LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Erick Rangel-Ibarra has been extradited back to Las Vegas in connection with the killing of a Las Vegas woman in 2020.
Lesly Palacio, 22 of Las Vegas, was first reported missing by her family on Aug. 29, 2020. Twelve days later, Palacio was found dead near Valley of Fire State Park by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officers, Moapa Tribal Police and Red Rock Search and Rescue.
Police identified Rangel-Ibarra as the main suspect, noting that Rangel-Ibarra was last seen on surveillance video with Palacio at the Longhorn Casino & Hotel in Las Vegas. His father, Jose Rangel, told police he had helped transport Palacio’s body from his home. Prosecutors said surveillance video showed both men placing Palacio’s body into a pickup truck.
Rangel pleaded guilty to destroying evidence and being an accessory to murder in 2021. He was sentenced to two years in prison but served between eight and nine months before his release.
Investigators said Rangel-Ibarra fled to Mexico shortly after Palacio was killed and was arrested nearly four years later in August 2024. He has been held in custody in Mexico since his arrest.
Gary Schofield, U.S. Marshal for the District of Nevada, credited the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, the Nevada State Police, the FBI, the U.S. Department of State, and U.S. marshals in both Nevada and Mexico for their contributions to the development.
Officials announced that Rangel-Ibarra was in custody of the LVMPD as of Thursday afternoon.
“It’s a negotiation between two sovereign governments,” Schofield said, explaining the extradition process. “We work with the Mexican authorities, we work with the U.S. authorities, that’s why the Department of State is involved. This actually moved pretty quickly.”
In 2023, Ofelia Markarian, an attorney representing the Palacio family, told FOX5 the family had not been able to mourn the loss of Palacio.
“We’re very, very hopeful that he will face the punishment that he deserves for what he did,” Markarian said.
Rangel-Ibarra faces charges of open murder and destroying or concealing evidence and is being held without bail at the Clark County Detention Center.
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