Man spent 13 years on the run after stabbing his new wife while she still wore wedding dress
Many women believe that their wedding day will be one of the happiest of their lives - but for 26-year-old Estrella Carrera, it was the day hers was brutally cut short.
She was discovered two days later in her dry bathtub, still wearing the silver, sequinned cocktail dress she had worn for her wedding ceremony, having been stabbed to death.
Something was off even before Estrella Carrera and her on-and-off-again boyfriend, Arnoldo Jimenez, then 30, decided on the spur of the moment to tie the knot.
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Estrella told only her father the day before she was due to get married, but no other family members knew that she was about to make such a major life decision until the day itself, when they were invited to a party to celebrate the couple's marriage.
Her cousins told the Chicago Tribune at the time: "This just happened out of nowhere. It was so fast I couldn't even make to the celebration."
Another cousin added that Estrella "didn't want to tell me she had gotten married. She didn't tell anybody besides her father the day before".
Arnoldo and Estrella shared one child, a little boy who was two when they tied the knot in 2012, and she had a daughter from a previous relationship as well, who was nine years old at the time.
He was alleged by Estrella's family to be "very possessive" and to become easily jealous, and her sister Jazmine claimed he had previously been violent with Estrella - leading them to disapprove of the romance.
Their turbulent relationship had lasted about three years when they decided, seemingly at the last moment, to get married. After the ceremony on 11 May at Chicago City Hall, the couple invited their family and pals to join them for a celebratory dinner, before splurging on a limousine to travel to a nightclub in the North Side.
The couple left at about 4am to go home - and Estrella was never seen alive again.
Driving in Arnoldo's black 2006 Maserati, the couple is thought to have got into a serious argument. Arnoldo is alleged to have stabbed Estrella multiple times before dragging her inside her apartment and dumping her body in the bath.
Eventually, Estrella's family became worried, with the new bride failing to come to collect her two young children, who had been staying with them. Initially, they are said to have gone to straight to Estrella's home, but had no answer.
They then called the authorities and asked police to conduct a wellness check, which saw Estrella's body finally discovered in her home at 3.30pm on 13 May - which had no sign of forced entry.
Arnoldo is reported to have called his sister crying the night that he killed Estrella, saying that he - who stands at 6 feet tall and weighed 220lbs - had left his new wife bleeding, after a "bad fight".
Arnoldo's brother, Humberto Jimenez, was under investigation for drug dealing at the time of Estrella's murder, so federal agents had been listening in on his phone calls. Humberto was heard, the day that his new sister-in-law's body was found, telling someone "there's been an emergency" and referring to a "huge problem" - per the Chicago Tribune.
Not only that, but during a search of his home related to drug dealing, Arnoldo's luxury car was found partially hidden - though it showed signs someone had attempted to clean it and cover up evidence, there was still a "plethora" of material for the investigators to use in their case against Arnoldo.
Despite discovering the car, Arnoldo himself was nowhere to be found. With his parents living in Mexico, it was long suspected that he had fled Illinois and gone there to hide from the consequences of his actions.
However, it would be nearly 13 years before he was ever captured. Arnoldo spent over a decade on the run before being arrested in Monterrey, Mexico on January 30 2025.
He has been charged with first-degree murder and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, and he has been held in custody in Mexico until he is extradited back to the US.
