The creation of a Facebook account in Mexico played a part in helping police to conclude a year-long manhunt for a suspect accused of fatally stabbing a man in the City of Peekskill last June.
Walter F. Bustos-Solis was apprehended by federal authorities in Puebla City, Mexico, on June 12, 2025, and extradited to the United States, as reported in the Peekskill Herald on June 19. He now faces state charges of one count each of murder in the second degree, manslaughter in the first degree, and criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, a spokesperson for the Westchester County District Attorney’s office said.
On June 10, 2024, at about 3:40 a.m., Peekskill police officers responded to reports of an altercation on the 900 block of Main Street. Officers arrived, and discovered a male victim, later identified as Carlos Rodriguez, 33, who had sustained severe lacerations to the lower part of his body.
Officers provided immediate attention to Rodriguez, who was then transported to the Westchester Medical Center by EMS. Rodriguez died on June 16 as a result of the injuries he sustained during the altercation.
Peekskill police detectives then identified Bustos-Solis as a suspect in the case and were actively attempting to locate him.
It wasn’t until June 12, 2025, that Bustos-Solis was apprehended by federal authorities in Puebla City, Mexico, and later that day arrested by federal authorities in Houston, Texas. The following day he was presented in the Southern District of Texas, where he was detained and ordered to be transferred to the Southern District of New York
The U.S. Department of Justice initially charged Bustos-Solis on Dec. 2, 2024, with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution after they say he flew from Westchester County to Mexico. But in a court document filed last Friday, June 20, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton asked for the dismissal of that charge.
“Now that the defendant has been arrested and returned to Westchester County, the Government respectfully requests that the complaint be dismissed so that state authorities may place the defendant under arrest pursuant to an outstanding warrant and prosecute him for the June 2024 stabbing,” Clayton said in the court documents.
How a Facebook account created in Mexco led police to Puebla City
The unsealed complaint filed Dec. 2, 2024, from Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent Philippe Goulet detailed the grounds for that initial charge, including how Bustos-Solis became a suspect and how a Facebook account believed to be created by Bustos-Solis helped lead police to Puebla City.
On Sept. 8, 2024, a Facebook account was created, which an acquaintance of Bustos-Solis told law enforcement belonged to Bustos-Solis. The acquaintance said that Bustos-Solis spoke to them through the account.
In response to a search warrant by law enforcement, Meta Platforms, Inc., which owns Facebook, produced information about the account.
Officers determined that the IP address used at the time the Facebook account was created originated in the vicinity of Puebla City, Mexico. Additional IP addresses used to access the accounts in the weeks after its creation were traced to various locations in Mexico, including in the vicinity of Puebla City and Mexico City, the complaint stated.
A review of the Facebook Account’s messages corroborated information provided by Bustos-Solis’ acquaintance. In addition, messages from the account owner stated that the account owner’s wife recently died. Goulet said he learned through discussions with other law enforcement officers that Bustos-Solis’s ex-wife recently passed away.
Law enforcement officers also reviewed the friends list for the Facebook account user, telling Goulet that several of Bustos-Solis’s family members were friends with the account.
Special Agent Goulet said he performed a search of Department of Homeland Security records and was unable to find any records of Bustos-Solis re-entering the United States in the past few months. As a result, he determined Bustos-Solis left New York State and traveled to Mexico to evade prosecution.
Prior to her passing, Bustos-Solis’s ex-wife was interviewed by law enforcement officers on June 17, 2024. During the interview, she said, in substance and in part, that she was aware that Bustos-Solis had gotten into legal trouble and was “on the run,” the complaint stated.
She also claimed that she had not spoken to him in over a year. However, police say they reviewed security footage from a hotel in Waterbury, Connecticut, which appeared to show Bustos-Solis and his ex-wife in a car together on June 12, about five days before she was interviewed. She was subsequently arrested on July 11 and charged with hindering prosecution in the second degree. Since that time she has passed away, according to court documents.
How security footage led police to Bustos-Solis
Law enforcement officers had their eyes on Bustos-Solis as a suspect very early in the case.
