A 16-year-old teenager, who has been wanted for the murder of his mother and younger brother, has been found and taken into custody Wednesday.
Adrian Navarro-Canales was apprehended by police after an anonymous tip that led investigators to find the teen sitting alone in a food court at Showcase Mall, Las Vegas. The boy did not resist as two officers approached him.
Up until Tuesday, police launched a nationwide search for the 16-year-old, also conducting searches along the Mexican border. While at first regarded as a victim of the murders, Navarro-Canales has since been a main suspect, believed to have killed his mother and brother, and living with the corpses for a time before fleeing the apartment. Police believe he endured the entire nine-mile walk from his apartment to the mall on foot.
His mother, Elvira Canales-Gomez, 41, had been found in the bathroom with multiple stab wounds and the murder weapon, a butcher's knife, lodged in her chest. The younger brother, Cesar Navarro, 9, was in the bathtub with only one stab wound to the chest. Police estimate the killing took place after Elvira picked Cesar from school, and after she, her sons, and boyfriend Carlos Rubio-Villanueva celebrated Navarro-Canales' 16th birthday.
Concerned relatives had repeatedly phoned police to say they were worried about the family, and officers had been sent to check three times, initially to find the apartment room locked and secure. In a follow-up visit, a police officer borrowed a key from the property management, and was overwhelmed by the odor of decomposing bodies as he entered. Thereupon he found the bodies of mother and son in the bathroom.
A cousin has told investigators that Navarro-Canales had antisocial tendencies and preferred to stay in his room and play videogames all day. She also said that her cousin disliked living in the United States and wanted to go back to Mexico.
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