Transcript of The Hunt for Mr. Right

This story is like an elaborate. Once you get in, you cannot get out. You can't stop thinking about it. You can't stop looking for the truth, looking for answers.

This was like a senseless A census murder. The American University professor's body was found inside her Bethesda home.

That's actually the house right there.

Were there security cameras or surveillance cameras from other houses that could have helped?

There was nothing.

Walked in there, I saw TVs laying on the sofas and stuff.

I noticed the table was turned over. Some glass was broken.

This is the view down the stairs. You can see Sue's shoes there. Then around the corner is where we found Sue on the floor.

She had been involved in a really bloody, violent struggle.

Sue Markham was fighting back.

Absolutely.

It's on the news every 10 minutes, and you see her smiling face. The night that she was killed, she appeared like she was socializing with someone. You're not going to do that with a stranger.

Oh, my God.

What was she going through? Why couldn't she tell us about this?

I start looking more and more into this mysterious guy.

Normally, when I publish a story, I get it out of my system, but this one was different. Then one day, I got one call that changed everything. It was like a Hannibal Leclerc moment.

On On a quiet stretch of American University's campus in Washington, DC, where ambitions and ideas fill the air, this global mystery would entangle one beloved accounting professor who inspired generations.

I was Sue Markham's graduate assistant. Sue was vibrant. Everyone thinks of us, accountants, as boring and living in our spreadsheets, but she really drew you in.

She made it fun. She made it fun.

Everyone here loved her.

She cared so much about her university community that she actually started a scholarship for students at AU to help them with their advanced degrees. She was very bubbly, wore very outrageous outfits, wasn't afraid to do that.

Seemed like she had, I don't know how many different types of glasses and would wear them.

She was very impressive.

What was she like?

Oh, my. The warmest, kindest, most wonderful giving person I've ever met in my life.

There's just no question about that.

I think she was always looking in life for love, and she wanted to give love and receive love. I think that created a personality that was very giving.

That's why she was such a good teacher. She received awards and accolades. Yeah. As far as I know, it was the American University's Cogot Business School Teacher of the Year. What was it like growing up with your little sister? We had fun together, and it was a very close-knit family. She was A free spirit, a very strong woman, smart, very giving. Your kids had a great fondness for Sue.

They were very fond of her. She doesn't have kids of her own, and these became the special people in her life. Before the classroom became her world, Sue chased a very different dream with the greatest show on Earth.

She joined the circus. Honest to goodness, Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus as their tax manager. She told me the story that she walked into the lobby at Ringling, and there was a great big stuff. I think it was guerrilla and thought to herself, Oh, I want to work here. This is the right place for me. And I think they hired her pretty much on the spot. The circus just brought accounting to be a colorful endeavor.

In 1998, Sue had moved on from her career with the circus, and now she settled into her new role teaching at American University.

Sue lived in a real nice neighborhood in Bethesda, Maryland. Pretty modest house, certainly by Bethesda standards, on a busy road.

Sue was a lot of fun, always looking for Mr. Wright.

She had relationships on and off, but nothing major or very serious. By the age of 52, Sue had built a tight circle of friends, and none closer than Larry March, who she spoke to every single day.

Sue was my best friend since I went to college.

From what Larry's told me, Sue was his alarm clock. She call him every morning, make sure he was awake, and then call him twice more to make sure that, in fact, he was awake and he was getting out.

But something different happens on October 25th of 2010. Larry doesn't get a call from Sue. I said, Well, it's probably I didn't get the phone call because she was going to go jogging that morning, and maybe she was late.

So he went in to school. He taught also. In between classes, tried to reach Sue and couldn't.

Sue does not let me down.

Simple as that.

So I'm just going to go find out.

I think on the way there, I called Lisa.

Larry calls me and he said, I've been trying and I can't reach her. I could tell in his voice that something was terribly wrong.

I drove there, and when I got there, I parked my car, and I had a key to her house. So I opened the door, walked in there.

I saw TVs laying on the sofas.

I noticed the table was turned over, the glass was broken or whatever.

He's now worried, and then he calls police.

This is from the actual crime scene video.

And when investigators make their way down to the basement, what or who will they discover? Discover.

This is the view down the stairs.

The story takes an ugly turn.

October 25th, 2010.

Pretty normal day starts for you, right?

It sure was.

But that normal day ends for Larry Haley of the Montgomery County Police Department. As he responds to a crime scene at Sue Markham's home.

We received a call from Sue's friend, Larry March, who had gone over to check on her after he didn't hear from Sue.

I couldn't figure out what was going on, but I said, So there's got to be something wrong. But then I thought she would have called me even if something happened.

So I was going to go find out.

I got to her house and I parked my car.

The house is older, more established neighborhood, fairly quiet. This is definitely not the place where you expect to find a dead body. But that is exactly what Larry March discovers. It was definitely surreal.

It's like, this isn't happening.

But then to see, is there any hope? There was no hope. I mean, it was clear. So I immediately They'll call 911.

What were you told?

I was told that she was deceased inside the residence, and the officers on scene believed it might be a homicide based on her injuries that they had observed.

Murders are unusual in Bethesda.

So that's part of the reason they get a lot of attention.

Rare that there's going to be a homicide in Bethesda, Maryland. There were a lot of police cars. It wasn't just patrol guys. It was obviously a big deal.

And her body was in the basement.

In the basement at the bottom of the steps.

This is the view down the stairs. You can see Sue's shoes there, and then around the corner is where we found Sue on the floor.

It appeared that she had been pushed or had fallen down the stairs, and then they found a bottle. It was broken. It was underneath her. It was a brutal, brutal murder. Whoever did this probably chased her down the stairs, smashed her over the head with a tequila bottle. There was blood around her, and then she was suffocated. There was DNA under one of her fingernails, and it wasn't her DNA. So that was a big clue. That's a suspect's DNA.

Sue Markham was fighting back Yes.

Absolutely.

The question now, fighting back against whom.

The American University professor's body was found inside her Bethesda home.

