Widow arrested in Winnipeg man’s death
The family of a slain Winnipeg businessman said they couldn’t have asked for “a better Canada Day surprise” following the arrest of their late son’s widow over the weekend.
In September 2005, Adam Anhang — who at age 32 had already amassed a fortune as a successful real estate developer and chief executive officer of an online gambling website — was beaten and stabbed to death in a popular tourist district of San Juan, the Puerto Rican capital, as he walked with his wife, Aurea Vazquez Rijos, who sustained only minor injuries in the attack.
A U.S. grand jury charged Ms. Vazquez Rijos in 2008 with offering a man US$3-million to kill her husband. She denied the charges but refused to cooperate with investigators and fled Puerto Rico for Italy, where she lived first in Florence and more recently Venice and gave birth to another man’s twins. The case gained notoriety in the U.S. and was later profiled on Dateline NBC, a popular newsmagazine with a focus on true crime stories.
On Sunday evening, Mr. Anhang’s parents were quietly making dinner arrangements when they got a call: the FBI agent on the other end informed them that 10 minutes before, Spanish police had arrested Ms. Vazquez Rijos — a fugitive in Europe ever since investigators linked her to the slaying of her late husband — at an airport in Madrid.
“We were surprised, shocked,” Abe Anhang, the victim’s father, told the Post from his home in Winnipeg. “We’re pleased but we’re saddened by the whole thing. Nothing’s going to bring our son back.”
Ms. Vazquez Rijos, a native of Puerto Rico, was taken into custody as she was getting off a flight from Italy.
u.S. Attorney Rosa emilia Rodriguez told reporters Monday that the suspect is “exposed to life imprisonment on the charges as it is now.” Officials say the extradition process could take up to nine months.
Mr. Anhang’s career took him around the world. He climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, and went on an exotic scuba diving trip nearly every year. After graduating from the prestigious Wharton School of Business in Pennsylvania, he worked for real estate firms in New york, then struck out on his own, acting as a consultant to turn around companies in trouble.
“Adam was born to be a businessman. He brought a briefcase with him to kindergarten,” his younger sister, Becky Anhang Price, said during her eulogy in 2005.
“He ran his own business selling greeting cards out of his university dorm room.”
Mr. Anhang had developed beachfront condominiums and hotels in Puerto Rico and also was CeO of an online gambling software company based in Costa Rica. He had moved to the island a year before the attack. “If there’s one loser in all of this, it’s the island of Puerto Rico. He was really committed to building up the economy,” his father said.
We’re pleased but we’re saddened by the whole thing
Shortly after Mr. Anhang’s death, Ms. Vazquez Rijos refused to co-operate with investigators and filed a civil suit against her late husband’s family, seeking uS$1 million in damages and millions more from his estate.
The Anhangs followed up with a uS$50-million countersuit against Ms. Vasquez Rijos, her siblings and several unnamed defendants for their son’s wrongful death. The family withdrew the lawsuit in 2012 after a judge in Puerto Rico dis- missed Ms. Vazquez Rijos’ suit.
A wrongfully convicted Puerto Rican man spent eight months in a maximum-security prison for the high-profile killing before being released in June 2008 after another man, Alex Pabon Colon, was indicted for the murder. Since then, the FBI has been working to arrest Ms. Vazquez Rijos but ran into difficulties since Italy does not extradite suspects who face the death penalty.
According to the 2008 indictment, Ms. Vazquez Rijos offered Mr. Pabon money and lured Mr. Anhang to the tourist district the night of his death. The indictment said two other unidentified people were involved in the plot.
Mr. Anhang’s father told the Post that authorities have arrested Ms. Vazquez Rijos’ sister and her former husband and charged them in connection with his son’s killing. “We’re hopeful that after such a long time that justice will be done,” Mr. Anhang said.
The u.S. agency said the arrest of the Puerto Rican fugitive was the result of a joint effort between the FBI’s legal attaches, the u.S. Attorney’s Office in Puerto Rico, Spanish police, Interpol and u.S. department of Justice. A spokesperson from the department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and development Canada said the agency is aware of the arrest but that the government cannot comment on ongoing investigations.