Accused killer 'messed with the wrong mom'

San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan along with officials from San Diego Police, U.S. Marshals  and Josephine Funes Wentzel- mother of murder victim Krystal Jaye Mitchell spoke at a press conference last weekend, following the arraignment of Mitchell's killer, 37-year-old Raymond McLeod to discuss the history of the case and details of his capture on Aug. 29 in El Salvador. Wentzel recalls that fateful call.

"Francisco please tell me it's real. Just tell me it's real! Every time the marshals would go out in the past, the marshals would come back with negative results--it was somebody that looked like him," she told KUAM News. "But when I saw the picture of him, I know this was the guy.

I was really excited, I told my family and they were really excited, you don't know how your children truly feel until something like this happens. I remember my granddaughter saying, 'Mom, I don't have to worry about that man finding us to kill us.' You never thought your kids would have those thoughts in their mind."

If convicted, McLeod faces 25 years to life. As KUAM News reported, Mitchell's body was in June 2016. The coroner found she had been violently strangled and that there were three separate fractures to her voice box. Mcleod had fled to Mexico.

Stephan said the "x factor" was Wentzel--a former Guam resident and a former Guam Police Department detective who was never going to give up stating, "McLeod messed with the wrong mother."

"It was great satisfaction.  I even prayed -- Lord, I want to be the one person to catch him," Wentzel said. "Because I want to send a message to him that 'you're not so tough.' This old lady got you."

Before Wentzel concluded her interview with KUAM, she discussed the cold cases on Guam and those families still trying to seek closure and may need assistance.

"Reach out to me at angelsofjustice.org," she said. "Tell me about your case, the struggles in your case, at the same time- go onlline and do some research on free non-profit orgranizations that will be willing to look at your case and use their experts to evualate your case. Families of Guam, don't feel like you're isolated, from the rest of the world, these services are available for you, you just have to go online and look for them."

Mcleod will remain behind bars with his next court hearing set for Jan. 26, 2023.