FBI returns fugitive to Sacramento for murder charge in girlfriend’s 2017 death
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Jose Guadalupe Lopez Nunez was returned to Sacramento to face a 2017 murder charge.
- Emelina Quintero-Ramos’ body was found on Sept. 4, 2017, in the Sacramento River.
- Lopez Nunez was apprehended Aug. 31, 2025, in Zacatecas, Mexico and later extradited.
FBI agents last week returned a fugitive to Sacramento County to a face a charge of murder in the death of his girlfriend whose body was found nearly nine years ago.
Jose Guadalupe Lopez Nunez, 49, was apprehended last year in Mexico, subsequently extradited and booked Friday at the Sacramento County Main Jail. He’s being held without bail.
Lopez Nunez appeared for his arraignment Tuesday afternoon in Sacramento Superior Court on a charge of murder in the 2017 death of Emelina Quintero-Ramos.
Brian Tosh, acting special agent in charge of the FBI Sacramento Field Office, said in a news release that they hope Lopez Nunez’s arrest “offers some relief to the family of Emelina Quintero-Ramos after many years of waiting for prosecution.”
On Sept. 4, 2017, an angler who was fishing discovered Quintero-Ramos’ body in the Sacramento River near Isleton, according to the FBI.
Following an investigation by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, investigators obtained a felony warrant for Lopez Nunez’s arrest. FBI officials said the arrest warrant issued on Oct. 16, 2017, alleges that Lopez Nunez’s killed Quintero-Ramos, who was his girlfriend, and disposed her body in the Sacramento River to conceal the homicide.
On Oct. 24, 2017, an arrest warrant for Lopez Nunez was issued in federal court in Sacramento on a charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. The FBI subsequently issued a wanted poster and launched an international campaign to locate Lopez Nunez.
FBI officials said Lopez Nunez was apprehended on Aug. 31, 2025, near Mezquital del Oro in the state of Zacatecas in central Mexico. Authorities found Lopez Nunez after receiving a tip from the public.
