Muriel Lindsey (L), with family seen in this undated photo. The Canadian Press/Handout — Vancouver Police
Police in Vancouver say a Mexican national has been charged with second-degree murder in a cold case dating back three decades.
Vancouver police say 68-year-old Juan Manuel Rueda Salud was escorted by officers from Mexico to Vancouver on Wednesday where he remains in custody.
Rueda Salud is accused of killing 40-year-old Muriel Lindsay, who was found in her home beaten to death on Feb. 16, 1996, in a case police described as “both shockingly violent and a shock to the city.”
“While it is excellent to see a charge finally laid in this matter, it marks the start of another sad chapter for Muriel’s surviving loved ones,” said Insp. Ryan Smith said at a news conference Thursday.
Smith spent 12 years working on the case.
“Muriel was a cancer survivor. She had big blue eyes and she loved her cats. She loved her friends and her family. They miss her to this day,” he said.
Lindsay was found dead by her mother, who had become concerned about her daughter’s well-being after she did not hear from her. The two spoke everyday on the phone before the death, Smith said.
Police say Rueda Salud lived in the same building as Lindsay at the time of her death, and he left Canada for Mexico about a month after the murder.
“Yes, that created significant challenges,” Smith said of the suspect not being in Canada. “So, Rueda Salud is a Mexican citizen and just until recently we didn’t actually have an extradition process with Mexico.
He said police had identified the accused as a person-of-interest shortly after Lindsay’s death, and investigators eventually found him in Oaxaca, Mexico, in 2015.
The identification of the suspect took forensic analysis of evidence from experts, including those from the B.C. Institute of Technology.
Rueda Salud was formally charged on Nov. 2, 2024.
Smith said Vancouver Police then worked with U.S. and Mexican authorities to bring out a provisional-warrant arrest on Jan. 22, 2025, although the suspect then appealed an extradition order back to Canada.
The accused became eligible to be extradited on July 15, and Smith was among the Vancouver officers who travelled to Mexico to escort Rueda Salud back to Canada.
“The VPD never gave up on this case, the same as the family never gave up on believing this case,” Smith said, when asked about an investigation lasting 30 years.
He credited the evidence gathered that was able to be tested forensically as new technologies developed.
Smith said Lindsay’s family members were updated through the investigation.
“They have been nothing but supportive,” he said. “And obviously, we do this—and all homicide investigators do it—for the families, and so we’ve been keen to keep them involved in the process.
“They knew everything that was happening, up to and including us going to Mexico to bring Mr. Rueda Salud back.”
