A dual U.S.-Salvadoran citizen from California accused of murdering a woman in front of their toddler son before abandoning the child near her remains has been extradited to El Salvador to face charges, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday.
Michael Alejandro Castillo Murga, 27, of Beaumont, California, was handed over to Salvadoran authorities Wednesday to face charges of aggravated femicide and imperfect homicide in the 2019 killing.
The extradition marks the first time the U.S. has surrendered an American citizen to face prosecution for crimes committed in El Salvador, according to the DOJ.
Castillo Murga holds dual U.S. and Salvadoran citizenship.
Salvadoran authorities allege Castillo Murga picked up Melvi Fernanda Nájera Quezada, 23, and their son from her mother's home Jan. 31, 2019, supposedly to begin living together as a family.
Investigators allege he instead killed Nájera Quezada and abandoned their child near her body, which was discovered near a highway the next day.
An autopsy determined she died from severe bleeding caused by cuts to her neck and other wounds inflicted with a plastic knife, according to the DOJ.
Farmworkers discovered the boy, who was younger than 2, several days later in a rugged area near where his mother's body was found. He was severely dehydrated and starving with cuts on his face, insect bites and signs of abuse, authorities said.
Investigators linked Castillo Murga to the killing through cellphone location data and witness accounts. Authorities also said he sent his girlfriend a photograph showing bloodstains on his face and neck.
Prosecutors also accused Castillo Murga's grandmother and a lawyer of helping conceal evidence. According to the DOJ, the pair arranged for two people to clean blood from the interior and exterior of Castillo Murga's vehicle using water, car shampoo and vinegar, but they were unable to remove all the blood.
Castillo Murga escaped to Guatemala around Feb. 2, 2019, with assistance from his grandmother and lawyer before eventually entering the U.S., according to prosecutors.
U.S. Marshals arrested him in October 2024 in response to an extradition request from El Salvador.
Castillo Murga challenged his extradition in federal court, but a judge rejected his petition in November 2025 and denied a subsequent request to halt the transfer in September 2026.
A former Tennessee police chief who investigated the murder that sent Christa Pike to death row recalled the convicted killer being "ruthless" and "almost giddy" while describing the crime to investigators, as Gov. Bill Lee signaled her death sentence is unlikely to change after she survived a failed execution.
Pike, 50, survived Tennessee's attempt to execute her by lethal injection on Sept. 30 and has since returned to prison, raising questions about whether the state could attempt to put her to death again.
Lee addressed Pike's fate Wednesday, saying she remains incarcerated under Tennessee law.
"I suspect her sentence will be the same as it was before unless determined otherwise by the courts," Lee said.
The governor's comments come as Pike's attorneys have called on Lee to commute her death sentence to life without parole following the failed execution.
Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow participant in a federal Job Corps program in Knoxville.
Former Knoxville Police Chief Phil Keith, who was involved in the investigation, recently recalled Pike's demeanor while she was being questioned about the killing in the New York Post documentary "No Mercy: Christa Pike Unraveled."
"I heard somebody that was ruthless, without any remorse, almost giddy," Keith said. "You know, she was describing what took place, like, almost the sense that she was bragging about it."
Keith confirmed the comments to Fox News Digital, calling them "spot on." He described Pike in two words: "Pure evil."
Keith also recalled Pike openly talking about the killing after returning to the Job Corps.
"Pike, when she got back, you know, immediately had to express her joy with killing Colleen," Keith said in the documentary. "And then the very next day in class, she bragged again, talking about how she killed Colleen. She showed her shoes that had blood on them."
Pike was 18 when she, her 17-year-old boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, and 19-year-old Shadolla Peterson were charged in Slemmer's killing. All four were participating in the Job Corps at the time, court records show.
The three took Slemmer to a secluded area on the University of Tennessee's Knoxville campus, where her throat was cut multiple times, she was struck in the head with a large piece of asphalt and a pentagram was carved into her chest.
Pike later confessed to her role in the killing, according to court records.
