The mother of Iriana DeJesus — the 5-year-old girl who was kidnapped, raped and murdered 26 years ago in Hunting Park — has learned to forgive her daughter’s alleged killer.
Lizasuain DeJesus spoke publicly Tuesday at the District Attorney’s Office, a day after authorities announced that 51-year-old Alexis Flores had finally arrived in Philadelphia to face criminal charges in connection with the girl’s death.
Flores, who spent nearly two decades on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, was captured in February in his native Honduras. He fought extradition, in legal proceedings that reached that country’s highest court, according to prosecutors. Flores was booked Monday for the 2000 murder of Iriana.
She disappeared while playing outside her home on the 3900 block N. Fairhill Street, law enforcement officials said. Several days later, her decomposing body was found wrapped in a trash bag and covered by construction materials inside a building at 6th and Pike streets that was being renovated, according to police.
The Medical Examiner’s Office determined that Iriana had been strangled to death, and authorities recovered evidence that she had been sexually assaulted.
Witnesses identified a man they knew as Carlos who had been living at the North 6th Street property under construction, but he vanished at the same time as the girl, investigators said. Clothing recovered from the room had the DNA of Iriana and an unknown man, according to authorities.
Flores was deported to Honduras in 2005 after being convicted of forgery in Arizona. Two years later, DNA taken from him in connection with that case was matched to the suspect in Iriana’s murder. He was then added to the FBI’s highly publicized list of fugitives.
District Attorney Larry Krasner claimed that Arizona authorities were overzealous in seeking to kick Flores out of the country, and he related the issue to the Trump administration’s ongoing deportation campaign.
“This is someone who could have faced trial many years earlier than he is facing it specifically because the government was in a red-hot hurry to deport this person for a much less serious offense than this, rather than letting things take their course,” he said. “I'm having this problem right now.”
Assistant District Attorney Lauren Crump said Flores was spotted in late 2025, leading to an intensified manhunt.
“For a minute in the beginning of this crime, I really didn't have no hope that they would catch this guy,” DeJesus said.
DeJesus recalled turning to alcohol to ease the pain. However, her life changed after she began going to church more than a decade ago, she said. DeJesus even went on a mission trip to Honduras, with the knowledge that the excursion could put her a short distance away from her daughter's killer.
“Many people tell me, ‘How can you forgive this man?’” she explained. “‘How can you forgive him? He raped your daughter.’ And I said to them, ‘I forgive him the way God forgives me.’”
Flores has been charged with murder, kidnapping, unlawful restraint, interference with the custody of a child, false imprisonment and indecent assault. He was denied bail, and a preliminary hearing in his case is scheduled for Sept. 14, according to court documents.
The public defender’s association, which is representing Flores, did respond to a request for comment.
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