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A Man Told His Girlfriend To Run As He Was Murdered. It Led To An International Manhunt That Put Her Behind Bars

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Mary Margaret Olohan Social Issues Reporter
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The so-called “Black Widow” killer Aurea Vazquez Rijos was convicted Friday in a complex murder plot against her late husband, Canadian millionaire Adam Anhang.

Vazquez Rijos of Puerto Rico was convicted and sentenced to life in prison along with her ex-boyfriend, Jose Ferrer Sosa, and her sister, Marcia Vazquez Rijos. The three were involved in an intricate murder-for-hire scheme and the subsequent decade-long evasion of police that earned Vazquez Rijos the title “Black Widow” throughout European news coverage.

Their motive? Anhang’s millions, according to police.

“I am innocent and time will prove it,” Vázquez Rijos said in court Friday. “I lost a man I love. I was murdered. A part of me died.”

Anhang was killed on Sept. 22, 2005, after about a year-long relationship with Vazquez Rijos. The two married in 2005 after Vazquez Rijos pretended she was pregnant and insisted on marriage.

Though Anhang stayed with her when he discovered the lie, he reportedly grew increasingly uneasy about her companions and went so far as to hire a bodyguard. Ultimately, the two agreed to divorce and met for dinner without Anhang’s bodyguard.

As they walked after dinner, Anhang was killed by small-time drug dealer, Alex “El Loco” Pabon Colon, hired by Vazquez Rijos for $3 million. (RELATED: Hurricane Maria Destroyed Hundreds Of Puerto Rican Graves. The Caskets Haven’t Been Reburied)

“Run baby, run!” Anhang reportedly shouted to her as he was killed.

Vazquez Rijos subsequently sued his family for $8 million of Anhang’s estate and fled the country for Italy. The slain man’s family hired a private investigator to track her down and found she was romantically involved with an Italian air conditioning contractor and had given birth to twin girls to secure residency in the country, according to The Associated Press.

Vazquez Rijos fled again when her new lover discovered her identity .

In 2013, American and Spanish authorities collaborated to trick her into going to Spain, where she was arrested and held in a Spanish jail. She entered another sexual relationship while in jail with an inmate and used another pregnancy to plea that she should remain on Spanish soil.

Two years later, when assured she would not receive the death penalty, Vazquez Rijos returned to Puerto Rico with her one-month-old daughter and was taken into custody. Her twin daughters remained with their father in Italy, while her Spanish-born daughter was taken into protective care in Puerto Rico.

Vazquez Rijos and her accomplices were sentenced to life in prison on Friday.

“I hope you’re happy now,” she told Anhang’s father after being sentenced. “You lost [a son] but I lost, too.”

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