Jorge Rueda Landeros, a 56-year-old former Spanish teacher and yoga instructor, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the 2010 second-degree murder of Sue Ann Marcum, a beloved 52-year-old accounting professor at American University in Maryland. After strangling and beating her in her Bethesda home, he fled to Mexico, assumed a new identity, and evaded capture for over 15 years until his extradition and conviction following a nine-day trial in October.
Case Details
Marcum and Landeros had a romantic relationship alongside a failed $300,000 investment deal where he pocketed about $250,000 and named himself beneficiary of her $500,000 life insurance policy. She expressed distress in a 2008 email over his lack of remorse for misusing $50,000. The crime scene was staged as a burglary, but DNA from a Border Patrol cheek swab linked Landeros, who had crossed into the U.S. from Mexico days before the October 25, 2010, killing.
Investigation and Capture
Montgomery County police matched crime scene DNA to Landeros in April 2011 via emails revealing their ties, but he had vanished into Mexico. It took 11 years for authorities to locate and return him for trial. Marcum’s brother Alan praised the police, prosecutors, jury, and judge during sentencing on her birthday.
Victim’s Legacy
Sue Ann Marcum directed American University’s master’s in accounting program, taught at graduate and undergraduate levels, and was named professor of the year for three consecutive years. Friend Larry March noted she had recently moved, cut ties with Landeros, and was restarting her life before the murder.
