Fugitive wanted in 2019 murder arrested in Texas

RIVERSIDE – A fugitive wanted in a 2019 murder in the Woodcrest area near Perris has been arrested in Texas and is awaiting extradition back to Riverside County to face justice.

Eduardo Avalos Escoto, DOB: 6-9-84, was arrested about 7 a.m. (west coast time) on July 15, 2022, outside a gas station in Colorado City, Texas. He was transported to Mitchell County Detention Center in Texas.

Escoto has been charged by the Riverside County DA’s Office in case RIF1904433 with the murder of Brandie Frazier, 42, whose body was found in the master bedroom of her home on Palm Road in Woodcrest the morning of Sept. 1, 2019. The victim and Escoto had known each other for more than a year and became engaged not long before her murder.

Riverside County sheriff’s Central Homicide Unit investigators identified Escoto as the primary suspect in Frazier’s murder. 

Homicide investigators believed that Escoto may have fled to Mexico and asked the DA’s Office to seek a foreign extradition packet which would allow the suspect to be arrested in Mexico for crimes committed in the United States.

DA investigators assigned to the U.S. Marshals Service, Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force – Fugitive Apprehension Unit Team 6 (USMS FAU), took the case and worked with Mexican law enforcement authorities to locate Escoto.

In June, USMS FAU investigators were contacted by sheriff’s investigators who had information that Escoto was possibly back in the United States. Task force investigators then developed information that Escoto was in Washington state. Follow-up investigation, including interviews and search warrants, tracked the fugitive Escoto to Texas.

With assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service Gulf Coast Violent Offender Task Force, Texas Department of Public Safety, Mitchell County Sheriff’s Department, and Mitchell County DA’s Office, Escoto was arrested without incident.

USMS FAU Team 6 is comprised of Riverside County DA’s investigators, special agents from the California Department of Corrections, and inspectors from the U.S. Marshals Service.

# # #