Slain Cal Fire captain’s wife arrested in Mexico

The wife of slain Cal Fire Capt. Rebecca Marodi was arrested Saturday in Mexicali and transferred to U.S. marshals in San Diego, where she will be booked on suspicion of murder, authorities said.

Yolanda Olejniczak Marodi, 53, was named as the prime suspect three weeks ago in her wife’s killing on Feb. 17.

She was arrested Saturday at a hotel in the Ferrocarril neighborhood of Mexicali, according to the Baja California Citizen Security Secretariat. Mexican state security agents transported Olejniczak Marodi to the U.S. border, where she was released to marshals, according to a news release from the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office.

Yolanda Marodi, also known as Yolanda Olejniczak, is a suspect in the death her wife, a Cal Fire captain.

(San Diego Sheriff’s Office)

She will be booked into custody in San Diego for murder, and the investigation into Marodi’s slaying remains ongoing, the release said.

Marodi, 49, a decorated Cal Fire captain who helped battle the Eaton fire, was found stabbed to death in her home in the San Diego County community of Ramona. She and Olejniczak Marodi had been married for just over two years.

Olejniczak Marodi was previously convicted of her killing her then-husband, James Joseph Olejniczak. She pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter after Olejniczak’s fatal stabbing in 2000 and served nearly a decade in prison.

Olejniczak Marodi had been at large since Marodi’s death and had driven into Mexico the night of her slaying, according to the Sheriff’s Office. She was seen on surveillance video earlier in the evening “arguing with Rebecca and physically assaulting her” before leaving the house, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

Marodi had told her wife she was ending their marriage about a week before her slaying, Marodi’s mother told authorities.

Home security footage from a Ring camera at the couple’s home depicted a brutal scene on the evening of Feb. 17, according to an arrest warrant. A woman — who is believed to be Marodi — can be heard in the video screaming “Yolanda! Please … ! I don’t want to die!” before appearing on video with blood on her back, according to the warrant.

Apparent blood can be seen on Olejniczak Marodi’s arms in the video, according to the warrant, and she appears to be holding a knife. The footage then shows both women entering the home and Olejniczak Marodi is later seen “gathering pets, random. items, and some luggage” and packing it into her silver SUV, according to the warrant.

The same car crossed the Mexican border about an hour later.

Times staff writer Summer Lin contributed to this report.