Jan 8 2020

DPD, FBI and DA’s Office Arrest Serial Killer Jose Sifuentes

Update on 01/09/2020 at 8:00 p.m.:

Background information on Sifuentes
In 1998, the Dallas Police Department investigated two separate murder offenses involving the deaths of Hispanic females by an unknown suspect. On February 15, 1998, Victim Maria de Lourdes Perales, age 20, was murdered at the 6100 block of Santa Fe Avenue. On June 27, 1998, Victim Erica Oliva Hernandez, age 23, was murdered at 11200 block of Harry Hines Boulevard. On May 16, 2003, Victim Veronica Hernandez, age 27, was murdered at the 1200 block of Murdock Road. During the course of the investigations, DNA confirmed the cases were linked and committed by the same suspect. In May 2003, the Dallas Police Department investigated an additional murder of a Hispanic female who was killed in similar fashion. Jose Sifuentes, a 25-year-old Hispanic male was arrested, interviewed and confessed to the 2003 murder offense. A DNA sample was collected and submitted for comparison. Sifuentes posted bond and fled the country before the DNA analysis was completed. Once, the DNA profile was analyzed, it linked all three cases together and revealed they were committed by the same suspect, Sifuentes. Warrants were issued for his arrest in the 1998 murders. After an exhaustive search, Sifuentes was located in a small town in Mexico where he was arrested.

With the assistance of the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, Sifuentes was extradited to the United States. On January 8, 2020, he was interviewed by detectives of the Dallas Police Department’s Special Investigations Unit. Sifuentes admitted to his involvement in all three murders. Sifuentes was transported to the Dallas County Jail.   

Anyone with information, please contact Detective Christine Ramirez at 214-671-3668 or by email at christine.ramirez@dpd.dallascityhall.com.

Original Post 01/08/2020:

The Dallas Police Department, the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation worked together to arrest longtime fugitive and serial killer, Jose Sifuentes, who was wanted for three capital murder offenses that occurred in Dallas.The murders spanned over five years from 1998 to 2003. Each was sexually motivated and the victims died as a result of homicidal violence.

Sifuentes, 42, was arrested in 2003 on the only known murder case at that time. He posted bond and fled to Mexico. While on the run, law enforcement discovered his DNA not only connected him to a murder in 2003, but to two other cold case murders in 1998.

In 2016, DPD and the DA’s Office applied for a provisional arrest warrant with the U.S. Department of Justice. This gave them the authority and means to search for Sifuentes in other jurisdictions. 

Sifuentes, who was now wanted for federal unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, was located in San Vicente de Gonzalez, Nuevo Leon, Mexico and detained by the Fiscalia General de la Republica (FGR) Interpol on April 25, 2019. Sifuentes was then transported to Mexico City for extradition proceedings. He was escorted back to Dallas by two agents with the FBI’s Legal Attaché Office (Legat) in Mexico City and arrived on January 8, 2020 at DFW Airport. FBI Dallas special agents then transferred him to the custody of the Dallas Police Department.

The Dallas Police Department would like to thank the FBI, the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office and all law enforcement agencies who worked to ensure Sifuentes’s arrest. It took a collaborative effort to bring him back to Dallas.