Cohoes Detective Sergeant Michael Greene got the phone call he’d been waiting for: two fugitives were captured after more than two years.

Anthony Ojeda and husband Neil Garzon were arrested in Mexico last week. They are wanted in connection with the death of six-week-old Baby Eli in 2019.

Prosecutors say the infant had injuries to his ribs and head, and toxic levels of methamphetamine that killed him.

Ojeda, Eli’s guardian, was charged with his murder. He and Garzon disappeared from Cohoes in 2021, ultimately ending up in Mexico City.

Police say the couple was in Mexico for about a year and a half.

“They had observed them for over a year is what they were recently told,” said Chief Waldin. “There’s a lot of work that needs to be done when you’re extraditing a citizen from another country.”

“I guess he didn’t put up too much of a fight on it, from what we’re being told,” said Detective Sergeant Greene. “Once he realized that he was caught, he kind of went peacefully. I think he’s been looking over his shoulder obviously and he knew it was coming.”

Cohoes police never gave up– neither did the U.S. Marshals.

“We can’t thank them enough for their willingness to adopt this case, given the number of cases that they do have,” said Cohoes Police Chief Todd Waldin. “The fact that they took this one, made it a priority, when you think about the fact that this case stretched from Van Vechten Street in Cohoes down to the streets of Mexico, and from the time the crime was committed it was four plus years.”

“They contacted me and said they had gotten Ojeda, he’s in custody, and they’re still looking for Garzon,” said Greene. “It’s bittersweet. The whole purpose of why this case exists, that can never be changed. But the fact that now they’re going to be held accountable for what they did, that’s awesome.”

Ojeda is being held in Mexico. Garzon is already back on U.S. soil in Georgia.

“His situation was different because he is not a citizen of Mexico,” said Chief Waldin. “I believe he holds dual citizenship in both the United States and Ecuador.”

Greene has carried with him the prayer card for little Eli every day.

“It’s going to stay with me until this case is adjudicated and then it’s probably going to be framed at my house as a memoir.”