It was discovered on Tuesday that a former Marine sought for the death of his fiancée spent six years hiding out in Latin America and was residing in El Salvador under the identity “Jack Donovan.”
The 36-year-old Raymond “RJ” McLeod was discovered on Monday working as an English teacher in Sonsonate, a 71,000-person community 20 miles inland from the Pacific.
He was located when a lady who watched a Univision Spanish-language broadcast on his case and identified him as a teacher in the community recognized him as the guy who had been assigned the highest-ever reward by U.S. Marshals because he was deemed to be so dangerous.
According to Univision, McLeod utilized the false identity while claiming to be a Canadian. He was taken into custody on Monday in front of his Sonsonate, Direct English School class.
Unverified staff identities are prevalent, according to a head of a different adjacent school.
The administrator informed DailyMail.com that “they recruit instructors and don’t check for identity.”
They don’t even check to see whether they have teaching credentials. There are several tattoos among the professors.
Raymond ‘RJ’ McLeod is pictured on Monday in El Salvador, after he was arrested following six years on the run
McLeod is seen on Monday being led away by police in El Salvador
Krystal Mitchell, 30, was killed in a San Diego apartment in June 2016
Mitchell is pictured with her mother, Josephine Wentzel, a retired detective, who worked on the case
According to Univision, he received a $1,000 monthly salary.
In April 2021, the Marshals placed him to their list of 15 “Most Wanted” individuals and doubled the standard reward sum to $50,000 for information leading to his capture.
He was wanted for the murder of his 30-year-old new girlfriend Krystal Mitchell in June 2016 at the condo they were renting while traveling to see his buddies in San Diego.
According to Summer Stephan, the district attorney for San Diego, Mitchell’s mother, former police investigator Josephine Funes Wentzel, played a key role in locating McLeod.
“The process to bring this offender responsible in a court of law for the murder of Krystal Mitchell can finally begin,” said Stephan. “This person’s audacious attempt to dodge justice is ended.”
‘Huge credit goes to the victim’s mother who worked diligently with our office and other law enforcement to make this arrest possible and never gave up looking for her daughter’s murderer.’
Wentzel, who went around Latin America and was viciously assaulted by a wild dog and a dagger at several points, said that McLeod was noticed by a lady in El Salvador.
She told Univision, “Obviously, I can’t have my daughter back, but I’m glad that this monster is no longer a danger to the women of Mexico and Central America.”
She claimed to have spent extended periods of time in Guatemala—he was seen on camera dancing with a lady at a bar inside the Almost Famous hostel in the seaside town of Livingston—but said she did not give El Salvador much thought.
She said, “I did look at El Salvador, but I was never really focused on that country.”
“He won’t travel to El Salvador,” a Hispanic acquaintance of mine warned me. “They’ll murder him.”
But he was in the same neighborhood as the individual who told me that, so that’s where he was.
According to Wentzel, a local lady gave the police a heads-up.
There was a formal grievance. A lady in El Salvador recognized the guy after recalling reading an item on Univision’s website.
She called and reported him.
Wentzel said that she had also spread the Univision piece far and wide in an effort to find him.
Because it was written in Spanish and explained everything, I shared the piece.
I disseminated it over social media to several users.
He was hiding out in a tiny El Salvadorian village while posing as a Canadian. They might just go to his classroom and take him into custody.
McLeod was described as armed, dangerous, an ‘avid bodybuilder’ and ‘heavy drinker’
McLeod murdered Krystal Mitchell, 30, of Phoenix, barely a few weeks into their relationship.
Following their excursion to a club, when McLeod got into an altercation with another guy who was also an ex-Marine, she was later discovered strangled. All three of them were expelled from the bar. The next day, Mitchell’s body was discovered with evident evidence of a fight in the rented unit after McLeod and Mitchell had returned there.
McLeod, who according to police had a violent past, fled, passing via Mexico on his way to Central America.
In 2017 he was seen in Guatemala, and the following year he was seen in Belize.
Marshals made a request for assistance but cautioned that he was “armed and dangerous” and that he was “an ardent body builder and a heavy drinker.”
Marshal Steve Stafford of the Southern District of California said they would never quit up when he was named to the Top 15 list in 2021.
McLeod is seen on Monday after he was arrested by Salvadoran police
Marshals said that McLeod was recognizable from his distinctive skull tattoos
At the time he fled, the former Marine was residing in Phoenix, Arizona.
He said, “Time will never stop the Marshals’ pursuit of McLeod as a wanted fugitive.”
If anything, it strengthens our resolve. Up until he is prosecuted, we won’t stop at nothing.
In order to assist in the search for Mitchell’s accused murderer, Mitchell’s mother, a former detective named Josephine Wentzel, came out of retirement. She congratulated Frankie Sanchez, the head of the local U.S. Marshals Task Force, and his colleague Francisco Barajas for their “great job.”
‘I have had faith and trust in them, and ever since meeting Francisca Barajas, I had full confidence that this day would come, and he would be the one to catch him,’ she said.
‘I told him, ‘You are my hero. We are bonded for life.’