The Professor & The Poet

Summary

Dateline NBC: “The Professor & The Poet”

Original Air Date: March 10, 2026
Length: ~88 minutes
Host: Lester Holt
Correspondent: Josh Mankiewicz

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Episode Overview

“The Professor & The Poet” unravels the chilling true-crime case of Sue Marcum, a beloved accounting professor at American University, who was found brutally murdered in her Bethesda, Maryland home in 2010. The episode traces the investigation from an apparent burglary to the eventual international manhunt and capture of the prime suspect: Jorge Landeros—a former friend, yoga teacher, poet, and financial confidant of the victim. Through first-hand interviews, courtroom developments, and an exploration of Marcum’s life, this Dateline exposes the dangers of misplaced trust and charismatic manipulation.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Discovery of the Crime & Initial Investigation

• Sue Marcum’s Body is Found

  • Sue's close friend Larry, unsettled by her missing a usual morning phone call, discovers her at the bottom of the stairs in her ransacked home ([04:35]).
  • Police respond to what initially appears to be a burglary gone wrong.
  • Sergeant Larry Haley notes: "They found Sue Marcum deceased at the bottom of her stairs." ([01:12])

• Scene Details & Early Theories

  • Items stolen: cell phone, laptops, TV—some left behind, possibly due to being spooked ([08:19]).
  • Notable evidence: two used shot glasses, signs of recent companionship.
  • Unusual clue: a Ray Ban logo chip placed inside Sue's mouth ([30:25]).
  • “No question. This is a murder.” – Lester Holt ([08:48])

• Community & Victim Background

  • Sue was a respected AU professor, lively, and deeply involved in her friends’ and students’ lives ([03:12]-[13:12]).
  • “She was the most successful, accomplished person at that time that I knew.” – Beverly Myers ([03:12])

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2. The Burglary Theory Unravels

• Prime Suspect: DeAndrew Hamlin

  • Caught driving Sue’s stolen Jeep after a dramatic D.C. police chase ([18:25]).
  • Hamlin claims he found the Jeep abandoned, simply took it for a joyride ([21:14]).
  • Investigators find no forensic evidence linking Hamlin to the murder scene.
  • "He insisted he knew nothing about Sue Markham's murder, had never been to her house..." ([22:32])
  • “He was just kind of a hapless thief.” – Lester Holt ([23:23])

• DNA Evidence Unlocks a New Lead

  • DNA evidence from Sue’s body and crime scene is from an unknown male, ruling out Hamlin and local burglars ([28:06]).
  • “The DNA on Sue’s body was from a man, a man who was not DeAndrew Hamlin...” ([28:06])

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3. Focus Shifts: Sue’s Secret Life & The ‘Poet’

• Re-examining Sue’s Relationships

  • Detective work pivots to Sue’s social circle, especially her “romantic interests” ([37:10]).
  • Documents with “Jorge Rueda Landeros” emerge from her personal papers ([39:00]).
  • Friends and family recall Jorge as a charismatic, philosophical, younger Spanish teacher and yoga instructor who displayed disturbing mood changes ([40:00]-[42:22]).
  • "She was over the moon... I never saw her talk about a man in the way she talked about him." – Beverly Myers ([40:20])

• Revelations of Financial Entanglements

  • Extensive emails reveal a financial and emotional partnership between Sue and Jorge, including opening an investment account that loses over $300,000 of Sue’s money ([48:03]).
  • Jorge is found to be the beneficiary of a $500,000 life insurance policy on Sue ([53:53]).
  • “We learned that the declared purpose of the policy was ... opening a joint yoga business together.” – Sgt. Haley ([54:01])

• Suspicions Solidify

  • Detectives debunk Jorge’s claims of working on Wall Street or having diplomatic ties ([55:51]).
  • Timeline analysis proves Jorge was in the U.S. days before Sue’s murder, with no record of his exit beforehand ([56:43]).

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4. The Hunt for Jorge Landeros

• DNA Match and Fugitive Status

  • While in El Paso, Jorge freely provides a DNA swab—unaware he’s a suspect ([59:15]).
  • Forensic analysis confirms his DNA under Sue’s fingernails, on the murder weapon, and shot glasses ([59:54]).
  • Upon learning of the investigation, Jorge stops crossing the border and disappears into Mexico ([61:13]).

• Quotes of Note:

  • “He’s identified as the contributor of the DNA under Sue's fingernails, on the murder weapon, and on the shot glasses.” – Sgt. Haley ([59:54])
  • “After that, he never came back. He never crossed the border again.” – Beverly Myers ([61:13])

• Years on the Run

  • Jorge evades capture for nearly a decade, living under aliases, teaching yoga in Guadalajara ([66:34]).
  • Interviews with his then-partner, Rocio, recall similar manipulative behavior and financial exploitation ([67:01]-[70:36]).
  • “This can happen to anyone... If somebody shows you who they are, walk away.” – Rocio ([87:22])

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5. Justice Served—Verdict & Reflections

• Tip Leads to Arrest

  • An anonymous tip with a current Facebook profile enables authorities to place Jorge under surveillance and arrest him in Mexico ([72:54]-[74:26]).

• Extradition, Interrogation & Trial

  • Landeros returns to the U.S. to stand trial for Sue Marcum’s murder in 2025 ([75:27]).
  • “We've been waiting a long time.” – Sgt. Haley, upon finally meeting Landeros ([76:45])
  • Landeros asserts his rights and does not confess ([77:33]).
  • Prosecutors cite love, financial exploitation, and the life insurance as probable motives ([80:39]-[81:07]).
  • The defense argues plausible alternative suspects, lack of premeditation, and normalcy of DNA from prior relationship ([82:47]-[84:31]).

• Verdict & Sentence

  • First Degree Murder: Not Guilty ([85:31]).
  • Second Degree Murder: Guilty ([85:59]).
  • Landeros is sentenced to 25 years in prison; eligible for parole in his 70s ([86:14]).

• Emotional Impact & Final Messages

  • “I started to cry. Oh, thank goodness. Just the relief that they would hold this person accountable.” – Beverly Myers ([86:07])
  • “If somebody shows you who they are, believe them.” – Lester Holt ([87:47])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Sue’s Death Discovered: [04:35]
• Hamlin’s Capture with Sue’s Jeep: [18:25]
• DNA Turns Case Around: [28:06]
• Unveiling Sue’s Financial Entanglement: [48:03]
• Jorge Becomes Prime Suspect: [53:53]
• Jorge Provides DNA Swab: [59:15]
• Jorge Goes on the Run: [61:13]
• Rocio’s Story of Abuse and Manipulation: [67:01]
• Tip and Arrest in Mexico: [72:54]
• Extradition & Interrogation: [75:27] to [78:54]
• Trial & Verdict: [79:10] to [86:14]
• Final Reflections & Lessons: [87:22] to [88:31]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Sue Marcum’s character:
  “She was the most successful, accomplished person at that time that I knew.” – Beverly Myers ([03:12])

• On the emotional impact:
  “It was so unnecessary, so senseless, so evil.” – Beverly Myers ([10:38])

• On the moment the case turned:
  “It was inconceivable to me that Sue would have had a drink with someone who had broken into her home. And the entire investigation shifted at that point.” – Sgt. Haley ([34:24])

• Jorge’s controlling narrative:
  “We told each other the story of our lives, and woven in those stories the little sweet drops of our deepest yearnings...” – E-mail from Jorge ([44:54])

• On heartbreak and warning:
  “Anyone can be manipulated... If somebody shows you who they are, walk away.” – Rocio ([87:22])

• On closure and justice:
  “Just the relief that they would hold this person accountable.” – Beverly Myers ([86:07])

• On memory and legacy:
  “We live, Sue, you know, because we don't want to forget her.” – Beverly Myers ([88:31])

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Takeaways & Tone

This episode is as much a portrait of a vibrant life cut short as it is a procedural whodunnit. The tone is one of admiration, heartbreak, and caution—revealing how even the wisest can be deceived by charm and emotional manipulation. Through friends’ heartfelt memories, detectives’ tenacity, and the ultimate unmasking of a fugitive, Dateline reminds listeners: when someone shows you they are dangerous, believe them.

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For more in-depth crime coverage, visit datelinepremium.com or your preferred podcast platform for regular updates.

