NATIONWIDE — Authorities have arrested Nina Tamar Marano, 50, and Lisa Jo Dykes, 58, in Cambodia in connection to the 2020 death of Marisella Botello Valadez. The pair has been on the run since late December.

What You Need To Know

  • Two suspects in the murder of a Seattle woman, Marisella Botello Valadez, were captured in Cambodia

  • Nina Tamar Marano, 50, and Lisa Jo Dykes, 58, face one count of murder and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence
  • Charles Beltran, 32, faces one count of murder in the death of Valadez

Marano and Dykes, who are married, both removed their judge-mandated GPS monitors, preventing agents from contacting them. Court documents show that their monitors lost signal one shortly after the other on Christmas morning in the 1600 block of South Good Latimer Expressway, just south of downtown Dallas.

The women face one count of murder in the stabbing death of 23-year-old Valadez, of Seattle. They’ve been charged with tampering with or fabricating physical evidence. The third suspect in Valadez’s death, 32-year-old Charles Beltran, faces a count of murder. He was arrested in Utah and brought back to Dallas County, where he’s been since last spring.

Spectrum News 1 previously reported that Valadez, who was last seen October 5, had traveled to Dallas from Seattle to visit a friend on October 2. During its investigation, Dallas Police learned she went back to her friend’s residence and to multiple businesses in the Deep Ellum neighborhood that night. Surveillance footage showed her leaving Select Start, a venue on the 2800 block of Elm Street, with a man who police believed to be Beltran.

In the beginning, police listed Valadez as a “want to locate” case. However, after her social media accounts and activity from her cellphone went dark, in addition to her bank accounts, the case was upgraded to a missing person.

During a news conference last year, Lt. Eric Roman, of Youth Operations and Missing Persons, said Beltran was the last person to be seen with her.

In December, authorities said his vehicle, an Audi A6, was recovered in New York and a strand of hair was found inside the trunk, which they tested to determine if it belonged to Valadez.

According to the arrest affidavit, cellphone records placed Valadez, Beltran, Marano, and Dykes at a Mesquite home shared by Beltran and Dykes on the day of her disappearance. It continued by saying that phone records showed that Dykes and Marano left the home the same day and headed to a wooded area near Hutchins, which is close to multiple bodies of water, and then returned to the home.

During a search of the home, police discovered that blood had been cleaned from the carpet. But, stains of red and brown found underneath were later determined to be a DNA match for Valadez, police said.

Following Valadez’s disappearance, police said Beltran, Dykes and Marano left their jobs and homes and refused to talk to authorities, which they said showed a “pattern of avoidance and attempted concealment of evidence.”