Canadian border guards in Vancouver say they’ve arrested a man who has been on the run for 15 years after a gruesome murder in San Antonio, Texas.
At an immigration hearing Monday the Canadian Border Services Agency alleged the man in custody is Antonio Diaz Lisenber, who in 2000 was accused of tying a woman up in the basement of her palatial villa and leaving her to die.
A publication ban prevents CTV News from sharing the name he used in Canada. At his hearing, the man claimed he is not Lisenber, and it’s a case of mistaken identity.
The victim, Lillita Moke, was found by passersby in the basement of a San Antonio mansion. Her body was too badly decomposed for police to identify her, but officers found her arms had been bound by a cord that was also tied to her neck.
Authorities issued an arrest warrant for Lisenber, who was her gardener at the time.
Canadian Border Services Agency arrested a man on March 28 after he applied for permanent residency. The agency had checked his fingerprints and found a match with the FBI.
The CBSA told the hearing that Lisenber had been deported from the U.S. around 2000. They say this man claimed refugee status in Ontario in 2003. Then he moved to Vancouver, where he worked in a restaurant.
The CBSA is still working on finding definitive proof of his identity, but they say a picture taken of Lisenber while he was being deported by Americans matches the man today.
If the man is Lisenber it’s not clear how he wasn’t detected at our borders. But it is clear how he was sent out of the U.S. without facing charges – the CBSA told the hearing it was common around that time for U.S. authorities to deport Latin Americans without asking questions.
The man will now face 30 days in jail before another hearing, where he may be ordered deported to face murder charges.