Transcript

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

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[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

This episode is brought to you by Nordstrom. Spring calls for a wardrobe refresh, and Nordstrom has the best styles of the season. From dresses and denim to standout tops and accessories, find the trends and essentials that feel right for you. Discover new arrivals from the brands you love, like Waif, Princess, Polly, Mango, Adidas and free people. Plus free shipping and returns and free styling appointments. Make everything so easy. Shop in [e-mail] or download the Nordstrom Tonight on Dateline. He told me that she had been murdered. She was one of my best friends. So unnecessary, so senseless, so evil.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

They found Sue Marcum deceased at the bottom of her stairs.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Professor Markham was such a big part of the community. Her energy and spirit.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

I saw the two shot glasses on the count. We knew this was someone sue had a relationship with.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

The first person I think did this was me.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

They're going to say, you're carrying a torch for her. You had a key to her house. Yeah.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

I knew my sister was involved with a yoga teacher. He taught Spanish.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

He had that whole exotic yoga teacher, poet thing going for him.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Yes. I thought that he was kind of out of the picture. They had discovered some documents.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

She was sinking.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

She lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. I'm think, what the hell is this? A scheme?

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

She hadn't told anybody about that.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

She hadn't told a soul. It rips your heart out.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

A secret relationship. A stunning crime at an international manhunt to catch a killer. I'm Lester Holt and this is Dateline. Here's Josh Mankiewicz with the professor and the poet. Sometimes when people find love, they hold on tight. Even when the person they're holding onto is all wrong. Because love has a way of quieting doubts and overshadowing logic.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

If she had said a single word to. To anybody, we would have just said, are you out of your mind?

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Beverly Myers was close friends with the woman at the center of our story, Sue Marcum. Sue was smart, poised, and a fantastic

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

friend when I met her. She was the most successful, accomplished person at that time that I knew.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Sue was a professor of accounting at American University in Washington, D.C. and always generous with her time and expertise. Sunday, October 24, 2010 was no exception.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

It was a Sunday night and she was giving an exam on Monday. She told her students that she would be home if they had any questions preparing for their examination.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

That was sue, always ready to help, always a phone call away. In fact, she called her best friend, Larry March, every single morning. She was my alarm clock. And so she called you every day.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

She called me every morning to wake

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

me up that Monday was the day of the exam and sue did not call. How unusual was that?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

That was extremely unusual.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Larry was a teacher and headed to work then felt so unsettled after not hearing Sue's voice that he left before finishing his second period class.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I had somebody cover for me and I just told him, I'm leaving.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

You knew something was wrong.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I knew there's got to be something wrong. So I had a key and I opened the door and things were just a mess.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

In Sue's normally tidy home, Larry saw broken glass on the floo, her belongings strewn about. What are you thinking?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I'm thinking somebody's broken into, rob the place or whatever.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

But where's she?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I'm calling for him saying, where is she?

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

There was no sign of Sue Marcum on the first floor. On the stairs leading to the basement, Larry saw an empty vase, dried flowers, and a pair of shoes. As soon as I get up the

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

stairs, I can see her at the bottom of the landing.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

It is an image burned into his memory. His friend sue lying at the bottom of the stairs. So I rushed onto her and she warm or cold?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

She's cold.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

He called 91 1. While he waited for police, Larry called a lifelong friend of Sue's, Lisa Colton.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

And he's like, you need to get over here now. And I was like, what?

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

You couldn't bring yourself to tell Lisa that she was dead?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I just told her she needed to come.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Police were outside when Lisa arrived. They told her to wait in her car. Nothing more.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

And so now I'm pretty much in my mind thinking, okay, something is very wrong.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Lisa watched as officers cordoned off the house. Sergeant Larry Haley of the Montgomery County Police Department arrived just before noon. He'd been told it looked as if a homeowner had been killed during a burglary.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

That's certainly consistent with what was happening at the time.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

A lot of break ins.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

A lot of break ins in this area. The houses are worth a lot of money. There's a lot of expensive property in the homes.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

This is Bethesda, Maryland, just outside Washington D.C. i have probably passed that house a thousand times. That's because starting back in the 1960s, this was my neighborhood. I grew up around here. Now, a lot of things haven't changed that much since my family and I moved here all those years ago. I definitely remember the fire station and the public library. But look, we locked our doors back then. That said, I don't remember anybody with a burglar alarm, and I don't remember anybody worried about a home invasion, let alone murder. By the time Sue Marcum moved here, the world had changed. As he surveyed the scene, Sergeant Haley noticed Sue's front door faced a busy avenue with nothing obstructing the view from street traffic. The back of the house was different. This is clearly where you would go if you wanted to break in, because Massachusetts Avenue, people are going to see you.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

You would not go on the front. There's way too much traffic. And back here, as you can tell, there's a lot less. It's a lot quieter.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Well, this thing's going to shield you. That's the perfect place.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

And especially at night, it's very dark back here with the trees. It's a little bit offset of the road, and there's not a lot of

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

vehicle traffic in the yard. Haley found a broken window screen. The window that was broken was here in the back.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

It is. It's the one that is right on the side of where the white shutters are.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Haley went inside. He saw two shot glasses on the counter and some broken glass on the kitchen floor. Sue's TVs were unplugged and left near the front door. Were things stolen?

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

There were a number of items stolen, to include Sue's cell phone, a couple of her laptops, a tv. One of my initial thoughts was that they got some of the property out of the house. And so either something spooked the individual, where they felt like they had to leave and leave the other items, or perhaps the sun was starting to come up.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

There was more broken glass near Sue's body. It looked like blunt force trauma to the head. No question. This is a murder.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

The position that she was pushed into the corner and the broken glass that didn't match anything around where her body was. I. I didn't have any doubt, except

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Sergeant Haley knew murders in the course of a burglary are quite rare. Burglars generally run away. They don't attack you.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

They're not interested in having contact with the homeowner unless they have ulterior motives.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

So this was unusual.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

It definitely stood out from the pattern.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Eventually, this case would stand out for a lot of other reasons, and it would require the help of this guy.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

Very quickly, I knew that we had something big.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

It would lead investigators on a pursuit through the streets of downtown Washington, D.C. and across international borders.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

He said to bring my Kevlar.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Bring your Kevlar because Mexico's a dangerous place or he's going to shoot you. And it would unravel a relationship filled with secrets. She hadn't told anybody about it.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

She hadn't told a soul.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Sue Marcum was dead, and Montgomery County, Maryland, police were searching her ransacked home. Her brother Allen, and his wife Barbara live across the country in California.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

I was at work, and I got

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

a phone call from my mother, and it was the worst phone call of my life. I hung up the phone, put my

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

head down on my desk, and cried.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Beverly could hardly comprehend that her close friend had been murdered.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I've lost other friends. If they die because of illness, you don't want to accept it, but you have to. This was so unnecessary, so senseless, so evil.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Investigators dusted for fingerprints and collected DNA from the crime scene and Sue's body. They talked with those who knew the victim best. You knew her, what, forever?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I Knew sue for 48 years. We were 4 years old when we met. We were members of the same temple, and we were in the same Sunday school class.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Sue left her hometown of Syracuse and went to college at American University in Washington, D.C. where she met Larry.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

She was fun, loving, willing to take risks kind of person.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Sue was a foodie before there was a word for that. She, Larry, and Lisa spent their time eating, going to the theater, and traveling,

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

mostly Europe, Spain a couple of times, Argentina, Mexico.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Sue was single for most of her life, but she was not alone.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Sue never got married, and I think that it may have been a disappointment for her. She had so much to offer. She put all that love and energy into other people.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

For example, that daily call to wake him sometimes turned into two or three.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

She would call me at 6:45 and then at 6:55 and then at 7:15.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

So she's not just an alarm clock, she's also a snooze alarm.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Yes.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

Then she.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

But third time, it would be get out of bed.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

I'm guessing you had enough money to afford a clock radio. Oh, yeah, and I had one, but

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

that wasn't the point. The point was it was nice to talk to Sue.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Sue had a way of making anything fun, even accounting. Maybe that's why she was hired to do the books for the Ringling Brothers Circus. When she left corporate America to teach accounting at her ALMA material, she brought that same sense of joy. Don Williamson was her colleague. She was clearly so compelling a teacher that she made some students want to change their major to accounting.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Yes.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Oh, yes, there are a number of people that went into accounting because of Sue Markup. There's just no question about it. Emily Stovacek was one of Sue's students.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

