Mother Wanted in Daughter's 1997 Death Detained in Mexico

A woman wanted for nearly twelve years in the killing of her young daughter was detained in Mexico after a cross-border search that followed one of Arizona’s most difficult child murder investigations. The arrest gives prosecutors a path to bring Anna Marlene Somoza, 60, before an Arizona court, nearly three decades after Crystal Reyes died.

Mexican agents detained Somoza in Xochitepec on October 18, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. She has been wanted on a first-degree murder charge since 2014. The other person charged in the child’s death, former narcotics detective Avelino Tamala, was convicted in 2016 and sentenced to life in prison.

Somoza has not been convicted in the case. Authorities are coordinating her return to the United States, and the reported detention does not by itself decide the murder charge against her.

Remains discovered years before a name

The investigation began with bone fragments discovered by a hunter in a remote area near Mobile, Arizona, on November 30, 1998. Investigators could not immediately identify the remains. Their origin remained unresolved for years, creating an obstacle to determining who had died and under what circumstances.

Officials later connected the remains to a possible child victim. Somoza and Tamala had previously been arrested on drug and weapon offenses, and DNA collected during the earlier proceedings supplied one piece of the identification effort. Scientists could not rule out Somoza as the child’s mother, but they lacked a comparison sample from the biological father.

The missing paternal sample mattered. A partial genetic indication was not enough to establish the identity of the remains with the certainty investigators needed. The case remained unresolved while detectives sought the missing connection.

In 2014, investigators located Crystal’s biological father, Darren Stockwell. They obtained a DNA sample and used it to identify the remains as those of Crystal Reyes, who had died as a young child in 1997. The genetic finding changed the case from unidentified remains into a specific homicide investigation.

The 2014 charges and co-defendant’s conviction

The Marshals Service said Crystal was born in November 1993 and later lived with Somoza and Avelino Tamala in the Phoenix area. Investigators alleged that the child endured severe mistreatment before her death. After her remains were identified using a DNA sample from her biological father, prosecutors charged Somoza and Tamala with first-degree murder in December 2014. Tamala was convicted in November 2016 and sentenced to life in prison. Somoza has not been convicted in connection with Crystal’s death.

After reviewing the accumulated evidence, a Maricopa County grand jury indicted Somoza and Tamala for first-degree murder on December 12, 2014. Federal marshals arrested Tamala, but investigators developed information suggesting that Somoza was in Mexico.

The Marshals Service said Somoza had been deported in 2008 after serving a federal prison sentence in an unrelated drug case. Detectives therefore had to pursue her across an international border while the Arizona prosecution remained pending.

In 2016, Tamala was convicted of Crystal’s murder and sentenced to life. The verdict against Tamala resolved his own criminal case. It did not constitute a verdict against Somoza, who remained a fugitive and had not been tried.

A renewed search in Mexico

The U.S. Marshals Service said its Arizona task force worked with law enforcement and prosecutorial partners in both countries for years. In October 2022, authorities obtained a provisional arrest warrant intended to support Somoza’s extradition.

The fugitive investigation was elevated to a major case in 2026, bringing additional resources. In September, task-force members developed information that she was in the Cuernavaca area of Mexico. Mexican federal police and Interpol-related personnel detained her in Xochitepec the following month.

The Marshals Service said coordination continues to bring Somoza back to Arizona. A criminal trial is still ahead if extradition is completed. The detention changes the practical posture of a case in which a child’s identity was established through DNA in 2014 but one accused person remained beyond the court’s reach for nearly twelve years.

References: U.S. Marshals Service | CBS News

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