After a near two-decade manhunt, Leydis Menendez Abdala, the woman accused of causing a fatal DUI crash that took the life of 40-year-old Gloria Marcia Hall, a mother of two, has finally been apprehended and extradited back to Miami from Mexico. The arrest, which occurred over this past weekend, puts Abdala in the spotlight of a vehicular homicide and DUI manslaughter case dating back to August 2006, when she allegedly ran a red light in Hialeah, colliding with Hall’s vehicle, as reported by Miami Herald.
At the time of the accident, Abdala’s blood-alcohol content was reportedly twice the legal limit, a factor contributing to Hall’s instantaneous death at the scene. However, before she could be detained by authorities, Abdala received a tip-off, allegedly from her boyfriend, a Hialeah Police Department officer which allowed her to flee to avoid arrest, according to information obtained by NBC Miami. The escape spawned a prolonged investigation, involving multiple agencies, but it was only upon her deportation by Mexican officials that Abdala found herself back in U.S. custody.
In the courtroom, the emotional reunion was palpable as Joaquin Freire, the victim’s brother and a Miami Police Commander, faced Abdala, the accused. “It’s bringing back the pain that this person has caused my family and I. Not only that is she didn’t accept responsibility for her actions. So that is the bigger thing,” Freire relayed to NBC Miami. Freire, whose own police career interlinks tragically with the case, arrived at the scene unknowingly hours after the incident, a harrowing detail he shared with the Miami Herald. “I was just there,” he told detectives, initially unaware that the victim was his sibling…