A Texas woman who fled the country after allegedly hurling her toddler against a wall has been captured after 30 years on the run.
Maria Narez, 48, was arrested on Saturday in Mexico, the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office said on Monday.
Narez was previously arrested at the age of 19 over the 1996 death of her three-year-old daughter, Kasandra White.
The evil mother intentionally shook White and threw her against the wall with so much force that her head hit the door inside an apartment in Fort Worth. Narez also hit the child with an unknown object, according to court documents reviewed by Fox 4.
She was indicted by a grand jury on a capital murder charge in April 1997, but Narez failed to show up to court later that year after a judge reduced her bond to $25,000, the report stated.
A warrant was then issued for her arrest in late 1997 after her bond was forfeited, but she had already left America.
She spent three decades hiding in Mexico, but the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office was determined to get justice for the little girl, the agency said.
‘The DA’s office never gave up on bringing Narez back to face the charge against her and answer for the death of her daughter,’ the office said.
Maria Narez, 48, was arrested on Saturday in Mexico after 30 years on the run. She was indicted in 1996 over the death of her three-year-old daughter, Kasandra White. She is pictured in her 1996 mugshot
It further credited the teamwork of several agencies for nabbing Narez all these years later.
‘Thanks to Mexico Interpol, the U.S. Marshals Mexico Foreign Field Office, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Department of Justice-Office of International Affairs, DA Investigators Tiffany Johnson and Victor Espino-Nevarez, and Assistant DA Steven Elliott,’ the agency added.
‘Their tireless work ensures this decades-old case was not forgotten – and neither was the pursuit of justice.
Narez is set to be extradited to Tarrant County from Mexico to face the charge against her, the outlet reported.
Only her 1996 mugshot was made available. It is unclear what she looks like now.
It is also unclear where exactly she was living in Mexico and what she had been doing all these years.
Narez was working as a grocery store clerk at the time of her daughter’s death, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
At the time, she told police she was depressed and stressed out after her daughter refused to go to bed when she told her to, per the report.
‘It angered her. She picked the baby up by the chest under her arms, threw her into a wall, and her head struck the door edge,’ Fort Worth Police Department Sgt. Fred Pendergraf told the outlet in 1996.
Her mother was jailed on November 13 of that year after she took an unconscious White to the hospital a day after she was injured in the apartment. (Pictured: General area of where the incident took place in Fort Worth, Texas)
Narez was working as a grocery store clerk at the time of her daughter’s death, and she told police that she was depressed and stressed out when she told her child it was time for bed, but then the toddler refused, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram previously reported
According to Pendergraf, the baby started crying and said ‘It hurts’ before going to bed that night.
Her mother was jailed on November 13 of that year after she took an unconscious White to the hospital a day after she was injured in the apartment.
White died three days later, the publication stated.
She died from blunt force trauma to the head, according to an autopsy reviewed by the local paper.
Initially, Narez told hospital staff that her injured child had fallen off a bicycle, but she later admitted that she was the one who hurt White, police said.
If convicted, Narez could face life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty under Texas state law.
The Daily Mail contacted the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office for comment.
