Fugitive Yoga Teacher Extradited in American University Professor’s Murder
A yoga teacher who spent more than a decade on the lam after fleeing to Mexico has been extradited to the United States this week to face charges for allegedly killing an American University professor, police said Wednesday.
The Montgomery County Police Department announced that Jorge Rueda Landeros was extradited from Mexico and arrested in Maryland in connection with the October 2010 murder of Sue Marcum in her Bethesda home. Authorities say Marcum, who became friends with Rueda Landeros after the two met in a Spanish language class he taught, died after suffering blunt-force trauma and asphyxiation.
Court records indicate that Rueda Landeros was taken into U.S. custody on Tuesday and was expected to make his initial appearance in Montgomery District Court on Wednesday afternoon on a first-degree murder charge.
Montgomery County’s head public defender Michael Beach said in a statement that “Landeros is innocent, has asserted his innocence before, and continues to today.” “We look forward to a trial in a courtroom in this case,” he added.
Rueda Landeros’ extradition—which was first reported by The Washington Post—marks the latest development in a case that garnered national attention. Authorities were initially called to Marcum’s house on Oct. 25, 2010, where she was found dead in the basement.
Initially, authorities suspected it was a burglary gone wrong, a theory that was bolstered after a teenager was found driving Marcum’s stolen Jeep, court records state. But investigators eventually abandoned the theory after they couldn’t find evidence that the teenager ever entered the professor’s home.
According to the Post, investigators then learned of Rueda Landeros, a yoga teacher who held dual citizenship in Mexico and the United States. Rueda Landeros had met Marcum in 2006 after she had joined his Spanish class in Washington, D.C.
The pair quickly developed a friendship and eventually created a joint investment fund in 2008. A “1099 form in Marcum’s name listed proceeds from this fund of over $100 million,” charging documents state, adding that the university professor was uncomfortable with the financial entanglement.
Investigators said that after looking at emails between the pair, it became clear that “Marcum was increasingly concerned and uneasy about the way Landeros was handling and spending the monies that had been in this brokerage account.”
“Marcum spoke of ‘not being able to sleep’ and seemed to be very troubled by what was happening with this account,” the charging documents state. “Investigators also learned that Landeros is the sole beneficiary of a $500,00 life insurance policy in the event of Marcum’s death.”
But by the time authorities went to question Rueda Landeros, he had fled to Mexico. The charging document states that authorities also later determined that Landeros’ DNA matched samples taken inside the professor’s home, “including what is believed to be the weapon used to strike Marcum and the scrapings from under Marcum’s fingernails.”
Despite issuing an international warrant, the trail on Rueda Landeros went cold—until last year when the FBI received information that he was likely living in Guadalajara, Jalisco. El País Mexico reported at the time that he was living under the name León Ferrara and had been teaching yoga.
Rueda Landeros was arrested in Mexico and had been awaiting extradition until this week. He has maintained his innocence despite fleeing the U.S. over a decade ago.
“I’m innocent. I suppose not of everything, but obviously of what they are accusing me of,” he said during a 2022 Mexican jailhouse call, according to El País Mexico.
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