Juan Antonio Avalos spent two decades on the run from a Toronto murder beef.
But justice and the city’s vaunted cold-case unit finally caught up with the 63-year-old in his native El Salvador.
Cops announced his arrest on Friday morning. He is charged with second-degree murder.
Avalos was allegedly on the run for the Aug. 31, 2004 murder of his new bride, Rosaura Tolentino Ramos, 26. Officers found her lifeless body in the pair’s Finch Ave. W. apartment after she was reported missing by her family in the islands.
Ramos had only been in Canada for about a year after immigrating from her native Dominican Republic.
Detectives immediately zeroed in on Avalos, the missing hubby. But he was long gone.
“Authorities in El Salvador arrested him and he was more than happy to return to Canada,” cold case unit boss, Det. Sgt. Steve Smith told the Toronto Sun. “He spent the last couple of months in a Salvadoran prison and that isn’t a lot of fun.”
At the time of Ramos’ murder, the Sun reported that the pair had a volatile relationship. They had only been married about six months and had no children.
In a bitter twist, the photo detectives released to the media was that of Ramos wearing her white wedding gown. Six months later that day packed with promise was shattered by a sledgehammer of violence and despair.
Investigators released few details on how the bubbly young woman was slain, other than she had been stabbed to death and where the vile deed was committed. Cops conceded Ramos had been “brutally and savagely attacked.”
Before the horrific killing, Avalos had been under a court order banning him from contacting Ramos. He had been released on bail following a Jan. 28, 2004 assault charge.
And in a flash of deja vu, he had been under strict conditions not to contact Ramos. That did not save her.
The pair again began living together at the Finch Ave. W. apartment they had previously shared. The place where Ramos was found murdered.
“We’re very anxious to speak with Mr. Avalos,” Det. Savas Kyriacou said in 2004. “His whereabouts are unknown and we’d like to speak to him in relation to this.
“We have some indications that they had a fairly tumultuous relationship and we’re looking into that a little bit further.”
Avalos had been slated to appear in court Oct. 19, 2004, to face the assault charge. Of course, he was a no-show.
An Interpol Red Notice was issued for Avalos but he had slithered into the ether — until earlier this year. Besides, in 2004, El Salvador did not have an extradition treaty with Canada.
Smith said former cold case Det. Stella Karras got the ball rolling and tracked her suspect to El Salvador. Cops there took the ball and ran with it. Two TPS detectives then flew to San Salvador and brought Avalos back.
The arrest of Avalos is just the latest home run from the cold case unit which has cleared some of the city’s most vexing unsolved murders over the past five years.
“It says a lot for our people,” Smith told the Sun. “The cold case office will never stop until we bring the accused to justice. And we will use any means necessary to do the job.”
After a few months in an El Salvador prison — famous for rats, bugs, violence, and brutality — Juan Antonio Avalos may indeed decide that a Canadian joint looks pretty good for the time being.
None of the charges have been proven in court.