Portland, Ore. — A man on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list for allegedly killing his wife and three children and dumping their bodies into the Pacific was captured at a beach resort in Mexico, where he was living in a grass hut, the FBI said Monday.
Authorities tracked down Christian Longo on a tip from a vacationer who met him in Mexico and then recognized his picture on the FBI's Web site after she returned home to Canada, said Charles Mathews, FBI agent in charge for Oregon.
Christian Longo, with his head down, arrives in Houston escorted by law enforcement agents. Longo, accused of killing his wife and three children last month and dumping their bodies into the Pacific Ocean off Oregon, was captured Sunday near Tulum, Mexico.
Longo, 27, surrendered peacefully to about 20 FBI agents and Mexican police Sunday night in Tulum, about 60 miles from Cancun, the FBI said.
Longo, who has a history of petty crime and debt, had been on the run since the bodies of his wife and children were found in shallow areas of the Oregon coast in December. He had been put on the Most Wanted list on Friday.
Investigators have not said how the victims died and have not given a motive for the slayings.
Longo agreed to return voluntarily to the United States, and was flown by the FBI to Houston, where he was jailed while he awaits his return to Oregon to face aggravated murder charges.
By volunteering to return to the United States, Longo apparently avoided the sometimes sticky issue of extradition from Mexico and the death penalty. Mexico has no death penalty and does not extradite fugitives who might face a death sentence.
Lincoln County Dist. Atty. Bernice Barnett would not say Monday whether she would seek the death penalty.
Longo is accused in the December slayings of MaryJane Longo, 35, and their children: Zachary, 4, Sadie Ann, 3, and Madison, 2. Their bodies were found in Alsea Bay near Waldport and at a marina at Yaquina Bay at Newport.
Longo's fate was sealed on Dec. 27, when he met a woman from the Montreal area in Cancun, according to the FBI. Longo identified himself as Brad but later said his name was Mike, Mathews said. The Canadian woman, whose name was not released, later saw his picture on the Internet and called the FBI.
Longo had since moved to the Tulum beach camp and was using the name Michael Longo. He had been asked to leave the Cancun resort after some money was reported stolen, though the theft apparently was not directly connected to Longo, Mathews said.
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