A former beauty queen from Puerto Rico is facing trial in the US for the murder of her wealthy husband 13 years ago.
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| Aurea Vazquez Rijos arrives at court in Puerto Rico. |
Áurea Vázquez Rijos finally appeared in court after a mammoth legal battle as she doggedly fought extradition from Spain and Italy.
The family of her late husband, Adam Joel Anhang, who was brutally stabbed to death in a street in the Puerto Rican capital San Juan, have long sought justice.
The victim’s father hired private detectives, who tracked Ms Vázquez to Europe, but not before an innocent man was convicted for the murder of the Canadian online gaming tycoon and then released.
"It took us five years and a lot of effort and energy to track her, since no sooner did we locate her, she got wind of it and moved on," Abe Anhang told the BBC,
Adam Anhang was stabbed to death in September 2005.
It initially appeared to be a bungled robbery during which Ms Vázquez was also injured.
But prosecutors allege Mr Anhang was lured into a trap by his wife whom he intended to divorce.
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| Abe Anhang, left, hired private detectives to find the truth of who was behind the killing of his son Adam Anhang. |
It is alleged Ms Vazquez Rijos planned his killing because a divorce would deprive her of access to his estate, estimated to be worth $USD24m.
This was part of a pre-nupital agreement the couple had signed.
Two years later Jonathan Roman Rivera was convicted of murdering Mr Anhang.
But the conviction was overturned when a witness stepped forward to tell authorities she saw the killer speaking with Ms Vazquez after knifing Mr Anhang.
In 2008, a US grand jury indicted her on two murder-for-hire charges after the suspected sassassin confessed Ms Vazquez had agreed to pay him USD3m for the hit.
But the former beauty queen had left US jurisdiction, settling in Italy. There she met a taxi driver in Florence and had twin daughters before the couple separated.
She then moved throughout Europe to evade detection.
Private detectives hired by Mr Anhang’s father tracked her to Gibraltar, Spain, France and England.
Eventually Ms Vazquez was arrested in Madrid after a sting operation by the FBI and Spanish authorities.
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| But in 2015 she was flown back to the US on a FBI jet under a deal in which Puerto Rico prosecutors agreed not to demand the death sentence at her trial. |
But after her imprisonment, she began a new legal battle against extradition after falling pregnant to a Spanish prisoner behind bars.
After having the baby and marrying the father in jail, she asked a judge not to extradite her.
But in 2015 she was flown back to the US on a FBI jet under a deal in which Puerto Rico prosecutors agreed not to demand the death sentence at her trial
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