PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A combination of joy and relief filled a Hunting Park community on Sunday, as family and friends gathered to honor a 5-year-old girl and celebrate the recent capture of her suspected killer nearly 26 years later.
More than 100 people gathered at Fairhill and Pike streets for a balloon release and impassioned sermons about hope, patience, community and forgiveness, all to memorialize I’riana DeJesus.
In July 2000, 5-year-old I’riana was abducted, raped and murdered. Her body was found days later, wrapped in plastic, only a few blocks from where she had disappeared.
The suspected killer, Alexis Flores, had been on the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted list for years. He was finally apprehended last week in Honduras.
“I had hope. If I didn’t have that hope, I wasn’t going nowhere,” said the girl’s mother, Lizasuain DeJesus.
After I’riana was found, DNA from her body was submitted to the nation’s DNA database, and a match was found in late 2006 with Flores, who was arrested in Phoenix. However, Flores had long been deported to Honduras by that point. He was also an initial suspect for investigators because he worked as a handyman for the DeJesus family.
American and Honduran authorities worked together to catch Flores. He is expected to be extradited to the U.S. in the coming months.
DeJesus waited nearly 26 years for an arrest. Over that time, she said her faith helped keep her afloat.
“Now, as my justice just got served, I’m feeling like I was never let down by God,” she said. “When you do have hope, it’s not going to be in my time; it’s going to be in God’s time. And I understand that today.”