And as the news spreads fast, everyone who knows Sue is stunned. I got a call from my mom. I hung up the phone, laid my head down on my desk, and cried. This mysterious murder has truly torn through the fabric of this American University community.

Unbelievable. It's really sad, and I just don't really understand how this could happen to a really good person. It was hard. It's on the news every 10 minutes, and you see her smiling face. I don't even know how to react. I can remember sitting at my desk and just being like, But I just emailed her. I know I did a lot of crying because it didn't make any sense to me.

This was like a senseless murder.

So this is the back of the house.

This is the back of Sue Markham's house. Obviously, we're interested in the outside of the house for the forced entry. This is from the actual crime scene video that our forensics person took. There was a screen that was cut and resting up against the wall below the window. And then the window was slightly open.

Appearing like someone it had broken it.

That was what the appearance was. The first thing I noticed when I walked in was that there was a TV face down on the couch, obviously out of place.

The TV is right by the door.

Yes, there's a second TV on the floor behind that couch. We don't ultimately know why they weren't taken.

So it looked ransacked.

Her bedroom and another room had been rummaged through the clothing onto the floor. That's typical things we would see in a burglard. There's a countertop right below the window. There's broken glass, and then there's broken glass on the floor. So we had the broken glass upstairs, and perhaps Sue had fled downstairs to get away from whatever was happening.

What are you thinking at this point?

So obviously, we think we're looking at a burglary.

Montgomery County police call her attacked, a burglary gone wrong.

Did you think that, too? I had no reason to think anything else because I had no reason to believe that there was any reason that someone would have intentionally killed her.

Police are making a record of property in Sue Markham's home. They noticed that many things are missing: her wallet, her cell phone, her laptop. Certainly gave the appearance that it was a burglary. Maybe that had gone wrong, and then the person made good their escape in her vehicle.

Sue drove a gold Jeep Cherokee, pretty modest car.

The Jeep was missing.

The Jeep was missing. It's a very easy to spot car. It's a gold Jeep Cherokee, the old box style.

So now finding that stolen car becomes your top priority.

It becomes our top priority.

The police are hoping that finding that Jeep will solve the mystery and solve it quickly. But when they run down her Jeep, little do they know it will only lead to more questions.

People in the area around where Sue Markham lived would not be surprised to hear about someone breaking in. There had been 60 to 80 burglaries in the few months prior to this.

It It's not uncommon to have, especially in this area, Bethesda, a lot of break-ins.

So that's where the investigation into what happened to Sue is starting, a robbery that somehow went wrong and turned into a murder.

That's what the police told us, and that's what they were investigating.

But the cops have little to go on. And were there security cameras or surveillance cameras from other houses that could have helped?

There was nothing.

Their biggest potential lead was Sue Markham's car, that gold Jeep, similar to this one that was missing.

So the evening rush hour is approaching. There are tens of thousands of cars buzzing around DC. The police are looking for just one.

It's very important that they found this Jeep. And so not just Montgomery County, but police in the whole area were looking for this Jeep.

Sue's license plate number is put into a system that alerts police everywhere to be on the lookout. In addition to that, along the roads, there are special cameras, and they can read license plates as those cars whizze by. This is a tag reader on the side of the road that captures it? Correct, on the side of the road. And it's catching every vehicle going through? Every vehicle. Correct. And sure enough, later that night, there's a hit on one of those cameras just over the border in Washington, DC. Someone in the Jeep with Sue's license plate just drove by.

As luck would have it, around this time, a DC Metro police auto theft officer is on duty, and he just happens to come upon the Jeep, and he notices the driver is a young man, and the driver is alone. I've seen a police cruiser got right behind He flicked his lights, hit a siren.

His name is D' Andrew Hamlin, 18 years old at the time, and he says he's already nervous when he notices a second police car arrive.

Another police, his backup had a black-up, had a four-duck. When I seen that, I took off. It was on from there. It's on, all right. And a full-on chase breaks out right through the streets of DC. I was passing lights, hitting corners, crazy, trying to lose the police, pretty much.

How far did you wind up chasing the car thief?

It was roughly two miles. Pretty high speeds across the district.

I didn't pull the vehicle over because I didn't want to get logged up. I didn't want to get apprehended. But he didn't want what happens next either, as he speeds right into this major intersection.

What happened when the car arrives here?

When he He tried to make the turn, he struck the curb, took out a light pole, and actually came to rest in the intersection.

I hopped out and was trying to run.

So now it's Chase number 2, this time on foot. The police running after Hamlin.

Running. Running.

So you give Chase.

The DC officers gave Chase. They caught him a very short distance away.

I stopped, threw my hands up because I knew the other officer was behind When police catch up with the suspect, they thought that he was a burglar, and they thought that he might have been the killer.

D' Andrew Hamlin is now a suspect in this murder case.

Of course. I would say he's the number one suspect at that point.

At that point. Now, keep in mind, police already arrested a DC teen connected to this case.

We heard from the detectives in Montgomery County, Maryland, that they had apprehended him, and they thought they had the guy who robbed her house, stolen her Jeep, and killed her.

So they charged him with being inside a stolen vehicle. That was enough for them to arrest him. That was enough for them to question him.

Although Hamlin has not been charged in the murder, police still have questions.

We are still of interest in to find finding out specific details as to how he came into contact with that vehicle and where he got it from.

When we confronted him about Ms. Markham's murder and the fact that the vehicle had been taken in that murder, he denied any knowledge of that.

I believe the detective was asking me that I knew a woman named Sue Markham, and I was saying, I don't... Who is she?

I don't know her.

But the police, they don't believe Hamlin's denials.

When you're in the vehicle of someone the day that they're murdered, that could be very incriminating.

Not only that, Hamlin has a record, though nothing even close to a homicide. I have been arrested before. My prior arrests were from simple assaults, and I believe I had one UUV, which is unlawful use of a motor vehicle. Hamlin is about to tell the cops his version of how in the world he could possibly be driving that cheap and have nothing to do with Sue Markham's murder. Whatever led him to this moment, he's facing some trouble. But when he starts asking my fingerprints, took a picture and stuff like that, and then something was up. You get in a chase with the police. You wreck, then you get up and you continue the chase by running.

