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Ernesto Reyes, the Denton man accused by police of killing University of North Texas student Melanie Goodwin, was arrested in Mexico on Tuesday.
Reyes was found leaving a family member’s home in Celaya Guanajuato, Mexico, a town about four hours northeast of Mexico City, according to Sgt. John Singleton, spokesperson for the Carrollton Police Department.
When Reyes was approached leaving the home at about 12:55 p.m. Tuesday by U.S. Marshal deputies and Mexican authorities, he gave a false name, Singleton said. Once police identified him as Reyes, the arrest was peaceful, Singleton said.
Reyes will remain in custody in Mexico and is awaiting extradition to the United States.
Reyes is the first and only primary suspect in the slaying of 19-year-old Goodwin. Goodwin was last seen alive on a surveillance tape at a QuikTrip on Interstate 35E and Mayhill Road in Denton, talking to Reyes, according to police.
Reyes was since seen on another gas station surveillance tape the same evening in Carrollton, paying to fill a gas can with gasoline. A man matching his description was found again on tape at TransTech, a Carrollton business at the 3200 block of Keller Springs. That man was seen dragging a dead body out of Goodwin’s red two-door Saturn car and lighting it on fire, Singleton said.
Police believe the man on that tape was Reyes, Singleton said.
Goodwin’s body was found by Carrollton police officers two weeks ago at 11 a.m. Sept. 25, charred by fire. She was identified by her dental records, according to police. She was believed to be dead for 10-12 hours when her body was found, police said. Officials at the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office said she died from multiple blunt force trauma.
The $10,000 reward Peggy and Glenn Goodwin offered to anyone who could lead police to Reyes has not been given out yet, according to Matthew Bobo, family spokesperson and friend of the Goodwin’s for about 10 years.
He said police “had a pretty good idea of where (Reyes) has been for awhile,” and isn’t sure if the $10,000 reward will be used at all. The money came from donations from Glenn Goodwin’s employer — the Southern Reservation Office of American Airlines — and from Melanie Goodwin’s friends.
Carrollton police and U.S Marshals had been looking for Reyes since he was identified as a suspect the morning of Sept. 27, which was two days after Goodwin’s body was found, said Marta Fonda.
Fonda and her work partner, Heath Hill, followed leads to find Reyes in north Texas and in Oklahoma. Reyes moved to Clinton, Okla., when he was 7 years old, Fonda said. He had family members in both states and in Mexico.
U.S. Marshals began watching “several” of Reyes’ family members closely since Oct. 6, when officials received an emergency arrest warrant in Mexico, police said. Marshals placed 24-hour surveillance on suspected locations until they saw Reyes leave a known family member’s home Tuesday afternoon.
“He looks exactly like he did in all the photos that we were distributing,” Fonda said. She said that when Reyes gave a false name, officials knew right away that Reyes was lying, because he matched the photographs perfectly.
Police were also given information about the case from a Carrollton man named Donovan Young, who told police that he saw Reyes several times on the evening that Goodwin was killed.
Young was charged in late September with tampering with evidence in the Goodwin case, which is a second-degree felony, according to the affidavit for Young’s arrest. Young has since posted bond on $125,000 bail, police said.
Young told police that Reyes came to his Carrollton apartment on Sept. 25, his shirt stained with blood, police said. Reyes told Young he “needed help, he killed someone, didn’t mean to and needed to get rid of her body,” according to the affidavit for Young’s arrest.
Young told police he saw Goodwin’s dead body in the back seat of the red two-door Saturn Reyes was driving. That car has been identified as Goodwin’s vehicle, license plate Z57WBT.
Young gave Reyes money for gas and a gas can, Singleton said, which qualified him for the second-degree felony.
After Reyes returned to Young’s apartment the morning of Sept. 25, Reyes told Young that he had burned the body a few blocks away, according to police affidavits.
Goodwin’s family members guess that Reyes will return to the United States in 60 to 90 days, according to Bobo. If Reyes is found guilty of a first-degree felony, the punishment may be life imprisonment, according to the Texas penal code.
Contact Community Editor Sarah Blaskovich at 972-628-4074 or SBlaskovich@acnpapers.com.