She would start every class with the lights down low. She would sit on her desk and she would have all the students close their eyes and take five deep breaths. What other professor starts a class like that? I didn't have any others to do.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Sue was also devoted to her family.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

She taught our younger son to tie his shoes. I think she taught them both to tell time. So, yeah, she did lots of teaching, but she also.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

I put up tire swing for our kids.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

And we have a picture of her

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

just in full swing on that. Absolute enthusiasm, leaning into it with a huge, beautiful smile on her face.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

That was my sister.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

In her free time, she took Spanish classes. She even became friends with her Spanish teacher, who also got her into yoga. Sue Marcum was the opposite of boring, and her home reflected that. Each room painted a different color. And we're not talking about one room is taupe and one room is gray.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

We're talking, you know, bold, beautiful, big blues and greens and oranges and rusts and.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Yeah, that bright, happy home was now a crime scene. There, investigators collected evidence and built a timeline of the last night of Sue's life.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

Sue had sent an email at 10:42pm the night before to a colleague. They were working on a final exam together for American University.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

The 911 call was at 10:52 the next morning, meaning there was nearly a 12 hour window in which someone got into her home and killed her. Lisa and Larry did whatever they could to help investigators.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

They wanted us back at the house. They wanted us to get a sense of what was missing.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

What's it like to go back in that house?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

It was not pleasant. I think the first time I went, quite frankly, I did not go downstairs. In the beginning, Larry and I made a pact with each other that there could never be one person in the house alone, that there would always be two of us at the house. Because in the beginning, just from a safety, an emotional perspective, we just wanted to kind of be there for each other.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

One thing obviously missing was Sue's Jeep. Investigators put out an alert for her 1999 Cherokee like this one.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Her car was very unusual looking. And I said they're going to find that car because I never saw another one that looked like that.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

And just 10 hours after the alert went out, there was a hit. The Jeep's plate was tagged in Northeast Washington D.C. a 30 minute drive from Sue's home. Sergeant Haley asked the D.C. police auto theft Task Force to look for it.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

One of those officers had called us back in our office looking for some more information and he asked us can you tell me the tag number again? And so we gave him the Virginia tag and he said I have to get off the phone with car's right in front of me.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

The investigation was only a few hours old and it was about to really start rolling. This episode is brought to you by Progressive where drivers who save by switching save nearly $750 on average. Quote [e-mail] to see if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. National average 12 month savings of $744 by new customers surveyed who saved with

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

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[Narrator / Lester Holt]

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[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

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[Narrator / Lester Holt]

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[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Wow. Got a clean shirt.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Do you wear plaid, Ronnie? Some of the strongest. It was crazy. Good luck. Police in Washington D.C. spotted Sue Markham's stolen Jeep just as they were getting a description of it. That luck did not last. When they tried to pull it over, the driver hit the gas. Officers pursued with lights and sirens. They raced through the streets of the Capitol.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

They end up pursuing the car from that area of northeast all the way across Washington D.C. the driver of the car ultimately tried to make a turn onto New Jersey Avenue which is a pretty sharp turn at the time. Back end of the Jeep slid out. He hit the curb, hit a pole and flipped several times in the air and landed on the roof in the middle of the intersection.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Driver still alive.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

Not only was he still alive, but moments later the door kicked open and he was off to the races.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

This time he was on foot and he made it only a block. Within minutes, cops, EMTs and reporters from NBC 4 Washington were at the scene.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

The missing Grand Cherokee is considered a

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

key piece of evidence. The driver was loaded into an ambulance and taken to a nearby trauma center, his injuries apparently minor.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

He was arrested for unauthorized use of the Jeep, but he has not been charged with Professor Marcum's murder. We were watching the news, and they announced that they had recovered the car. They talked about who was driving the car, and we thought that this was a person that broke into her home,

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

killed her, killed her, stole the car and stole the car and was caught.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

And was caught and done.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

The driver's name was DeAndrew Hamlin, 18 years old and by his own admission, a car thief. Criminal record plus being in the car plus fleeing law enforcement equals suspect.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

It does. And so he was a very good suspect right from the beginning.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Police suspected he was linked to a burglary ring operating in Sue's neighborhood. More than 50 break ins in the last four months alone. Do you think multiple crews are the same person?

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

We know for sure that there was more than one crew because there had been arrests in some of the Chevy Chase cases and in the cases in

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Washington, D.C. and the burglaries continued.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

And they continued.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

However, none of those had turned violent. Montgomery county police thought maybe this was a first. Detective Paula Hamill worked with Sergeant Haley.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

The easiest thing would have been to say, oh, Mr. Hamlin did it, obviously, because he's driving her car. It's less than 30 hours later.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

First, they had a lot of questions for their suspect as they drove DeAndrew Hamlin from D.C. to Maryland. Sergeant Haley and Detective Hamill grilled him.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Anything you say can be used against you.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

He did not ask for an attorney. And then the Andrew Hamlin told a fantastic story, one that started not at Sue Marcum's home, but on a street in Northeast D.C. if I took you

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

to that spot, would you remember? Yeah, I mean, the exact spot you're.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Exactly.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

He told the cops the Jeep was just sitting there at the curb. His brother spotted at first, saw the keys and called the Andrew. When you talked to Mr. Hamlin, he didn't know how the car got here.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

He does not. All he knows is that he got a phone call from his brother who alerted him to the fact that there was a car here potentially to steal. He got on the bus and came here and stole the car.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

And his intention was to what? Just driving around?

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

That's it. And it's in fact what we know he did. He Went joyriding.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

The joyride ended abruptly with the cops on his tail and the jeep spinning out into a pole. He told Sergeant Haley and Detective Hamill he barely remembered the wreck. You don't remember?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

You don't remember? No, I know him. I hate you did say I probably flipped over. You don't remember if you're upside down or not?

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

I don't know if I was upside down. I don't know. I know I gotta land. That's when he tried to get away on foot.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Run out running. I shoot you.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

I'm shoot you.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

You can't shoot me. It's just a stolen car, man. I'm in my head like, it's just a stolen car. Whatever. You can't shoot me.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

You're rolling the dice, though, man.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

But you roll the dice, brother. That's exactly right. Cause it really wasn't just a stolen car, was it?

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

No, it wasn't. DeAndrew Hamlin insisted he knew nothing about Sue Markham's murder, had never been to her house, and had no idea how her car got to the street where he found it. That's the problem. Stuck at like, if I knew, I would have said it with no hesitation. To police, the whole story felt a little too convenient a way to explain getting caught in the driver's seat of a dead woman's car and still deny ever having met her. But as Sergeant Haley assessed his prime suspect, a cop's instinct gave him pause.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

I've encountered a lot of people who have killed people, right? And they always have something in their character, something in their demeanor that leads you to believe they could have committed murder. He was lacking that.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

He's just kind of a hapless thief.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

That was our initial impression. Now, that doesn't mean that he wasn't part of a group that did this and somebody else in his group, you know, at that point, we don't know.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

And every murderer at one time was not a murderer.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

Correct. You never know what takes them from never having done that. Across the line.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Had DeAndre Hamlin crossed the line that night or had someone else. They were about to find out. Any trace of Mr. Hamlin in Sue Markham's home? Home or on her body. Hours after Sue Marcum's body was discovered, police had a prime suspect in custody. His name was DeAndrew Hamlin, caught driving Sue's car. Now, the question was whether he was also the person who had robbed Sue's home. Killed her.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

In the abyss of our despair Let

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

her light shine for us. As police worked Sue's Family, friends and colleagues gathered at American University to mourn. Her brother Allen spoke. And I also smile when I remember having paid my sister made my bed every morning, and I like that they made in a small way. I helped her get her started in accounting as she was keeping track of what I paid her.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I remember thinking about, you know, her and her brother, two siblings, and thinking about how horrible it was that he lost his sister and his only sibling and her parents. Susanita La Gordita, we will miss you and hope that you are at peace.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Her friends thought about the what ifs. For example, sue had just moved from Virginia to that home in Maryland the year before.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I actually live very close to where she lived in Virginia before she bought the house in Maryland. And I thought, if only. If only she hadn't moved.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

As they focused on their suspect, police obtained warrants and searched the Andrew Hamlin's home.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

We executed a number of search warrants at any residence associated to him, where he lived, any place he had laid his head, but we never found anything related to Sue Markham in any house. None of her property, nothing.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

They interviewed friends, family members, anyone tied to DeAndre or his brother. Police never found any proof DeAndrew was part of a burglary. They did review burglary arrests in the area near Sue's home, looking for possible suspects.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