Looked really guilty.

Looked really guilty. I did not expect this driving around someone vehicle that I didn't have permission to drive would turn into a world misery.

It's not looking good for D' Andrew Hamlet. But as investigators look more closely at the crime scene and begin to probe into Sue Markham's private life, they start to wonder, could this murder have been something much more personal?

She was sitting there, appeared like she was socializing with someone. You're not going to do that with a stranger.

She wouldn't have shot a tequila with a burglar.

I would think not.

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Less than 24 hours after Montgomery County police discovered Sue Markham murdered in her own home, a detective thought they had nabbed her killer. De Andrew Hammond was arrested after he crashed Markham's stolen Jeep. That's the only evidence they had me in the truck. They were assuming that I got it from her house, but that wasn't in the case.

The car was found right here, right here, according to Mr. Hamlin.

What was DeAndre Hamlin's story?

So He says he was at home at his house, and his brother was walking on the street here.

I had received a phone call that evening for my brother. He had to find a vehicle that was located right here in this area. I hop in, started, nodded at my brother, took off. I was pretty much just wanting a joy ride, and I was going to make the car mine.

How did the brother know the car was here? He just had walked by.

He was just walking by and the windows were down. The keys were in the ignition.

It was almost like somebody wanted someone to steal the car.

D' Andrew Hamlin did not match any of the DNA on the scene. We executed search warrants, and we did not find a single item related to Sue Markham's case.

Even though Hamlin pleads guilty to unauthorized use of a vehicle, police eliminate him as a suspect in Sue Markham's murder.

Police are back to square one. They have all this unknown male DNA all over the crime scene, but they don't know who it belongs to.

Right here is where the screen was that was left on the ground, and then the window up into the side of the house. The screen was cut. It was bent, but from the inside to the out and not the outside to the end, which was pretty unusual.

What do you see inside?

So inside, there's a countertop right below the window. There's a tower with some fruit and some dishes and some of the things that are there that were completely undisturbed. It would have been extremely difficult to come through that window without completely knocking all those things all over the place.

Did the scene look staged at this point?

There were some items there that were trouble doubling. There was a glass vase that had flowers and some water in it. That vase was found resting on its side on the stairs. They had concerns that it might have been placed there because if that had fallen off of a table, it would have been shattered into a million pieces.

Had tequila glasses on the kitchen counter?

Yes. So there were two tequila glasses side by side. The glasses themselves were wrapped in a brown, decorative leather wrap. They had some residual liquid in them.

The night that she was killed, she was sitting there, appeared like she was socializing with someone. You're not going to do that with a stranger.

She wouldn't have a shot of tequila with a burglar.

I would think not.

The detectives tried to recreate Sue's life. Who knew this person? Who was close to this person?

On the day of the murder, I came across a life insurance policy in her office to a beneficiary that was not a family member.

And what was that name?

It was Jorge Ruida Landeros.

Who is Jorge Landeros?

He was somebody that Sue Markham had befriented several years prior to her death.

Dupont Circle in Washington is a very vibrant place that people go, hang out. It's a place where you might go to meet new kinds of people. And so Sue goes there, 2005, and she starts taking Spanish lessons. The guy teaching the Spanish lessons is Jorge Landeros.

They found out that they had a shared interest, a shared passion for books, for philosophy, for yoga, and they started to become friends. Jorge Rueda Landeros was born in Juárez in 1969. He spent his early years in Mexico, and then he moved with his family to the United States. He became a dual citizen. He was a diehard yoga teacher.

In 2005, Landeros moved to the Washington, DC, area, and it's there that he starts teaching yoga and Spanish classes. And that's how he soon meets Sue Markham.

They became close. They traveled together. They would be meditating before sunrise, and yoga became a big part of their life. Sue always had the morning classes. She actually brought Jorge and the two of them did yoga. It together. In class? Yeah, to start a class to wake them up.

He actually came to one of her classes and led the meditation. I can remember them both sitting on the desks in Criscross Applesau.

She was becoming more interested in him as a person, and she developed a crush on him.

He was suave. He was sophisticated. He was romantic. There's a little romance here.

She fell for him.

She did fall for him.

She thought She had met the man of her dreams with Landeros. There's only one problem. The feeling may not have been mutual.

She did tell me that it had become physical, but then she told me that it stopped. It was because he did not want to do that anymore.

She had told me at one point that she loved him, and she knew he was never going to be able to return that love. She knew it was one-sided.

Sue's friends were not fond of Mr. Linares. He was a mystery to them.

I just said that this guy is...

There's something here that's just not right.

I met him, and I told Sue, I don't think this is the right person for you. She said, No, Dawn, you don't understand him. He's wonderful. He's smart. He's a genius. Jorge, no doubt about it, is a smart guy. In one of his fields, he was a stockbroker. Obviously, Sue, as an accountant, that was a shared passion of them. It wasn't just a subject they had in common. They started investing money together.

Eventually, Jorge tells Sue that he wants to go back to Juarez, his hometown.

I think there was a sense of relief from Sue's friends.

They were surprised that we were even asking about him because it was their understanding that Eve really wasn't in her life very much.

When one of them says to me, Who is Jorge Lenderos? My first reaction was, Well, he's in Mexico.

He doesn't live here anymore. But as detectives follow this money trail, they discover some shocking emails, and they detail financial arrangements that Sue hadn't even mentioned to her closest friends.

What will police discover as they untangle the secrets between Sue Markham and Jorge Landeros?

Detectives start looking more and more into this mysterious guy, Jorge Landeros.

And they discover something interesting, an entangled personal and financial relationship between Landeros and Sue Marca.

We had been going through Sue's office just looking for clues and came across a life insurance policy in the amount of $500,000 where Mr. Landeros was the sole beneficiary.

This life insurance policy was reciprocal, but it was definitely still eyebrow-raising because most concerning to Sue's friends is that she never mentioned it to anyone.

In terms of the life insurance policy, completely blew my mind.

For her to leave anything to him, it doesn't make any sense to me.

