A man who spent nearly 10 years on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitive list after allegedly killing his ex-girlfriend and dumping her body in a ravine outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, has been detained south of the border.
Alejandro “Alex” Rosales Castillo is in police custody in Mexico, where he was captured on Friday, January 16, the FBI said in a news release on Saturday, January 17. He is awaiting extradition proceedings to North Carolina.
Information on whether Castillo has legal representation was not immediately available.
Castillo was 17 when the FBI said he shot his former girlfriend Truc Quan “Sandy” Ly Le, 23, in the head. Her body was found days later in the woods in Cabarrus County on August 17, 2016, according to the FBI.
Castillo “became acquainted” with Ly Le when they were co-workers at a restaurant in Charlotte, the agency said in a news release issued in October 2017, when the FBI announced Castillo as a “New Top Ten Fugitive.”
While investigating Ly Le’s death, the FBI and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department learned that Castillo had owed Ly Le about $1,000 before she was killed, according to the FBI.
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Castillo planned to pay Ly Le the money during an evening meet-up in Charlotte on August 9, 2016, according to text messages reviewed by investigators, the FBI said.
However, according to the agency, “Castillo apparently had no intention of returning the money.”
After Ly Le went to meet Castillo, he made her take out a “large sum of money” from an ATM, then drove her to a remote area in the woods, the FBI said.
There, Castillo is accused of fatally shooting Ly Le and leaving her body in a ravine.
Afterward, the FBI said Castillo fled North Carolina with a new girlfriend, while driving Ly Le’s car.
Two days before authorities found Ly Le’s body, her car was located at a bus station in Phoenix, Arizona, the FBI said, WYFF reported.
A day before she was found dead, surveillance footage caught Castillo heading into Mexico from Nogales, Arizona on August 16, 2016, according to the agency.
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Afterward, a warrant charging Castillo with first-degree murder was issued in North Carolina in November 2016, the FBI said. Months later, in February 2017, Castillo was charged with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution in a federal arrest warrant.
In a statement, FBI Charlotte Special Agent in Charge James C. Barnacle Jr. said that authorities “have worked tirelessly to find and arrest Alex Castillo.”
“For more than nine years, he lived a normal life, likely believing he would never be captured, but our experienced investigators never gave up the hunt for justice,” Barnacle said.
“Sadly, Sandy’s family began another new year without her, we hope knowing her accused killer is in custody will provide some level of solace now,” Barnacle added, referring to Ly Le.
Authorities apprehended Castillo in Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico on January 16 as a result of coordination between FBI agents in Mexico City, Agencia de Investigación Criminal-INTERPOL Vetted Team and the Secretaría de Seguridad y Protección Ciudadana, according to the FBI.