We really kind of went around the world and back investigating them with regards to Sue Markham's death.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

They looked at the Andrews phone data. It put him nowhere near Sue's house on the night of her murder. And in a surprising twist, DeAndre was doing all he could to help police. There's a camera.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

It's a camera right there on the wall. Side of the wall.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

On the side of the wall.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

We met him right here. He takes us to the place where he found the car. And at that location, there's surveillance cameras that he can see, that we can

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

see, and he has no idea what's on them.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

He doesn't know.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Because if it's him and somebody else walking up to the car and a guy handing him the keys, right, that's going to disprove his story. He has no way of knowing whether that's on camera or not.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

He doesn't. And that would seal his fate one way or the other.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Police checked those cameras and unfortunately, they were not working. So investigators pivoted to DNA collection. They asked Sue's friends to provide samples and said it was to eliminate them. You were fingerprinted, swabbed for DNA?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Yes, yes. Yes, I was. As was Another friend. We spent a lot of time in that house.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Police badly wanted a DNA sample from DeAndrew Hamlin. They wrote a warrant for that and got a swab from him. Five weeks later came the results. Any trace of Mr. Hamlin in Sue Marcum's home or on her body?

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

There was nothing. We did extensive fingerprinting inside and outside the home. We processed her body for DNA completely. We processed a number of items for DNA in the house, and there was never any trace of him.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

The DNA on Sue's body was from a man, a man who was not the Andrew Hamlin, not his brother either, and not other known burglars in the area. So whose was it?

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

It was not anybody that we had identified in the investigation to that point.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

It looked as if DeAndre Hamlin's unlikely story might be true after all.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

He insisted time after that, he found the car on the side of the street. He doesn't know how it got there,

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

as if somebody was begging for it to be stolen.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

It's a great move on the part of the suspect because as he probably calculated, it took us in a direction

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

completely away from him, him, whoever he was. Investigators had made a great leap forward. They now knew they were being played by a murderer who was thinking about them and their investigation. Someone who had left his DNA on Sue's body and then probably left her Jeep at the side of the road trying to frame DeAndre Hamlin or anyone else foolish enough to get behind the wheel. It was time to come up with. With a whole new theory of this case.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I walked along that. That outside wall myself. The lights went on and I said, no one's going to break in here.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

It was December 2010, more than a month, month after Sue Marcum's murder. Investigators had what they thought was the killer's DNA, but his name remained a mystery. It's someone whose DNA isn't in the system.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

It's not anybody who we might have expected. It's not anybody that's in the system.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Even before the DNA results ruled out the Hamlin brothers and other known burglars, investigators. Investigators had been reevaluating the crime scene there. Something bizarre from a pair of sunglasses led to a new round of questions.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

So you know how on the side of Ray Ban sunglasses, they have the little Ray Ban signature on the arm? It's one of those pieces, and it was placed on the inside of her lip on top of her teeth. And so, you know, while we were searching her body and processing her body,

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

we found that this was no Accident. That little chip of metal had to have been placed there by Sue's killer. So what did it mean?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Cops asked her BFF Lisa, you'd get this innocuous question. Oh, were Sue's glasses Ray Bans? And I'm like, I don't think so.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

What do you make of the piece of Ray Ban sunglasses?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I think that's something in this case that we all wanted to know or understand.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Part of the misdirection. Maybe.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Maybe. I mean, I definitely felt like it was something phony.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

And she didn't own any Ray Bans and there was no, you know, crushed pair of sunglasses next to her body or anything like that.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Correct.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Investigators reached out to the FBI, which keeps a database on serial killers. And the Ray Ban logo or sticker or pieces of sunglasses that doesn't turn up in any other case.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

The FBI had no other reports nationwide of that being a thing. Why it was placed there, we don't know.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

There's no Ray Ban killer out there.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

We never got any leads.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Another dead end. Just like the burglary gone bad theory they had been chasing from the very beginning.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I was suspect about there being a burglary.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy walked through the scene the day Sue's body was discovered. He noticed an outdoor light right next to the forced window.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I walked along that, that outside wall myself. The lights went on and I said, no one's going to break in here. The people right next door can watch you break in. It's not going to happen.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

It looked as if that window screen had been cut and pushed out. Maybe that's how the killer escaped. Or maybe it was evidence of something else. You'd have to already be in the house to do that.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

Exactly.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Sue's friend Lisa noted that while some things were stolen, a diamond necklace sue wore was not.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

If it was a burglary, wouldn't someone take it? Sorry, I'm like, hello. That's why I never. After a certain point, it's like, this was not a burglary.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Another clue was discovered when Sue's body was moved. Broken glass lay under and next to her, the blood object used to kill her was a liquor bottle. And there was more.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

She had a dual cause of death, which was blunt force trauma and asphyxiation. And in this case, asphyxiation means strangling.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

And that's not something that happens in an instant, is it?

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

No, that is a very up close and personal way to kill someone.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

There was something else truly strange, something that did not fit with A break in those two shot glasses in Sue's kitchen.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

When I looked into the shot glasses, I could see that there was a residual amount of liquor in the bottom of them. So I knew they'd been recently used.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

And she's killed with a liquor bottle.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

She is killed with a liquor bottle.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Those shot glasses were swabbed and tested. The lab found Sue's DNA and that of an unknown male. That unknown profile also matched DNA on her fingernails. Apparently from her killer. That DNA tells a story. These two people have a drink. Something goes wrong. There's a fight. He chokes her. She's clawing at him. He hits her with the bottle.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

That's correct.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

That's how his DNA gets under her fingernails.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Under her fingernails.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

And then his DNA is also on the neck of the bottle. That is used to hit her on the head.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Correct. And I think that that explains exactly what happened.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

It was inconceivable to me that sue would have had a drink with someone who had broken into her home. And the entire investigation shifted at that point.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Now, this investigation was not about a random intruder. It was about the victim and about the secrets she held close. She ever tell you she was in love with him?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

She was over the moon.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

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[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

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[Narrator / Lester Holt]

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[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

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[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

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[Narrator / Lester Holt]

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[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

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[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

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[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

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[Narrator / Lester Holt]

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[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

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[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Pancetta mushroom tortellini. You could eat smart. Still fit in your bikini. I ordered Blue Apron. I've been happy ever since they sent pre portioned meals. I don't make no measurements. Saute the pancetta. Then I add the mushrooms. Large skillet.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

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[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

Order Blue apron.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Sue Marcum was working from home on that final Sunday night of her life. As usual, she made herself available to students preparing for an exam the next day.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

She was all about giving her time, her energy to other people. And it doesn't surprise me at all.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

The evidence inside her home suggested sue was not alone. As she worked in her kitchen, those two shot glasses told a story. Had Sue Markham shared a drink with her murderer? You need to put a name and a face to that DNA profile.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

We do.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

How do you do that?

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

So we went back and started trying to look and say, okay, well, who were the romantic interests in her life?

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Sue never married. And as far as her friends knew, she was not dating anyone special. Of course, love gone bad is always intriguing to police. So what about her former love interests? Turns out she and her platonic best friend Larry March, friends since college, had been romantic years earlier, after Larry's divorce.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

And I knew the first person they're gonna think did this was me, because, number one, I'm the one that found her.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

You're the one that found her. They're gonna say, you're carrying a torch for her. You were involved with her, right? You had a key to her house. I mean, it would have been police malpractice for them not to be looking at you, right? Oh, they looked. Larry's kind of person police look at in that situation.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Totally. He's a prime suspect. He's, you know, because he's a jilted boyfriend.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

They asked Larry for an alibi, took pictures of him at the scene, and got swabs of his DNA. Larry was not a match.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

I think pretty quickly, we were able to rule Mr. March out. He had been at school that morning. There was nothing to indicate that he and sue were still romantically involved. His general demeanor on the scene, his willingness to help, and his willingness to provide his DNA for us to compare are generally not things that suspects do.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

With Larry ruled out, investigators looked elsewhere. During the search of Sue's home, they had discovered a document with a man's name, Jorge Rueda Landeros.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

We'd reached out to Lisa Colton, who's Sue's friend, and we made an inquiry as to who he was in her life.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

When detectives ask you about Jorge Landeros, what do you say?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I say, yes. Jorge was part of Sue's life. And I was a little surprised About? Why are you asking me about him? I think he's in Mexico.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Jorge was Sue's Spanish teacher, the same guy who also taught yoga and got her into that. Lisa remembers when they first met five years earlier. And what'd she say?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

