For 13 years, suspected sex killer Lorenzo Maes used false identities to elude a global manhunt.
The auto mechanic was charged with beating, raping and kidnapping a Chicago woman in 1998.
Released after one of his girlfriends posted a bond of $7,000, Maes allegedly assaulted and murdered another woman while awaiting trial.
The second woman’s body was found in the trunk of a burned Chevrolet Lumina. A week later, Maes disappeared.
Federal authorities relied on family informants to trace Maes to his hometown in Durango, Mexico, and a Mexican magistrate signed a provisional arrest warrant for him in 2006. But for reasons that are not clear, Maes was never captured.
Even before he became a fugitive, Maes was adept at sliding between aliases, including Fidel Urbina, Fidel Aguirre, and Fernando Ramos, along with several birth dates in 1975.
— David Jackson and Gary Marx, Tribune reporters
dyjackson@tribune.com, gmarx@tribune.com