More than three decades later, Tennessee attempted to carry out that sentence on Sept. 30 after the U.S. Supreme Court vacated a last-minute stay issued by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The execution attempt failed after Pike received two doses of pentobarbital, and she was taken to a hospital.
She remained unconscious for days, and her attorneys at one point believed she was brain-dead and expected her to be taken off life support. Pike later regained consciousness and was discharged from the hospital before being returned to prison.
In a 2021 filing with the Tennessee Supreme Court, Pike's attorneys sought a certificate of commutation, pointing to her age at the time of Slemmer's murder as well as her history of childhood trauma, mental illness and brain damage.
New court documents reveal that the jury foreperson in Lindsay Clancy's trial sent a total of six notes to the judge before he declared a mistrial.
The Plymouth County District Attorney's Office included the notes in its opposition to Clancy's motion to dismiss the murder charges, making a number of statements regarding the holdout juror, who has been identified as Michael Desronvil.
Clancy, 36, faced three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her children, Cora, Dawson and Callan, all under age 6, who were found strangled at the family's home in January 2023.
Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial on Friday, Sept. 4, after jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict, ending in an 11-1 divide.
Aug. 28: Jurors asked to see evidence items, "specifically, pill bottles and a knife."
Sept. 1: "After many hours of deliberation, we are unable to come to a unanimous verdict."
Sept. 2: "After much deliberation, we are still unable to come to a unanimous decision."
Sept. 3: "A member of the jury is unable to follow the instructions regarding reasonable doubt. How should we proceed?"
Sept. 3: "Juror # [redacted] has made statements acknowledging doubt, but refuses to apply it to the verdict as the law states. This is why we cannot come to a unanimous decision."
Sept. 4: "With a heavy heart that we report that we are unable to come to a unanimous decision and will not be able to."
The holdout juror, Desronvil, told Fox News' Kayleigh McEnany after the trial that he thought Clancy was "methodical" in what he called the "execution" of her children.
"That was really big for me, you know, from watching the video and also listening in the courtroom," he said. "The thought process that goes behind… to fulfill the commitment of doing that."
Through his attorney, Desronvil said he "didn’t have any doubts."
After the mistrial was declared, Lindsay Clancy's attorney, Kevin Reddington, kept pushing for a further investigation into Desronvil, but his efforts were blocked by Sullivan.
In opposition to Clancy's motion to dismiss, the district attorney's office wrote that Sullivan was correct in his decision to reject a proposed investigation into the holdout juror.
"The Court was rightly concerned that a juror, summoned individually for a more 'meaningful and probing' colloquy with the judge, might feel pressured to change their position, and it was entitled to prioritize the avoidance of coercion over an inquiry into the dynamic giving rise to the foreperson's grievance," prosecutors wrote.
In response, Reddington maintained that the holdout juror wasn't following reasonable doubt and said a further inquiry could have provided grounds to remove him from the jury.
"The notes either clearly communicated that a member of the jury was not applying the law as instructed as to reasonable doubt or at the very least were so consistent with that conclusion as to require further judicial inquiry as a matter of law," Reddington said.
Reddington on Wednesday also disputed claims from Patrick Clancy's counsel that she would testify in a civil case against her healthcare providers, calling them false.
During a hearing Wednesday in Norfolk County Superior Court, attorney Howard Cooper said he expects Lindsay Clancy to testify in a lawsuit filed by her ex-husband, Patrick Clancy, against her healthcare providers.
Patrick and Lindsay Clancy have each sued hospitals and healthcare providers, alleging that failures in her medical care contributed to the deaths of their three children.
"We believe that Lindsay Clancy, once her Fifth Amendment issues are resolved one way or the other, will testify that she told these defendants explicitly that she had homicidal ideation, that she was worried about something awful happening to her kids," Cooper said in court.
In a statement obtained by Fox News Digital, Reddington said his client has never said she'll testify, adding that she never told her healthcare providers that she had homicidal thoughts toward her children.
