The six-year search for the suspect in the murder of a mother of two has ended, and authorities credit the victim’s mother with solving the cold case.
The United States Marshals Service described Josephine Wentzel as a “driving force” in the late-October arrest of Raymond Samuel McLeod Jr. He is accused of killing Wentzel’s daughter Krystal Mitchell in June 2016.
Wentzel is a retired police detective, but being a mother has motivated her to spend the last six years assisting investigators and following up on leads.
“It’s not about being a former detective. It’s about being a mom,” Wentzel told “Good Morning America.” “It’s that mama bear. That mom determines that I gave birth to this child and, so help me God, I’m going to take care of this child until I die.”
Mitchell and her then-boyfriend McLeod, who lived in Arizona, were visiting San Diego and staying with friends at the time of her murder. According to investigators, McLeod was the last person seen with Mitchell before she was discovered strangled to death in a bedroom by a friend.
McLeod, a former Marine and bodybuilder, had been on the run since then and was on the United States Marshals Service’s list of the top 15 most wanted fugitives.
“He laid low and didn’t pop his head up a lot,” Joseph O’Callaghan, chief deputy of the U.S. Marshals Service, said in a press conference announcing McLeod’s arrest. “He had some training in clandestine operations and things like that that I’m sure he referred to.”
Authorities feel McLeod fled through Mexico to Central America, where he was reportedly seen in Guatemala and Belize over the years.
According to O’Callaghan, McLeod was arrested on August 29 after investigators received information that he was teaching English at a school in El Salvador under an assumed name.
In his first court appearance, he pleaded not guilty to the murder charge and was ordered to remain in custody without bail.
Wentzel, who took classes to better understand how to search the internet and social media, said she wasn’t sure her efforts would sometimes result in an arrest.
“It was years of hard work, and to be honest with you, I wasn’t sure,” she said, adding that ultimately public attention helped. “The most important thing is to get their faces out in public.”
Wentzel has been caring for her daughter’s two children for the past six years, and she sees her daughter’s sense of humour, beauty, and big heart in them.
She described McLeod’s arrest as the end of one chapter & the start of another.
“This is one chapter closed. Now I have another chapter that I have to be involved in, and that’s the justice system,” said Wentzel. “I told the prosecutors that I hope they do their due diligence; I’m here to help make sure the case goes through … and do whatever you can to make that happen because my family deserves that justice like that.”
