who was accused of murdering his estranged wife, Ana Jurado, in Virginia in 1991, has been extradited to the US from Costa Rica to face charges.
• Cruz was identified as the prime suspect shortly after the murder but evaded arrest by fleeing to El Salvador, where he started a new family and worked as a truck driver.
• Despite El Salvador's lack of an extradition mechanism at the time, Fairfax County police traveled there in 1999 to gather information on Cruz's whereabouts.
• Cruz was arrested in 2022 while trying to enter Costa Rica from Nicaragua and, after a year-and-a-half-long extradition process, he was returned to the US.
• Cruz is currently being held at the Fairfax County jail as he awaits trial.