That she really liked him as a teacher, and they became friends from that.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Jorge shared Sue's interests in traveling and finance. He said he'd been a day trader and was now a poet and published author.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

In addition to him having all these interesting creative ideas, you know, he spoke, you know, in these very philosophical, esoteric, using big words.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

And you could tell, though, that she really liked him.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Yes, he was quite a bit younger, but she. I don't know what it was, but she just wanted him in her life.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Over time, sue and Jorge developed a close friendship and maybe something more. She ever tell you she was in love with him?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

She was over the moon. I never saw her talk about a man in the way she talked about him, that she just was beside herself. She did put him on a pedestal, like he was a genius.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

He was a stockbroker and yoga teacher. Poet.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Yes, poet and published poet.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

I get the feeling sue was more impressed with all of that than you were.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Yeah, yeah. She brought him to a class, and in some ways, maybe he was her spiritual advisor or something. But I remember him coming to class and sitting cross legged on the desk, and I remember thinking, wow, this is. This is odd.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Jorge told people he was the son of a diplomat, that he'd studied yoga in India, worked on Wall Street. And sue told her friends Jorge had his future all mapped out.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

And she started telling me about him and that he was going to sell all of his worldly possessions and live in a cave with a yogi.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

When she says to you, jorge's gonna divest himself of all his worldly possessions and live in a cave, were you able to keep a straight face? No.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I said, sue, that's crazy. And she threw her head back and laughed. I know, right? And she's laughing about it, but it's like, no, no, it's crazy.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Nobody said, this is a guy with some issues, maybe. Take it easy.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Oh, there were more issues and she knew about them. He ran hot and cold. His moods. He went very, very low. And one day, for one of her themed birthday parties, I walked in and there was this angry painting on the wall. Blue and red and black, harsh, dark lines. It didn't go with anything in her life. It wasn't her.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

It wasn't her. But it was Jorge, Beverly thought as he began Spending more and more of his time in Mexico. Sue registered for an online PhD program to study Spanish. She was hoping the bilingual Jorge would help her.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

And I think he basically said, I can't commit to helping you perhaps as much as you want. And so that was very upsetting to her.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

That's him pulling back.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Correct.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Time passed, and as it did, sue rarely brought up the name Jorge Landeros. You're thinking she's moved on?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Yes, she was. I believe that she was.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

And we learned that Mr. Landeros had made moved back to Juarez, Mexico, to that area roughly about a year before. And that as far as anyone knew, he and sue weren't involved anymore.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Well, how much can any of us really know about the people we love? She didn't tell you? I'm in a very bad place here.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

No.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Or about a suspect who became a phantom and he vanishes?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

And he did.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Could she be his next victim? Did he ever mention the name Sue Marcum to you? Sue Marcum's parents asked her good friend Lisa to help organize Sue's estate. In order to pay the bills, like the mortgage on the house in Bethesda, Lisa needed to log into Sue's email. There was just one problem. No one knew Sue's password.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Someone's got a laptop up and we're trying to figure it out.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Someone suggested they try her cat's name, Scooter.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

And lo and behold, we figure some stuff out, put some numbers in there, and we figured out the password.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

A lucky guess, indeed. Lisa opened Sue's email, took care of the bills, and began sorting Sue's banking information. She went through Sue's contacts and let a number of her friends know that sue had died. Sue's Spanish and yoga teacher, Jorge, had already heard the news from a friend and reached out to Lisa.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Kind of typical Jorge in this philosophical, weird, kind of, you know, way, you know.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Here's Jorge writing to Lisa about Sue. We told each other the story of our lives, and woven in those stories the little sweet drops of our deepest yearnings that we both knew we had found something. And something big and wonderful and spacious. That is what is gone for me from me. And I don't think I will ever recover it, rediscover it. Jorge also told Lisa he last spoke with sue in September. That would have been just one month before sue died. And that was news to Lisa, who thought of Jorge only as part of Sue's past. Hadn't their involvement ended a long time ago? Now, in Sue's inbox, Lisa took a closer look and Found a whole folder labeled Jorge.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

And there's just, you know, hundreds and hundreds of emails, you know, in there.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Back and forth, back and forth. You didn't know they were still in touch like that?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Not to the extent, no.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

When you're reading those emails between sue and Jorge, what jumps out at you?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Something is clearly there's something financial that, you know, was going on.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

It looked as if sue the accountant was somehow mixed up with Jorge's finances. Two years before the murder, sue brought Jorge to a meeting with her colleague Don Williamson for help with some tax trouble Jorge was having. Don says, Jorge had not filed tax returns in years. When you see him, what'd you think? Thug. No question about it. Heavy jacket, hood over it, unshaven, not

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

very well kept at all.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

I said, why didn't you file tax returns? I was probably too coked up. I will remember that for the rest of my life. Did he have any kind of financial records to show you?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

No. No.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Then I knew, you know, if they don't bring some stuff in for you to look at, then you know that

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

they're not serious about it.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Don says he got a very bad feeling. I didn't really interfere in Sue's personal life, but I couldn't help myself.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

At that time, I was chair of the department.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

She's on my staff, and. And so I met with her because she's my friend. Without Landeras. Oh, yes. The next week.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

And I said, you know, this is not the man for you.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

This isn't the guy.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Yeah, this is not the guy. Oh, Don, you don't understand him.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

You don't understand him. He's so smart. He's so intelligent.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I'm sitting back in my chair.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

I said, oh, my God, Sue. Mark, an intelligent woman, a good business person, knows her way around, is nobody's fool, Is nobody's fool. And here she is, totally taken in. At the end of the meeting, I

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

said, okay, Sue, I understand. I wish you the best of luck,

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

but do one favor for me. Don't give him any money. As Lisa read through that folder filled with hundreds of emails between her late friend and Jorge Landeros, one truth stood out. By that point, sue had already given Jorge money. A lot of it.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I'm learning about aspects of their relationship that I wasn't aware of.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

It looked as if sue and Jorge had opened an investment account together. Jorge had been managing the account, and he had not done that well. Either he had lost nearly all of Sue's money in the market, or he had spent it. Another thing that emerged from the emails was how anxious that made Sue. Sue writes to Jorge, my body and my mind are at war and it has made me physically ill. Heartbreaking, the

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

heart and the head.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Lisa thought the emails looked to her as if Sue's heart wanted to believe the best about Jorge. But her head was starting to come to terms with bottom line reality. It wasn't clear if Jorge was being honest with sue about the money she had willingly handed over to him. It was honest obvious how sue was becoming more and more desperate as she wrote to him, looking for answers. If I had any magic powers, I would wish for you to be everything that you have been to me over the past few years and everything that I know you are capable of being with a sufficient amount of money thrown into the mix so that you could spread your soul and insight with many others. You are an incredible person, Jorge, someone who can enrich many people's lives. I thought the investments would be our vehicle for getting you to that place. But the effect of this interim activity has really taken its toll on me. Wow. He was using her.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Sue would get poetry from him. There's a famous poetry book he has around here somewhere.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

My wife and sue were pretty friendly,

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

and so she would show my wife

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

the poetry and ask, do you think he cares? Do you think he cares?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

And that's heartbreaking.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

We read some of that poetry Jorge wrote, maybe part of the bad boy alchemy that drew sue to him. I drink from that cup where your lips have drawn a red moon of gibbous passion. £90 of hope. Sue knew her friends disapproved of Jorge. And while she shared his verses, she learned not to share much else about him. And she apparently made the same decision about her financial issues involving Jorge, even after she gave him the money and even after it was clear that that money wasn't coming back and she was in serious financial trouble. She never talked to you about that?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

She didn't tell anybody about that. None of us knew this.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

She didn't tell you. I'm in a very bad place here.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

No.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Sue never told anyone but Lisa Sherwood, the police. The Chevy Bolt is backed by popular demand, and it's better than ever with over two and a half times faster charging with public DC fast charging, so you can get up to 87 miles of range in just 10 minutes. And huge tech upgrades like an 11.3 inch diagonal touchscreen and a bold new

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

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[Narrator / Lester Holt]

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[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

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[Narrator / Lester Holt]

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[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

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[Narrator / Lester Holt]

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[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

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[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

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[Narrator / Lester Holt]

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[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

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[Narrator / Lester Holt]

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[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

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[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Looking through her murdered friend's inbox, Lisa had just discovered the relationship between sue and Jorge was more complex and more current than she ever knew. Lisa took the email she found to police. That's the email of somebody who's having trouble sleeping and who can't think about anything else.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I agree. I agree. Financially, her world was falling apart at that point, yet he was still in her life. And I think she still wanted him and her life.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Sadly, that was in October of 2008. So that's about two years before she was killed.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Correct.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

So this had been going on for a long time.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Yeah. And I don't know if she felt that at some point she would maybe be able to recoup some of the money from him if she stayed somehow connected to him, or if that she was just really still felt like she loved him.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Investigators already had an inkling. So sue and Jorge had some financial relationship because that document with his name on it found in Sue's home on the day she was murdered came from a life insurance policy. Jorge was listed as the beneficiary. And the payout? Half a million dollars. Linderos and sue were not married. Never had been.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

Correct.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

They're not related in any way?

