US Most Wanted Man FINALLY caught: Bodybuilding ex-Marine, 36, found teaching English in El Salvador
A former Marine considered so dangerous he was set the highest-ever bounty by U.S. Marshals has been captured in El Salvador after six years on the run.
Raymond ‘RJ’ McLeod, 36, was found teaching English in the 71,000-inhabitant city of Sonsonate, 20 miles inland from the Pacific coast.
The Marshals in April 2021 added him to their list of 15 ‘Most Wanted’, and offered a reward of $50,000 for information leading to his arrest – double the usual amount.
He was sought for the June 2016 murder of his new girlfriend Krystal Mitchell, 30, in an apartment they were staying in while visiting his friends in San Diego.
Raymond ‘RJ’ McLeod is pictured on Monday in El Salvador, after he was arrested following six years on the run
McLeod was described as armed, dangerous, an ‘avid bodybuilder’ and ‘heavy drinker’
Krystal Mitchell, 30, from Phoenix, had only been dating McLeod for a few weeks when he killed her
She was found strangled, after they had visited a bar and McLeod got into an argument with another man, also an ex-Marine. All three were kicked out of the bar. McLeod and Mitchell returned to the rental apartment, and Mitchell was found dead the next day, with obvious signs of a struggle.
McLeod, who investigators said had a history of violence, went on the run – traveling through Mexico into Central America.
He was spotted in Guatemala in 2017, and in Belize the following year.
Marshals appealed for help, but warned he was considered ‘armed and dangerous’ – and described him as ‘an avid body builder and a heavy drinker’.
When he was added to the Top 15 list, in 2021, Marshal Steve Stafford of the Southern District of California said they would never give up.
McLeod is seen on Monday after he was arrested by Salvadoran police
Marshals said that McLeod was recognizable from his distinctive skull tattoos
The former Marine was living in Phoenix, Arizona at the time he went on the run
Mitchell is pictured with her mother, Josephine Wentzel, a retired detective, who worked on the case
‘The passage of time will never deter the Marshals’ fugitive investigation for McLeod,’ he said.
‘If anything, it fuels our determination. We will leave no stone unturned until he is brought to justice.’
Mitchell’s mother, a former detective, Josephine Wentzel, came out of retirement to help track down her daughter’s alleged killer, and thanked Frankie Sanchez, the regional U.S. Marshals Task Force Chief, and his colleague Francisco Barajas for their ‘excellent work’.
‘I have had faith and trust in them, and ever since meeting Francisca Barajas, I had full confidence that this day would come, and he would be the one to catch him,’ she said.
‘I told him, ‘You are my hero. We are bonded for life.’
