Fugitive Groom Captured In Mexico After 12 Years On The Run: FBI

BURBANK, IL — Arnoldo Jimenez, 43, who has eluded capture for over 12 years for the stabbing death of his Burbank bride on their wedding night, was captured this week in Monterrey, Mexico.

Jimenez had fled the United States after Burbank police tied him to the slaying of 26-year-old Estrella Carrera, whose body was discovered in her Burbank condo on May 13, 2012. He had been on the run ever since.

Burbank police reports said the couple got married on the spur of the moment at Chicago City Hall a few days before her body was found. Afterward, the newlyweds dined at a Chicago restaurant with a small group of family and friends, before boarding a party limo. The couple was last seen in the early morning hours of May 12.

When Carrera failed to pick up her two young children the next afternoon as planned, her family asked Burbank police to conduct a well-being check at her condo in the 7800 block of South Rutherford Avenue. Officers found her lifeless body in the bathtub, still wearing the same silver sequined cocktail dress she wore celebrating with family.

Jimenez, the father of Carrera’s youngest child, was nowhere to be found. The Cook County Medical Examiner determined Carrera died of multiple stab wounds. Her death was ruled a homicide.

Burbank police believed Jimenez stabbed Carrera in his black, four-door 2006 Maserati and then took the body back to Carrera’s condo.

Jimenez was charged with first degree murder, with state and federal warrants issued for his arrest in May 2012.

According to the federal warrant, Jimenez contacted his sister, telling her that he had a “bad fight” with Carrera and left her bleeding. Jimenez is also said to have had another conversation with a “close associate” stating that he was leaving Illinois. The Texas-born Jimenez reportedly said that if the police came looking for him, to tell law enforcement that he was heading to Mexico.

His last contact on U.S. soil came at 10:45 p.m., May 13, 2012, in Hidalgo, Texas, near the Mexican border. That's the last time Burbank police were able to track his phone.

Jimenez’s flight from the law was featured in an episode of “In Pursuit With John Walsh,” on the Discovery Channel. He was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List in 2019.

FBI Chicago, FBI San Antonio, FBI LEGAT Mexico City, and the United States District
Court, Northern District of Illinois collaborated to locate Jimenez. He was later arrested by
agents of the Fiscalía General de la República, in conjunction with Interpol. Jimenez
will remain in custody pending extradition proceedings, the FBI said.

Jimenez was the 522nd person to be placed on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list,
which was established in March 1950.