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

No.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Why would she have a life insurance policy in which he's the beneficiary?

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

We learned that the declared purpose of the policy was because Mr. Landeros and Sue Marcum were opening up a joint yoga business together.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

So he had a policy on her and she had a policy on him.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

Correct.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

As detectives unravel the financial entanglements between sue and Jorge, they learned sue had recently lost more than $300,000 money that came from Sue's savings. Investigators suspected sue had been the victim of a swindle. However, it was also clear sue and Jorge's relationship was more complicated than that. They had spent a lot of time together doing yoga and traveling to Lake Tahoe and a month in Argentina. It does seem Sue Marcum looked at Jorge Landeros and saw love. Her friends looked at the two of them together and saw a bouquet of the reddest of flags. You think he ever loved her or was this all about her money?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I think he had feelings for her. I don't know if it was love, you know, or friend love, a kind of love. I would say yes. And again, I don't know when in his mind did it flip to, oh, I can get something out of this. Who knows?

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Alan's wife, Barbara, says Sue confided in her about the relationship.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

When I was visiting her one time, she. She did say that she knew that. That it was a one sided relationship in terms of romance. She loved him and she knew he wasn't ever going to return that love.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Sergeant Haley thought all of that made Jorge Landeros a person of interest. He started digging around and found no evidence Jorge ever worked on Wall street or was a child of diplomats. He was a dual citizen of both the US And Mexico, and he crossed the border frequently. When you start looking for Mr. Landeros, you don't know whether he's in this country or not.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

We didn't know. We knew that his mom had lived or was currently living in Northern Virginia. We knew his father lived right outside of El Paso in Texas. We could see that he was regularly in the Juarez area of Mexico, sometimes once every three or four days, sometimes a little bit less than that. He's crossing into the United States for a period of time.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Haley checked to see which country Landeros was in the night sue was murdered.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

The border records that they keep and that we obtained only show entries. They don't show exits. And so while we knew that he had entered the country on October 21 of 2010, which is roughly four days before the murder, we don't know when he went back.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

So he could have still been in this country?

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

Absolutely. Until the point, of course, when she next enters, which was in November. So at some point between October 25th and a month or so later, he could have been anywhere.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Investigation investigators had no idea if or when Jorge Landeros would ever return to the United States. Three months after Sue's murder, requests to flag his passport went out to the border and local police in El Paso. Just eight weeks later, they got an alert.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

He gets stopped at the border crossing.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

The man police very much wanted to talk with when was on American soil. What would he have to say? Jorge Landeros, Spanish tutor, yoga teacher, poet, and self proclaimed stock market guru, suddenly had a new line on his resume. Prime suspect in Sue Marcum's murder. And he had just returned to American soil. Local El Paso police were on their way to speak with him.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

He gets stopped at the border crossing. Our El Paso contact goes out and meets with him, invites him to come back to their headquarters for an interview.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

And he does it.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

And he does it.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Jorge went along willingly. All the detective told him was that they needed to talk with him about what had happened to his friend Sue. I'm guessing that neither you nor anybody else associated with this investigation put out a statement saying, we have unknown suspect

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

DNA that was very close to the vest. Yeah, we did not tell anybody that.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Because if he's the guy, you don't want him to know that. What you really need is his DNA. You want him to think they're still looking at a burglary.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

Correct. Because I don't think he would have cooperated had he known that.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

So he goes back to the El Paso station.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

He comes back, they talked to him for a little while. One of the things that we had asked them to do was get a DNA swab of the inside of your cheek. Mr. Landero signed a written consent form saying he was agreeing to do it freely and voluntarily. And he provides us with his DNA.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

It was almost too easy. He just said yes and provided the swab that said police did not have enough to hold him. So just as easily as he came, he went. The sample went to a lab, and a week went by, then five more. And then finally came the moment investigators had waited for.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

He's identified as the contributor of the DNA under Sue's fingernails, on the murder weapon and on the shot glasses.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

And suddenly your suspect has a name.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

He does. That point, he's getting charged.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

For Sue's family and friends, it was a long time coming.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

The main thing for us was that whoever it was at that point is apprehended so that they can do no more damage to anyone else. The day he got his the DNA March 2nd. Do you know what March 2nd is? Sue's birthday.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

A warrant for murder was issued. And it came complete with one more huge problem for investigators. You don't have him. We don't have him, and he vanishes.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

And he did.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

His name is Jorge Landeros, wanted in connection with the killing of Sue Ann Marcum. Jorge Landeros, a man with two passports and one murder charge, was in the wind. Before Sue Markham was murdered, Landeras used to regularly travel between the US And Mexico. That ended right after he gave that DNA swab. He keeps going back and forth until he stopped and asked for his DNA. Which he freely gives. Correct. And after that?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

After that, he never came back. He never crossed the border again.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

You would have known.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

We would have known.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Investigators added Landeros to the FBI Most Wanted website. It included his fugitive poster. They also reached out to him directly via email. Posing as American University faculty and working on a story about Sue. Landeros did not take the bait. What did he say in those emails?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

It was pretty wordy. I think he's a pretty verbose person. You know, he invited me to come to meet him at a cafe in Juarez if I wanted to talk. But he said to bring my Kevlar, which I took as a bulletproof vest.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Bring your Kevlar because Mexico's a dangerous place or he's gonna shoot you, right?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I'm not sure. I didn't go.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

American law enforcement has no jurisdiction in Mexico. So while investigators believed Landeros was in the Juarez area, they couldn't just go look for him. He was technically a fugitive, but he wasn't exactly hiding. Someone with his exact name published online writings titled Poemas Profugos, or in English, fugitive poems. Now the FBI wants my bones because of domestic matters and corrupt convictions of its great nation. Very well. When they finally find me, they will grasp shadows. A brief obituary, salty and with pieces of Carl. There was also this. Sometimes it's your turn to die. Sometimes it's your turn to kill. Karma is like that. And then time started ticking by. A lot of time over the years, you got calls about him?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

We did.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Was it him? Or were these tips that were maybe well meaning? But it wasn't him.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

None of them turned out to be him.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Investigators in Maryland worked with the State Department and Interpol. They also requested help from Mexican authorities. Despite that, Jorge Landeros remained a free man.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

I knew he was highly intelligent. I knew he spoke multiple languages. I knew kind of some of his previous work experience like that. He was a yoga instructor.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

This is an FBI agent. We agreed not to show his face because he still works undercover in 2022, 12 years after Sue Marcum's murder, he was assigned to run down tips that still trickled in about Jorge Landeros.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

We had a potential sighting of Landeros in Brazil. That he was going by the name Guillermo and saying that he was from Venezuela. We tracked that down and found that to be untrue.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Somebody else said they saw him in Texas.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

Correct. That was the second tip I received.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

And that he was homeless?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Yes.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

That kind of doesn't sound like him.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

No. No, it. It did not.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Authorities in two countries may have had no idea where he was, but this woman did. Sometimes karma arrives in unexpected ways.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I met Leon as my yoga teacher.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Leon was his name. A new name, a new city, and a new woman in his life.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

At Charmin, we heard you shouldn't talk about going to the bathroom in public. So we decided to sing about it. Light a candle, pour some wine, grab

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

a roll the soft kind for a little me time.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

Charmin Ultra soft Smooth tear Wavy edges

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

for my rear so let the softness caress your soul. Just relax, you're on a roll. Let her rip.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Charmin Ultra soft Smooth tear.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Charmin Ultra soft Smooth tear has the same softness you love now with wavy edges that tear better than the leading one. Ply brand Enjoy the go with Charmin.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

