Colombian Killer Remains Free

When the young mother of two children Janelle Hail (shown) was killed by a drunk-driving illegal alien, somehow the killer escaped to his home country of Colombia before the police could grab him. Since then, Roman Saldarriaga has been living openly, acting like a cool dude on Facebook, apparently unafraid of arrest and extradition.

“Six years ago, Janelle Hail`s life came to an end. Her mother remembers the knock at the door.

“I`ll never forget the feeling. It felt like someone blew a cannon right through my stomach,” remembered Jacki Joseph, Janelle`s mother.

Troopers say Roman Saldarriaga, an illegal immigrant, killed Hail while driving drunk, and took off before they could arrest him.

Saldarriaga is one of America`s most wanted, yet we found him smiling on Facebook.

“He`s just so flagrantly out there,” said Joseph.

NBC2 took his Facebook page to Florida Highway Patrol - and we learned for the first time the agency knows where Roman Saldarriaga is.

“We`ve got a very good general area of where he`s living,” Lt. Chris Miller told us. “We know who he`s associated with. We`ve got lots of information on him.”

Lt. Miller told us Saldarriaga is in his home country of Colombia, and even though they want to arrest him, they can`t.

“The problem we`ve got is Colombia will not extradite on this particular case. If it was drug related, we wouldn`t have any issues getting him back to this country,” said Lt. Miller.”
[Illegal immigrant flees before arrest, NBC-2, Southwest Florida, November 20, 2009]

If that last item about extradition is accurate, then it is ridiculous, since the United States has given Colombia a ton of money in recent years: Former Colombian president blasts U.S. anti-drug strategy [CNN, October 14, 2009].

“Colombia remains the principal source of cocaine for the world, despite $6 billion in U.S. aid for anti-drug campaigns over the past decade.”

Plus Colombia received $541 million in foreign aid from the US in 2008, so the authorities there could be more helpful in bringing a killer to justice.