On the left is Jose Cruz in 1991 when he allegedly killed his estranged wife 24-year-old Ana Jurado in Fairfax County, Virginia. Cruz fled to El Salvador where he remained for over three decades. He was arrested in 2022 while trying to enter Costa Rica from Nicaragua. He was extradited back to the U.S. in January 2024. On the right is the now-60-year-old Cruz’s mug shot. (Fairfax County Police Department)
After more than 30 years on the run in El Salvador, a man who authorities say murdered his estranged wife in Fairfax County, Virginia, in 1991 has been arrested.
Police allege Jose L. Cruz killed 24-year-old Ana Jurado and then fled the country. The couple had been in the process of getting a divorce when Cruz allegedly killed her on April 30, 1991. Authorities in Fairfax County, a Washington, D.C., suburb, received a call after neighbors heard a woman screaming. Officers arrived and found Jurado suffering from upper body trauma. Paramedics pronounced her dead on the scene.
Witnesses told detectives they saw a man matching Cruz’s description running away from the scene. Cops quickly obtained an arrest warrant for Cruz for first-degree murder.
“This really isn’t a traditional cold case,” Fairfax County Police Department Chief Kevin Davis said at a press conference Monday. “It was solved virtually right away. He was on the lam. He was on the run. He avoided accountability for something he did nearly 33 years ago.”
Deputy Chief of Investigations Eli Cory said after Cruz killed Jurado, he tried to cross the border in Canada but was denied because he had fake identification. The Border Patrol agent also noticed a fresh cut on his hand. Cory said Cruz then hopped on a bus and traveled to Houston where he was smuggled across the Mexican border. Cruz then went to El Salvador where he’s lived ever since.
“We believe that he started an entirely new family,” Cory said. “He had several children.”
Detectives spent years trying to find Cruz in El Salvador to no avail. Complicating matters was El Salvador did have an extradition system until 2000. But he was never caught in El Salvador. Cruz was arrested on July 29, 2022, when he tried to enter Costa Rica from Nicaragua, Cory said. Officials then began the extradition process to take him to the United States and officials booked Cruz into the Fairfax County Jail last week.
“This is a moment that has been 30-plus years in the making. And for 30 plus years a family has waited for answers, has waited for justice and finally we’re just at the beginning of that road,” said Steve Descano, Fairfax County commonwealth attorney.
Cruz and Jurado had three young children at the time of the murder. Cory said Cruz, now 60, made several statements after he arrived back in the U.S. that will be useful to prosecutors at trial, but declined to get into detail. He credited the work of the original detectives on the case.
“They put together such a good case so many years ago it’s allowed us to bring him to justice today,” Cory said.
