A fugitive wanted in the murder of a 15-year-old Texas girl whose body was found burning in a field 11 years ago has been extradited to the U.S. following her arrest in Mexico last year, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Jennifer Samantha Puente, 29, was booked into jail in Ennis, Texas, and charged with murder and tampering/fabricating physical evidence with intent to impair a human corpse in the death of 15-year-old Moriah Gonzales in March 2012, Ellis County District Attorney Ann Montgomery said.
Puente had been named as a suspect just days after the murder, but investigators were unable to find her.
In 2016, investigators learned that Puente may have escaped to Mexico and began working with the U.S. Department of Justice to request warrants for her arrest.
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Puente was finally captured in October by Mexican authorities and arrested. But it wasn’t until Friday that Texas Rangers, the Ennis Police Department, and the Ellis County District Attorney’s Office were able to return Puente to Ellis County and book her into jail.
"For almost 11 years, many public officials worked tirelessly to find and arrest Puente so that my office could seek justice for Moriah Gonzales," said Ellis County District Attorney Ann Montgomery.
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Authorities have said Puente, who was 18 at the time of the murder, was aided by 40-year-old Joe Alvarado, who has already been convicted of the same charges that Puente now faces.
Alvarado had testified that Puente had been under the influence of drugs and threatened Gonzales with a knife in a joking manner before allegedly stabbing her at his mother’s house, WFAA-TV reported.
He said at the time that he agreed to help Puente get rid of the body, according to the report.
