Thread: Fugitive finally coming back to Cook County to face murder

http://www.dailysouthtown.com/news/2582 ... S8.article

Fugitive finally coming back to Cook County to face murder charges

February 15, 2007
By William Lee Staff writer

A 31-year-old man whom authorities said fled to Mexico after fatally stabbing his girlfriend in her Chicago Ridge home will appear in court today to face murder charges.

It took nearly a year for authorities to extradite Viliulfo Escobar to Cook County to face charges that he killed Melissa Stromek on New Year's Day 2004 in her condominium.

On Wednesday afternoon, U.S. marshals handed Escobar over to Cook County sheriff's police and Chicago Ridge police at O'Hare International Airport, sheriff's police spokeswoman Penny Mateck said.

Three years ago at the same airport, Escobar boarded an airplane to Mexico after ditching Stromek's 2000 Ford Focus less than a mile from O'Hare, police said.

Federal marshals apprehended Escobar in Chilpancingo, Guerrero, a year ago on a first-degree murder warrant issued about three weeks after the murder. Escobar had been staying with family members who lived in Guerrero's capital city, Mateck said.

Escobar neither fought extradition nor did he make a statement while awaiting extradition, she said.

Investigators believe Escobar fled to Mexico within a day or two of Stromek's murder inside her condo in the 10300 block of Ridgeland Avenue. Police say Escobar killed the Northern Illinois University graduate because she wanted to end their two-year relationship.

Stromek, 26, a project manager at Pollution Control Industries in East Chicago, Ind., and an amateur boxer, was stabbed at least six times.

The crime originally was investigated by the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force, working with Chicago Ridge police.

William Lee may be reached at
wlee@dailysouthtown.com

And Mexico wants us to send "Dog" to them. Was this individual who the Mexico government trade us for jailing the border agents? It seems that we should have gotten alot more for Bush and crowd sending innocent men to jail.