Las Vegas family reacts following arrest in Mexico for 2020 killing
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – The Palacio family has been fighting for four years to find their daughter’s murderer and following an international manhunt they said there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
Ofelia Markarian, the Palacio family attorney, spoke during a media news conference Tuesday reacting to the arrest of Erick Rangel-Ibarra in Mexico in connection to the killing of Lesley Palacio.
When could Erick Rangel-Ibarra return to Las Vegas to face charges in Lesly Palacio’s murder?
“We will celebrate once we see him here in the United States,” Markarian said. “The family is just very grateful that there has been progress.”
8 News Now was the first to report the arrest of Rangel-Ibarra. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police also confirmed the arrest and extradition process in a Tuesday news release.
The next steps of the extradition process are expected to be lengthy and complex, according to immigration law experts who spoke with 8 News Now. Markarian said the Palacio family is hoping to see a quick procedure.
“We are hoping that the extradition process will be fast, and next we will be there every single court hearing,” she said. “We will be on top, carefully monitoring and watching and seeing how this case is going to progress.”
Markarian told members of the media she did not have any official update on the investigation and said she wanted to only provide an update from the Palacio family.
“We’ve been fighting and fighting for four years now,” she said. “We never gave up and there is light at the end of the tunnel.”
8 News Now asked Markarian, who has represented the family for four years and held annual case updates, how she reacted to the arrest.
“This is what makes my job satisfying. This is what I live for. This is why I do it,” she said. “As long as you have that faith and the drive, and the drive for justice to bring people to justice. Just don’t give up.”
Markarian thanked the Las Vegas community for assisting in the investigation since 2020 and said the family now awaits Rangel-Ibarra’s extradition.
“I want to say thank you for everyone that’s been following Lesley’s story,” Markarian said. “Don’t stop there’s more and we are we’re in this together.”
The case so far
Las Vegas Metro police suspect Palacio died on Aug. 29, 2020. Police found her remains two weeks later near the Valley of Fire. Rangel-Ibarra is the only suspect in Palacio’s murder. Metro police reported Rangel-Ibarra and his father, Jose Rangel, missing within days of Palacio’s death.
In 2021, Rangel pleaded guilty to helping his son move Palacio’s body from the family home. A judge sentenced Rangel to two years in prison. The 8 News Now Investigators reported Rangel was released after serving less than nine months.
Video evidence presented to a grand jury in 2021 showed Rangel-Ibarra and Rangel moving Palacio’s body on the morning of her suspected death.
According to court transcripts and video footage, prosecutors said Rangel-Ibarra returned to his home with Palacio around 6 a.m. after a night of drinking. Video shows a man, whom prosecutors identified as Rangel-Ibarra, helping a woman, identified as Palacio, get out of a truck parked in front of his home, court documents said.
An hour later, the same camera from a home down the street captures two men, whom prosecutors identified as Rangel-Ibarra and Rangel, dragging a body from the home and into the same truck. A few minutes later, the video shows the truck leaving, and a man, whom prosecutors identified as Rangel, hosing off the walkway.
Rangel initially told police he thought Palacio had died from an overdose, but then told police he initially saw the body when his son dragged it down the stairs of their home on a bed sheet, documents said.
Palacio’s official cause and manner of death are listed as undetermined. Investigators have not elaborated on what evidence inside the Rangel home led them to determine Palacio is the victim of a homicide. An undetermined cause and manner of death means there is not enough evidence on a deceased person’s body to clearly determine how they died.
Over the years, Metro police and the FBI have worked with international partners, including Interpol, to locate Rangel-Ibarra.
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