Castro Valley Jane Doe - The Yesenia Nungaray Murder (Crime Documentary)
Almost two years after Alameda County Sheriff’s investigators named a suspect in the killing of Yesenia Nungaray Becerra, a teenager who for years was known only as Castro Valley’s Jane Doe.
Suspect Miguel Angel Nunez Castaneda, 30, who has been charged with murdering Yesenia, is in Mexico, said Sgt. Scott Dudek. Informants have told Dudek’s team where he is.
“He’s hiding in a cave, and he’s being supported with food and everyday living necessities by family members,” Dudek said.
State and federal warrants out for Castaneda’s arrest are useless unless he returns to the United States, Dudek said. The Sheriff’s Office is working with Mexican authorities, but it is a costly and time-consuming process, Dudek said. The United States doesn’t have an extradition agreement with Mexico, so it’s up to officials there to determine whether to send Castaneda back to Alameda County, a process that could take as much as five years. Prosecutors also would have to agree not to seek the death penalty.
Castaneda is not hiding because he fears U.S. authorities, Dudek said, but because he is worried about the people of his and Yesenia’s hometown.
“His biggest concern is to keep himself safe from those people,” Dudek said.
Yesenia, 16, was found May 1, 2003, outside a Castro Valley restaurant, her 5-foot-1-inch body stuffed inside a bag. For almost three years, detectives had no idea who she was and exhausted every lead trying to find her family.
Then one day in 2006 detectives received a tip that the girl could be from Yahualica, a Mexican town about 70 miles north of Guadalajara. In December of that year, Dudek and four other detectives went to Yahualica armed with an artist’s bust of the girl’s head and thousands of fliers.
They got more than they expected when Yesenia’s mother, Maria Del Carmen, contacted investigators, telling them the girl looked like her daughter Yesenia, who had moved to Hayward in 2003. DNA testing confirmed her identity.
Castaneda had worked at the restaurant behind which Yesenia’s body was found, and he lived with her before she was killed. Court documents suggest the motive for the killing may have been unrequited love. Yesenia liked Castaneda as a friend and saw living with him as an opportunity for a better life, according to court documents. Castaneda, however, wanted a romantic relationship. According to the court file, witnesses told investigators that Castaneda told them he killed the girl because he caught her with another man.
Dudek said is hoping that Castaneda will come forward.
“He is basically roaming free over there, and I don’t know if will he ever face justice,” Dudek said. “I hope he does.”
Suspect Miguel Angel Nunez Castaneda, 30, who has been charged with murdering Yesenia, is in Mexico, said Sgt. Scott Dudek. Informants have told Dudek’s team where he is.
“He’s hiding in a cave, and he’s being supported with food and everyday living necessities by family members,” Dudek said.
State and federal warrants out for Castaneda’s arrest are useless unless he returns to the United States, Dudek said. The Sheriff’s Office is working with Mexican authorities, but it is a costly and time-consuming process, Dudek said. The United States doesn’t have an extradition agreement with Mexico, so it’s up to officials there to determine whether to send Castaneda back to Alameda County, a process that could take as much as five years. Prosecutors also would have to agree not to seek the death penalty.
Castaneda is not hiding because he fears U.S. authorities, Dudek said, but because he is worried about the people of his and Yesenia’s hometown.
“His biggest concern is to keep himself safe from those people,” Dudek said.
Yesenia, 16, was found May 1, 2003, outside a Castro Valley restaurant, her 5-foot-1-inch body stuffed inside a bag. For almost three years, detectives had no idea who she was and exhausted every lead trying to find her family.
Then one day in 2006 detectives received a tip that the girl could be from Yahualica, a Mexican town about 70 miles north of Guadalajara. In December of that year, Dudek and four other detectives went to Yahualica armed with an artist’s bust of the girl’s head and thousands of fliers.
They got more than they expected when Yesenia’s mother, Maria Del Carmen, contacted investigators, telling them the girl looked like her daughter Yesenia, who had moved to Hayward in 2003. DNA testing confirmed her identity.
Castaneda had worked at the restaurant behind which Yesenia’s body was found, and he lived with her before she was killed. Court documents suggest the motive for the killing may have been unrequited love. Yesenia liked Castaneda as a friend and saw living with him as an opportunity for a better life, according to court documents. Castaneda, however, wanted a romantic relationship. According to the court file, witnesses told investigators that Castaneda told them he killed the girl because he caught her with another man.
Dudek said is hoping that Castaneda will come forward.
“He is basically roaming free over there, and I don’t know if will he ever face justice,” Dudek said. “I hope he does.”