A fugitive criminal whom the FBI dubbed the “master of disguise” for having more than a dozen aliases was arrested in California after a four-year manhunt.
Tyler Adams, 51, was captured in Newport Beach, California, and is scheduled to be extradited to Hawaii, where he escaped from state custody in 2019.
He was serving time there for stealing $130,000 from Hawaiian banks, as well as a Costco racket worth $5,000, after previously serving another seven-year prison sentence in San Diego for using his mother’s and father’s identities to amass more than $3 million in debt, according to CBS 8.
While on the run, Adams met Navy veteran Racquel Sabean, whom he told was named Paul Phillips, and the two began a relationship.
Together they crossed the border into Mexico with their young daughter on April 17, 2022, and on May 31, Sabean’s body was found in Tijuana.
NBC San Diego
Mexican police questioned him about Sabean’s disappearance, but the next day he was seen entering the United States under the alias “Aaron Bain.”
He is wanted by the FBI in connection with her murder.
The FBI says Adams has used several aliases, including Aaron Lee, David Smith, Dominic Braun, David Phillips, Kevin Schoolcraft, Kevin Kennedy, Michael Whitman, Lance Irwin, Brice Johnson, Matthew Kashani, Taylor Chase and Joshua Smith.
Tyler Adams, 51, has been arrested after a four-year manhunt. FBI
Adams was reported missing from the Oahu Community Correctional Center on May 21, 2019, when he did not return from a work leave.
In September 2020, a judge issued a $50,000 arrest warrant for Adams on a charge of second-degree escape, as he apparently entered into a relationship with Sabean.
His remains were later found in the trunk of his Volkswagen Jetta parked on a residential street in Tijuana, where residents reported a “bad smell” emanating from the vehicle, CBS 8 reports.
Following Sabean’s murder, her father, David, admitted there had been several “red flags” with Adams and said he would “bet my life” that he killed her.
He recounted how his daughter once told him: “He’s kind to you. But when you’re not around, he’s not as nice to me,” the US Sun reported.
“Over time, I started to think that this guy is a fake, right?”
Adams is wanted in connection with the murder of his girlfriend Racquel Sabean in May 2022. CBS
David Sabean also claimed that surveillance cameras showed Adams parking his daughter’s Volkswagen on the street, where her body would later be found.
“I saw it with my own eyes,” Sabean said, stating that Mexican police have the surveillance footage but have not yet charged Adams with her murder.
An autopsy later revealed that Racquel Sabean’s neck had been broken, her father told CBS 8.
An autopsy concluded that Sabean, a U.S. Navy veteran, had her neck broken. Racquel Sabean / Facebook
In June 2022, the FBI also issued a statement asking for the public’s help in helping locate Adams, alleging that he was a “phony” and a “master of disguise.”
The FBI office in San Diego said Adams was detained in Mexico after an Amber Alert was issued for his 7-month-old daughter, Valentina, who was later found safe with a babysitter in Mexico and remains in protective custody there.
After Sabean’s death, his father said he noticed some “red flags” about Adams, whom he knew as Paul Phillips. NBC San Diego
When Mexican police began questioning Adams about Sabean’s disappearance, they said he was “uncooperative,” NBC San Diego reports, and Mexican prosecutors say he remains a suspect in Sabean’s murder.
He was then able to return to the United States by presenting U.S. Customs and Border Protection with a fake identification card, the FBI said.
Adams faces charges including grand theft, fraud by false pretenses, Hawaii fugitive warrant, as well as federal warrants for making false statements and falsifying identification documents, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
He has since pleaded guilty to misdemeanor counts of grand theft and fraud, NBC San Diego reports, and is due back in court on Jan. 3 to face fugitive charges.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn