DeKalb deputy accused in 2 slayings caught in Belize

Linda Yancey’s family had begun to lose faith.

It had been nearly six months since the Stone Mountain woman’s husband, Derrick Yancey, disappeared while awaiting trial for her murder and that of a day laborer, Marcial Cax-Puluc.

Yancey, a former DeKalb County deputy, had cut off the monitoring bracelet on his ankle, boarded a Greyhound bus headed west and disappeared.

“We kind of figured he was out of the country,” said Sandra Hannon, Yancey’s oldest sister.

They learned Monday they were right when DeKalb officials confirmed a tip that Yancey was in the Central American vacation hotspot, Punta Gorda, Belize. That tipster, whom authorities refused to identify, stands to collect a $20,000 reward, officials said.

DeKalb deputies, working with the U.S. Marshals Service, located Yancey in a bar in Punta Gorda, a town of about 6,000 in southern Belize.

Yancey admitted he was the fugitive and was taken into custody. Officials said he’d be back in Atlanta in days.

Authorities’ last knowledge of Yancey’s whereabouts was April 6 in Phoenix, Ariz. Since then, they acknowledged, they haven’t known where he was or how he was paying his bills. They did say he’d cashed out his pension and pocketed $18,000 just before leaving.

“We have some indication family members might have been helping him,” said Jeffrey Mann, chief deputy for the DeKalb Sheriff’s Office.

Mann said, however, that no charges were pending against any of the suspect’s family.

In June 2008, Yancey claimed that his wife had been killed by a day laborer at their Stone Mountain home. He told authorities he then killed the laborer, Cax-Puluc, in self-defense.

That story eventually unraveled and police charged Yancey in both killings. He was out on bond, being monitored by the ankle bracelet when he fled.

Hannon said Yancey had been plotting his escape for some time, taking trips to Texas and Detroit to review potential border crossings. She said the family immediately suspected the former deputy and never believed the complex story he told.

The escape shook her confidence in the legal system, Hannon said. The family is eager to see Yancey stand trial.

Hannon said the victim’s family still wonders about a motive.