More than a decade after his wife was stabbed to death only hours after their wedding, authorities in Mexico have arrested a Chicago man in connection with the 2012 slaying in south suburban Burbank.
Arnoldo Jimenez, 42, was last seen after an impromptu wedding reception at a night club in May 2012, the day before the body of his wife, Estrella Carrera, 26, was found in the bathtub of her Burbank apartment, still in the silver dress she had worn during the wedding ceremony at City Hall.
A warrant for Jimenez’s arrest for first-degree murder was entered a few days later, and Jimenez spent nearly 13 years on the lam before his arrest in Monterrey, Mexico, according to the FBI.
His name had been added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list in 2019, with a reward for information leading to his arrest that over the years rose from $10,000 to $250,000. A press release issued late Friday by the FBI did not say whether anyone would claim the reward.
Investigators believed Jimenez argued with Carrera after leaving their wedding reception in his black 2006 Maserati. They had theorized Jimenez fatally stabbed the mother of his 2-year-old son in the car, then moved her body into the bathroom of the apartment.
Family members had called police to check the apartment when Carrera did not turn up to pick up the toddler and her 8-year-old daughter from relatives the day after the wedding.
Authorities said they believed Jimenez fled to central Mexico, where he had family in the state of Durango. Investigators tracked Jimenez’s cellphone for less than a day before it went dark, but in that time he saw that he had moved from the Chicago area to southern Illinois, through Memphis and Arkansas before going dark at Hildalgo, Texas, near the border. Monterrey, where Jimenez was arrested, is about 150 miles from Hildalgo in the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon.
About six months after Jimenez reached the border, police had found Jimenez’s Maserati during a drug raid at the home of Jimenez’s brother’s home in Chicago. They discovered blood stains inside the vehicle. Another relative told investigators Jimenez had called her during his flight to Mexico the next day, and told her that he and Carrera had “a bad fight” and that “he left her bleeding.”
Burbank Deputy Police Chief William Casey credited the “tireless teamwork” his department and the FBI for the arrest. Jimenez was taken into custody by agents of the attorney general of Mexico, the Fiscalía General de la República, according to the FBI press release. Jimenez was taken into custody “without incident.” No date was given for when he will appear in court in Cook County.
