A man absconded from the law following the 2016 murder of a Washington woman has been found in Mexico.
Victor Melcher-Villalba, who also has been known to go by the name Victor Bello Rojas, was discovered in July 2022 by a component of the Yamhill County Sheriff’s Office as having been incarcerated in a Durango, Mexico, jail on unrelated charges. Durango is in central Mexico near the country’s western coast and adjacent to Baja.
“The sheriff’s office’s special investigations unit, along with the district attorney’s office, worked with the United States Department of Justice Office of International Affairs to request Melcher-Villalba’s extradition from Mexico back to Yamhill County to face a murder charge,” a release from the sheriff’s office said.
The murder charge came about in October 2016 when a passerby discovered the body of an adult female in a blueberry patch near Lafayette. The body was identified by the state crime lab as 37-year-old Lilia Cosco-Ortiz, a Vancouver, Washington, resident believed to be Melcher-Villalba’s live-in partner. An autopsy determined that Cosco-Ortiz had died from "homicidal violence," prompting the sheriff’s office and the Yamhill County Major Crimes Team to begin an investigation, according to the release.
The search for a vehicle thought to have been connected to Ortiz’s murder, a white 2003 Toyota Tacoma, began soon after the woman’s remains were found. The vehicle was found parked in Beaverton, an October 2016 report in The Columbia newspaper said. Melcher-Villalba had been seen driving the truck in the neighborhood, police officials said, but a search of the area yielded no sign of the man.
The investigation — which covered Oregon, Washington and California — led to an indictment in Melcher-Villalba’s absence by a Yamhill County grand jury in January 2017 on one count of murder. A subsequent warrant was issued for his arrest.
“Investigators later received information Melchor-Villalba may have fled the United States to Mexico,” the release said. “The Yamhill County Special Investigations Unit worked with the FBI and secured a federal arrest warrant for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution on Melcher-Villalba.”
Once they confirmed that Melcher-Villalba was in custody at a Mexican jail, the county’s sheriff and district attorney’s offices sought to have him extradited to the United States to face charges. They were successful in their request, and Melcher-Villalba was transported by FBI agents to Oregon on July 16. He remains housed in the Yamhill County jail in McMinnville.
"It took a lot of persistence and commitment by the investigators and our partners with the Department of Justice, FBI and U.S. Marshals Service to reach the point where Mr. Melchor-Villalba was able to be held for extradition in Mexico and returned to Yamhill County to stand trial," Sheriff Sam Elliott said in an email. "It is important to me that the family members and loved ones of Lilia Cosco-Ortiz see that Lilia is worth our best and continued effort, to bring accountability to the individual charged with her murder, and that even though many years have passed, we remain committed to that effort."
Melcher-Villalba’s first court appearance was Wednesday, July 17. High-power defense attorney Ted Coran was appointed his counsel. A plea hearing is set for Aug. 29.
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