A Mexican man has been extradited to Canada to face a second-degree murder charge in the 1996 killing of a Vancouver woman, authorities announced Thursday. Muriel Lindsay, a 40-year-old postal worker, was found beaten to death in her West End apartment by her mother, with whom investigators said she shared a close relationship. Juan Manuel Rueda Salud, now 68, is accused of killing Lindsay on or around Feb. 16, 1996, the Vancouver Police Department said during a news conference. Insp. Ryan Smith, who spent 12 years investigating the case, told reporters that Rueda Salud lived in the same apartment building as the victim. “Her murder was both shockingly violent and a shock to the city,” Smith said. “Muriel was a cancer survivor, she had big blue eyes and she loved her cats. She loved her friends and her family, they miss her to this day.” Rueda Salud was identified as a person of interest early in the investigation, but he fled to Mexico the month after the killing. He was formally charged in Lindsay’s death in November 2024 and arrested under a provisional warrant in Mexico on Jan. 22, 2025. Investigators said Rueda Salud spent 18 months appealing his extradition to Canada before he was finally flown to Vancouver under police escort on Wednesday. He remains in custody. “While it is a relief to see a charge finally laid in this matter, it marks the start of another sad chapter for Muriel’s loved ones,” Smith said. “The case is now before the courts, so I can’t discuss specific evidence, but I can say that our forensic investigators gathered a considerable amount of evidence at the crime scene.” Lindsay lived in the Mole Hill area of Vancouver and worked at the former Canada Post building on West Georgia Street. Police declined to discuss possible motives for the murder or specific evidence that pointed to the suspect. “Our forensic investigators gathered evidence and worked diligently for decades with other agencies in Mexico and United States, as well as Canadian law enforcement agencies,” Smith said. “The passage of time has allowed us to pursue many different advanced techniques in forensic evidence, and that has certainly made a significant difference,” he added. “And as well as things like social media and the ability to search open source material, that also allowed us to assist with these types of investigations and locating people and furthering our evidential processes.”
