{"id":112551,"date":"2026-01-06T08:59:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T08:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/112551\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T08:59:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T08:59:14","slug":"family-of-slain-texas-woman-waits-decades-as-killer-lives-freely-in-venezuela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/112551\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of slain Texas woman waits decades as killer lives freely in Venezuela"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2ck03irhhf3n4qea.jpg\" alt=\"Family of slain Texas woman waits decades as killer lives freely in Venezuela\" class=\"sr-only\" data-v-4292be72=\"\"\/>    <\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">HOUSTON &#8211; Two of Felicia Ruiz&#8217;s killers were convicted and sentenced to prison for her 1999 stabbing death. But not Jesus Salazar, who fled to his home country of Venezuela.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">In a 2016 campaign stop, Felicia&#8217;s mother told her daughter&#8217;s horrific story,<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">&#8220;If I win, I will get him out fast,&#8217; said Donald Trump before winning his first term.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">The Ruiz&#8217;s would wait for at least another decade for justice.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">&#8220;It&#8217;s been hell,&#8221; said Carrie Ruiz. &#8220;We go the cemetery to see her, and when we leave, we&#8217;re angry,&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">Life forever changed for the Ruiz&#8217;s, but apparently not for Jesus Salazar.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">&#8220;Salazar was protected by the Venezuelan government for over 25 years,&#8221; said Andy Kahan with Crime Stoppers. &#8220;They knew where he was, he knew he would never be extradited back to the United States. They protected him.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">&#8220;That&#8217;s why he&#8217;s been over there all this time,&#8221; said Lou Ruiz, Felicia&#8217;s father. &#8220;Enjoying his life, getting married, having a family. But his day is coming now.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">Reaction taken by the United States could be the Ruiz&#8217;s best shot at finally seeing justice.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">&#8220;Now is the opportunity, because if we don&#8217;t get him now, we&#8217;ll probably never get him,&#8221; Carrie Ruiz said.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">We will keep you posted on what happens.<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: FOX 26 Reporter Randy Wallace spoke with Andy Kahan with Houston Crime Stoppers and Carrie Ruiz.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/tag\/crime-publicsafety\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-6c8e215c=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Crime and Public Safety<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/tag\/news\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-6c8e215c=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">News<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/tag\/us\/tx\/houston\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-6c8e215c=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Houston<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON &#8211; Two of Felicia Ruiz&#8217;s killers were convicted and sentenced to prison for her 1999 stabbing death.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1046,56,223,27,29,28,216,393],"class_list":{"0":"post-112551","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-crime-publicsafety","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-texas-headlines","13":"tag-texas-news","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}