Ex-O.C. Man May Be Tried in France for Wife’s Murder : Crime: The husband, a French citizen, is arrested in Versailles. The victim’s body was found in October near Riverside after the entire family disappeared in August.

A French judge is expected to decide today whether to press murder charges against a former Garden Grove man whose wife’s body was found near Riverside last fall.

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Manuel Fernandez, 28, had been sought since October, when the body of Kyu-hee Park Fernandez, 30, was discovered by hikers at the base of a mountain.

Fernandez was arrested Tuesday by French police and a Riverside County sheriff’s detective in the Versailles home of relatives, Sheriff’s Department Lt. T.J. Smith said.

The entire Fernandez family was reported missing from their Garden Grove apartment last Aug. 24, and soon afterward one of the family’s two cars was found parked at Los Angeles International Airport.

Relatives of Kyu-hee told police they suspected foul play. The couple’s six-year marriage had been marked by repeated charges that Manuel Fernandez had beaten his wife, according to court records.

An autopsy failed to determine the cause of death, but sheriff’s deputies believe they have evidence linking the death to Fernandez.

Smith said Riverside County prosecutors decided against asking for Fernandez’s extradition, in part because prosecutors in France might have a better chance of winning a conviction.

Fernandez is a French citizen, and Smith said he believes Fernandez’s wife also enjoyed French citizenship through him.

French courts “view the homicide of a French citizen by another French citizen as a very significant event,” Smith said. “It is a case that has piqued their interest.”

Garden Grove Detective John Enriquez added, “As long as he gets tried, that’s the main thing.”

The couple’s 6-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter were with Fernandez when he was arrested. They are staying with his relatives in France, Smith said.

Smith said Riverside County authorities believe that Fernandez’s children might have important evidence to give about their mother’s death, and that unlike American authorities working on foreign soil, French authorities would have the legal right to hold Fernandez in custody and offer protective custody to his children while they take testimony from them.

Much of the case against Fernandez is based on circumstantial evidence, which is generally more admissible in a French court than in an American court because of differences in the two countries’ rules of evidence, Smith said.