A Mexican national wanted in connection with the 2023 murder of a well-known Springfield activist has been apprehended in Mexico.
Sangamon County State’s Attorney John Milhiser, the Springfield Police Department, and the U.S. Marshals Service announced on Aug. 28 that Gabriel Calixto-Pichardo, 27, was caught.
Calixto-Pichardo was indicted by a grand jury on three counts of first-degree murder and one count of aggravated domestic battery in the fatal stabbing of Emma Shafer, 24, at her South Eighth Street apartment on July 11, 2023.
Milhiser, reached by The State Journal-Register, would not say specifically where Calixto-Pichardo was caught.
The Sangamon County State’s Attorney’s Office is working with federal authorities to coordinate extradition proceedings. Milhiser did not lay out a timeline.
“Relieved,” was how Shafer’s mother, Cathy Schwartz, felt, speaking to the SJ-R, heading into a Rooted in Springfield meeting, a foundation started in Shafer’s memory.
This story will be updated.
Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; sspearie@sj-r.com; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Man wanted in murder of activist Emma Shafer has been apprehended