Man captured in '93 killing

MOUNT VERNON — More than eight years have passed since Michael Lee McGuffey became Skagit County's most notorious fugitive, disappearing rather than facing a charge that he shot his ex-wife dead in a restaurant parking lot.

But Friday, after being pursued for nearly a decade by Mount Vernon police and the dead woman's family, McGuffey, 36, was caught by authorities in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Mount Vernon police flew to Los Angeles Saturday to retrieve him from Mexican customs. Now he's back in Skagit County to face the first-degree-murder charge filed against him in 1993.

"It's been a long wait for everyone involved," said county Prosecutor Tom Verge. "Now they got their man."

McGuffey was being held in the Skagit County Jail yesterday with bail set at $1 million cash. Arraignment is set for Nov. 29. If convicted, he faces 20 to 26 years in prison.

Police yesterday said they had found him thanks to a tip to the FBI that he was living in Guadalajara.

Michele Torres-McGuffey, 25, was shot dead in her car Sept. 27, 1993, in the parking lot of the Mount Vernon restaurant where she was a waitress.

Police say Torres-McGuffey had gone there to meet her former husband in a public place, and witnesses said they saw McGuffey, then 28, arguing with her in her car before a single shot rang out.

Police say McGuffey ran away before officers could arrive, then drove to Everett, ditched his car and vanished.

The couple's daughter, who was 4 at the time, is now 12 and living with her maternal grandmother in Sedro-Woolley.

Since the slaying, the girl's grandmother, Barbara Torres, has doggedly pressed for her former son-in-law's capture, persuading the television show "America's Most Wanted" to twice feature McGuffey.

"I feel such a relief, like I've had an elephant on my chest for eight years and now it's gone," Torres said yesterday. "Now I just want to see justice."

Torres has also sued the city of Anacortes, where Torres-McGuffey lived, alleging that police there could have prevented the slaying by properly handling a domestic-violence complaint filed against McGuffey a month before the shooting.

The suit was thrown out of Skagit County Superior Court, but last year the state Supreme Court reinstated it. A trial is set for March.

Ian Ith can be reached at 206-464-2109 or iith@seattletimes.com.