The FBI reportedly captured one of its most wanted fugitives in Mexico after discovering that he had been working as a yoga instructor for 12 years under various false identities.
Students of yoga instructor León Ferrara in Guadalajara reported her missing the week before Christmas when she went missing while walking her two dogs. His friends filed a missing person report only to discover that the man they had met simply did not exist according to a report in the Spanish newspaper El País.
In fact, Ferrara was an alias for Jorge Rueda Landeros, a man who had fled the US after allegedly murdering Sue Marcum, an accounting professor at American University in Washington, DC, at her home in Bethesda, Maryland. , on October 25, 2010.
Police found the victim’s body in the basement of her home and initially suspected a break-in and robbery, but quickly zeroed in on Landeros as the prime suspect in her murder.
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The FBI determined that Landeros met Marcum during a Spanish class he was teaching, and the couple developed close financial ties, including a life insurance policy that agents identified as a possible motive, according to The Washington Post.
Marcus Jones, chief of the Montgomery County Police Department, described Marcum’s murder as a “heinous crime” and accused Landeros of the act “in cold blood.”
FBI photo of Jorge Rueda Landeros, also known as yoga instructor Leon Ferrara, was arrested earlier this month in Guadalajara, Mexico.
(CREDIT: FBI)
Born in Mexico, Landeros apparently returned there to hide out for the next 12 years. He faced charges of first-degree murder and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, which landed him on the FBI’s “most wanted” list.
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Landeros told El País that he was “innocent… not of everything, obviously, but of what I’m accused of,” adding that his case has never been in the news for the past decade.
FBI photo of Jorge Rueda Landeros, also known as yoga instructor Leon Ferrara, was arrested earlier this month in Guadalajara, Mexico.
(CREDIT: FBI)
“I didn’t follow anything. Once I disappeared from the radar, I completely forgot about [the investigation]”, explained Landeros. “I still have a hard time responding to the name ‘Jorge’, I have almost nothing of him inside me anymore.
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Landeros told the outlet that he “wasn’t in that place at the time” and had instead been in Mexico, explaining that his DNA was at Marcum’s house because he had a “more or less intimate relationship” with her.
Memories and notes of affection and loss are posted on the office door of American University business professor Sue Ann Marcum, who was killed during an apparent home invasion at her Bethesda, Maryland home on October 26, 2010.
(Photo by Gerald Martineau for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“It was a long time ago, but the last time I saw her, I don’t know if it was weeks before what happened next,” he added.
Jones speculated that Landeros may have become complacent and “over time he thought he would never get caught.”
One of Landeros’ yoga students told El País that she was in a state of shock and “mourning” after learning the truth.
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“I feel like I’m grieving. I know León, but I don’t know who Jorge is, ”he said. “If I ever get a chance to sit down with him, I’m going to have to ask him a lot of questions.”
The FBI did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital by press time.
