Law enforcement captured Mario R. Garcia, the primary suspect in a fatal 1991 Massachusetts stabbing, after locating him on a Guatemalan shrimp farm, the Massachusetts State Police announced Wednesday.
Garcia was wanted for allegedly stabbing Ismael Recinos-Garcia during a fight in Attleboro, Massachusetts, on Nov. 16, 1991. He’d managed to evade police detection for over 30 years, and in 2021 his name landed on the Massachusetts State Police Most Wanted list, ABC News reported.
Today, a joint investigation resulted in the capture in Guatemala of Most Wanted Fugitive Mario Garcia, wanted for the 1991 murder of Ismael Recino-Garcia in Attleboro. Read more here: https://t.co/hRCvbrr0Mb pic.twitter.com/RRlUWKixAc
— Mass State Police (@MassStatePolice) December 14, 2022
Garcia was also wanted for an unrelated charge of assault and battery, according to his most wanted poster. A native of Guatemala, he also has connections to Utah, Georgia and Connecticut.
The Massachusetts State Police conducted “a multi-agency investigation that spanned more than 30 years and two continents,” according to a press release on Facebook. (RELATED: Fugitive Hiding Under Mattress Ambushes Police, Gun Fight Erupts)
In 2014, the State Police Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section (VFAS) found reason to believe Garcia had fled to a remote area in Guatemala. Then-Trooper and VFAS case officer Curtis Cinelli pursued the case and received information as a detective in early 2022 that Garcia might have been working on a shrimp farm.
“The fact that we were able to reach into Guatemala to hold accountable someone who committed a homicide in Massachusetts is a result of both tenacious police work and the value of our relationships with local, federal and international partners,” Massachusetts State Police Colonel Christopher S. Mason said in the press release.
Garcia may face prosecution in Bristol County, Massachusetts, upon his pending extradition, ABC News reported.