SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California man convicted of killing his mother as a teenager was captured in Mexico a week after he walked away from a halfway house, violating the conditions of his probation, authorities said.
Ike Nicholas Souzer, 20, was arrested Wednesday in the coastal city of Rosarito by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Mexican officials, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said. He was returned to California.
During the weeklong manhunt, the district attorney's office described Souzer as dangerous and violent.
Souzer had already served his sentence for stabbing his mother to death in 2017, when he was 13. He was subsequently convicted on a vandalism charge and served a short sentence, then released from custody March 20, prosecutors said.
The judge in that case also sentenced Souzer to two years of probation.
This was the second time Souzer disappeared from a halfway house. In 2022, he was let out of jail and moved to a halfway house in Santa Ana where he removed his electronic monitor and left. He was later captured by police.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said Souzer deserved harsher sentences and blamed judges who have handled his cases.
“My prosecutors have spent years and years trying to do everything they can to keep this violent criminal behind bars, and at every turn, the very judges who are elected to protect public safety have done little to do so and instead have given him break after break after break,” Spitzer said in a statement.
Souzer was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the death of his mother. His defense attorney argued that the killing was in self-defense and said the teen had experienced years of abuse, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Souzer has also been charged with three attacks on correctional officers, possessing a shank in jail, and most recently, drawing graffiti on a freeway underpass, prosecutors said.
He also escaped a juvenile detention facility in 2019.
This undated photo provided by the Orange County District Attorney's Office shows Ike Nicholas Souzer. The Southern California man convicted of killing his mother as a teenager was captured in Mexico a week after he walked away from a halfway house, violating the conditions of his probation, authorities said. Souzer was arrested Wednesday, March 27, 2024, in the coastal city of Rosarito by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Mexican officials. (Orange County District Attorney's Office via AP)
This undated photo provided by the Orange County District Attorney's Office shows Ike Nicholas Souzer. The Southern California man convicted of killing his mother as a teenager was captured in Mexico a week after he walked away from a halfway house, violating the conditions of his probation, authorities said. Souzer was arrested Wednesday, March 27, 2024, in the coastal city of Rosarito by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Mexican officials. (Orange County District Attorney's Office via AP)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — When the Vermilion Valley Resort in California's eastern Sierra shut down for the winter, the staff left cabin doors unlocked just in case a wayward hiker needed shelter during the frequent mountain snowstorms. That decision may have saved the life of Tiffany Slaton, the 27-year-old Georgia woman who was missing for nearly three weeks in remote wilderness.
Owner Christopher Gutierrez spotted a cabin door ajar and a pair of shoes nearby when he arrived Wednesday morning to begin reopening the resort for spring. Suddenly, a young woman appeared in the doorway.
“She pops out, didn’t say a word, just ran up and all she wanted was a hug,” Gutierrez said during a Wednesday evening news conference. “It was a pretty surreal moment, and that’s when I realized who this was.”
It was Slaton, whose parents had reported her missing on April 29 after not hearing from her for more than a week. The Fresno County Sheriff's office launched a search, and deputies and volunteers scoured more than 600 square miles (1,550 square kilometers) of the Sierra National Forest, with no luck. Searchers were hampered by heavy snow blocking many roads.
On Monday, the sheriff’s office had announced it was scaling back the search effort. Two days later, she emerged from the cabin.
Gutierrez gave Slaton a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and called authorities, who brought her to a hospital for evaluation. She was hungry and dehydrated, but otherwise in good condition, sheriff's officials said.
Sheriff’s spokesperson Tony Botti said it was the longest period of time he’s seen someone be missing in the wilderness and survive.
“Three weeks, it’s unheard of,” he said. “It speaks to the tenacity that Tiffany has, that she’s a fighter."
Thanks to tips from the public, investigators determined that Slaton had been spotted around April 20 near Huntington Lake, more than 20 miles (32 kilometers) to the southwest through rough terrain. But authorities didn't provide details about when or where Slaton's trek began, what her plans were, and what route she took to end up at Vermilion Valley Resort, which sits the Sierra Nevada about halfway between Yosemite and Sequoia/Kings Canyon national parks.
Botti said sheriff’s officials planned to interview Slaton to learn the details of her experience, and how she survived in icy conditions at elevations topping 6,500 feet (1,981 meters).
Across the country in Jeffersonville, Georgia, her parents were out shopping when they got word that their daughter had been found.
“I just grabbed somebody and I said, ‘Can I hug you?’ And I did,” said her mother, Fredrina Slaton. “I was crying and hugging.”
Tiffany's father, Bobby Slaton, said “a ton of weight has been lifted.” He thanked the search-and-rescue team and all the community members who helped in the effort to find her.
Sheriff's officials said snowplows cleared a key mountain pass earlier Wednesday, which allowed Gutierrez to access the resort on Lake Edison for the first time this year. Gutierrez said he had to spend about an hour and a half breaking up ice before he could get into the property.
Slaton's parents said Tiffany was raised with a love of the outdoors, and they always stressed the importance of being able to fend for yourself in a tough situation.
“So it’s nice to know, as parents, that all the things that we’ve taught her, she actually did," her mother said. “We believe that life is an adventure."
This image provide by the Fresno County Sheriff's Office, shows Tiffany Slaton, of Jeffersonville, Ga., when she was rescued in Fresno County, Calif., Wednesday, May 14, 2025 after being reported missing in the High Sierra for three weeks. (Fresno County Sheriff's Office via AP)
This image provide by the Fresno County Sheriff's Office, shows Tiffany Slaton, of Jeffersonville, Ga., when she was rescued in Fresno County, Calif. on Wednesday, May 14, 2025 after being reported missing in the High Sierra for three weeks. (Fresno County Sheriff's Office via AP)
