León Ferrara, the yoga instructor in Mexico, was actually Jorge Rueda, one of the most wanted fugitives by the FBI

León Ferrara, a yoga instructor in Guadalajara (Mexico), disappeared without a trace on Tuesday of last week.

His closest friends and students searched for him everywhere.

The last thing they heard was that he had taken his two Pomeranian dogs for a walk and he had not returned home.

Without a partner, children or close relatives in the city, they were the ones who tried to file a disappearance file, but his name did not yield any results, it was not even in the population registry.

Three days passed without hearing from him until they realized that his teacher was not called León Ferrara, but Jorge Rueda Landeros.

And that he was not missing or kidnapped, but that he had been arrested for murder.

Rueda Landeros, a 52-year-old teacher of meditation and languages,

He is the prime suspect in the murder of Professor Sue Ann Marcum and had been on the FBI's Most Wanted Fugitives list for more than 10 years.

"I'm innocent.

I suppose not everything, but obviously yes of what they are accusing me of, ”he said during a phone call from the South Prison in Mexico City.

― In all these years, did you continue the case?

Everything that was said about you?

"No, I didn't follow anything.

Once I disappeared from the radar, I completely forgot about it.

Even, I still have difficulty responding to that name of Jorge.

I hardly have any of him inside of me anymore.

“It has been very strong.

I feel like I'm grieving because I killed a friend.

I know León, but I don't know who Jorge is, ”says María, a student of his who decided to make the case public on the condition that his real name not be published.

At the end of last week, she went to raise a search warrant at the Special Prosecutor for Missing Persons of the State of Jalisco, the second entity in Mexico for the number of disappeared.

"His friend of his is not missing, he is in custody and has an Interpol file," they told him after waiting seven hours.

"We can't tell you more."

“If I ever have the opportunity to sit down with him, I will have to ask him several questions,” María settles.

Sue Ann Marcum, a well-known American University Accounting professor, was found dead on October 25, 2010 at her home in Bethesda (Maryland), a small city of 65,000 inhabitants on the outskirts of Washington DC "It was due to her students , she had a passion for teaching that made her give everything for them,” said Donald Williamson, the colleague who invited her to join the faculty in 1999, in a recorded tribute organized by the university.

At first, everything pointed to a robbery gone wrong.

After receiving a 911 call, the Police arrived at the crime scene shortly before eleven in the morning and found the victim's body, which she appeared to have struggled with before being suffocated and beaten to death by her assailant.

Most of her valuables, however, were still at the residence.

The one exception was an old Jeep Cherokee van, which was no longer parked outside her home when officers received the report.

The vehicle was recovered before midnight that same Monday in October.

DeAndrew Hamlin, an 18-year-old African-American, stole it and hit the road until he lost control of the car, crashed and was arrested after a lengthy police chase.

Until then, Hamlin was the only suspect in the robbery and murder.

On April 12, 2011, the boy pleaded guilty to taking the van, although the murder case remained unknown.

The local police would later declare that the scene of the robbery looked like a "montage" and that it was possible that the young man had taken the van after finding it abandoned.

Four days later, authorities issued an arrest warrant for Rueda Landeros after identifying his DNA at Marcum's home and on the murder weapon, a glass bottle.

Marcum and Rueda Landeros were united by a passion for yoga.

The victim's friends say they met in the summer of 2005, when she took Spanish classes at a modest church in the Washington area, where he was a teacher.

The judicial summary indicates that they began a relationship in 2006.

- Did you know her?

― Of course, she was part of a social circle that I had there with several people.

There was a relationship, a friendship.

― Were you a couple at some point?

- You are right.

You can definitely say we had some of that.

The Police found a series of files on Marcum's computer about the opening of an investment fund managed by both and a 2008 tax return in which financial movements for more than 100 million dollars were settled.

Always according to the judicial summary, the emails they exchanged revealed that they had differences due to the way Rueda Landeros managed the money.

In a drawer in the house, the agents discovered a life insurance policy in the victim's name for half a million dollars, in which he appeared as the only beneficiary.

“Those were things that we had together, but that is completely independent of a crime,” Rueda Landeros returns.

Jorge Rueda Landeros, after his arrest.

Agents say the case is strong: there was a motive, genetic samples from the defendant at the crime scene, and ease of access to the victim's residence.

"The police investigation determined that Marcum fought and possibly knew his attacker," reads a statement to which EL PAÍS has had access.

Rueda Landeros presented himself as a former Wall Street broker who decided to leave everything to embark on a path of self-knowledge.

He had had enough, he felt that he had done nothing with his life and he went to India.

The new Jorge was a yogi, plastic artist and poet.

