Fugitive East Palo Alto Mother Sought In 1993 Cold Case Homicide Of Daughter Arrested In Ventura County
EAST PALO ALTO (CBS SF) -- An East Palo Alto woman who fled to Mexico following the death of her three-year-old daughter in 1993 has been arrested in Southern California.
East Palo Alto police said Yolanda Ortega, 54, was arrested at a shopping center parking lot in Oxnard, Ventura County, on Tuesday by the Marshals Service Fugitive Apprehension team.
Ortega was 27 years old when paramedics went to her home on June 28, 1993 on a report of an unresponsive three-year-old girl. The girl was taken to Stanford Hospital but was pronounced dead. The girl's two brothers and a sister - ages 4, 1 and 17 days old - were released to Child Protective Services.
Police said that before the coroner's determination that the cause of the girl's death was a homicide, Ortega and her husband fled to Mexico.
The joint investigation to track down Ortega was conducted by the East Palo Alto Police Department, the San Mateo Sheriff's Office, the San Mateo District Attorney's Office, and the United States Marshals Service.
"The East Palo Alto Police Department is committed to investigating homicide cases and will follow every lead to locate and arrest any suspect that commits a homicide in our city," the department said a press release.