On the night of the stabbing, June 10, 2024, at about 3:35 a.m., surveillance camera footage from an unspecified restaurant in the vicinity of Main Street captured a Hispanic man in white shorts and a blue button shirt, later identified as Bustos-Solis, leave the restaurant and begin walking down the Main Street sidewalk.
Shortly thereafter, another Hispanic man wearing a sweatshirt and dark shorts, identified as Rodriguez, walked up to Bustos-Solis. After a brief interaction, Rodriguez could be seen attempting to punch Bustos-Solis, the complaint stated.
After Rodriguez threw a punch, Bustos-Solis could be seen on the restaurant’s surveillance footage removing a large knife from his right side and thrusting it towards the victim. Rodriguez fell and appeared to kick at Bustos-Solis, after which Rodriguez, chased by Bustos-Solis, ran across Main Street and out of view of the camera.
Surveillance camera footage from another business in the vicinity of Main Street near the restaurant showed what appeared to be Rodriguez crawling across the ground shortly after 3:36 a.m., with Bustos-Solis chasing after him with a knife in his right hand. In the same footage, Bustos-Solis could be seen appearing to stab Rodriguez approximately three times, the complaint stated.
The footage showed Rodriguez leave the view of the camera while Bustos-Solis continued to stand in the roadway while appearing to yell and wave a large knife.
Around 3:40 a.m. on June 10, law enforcement officers responded to the restaurant to investigate a report of the stabbing. After arriving, one of the officers found Rodriguez in a parking lot of a business down the street from the restaurant, with several stab wounds on his legs. He was later transported to the hospital where about six days later he died of his wounds.
Special Agent Goulet wrote that there was probable cause to conclude that Bustos-Solis was the man who committed the stabbing based on his discussions with others, review of law enforcement reports, and review of evidence.
On June 10, 2024, law enforcement officers interviewed Rodriguez’s friend who was present at the scene of the stabbing. The friend stated that the alleged stabber was Ecuadorian and that they were familiar with him from hanging out at the restaurant. Later that day, law enforcement interviewed the friend again and identified the person who attacked Rodriguez as “Walter.”
The following day, law enforcement officers showed the friend an array of six photographs and the friend identified a photograph of Bustos-Solis as the man who stabbed the victim, the complaint stated.
That same day the owner of an unspecified restaurant told officers he believed that the man who committed the stabbing goes by the name “Walter.” The following day the owner informed officers that “Walter” may be working at another restaurant near the riverfront.
Officers then showed Bustos-Solis’s photograph to staff at another restaurant near the riverfront. There members of the staff identified the man as “Walter,” who they said worked in the restaurant’s kitchen. Management provided the man’s full name as “Walter F. Bustos.”
On June 18, officers spoke to the owner of a landscaping company, as well as the foreperson of that company, who told officers Bustos-Solis also worked for them. According to the foreperson, on June 10 he received a text message from someone claiming to be Bustos-Solis who said that he would “not be able to work for a while because [he] had] family issues.” Both the owner and foreperson told officers neither had heard from Bustos-Solis since that time.
Goulet said he spoke to another law enforcement officer, who, based on reviewing surveillance footage of the stabbing and photographs of Bustos-Solis, determined that Bustos-Solis resembled the man who committed the stabbing.
All of the discussions, review of law enforcement reports, and review of evidence led to the request for a warrant to be issued for the arrest of Busto-Solis on one count of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. Goulet wrote that the affidavit did not include all the facts he learned during his investigation.
As of this writing, the Southern District of New York did not respond to a request for why the charge of “unlawful flight to avoid prosecution” was dropped.
At the June 23 Peekskill Common Council meeting, Chief of Police Leo Dylewski thanked cooperating agencies for their assistance in the investigation: FBI Westchester Safe Streets Task Force, Waterbury (Conn.) Police Department, Connecticut State Police, Westchester County District Attorney, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Mexican federal authorities, and law enforcement agencies in Central and South America.
“We did not do this alone, but we are very proud that we brought this individual back to the United States and back for justice,” Dylewski said. “Just want to let everyone know, I said years ago and I continue: we’re not done yet, and we’re not going to stop. We will do whatever we have to keep our community safe.”
