Suspect arrested after 25 years on the run for 5-year-old’s kidnapping and murder: report

A fugitive tied to the kidnapping and murder of a 5-year-old Philadelphia girl was arrested in Honduras after previously appearing on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Most Wanted list, according to a report.

Citing FBI Director Kash Patel, Fox News Digital said Alexis Flores was taken into custody on Wednesday.

“After more than 25 years on the run, this arrest shows that time and distance do not shield violent offenders from justice,” Patel said, per the media outlet. “Thanks to relentless work by our international partners and FBI personnel, a fugitive accused of an unthinkable crime against a child is now in custody and on a path back to the United States.”

The FBI previously said the girl was reported missing on July 29, 2000, and was found strangled to death in a nearby apartment four days later.

In 2007, the FBI said, an arrest warrant was obtained in Pennsylvania after Flores was charged with murder, as well as other felonies. During that time, a federal arrest warrant was issued after Flores was charged with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

Flores’ arrest comes less than a month after the FBI tracked down several other fugitives on its Most Wanted list.

Patel on January 17 said Alejandro Rosales Castillo — wanted on charges for the 2016 murder of his former coworker, 23 year old “Sandy” Ly Le in Charlotte, North Carolina — was taken into custody in Mexico.

Citing the the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, WJZY previously reported that two other suspects were previously charged in connection to Le’s murder.

Patel said Castillo had been a Most Wanted Fugitive for nearly a decade.

Later in January, the FBI announced the arrest of Olympic snowboarder turned alleged drug kingpin, Ryan Wedding. The FBI said agents tracked him down in Mexico after he was on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list since March 2025.

“He’s the modern-day El Chapo,” Patel previously said during a news conference in California, as Patel compared Wedding to the former Sinaloa cartel kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who is imprisoned in the U.S. after pleading guilty to drug trafficking charges.

Patel said the arrests are all “a credit to great investigative work and great leadership in this administration with @realdonaldtrump and @TheJusticeDept letting good cops be cops.”

“Justice will be done,” Patel previously wrote on X.