EL DORADO, Kan. – The suspect in the slaying of Butler Community College student Emily Sander was arrested in Mexico on Wednesday, federal authorities said.
U.S. Deputy Marshal Logan Kline said Israel Mireles, 24, was arrested in Melchor Muzquiz, Mexico, southwest of Texas, on a homicide warrant from Butler County. Kline said Mireles is being held in that country until he can be extradited to the U.S.
Kline would not provide additional details about the arrest. A news conference was scheduled for 3 p.m. CST in El Dorado.
• Click here for the mysterious porn star student's gallery of photos.
Sander, 18, was last seen alive on Nov. 23 as she left an El Dorado bar with a man police have identified as Mireles. Her disappearance drew nationwide attention after it was discovered that she also led a secret life as an Internet porn model named Zoey Zane.
Police, who have not released details about the cause of death, have insisted that Sander's Internet activity had no connection to her disappearance.
Her body was found six days after her disappearance about 50 miles east of El Dorado as police retraced the route they believed Mireles took to pick up his 16-year-old girlfriend, Victoria Martens, in Baxter Springs.
Kline said he could not comment on the status of Martens, who was seven-months pregnant when she left with Mireles.
Mireles was born in Mexico, where he still has relatives, and has been living in the U.S. legally.
He became the focus of a nationwide search after police found large quantities of blood in an El Dorado motel room where he was staying. Authorities have said that a bedspread that had been missing from that motel room was found close to Sander's body, along U.S. 54 near the Woodson County town of Toronto.
A rental car Mireles had been driving turned up Nov. 27 in Texas, where he also had family.
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