On a summer evening in Wilder, Idaho, the life of 39-year-old Hispanic female Amparo Godinez Sanchez was brought to a tragic and violent end. On June 11, 2015, inside her own home on Red Top Road, Sanchez was shot and killed. The act was particularly heinous as it was carried out in the presence of her own children, who witnessed their mother's death.
The immediate aftermath of the shooting was chaotic.
A 911 call brought Canyon County sheriff's deputies rushing to the scene, but the suspect had already vanished. Investigators quickly identified the gunman as Sanchez's husband, Erasmo Diaz. Having committed this act of domestic violence, Diaz fled, managing to slip through the immediate police net cast to apprehend him. His car was later discovered abandoned in Adrian, Oregon, a crucial clue that suggested he was making a run for the border.
For six long years, Diaz remained a fugitive, having successfully fled to his home country of Mexico. Despite the passage of time, law enforcement in Canyon County refused to let the case go cold. They had made a promise to Sanchez's grieving family that they would not stop hunting for her killer. This relentless pursuit involved a multi-agency effort, including the Canyon County Sheriff's Office, the U.S. Marshals Service, and Mexican authorities. Finally, in June 2021, the international manhunt came to an end when Diaz was located and apprehended in Mexico.
Following his capture, Diaz was extradited back to Idaho to finally face justice for the crime he had committed years earlier. He was charged with second-degree murder and injury to a child. In January 2023, Erasmo Diaz pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of his wife. During an emotional sentencing hearing, where family members wore shirts demanding "Justice for Amparo," he was sentenced to 30 years in prison, with 15 years fixed. The culmination of the legal proceedings brought a measure of closure to a family that had endured years of uncertainty and pain.