I'm like, What the hell, Sue? But the life insurance policy wasn't the only financial tie. Investigators then discover some communications between Sue and Jorge that raised some red flags.

We became aware of a series of emails between Sue Markham and Jorge Lenderos, where they're clearly talking about an investment plan and that whatever had occurred with that plan, it was causing her just a tremendous amount of stress and anxiety.

He was going to basically act as a day trader. He was going to make investments for her. And the idea is that they were both going to financially benefit. And she had given him over $300,000. They had a joint brokerage account, and Jorge was doing his thing and trading his stocks. Most of the money in there was Sue's money. She was nervous, not just about whether he was picking the right investments, but he was spending money out of this account. The money was leaving this account, and that obviously was a great concern for her.

She gave him complete control. She'd be sending him emails asking what was going on.

And if he didn't want to, he just ignored the email.

Mr. Lenderos had gone back to Mexico, and so he was ghosting her. He was not responding to emails, not in a timely manner, and that only further fed her anxiety.

One of those heartbreaking emails, Sue writes, The vision of you sitting at the end of my kitchen table telling me that you have no remorse for spending the money keeps appearing in my head.

Like PTSD.

She was increasingly desperate for money. She had remortgaged her house. She had borrowed money from her father. She had took money out of her retirement fund. She couldn't pay her bills.

Things were falling apart. Financially, by the time she was murdered. There was nothing left in the accounts.

Mortgage after mortgage, hundreds of thousands of dollars gone. Money she thought was being invested.

He just withdrawn, withdrawn, withdrawn, until it was down to nothing.

What did this do to Sue Markham?

I just have to think that because she didn't discuss this with any of her closest friends, that it was just killing her. And I just think the embarrassment was just eating her up.

So you're beginning to put this picture together of what's going on. You're looking at the life insurance. His name is all over the financials, and he had taken a lot of money from her. So when police uncovered this, Landero's taking Markham's money, that gave them a motive.

So he became the prime suspect at that point.

Detectives had unknown male DNA found under her fingernails, on the tequila bottle, and on the shot glasses.

The detectives in Maryland wanted some probable cause to have the Mexican authorities get this guy and get him extradited back to the US. But it wasn't just as simple as, we think maybe he did it. They needed something specific. They needed his DNA.

Investigators learned that Jorge Landeros has been routinely crossing right here, the international Bridge between Juarez, Mexico, and El Paso, Texas. It's It's a perfect opportunity for detectives to make a play to get his DNA. In January of 2011, you get a call from Montgomery County, Maryland. Yes, sir.

They were working a murder case.

They had a person of interest, so they asked if we can see if we can obtain his DNA. We flag his name on their computer system, so the next time that he would cross, they would hold him for us. And after you do that, how long is it before he comes across. It was about two months. And my partner and I came to the bridge to meet with him.

We told that he was a person of interest in the murder back in Montgomery County.

He was very nonchalant, very calm, very easygoing, cooperative. He didn't have a care in the world.

He asked for his DNA, and he agrees.

After he takes the swab, he's free to go? He's free to go, and he decided to walk home. Before he returns to Mexico, investigators are able to obtain a voluntary DNA sample from Landeros, but it would take months for the results to come back. The question is, would they be able to connect him to Markham's murder?

The whole story is a mystery.

Jorge Landeros is gone.

He was a chameleon.

It is an act of just pure evil.

Are you thinking we might never see him again? Months after Landeras' encounter with authorities on this bridge between Juarez, Mexico, and El Paso, the DNA results are in.

The DNA profile from the buckle swab we got at the border crossing matched the DNAs, the fingernails, the bottle, back to Landeros. And so for a homicide detective, he became the prime suspect at that point. Montgomery County police have issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Landeros for one count of first-degree murder.

With all signs pointing to Landeros, a warrant is issued for his arrest. But by then, he had already crossed back into Mexico.

We know that during the months that followed the murder, Jorge was living in Juárez. I think he chose Juárez because it was both his hometown and his homeground.

Even though police know where he is, local police tell us they cannot cross the border to pick him up. We are working in conjunction with Interpol.

The problem is there is a process that needs to be followed.

If you want to follow due process, you cannot just go to Juárez, arrest a man, and take him to Maryland. Those If things take time.

Did you feel that there may not be any justice? It was a little frustrating. Maybe a lot frustrating.

So investigators try something bold. They open up a direct line of communication with the fugitive himself.

The Montgomery County detectives had a murder suspect in another country in locations unknown, but they could correspond with him.

They were corresponding with him via email?

He started writing to the authorities and even correcting them their emails. Correcting them?

Yeah.

He was looking for grammar mistakes.

Always the teacher. Jorge Landeros used the occasion to taunt his pursuers in emails, inviting investigators to meet him for lunch at a cafe in Juarez. He even offered to pick up the check.

Landeros just relishes this cat and mouse game that he's got going with police. He tells an El Paso detective, We can talk shop all you want. Markham's neighbors are shocked at his Cavalier attitude.

He seems to be a charismatic guy, very, very sure of himself.

Was he arrogant? Yes.

Very much so.

What did he say?

He was saying, I welcome you to come to a cafe in Juarez to discuss further about Ms. Markham. Then he said, Bring your kevlar.

Bring your kevlar. Correct.

Well, it proved best. I took it to me.

I thought that he was doing a fine job of taunting law enforcement. Getting a kick out of this.

So he ups it a notch. He stops talking to the police, and now he turns his attention to the press.

My phone rings, and it's Jorge, and this guy is calling me from Mexico. Right away, he did start talking specifically about the case and what evidence he thought the police had on him. He's like, Well, yeah, they got my DNA. So what? I've been there a lot. My DNA is all over the place. So he's like, Next, what else do they have? Certainly, he kept saying he didn't do it. I quoted him as saying, This looks bad for me, so that's why I'm not going to leave Mexico.

He was very aware that the moment he set foot in the US, he would be in trouble.

While Jorge Landeros is in Mexico, he's giving interviews to reporters, proclaiming his innocence. What did you think when he said that?

I didn't believe him.

