An MS-13 gang member wanted in connection with the execution murder of his girlfriend and her 2-year-old son on Long Island in 2010 has been added to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.
A $100,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the capture of Juan Elias Garcia, 21.
Garcia is said to have had a romantic relationship with 19-year-old Vanessa Argueta, who was killed by gang members in Central Islip in February 2010.
According to testimony at two MS-13 trials, Garcia believed Argueta had told a rival gang that she and Garcia had had a dispute.
Court records say Garcia and MS-13 gang members Adalberto Ariel Guzman and Rene Mendez Mejia picked up Argueta and her son the night of Feb. 4 and told her they were going to dinner.
Instead they drove to a wooded area in Central Islip and lured the mother and child into the woods.
Argueta was shot in the head and chest with a .22-caliber handgun, and when her son began crying, he was shot in the head. The boy got up from the ground and clutched Garcia's leg, and then Guzman fired a second shot, killing the child.
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The bodies were found the next day.
Mejia pleaded guilty and Guzman was convicted in the murders. Both are awaiting sentencing.
Adding Garcia to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list “illustrates not only the seriousness of his crimes,” said FBI Assistant Director George Venizelos said, “but also our commitment to seeking justice for his victims."
The FBI says Garcia was born in Santa Rosa de Lima, El Salvador. He is 5 feet 4 inches tall, 125 pounds and has black hair and brown eyes.
Garcia speaks English and Spanish and has ties to El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Panama.