Arnoldo made the 'Most Wanted' list in 2019, and there was a £250,000 award on his head
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'He held a pocket knife to my back and told me that if I screamed or shouted, he would kill me and then kill my family,' says Jessyca. 'He wouldn't have been able to do this today with all the security checks, but back then you could get a ticket under any name and didn't need proof of identity.' Once they landed, Oliver found them a cheap hotel to stay in, and he went about changing Jessyca's appearance so she wouldn't be recognised. 6 6 'He cut my hair short and dyed it from blonde to brunette,' she remembers. 'He also went clothes shopping and came back with lots of baggy clothes, which made me look like a boy.' After two days, they moved to another hotel near Houston airport, and as they checked in, Oliver wasted no time telling staff his cover story about the fatal car accident and that they were a father and daughter down on their luck. The hotel staff took pity and asked if he'd be interested in a vacant position as a painter and decorator for the hotel. Agents kept asking me if I was Jessyca Mullenberg, but by then, that name didn't mean anything to me. Jessyca after being freed Oliver jumped at the opportunity, particularly because the position included free accommodation in a block of old, abandoned rooms that were separate from the rest of the hotel. Jessyca's heart sank as Oliver marched her towards one of the small, windowless rooms. 'I was locked inside day and night, there was no way to escape. We were in a part of the hotel where no one else was staying, so no one would hear me banging on the door or shouting,' she remembers. When Oliver got back at night, he'd rape her, as well as hit her and tie her to the bed. In the first week of her captivity, Jessyca tried to call her home using the phone in the room while Oliver was working, but the calls never connected. 'It was an old rotary phone, and he'd switched all the numbers around, so I just kept dialling wrong numbers. 'I started to believe that my old life was slipping away, and I couldn't even remember my home number,' she says. Oliver tormented Jessyca psychologically, too, repeatedly telling her that her parents had given up searching for her. But in fact, her desperate family had never stopped looking, and when they were told by the FBI that Oliver might have taken her out of the state, they printed thousands of missing person posters that were then attached to trucks travelling nationwide, in the hope someone might recognise her. In the end, it was an episode of prime-time TV show America's Most Wanted that would save Jessyca from Oliver's abuse. The show had featured her abduction earlier that year, but a repeat episode aired on the evening of December 28, 1995. One of the hotel staff was watching at home and recognised Oliver as the maintenance man staying in the hotel with the young girl he claimed was his daughter. The next morning, FBI stormed the hotel room, arrested Oliver and took Jessyca to safety. By that point, Oliver had completely brainwashed her. 'Agents kept asking me if I was Jessyca Mullenberg, but by then, that name didn't mean anything to me.' Dr Darrel Turner is a forensic psychologist who specialises in predatory behaviour and has consulted for the FBI. He says: 'The more an offender can diminish the child's frame of reference of what's normal and what's not, the more impact they will have on the victim and their ability to appreciate what's happening to them.' Darrel adds: 'It's similar to the abductions of Jaycee Dugard and Elizabeth Smart, who were also just children when they were removed from their family homes and isolated so that the perpetrators could exploit the power differential that exists and exert their terrible influence. "This and the trauma Jessyca had experienced explains her lack of memory.' After hours of talking and them showing photos of my family, I finally remembered what my real name was. Jessyca after being freed 'After hours of talking and them showing photos of my family, I finally remembered what my real name was,' recalls Jessyca. By the time her mother's plane had touched down in Houston the following afternoon, she was beginning to comprehend just what had happened to her during those 105 days in Oliver's clutches. 'It's pure ecstasy,' said her mother Monica when the pair were reunited at the airport. 'We waited so long for the nightmare to be done. We've waited for the miracle to happen.' Bravely, Jessyca agreed to testify at Oliver's trial in 1996, and gave a graphic account of what had happened to her in the time she'd been kept captive. Oliver was sentenced to 40 years in prison for kidnapping and interstate transportation of a minor for illegal sexual purposes. He's still in jail to this day, aged 68. Unfortunately, Jessyca's trauma didn't end with Oliver's imprisonment, and as well as the mental scars he'd inflicted, there were physical ones. 'In my early 20s, I needed jaw surgery, because he had hit me so hard in the face, so many times, that my bones began to deteriorate, making it very hard to talk or eat, and I was suffering from non-stop headaches every day,' she says. Jessyca also suffers from severe PTSD and experiences flashbacks of her ordeal. 'I have a fear of flying after being forced to board the plane in Kansas City,' she says. 'I also can't stand the smell of cigarettes or coffee, because he constantly smelled of those things.' However, Jessyca's determination not to let Oliver hold any further power over her has been a constant in her life since. She went on to study at college and graduated with a degree in psychology, criminal justice and law enforcement. And then, in 2018, she was given the prestigious Hope Award by the National Centre for Missing & Exploited Children. Jessyca is now married to tech manager Curt, 48, and despite fears she may not be able to conceive due to the unrelenting sexual assaults she suffered at the hands of Oliver, she defied the odds and has two children of her own. However, as she explains, being a mum can also bring its own terrors. 'When they were growing up, I was waiting for my five-year-old daughter at the school bus stop, but she never got off and the bus driver didn't see her get on. "I called my husband, panicking, and rushed to the school in tears. "Thankfully, she was at a school event and there had been a misunderstanding about what time she'd be home, but it was a harrowing experience for me.' But Jessyca is determined that Oliver won't take any more from her life than he has already and is passionate about continuing her advocacy work. 'I speak about what I went through to educate people about the signs of abuse, so it can be stopped early and perpetrators can be caught. "I simply won't let Oliver win. I want to devote my life to preventing another little boy or girl from going through the hell that I did.' 6