"It has come to my attention that counsel for Patrick Clancy represented to the court in his civil case that my client, Lindsay Clancy, will testify about statements she made to her healthcare providers," Reddington said. "Lindsay Clancy never told any of her healthcare providers that she harbored homicidal ideation toward her children. She never indicated that she intended to testify in Mr. Clancy's lawsuit, and no one acting for her ever represented that she would."
"Mr. Clancy's counsel does not speak for Lindsay Clancy," he added.
Attorneys representing the hospitals and healthcare providers have asked a judge to dismiss the lawsuits, arguing that Lindsay Clancy never disclosed having homicidal thoughts to those treating her.
On Thursday, Clancy's attorneys also filed its response to the district attorney regarding its motion to dismiss on grounds of double jeopardy, arguing that if there was further inquiry into the lone holdout juror, there would have been grounds to remove him from the jury.
A DNA breakthrough has solved the 52-year-old murder of a Utah police chief's teenage daughter, and the cold-case detective who helped crack it says notorious serial killer Ted Bundy could have other victims investigators do not even know about.
Melissa Ann Smith, 17, the daughter of then-Midvale Police Chief Louis Smith, was found dead in 1974. For decades, investigators suspected Bundy but lacked the evidence needed to definitively tie him to her murder.
That changed in July, when DNA evidence in the killing of another 17-year-old Utah girl, Laura Ann Aime, was matched to Bundy, allowing investigators to compare evidence preserved from Smith's case for more than half a century.
"There may be more victims out there that we're not even aware of, and I think there's always been that speculation," Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office Detective Ben Pender told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview Wednesday.
Pender, a 35-year law enforcement veteran assigned to the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office unsolved homicide and missing person unit, said investigators plan to preserve the evidence that helped solve Smith's murder so it can potentially be used in other cases.
"We're gonna hold on to this evidence, and we're gonna utilize it in cases that we believe may be connected to see if we can't resolve not only our case, but anybody else who may have a case with Bundy," Pender said.
Smith's body was discovered by hunters on Oct. 27, 1974, in a wooded area near the border of Summit and Salt Lake counties.
"These cases that are unsolved are unsolved, in my opinion, for a reason, and because they are extremely difficult to solve," Pender said.
Although investigators had long suspected Bundy, similarities between Smith's killing and his other crimes were not enough to definitively tie him to her death.
Investigators needed evidence establishing that Bundy was responsible rather than relying on a similar method of operation, Pender said.
"DNA is not always the answer, but it definitely is a piece that's missing a lot of times in these cases that, with everything else with the case, will maybe bring that together," Pender said.
The break investigators needed ultimately came from the Aime case.
Aime vanished after leaving a Halloween party to buy cigarettes on Oct. 31, 1974. Her body was discovered by hikers near American Fork Canyon days later, and investigators determined she had been raped, strangled and murdered.
Bundy was considered the prime suspect for decades, but authorities lacked evidence conclusively tying him to the killing.
Investigators eventually developed a DNA profile from evidence in Aime's case that was linked to Bundy. Remaining evidence from her case then gave investigators an opportunity to compare it with evidence preserved from Smith's killing.
Pender said investigators had retained reports and evidence from the original Smith investigation, including evidence collected during her postmortem examination.
Utah County investigators reached out to Summit County after the breakthrough in the Aime case to determine whether the remaining evidence could help resolve Smith's murder. Summit County then turned to Pender because Salt Lake County had maintained evidence from the 1974 investigation.
Investigators worked with the Utah Bureau of Forensic Services to compare DNA evidence from the two cases and determined the profiles matched.
The DNA findings, combined with evidence involving Bundy's pattern, motive, means and opportunity, led authorities to conclude Bundy killed Smith and formally close her case Tuesday, 52 years to the day after her body was found.
The breakthrough would not have been possible without evidence preserved by investigators for more than five decades.
"It's extremely important, in all of these cases, to preserve the evidence," Pender said. "We, in all homicide cases, we maintain that evidence forever."
"We don't ever get rid of that, even if a case is resolved or solved, and we don't get rid of it for this very reason," he added.