Yeah, his statements had no credibility as far as I was concerned. After Sue's murder, Landeros is living in Juárez, and he self-publishes an online book of musings, fittingly titled The Fugitive Poems.

They are a first-hand testimony of his whereabouts and what was going through his mind. Its content is very dark. They are about life and death. The American dream was a recurrent topic in his poetry, and I think the death of Sue Marcom symbolizes the end of his American dream.

I don't think I've of a fugitive who's publishing poetry while on the run from the law. A little audacious, maybe, narcissistic. It's all about him.

So the FBI puts Landeros on their most wanted list. His face is everywhere. His name is everywhere. When they first got the warrant for him and they thought he was in Juarez, there was this thought that we're going to finally catch him because we're not that far behind.

But just as authorities are closing in, Landeros slips away away again. He leaves Juárez, and this time for good. At one point, investigators are pretty close to making an arrest, and then he goes off the map again. Jorge Lendero is gone.

Gone. There was just a long lull of time when there was nothing. We didn't have anything.

According to what I understand of his published work, he spent time on the beach in the Pacific, in the West Coast of Mexico.

What was that like for the family?

Frustrating. Wanting justice for her, wanting to be sure that he didn't hurt anybody else ever.

Despite her family's desperate search for answers, 11 long years go by. But then, finally, in 2021, there's a major break in this case. Investigators began hearing rumors of a mysterious man named Leon Ferrara, who may have had a connection to Jorge Landeros. So they tracked him here to the city of Guadalajara. It's a name they have never heard of before. What does this new man, Ferrara, know about Landeros' life on the run? Could he lead investigators to Sue Markham's alleged killer?

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This story is like a labyrinth. Once you get in, you cannot get out. You can't stop thinking about it. You can't stop looking for the truth, looking for answers.

Nearly a decade after Sue Markham's murder, her alleged killer, Jorge Landeros, is living his new life on the run somewhere south of this border.

He had been living essentially out in the open under his real name in Juárez, Mexico, so he realizes he's got to go undercover. We continued the investigation for long periods of time. We're working with officials in the State Department, the Mexican government officials, to try to locate him. We would welcome him to turn himself in to the Mexican authorities or walk across the border and turn himself in. It was very frustrating waiting all those years. I think at some point in time, I think he began to, Will he ever come back?

Had you given up hope? I didn't expect that he would ever be apprehended, but I always hoped he would be.

I just knew that it was going to It was going to happen. I'm a firm believer that God will take care of people, and it was going to happen.

Nobody knows where he's at. Nobody knows what he's doing. We have no information for her Landeros died in a way.

There were people in this community that I knew I could not see without them saying, Hey, what's going on with Sue's case? Are we going to get this guy? Are we going to get him back from Mexico to stand trial? This went on for years.

Mexican authorities tell 2020 that 10 years into the hunt, a new investigator takes over and starts combing through Landeros' social media accounts, searching for any digital trace of the fugitive.

Buried deep in those accounts, the investigator spots a name that stands out. It's a man in Guadalajara calling himself Leon Ferrara. And this guy appears unusually close to Landeros. Guadalajara is Mexico's second biggest city.

It's very well known for its culture, its history. It's a great place to start a new life because there's It's not going to be anyone asking any questions. León Ferrara was a yoga teacher here in Guadalajara. León was everything you would imagine a yoga teacher would be. A teacher, a confident, and a friend of his students. Someone who was really involved in their lives.

I was a student for many years. You a student. I was looking for a good teacher, and for me, he was a good teacher.

He was very relaxed. He likes to take a long walks. He was very loving with these dogs, Dano and Duki.

He loved the dogs.

He featured the dogs in his social media pages. All the time. Most days, you can find Leon here in Parque de los Venados, leading yoga classes for devoted students like Ariadna Emily. You had a shared passion for yoga, the two of you.

Yes, I like it so much.

And Leon, he was my first yoga teacher.

He was very patient. He was a good teacher.

Yes.

Leon even published books on spirituality with the University of Guadalajara Press. Leon had a thirst for knowledge and an appetite for pizza, says Alfredo Ortiz, who kept him fed in exchange for language lessons for his daughter, Valeria.

For me, it was surprising how many languages he know.

Which ones did he know?

He gave me lessons of French, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, and English. Wow. But I think he knew more. He was a good friend.

Leon was a trusted fixture in the community. But what nobody realized was that this austere sage, this yoga teacher, was actually an accused killer. Jorge Rueda Landeros.

He really had created a a new life for himself. People had no idea that he was a wanted fugitive. They had no idea of the story back in Bethesda, Maryland.

Landeros was something of a charmer.

He had the ability to ingratiate himself to people who had no idea that this guy was someone that had done a brutal murder in another country.

What did you learn about Landeros' life in Mexico after the murder?

We learned that ultimately he was in Guadalajara, Mexico, that he was teaching yoga there. He had changed his name to Leon Ferrara.

There he was, out on social media posting tutorials. He'd aged a little, but looked like Jorge, and I think everyone was surprised. He didn't really hide very well.

Because he was hiding in plain sight. Did he talk about his past, where he came from?

Yeah, he told me that he studied in Harvard.

Harvard University?

Yeah, and that he traveled all around the world, and he stayed in in India, where he learned how to meditate. And then he worked at Wall Street in finances.

Leon would tell a lot of stories about his past. One day he would say he was a spy. One day, he would say he was a former broker. One day, he would say he was the son of diplomats. But the true thing is that nobody knew who he was. The man was somewhat of a mystery. We never knew where does he come from.

He never show some identification.

He never carry money and never carry credit cards.

He was very different than the rest of us. 2020 has followed Jorge Landeros' trail here to Guadalajara to see firsthand how he lived in hiding. I'm about to enter Jorge Landeros' hideout here in Mexico. He read it this room inside this house. One man who saw that life up close, his landlord, Francisco Fragoso. Dígame, From the looks of it, the man known as Leon led a pretty quiet and simple life in this one-room apartment, which he shared with his two dogs. He didn't have much in material goods. The only thing he left behind? This table and some clothes. One day, as mysteriously as he appears in Guadalajara, he disappears. I just started texting messages for him on WhatsApp, and he didn't answer at that point. Then some friends start I'm looking for him. It would be normal to be afraid for his safety. Yes. What do you think happened to him at that point?

