40- year Fugitive Hides in Georgia

"It was a shock to me when I heard about it," Robertson, 59, said. "I was like that's not Mary. She wouldn't do nothing like that."

They asked her how (her husband) treated her. She said they got along, raised their kids," Robertson said. Rivera had indicated that her husband had slapped her once but "that was it," Robertson said.


In 1970, Mary Ann Rivera was 36 years old when authorities in Texas said she killed her husband Cruz Rivera by throwing a pot of hot grease on him in October. After posting a 10,000 dollar bond, she fled with her three children, including two twin sons. She ended up in Georgia where worked as a waitress, raised her kids, and made friends like  nothing had happened prior to their flee. For four decades she remained a fugitive but rececntly she was tracked down in her apartment in Lake Park, GA. She is now 76- years old, and will still be charged for the murder of her husband 40 years ago. Rivera's arrest shocked her friends and neighbors back "home" in Georgia. Based on the report back in Texas, there was no partiular motive as to why she killed him, so in truth it looks like a heartless killing.


When I first read this article it drew me in because I never thought someone could get away with murder aand go in hiding for as long as fourty years. Also what shocked me the most was that there was supposedly no altercation or any matter that would provoke her to do such a terrible thing. In n interview she said that her and her husband got along well and that her husband only slapped her once, so its not like it was an ongoing thing. Not saying that him slapping her once justifies what she did, but its not like he tried to kill her. No one really knows what really  happened that day besides Mary Ann and Cruz before he was killed. It's scary to know that someone who committed a murder so long ago could get away with it and live a normal life in disguise for so long. I think our government and law enforcements could have tried harder to do something to find her sooner because she could have done the same to another man and got away with it.