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[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

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[Narrator / Lester Holt]

you feel like it. With no downloads needed. More games, more ways to play. Let's Jumba. No purchase necessary. VGW Group void where prohibited by log. See terms and conditions for details. 21 +Mom, dad.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I'm not throwing shade, but the whole New Year's resolution thing kind of slippin. No offense. Anyway, my best friend Jenny's dad crushing. He uses Blue Apron. He says he ordered one pan assemble and bake meals. And these things called meal kits. They're all super easy to make.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

He keeps yelling.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Protein and fiber, baby. Also the food. We tried it. So good. So maybe check it out or whatever. Blue Apron Get $50 off your first two orders plus free shipping with code STIR50 Terms and conditions apply. Visit blueapron.com Terms for.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Investigators didn't know where Jorge Landeros was. This woman knew something they did not. Her name is Rocio. And while investigators were searching for Jorge, he was living with her.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I knew him as Leon Ferrara.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

She is worried about her privacy and her safety. So she asked us not to show her face or use her last name. Charming guy. Attractive?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I think he was very attractive. He was very charming.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Rocio met him while doing yoga in Guadalajara, Mexico. Tell me what it was like to take a yoga class from him.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

He seemed like a wise man, like he could teach us not just yoga, but he used to give advice about life and philosophy.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

The man she knew as Leon told her he had lived all over the world and studied at top universities in America. He'd worked as a day trader and was now ready for a more spiritual life. He was going to give up all his material possessions and just teach yoga?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Yeah.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Sound familiar? It's the same story he told sue and her friends years earlier. Only the names have changed. Well, only his name.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

At the beginning, he was just my yoga teacher.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

And eventually you get involved.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Yeah.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Were you in love with him?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Yeah. At the beginning, he was very sweet with me. And actually, at that moment, I was in a very vulnerable place. I had just lost my mother. I'm a divorced mom of two. I felt lonely.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

He and his dogs moved in with Rocio and her children. He came along at just the right

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

time, I believe so.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Along with the dogs, he brought yoga, meditation and music.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I thought he was what I needed.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

When did you realize he was not what you needed? A few months later, Rocio says the relationship turned quickly. First he cheated on her. Then his moods darkened.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I thought he was going through some kind of personal crisis or depression or something like that. And later, the violence started.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

She says that during sex, he would put his hands around her throat and choke her.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

If we started having consensual sex, at the end, it was violent. And he ended hurting me. Always I cried. I was very upset.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Did he apologize? Did he say he was sorry?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

He never said I'm sorry, but he tried to make me believe that that wasn't going to happen again. Or later, when the violence went stronger. He said that I was overacting.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

How many times did that happen?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Countless. I couldn't say a number.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Racil says Leon isolated her from her friends. He also talked her into letting him open an investment account using her savings. He was persuasive.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Yeah.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Barry, would he have access to that account?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Total access. He managed that account. I didn't know how to manage that account, but it was in my name.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Just as he did with Sue Marcum. Jorge either mismanaged or just spent Rocio's money. She says she lost a total of $20,000 after three years. Rocio knew she Needed to get away. She threw Leon out of her house and eventually obtained an order of protection.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I hope not to see him again.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

You think you'll ever see your money again?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

No. But that's a loss. The important thing is that me and my children, we are alive.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Did he ever mention the name Sue Marcum to you?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Never. No.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

What about the name Jorge landeros?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Never.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

That was in 2022. Rocio had no idea the man she knew in Mexico was wanted from murder in the United states. Or that friends and family of a woman named sue marcum were holding on to hope he would be caught.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I sent detective Haley an email, and I included a picture of her. And I was like, I hope you're not forgetting her. I said, I don't know how long it's going to take, but it's going to happen. I was sure that, you know, that God would take care of it and there would be justice.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Beverly wasn't so sure.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

We never thought the person would be caught.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

You never expected this to go to trial?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

No.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

All of it added up to years of frustration for Sue's loved ones and freedom for a man who police believed was literally getting away with murder. Until one day, an anonymous tip came in to the FBI. He had a new name.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

Correct.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

But he was still teaching yoga.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

Yes. Yeah.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I said, the life of a yoga instructor on the run must be a good one, because he looked exactly the same.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

A decade had gone by since Jorge landeros had waxed part poetic about running from the FBI. All that time, prosecutor John mccarthy kept a box of documents under his desk. A quiet promise that if and when Jorge returned to the u. S. He would be ready.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Never left. Underneath my desk, it was at my feet for 10 years.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Because you thought, one day, we're going to get this file.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I was hoping at some point we would get him back here.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

And then came a tip. The tip. The one that changed everything.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

I remember it very vividly. I came in, like any other day to the office and logged into my computer. And very quickly I knew that we had something big.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

What made this lead so plausible?

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

So the information was specific. And then it also provided a Facebook profile with some pictures, of course. And it was very easy to tell that the person in the pictures was visually consistent with what I knew landeros to look like.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

He was still teaching yoga.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

Yes. Yeah.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

The agent called detective Hamill back in Maryland.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

They said, we, you know, we got a tip and we think this is your guy. And they gave us his Facebook page.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

Of course, I'm scrolling Down and I look, and that's 100% him. There's no doubt that that's him.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I said, the life of a yoga instructor on the run must be a good one, because he looked exactly the same over, like all those years.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Investigators were able to figure out where Jorge was living and surveilled his residence, photographing him as he came and went. FBI Special Agent Marco Acevedo was assigned to Guadalajara, Mexico, and oversaw the operation. It was one of those deals that we had to make sure that it was him. It looked like it was him. By now, the FBI had cooperation from Mexican authorities who positioned themselves on the street and waited.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

There was kind of a small market or kind of like a corner store down the street from where he was residing. He was on his way there, and that's ultimately where the surveillance team moved

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

in and took him into custody.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

And during the arrest, somebody says to him, are you Jorge Landeros?

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

He self admitted that he was indeed Jorge Landeros.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

He's not denying it anymore. No. Tell me when you heard Jorge had been arrested.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

That was a Tuesday night. Larry Haley calls me and says he's been arrested. I was like, wow. It was pretty amazing. I was very excited and relieved. I almost fainted. It was so many years later. We thought it was never going to happen. I couldn't believe it.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Jorge Landero spent the next several months in a Mexican prison waiting to be extradited to the US I think relationships

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

between the Mexican government and the United States had improved in terms of extraditions. And it was in relatively short order that we got him back after that.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Must have felt pretty good to take that box off one of your desk and give it to your prosecutors and say, like, yeah.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Yes.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

FBI agents brought Jorge Landeros back to the United States in July 2023 and handed him over to Montgomery county police.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

We'll leave these on. We're gonna take that off. We're just gonna wait for some other detectives.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Okay.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

So we're gonna get you some water.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

That's nice.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

As Jorge Landeros waited to be questioned, he had some questions for them with a camera, I think it is sassy movies.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

So there's no cameras.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

People get tortured by federal agents.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

Yeah, that was the. You never know. It's audio, video.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

There's no items.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

It's in one of these things.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Wow.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

Yeah.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

There's no. There's no secrets.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

Pretty well hidden. Yeah.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

The agents left him alone for nearly an hour. It turned out this was where interrogation met introspection. Ever the yogi, he meditated Silently did some stretching and some strengthening poses. Then in walked the detectives who had been looking for him for so long.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

Hey, I'm Sergeant Haley.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Mr. Haley. Yep.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

Nice to meet you.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Nice to meet you too.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

This is Detective Hamill.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Hello, sir. How are you? Fine, and you?

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

What's it like to finally see Jorge Landeros in person after all those years?

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

We've been waiting a long time.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

How are you?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Good, thank you. Good.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

I'm sorry to meet you up under the circumstances.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Whatever.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Could be nothing else.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

Well, we've. It's been a long time.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

They were off to a friendly start.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

So I'm gonna read you an advice of rights form. Okay.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Most definitely.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

How would you describe your physical condition right now?

