FBI: Husband in bride's stabbing death was heading to Mexico

The 30-year-old suburban Chicago husband being sought in the stabbing death of his new bride told an associate he was heading to Mexico, where his parents live, according to an FBI affidavit released Friday.

Charged with first-degree murder, Arnoldo Jimenez of Burbank, Illinois, was tracked using his phone in southern Illinois near Memphis, Tennessee, through Arkansas to Houston and then to Hidalgo, Texas, near the Mexican border at 10:45 p.m. Sunday, the same day police found his new bride murdered in her home, the affidavit said.

On Sunday, Jimenez told his sister by phone that he and Estrella Carrera, 26, "had a bad fight, and he left her bleeding," FBI Special Agent R. Brian Wentz said in an affidavit.

Jimenez also told "a close associate" that he was leaving Illinois and "if questioned by law enforcement, the associate should tell law enforcement he went to Mexico," Wentz said in the affidavit, filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

The Cook County State's Attorney's Office will extradite Jimenez upon his arrest, the FBI said.

The FBI has joined the search for Jimenez, now the subject of an international manhunt, and a federal warrant charging Jimenez with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution was issued Friday in U.S. District in Chicago, said FBI Special Agent Ross Rice.

Jimenez, born in Texas, still owns property in Pharr, Texas, and also has relatives in North Carolina, the FBI affidavit said.

Carrera, found stabbed to death in her bathtub, was still in the sequined cocktail dress she wore to her wedding reception, police said.

Jimenez and Carrera were married May 11 at Chicago City Hall, according to authorities. Carrera's cousin Sandy Lopez told CNN affiliate WBBM that the couple had been together for three years.

They celebrated their union with family and friends with dinner and a limo ride to at least one nightclub on the city's north side, according to police. The newlyweds were dropped off about 4 a.m. Saturday at their condominium in a three-story brick building, police said.

"She was happy. She was fine. Did nothing out of the ordinary at all," Lopez told WBBM.

About 36 hours later, police found Carrera's body after responding to a call from a family member concerned that there might be something wrong. Carrera had failed to pick up her two children, ages 2 and 8, as scheduled the day before, police said.

There were no signs of forced entry at her home, police said.

"It is important to know that this appears to be an isolated incident stemming from a domestic situation and the investigation is continuing," police said this week.

Lopez told WBBM she had "no idea why somebody would do this to her."

The 6-foot, 225-pound Jimenez was last seen driving a black 2006 Maserati.

CNN's Moni Basu and Rich Porter contributed to this report.

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