News

Actions

Accused Jessup killer arrested in Texas after a month on the run

Posted at 4:41 PM, Jul 14, 2017
and last updated 2017-07-14 18:19:20-04

He was considered armed and dangerous, on the run for almost a month after stabbing and killing a man in Jessup.

Now, Santos Diaz-Lemus is in jail after police and U.S. Marshals found him at a traffic stop in Texas.

For almost 30 days, 31-year-old Diaz-Lemus has kept a low profile, a majority of which in the streets of Kingwood, Texas – a neighborhood 30 minutes outside of Houston.

“Our fugitive apprehension unit worked closely with U.S. Marshals, who ultimately found him yesterday morning around 10 o’clock on a traffic stop in a town in Texas,” Marc Limansky, a spokesman with Anne Arundel County Police, said.

Marshals along with police quickly figured the case would cross state lines and span more than 1400 miles.

In June, witnesses told police Diaz-Lemus was the man behind the knife that killed 29-year-old Fredy Lopez-Martinez.

A fight turned deadly one night at a driveway of home in the 2900 block of Jessup Road.

Lopez-Martinez was found unresponsive inside his truck a day later in Columbia. He was taken to Shock Trauma where he later died.

“We weren’t exactly sure what direction he was headed, initially, after the incident. But as a result of information that was received through tips and other means, we discovered that his whereabouts were likely somewhere in Texas,” Limanksy said.

Marshals pinpointed Diaz-Lemus, who tried changing his appearance and his I.D., growing out facial hair to make him unrecognizable.

“When they stopped him in Kingwood, he had multiple pieces of identification – false identification, he’d changed his appearance obviously in an attempt to elude law enforcement,” Limansky said.

An attempt that proved unsuccessful after a month’s long investigation.

 

Diaz-Lemus is being extradited back to Anne Arundel County, where he’ll face a 1st degree murder charged.