Man is arrested in 2008 slaying of woman stabbed with sword
A man suspected of wielding a sword and stabbing his 26-year-old girlfriend to death in front of her four children in Lancaster in 2008 has been arrested, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Authorities said that Jesus Humberto Canales, nicknamed “Chuey,” fled the scene after the crime and that detectives had been tracking him in New Mexico, Texas, Mexico and El Salvador. Eventually, investigators developed a lead that Canales was living in a small town in the central Mexican state of Jalisco.
The U.S. Marshals Service contacted Mexican authorities, who arrested Canales on Thursday, officials said. Canales arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday.
The victim, Lucy Preciado, was in her apartment in the 4100 block of West Avenue L in Lancaster on July 12, 2008, when she was stabbed. Sheriff’s authorities released a 911 tape of her daughter calling for help shortly after the attack.
Homicide Report: Explore an interactive database of homicides in L.A. County since 2007
“Hello? My dad just stabbed my mom,” a tearful daughter told the operator. Other young children can be heard in the background, crying out, “Mommy!”
“Please. Just hurry up. I don’t want my mom to die,” she cries. “Please, somebody come up and help us.”
Canales, a native of El Salvador, was booked on suspicion of murder at the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood and is expected to be arraigned Monday in L.A. County Superior Court in the Antelope Valley.
The case was featured on “America’s Most Wanted.”
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