The Associated Press
Christian Longo, shown arriving Monday in Houston, is accused of killing his wife and three kids. He was arrested in a Mexico beach town 60 miles south of Cancun.

Oregon fugitive caught in Mexico

MARY JORDAN, THE WASHINGTON POST

MEXICO CITY -- Fugitive Christian Longo was captured Sunday night in a beach town south of Cancun, ending an international manhunt that began when the bodies of Longo's wife and three small children were found slain in Oregon.

Longo, 27, did not resist when Mexican police accompanied by FBI agents detained him in Tulum, a southeast Mexico resort famous for its ancient ruins and beaches. The FBI said Monday that Longo was immediately flown to the United States, where he faces charges in a crime that shook Oregon before Christmas.

Between Dec. 19 and Dec. 27, the bodies of MaryJane Longo, 34, and the couple's children -- ages 2, 3 and 4 -- were found in Alsea Bay near Waldport and at a marina at Yaquina Bay at Newport, both on the central Oregon Coast. The family had recently moved to that area, leaving behind a string of debt in Ohio and Michigan.

People in the small towns where the bodies washed up had prayer and church services for the dead family members they had never met, as the FBI launched a nationwide manhunt for the missing father, putting him on the Ten Most Wanted list. On Saturday night, Longo's case was aired on the TV show, "America's Most Wanted."

A break in the case came when Longo allegedly used a stolen credit card to purchase a plane ticket from San Francisco to Cancun on Dec. 27. A Canadian woman who had been vacationing in Cancun called the FBI and said she believed Longo was in her Cancun hostel, where a robbery had occurred, but by then he had moved on.

The FBI printed photos and posters of Longo, a 6-foot tall, boyish looking man with blond hair. The posters said Longo was wanted for killing his kids. Sunday, a person in Tulum who saw Longo's poster in a phone booth called the FBI in Mexico City. Within hours of that call, Longo was in custody.

The Olympian Copyright 2001

back to main Home Page Stories index