Anna Marlene Somoza has been arrested in Mexico almost 30 years after prosecutors say she murdered her 3-year-old daughter. The US Marshals Service says the case has led to first-degree murder charges being readied for extradition. Somoza, 60, was taken into custody after more than 12 years as a fugitive in Mexico. US authorities say she will be extradited to the United States to face the charge. Prosecutors allege Somoza killed Crystal Reyes in 1997. The child, who was bound and left to die in a sealed cardboard box, was reportedly subjected to abuse, torture and starvation, the Marshals Service said. Authorities began investigating after human bone fragments were found in a deserted area of Arizona by a hunter in November 1998. Almost two decades later, forensic DNA analysis in August 2014 identified the fragments as Reyes’ remains. Investigators interviewed Reyes’ biological father and confirmed her identity using his DNA. In December 2014, detectives said they had grounds to charge Somoza and her boyfriend at the time, Avelino Tamala, with first-degree murder. Tamala was found guilty in 2016 and sentenced to life in prison. The Marshals Service said Somoza had connections to a transnational drug trafficking network active along the southern Arizona border during the 1980s and 1990s, helping her avoid detection. After a 1993 arrest for the sale and transportation of marijuana, she agreed to act as a confidential informant and later met Tamala, a narcotics detective. Somoza served eight years in federal prison and was deported in 2008. Investigators then searched for her after her identity was linked to the remains in 2014. A warrant was obtained in October 2022 to allow extradition once she was found. In early September 2026, the Marshals Service learned Somoza was actively evading detection in Cuernavaca, Mexico. She was arrested by Mexican law enforcement officers on October 18 in Xochitepec, Mexico. Somoza is now in custody as extradition proceedings are set in motion to face first-degree murder charges in the United States.