In a win for American safety, U.S. border agents nabbed a Mexican national coming through a U.S. port of entry who was listed among the FBI’s top 10 most wanted fugitives.
Guadalajara native Robert Francis Van Wisse, 51, crossed the U.S. border on foot at a port of entry in Laredo, Texas on Jan. 26 and was referred for a secondary inspection. After running his biometric data, agents discovered Van Wisse was wanted for murder in Austin, Texas, for a homicide that occurred more than 30 years ago.
According to reports, Laurie Stout, the female owner of a janitorial service was found dead in a building she’d been hired to clean at around 8:30 a.m. on Sept. 19, 1983. She’d been sexually assaulted and strangled to death with a wire. She had a one-year-old daughter at the time.
Van Wisse, an 18-year-old college student at the time, was originally connected with the murder, but detectives couldn’t find enough concrete evidence to charge him. But thanks to updated technology, forensic investigators were able to finally link Van Wisse to the crime in 1996. The following year, he was also charged with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, and had been on the run ever since.
Customs and Border Protection stated he’ll be turned over to Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI for extradition to Travis County, where he’ll face justice.
Via MRCTV