But Pender cautioned that solving one decades-old murder through DNA does not mean investigators can simply run every unsolved killing potentially connected to Bundy through a database.
Each case is different. Some have DNA evidence while others do not, and evidence collected decades ago may have degraded, been handled before investigators understood the importance of preserving DNA or contain genetic material from multiple people.
"Back then, DNA wasn't a thing, so nobody knew of it," Pender said.
Advances in forensic technology continue to give investigators new opportunities to examine old evidence, but the limitations of individual cases remain.
Pender said his caseload includes 34 unsolved homicides and 14 adult missing person cases in which investigators suspect foul play. He stressed that those cases are not believed to be connected to Bundy, with one notable exception.
Nancy Wilcox remains missing, and Pender said Bundy confessed to killing her. Her body has never been recovered, preventing investigators from closing the case based solely on his confession.
Smith's case, Pender said Tuesday, "does not close the book on Ted Bundy."
Investigators intend to continue working on Wilcox's disappearance and preserve the Bundy evidence for any other cases in which it could prove useful.
Other cases potentially tied to Bundy could also yield new answers through DNA, Pender said.
"I think it's definitely possible," Pender said. "It just depends on what information other agencies maybe have in their particular cases."
Pender emphasized that cooperation among law enforcement agencies was critical to solving Smith's murder, with Summit, Salt Lake and Utah counties working alongside the state crime lab.
"It's more about the victim, right? It's about the victim, the family, the community, it's about resolving the case," Pender said.
Bundy killed at least 30 women and girls across multiple states during the 1970s, though investigators have long suspected his true victim count could be higher.
He confessed to dozens of murders before his death, including crimes that had previously been unknown to police, but not every killing attributed to him has been independently confirmed.
Bundy was convicted and sentenced to death for murdering two Florida State University students in 1979 and received another death sentence the following year for the rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl.
Nearly four decades later, Pender said it still matters that investigators prove which crimes Bundy actually committed rather than simply attributing unresolved murders to one of America's most notorious serial killers.
"It is very important that we always make sure of who we are suspecting, or have accused, or have confirmed that it's actually that person, regardless of the number of killings or murders that Ted Bundy committed," Pender said. "It's still important that we connect them the right way, and we don't just … throw everything on to Ted Bundy that we're not quite sure of."
FIRST ON FOX: The convicted murderer who escaped from a Tennessee prison had at least a five-hour head start before local police were notified he was missing, the local police chief told Fox News Digital.
Jacob Allen Morley broke out of the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, Tennessee, Sunday, although authorities have not disclosed the exact time of his escape.
Staff at the prison noticed Morley was unaccounted for at around 11:30 p.m., and a review of surveillance footage subsequently revealed him crossing through the prison's perimeter fence. According to Tennessee Highway Patrol dispatch audio, Morley was last seen at the prison around 4 p.m. Sunday.
Surveillance footage recorded Morley taking a pickup truck from the 400 block of Keystone Drive, a location roughly 2 miles south of the prison, at around 1 a.m. Monday, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said. The truck was found abandoned by law enforcement officials early Tuesday morning in Marion, Illinois, but Morley wasn't located.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Tiptonville Police Department Chief Joe England said his department wasn't notified about a potentially missing inmate until 4:40 a.m. on Monday, over 5 hours after prison staff first realized Morley was unaccounted for.
Officers responded to the prison and worked with staff to assess the situation. At 5:14 a.m., England said, officers alerted the rest of the department that the inmate's escape had been confirmed.
At 6:20 a.m., prison officials formally notified Lake County Central Dispatch, which handles 911 calls and coordinates law enforcement services, that an inmate escape had been confirmed.
The notification set off a broader search for Morley in the area surrounding the prison.
"The Tiptonville Police Department immediately coordinated with the Tennessee Department of Correction and the Lake County Sheriff's Office to conduct a search of the surrounding area," England said. "The Tennessee Highway Patrol, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and numerous other state, local and federal law enforcement agencies also participated in the search efforts."
