Interpol red notice re-issued for Ecuadorian wanted in Brockton murder after wife and toddler son found dead

Interpol has re-issued a red notice for an Ecuadorian who is wanted in connection with the 2011 murders of his wife and toddler son in Brockton, Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz announced.

On February 13, 2011, the bodies of Maria Avelina Palaguachi-Cela, 25, and her two-year-old son, Brian Cuanga Palaguachi, were discovered in a dumpster near their home at 427 Warren Avenue in Brockton. Autopsies determined that both mother and child died from blunt force trauma to the head and brain. The following day, February 14, 2011, now 55-year-old Luis Guaman fled from JFK Airport in New York to Ecuador.

On February 18, 2011, investigators obtained an arrest warrant in Plymouth County charging Guaman with the murders. A copy of the warrant was hand-delivered to Ecuadorian embassy officials in Boston. Ecuador refused to extradite Guaman to the United States, citing its constitution’s prohibition on extraditing its own citizens. DA Cruz strongly objected and urged then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other national lawmakers to press Ecuador to return Guaman for prosecution in Massachusetts, where he would have faced life in prison without parole if convicted. In Ecuador, he faced a maximum sentence of 16 to 25 years.

Despite DA Cruz’s objections, an Ecuadorian court conducted a two-day trial in 2012, found Guaman guilty, and sentenced him to 25 years in prison. In parallel efforts in 2011, investigators collaborated with the FBI to secure an Interpol Red Notice for Guaman.

Every five years, the Plymouth County DA’s office must re-validate the active arrest warrant to maintain the notice. This week, the office received confirmation from Interpol that Guaman remains on the list.

Fifteen years after the murders, DA Cruz reaffirmed his office’s unwavering commitment to pursuing Guaman’s extradition to face trial in Plymouth County. “As long as I am District Attorney of Plymouth County, my office will never stop demanding that Luis Guaman be brought back to our community to answer for his heinous crimes,” Cruz stated. “While I maintain respect for Ecuador’s legal system, true justice can only be sought in this matter by having Guaman stand trial in our county and prosecuted for the brutal murders of a caring mother and her child.”