The U.S. Marshals Lone Star Fugitive Task Force arrested a fugitive suspect Saturday in the April 2015 killing of Courtney Phillips in San Antonio.
The suspect, 26-year-old Isaac Estrada, is accused of fatally stabbing Phillips.
Despite the Phillips homicide being upgraded to major case status by U.S. Marshals in October 2015, Mr. Estrada spent eight years on the lam before his capture last weekend in Eagle Pass, Texas.
Mr. Estrada was initially tracked via his cell phone to his brother’s residence in Perris, California, approximately 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles. However, when law enforcement arrived at the home, Mr. Estrada was gone.
National television also called attention to the case.
“In Pursuit with John Walsh,” which airs on the Investigation Discovery cable channel, profiled the Phillips case and Mr. Estrada in an episode of its third season in September 2021.
Mr. Estrada had corresponded with Phillips over the phone to arrange a date on April 5, 2015. When her friends did not hear from her after the date, they contacted the police.
Mr. Estrada had been charged with aggravated robbery in an attack on a different woman months before the slaying of Phillips, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
Police found Phillips’ body in a San Antonio residence, surrounded by blood and with stab wounds in the neck. Phillips, 22 years old at the time, was survived by her son Jace, who was five at the time.
Jace told KENS-TV, the San Antonio CBS affiliate, that Mr. Estrada’s arrest “felt good” and left him feeling “emotional.”
Mr. Estrada has been charged with the misdemeanor of evading arrest, and the felony charges of first degree aggravated robbery and first degree murder. He is being held on a $585,000 bond, according to Bexar County records.