While Morley stole the pickup truck at around 1 a.m. Monday, England said his department wasn't made aware of a potentially missing truck until 2:15 p.m. Monday, which was confirmed missing at 2:30 p.m. He noted that the pickup truck wasn't stolen within city limits.
Timeline of Events:
Sunday, Oct. 25
4 p.m.: Morley's last known location is the prison, according to Tennessee Highway Patrol dispatch audio obtained by Fox News Digital.
11:30 p.m.: Staff at Northwest Correctional Complex confirm Morley is unaccounted for, per TDOC.
Monday, Oct. 26
1 a.m.: The truck is stolen on Keystone Drive in unincorporated Lake County.
4:40 a.m.: Lake County Central Dispatch gets the first report of a possibly missing inmate and notifies officers. This is Tiptonville PD's first notice.
5:14 a.m.: Tiptonville officers at the prison tell the rest of the department an escape has been confirmed.
6:20 a.m.: Prison officials formally notify Lake County Central Dispatch that an inmate escape has been confirmed. Tiptonville PD coordinates a search with TDOC and the Lake County Sheriff's Office. THP, TBI and other state, local and federal agencies join.
2:15 p.m.: Tiptonville PD first learns of a possibly missing truck.
2:30 p.m.: The truck theft is confirmed.
Tuesday, Oct. 27
10 a.m.: Marion, Illinois, police are notified the truck was found abandoned.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokesperson said the agency was notified of the prison escape on Monday morning but didn't elaborate on an exact time.
The Lake County Sheriff's Office didn't respond to Fox News Digital when asked when the agency was first alerted of the prison escape. The Tennessee Department of Correction didn't respond to multiple requests for comment to Fox News Digital.
Former federal prison Warden Cameron Lindsay told Fox News Digital the delay in notifying police of an inmate escaping prison is "100% unacceptable."
"Part of any correctional facility's basic tenets of operations should include emergency plans. And one of those plans that you have for an emergency is an escape. And part of your escape plans entails notifying law enforcement, local law enforcement, state law enforcement, U.S. Marshals Service and everybody in the community. You need to get that word out immediately. So, for them to have that kind of delay raises a huge red flag," Lindsay said.
"And it begs the question, why, why did they delay? Because it is 100% unacceptable in the profession of corrections."
Lindsay said local law enforcement should have immediately been contacted once prison staff realized the inmate was unaccounted for.
Retired FBI Special Agent Jonathan Gilliam told Fox News Digital the community should have been notified much sooner.
"That community should put out an emergency text to everyone to make sure none of their family members are missing as he could have killed or kidnapped someone after ditching the truck," Gilliam said.
TBI said Wednesday afternoon that the reward in the search for Morley is now $15,000 — $7,500 from the governor’s office, $5,000 from the U.S. Marshals and $2,500 from TBI.
Morley is described as 5 feet, 11 inches tall, and 240 pounds, with brown hair and green eyes. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said he should be "considered dangerous," adding Morley is now on the state's most wanted list.
Birchfield disappeared in early February 2022 after he was last seen in Elizabethton, Tennessee. According to WJHL, investigators from the Carter County Sheriff's Office saw indications that a "violent crime" had occurred inside his house.
WATCH: Escaped Tennessee inmate seen on video stealing truck, officials say
On March 2, 2022, Morley was arrested after a police chase that went to the North Carolina state line. After the arrest, Birchfield's body was found underneath Morley's home.
Morley's former girlfriend, Landree Sheperd, testified at Morley's trial and claimed that the defendant said at one point that "he f------ killed him."
The prison escape comes at a tumultuous time for the Tennessee Department of Correction, less than a month after the botched execution of death row inmate Christa Pike.
Pike survived the Sept. 30 execution attempt after the state administered two doses of pentobarbital, and she was transported to a hospital. Gov. Bill Lee then suspended Tennessee's remaining scheduled execution for the year and directed an independent review to examine what had gone wrong.
Former Knoxville Police Chief Phil Keith, who handled the case, previously told Fox News Digital that Pike showed "no remorse" in the interrogation room after an attack that a psychiatrist later said involved "satanic elements" at trial.
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