He had no material attachments, lived as an ascetic, constantly crossing the border to visit his relatives in Texas and Virginia, and drawing money from classes he occasionally taught in small cafes or spiritual centers.

“Sue talked about him like he was on a pedestal, like he was a god,” Larry March, the friend who made the 911 call, recalled in

, a CNN documentary about the case recorded in 2016. “There was something about him that I just didn't like,” she said on the show, which followed the story of a romance that would turn into a breach of trust and then end with a “cold-blooded” murder.

Rueda Landeros maintains that "he was not in that place at the time" and that he resided in Mexico.

She assures that her DNA is at the scene of the murder because "it was a more or less intimate relationship" and that the authorities "have mixed up" "daily" problems that she had with her ex-partner to argue that there was a motive.

“It was a long time ago, but the last time I saw her I don't know if it was weeks before what happened next,” she adds.

The US authorities, on the other hand, have no doubts.

Neither did Marcum's inner circle.

In June 2011, the arrest warrant against Rueda Landeros as the sole suspect was made official.

Black hair, brown eyes, 1.78 meters tall, 91 kilos, a native of Ciudad Juárez with dual nationality, a 52-year-old man, a yoga and Spanish teacher.

Interpol's red tab and FBI warrant marked the beginning of a new life as a fugitive.

In the end, he would be placed on the most wanted list for murder.

Before disappearing from the map, Rueda Landeros took the time to contact a reporter from

and insist on his innocence.

In mid-June 2011, an email sent to an El Paso Police detective was attributed to her.

"You are cordially invited to cross the same bridge, in the opposite direction, and meet me at Sanborn's, a great cafeteria here in Juárez, and we can talk business all you want," the US media notes read.

“It is better if they come on Sunday.

We can do a

.

Of course, I invite.

Yours, George."

a double life

― Do Jorge and León have the same life story or are they two different people?

They look alike in many ways.

In the end, it is inevitable to use the experience that one has had in life.

So, many things are intertwined.

León Ferrara was “born” shortly after Jorge Rueda Landeros made the last attempt to visit his brothers in Texas and learned of the arrest warrant.

“Between they are apples and pears, the

have their business and I would stay away from them,” his uncle advised him.

He has not had contact with them again.

He is also known as Sadú León: sometimes a native of Brazil, others born in Juárez, the son of diplomats of Turkish origin, also a descendant of converted Jews.

“Sadú is what I more or less began to orient myself to, which are the yogis there from India who walk around naked.

He has been doing yoga for a long time.

León is a common name for Jewish philosophers in Spain, it is assumed that my paternal family came from

or

.

That's why it occurred to me, ”he explains.

"León was my best friend," says Sofía, who requests anonymity like the rest of the yoga teacher's students.

She took classes with him on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

He was still last seen on Tuesday of last week, hours before he was arrested.

Sofia met the instructor in 2013 and they became friends shortly after.

She describes him as a cultured person, difficult at first impressions, with a dark humor and not afraid to make direct comments or criticisms about the appearance or actions of others.

"If you have a fragile ego, you're not going to like him," she says.

Sofía opened the door to León several times when it was not possible to take yoga outdoors or when she was teaching languages ​​or meditation to her son.

She tells that as a teacher she used a memorization method to teach English, French, Italian, Portuguese and German at the same time.

"He was a person I completely trusted, there were times when I took advantage of the fact that he was at home with my child to go to the supermarket, for example," she says.

"Something of him has to exist, it's very hard to pretend for 10 years."

León Ferrara / Jorge Rueda LanderosRR.SS.

León Ferrara said that he had worked on the Stock Exchange, in New York and in Boston, and that later he had gone to India to discover himself.

Later, he spent time in a monastery in Thailand.

He read a lot and published three books in the publishing house of the University of Guadalajara on basic yoga and meditation techniques.

He had few family ties, but he was very involved in the lives of his closest students: he gave them advice on their relationships, he was a confidant willing to listen, he got involved with his families.

He said that he was a man who had traveled a lot, he liked to give advice and specific directions to restaurants or interesting places to visit in Turkey, Spain or Costa Rica.

In most cases there is no evidence to corroborate the accounts of him.

“He was very convincing, although suddenly there were little details that seemed a bit exaggerated in what he told, as if to make it more interesting,” says Rubén, a friend of his who is a psychologist.

Between reality and fiction, León Ferrara imagined and recounted that he had spent time at Harvard, that he had been sent as an undercover agent to Israel and was almost caught, that he had a torrid relationship with a Russian girl with whom he fought a lot and at the same time that "he came to want to kill."

He told it as one more anecdote to Rubén.

But he never told her anything about his past as Jorge Rueda Landeros or about the first-degree murder charges, nor did he show remorse.

