Carmen Lizet Puch was 42 years old. She worked at a restaurant in Fairfax County, Virginia. She had a three-year-old daughter who, as of August 17th, no longer has a mother.
The man charged with killing her crossed the border illegally at El Paso, Texas in April 2024 and was released into the country by Biden officials.
Alexis Antonio Cedillos-Campos, an El Salvadoran national, now faces a second-degree murder charge in the death of Puch, who was his co-worker at the same restaurant. According to Fairfax County police, the two had an "intimate relationship." In the early morning hours of August 17th, he allegedly stabbed her to death at a park in Great Falls, Virginia. Then he allegedly tried to destroy the evidence.
Cedillos-Campos reportedly came to the scene equipped. Police say he brought a knife, gloves, and gasoline — which he'd siphoned from a motorcycle — and after the stabbing, set Puch's body on fire.
He was arrested by Fairfax County police and reportedly gave a full confession.
The detail that matters most isn't the confession. It's that the Cedillos-Campos never should have been released into the country after being captured by Biden officials at the border. Cedillos-Campos crossed illegally into the United States at El Paso in April 2024 — during the Biden administration's catch-and-release era. He was processed and released. Two years later, a woman is dead and her toddler is an orphan of policy failure.
Cedillos-Campos wasn't supposed to be here. He wasn't a citizen or here on a visa. He was an illegal border crosser who was caught, documented, and released — a catch-and-release graduate who made it all the way to a Virginia suburb before the consequences caught up.
Not to him. To Carmen Lizet Puch.
Every one of these cases follows the same pattern. An illegal crossing. A release. A period of quiet where the system congratulates itself for being humane. And then a body. A victim who had every right to be here, killed by someone who had none.
A knife. Gloves. Gasoline siphoned from a motorcycle. A full confession.
The only thing missing is anyone in Washington willing to admit the pipeline that brought him here.