Marisela Botello case: Couple charged with murder caught in Cambodia after fleeing
Published February 26, 2022 6:41PM

DALLAS - Two women charged with the murder of a Seattle woman, whose body was found months after she disappeared from Deep Ellum, have been taken into custody in Cambodia after they fled while out on bond.

Nina Marano and Lisa Dykes are accused of murdering 23-year-old Marisela Botello-Valadez in October 2020.

The married couple was out on bond, awaiting trial, when court documents reveal they cut off their GPS ankle monitors on Christmas Day and fled the state.

The FBI assisted law enforcement in Cambodia with taking the couple into custody. No further details were released about their arrest or how authorities tracked them down.

Marano and Dykes are charged with murder in the death of Botello-Valadez, along with Charles Beltran, who they shared a house with.

Botello-Valadez was found dead after she traveled from Seattle to see a friend in Dallas in October 2020. She went alone to a bar in Deep Ellum. She reportedly left with Beltran and then went missing.

Six months later, her remains were discovered in a remote area of Dallas County.

This isn't the first time authorities have had to track these suspects down. Dykes and Marano were found in Florida before their initial arrests. Beltran was found in Utah.
https://www.fox4news.com/news/marisela- ... er-fleeing

Wow! What an incredible story.

Suspects in murder of Seattle woman in Dallas arrested again after fleeing country, law enforcement sources say
9 hours ago
1 minute read

Two suspects who are accused of murdering a Seattle woman in Dallas in 2020 have been taken into custody after they fled the country following their previous arrest, multiple law enforcement sources told WFAA.

According to multiple sources, Lisa Dykes, 58, and Nina Marano, 50, were arrested in Cambodia by the FBI this week. Dallas police confirmed the arrests but did not release further details.

Dykes and Marano were both charged with murder and tampering with evidence in the October 2020 fatal stabbing of 23-year-old Marisela Botello-Valadez, who had been reported missing in Dallas.

Dykes and Marano were previously arrested in Florida after investigators found traces of Botello-Valadez’s blood inside a home that Dykes and another suspect, Charles Beltran, shared in Mesquite. The three suspects were allegedly with the victim on the night she disappeared, according to phone records.

In May 2021, Dykes and Marano were released from jail after posting their $500,000 bond. The conditions of their release included house arrest and wearing ankle monitors at all times.

However, court documents revealed that the pair had removed their ankle monitors on Dec. 25, 2021 and skipped their bond.

Multiple law enforcement sources told WFAA that the two suspects were arrested this week by the FBI and Cambodian authorities. Sources said they will be extradited to the U.S. to stand trial.
https://nypressnews.com/news/usa/dallas ... urces-say/

2 suspects in Seattle woman’s slaying arrested in Cambodia after fleeing Dallas, FBI says
The FBI said its agents helped Cambodian law enforcement arrest Nina Tamar Marano, 50, and Lisa Jo Dykes, 58.
By Krista M. Torralva and Aria Jones
8:11 PM on Feb 26, 2022 GMT-6

From left: Charles Anthony Beltran, Lisa Jo Dykes, Nina Tamar Marano.(Dallas County Sheriff's Department)

Two women charged in the slaying of a 23-year-old Seattle woman who disappeared in Deep Ellum were arrested this week in Cambodia after authorities say they went on the run in late December.

The FBI said its agents helped Cambodian law enforcement arrest Nina Tamar Marano, 50, and Lisa Jo Dykes, 58. Court officials said the pair, who are married, had removed their judge-mandated GPS monitors and could not be reached.

The women each face a count of murder in the 2020 stabbing death of Marisela Botello Valadez, 23, and they also have been charged with tampering with or fabricating physical evidence. They had been free on bond since May.

Charles Anthony Beltran, 32, also faces a count of murder and has been in custody at the Dallas County jail since April, with bail set at $500,000.

The women’s ankle monitors lost their signals within minutes of each other on Christmas morning in the 1600 block of South Good Latimer Expressway, just south of downtown Dallas, according to a notice filed by an officer in charge of monitoring them.

The pair didn’t respond to multiple calls, emails and texts from officers after they went missing, the document says.

Dykes’ lawyer, Heath Harris, had not been notified of her arrest when reached Saturday night and was surprised the women had been in Cambodia. Marano’s lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.

Harris said their fleeing wasn’t evidence of guilt. Evidence that will come out in court will show the women feared Beltran and people he associated with, Harris said.

“I don’t believe they fled because they felt they were guilty of murder. I believe they fled because they are concerned for their safety and they didn’t want to have to cooperate against the co-defendant,” Harris said.

Botello was visiting a friend in Dallas and went out alone the night of Oct. 4, 2020. She was last seen alive early the next morning in Deep Ellum, where security footage showed her leaving a bar with Beltran.

The friend told Botello’s family she never returned to his home, and she was reported missing. She missed her flight home to Seattle, and there was no activity on her cellphone, bank account or social media accounts.

Beltran admitted to meeting Botello in Deep Ellum before taking her to his Mesquite home, where they had sex before falling asleep, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. He told detectives that when he woke up, he found Dykes on top of Botello, holding a knife and making a stabbing motion with one hand while holding Botello’s neck with the other.

Beltran said he then pushed Dykes, knocking her and Botello to the floor before Marano came into the room and shoved him out of the way, according to the affidavit. Beltran left the room, got dressed and fled, the affidavit says.

When Beltran returned to the home, the bedroom was clean and the women told him everything had been taken care of, the document says. Phone records showed Dykes and Marano left the home and drove to a wooded area near Hutchins that was close to several bodies of water before returning, police said.

Botello’s body was found March 24 in a wooded area near East Belt Line and Post Oak roads in Wilmer. When authorities searched the Mesquite home, they found blood-stained carpet that matched Botello’s DNA, the affidavit says.

The affidavit says the suspects displayed “a pattern of avoidance” during the investigation, including refusing to speak to detectives more than once, leaving their jobs and moving out of their homes.

Dykes and Marano were arrested in Florida in late March, and Beltran was arrested in Utah on April 2. All three were eventually extradited to Texas, and they were indicted in June.

When Dykes and Marano bonded out of custody in May, the conditions of their bond included house arrest tracked with ankle monitors. Dallas County officials weren’t notified the pair was missing until 10 days after authorities lost contact with their ankle monitors.
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2 ... -fbi-says/