(USNewsMag.com) – On March 11, police reported that Reyna Hernandez, 54, was found dead in a cemetery in Mexicali, Mexico.
The missing Renton, Washington, woman was reported missing by her friends on February 28th after failing to return calls or open her hair salon, Reyna Hair Salon, in Renton Highlands. She was last seen on February 26th, when, according to her friends, she had said she had planned to run errands before going home.
Authorities identified her body after investigators contacted police in Mexicali, a port of entry between the U.S. and Mexico that borders California, after reports that an unidentified body had been found in a local cemetery on the Tijuana Highway.
Hernandez’s vehicle, a white and maroon Ford Flex, was recovered by police in Mexico, who also arrested a Renton man, 61, on unrelated charges. It is unclear what his relationship is to Hernandez. According to a post on the Renton Police Department’s Facebook page, the man is considered to be a suspect in Hernadez’s disappearance and possible murder, as authorities need to determine the manner and time of her death before ruling it a homicide.
According to police, there was evidence Hernandez was taken against her will, and her death appears to be related to a domestic violence incident.
Renton police Cmdr. Chandler Swain called this “the worst possible outcome.” He said they are working alongside Mexicali police and their U.S. Federal partners to determine where and when Hernandez was killed and determine the jurisdiction of the case. If investigators determine she was killed in the United States, the 61-year-old man will be extradited to the United States from Mexico, according to the police. Until investigators determine where her death occurred, the man will remain in custody in Mexico.
Meeghan Black of the Renton Police Department called the outcome of the case “devastating,” adding that the case has crossed “not just state lines but country lines.”
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