Mother Wanted in Daughter’s Killing Captured in Mexico After Nearly 12 Years

Phoenix, AZ. — A woman wanted for nearly 12 years on a first-degree murder charge in her daughter’s death was detained October 18 in Mexico, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.

Anna Marlene Somoza, 60, was taken into custody in Xochitepec by agents with Mexico’s federal attorney general’s office, Interpol and the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection. Authorities are coordinating her return to Arizona to face the pending charge.

Somoza and her former boyfriend, Avelino Tamala, were indicted in December 2014 in the death of Crystal Reyes, whose remains were discovered in the Arizona desert in 1998. Tamala, a former narcotics detective, was convicted of Crystal’s murder in November 2016 and sentenced to life in prison.

Somoza’s charge remains pending.

“This disturbing case can finally move forward with justice for Crystal,” U.S. Marshal Van Bayless of the District of Arizona said.

The investigation began November 30, 1998, when a hunter discovered human bone fragments in a remote area of Mobile, Arizona. The remains went unidentified until August 2014, when DNA testing established that they belonged to Crystal.

According to the Marshals Service, Crystal was born in Nogales, Mexico, in November 1993. Shortly afterward, Somoza brought her to live with Somoza and Tamala in Ahwatukee, Arizona.

Investigators alleged that the couple repeatedly abused and starved Crystal, restrained her and confined her in a small dog kennel. According to the agency’s account, the abuse culminated January 30, 1997, when Crystal was bound, suffocated with a taped towel and left inside a sealed cardboard box.

The investigation intersected with an earlier drug case involving Somoza and Tamala. Following a 1993 arrest for selling and transporting marijuana, Somoza became a confidential informant for an Arizona law enforcement agency. During that cooperation, she entered what the Marshals Service described as an improper romantic relationship with Tamala, then a narcotics detective.

Somoza and Tamala were arrested on drug and weapons offenses in 1999. DNA collected following those arrests later indicated that Somoza could not be excluded as the mother of the child whose remains had been recovered. Investigators, however, lacked a DNA sample from Crystal’s biological father needed to help establish her identity.

Somoza served an eight-year federal prison sentence before being released and deported to Mexico in 2008, according to the agency.

Cold case detectives located and interviewed Crystal’s biological father, Darren Stockwell, in August 2014. Testing of his DNA positively identified the remains as Crystal’s. The Marshals Service said Stockwell had been a law enforcement officer when Crystal was conceived.

The DNA identification and other evidence led a Maricopa County grand jury to indict Somoza and Tamala on December 12, 2014. Members of the Arizona WANTED Violent Offender Task Force arrested Tamala that day.

Investigators developed leads indicating Somoza was in Mexico and began working with the Marshals Service’s international personnel to find her. The agency said her close connections with cartels complicated the search and that she took extensive measures to avoid detection.

Authorities obtained a provisional arrest warrant in October 2022 to support efforts to return Somoza to the United States. In 2026, the Marshals Service designated the investigation a major case, committing additional personnel and resources.

Beginning in early September, task force members developed information about Somoza’s whereabouts in Mexico. Mexican authorities detained her October 18 at approximately 2:27 p.m. local time.

The investigation involved the Phoenix Police Department, Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona and U.S. Marshals Service personnel in Arizona and Mexico.

“With the suspect in custody, the case of Crystal Reyes can move forward,” the Phoenix Police Department said in a statement.