Authorities said a bodybuilder and U.S. Marine veteran accused in involvement with the 2016 murder of his girlfriend was apprehended after six years on the run, owing in large part to the victim’s mom, a former police investigator who came out of retirement to obtain justice for her daughter.
Since her 30-year-old daughter, Krystal Mitchell, was discovered dead on June 10, 2016, Josephine Wentzel has been on the lookout for Raymond McLeod.
Mitchell and McLeod, both from Phoenix, were on holiday in San Diego when Mitchell was slain.
Answering to a 911 call about a lady who wasn’t breathing, officers found Mitchell, a mom of two, murdered by strangling in the apartment where she and McLeod were residing. McLeod, who was described as a strong drinker with an anger issue, was nowhere to be located, according to authorities.
McLeod, 37, has been located overseas and is living a new life under a different identity, years after hitting the US Marshals’ Top 15 Most Wanted List with a $50,000 reward on his head.
Officials contacted her and told her, ‘You did it. You did it,’ said Wentzel.
Wentzel, a detective on the US island of Guam, dedicated her life to finding McLeod.
She followed it and began gathering all of the information. People began calling left and right, she explained, stressing that she was utilizing her abilities as an investigator to recruit informants.
Wentzel was front and center when officials conducted a press conference about the manhunt in 2018. She understands that catching him will not return her daughter back, but it will save the life of one’s daughter, one’s grandchild, she addressed the cameras.
Mom Helps Officers Hunt Down Daughter’s Alleged MurdererWith the help of a murder victim's mom, cops were able to capture a fugitive ex-Marine wanted for the death of her daughter. In 2016, Raymond McLeod allegedly strangled Krystal Mitchell to death while on vacation. He was nowhere to be found. Mitchell's mother is a former police detective in Guam but she came out of retirement to track down McLeod. After six years, she received a tip from a woman in El Salvador who thought she recognized McLeod. He was later taken into custody.
Posted by Inside Edition on Friday, September 2, 2022
The case got a significant boost when Wentzel uploaded a Spanish-language piece about it on social media. This resulted in a tip from an El Salvadoran woman who believed she identified McLeod. Officers found he was teaching English at a school approximately 40 miles west of San Salvador near the Pacific Ocean.
When McLeod was arrested, he was photographed wearing a shirt that stated, “Coach, Changing Lives.”
He certainly affected their life, and it wasn’t for the better, Wentzel recalled.
Massive credit goes to the victim’s mom who never quit searching for her daughter’s murderer and worked closely with their office and other law enforcement to make this arrest possible, San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan said of Wentzel’s tenacious search for justice in her daughter’s murder.
Wentzel is now responsible for her daughter’s 2 kids.
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