Massachusetts DA fighting Ecuador to return killer 15 years after brutal deaths

Lance Reynolds, Boston Herald on Feb 18, 2026

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Fifteen years after their brutal deaths, Plymouth DA Tim Cruz is continuing to fight to bring an Ecuadoran national back to Massachusetts to face criminal prosecution for murdering his wife and toddler-aged son.

Interpol has recently reissued a red notice for Luis Guaman, a now 55-year-old man who fled from JFK Airport in New York to his native country a day after the bodies of his wife and son were found in a dumpster near their Brockton residence in February 2011.

An autopsy determined that the 25-year-old mother, Maria Avelina Palaguachi-Cela, and 2-year-old son, Brian Cuanga Palaguachi, died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head and brain.

Investigators also discovered a bloodstained sledgehammer and Guaman’s fingerprints on the duffel bag that contained the two bodies in the dumpster.

Cruz has been fighting for “true justice” in the case for the past 15 years, demanding that Guaman be extradited to the U.S. to face a murder trial here. His efforts, though, have fallen short.

The Plymouth County DA has received notice from Interpol that Guaman remains subject to a Red Notice and is on the international wanted list. Every five years, DAs must “revalidate that the arrest warrant is still active,” Cruz’s office stated on Wednesday.

“As long as I am District Attorney of Plymouth County,” Cruz said in a statement, “my office will never stop demanding that Luis Guaman be brought back to our community to answer for his heinous crimes.”

Investigators working the gruesome case collaborated with the FBI to seek and gain a Red Notice for Guaman in 2011. Guaman initially entered the U.S. illegally.

An Ecuadoran jury found Guaman guilty after a two-day trial in 2012, sentencing him to 25 years in prison. If convicted in Massachusetts, Guaman would face life in prison without the possibility of parole.

That’s why Cruz says he remains committed to fighting for Guaman’s extradition. His battle has included calling upon then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other national lawmakers to join his demands for Guaman to be returned from Ecuador.

Ecuador has refused to extradite Guaman to the U.S., citing how its constitution bars the extradition of its own citizens.

“While I maintain respect for Ecuador’s legal system,” Cruz said, “true justice can only be sought in this matter by having Guaman stand trial in our county and prosecuted for the brutal murders of a caring mother and her child.”

A family member told the Herald weeks after Guaman murdered his wife and son that if the killer was not returned to the U.S., the family feared that justice would not be done.

“If he stays in Ecuador, there is no case,” Palaguachi’s brother-in-law, Luis Tacuri, said in March 2011. “We are a poor family, we don’t have money to keep on a lawyer, and here it is all about the money. For this reason, we are scared.”

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