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

It's perfect. Perfect.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

I saw you doing some yoga in here when I came in. You were doing stuff I don't think I could do, so. Okay, so you have the right now and at any time to remain sick silent. Do you understand that?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Yes, I do. Okay.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

Anything you say may be used against you.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Understand that and will be used.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

I really didn't expect him to talk to me, you know, about the case. But we, of course have to give it a try. So now would be the time. I'd like to talk to you.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

So you read me my rights.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

Yes.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Which means that I can affirm them right now.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

Right?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Sure.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

So I affirmed my fifth amendment right to remain silent.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Okay.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

And my sixth amendment right to have counsel present.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Okay.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Jorge wouldn't answer their questions without a lawyer, but that did not stop him from offering his own observations about how the detectives were doing their job.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Well, you guys seem so polite that it is disarming.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

It is really beautiful.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

So I want to protect myself against

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

you're charmed my charms. Interesting that in that interview, Mr. Landeros, a man who charmed a woman out of essentially her life savings accuses you of trying to charm him.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

It was interesting because I had been waiting a long time to talk to him. I said, I'm really not trying to do that.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I was like, no, no, you're the charming one here, not us. You guys don't look or talk like hard nosed detectives, you know, Philip Marlowe types.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

Well, I'll be honest with you. What good does it do me to sit and yell and scream at you? It just puts you on the defensive, you know what I mean?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

And yeah, but this is actually more insidious, your method.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

I'm not trying to be insane. I've just been waiting to talk to you for a long time, that's all. To be Honest. Okay.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Not. Likewise.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

And with that, the interview was over.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Take care. Welcome back.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Thank you very much. Jorge Landeros would tell his side of the story through his lawyers and in a courtroom.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

As to count one, murder in the first degree. We the jury, find the defendant. I was sick. I just felt, he's gonna walk. Couldn't breathe. Couldn't even breathe.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Jorge Landeros was charged with first degree murder, which means premeditation. It carries a life sentence. It was October 2025, 15 years after Sue Marcum was killed, when the trial began in Maryland. You went every single day.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I went every single day.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Because of her.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Because of her. And you just wanted. You wanted to stare him down.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Sue's brother Allen came from California. I remember each day as he walked

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

into court, and I did not want to look him in the eye because

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

I didn't want him to see what I had in my head and in my heart. The state said Jorge Landeros was a master manipulator who exploited Sue's affection to the tune of $300,000. Those emails were evidence of Sue's stress as her savings evaporated. Prosecutors Debbie Feinstein and Ryan Wexler.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

He would minimize her anxiety around the financials. We see in her email saying, you aren't answering me. You aren't responding to this. And he made it seem like a game in some ways, and this was

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

her life, but she's only expressing those worries to him.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

As far as we can tell, no one else knew. And he would push back and tell her to be freer and knew kind of the buzzwords and what to say that would keep her entangled.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Was the motive ultimately, that life insurance policy? It's hard to say. The state's theory of Sue's final night was that Jorge came over, was somehow triggered and exploded into violence.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Did he go there to kill Sue Marcum that night? We don't have any evidence that tells us that he did. We also don't have any evidence that tells us that he didn't. But the fact that they were having a drink together suggests that there was some sort of friendly something happening at some point during that night.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

And she either, what, wants her money back or says, I'm not giving you any more money. So what? She snaps at him. She yells at him. She says, I'm gonna tell someone in authority about you.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Maybe part of our theory was when this argument started. At some point, he touched her physically. Either he hit her or he threatened her or something and then went too far to come back from. And he finished the job, they argued

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Jorge van staged the break in and dropped Sue's jeep in downtown D.C. hoping a car thief would steal it. Was that little piece of metal from the Ray Ban sunglasses part of that misdirection? Maybe. It does fit the theory that Landeros was trying to throw police off his scent.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I think he believed that he had staged a perfect burglary. I don't think that he thought that his DNA was going to be found on anything and he just thought he was smarter.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Now the defense stepped up with a completely different narrative.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Mr. Landeros is an innocent man who's been accused of a crime that he just did not commit.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Jorge Landeros was represented by public defenders Megan Brennan and Tatiana David. They insisted their client was no manipulator and that he did not swindle Sue. They said she was too smart for that and that she and Jorge lost money in the market at a time when a lot of investments went bad.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

The evidence does not support the notion that Mr. Landeros ever stole Ms. Markham money. They lost money during the second greatest financial crisis that this country has experienced. Like so many other Americans, they reminded

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

the jury, Landeros was never charged with any financial crime. And they said this was not about Sue's life insurance policy, the one listing Jorge as the beneficiary. His attorneys say he never even attempted to claim it. And Jorge's DNA, no surprise to them that it was in Sue's home and even on Sue's body.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

These two were friends. They had been romantic at times. They had a long standing friendship. So we embrace the notion that Mr. Landeros DNA would be in this home.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

And while prosecutors argued Jorge's DNA on Sue's fingernails was evidence of a struggle, the defense disagreed.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

If you scratch yourself and there's DNA from a hug, a kiss, it transfers. DNA is incredibly transferable.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

The defense also asked why no trace of their client's DNA was ever found in Sue Marcum's Jeep.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Mr. Landeros fingerprints were nowhere in that Jeep. Mr. Landeros's DNA is nowhere. The only person's DNA that they could identify or the profile that they could identify belonged to DeAndre Hamlin.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

DeAndrew Hamlin, the man found driving Sue's Jeep hours after her body was discovered. The defense offered him as an alternate suspect. They also wanted to talk about the burglars menacing Sue's neighborhood.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Within the three months of the burglary of Ms. Markham's home, there were approximately 60 burglaries within a five mile radius of her home.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Except the judge ruled those burglaries could not be mentioned to the jury, which

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

inhibited us from putting on a very viable defense.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

The jury took only about five hours to reach a verdict. The audio recorded in court.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

As to count one, murder in the first degree, we the jury find the defendant not guilty.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Not guilty of first degree murder.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

And you thought I was sick. I just felt he's gonna walk. Couldn't breathe. Couldn't even breathe.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

However, the jury had the option to consider a lesser charge of second degree murder. Intentional, but not planned.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

As to murder in the second degree, we the jury find the defendant guilty.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Guilty of second degree murder.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I started to cry. Oh, thank goodness. Just the relief that they would hold this person accountable.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

I believe he committed first degree murder, and I fully understand why.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

The jury found not guilty for first

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

degree murder and guilty for second degree murder.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

And I'm at peace with that.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

It was done. I've watched Dateline people say, when the right verdict comes in, it was a good day. And I would sit there watching the show, and I'd say, how is it a good day? They're still gone. But that day, I said, it's a good day. We will maintain, we do maintain, we have always maintained that Mr. Landeros is wrongfully convicted.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

At sentencing, the judge said Jorge Landeros was Sue's Achilles heel and called her murder a heinous act. Then the judge sentenced him to 25 years in prison. Landeros will be almost 70 before he is eligible for parole. Rocio, who once saw a future with Jorge, only found out about Sue Marcum's murder. After he was arrested, she reached out to investigators and shared her story. What's the message here to other women, do you think?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I think it's important to know that this can happen to anyone. And I think we have to be careful. Anyone could be manipulated. And so I think the lesson is, if somebody shows you who they are, it's not a good thing. Walk away.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

If somebody shows you who they are, believe them.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Absolutely.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Sue Marcum, a woman with a huge heart who cared about everyone, maybe too much, maybe too easily. You hate that she's gonna be remembered this way?

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Absolutely. I want people to know that she was funny, that she was smart, she was spontaneous, and in a good kind of way. It was just a. It was a great friendship to have. And it's horrible that she's not here anymore for other people to experience.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

I want her to be remembered as

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

someone who loved life and loved family, who gave a lot of herself to the world. You think about her a lot? Yes.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

All the time we live, sue, you know, because we don't want to forget her.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

That's all for this edition of Dateline.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

And don't forget to check out our

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

talking Dateline podcast, in which we'll go

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

behind the scenes of tonight's episode, available Wednesday in the Dateline feed. Wherever you get your podcasts, we'll see you again next Friday at 9, 8 Central.

[Sergeant Larry Haley (Montgomery County Police)]

I'm lucky Lester Holt. For all of us at NBC News, good night.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

Hey, girl. What's happen? Is that your antiperspirant? Uh, yeah. Let me see that can.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Aluminum butane.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

I cannot pronounce that. You have to switch to native deodorant. Native's simple formula has only clean ingredients. It gives you effective 72 hour odor protection with no hydrocarbon propellants.

[Narrator / Lester Holt]

Wow.

[Beverly Myers (Sue Marcum's close friend)]

This smells heavenly clean. Effective 72 hour odor protection isn't a myth. It's Native.