Porn Model Murder: Will Zoey Zane Get a Trial?
EL DORADO, Kan. (CBS/AP) Prosecutors on Tuesday will present the first public glimpse into their case against the man suspected of killing a Kansas college student who led a secret life as an Internet porn model.
The preliminary hearing for Israel Mireles, 26, is expected to take all day.
18-year-old Emily Sander went by the name Zoey Zane when not going to school in rural Kansas. The beautiful, much-loved Sander was leading a secret life posing nude on the Internet -- a life no one around her could imagine -- that is, until she turned up dead.
The disappearance of the Butler Community College student, who was a "sweet girl" to those who knew her, drew nationwide attention after the revelations surfaced about her secret online life, which does not appear to play a role in her murder, according to police records.
Mireles was extradited back from Mexico in June by U.S. Marshals. He is charged with capital murder, rape and aggravated criminal sodomy in the 2007 death of 18-year-old Sander.
If the judge finds sufficient probable cause to take the case to trial, Mireles would then enter a plea to the charges and a trial date will be set.
Sander was last seen alive on Nov. 23, 2007 as she left an El Dorado bar with a man police have identified as Mireles.
Police found a large amount of blood in his motel room, prompting the search for Sander. Her body was found six days later, about 50 miles east of El Dorado.
Searchers found the body after tracing the route they believed Mireles took to pick up his then-pregnant, 16-year-old girlfriend at her grandmother's house in Baxter Springs before he fled to Mexico.
Mireles was arrested in December 2007 at the home of a relative in Melchor Muzquiz, Mexico, and had fought his extradition to the United States.
Prosecutors had to promise Mexican authorities they would not seek the death penalty for Mireles in order for Mexican authorities to approve the extradition. If convicted of capital murder, he would face life in prison without the possibility of parole.
PREVIOUSLY ON CRIMESIDER
June 29, 2009 - Porn Model Murder: The Secret Life Of Zoey Zane