Greenbelt murder suspect sentenced after family-led social media campaign

A decade after Emilia Ignacio was found dead in a red 2007 Nissan Altima near Frankfort Drive and Frankfort Court in Greenbelt, her daughter watched Juan Miguel Roman-Balderas be sentenced to decades in prison in Prince George’s County court Tuesday. The killing, first tied to a missing-person report filed on April 21, 2014, might have stayed buried in an old file if Kiany DeJesus and her relatives had not kept pressing the case on Instagram and other social media, eventually pushing the suspect’s face back into public view after he fled to Mexico.

Ignacio was 28 years old and a mother of two when police found her body in Greenbelt in April 2014. DeJesus was 11 at the time. She later said she and her mother had lived with Roman-Balderas for about five years, described him as abusive, and said Ignacio had broken up with him and was in a new relationship when she was killed. Greenbelt police initially charged Juan Miguel Roman, later identified in reporting as Juan Miguel Roman-Balderas, with first-degree and second-degree murder. Federal prosecutors later said Roman-Balderas, now 45, was extradited from Mexico to face two murder charges in Prince George’s County.

The international search stretched over years and borders. NBC4 reported that Roman-Balderas hid in Mexico for more than a decade and started a new family there, while the family’s online campaign helped keep his name and photograph in circulation until someone recognized him. Mexican reporting said he was detained in Veracruz before extradition in 2025, and the Justice Department later listed him among fugitives returned from Mexico on murder charges tied to the Greenbelt case.

In court, DeJesus delivered a tearful victim impact statement and said she was relieved to finally speak directly to the man who had haunted her family for years. “It’s just like taking a really heavy backpack off,” she said, adding, “I feel I can finally start my life instead of worrying about where is he and if my mom is going to get justice.” For Prince George’s County, the sentence closed one of its most drawn-out homicide cases and showed how persistent family advocacy can keep a cold case alive long enough for accountability to catch up.