Rueda Salud lived in the same building as Muriel Lindsay, a 40-year-old Canada Post worker and cancer survivor, at the time of her death on Feb. 16, 1996
Article content
A Mexican national has been extradited to B.C. and charged with the 1996 murder of Canada Post worker Muriel Lindsay in her West End apartment.
Article content
Vancouver police announced Thursday that officers had escorted Juan Manuel Rueda Salud, now 68, from Mexico to Canada on Wednesday and that he is being held in jail on one charge of second-degree murder.
Article content
Article content
Rueda Salud lived in the same building as Lindsay, a 40-year-old cancer survivor, at the time of her death on Feb. 16, 1996.
Article content
Story continues below
Article content
Her late mother, Marjorie, found her daughter fatally beaten on Feb. 17, 1996 after she had missed work.
Article content
Sunrise
Article content
VPD Insp. Ryan Smith, who spent 12 years on the cold case, said Lindsay’s surviving family members were “overjoyed” to hear that someone had finally been charged.
Article content
“She was deeply loved by friends and family, and she is sorely missed to this day,” he said. “While it is a relief to see a charge finally laid in this matter, it marks the start of another sad chapter for Muriel’s loved ones. Our thoughts are with them now.”
Article content
Article content
Smith said Rueda Salud was identified as a person-of-interest in the case, but left for Mexico a month after the killing. Investigators found him in Oaxaca in 2015.
Article content
“The case is now before the courts, so I can’t discuss specific evidence, but I can say that our forensic investigators gathered a considerable amount of evidence at the crime scene. We worked diligently for decades with other agencies in Mexico and the U.S., as well as Canadian law enforcement agencies and our forensic science and technology partners at BCIT, and we were able to identify Rueda Salud as a suspect,” Smith said.
Article content
Story continues below
Article content
Rueda Salud was charged on Nov. 2, 2024, and arrested under a provisional warrant in Mexico on Jan. 22, 2025, Smith added. He tried to fight his extradition, but was finally handed over to VPD officers this week.
Article content
Read More
Article content
Smith wouldn’t comment in detail about the case, but Postmedia previously reported that Lindsay died from blows to her head.
Article content
Just three weeks before her brutal death, Lindsay’s mother Marjorie received a disturbing letter at her home which began with the words “Hi Scum.” The letter referred to Muriel and said: “You are now 40 … we hope and pray that you start acting like an adult and not like a teenager … We also hope you stop smoking. You stink.”
Article content
Marjorie Lindsay recounted the letter and other threats in a 2006 interview with The Vancouver Sun, where her ex-husband Eric once worked as a journalist.
Article content
Marjorie said she never told her daughter about the letter as she didn’t want to upset her.
Article content
Muriel Lindsay, a letter sorter who was on the afternoon shift, had complained to co-workers about a series of strange events that led her to believe she was being stalked in the months before her murder.