I thought he was caught by some gang.

Gang? Gang. Kidnapped.

He because he was missing.

That happens, Guadalajara.

Yeah, most of the time.

Leon's friends fear the worst that he's been abducted on the streets of Guadalajara. But what they don't know is that a decades long mystery is about to unravel. In Mexico, disappearances have become part of a chilling rhythm. More than 13,000 people reported missing in 2024 alone. So when Leon Ferrara suddenly vanishes, his friends fear he's become the next name on that growing list. How did you know he was missing when he disappeared?

We had class, I think it was Thursday, and this friend in common that were trying to reach him, she called me and she told me they didn't know where he was.

Back in the beginning of 2022, Mexican authorities know that Jorge was living in Guadalajara. This task force hunts outlaws for the Mexico's attorney general. Travel down to Guadalajara and start taking surveillance on him, and they start following him everywhere he goes.

They called me to say, There's a tip on your guy, and it seems pretty legit. They took a picture of him. He hadn't changed a bit in his appearance. It was clearly him.

It is here that Jorge Landeros' nearly 12-year-long flight from justice finally comes to an end. Shortly after 04: 00 PM, he leaves his apartment to walk his two dogs when suddenly on the street, he's approached by Mexican agents and taken into custody.

They ask him, Are you Jorge Rueda Landeros? And he said, Yes. Well, you're under arrest for murder.

He hadn't heard that name in years. Yeah.

He begs the agents to bring back his dogs to his apartment, and the police leave the dogs with his landlord and take him to jail.

So for Jorge Rueda Landeros, also known as Lyon, this was literally the end of the road.

It was.

Fearing for Lyon's safety, one of his students came here to the office of Missing Persons, where authorities revealed he was neither kidnapped nor killed, but rather alive alive and well. In fact, he was behind bars, booked for murder. What did the police tell your friend?

That he had a red notice from the Interpol, and his name wasn't It was Leon. It was Jorge.

Jorge Rodalanders. Could you have imagined that your friend and teacher would be on the FBI's most wanted list? No.

No, not at all.

We thought that it was crazy. It was shocking to me because I think that this wasn't true, the charges, because of the person that he was.

That you knew.

That I knew, yes.

My phone started ringing at dinner. I pull it out to silence it, and I see Larry Haley's name on the caller ID, and he tells me they arrested him, and he was being held in jail.

After 12 years on the run, a murder suspect was arrested in connection with the 2010 murder of American University Professor Sue Markham.

I'm just going about my business. All of a sudden, he pops back up because he's been arrested in Mexico.

He's finally caught after years of you guys chasing him. What was that moment like?

I think for me, it was pretty surreal. I don't know that I thought that he would ever be caught. I thought he would just remain wanted forever.

When the police were finally able to get their hands on Landeros, they called a press conference. There was DNA of the defendant found on the body of the victim. A case may vanish from the public's consciousness. It may not be headline news anymore, but this really is a good example of some detectives who never gave up.

And the work that law enforcement did, a lot of love seems to have gone into this case for so many years. Yeah, a lot of people were very invested in solving this case definitively and bringing my sister's murderer to justice.

It seemed the more they learned about Sue as a person, the more invested they became. They wanted it for her, not just another case. That's pretty special.

After he's captured, Landeros is moved here to Reclusorio Sur, one of Mexico's most notorious prisons. All he can do is sit and wait. Meanwhile, US authorities are pushing to get him back home. To face charges, he's avoided for more than a decade.

Inside those concrete walls, Landeros turns to writing, page after page, letter after letter. He's clinging to one thing that he can still control, the the narrative, his version of the story.

Writing was like a therapy for him when he was in jail. He wrote and wrote and wrote. He had these scribbles on notebooks.

2020 has obtained Landedos's diary, which he wrote in jail while awaiting extradition. And in it, he details alleged wrongdoing by the American authorities, calling himself a prisoner frozen in time.

For me, one of the most unsettling parts of this diary is not what's in it, but what's missing. Not once does he mention Sue Markham, almost like by rewriting his own narrative, she's erased completely.

Normally, when I publish a story, I get it out of my system, but this one was different. You can stop talking about it, you can stop thinking about it. Then one day, I just got one call from him, and that changed everything. It was like a Hannibal lector moment.

After 12 years on the run, this is where Jorge Landeros ends up. Not a beach in paradise, but a concrete cell in prison.

Landeros did not give up fighting to keep his freedom under his new name in Mexico. He's appealing in letters to family and friends and politicians. He even writes a message to Mexico's President like he's the most important guy in prison. He called us? Telephone? Yes.

What did he tell you?

Well, I talked with him, and he said me that he was okay.

It is true that he was Jorge.

After interviewing his students, one of them tells me, You know what? He wants to talk. He's in jail in Mexico City, and he wants to give you an interview.

.

. Landeros doesn't deny having a relationship, but According to Elias Kamhaji, Landeros swears he wasn't anywhere near Bethesda when Sue Markham was killed..

. Once Landeros realized he was a moving target, he says he made the decision to leave behind the old life in Juárez and start fresh somewhere where nobody had a clue about his story.

Then he comes to Guadalajara. Why this city?

He told the investigators that he likes the weather, but I think the reason is that it's a big city.

Easy to hide in plain sight here.

Yeah, very easy.

In Guadalajara, Jorge Landeros disappears, and in his place, a new man is born, Leon Ferrara.

He told me that León was everything that he always wanted to be. León was an exaggerated version of Jorge. He compared himself to Hans Solo, for example, this hero being prosecuted by the evil Empire.

And when that all-important question comes, did he kill Sue Markham? Landeros doesn't hesitate, and he pushes back, and he pushes back hard.

To The person I know is innocent to me.

Not Leon, not murder. No, I don't think he's guilty. Do you think the man you knew, this friend, this teacher of yours, is guilty of murder?

I want him to be innocent, of course, but it's not for us to give the verdict.

