Arizona child murder suspect detained in Mexico after over a decade on the run

Justice for a three-year-old girl who was killed by her own mom in 1997. The case was cold for years, but now the woman is finally in custody. The arrest comes after years on the run in Mexico. Fox 10's Nicole Christine joins us live to break down the case, investigators call horrifying. Yeah, this is a case that spans decades, crosses international borders, and at the center is a three-year-old girl. Police say it was abused and killed by those closest to her. It was a horrible case. very tragic. The 1997 murder of three-year-old Crystal Reyes has haunted investigators and reporters for decades. It was visceral, it was dark stuff. I lived in it for a long time. And even after the story published, knowing that one of the two people police believed was responsible for her death was still out there, sort of stuck with me. Justin Price reported on Crystal's death while working for the Arizona Center for investigative reporting in 2016. He learned the little girl was severely abused by her mother, Anna Marlene Somoza, and her mother's partner, Avelino Tamala. Keeping her locked up in a dog kennel, there were days that she would be covered with her own excrement and they would wash her down with a hose. Tamala was convicted of murder, but Somoza vanished after being deported to Mexico in 2008. U.S. Marshals say she remained on the run until this past Sunday when authorities arrested her. We didn't give up the hunt. We continued working it. We have folks that work both on the north and the south of the border that work with Mexican officials and they kept working this and unfortunately we believe that she was intentionally being deceptive moving around because she knew that this was looming over her. Investigators say Somoza has a criminal history dating back to the 80s related to drug trafficking. In 1993, she became a confidential informant connecting with Tamala, who was a narcotics detective for Maricopa County. Records show he eventually lost his job due to their relationship and the two moved to Ahwatukee. This is where records detail Crystal's horrific abuse, murder, and burial in the desert. To go from this life of law enforcement for Tamala in particular to find himself in such a place that he would harm a little girl in such gruesome ways. But Tamala, not the only law enforcement official entangled with Somoza. While Crystal's remains were found in the remote desert of Arizona in 1998, it took 16 years for detectives to conclusively identify her. They identified her remains through a DNA match with her father, who was a correctional officer. It was really shocking to me. Another twist in a story that may soon close an important chapter. It does take something out of an individual and you pay a price for it, just carrying that burden. So cases like this, when you're able to actually apprehend the person, get them back, see them tried, see them found guilty, see them sentenced, it gives you a measure of closure. And there is currently no timeline for when Somoza will be extradited back here to the States. So, Nicole, you mentioned in the story that Crystal's father was a corrections officer. Was he involved? at all? No, the relationship, whatever they had going on before she was born, he never really got to know Crystal, didn't really know much about her life and definitely not about her death, but he did testify in Tamela's trial. So again, just another angle to this complex case. We have a lot more information on this over on fox10phoenix.com. All right, Nicole, thank you for that tonight. Of course. Thank you.