Arnoldo Jimenez faces a first-degree murder charge in the 2012 death of Estrella Carrera.
BURBANK, Ill. — A man accused of killing his wife less than 48 hours after their wedding has been returned to Illinois after years as a fugitive and more than a year after his arrest in Mexico, authorities said.
Arnoldo Jimenez, 44, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Estrella Carrera, a 26-year-old mother of two who was found stabbed in a bathtub inside her Burbank apartment on May 13, 2012. The case drew national attention after investigators said Carrera was still wearing the dress she had worn to her wedding reception. Jimenez had been on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list before his arrest in Monterrey, Mexico.
Carrera and Jimenez married May 11, 2012, at Chicago City Hall, then marked the wedding with relatives and friends. Investigators said the couple later left a celebration together. Carrera was expected to pick up her children the next day, but she did not arrive and stopped answering calls. Family members asked police to check her apartment, where officers found her body. Authorities said there were no clear signs of forced entry. The discovery turned a missing-person concern into a homicide investigation that soon focused on Jimenez.
Police and prosecutors have said Carrera was stabbed multiple times after an argument with Jimenez. Investigators alleged the attack happened in his black Maserati before her body was moved into the apartment. Jimenez disappeared soon after the killing, authorities said. A state arrest warrant was issued after he was charged with first-degree murder in May 2012. Federal authorities later charged him with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, saying he left the area while police were searching for him.
The FBI added Jimenez to its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list in 2019 and later offered a reward of up to $250,000 for information leading to his arrest. The bureau said agents in Chicago and San Antonio worked with the FBI legal office in Mexico City, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Burbank police, Mexican federal authorities and Interpol. Jimenez was arrested without incident Jan. 30, 2025, in Monterrey, officials said.
Douglas S. DePodesta, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Chicago Field Office, said after the arrest that the case showed law enforcement would keep working across borders. The FBI also credited Burbank police and the public for helping keep attention on the case. Local officials said Carrera’s relatives had waited years for the case to return to a courtroom. Jimenez is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Jimenez was returned to the United States in June 2026 after extradition proceedings in Mexico. Court records cited by local reports said he was scheduled to be transferred to FBI custody in Mexico City on June 18. The murder charge remains pending in Cook County. Authorities have not publicly released every detail of the alleged confrontation, and a motive has not been fully explained in public filings.
The case now moves from a fugitive search to prosecution in Illinois. As of Thursday, Jimenez is back in U.S. custody, and the next major step is continued Cook County court proceedings on the pending murder charge.
Author note: Last updated June 25, 2026.