Citrus Heights woman arrested for allegedly giving fatal silicone buttock injections in 2013

CITRUS HEIGHTS – A suspect who was previously on the run in Mexico was arrested this week in connection with a 2013 murder in Citrus Heights.

Alejandra Aguilera-Ortega, 49, is suspected of illegally injecting a person with silicone, which led to their death.

Aguilera-Ortega made her first court appearance on August 21, where the charges were read to her through a Spanish interpreter and she was also assigned a public defender.

The family of the victim, Diego Lopez, known as Emilia, was also in the courtroom and met the accused killer of the 22-year-old, more than 11 years after Lopez's death.

Citrus Heights police said Aguliera-Ortega was a transgender woman who worked as an escort and had an adult page in 2014.

“Scary. Very, very scary,” said a woman who spoke on condition of anonymity and lived in the Citrus Heights apartment complex where Aguilera-Ortega was arrested this week. “How did she get here? How long has she lived here?”

These are all questions that Citrus Heights police could not answer, but they believe she had been hiding in Mexico since May 2013. This made the case more complicated.

Investigators said a fugitive may have changed his identity or appearance, but someone tipped them off that he was back in Citrus Heights.

Investigators said Lopez was taken to the hospital on April 30, 2013, from an apartment on Sunrise Vista Drive in Citrus Heights. He was visiting from Oakland. Police said he and Aguilera-Ortega were friends.

Lopez was coughing up blood and had trouble breathing. Investigators said he received non-medical silicone injections in his butt, which led to multiple organ failure, cardiac arrest and his death on May 7, 2013.

Aguilera-Ortega has been appointed a public defender and will appear in court again on September 25.