A California woman accused of killing and beheading her boyfriend left his headless body at her home and fled to Mexico, according to authorities, who said she has been captured in the country.
Alyssa Marie Lira, 23, was arrested in Mexico and brought back to the U.S. to face murder charges in the killing of her boyfriend, 55-year-old Enrique Gonzalez-Carbajal, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office announced in a Thursday, January 29 news release.
Lira, who has an Anaheim address, is charged with one felony count of murder and one felony enhancement of personally using a weapon, the office said.
Information on her legal representation was not immediately available on Friday, January 30.
Lira had been dating Gonzalez-Carbajal for about two months before law enforcement found his decapitated body inside her Anaheim home back on August 25, 2025, according to prosecutors.
Lira is accused of immediately fleeing the U.S. to Mexico after the murder and was ultimately identified as a suspect, prosecutors said.
She was apprehended in Mexico on January 22, following a search investigation involving Anaheim and Orange County law enforcement along with the FBI and Mexican authorities, according to the district attorney’s office.
The next day, Anaheim police officers traveled to the San Ysidro Point of Entry, which is along the U.S. Mexico border and links San Diego and Tijuana, to collect her from Mexican law enforcement, prosecutors said.
Then, Lira was booked at the Anaheim Police Department Detention Facility “on suspicion of murder,” according to authorities.
It is unclear why Lira allegedly killed Gonzalez-Carbajal, as authorities have not shared a potential motive.
Prosecutors told KTLA that investigators suspect it was a domestic violence-related killing and beheading.
According to prosecutors, Lira first met her boyfriend at a strip club, where she had been working, the outlet reported.
If she is convicted of all the charges she is facing, she would face up to 26 years to life in prison, prosecutors said.
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“Nothing, not time, not distance, nor foreign borders, will thwart our pursuit of justice, and Orange County law enforcement will continue to go the very ends of the earth to carry out our mission and hold criminals accountable for the heinous acts they commit,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement.
“This investigation and prosecution are a testament to the tenacity and the dedication of the Anaheim Police Department, of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, and of our federal and international partners to identify a cold-blooded killer, track her down in a foreign country, and bring her back to the United States to face the full weight of the law,” Spitzer said.
Lira is being held at the Orange County Jail without bail, according to the district attorney’s office. She is due in court for an arraignment on February 13.
In a statement shared to X on Lira’s arrest, the FBI said that “For the second time in a week, the FBI has confirmed the return of a fugitive wanted for murder in Orange County to the United States.”