1992 US murder fugitive caught in Philippines

PHILADELPHIA: Twenty years after he allegedly gunned down his wife’s friend in a Philadelphia restaurant, a fugitive ‘‘spiritualist’’ who sold religious artifacts around the world is in custody after visiting the US embassy in the Philippines.

Santiago Pedroso, 71, applied for an emergency passport in Manila on Sept 6, prompting a routine criminal check. The 1992 murder charge soon popped up, leading the FBI to compare an old file photo with one submitted to the embassy.

‘‘Just looking at the two photographs, we knew immediately it was him,’’ said FBI Special Agent David Carter of Philadelphia, one of two agents who greeted Mr Pedroso on Wednesday when he returned to US soil in Los Angeles.

The murder warrant charges Mr Pedroso in the June 1992 death of 41-yearold Delores Alvarez.

His estranged wife had recently moved in with Alvarez when he ran into them at a restaurant on Father’s Day, according to newspaper reports at the time. He allegedly shot Alvarez five times just after she ordered dinner, as his teenage daughter begged him to stop, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported at the time.

Mr Pedroso walked out of the restaurant and disappeared, investigators said.

Authorities in Manila arrested him outside the embassy on Sept 9. He is now in custody in Philadelphia, where he was arraigned on Friday on charges that include murder, illegal possession of a firearm and reckless endangerment.

The 1992 Inquirer article described Mr Pedroso as a ‘‘spiritualist’’ who ran a religious bookstore. Alvarez had recently moved to Philadelphia from Newport Beach, California, where she had been a well-liked employee for Hughes Aircraft Corp, according to news reports.

Detectives said Mr Pedroso was enraged by the friendship between Alvarez and his estranged wife, Maria Gomeze.

A naturalised US citizen from Cuba, Mr Pedroso travelled widely after that, selling religious wares around the world, the FBI said on Friday.

Agents followed leads to Hong Kong, Spain, Malaysia, Guatemala, Portugal and elsewhere. The FBI now believes Mr Pedroso was in the Philippines by 1996, perhaps landing there after stowing away aboard a cruise ship.

Mr Pedroso is due in court on Oct 9 for a preliminary hearing. He does not yet have a lawyer listed in court files.