By James Michaels
Photo: Nick Aaronson, a U.S. Airways flight attendant based in Phoenix, Ariz., was found murdered in a Hilton hotel room while on layover in Mexico City.
A suspect has been arrested in the strangulation murder of a gay U.S. Airways flight attendant found murdered last weekend in Mexico City.
Jose Luis Lira Cuellar, 20, who goes by the nickname “The Shadow,” has been arrested in connection with the murder
of U.S. Airways flight attendant Nick Aaronson, 27. Cuellar also went by the name Jose Manuel Ramirez Aaronson, who was based in Phoenix, Arizona, was to spend the night in Mexico City and would work the return flight to Phoenix the following day. It is believed that the two met at a Mexico City bar and both of the men went back to the hotel. The pair was seen together on hotel surveillance.
The Mexican newspaper, Examiner, added that the surveillance footage shows the two men were stopped by hotel security upon entering the hotel. Being assured by the victim that the man was a friend, hotel personnel then requested the additional guest be registered. Cuellar was later apprehended by local authorities near the Cinema Club, a nearby gay bar where the suspect first met the victim, although he had shaved his head to change his appearance. Handwriting analysis later confirmed the identity of Cuellar as being the man who appeared in the footage.
Aaronson was found dead in his Mexico City hotel room early Saturday morning. A Mexico City prosecutor said the motive was robbery and that the suspect had a previous criminal record for robbery and was out on parole. The prosecutor also reported that the suspect stole Aaronson’s iPhone and police were able to track the suspect using the phone’s GPS system.
On Monday, Cuellar admitted that he was in the hotel room with Aaronson and punched Aaronson in the face twice, but did not kill him.
NoticiasMexico.com.mx said that Aaronson was found on the floor of his room by his co-workers just after 6 a.m. Saturday at a Hilton hotel. The website affiliated with a Mexico City newspaper said he was strangled with a belt around his neck and hands tied behind his back.
The Guardian newspaper added that when officers paraded Ramirez before journalists Monday, he told reporters that he had turned himself in at the bar where authorities said he and Aaronson met. Cuellar said with profane language that he only punched Aaronson twice, but insisted he did not kill the victim. He claimed a 15-year-old friend was responsible for the slaying. Cuellar will remain in custody of prosecutors before seeing a judge.
Aaronson’s mother, Anita said the FBI called her at 2:30 a.m. Sunday morning to tell her they had made an arrest. She said they used hotel security cameras to help catch the man.
She told KPHO, CBS 5 news: “I wish they had the death penalty in Mexico. He took the bright light out of my life. He was only 27 and he had so much to live for and he was so charming and was just a really nice man.”
She also said that her older son, Jason, was at the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport on Sunday night to catch a flight to Mexico City to bring Nick home and Nick’s co-workers showed their family a tremendous amount of respect and support.
“They were just lining up and coming from all over the airport to give their condolences. They did love Nick so much,” she said.
Anita Aaronson posted on her Facebook page: “this what is happening, Jason saw Nick in Mexico today, he had braced himself for the worst, but said Nick just looked like Nick sleeping. He met with the American Embassy, coroner, FBI and the district attorney, and Nick is being taken care of in the best possible way, he cannot bring him home tomorrow because they cannot release him until Wednesday, so he will arrive in Phoenix on Wednesday. The funeral will be on Saturday and I will post all the details of the church and time soon, so many arrangements have to be made, and all the details aren’t ready yet. A pastor who knew Nick all his growing up years is coming from a long way away to do the service and he wants anyone who would like to have something read at the service to send it to me by email anitaa3@hotmail.com, and anyone who would like to do a eulogy in person for Nick to let me know. I have gone though many songs and I have decided on You Light Up my Life, because this is what [Nick] did for me and to many others, his friend Sarah will sing it, she will record it ahead of time because she is too emotional to sing it. I am also thinking of the Josh Groban song You raise me up, it’s all so difficult and I want to do it right. I keep thinking this is the last thing I will do for my beautiful boy, and I want to do it right with love
and respect. Thank you all for your wonderful outpouring of love, we all loved him and I have joy in knowing the last words we said, to each other on Wednesday was “love you” we said it to each other and meant it.”
Deborah Volpe, president of the Association of Flight Attendants Council 66, told ABC News that she remembered Aaronson fondly.
“This is so difficult. We all worked with him, we all knew him. He was just in my office a week ago,” Volpe said. “And it’s that smile, we all knew his smile. He was a very compassionate individual.”
Aaronson’s coworkers organized a November 10 memorial at the airport chapel in Phoenix.
Aaronson graduated from Rio Salado College in Tempe and began working for U.S. Airways in 2006.
The blog LGBTQ Nation stated that “Aaronson, who was gay, was active in several LGBT rights causes, including participating in the NOH8 Campaign, was a supporter of marriage equality, and advocated on behalf of the Human Rights Campaign.”