Illegal Immigrant Arrested in Brutal Stabbing Death of Virginia Mother After Biden-Era Border Release

A 19-year-old illegal immigrant from El Salvador has been arrested and charged in connection with the brutal killing of a Virginia mother who was found stabbed to death near a popular hiking trail in Great Falls.

Fairfax County police identified the suspect as Alexis Antonio Cedillos-Campos, who is accused of killing 42-year-old Carmen Lizet Puch of Reston. Puch was discovered by a jogger shortly before 7 a.m. Monday in the parking area of Difficult Run Park along Georgetown Pike.

Police said Puch was found near her dark red 2011 Honda Civic with multiple stab wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. She was the mother of a 3-year-old daughter.

Authorities revealed Wednesday that Cedillos-Campos and Puch worked together at a restaurant and had been involved in an intimate relationship. Investigators allege Cedillos-Campos left the restaurant early Monday carrying a large fixed-blade knife, latex gloves and a water bottle.

Police say he emptied the water bottle and filled it with gasoline siphoned from his motorcycle before traveling with Puch to Difficult Run Park. Investigators allege that once there, Cedillos-Campos repeatedly stabbed Puch before pouring gasoline on her and attempting unsuccessfully to set her body on fire.

Cedillos-Campos was identified as a suspect within roughly 48 hours. Authorities tracked him to Maryland, where he was taken into custody with assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service and Prince George’s County police. He has been charged with second-degree murder.

Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said Cedillos-Campos provided investigators with a full confession during questioning. The homicide investigation remains ongoing as detectives continue examining the circumstances surrounding Puch’s death.

The case has also ignited a new immigration controversy. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed that Cedillos-Campos is a Salvadoran national who was in the United States illegally. According to DHS, Border Patrol agents apprehended him after he illegally crossed the southern border near El Paso, Texas, in April 2024, during the Biden administration.

Cedillos-Campos was subsequently released into the United States rather than being removed from the country. DHS sharply criticized the previous administration’s handling of the case, pointing to the arrest as another example of the consequences of Biden-era catch-and-release border policies.

The Trump administration is also putting pressure on Virginia officials over immigration enforcement. DHS criticized Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s policies limiting state cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and called on Virginia authorities to ultimately turn Cedillos-Campos over to ICE.

The killing has devastated Puch’s family and left a young child without her mother. What began Monday morning with a jogger discovering an unconscious woman beside a vehicle has now developed into a murder prosecution involving an illegal immigrant who federal authorities say was apprehended at the southern border and released into the country two years earlier.