WINTERS, CA - A Winters man who local and federal authorities believe murdered his wife last month was captured Thursday night in Dixon with his 10-year-old daughter.
Felipe Cruz Hernandez, 39, was arrested at an AM-PM store in Dixon around 8:30 p.m. Thursday, just minutes after the Yolo County Sheriff's Department issued a full-scale search for Hernandez and his daughter Lisa Cruz-Barrales, Winters police Chief Bruce Muramoto said.
Investigators said Hernandez's wife Leticia Barrales Ramos was last seen April 12 after allegedly fighting with her husband.
"(Neighbors) could hear fighting and yelling, crying. Then they heard a car door slam," Ramos' co-worker Evangeline Matthews said. "That was the last time anybody's seen her."
When Ramos didn't report to work the next day at Dixon's Lester Farms Bakery, Matthews said the store's owner called her home and spoke to Hernandez.
According to Matthews, a distraught Hernandez said his wife was missing and he had no idea where she was. By the time police were contacted later that day, Matthews said Hernandez was telling friends and neighbors that his wife was called away to attend to a family emergency in Mexico.
"He just kept changing his story," Matthews said.
Muramoto said a joint investigation between Winters police, Yolo County sheriff's detectives and agents with the FBI determined there was no family emergency and a search warrant was served on the family's East Baker Way home Thursday.
The search turned up evidence that Ramos may have been murdered, prompting a search for Hernandez, Muramoto said.
Muramoto said Ramos is missing and presumed dead.
Hernandez was taken to the Yolo County Jail. The couple's daughter was unharmed and was in the custody of county child protective services officials.
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