Everyone has their secrets, but what if someone you know turns out to be someone you didn’t expect them to be. Let alone your husband or father turned out to be a murderer. This happened to the family of a Colombian man who lived under a new name when he fled to the States.
The officials say the Colombian man who murdered his wife and then fled to the United States in the 1990s is still there, hiding under a false identity.
After being on the run since 1994, when he tragically murdered his wife and daughter in Medellin as the younger lady attempted to intercede in the domestic violence attack, William Hernando Usma Acosta, 61, was apprehended this week by the FBI after 27 years on the run.
In Belmont, Massachusetts, Usma Acosta was detained when police discovered him living with his new wife and children under Carlos Alberto Rendon.
By marrying an American citizen, he was granted permanent residency in the U.S. and had applied for naturalization in 2020 using a false birth certificate, the FBI said.
Joseph Bonavolonta, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston Division, stated that Acosta “has to face justice for what he did.”
“Convicted cold-blooded killing William Hernando Usma Acosta hoped to dodge prosecution by entering the United States and adopting a new identity so he could remain under the radar,” Bonavolonta said in a statement.
The FBI will employ its international alliances to keep dangerous fugitives like him out of our communities. Massachusetts will not be a haven for people wanted in their nations.
Usma Acosta was convicted of murder and gun possession charges after fleeing his own country following the June 19, 1994, assassination of his wife, Laura Rose Agudelo. An international warrant was issued for his arrest.
Because of a modification in the sentencing rules, he received a sentence of 29 1/2 years instead of 45 years, the FBI stated. “Restricted Citizen’s Rights” has been imposed on him for the next decade.
When Usma Acosta married in Massachusetts three years later, he became a permanent resident of the United States.
Usma Acosta applied to become a U.S. citizen in 2020 by submitting a fake birth certificate and fingerprints, which officials used to prove his real identity.
After Usma Acosta was detained on his way to work on Wednesday, Belmont locals were stunned to learn of his troubling background.
Michael Fraai told WCVB, “He seems like a decent person. I’d be surprised if he had a violent history. I’m at a loss for words. That’s completely out of character for me.”
ICE aims to hand him up to Colombian authorities and let him serve his sentence there.
Currently, he’s under the care of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. It wasn’t known if he had a lawyer.
