For two decades, a 2004 backyard burial in Iztacalco lingered as family lore and a fugitive file. This week, investigative police say they tracked down the daughter accused of killing her father and burying him at home. She was moved to Santa Martha, the city’s main women’s prison, while a judge reviews the case. The arrest raises an obvious question: how can a 21-year-old homicide still be prosecuted in Mexico City? The answer lies in how the law counts time—and what happens when a suspect flees.
CDMX patricide arrest
Investigative police in Mexico City arrested Reyna “N” this week, more than 20 years after authorities say her father was killed and buried in the patio of a family home in Iztacalco. She was taken to the Santa Martha women’s prison to await a judge’s decision on her legal status. The case stems from 2004 and, according to investigators, the suspect had remained out of reach for years.
Authorities say the killing followed a domestic argument. The father suffered repeated blows to the head, his body was placed in a plastic bag, and then buried in the yard. Afterward, the woman called her siblings and left a handwritten note asking them not to look for her. Those details, long whispered inside the family, would become key parts of the file as police renewed the search.
The arrest comes after agents with the city’s Policía de Investigación (PDI) said they tracked the suspect across states before locating her in the capital. Prosecutors say she was placed at the disposal of a judge following her transfer to Santa Martha.
What happens next in court
At this stage, a control judge will review the case, including the arrest warrant and the evidence cited by the Mexico City Attorney General’s Office (FGJCDMX). If the court finds the threshold met, it can open a criminal proceeding and order preventive measures while the case moves forward. The agency described the arrest in a public communication this week, citing the 2004 incident in Iztacalco and the subsequent years-long search.
Santa Martha is the city’s principal women’s prison, located in Iztapalapa. It opened in 2004 and houses sentenced and pre-trial detainees under the capital’s penitentiary system.
A case that survived the clock
How is a 2004 homicide still actionable in 2025? Under Mexican law, the time limit to prosecute (prescripción) depends on the felony’s possible sentence; for serious crimes like homicide, the clock can span decades. The Federal Penal Code sets the baseline: the statute generally equals the arithmetic mean of the minimum and maximum prison terms, and the period can be interrupted—extending the limit—under specific circumstances. Mexico City’s local code follows the same structure for prescription rules. In practice, arrest warrants and a suspect’s evasion can affect how that clock is counted.
Why Mexican outlets use “N” in names
Much of the Mexican press, and official bulletins, identify suspects with an initial—“Reyna N”—to respect presunción de inocencia, the constitutional guarantee of being treated as innocent until proven guilty. That principle, spelled out in Article 20 of the Constitution and reflected in national criminal-procedure rules, is why faces are often blurred and surnames omitted until a conviction.
