LOS ANGELES (AP) — U.S. authorities have arrested a California man accused of killing three women in the Mexican border town of Tijuana and crossing the border after each of the deaths in nearly a year from from 2021 .
According to US court records, 30-year-old Bryant Rivera, a resident of Los Angeles suburb Downey, was arrested on July 6 for femicide in the strangulation death of Angela Carolina Acosta Flores, whose body was found in a hotel room in Tijuana. on January 25, 2022.
Mexico is considering seeking his extradition to present evidence to add charges for the deaths of two other women in Tijuana, according to court documents. Ricardo Ivan Carpio, the Baja California state attorney general, said they would include new evidence found during Rivera’s arrest in California. It was not immediately known if Rivera had retained the services of an attorney.
Rivera appeared in federal court on Monday, where U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen L. Stevenson ordered him to remain detained at the Los Angeles Metropolitan Federal Detention Center pending his extradition proceedings, according to spokesperson Ciaran McEvoy. from the US Attorney’s office. Mexico has 60 days to file a formal extradition request.
Acosta’s mother told Mexican authorities that her daughter worked on the sidelines as a dancer at a strip bar called the Hong Kong Gentlemen’s Club and occasionally as a sex worker. The mother told authorities she last heard from her daughter on January 24, 2022, when she texted her that she would take one of her guests to room 404 at the hotel. Las Cascadas for 30 minutes around 10:15 p.m., according to court records. At 10:45 p.m., her mother said she started texting her daughter but never heard from her.
Court records show that Acosta’s boyfriend went to the club at 3 a.m. and was told by an employee that Acosta left with a customer who was a “gringo” named Bryant Rivera. After her daughter’s body was found in room 404, Acosta’s mother tracked her daughter’s cell phone to an address in Riverside, California.
Hotel security camera footage captured a man matching Rivera’s description and the victim entering room 404, court records show.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection records show Rivera entered the United States on foot through the San Ysidro Port of Entry shortly after midnight on January 25, 2022.