FBI tracks down suspect in 1998 homicide at dairy farm near Tracy. He was in Delhi
A suspect in a 1998 homicide at a Tracy-area dairy farm was arrested Thursday in Delhi.
Moises Galvan Gonzalez, 41, was accused with his brother in the shooting death of Alfonso Arellanos Vargas, then 22, during a party.
Gonzalez was arrested without incident Thursday morning at a home in Delhi, the FBI said in a news release. It did not specify the location of the home, nor how the suspect eluded capture for nearly 22 years.
The brother, Josue Gonzalez, was arrested in Mexico in 2005 and prosecuted there under an agreement with the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office.
Moises Gonzalez also was in Mexico following the shooting, the DA said in its own news release. He was arraigned Friday on a murder charge in San Joaquin Superior Court but did not enter a plea. He is being held without bail and will return to court Feb. 21.
The arrest was the work of a task force that included the FBI, the San Joaquin sheriff’s Cold Case Unit and sheriff’s departments in Merced and Kern counties.
The shooting happened June 15, 1998, at a dairy farm on Patterson Pass Road where the brothers and the victim all worked. The DA’s release said the brothers were ejected from the party after an argument, then returned. Josue Gonzalez shot Vargas in the abdomen with a shotgun, then fled with his brother, the release said.
The FBI said it works often to catch suspects who flee the jurisdictions of other law enforcement agencies. Moises Gonzalez had been on its most-wanted list until his arrest.
This story was originally published February 7, 2020 at 5:26 PM.
