Maria Narez, a 48-year-old woman, has been apprehended in Mexico after nearly 30 years as a fugitive from justice. She is accused of the 1996 death of her three-year-old daughter, Kasandra White, in Fort Worth, Texas.
The 1996 Park Hill Drive incident that claimed Kasandra White
The tragedy that led to the long-term pursuit of Maria Narez began in November 1996 at an apartment in the 2500 block of Park Hill Drive. According to several news reports, Narez was a 19-year-old grocery store clerk at the time of the incident. She allegedly became angered when her daughter, Kasandra White, refused to go to bed, leading to a violent confrontation.
Narez reportedly told police that she was experiencing stress and depression during the incident. The prosecution's account alleges that Narez picked the child up by the chest, threw her against a wall, and caused the toddler's head to strike the edge of a door. While Narez initially took the child to a hospital after the toddler lost consciousness, Kasandra White died three days later. This sequence of events eventually led to a Tarrant County grand jury indicting Narez for capital murder in 1997.
A $25,000 bond and the flight from Tarrant County
Legal proceedings against Maria Narez took a decisive turn in 1997 after a judge reduced her bond to $25,000. Following the reduction, Narez failed to appear for her scheduled court proceedings, prompting the forfeiture of her bond. As the Tarrant County DA's office reported, a warrant was issued for her arrest in late 1997, but Narez fled the United States shortly thereafter.
For nearly three decades, Narez remained a fugitive, evading the reach of Texas law enforcement while living somewhere in Mexico. The Tarrant County DA's office maintained a continuous pursuit of the case, refusing to let the 1996 homicide investigation go cold despite the passage of almost 30 years.
The international coalition that tracked Narez to Mexico
The capture of Narez was the result of a coordinated effort involving multiple high-level law enforcement agencies across international borders. The Tarrant County DA's office credited a wide array of organizations for the successful apprehension, including Mexico Interpol and the U.S. Marshals Mexico Foreign Field Office. the operation also drew support from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Justice-Office of International Affairs.
Local investigators from the Tarrant County DA's office played a critical role in the final stages of the pursuit. Specifically, the office highlighted the work of investigators Tiffany Johnson and Victor Espino-Nevarez, alongside Assistant DA Steven Elliott, in ensuring that the decades-old case finally reached a resolution through Narez's arrest.
The missing pieces of Narez's three-decade disappearance
Significant details regarding how Maria Narez managed to evade detection for 29 years remain unverified. While the source confirms her arrest, it does not clarify how she maintained a life in Mexico without alerting U.S . authorities or whether she had assistance from others to remain hidden. Furthermore, the specific location in Mexico where she was living and the exact circumstances of her capture have not been detailed in the current reports .
The legal path forward also remains an open question for the Tarrant County DA's office . It is currently unclear how long the exrtadition process from Mexico to Texas will take, or how the defense will address the significant amount of time that has elapsed since the 1996 crime occurred.
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