Woman arrested for alleged 2013 deadly silicone butt injections

    CITRUS HEIGHTS, California (KOVR) -- A suspect who was previously on the run in Mexico was arrested this week for a 2013 homicide case in Citrus Heights.

Alejandra Aguilera-Ortega, 49, is accused of giving someone illegal silicone injections in the butt that led to their death.

Aguilera-Ortega made her first court appearance on August 21 where she was read her charges through a Spanish interpreter. She was also appointed a public defender.

The family of the victim, Diego Lopez, who went by Emilia, was also in the courtroom seeing the accused killer of the 22-year-old over 11 years after Lopez died.

Citrus Heights police said Aguliera-Ortega is a transgender woman who was an escort. She had an adult page in 2014.

"Scary. Very, very scary," said a woman who wished to remain anonymous and lived in the Citrus Heights apartment complex where Aguilera-Ortega was arrested this week. "How did she get here? How long had she been living here?"

These are all questions Citrus Heights police could not answer, but they do believe she had been hiding out in Mexico since May 2013. That is what complicated the case.

Investigators said someone on the run may change their identity or appearance, but someone tipped them off that she was back in Citrus Heights.

Investigators said that on April 30, 2013, Lopez was rushed to the hospital from an apartment on Sunrise Vista Drive in Citrus Heights. He had been visiting from Oakland. Police said he and Aguilera-Ortega had been friends.

Lopez was coughing up blood and barely breathing. Investigators said he had received non-medical grade silicone injections in the butt which led to multiple organ failures, cardiac arrest and his death on May 7, 2013.

Aguilera-Ortega was appointed a public defender and will be back in court on September 25.