There's finally some relief for the family of Krystal Mitchell, a woman murdered in San Diego in 2016.
Mitchell's marine boyfriend, Raymond McLeod, was captured Monday after six years on the run.
"I worked with the marshals closely, so I knew this was coming down, so I was anxiously waiting," said Josephine Wentzel, Mitchell's mother.
Wentzel remembers the exact time she received a text from a U.S. Marshal Monday evening saying McLeod was in custody
"4:31 p.m.," Wentzel said. "I was just crying my eyes out like we did it. We did it. Francisco, it's real. It's over. It's over. We did it."
McLeod is charged with Micthell's murder. He's on the U.S. Marshal's Most Wanted Fugitives list.
Wentzel said her daughter and McLeod lived in Phoenix but were visiting friends in San Diego when Mitchell was found dead at the friend's apartment in Allied Gardens on June 10, 2016.
The San Diego County DA's Office said McLeod fled to Mexico, then Central America.
Wentzel, who's a former police detective, spent years helping U.S. Marshals follow his whereabouts. However, he was always one step ahead.
"I tracked down the hostel he was at in Livingston, Guatemala and I was too late. By the time I got there, he was gone," she said.
The DA's Office said authorities received a tip that McLeod had been teaching English at a school in El Salvador.
He was taken into custody without incident.
"Being a former police officer helped me to understand the system and not be so frustrated and angry and take things personally, but it's the mother bear in me... it's that mother that cried out for justice," Wentzel said.
Now, the family is one step closer to getting justice and, finally, some peace of mind.
"I was just glad that it's over. That I don't have to focus on trying to locate him, and I don't have to have nightmares about what he's doing to other women out there," she said.
McLeod was booked into the Central San Diego jail early Wednesday morning and faces murder charges. His arraignment is scheduled for Friday, September 2.
