Man accused of killing Phoenix woman and unborn child back in 2012 is extradited back to the U.S. from Mexico

PHOENIX - It took nine years, but Phoenix Police officials say they have arrested a suspect in the murder of a young mother and her unborn child.

Incident happened in 2021

Just after midnight on Mar. 26, 2012, Phoenix Police officers responded to a gruesome scene at an apartment near 32nd Avenue and Beardsley Road. Residents said they heard a woman screaming and banging on a neighbor's door for help. When officers arrived, they found 22-year-old Sheila Lomes stabbed to death on a balcony.

People at the apartment complex were impacted by the tragedy days after.

"She wanted to be out on her own. She wanted to - have her own place and have her own life," said the apartment complex's community manager, back in 2012.

Investigators later learned Lomes was seven to nine weeks pregnant, and was expecting a baby girl. Lomes and her husband, Gilbert Villareal, had been separated for months prior to the murder. Police say there was a history of domestic violence, and Villareal and Lomes already shared a two-year-old boy.

Investigators suspected Villareal of the murder, but he was gone.

"Investigators learned -- they believe pretty soon after the murder, he fled to Mexico, and they had the case put together, they submitted it, they received an arrest warrant for Gilbert, but we couldn't locate him. The case went cold," said Phoenix Police Sergeant Andy Williams.

Extradition process took some time, officials say

For about four years, the U.S. Marshals tried to track Villareal down. Finally in December 2016, police in Mexico arrested Villareal in Cancun. Authorities say he stabbed a young woman in the neck, and his conviction led to a prison stay until 2019.

"When he was arrested, the Mexican authorities realized that he was also wanted in America for the two counts of murder. 2016 to 2021, we were just waiting on the extradition process to happen, and it's a legal proceeding, so it can take a lot of time, as you see," said Sgt. Williams.

For nearly the last two years, U.S Marshals and Mexican liaisons coordinated Villareal's extradition back to the U.S. He finally returned to America on the afternoon of Sept. 30, and he is set to be arraigned on Oct. 8. Bond is set at $1 million.

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