Fugitive Murder Suspect Caught in Seattle

A man who fled to the Philippines after his arrest on murder charges in 1981 was apprehended in Seattle last month after he sneaked back into the country to attend his daughter’s wedding, Glendale police said Thursday.

Francis Cardenas, 45, was arrested March 28 at the wedding rehearsal and is being held at the King County Jail in Washington, pending his extradition to California to face charges that he shot and killed his cousin, Robespierre Cardenas, 32, in Glendale on June 25, 1981, said Sgt. Jon Perkins.

Perkins said Cardenas turned himself in to authorities shortly after the 1981 killing, but after a preliminary hearing, he was released on $50,000 bail and promptly fled to his native Philippines.

Since then, police have tracked his whereabouts through various sources, but have been unable to capture him because the United States has no extradition treaty with the Philippines, Perkins said.

“We had established some contacts in the Philippines, and we knew what village he was in,” said Perkins. “Then, about one month ago, we received information that he had left that village for good. At about the same time, we heard that his daughter was getting married somewhere on the West Coast, but we didn’t know exactly where.”

Perkins said another investigator on the case, Officer Art Frank, then began calling “every major department store on the West Coast” and inquired as to whether the daughter was listed in the bridal gift registry.

In less than a day, the investigators learned that the woman was listed at a Nordstrom store in Seattle. From there, they learned the date and place of the wedding.

Glendale police, aided by members of a Seattle-area fugitive task force, arrested Cardenas at the wedding rehearsal.

Police said they did not announce the arrest until now because they had hoped Cardenas would be extradited from Washington to California. But Cardenas has contested his extradition and it could be several weeks before he is transferred here.

Police said Cardenas was divorced in 1980, and that his former wife married Robespierre Cardenas shortly before the murder. The motive for the slaying, however, is unclear to investigators, Perkins said.