Man who fled to Mexico charged in 21-year-old Des Plaines murder

Twenty-one years after a flight attendant was brutally murdered in her northwest suburban apartment, police in Des Plaines announced Thursday the long-sought suspect was finally in custody.

“This case is a tremendous example of tireless determination on the part of our detectives, as well as the outstanding cooperative efforts between our department and the FBI, Homeland Security, Illinois State Police, Interpol and the Mexican authorities,” Des Plaines Police Chief William Kushner said Thursday.

Luis Rodriguez-Mena was charged with three counts of first-degree murder in connection with the 1999 stabbing of Young Kavila, Kushner said.

Des Plaines Police Department

Rodriguez-Mena was arrested in Mexico over the summer and was turned over to the Des Plaines Police Department at O’Hare Airport on Tuesday. He was ordered held without bail Thursday, according to Cook County court records.

Kavila, 30, was stabbed to death in her apartment in the 600 block of Colonial Lane in Des Plaines on Nov. 30, 1999. She was discovered by her roommate, lying in a pool of blood in the kitchen, with a host of cuts to her neck. The next day, Luis Rodriguez-Mena — who lived near Kavila — fled to Mexico with his pregnant girlfriend, Kushner said.

More than two decades after the murder, police in Des Plaines still could not offer a motive for the crime.

It was not until 2007 that Rodriguez-Mena was considered a suspect, when a relative of his told police Rodriguez-Mena bragged to others about committing the murder and threatened anyone who thought about giving him up to police.

The next year, Rodriguez-Mena’s girlfriend came back to the United States and gave birth to the couple’s son, Kushner said. She gave investigators consent to compare her son’s DNA with evidence collected at the crime scene. The DNA profiles were a 99.98% match, Kushner said.

Federal and state arrest warrants were issued for Rodriguez-Mena in 2008.

Randy Akin, a Des Plaines detective who retired in 2015, was one of the investigators initially assigned to the case and told reporters that “this one stood out” in his career.

The arrest of Rodriguez-Mena, Akin said, “closes a circle for me.”

“When I was there that evening, I never would have believed that this would have taken 21 years to resolve itself,” Akin added.