Alyssa Marie Lira (Orange County District Attorney's Office).
A "cold-blooded" 23-year-old woman from California decapitated her 55-year-old boyfriend with a knife after dating him for just two months and then left his "headless body" inside her home while she fled to Mexico, prosecutors say.
Alyssa Marie Lira, an exotic dancer from Anaheim, spent the last five months on the run after killing Enrique Gonzalez-Carbajal in August 2025 and then fleeing south of the border, according to the Orange County District Attorney's Office. Authorities tracked her down and arrested her on Jan. 22, with charges being filed for felony murder and felony enhancement of personally using a weapon, per the DA's office.
"It's just a testament to our never-ending pursuit of justice and bringing her back and making sure she's held accountable," Director of Public Affairs Kimberly Edds told Law&Crime on Thursday. "This was somebody who was in a dating relationship [with Gonzalez-Carbajal] … who you would assume had some kind of feelings for him, and then for her to be able to engage in that level of just heinous violence, it's heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking for the victim, it's heartbreaking for the victim's family."
According to the DA's office, Gonzalez-Carbajal was located inside Lira's home and local police were called to the scene. "We received the call on Aug. 25, 2025, just after 2 p.m.," Anaheim Police public information officer Matt Sutter told Law&Crime.
An investigation was launched and "it was very quickly determined that she [Lira] had immediately fled to Mexico," Edds said. She told Law&Crime it was a knife that Lira allegedly used to behead Gonzalez-Carbajal, but couldn't say what kind.
"This poor human … was brutalized," Edds said.
Anaheim police detectives were working with the DA's Organized Crime Unit, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the FBI's assistant legal attaches in Mexico, as well as Mexican authorities, to locate and arrest Lira in connection with the alleged murder.
"She was returned to the United States," Edds said, noting how Gonzalez-Carbajal's family was notified after Lira's arrest. "This is just a traumatic situation for everyone. For his family, for his friends, for everyone."
Prosecutors and authorities have not yet released a motive. Lira is scheduled to be arraigned on Feb. 13 and she is currently being held at the Orange County Jail without bail.
"Hopefully she'll remain in custody," Edds said.
Speaking in a statement, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer described how "nothing, not time, not distance, nor foreign borders" prevented authorities from tracking down and capturing Lira.
"Orange County law enforcement will continue to go the very ends of the earth to carry out our mission and hold criminals accountable for the heinous acts they commit," Spitzer said. "This investigation and prosecution are a testament to the tenacity and the dedication of the Anaheim Police Department, of the Orange County District Attorney's Office, and of our federal and international partners to identify a cold-blooded killer, track her down in a foreign country, and bring her back to the United States to face the full weight of the law."