Crime & Safety

Report: Police Have New Suspect In Murder of AU Professor

The Washington Post is reporting the suspect may be in Mexico.

Update, 1:05 p.m.: The Washington Examiner reports an Interpol wanted notice lists Landeros as "wanted for crimes against life and health" in Montgomery County. The notice describes him as 41 years old and 201 pounds with brown eyes and black hair. His languages include English and Castillian Spanish.

Update, 12:22 p.m.: Montgomery County police have a warrant charging a dual Mexican and American resident and former yoga instructor with the murder of American University professor and Bethesda resident Sue Marcum.

The news was first reported by The Washington Post.

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Police believe the suspect, Jorge Rueda Landeros, is currently in Mexico. He resides in Juarez.  

The Post reported that Marcum and Landeros, who had lived in the Washington area for much of the past 10 years, had met each other about six years ago. He was a yoga teacher in the D.C. area and New York and had also worked as a stock broker, according to the Post. Landeros has been writing online letters to acquaintances in the Washington area indicating that he knows about the warrant and declaring his innocence, according to the Post.

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Police have also obtained a collection of his poetry and a book he has written, the Post reported.

Few details about Landeros or his relationship with Marcum were available Friday morning, as Capt. David Gillespie, commander of Montgomery County police’s major crimes division, met with reporters outside police headquarters.

Gillespie did say that Landeros knew Marcum, and police now believe her murder was not a random crime. Marcum, a popular professor at American University, was found in what then appeared to be a burglary gone wrong. The seemingly random nature of the crime terrified the quiet Bethesda neighborhood where she resided.

Deandrew Hamlin, an 18-year-old resident of Washington, D.C., was found driving her stolen Jeep Cherokee in the District hours after the murder. Police arrested him and charged him with car theft. Police have not charged him in Marcum’s murder, and Friday, Gillespie said, "it doesn't appear that charges on him will be forthcoming at this time." However, “how he came into possession of that vehicle is still of interest to us.”

Gillespie said Montgomery County police are working with federal and Mexican authorities to serve the warrant on Landeros and transport him back to the U.S. “He comes back and forth on a regular basis,” Gillespie said.

Gillespie said he believed Landeros had returned to the country since Marcum’s Oct. 25 murder. He also said police believe Landeros knows there’s a warrant out for his arrest – one of the reasons they initially released details of the warrant to the Washington Post, Gillespie said.

The warrant charges Landeros with first degree murder, Gillespie said. “I’m not going to get into their relationship other than the fact that he was known to her,” Gillespie said.

Marcum was and also taught Test of English as a Foreign Language classes and offered Spanish tutoring services. She learned Spanish as an adult and had considered teaching or retiring in Latin America.

The Post reported and Gillespie confirmed that police learned about Landeros early on in the investigation. The warrant, however, is “pretty recent,” he said. In the early stages of the investigation, police focused on Hamlin since he was found driving Marcum’s stolen Jeep. “You have to go where the evidence leads, and that’s exactly what we did,” Gillespie said.

Original post, 9:47 a.m.: The Washington Post is reporting police have a suspect in the murder of American University professor Sue Marcum.

The suspect, according to the Post, is a Mexican-born yoga instructor named Jorge Rueda Landeros. The Post reports police believe he is in Mexico, but that he has been writing letters to acquaintances in the Washington area, declaring his innocence.

Landeros worked as a yoga instructor in the D.C. area, and the Post reports he met Marcum about six years ago. Montgomery County police confirm there is a warrant out for his arrest.

Marcum was in her Massachusetts Avenue home in October, shocking residents. Police who was found driving her car in the District and charged him with car theft. He has never been charged with the murder.

Stay tuned to Patch for updates.


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