Aliases Aplenty For Suspect
Because he has used more than 30 aliases, the FBI says Rafael Resendez-Ramirez's name isn't as important as his picture, prominently featured on their 10 Most Wanted posters.
The suspect has been charged with two slayings earlier this month in Illinois. He also is wanted for questioning in five Texas killings and a 1997 homicide in Kentucky.
The suspect's real name is Angel Leoncio Reyes Recendis, according to a birth certificate. The 39-year-old was born in Izucar de Matamoros, Puebla, Mexico, officials say.
The mother listed on the certificate, Virginia Recendis, told a public notary on March 9, 1960, that the child's father was Juan Reyes, the FBI said.
Because most of the public knows the wanted man as Resendez-Ramirez, the FBI will continue to use that name.
"We've got a lot of fliers out there all over the place with Rafael Resendez-Ramirez on them," FBI special agent Don K. Clark told the Associated Press. "I don't want to confuse the public. The public has given us some very good information with the name that's known. We want to stick with that."
The FBI said the suspect probably borrowed the Resendez-Ramirez name from his uncle.
Despite his many names and alleged crimes, his mother, wife, and other family members say they can't believe he's wanted for murder.
His wife, Julieta Dominguez Reyes told The Houston Chronicle that he is a model husband, and that the couple recently bought a house with their infant daughter near the Texas border. She said her husband never showed signs of being violent.
And the uncle whose name has been borrowed says the man being sought "never gave any sign of being a criminal."
While U.S. officials say the suspect is a user of drugs and alcohol, and is believed to be armed, no one in the town of Rodeo, Mexico, where he lived with his family, recalls seeing Angel in any cantina. He has no police record and has never been seen with any weapon.
On June 1, Resendez-Ramirez was taken into custody by El Paso Border Patrol agents after they caught him trying to slip into the U.S. illegally, reports CBS News Correspondent Bob McNamara.
Illegal aliens' names and fingerprints go into a national computer system that identifies fugitives, but in this case the system didn't. He was released and, true to the suspected railroad-killer's M.O., apparently hopped a freight train to Texas.
Two days and 400 miles later, near Weimar Texas, 73-year-old Josephine Konvica was found murdered in her home near a railroad. A day later in Houston, 26-year-old Noemi Dominguez, a schoolteacher, was found beaten to death in her home, also near the tracks. Ten days after that, 800 miles north in southern Illinois, an 80-year-old man and his daughter were murdered. Resendez-Ramirez's fingerprints were found at the scene.
"We're keeping our eyes open to all aspects of where he could be and trying not to get our investigation just in one particlar area," FBI special agent Don K. Clark told CBS News on Monday.
The FBI has set up a new hotline, (800) 889-8161 and is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the capture of Resendez-Ramirez. He is now one of the FBI's 10 Most Wanted criminals, and described by agents as extremely dangerous and violent.