CLEVELAND (WBAP/KLIF News ) – Less than 24 hours after the man accused of fatally shooting five of his neighbors in Cleveland, just northeast of Houston, was arrested, authorities announced that 38-year-old Francisco Oropeza’s wife has been taken into custody.
Montgomery County Sheriff Rand Henderson said 53-year-old Divimara Lamar Nava was arrested in connection to the shooting last Friday.
He said Nava told authorities she didn’t know where Oropeza was but investigators believe she hid him in the Cut and Shoot home, near Conroe, where he was arrested.
She’s being held in the Montgomery County jail on a felony charge of hindering the apprehension or prosecution of a known felon.
After a four-day manhunt, police found Oropeza hiding in a closet under a pile of laundry on Tuesday. The FBI Houston said his arrest was due in part to a tip that came in around 5:15 p.m..
“Somebody got a tip…uh DPS CID…U.S. Marshals…FBI…we had a tag team. They all meandered over there and found that tip to be true,” said San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers.
During a press conference following Oropeza’s capture, Capers had a message for the relatives of the victims.
“They can rest easy now because he is behind bars and he will live out his life behind bars for killing those five,” he said.
Authorities said Oropeza, a Mexican national who had been deported four times between 2009 and 2016, will be charged with five counts of murder and is being held on a $5 million bond.
His arrest comes in the wake of a massive manhunt that involved more than 250 people from various law enforcement departments, drones, dogs and a combined reward of $100,000.
Meanwhile, the Cleveland community is remembering the lives lost in the tragedy.
According to the Associated Press, all of the victims were from Honduras. Wilson Garcia, who survived the shooting, said friends and family in the home tried to hide and shield themselves and children after Oropeza walked up to the home and began firing, killing his wife first at the front door.
The victims were identified as Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 9.
A government official in Honduras said the remains of four of the victims would be repatriated. Velಱuez Alvarado will be buried in the United States at the request of her sister and her husband, said Wilson Paz, general director of Honduras’ migrant protection service.
OsmଠVelಱuez, Diana’s father, said Tuesday that his daughter had recently gotten residency and had traveled to the United States without documents eight years ago with the help of a sister, who was already living there.
“Her sister convinced me to let her take my daughter. She told me the United States is a country of opportunities and that’s true,” he said. “But I never imagined it was just for this.”
Amid the search for Oporeza, Governor Greg Abbott backtracked statements made about the victims, labeling them all “illegal immigrants.”
The Governor’s spokeswoman Renae Eze issued a statement that said in part that his office learned that one of the victims may have been in the country legally.
Copyright 2023. WBAP/KLIF News. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.