A felon who has been dubbed a ‘master of disguise’ by law enforcement officials appeared in San Diego federal court on Monday over charges of identity theft.
Tyler Adams, 54, was also wanted by the FBI for questioning in connection with the death of his girlfriend, Racquel Sabean, whose body was found inside a car in Mexico in 2022.
Adams is charged with using another person’s Arizona driver’s license to enter the US from the southern border just a couple weeks after Sabean’s remains were discovered.
Officials said Adams used a dozen aliases over the years and previously absconded from prison in Hawaii, where he was serving time for stealing his mother and stepfather’s identities for a $180,000 real estate scam.
Photos of the fraudster show him with varying appearances, sometimes with swollen or shiny skin on his face, sparking speculation that he has undergone plastic surgery.
In May 2019, Adams was halfway through his 14-year prison stint when he escaped from custody while in a work furlough program.
He went on the lam for almost three years before traveling to Tijuana, Mexico, with Sabean and their seven-month-old daughter in April 2022.
Sabean went missing and about a month later in late May, her decomposed body was discovered in her mother’s Volkswagen Jetta by Mexican authorities after locals reported a ‘foul odor’ coming from the vehicle.
Tyler Adams, 54, appeared in San Diego federal court on Monday over charges of identity theft. He has been dubbed a ‘master of disguise’
Adams’s court appearance on Monday was only in regard to his identity theft charges, but he is also the primary suspect in his girlfriend Racquel Sabean’s murder in Mexico (pictured together)
Adams’s various aliases and appearances are pictured in a police handout. His different looks have fueled suspicion that he has undergone plastic surgery
An Amber Alert was issued for Sabean’s baby on June 8. The infant was found safe about a week later on the same day Adams was picked up by Mexican police for alleged drunk driving.
Officers in Tecate said he presented them with an Arizona license bearing the name of a 28-year-old named Aaron Lee Bain, so they turned him over to Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
From there Adams, who was around 50 at the time, was able to cross back into the US on June 16, allegedly by using the Arizona driver’s license, according to authorities.
On June 17, 2022, the San Diego FBI released a statement saying Adams was wanted for questioning in connection with his girlfriend’s murder and cited his reentry into the US the day before.
The FBI release also noted that he was wanted for escaping from state prison in Hawaii.
Adams then spent about a year and a half on the run before he was finally arrested in Orange County, California, in late 2023.
In 2024, he was convicted of the Hawaii escape and sentenced to five years in prison on top of the remaining seven years of his prior sentence.
In court on Monday, Adams pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated identity theft and making a false statement.
Sabean, 40, was found dead in her mother’s car by Mexican authorities about a month after she crossed the border with Adams. She is pictured with their child
Sabean’s body was found after locals reported a ‘foul odor’ coming from this Volkswagen Jetta. Adams was wanted by the FBI for questioning related to Sabean’s murder
Adams spent about a year and a half on the run after re-entering the US. He was finally arrested in late 2023 in Orange County, California
Mexican authorities said Adams is the primary suspect in Sabean’s death, although he has not been charged in connection.
Despite the lack of formal charges, Sabean’s father, David Sabean, told the US Sun in 2022 that he ‘would bet [his] life’ that Adams was his daughter’s killer.
In an interview with NBC San Diego, Adams’s own stepfather suggested he may have been responsible.
‘I know he was a butthead, but to take another life? My god,’ the stepfather told the outlet.
The reporter interviewing him clarified that Adams had not been convicted of a crime and was simply wanted for questioning, but the stepfather replied: ‘They’re not hunting him and you’re not calling me because it’s an outside chance.’
The stepfather also confirmed to the outlet that Adams has had plastic surgery at least once, when he was in his late teens or early twenties, and that he believed his stepson had done it for psychological reasons.