"Now that I think about it, he was a narcissist," says Rubén.

As a friend he strives to give her the presumption of innocence and the last benefit of the doubt,

Four people close to him share the feelings of sadness, worry, pain and betrayal.

They wonder who that person really was, if they should have seen some warning sign or if it is an injustice and they will have a chance to give their version.

For them, pieces of the puzzle are missing, the information available is scarce, and the extremes of reality in recent weeks do not add up: on the one hand, an identity as a

who promoted urban gardens, and on the other, a judicial file for the murder. of his ex-partner.

If León is proven guilty, they unanimously say, he has to pay.

"We are not naive, the accusations are very serious," says María.

― Many people in Guadalajara were surprised to find out about all this.

What would you tell them?

― Yes, it's surprising (sighs).

The truth is that it does not affect what I was trying to share with them: it was the practice of equanimity, the techniques that one learns with yoga, where one tries not to privilege any element of reality too much because everything is changeable and fleeting.

So, just as I was with them and we shared together, the same and people disappear and that's it.

― Would you apologize to them or isn't that the case?

- (Silence).

… I don't know if apologizing would be the case.

Because, then, what I had proposed to you about an alternative or unconventional vision of life, where one is simply open to experience, would no longer be true.

Jorge or León navigate their own ramblings to avoid direct answers.

When they ask him if he committed the murder, he says that he is innocent of

When they ask him about his relationship with the victim, he answers that there was something like

.

When asked if he would apologize to his friends for hiding who he really was for 10 years, he replies that he doesn't know.

Despite the extensive coverage of the murder in the United States, in Mexico the case went virtually unnoticed.

The Attorney General of the Republic did not issue a statement of the arrest, nor did any other government body in both countries.

The US media are also unaware of the arrest.

Although there was no official announcement, sources from the prison system confirmed to EL PAÍS that Jorge Rueda Landeros entered prison on December 14 "under the effects of provisional detention for extradition purposes" and "claimed by the Government of the United States of America for the crime of First Degree Homicide.”

On his entry tab, he appears smiling and staring at the camera.

South of the border, the detainee awaits the extradition process, advised by a court-appointed lawyer who tells him that not much can be done on this side and that only a protocol process remains for him to be sent to the US. “There is a lot of abuse of authority, there is a lot of decadence, everything is very abandoned by the hand of God”, he complains about his stay in prison.

It is a destiny that he said he had forgotten, but that also seemed to wait some day.

“The poet, whom we will call 'the artist,' is a candidate for the electric chair in the State of Maryland.

With such prestige, the lucky one has given himself up to a life of incognito and mobility, as a stateless gypsy”, writes a certain Harvey Ostrovsky, supposed director of the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Berkeley, in the prologue of a book by poems by Jorge Rueda Landeros, which Jorge Rueda Landeros himself uploaded to the internet.

Everything seems fake.

Because there is no trace of Ostrovsky on the web or that he held that position, not even that he was an employee of the university.

Rueda Landeros most likely used that pseudonym to talk about himself.

Maybe it was another chance to assume another identity,

― Many people who know him don't understand why he hid if he said he didn't do anything...

“That's simplistic, in a way.

Not much to say about it.

- What explanation would you give to this questioning?

-(Silence).

For example, here the presumption of innocence is handled.

But even so, one is shivering almost every day.

Suffering harassment and extortion from the authority.

There are processes that happen regardless of your guilt or innocence situation.

It is these processes that people seek to evade (...) It is very far from an admission of guilt that one wants to evade all the crushing processes of the State, by God, nothing to do with it.

Jorge Rueda Landeros seems to have caught up with León Ferrara.

In prison, the defendant recalls a scene from

, the Woody Allen film, in which a tennis ball is suspended right in the middle of the court, above the net.

"For a fraction of a second, the ball can fall forwards or backwards," says a

.

“With a bit of luck, he falls ahead and you win or maybe he doesn't and you lose,” adds the narrator.

Shortly after one of the characters throws his ring into the River Thames, it bounces off a railing and hangs in the air before falling to the ground.

"It doesn't matter where I go," Rueda Landeros complements, as if getting rid of it was a game or depended on an act of luck.

On the other side of the coin, the entourage left behind by Sue Ann Marcum, who could not be contacted prior to the delivery of this text, hopes that justice is done and that her legacy prevails in the tributes, in her students, and in the university scholarship that bears his name.

The victim was murdered at the age of 52, the same age at which the main suspect in the crime was finally apprehended.

In the limbo of those who knew only one of Rueda Landeros' identities, those closest to a man who has once again disappeared from the radar resign themselves to the hope that one day his questions will be answered.

"León is innocent, Jorge Rueda, I don't know," says María before hanging up the phone.

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