So for the police and prosecutors who worked on this case for years and years, they wanted to get him back into that courtroom to face justice. Exactly. And that we did that yourself. I kept the investigative box sitting behind me. It was right at my feet.

These are D.

Andrew Hamlin's fingerprints.

Oh, okay. We don't find him inside the house. He's not inside the house. He's nowhere.

It ended up being really helpful because then when the defense would bring-I held it here in my office for waiting for him to come back.

Years after disappearing across the border, Jorge Landeros is extradited back to the United States to stand trial inside this Maryland courthouse, and he's facing murder charges that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life.

Colin, criminal case, State of Maryland versus Jorge Landeros. All the lawyers, the judge, the bail of the clerks, everybody was a woman, and that was impressive. Sue would have loved it. She was very much a feminist and believed in the strength of women.

It seemed fitting in some way.

Members of the jury, this is a criminal case in which the State of Maryland has charged Jorge Lenderos with the crime of first-degree murder. I covered this trial every single day, and sitting in the courtroom just a few feet from Jorge Landeros, I saw a different man that what we had seen in photographs and mug shots. When the When the jury entered, he stood tall and puffed out his chest, trying to show everyone he was a man of confidence.

Anything strike you about what you saw in his face? I saw defiance when I did look at him.

When Sue Marcom met Jorge Lenderos, she was enchanted by him. When Jorge Lenderos met Sue Marcom, he found his mom.

The prosecutors were very clear, and they wanted him to be the manipulator who took advantage of Sue.

He took advantage of her kindness and her generosity.

And when she had nothing left to give him, Jorge Lenderos killed her. As the state presents its case, Sue's very good friend, Larry March, takes the stand, and he recalls that horrific moment that he found her body at the bottom of the basement stairs.

It was obvious to me that she wasn't alive.

Testify was hard because I felt like I didn't get a chance to really say what I wanted to say, that a very special person was taken away from here, that this was a terrible thing that happened.

Prosecutors methodically walk the jury through Sue's home, a crime scene that they say Landeros tried to stage to make it look like a burglary gone wrong. That heavy glass would have to have been purposefully moved from the table.

Drawers yanked open, a window screen, broken, glass smashed, electronics stacked by the door, her Jeep missing. Every detail, prosecutors say, was part of that illusion.

The jury heard every facet of the investigation, where the crime took place. This is the stairs leading down to the basement. How investigators say it happened. Cause of death, blunt force, trauma, and asphyxiation. And why, at least in part, they believe Sue Markham was murdered.

Life insurance policy with Mr. Madero says the bill is to share.

He walked into this forum an innocent man because that's what he is. Fifteen years is a long time to wait for justice. But now is that time.

In a murder trial, a family member's moment on the stand can cut through the courtroom. For Alan Markham, it begins with a single photograph, a reminder of the sister whose spirit he's now fighting to defend. My name is Alan Marcom. Sue Ann Marcom was my sister. That's a tire swing that was in the backyard of our home in Palo Alto, California. It shows the way she lived her life. I'd never taken the witness stand before, and the weight of everything suddenly hit me. I think you can see the grin on her face. She was just having a great time. She loved life. My purpose Being there was to try to paint my sister's picture for the jury, to bring her back to life for them.

Inside this courtroom, the joy that was Sue Markham's life now gives way to the brutality of her death. Prosecutors don't ease their way gently into this case. They hit the jurors with the grim reality of how she died. He smashed her on the head with a tequila bottle. The defendant knew he could not be to Mark him alive, and so he strangled her. And the man prosecutors say is responsible, Jorge Rueda Landeros, a one-time lover, a supposed good friend, a Spanish teacher, a yoga teacher, and they argue a predator.

She was much more agitated than usual.

She's going crazy, and her whole demeanor is destroyed now. She's angry all the time, and she's having a really hard time with just dealing with what's going on in her life.

She seemed to be under a lot of stress. I could see tears in her eyes. And prosecutors say that stress wasn't random. It had a source, Jorge Landeros. Jurors hear that Sue Markham gave Jorge Landeros hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some invested, prosecutors say, but much of it later withdrawn and moved into his personal bank account.

It was very clear from the evidence that he just withdrawn, withdrawn, withdrawn, withdrew until it was down to nothing.

By the time she was murdered, there was nothing left in the accounts.

What was the end balance?

November of 2010, the ending balance was $1,185. 17.

Prosecutors say emails tell the real story. A woman is drowning in debt, yet she's still begging the man responsible not to abandon her. For example, in April of 2009, Sue writes, I don't know how I allowed myself to get into the mess I am in. I just want out of the whole situation. But shortly afterwards, in June, she writes, I am committed to doing what I can do so that we can both be successful successful and happy. The jury had to see this, according to the state, because it shows her state of mind at the time. I think it was all risk and no reward for her, but all reward for him. Prosecutors tell the jury that the moment finally came when Lenderos had no more use for Sue Markham. The money had run out, and so did his patience. Maybe they thought he was going to Maybe the defendant wanted more money out of Sue. Money that she didn't have and that she could not give, even if she wanted to. Maybe the defendant was there to get that $500,000 from the life insurance policy. That he was the beneficiary of.

There's no question about it. Jorge took her for all of her money, and I think that he came back to see what else he could get, which was $500,000.

Jorge Landeras used her for his own gain. And when she had nothing left to give him, he killed her.

But Landeras' defense attorney, Megan Brennan, tells jurors a different story, saying this wasn't murder, but rather a burglary gone wrong. And Jorge Landeros, an innocent man caught in the storm. The police decides, Do you know who was the easiest suspect?

The easiest suspect is an individual who has a close interperson relationship with the deceased.

They really went after the police investigation. The crime scene people, the detectives, they do make judgments like, Well, we got enough fingerprints or we got enough DNA. And so that was right for attacking.

On cross-examination, Detective Haley concedes that not all of the evidence at the crime scene was tested. You did not have those items tested.

We did not.

You made the decision not to collect the presumed blood on the walls in Sue Markle's home.

Again, probably a collective decision.

