ATLANTA, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- U.S. marshals have apprehended a former sheriff's deputy from Georgia who fled the country while awaiting trial on murder charges, officials say.
Authorities said Derrick Yancey, a former DeKalb County, Ga., deputy accused of slaying his wife Linda and day laborer Marcial Cax-Puluc, was apprehended Monday in Punta Gorda, Belize, and was awaiting repatriation to Atlanta, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Yancey, of Stone Mountain, Ga., had been awaiting trial for the June 2008 slayings when officials say he cut off a monitoring device on his ankle, climbed aboard a Greyhound bus and headed west in April. An anonymous tip led authorities to Belize, where they reportedly discovered Yancey in a bar frequented by tourists.
Jeffrey Mann, chief deputy for the DeKalb Sheriff's Office, told the newspaper there is some evidence family members may have helped Yancey while he was on the run in Central America.
The former deputy had been released on bond after being charged with the two slayings. He had claimed Cax-Puluc had killed his wife and that he, in turn, killed the laborer, but his story later fell apart, the Journal-Constitution reported.
