Suspect Arrested For Emily Sander's Death

December 19, 2007 3:05 p.m. EST

El Dorado, KS (AHN) -- Mexican police have arrested a man suspected to be the killer of the college student who secretly worked as an Internet porn star.

Israel Mireles, 24, was arrested by authorities in Melchor Muzquiz, Mexico on Wednesday in connection with the death of Emily Sander. He is currently detained and will be extradited to the U.S., according to U.S. Marshals.

A news conference is scheduled for Wednesday at 3 p.m. in El Dorado.

Sander, an 18-year-old student at Butler Community College, was last seen alive on November 23 leaving the Retreat Bar in El Dorado together with a man police have identified as Mireles. The bar is about a mile and a half from the El Dorado Motel, where Mireles had been staying since he began working as a waiter a few months ago.

Police found Mireles' rental car on November 27 in Texas, more than 300 miles away from Sander's hometown across U.S. 54. Sanders' body was found two days later 50 miles east of El Dorado, together with a bedspread that had been missing from Mireles' El Dorado motel.

Mireles reportedly has a criminal record in Texas that includes convictions for illegal possession of weapons, hunting from a vehicle and driving under the influence of alcohol.

Sander had signed a contract to work as Internet porn star Zoey Zane before she died, according to an Associated Press interview with her friend Nikki Watson.

"She enjoyed it. She is a young teenage girl and she wanted to be in the movies and enjoyed movies. She needed the extra money," Watson said. "Nobody in El Dorado knew besides her close friends."

Investigators have said that Sander's double life as Zoey Zane was not connected to her death. The Web site containing explicit photos of Zane has been taken down since reports of Sander's secret life.