And you made the decision to not test the presumed hair on Ms. Markam's face.

Correct.

Sergeant Haley does make a rare admission. He wishes he had tested more, and the defense seizes on every missed opportunity.

I would have preferred to collect it at the time. I didn't think it would yield anything.

It's a suspect. On cross-examination, the defense highlights a detail the jury hasn't heard before. Sues use Fitbit, a wearable fitness tracker that was noted as being recovered in evidence, but then somehow went missing. Its data, says the defense, could shed light on Sue Markham's final moments.

I think that the Fitbit was something we were always looking for.

In court, the defense claimed the case was botched, that there was no thorough investigation for 15 years. How do you respond to that?

Detective Haley testified for 11 hours in this trial, and I think Detective Haley's testimony destroyed the defense argument that this case was botched.

But the defense isn't done yet. Their sharpest strike is still to come, a challenge to the crucial fingerprints that they say could turn this case on its head.

None of the fingerprints match Jorge Landeros.

And when it's It is time to speak, will Jorge Landeros finally break his silence?

Mr. Landeros, you know that you have a constitutional right to testify. You understand that?

Yes, ma'am.

I thought that he would be Very convincing.

With every single witness and each piece of evidence, jurors hear the prosecution's case that Jorge Landeros lied, schemed, and ultimately murdered Sue Markham. The defense insists that Landeros was never in Bethesda the night Sue Markham was murdered. And they say, fingerprint evidence found in her house and car point to a different killer. Remember, the man who was found with Sue Markham's car, D' Andrew Hamlin, was ultimately cleared in her murder.

None of the fingerprints match Jorge Landeros. I was never requested to compare the fingerprints of Mr. Landeros to this case before I retired.

And The defense reminds the jury that not only were Landeros's fingerprints not found at the crime scene, there are still unidentified fingerprints in this case. To date in this case, are there still latent prints of value that were he had identified. As of the time I retired, there were still prints unidentified.

There were fingerprints. They were very clear, and they didn't know who they were.

But just When the defense feels confident it's torn apart the state's case bit by bit, the state comes back, swinging with new DNA analysis from Sue's neck that they say points right to Landeros.

It made the case stronger against him. There's absolutely no question. This was a struggle. This woman fought for her life. It's his DNA. Nobody else's.

The defense only calls one witness, an expert who testifies that there's a possibly innocent explanation for why Landeros's DNA was on that neck swab evidence. That DNA came from somewhere, and it must have transferred to the surfaces of the neck that was swabbed. Beyond raising questions about the forensic evidence in this case, the defense also goes full force on that allegation that Landeros had taken Sue's money, saying that it was anything but manipulation, and that she, Sue, was in control of her own life.

Do not let the state strip Ms. Markam off her free will. She knew what she wanted, and she got what she wanted. And the defense has another reason for Sue's losses, the financial crash of the times. In 2000, 8 through 2010, the entire United States was in the throes of the great financial crisis. There are states, Sue Markam wasn't the only person losing money.

Landeros was never charged with any financial crimes in this case, and The defense tells the jury that he never collected Sue's life insurance policy, which named him as a beneficiary.

After 27 witnesses, both sides rest, and with all eyes on him, Jorge Landeros has made his decision not to testify.

It is still your decision not to testify in this case?

No.

So it's on to closing arguments, where the defense tells the jury that Landeros is an innocent man wrongfully accused.

The worst part is that her killers or killers are still out there.

And the prosecution argues that Landeros is a cold-blooded killer killer, driven by greed.

When she ran out of money, which is the only thing he wanted from her, he killed her. It's Friday, October 31st. It's Halloween, and the jury is going back to begin deliberations. Now, remember what's at stake for Landeros. First-degree premeditated murder. And then there's second-degree murder. He intended to kill, but didn't premeditate it. I had no idea of how the jury was feeling or anything like that. My gut feeling from the beginning was it was an open-and-shot case.

After deliberating eight hours, the verdict is in.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, have you agreed upon your verdict?

Yes. So I expected a guilty verdict, but there was still the pins and needles of what's actually going to come out of the foreperson's mouth.

As to count one murder in the first degree, we, the jury, find the defendant.

Not guilty issue.

My whole body froze up. Everybody just went, Whoa, what's next?

There's still second degree.

As to murder in the second degree, we, the jury, find the defendant. Guilty.

And then the jury foreperson says, Guilty to second-degree murder. Yeah. Relief? Yes. It's one thing to expect it. It's another thing to hear it.

Every emotion I could imagine all at once, just overwhelming. Justice now finally served 15 years after the killing of American University Professor Sue Ann Marcom. A jury found her murderer, Jorge Landeros, guilty.

I think the jury came up with a perfect verdict. It is clear from the crime scene that these two individuals were sitting down drinking together before the murder.

In your press conference afterwards, you call this the perfect verdict.

I think it was perfect if you knew what the facts were. This was a very understandable and appropriate verdict. My reaction is you should have got first degree. The intent was made while he was there to kill her, and that intent being made is first degree.

Sue Markham may have met a brutal end in her home at the hands of a man she once loved and trusted. But in the halls of American University, University. Her legacy as a beloved and respected teacher lives on. An entire university is morning.

Tonight, it came together to comfort the family of the 52-year-old mentor and friend.

A few weeks after Sue's death, a memorial service was held at American University to celebrate her life.

The next time you see a beautiful blue sky, take a moment, look up, and put a big smile on your face, and think of our dear I'm your friend, Sue.

That's hard.

She did a lot, but she could have done so much more. I would like the world to remember Sue as a fun-loving teacher who puts everyone before herself.

If there was one message you could send to your beloved sister, Sue, what would it be? I love you. Barbara, what would you say?

You missed the world's loss of a special person.

A special person indeed. Jorge Landeros is scheduled to be sentenced later this year. David, he faces a maximum of 30 years in prison.

And American University, where Sue Markham taught, has now endowed a scholarship fund in her name.

That's our program for tonight. Thanks for watching.

I'm David Muir.

And I'm Deborah Roberts. From all of us here at ABC News and 2020, good night. 2020. Good night.