Featured Image Credit: FBI
Topics: Crime, Police, World News, True crime
Charisa Bossinakis
After a decade-long manhunt, the FBI has finally caught one of its most wanted fugitives.
For the past 12 years, Jorge Rueda Landeros had been on the run, hiding out in Guadalajara, Mexico, where he was pretending to be a yoga instructor.
Going by the name León Ferrara, Landeros was found to be living a normal life, with his students unaware of his mysterious past.
It was only when they reported him as having gone missing while walking his dogs that his true identity came to light.
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Landeros was wanted by US police in relation to the murder of American University accounting professor Sue Marcum back in 2010.
She was found dead in her basement staircase in Bethesda, Maryland, with the apartment also having 'looked like it had been burglarized'.
According to friends, the pair allegedly met in 2005 and formed a close bond.
Authorities later discovered Ms Marcum had life insurance taken out worth around USD $500,000 (AUD $742,942/£415,000), which allegedly named Landeros as the beneficiary.
Shortly after police zoned in on Landeros as the prime suspect in the professor's murder, he vanished without a trace.
Spanish newspaper El Pais reported that the man was finally captured in Mexico's western city of Guadalajara and has denied any involvement in Marcum’s murder.
He claims that he was not there at the time of the incident.
"I didn’t follow anything. Once I disappeared from the radar, I completely forgot about [the investigation]," Landeros told El Pais.
"I still have difficulty responding to the name ‘Jorge’ – I hardly have any of him inside of me anymore."
He continued: "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."
Chief of the Montgomery County Police Department Marcus Jones also told the outlet that he believes Landeros began to get too comfortable while covering up his tracks, thinking he would never get caught.
One of Landeros' students also reported that she was still in a state of ‘shock’ and mourning the loss of her friend ‘León ’.
She admitted that if she ever sees him again, she has ‘a lot of questions'.