Almost 20 years after California murder, suspect found in Mexico and returned to the U.S.

After nearly two decades on the run, a man suspected of fatally shooting another man in Riverside was located in Mexicali, Mexico and returned to the United States for prosecution, the Riverside Police Department said Wednesday, July 24.

The renewed search for suspect Luis Contreras began in June 2024, when the Riverside Police Department’s Homicide Cold Case Unit reopened the case with the intent of finding and arresting him. Detectives believe Contreras, who was 32 at the time, fled to Mexico after he was identified as a suspect in the 2005 homicide.

The fatal shooting occurred June 14, 2005 inside a residence in the 4700 block of Doane Avenue, where police found 38-year-old Alfonso Vera inside the home suffering from multiple gunshot wounds; he died at the scene. After conducting several interviews, detectives believed Vera had tried to protect a woman whose boyfriend had begun hitting her after they got into an argument, when he allegedly was shot multiple times by Contreras, police said in a statement.

Of the three suspects involved, two were arrested a few weeks after the shooting. No charges were filed for one due to a lack of evidence, while the other suspect was charged with accessory to murder and received a three-year prison sentence. An arrest warrant was issued for Contreras in July 2005, but his location remained unknown for many years, according to police.

With assistance from the Riverside Police Department’s METRO Team and their participation in the U.S. Marshals Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force, Contreras was located and apprehended July 8 by civil police in Mexicali, before he was transferred and booked on suspicion of murder at the Riverside County Sheriff’s Cois M. Byrd Detention Center.