Cartel-linked mom wanted for child's 1997 murder caught in Mexico

A woman linked to drug cartels and accused of torturing and murdering her daughter in Arizona in 1997 has been captured in Mexico nearly 30 years after the crime, officials said Wednesday. 

Anna Marlene Somoza was connected to a "major transnational drug trafficking network" along the Arizona border through the 1980s and 1990s, the U.S. Marshals Service said in a news release. She was arrested for selling and transporting marijuana in 1993, and agreed to act as a confidential informant for Arizona law enforcement. 

In November 1993, Somoza had a daughter, Crystal Reyes. The child was born in Nogales, Mexico. Her father was Darren Stockwell, a law enforcement officer and U.S. citizen, the U.S. Marshals said. 

Somoza and Crystal then moved to Ahwatukee, Arizona, to live with her boyfriend, narcotics detective Avelino Tamala. The U.S. Marshals Service said that Somoza and Tamala began an "improper romantic relationship" while she was a law enforcement source. 

While living with Somoza and Tamala, Crystal was allegedly subject to "severe physical abuse," including being bound and gagged in a small dog kennel for weeks at a time, the U.S. Marshals said. The abuse "escalated fatally" on January 30, 1997, when Crystal suffocated inside a sealed cardboard box, the agency said. 

Nearly a year later, in November 1998, human bone fragments were found in Mobile, Arizona. The bones could not be identified. In 1999, Somoza and Tamala were arrested on drug and weapon offenses. DNA was collected. When compared to the bones, the analysis "could not eliminate Somoza as the maternal source," the U.S. Marshals said. But without a paternal DNA source, an identification could not be made. In 2008, Somoza was released from prison.

The case went cold until 2014, when Stockwell was located and interviewed by cold case detectives. A sample of his DNA was collected and analyzed, allowing investigators to identify the bone fragments as Crystal's. 

Somoza and Tamala were indicted on charges of first-degree murder on December 12, 2014. Arrest warrants were issued. Tamala was arrested that day by the U.S. Marshals and Arizona's WANTED Violent Offender Task Force. The task force quickly determined that Somoza had fled to Mexico. They began collaborating with the U.S. Marshal Service Mexico Foreign Field Office, but Somoza could not be found. In 2016, Tamala was sentenced to life in prison. 

Federal, state and local officials continued to investigate the case for the next 12 years, the U.S. Marshals said. "Extensive investigative efforts" were taken to locate Somoza, but law enforcement found that she "had taken deliberate and extensive measures to evade detection by law enforcement." The long search was also "affected by her close connections with cartels," officials said.

In September 2026, members of a U.S. Marshals task force became aware that Somoza was in Cernavaca, Mexico. On Sunday, Mexican police and Interpol officers were able to arrest Somoza in Xochitepec, Mexico. 

Efforts to extradite Somoza are underway. She will face charges in Arizona, the U.S. Marshals said. 

Attorney Juan Rocha, who teaches at Arizona State University, told CBS affiliate KPHO-TV that Mexico often seeks assurance the death penalty will not be pursued. Prosecutors have not publicly said whether they will seek the death penalty against Somoza.   

"No one can hide from American justice forever," said Timothy Courchaine, U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona, in the news release. "The United States Attorney's office stands in partnership with both our federal and critically our state partners to ensure defendants have their day in court. We look forward to now working alongside our Mexican partners to bring this fugitive back to Arizona."