A fugitive felon who was dubbed the “master of disguise” by the FBI for having more than a dozen aliases has been arrested in California following a four-year manhunt.
Tyler Adams, 51, was nabbed in Newport Beach, Calif., and is now scheduled to be extradited to Hawaii, where he escaped state custody in 2019.
He was serving time there for stealing $130,000 from Hawaiian banks as well as a $5,000 ring from Costco — after previously serving another seven-year prison sentence in San Diego for using his mother and father’s identities to run up more than $3 million in debt, according to CBS 8.
While on the run, Adams met Navy veteran Racquel Sabean — whom he told his name was Paul Phillips — and the two started a relationship.
Together, they crossed the border into Mexico with their infant daughter on April 17, 2022, and on May 31, Sabean’s body was found stuffed in a cooler in the trunk in Tijuana.
Mexican police questioned him about Sabean’s disappearance, but the next day he was spotted entering the US under the alias “Aaron Bain.”
He is now wanted by the FBI in connection with her murder.
The FBI says Adams has used a number of aliases, including Aaron Lee, David Smith, Dominic Braun, David Phillips, Kevin Schoolcraft, Kevin Kennedy, Michael Whitman, Lance Irwin, Brice Johnson, Matthew Kashani, Taylor Chase, and Joshua Smith.
Adams was reported missing from the Oahu Community Correctional Center on May 21, 2019, when he failed to return from a work furlough.
By September 2020, a judge issued a $50,000 warrant for Adams’ arrest on a second-degree escape charge as he apparently struck up a relationship with Sabean.
Her remains were later found in the trunk of her Volkswagen Jetta parked on a residential street in Tijuana, where residents reported a “foul odor” emanating from the vehicle, CBS 8 reports.
Following Sabean’s murder, her father, David, admitted there had been several “red flags” with Adams and said he “would bet my life” he killed her.
He recounted how his daughter once told him, “He’s nice to you. But when you’re not around he’s not so nice to me,” the US Sun reported.
“Eventually, I started thinking this guy’s a phony, right?”
Sabean also claimed video surveillance showed Adams parking his daughter’s Volkswagen on the street, where her body would later be found.
“I saw it with my own eyes,” Sabean said, claiming Mexican police have the surveillance footage but have not yet charged Adams with her murder.
An autopsy later revealed that Sabean’s neck had been broken, her father told CBS 8.
In June 2022, the FBI also issued a release asking for the public’s assistance in helping to locate Adams, claiming he was a “phony” and a “master of disguise.”
The FBI San Diego office noted that Adams was detained in Mexico after an Amber Alert was issued for his 7-month-old daughter, Valentina, who was later found safe with a babysitter in Mexico and remains in protective custody there.
When Mexican police started questioning Adams about Sabean’s disappearance, they said he was “uncooperative,” NBC San Diego reports, and Mexican prosecutors say he remains a suspect in Sabean’s murder.
He was then able to cross back into the US by presenting Customs and Border Patrol with a fake identity card, the FBI said.
Adams is now facing charges including grand theft, fraud via false pretenses, the fugitive warrant out of Hawaii as well as federal warrants for making false statements and falsifying identification documents, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
He has since pleaded guilty to misdemeanor grand theft and fraud charges, NBC San Diego reports, and is due back in court on Jan. 3 to face the fugitive charges.