After 23 years on the run, the man charged with murdering a Farmington Hills resident in his own home has finally been dragged back to face justice — and the question nobody at Friday's press conference will answer is why it took nearly a quarter century to get it done.
Gordon Machek was 56 when he disappeared on October 20, 2001. His roommate told investigators that Machek left to spend the day with a man he'd recently befriended at a health club, Edgardo Luis Perez. That was the last time anyone heard from Machek. Two days later, police checked his home and determined he had been murdered. His body has never been recovered.
Perez, now 44, was arrested in Guatemala on July 8 and extradited to the United States to face felony murder charges, according to WDIV. The Farmington Hills Police Department and the FBI Detroit Field Office will hold a news conference Friday after his arraignment — a ritual of institutional self-congratulation for a case that sat cold for over two decades.
Here is what we know: Perez allegedly befriended Machek to steal his identification and money, because he feared being sent to prison for a probation violation at the time, WDIV reported. When police finally caught up with him, he had a collection of books on how to be a fugitive, how to conduct money transactions over the internet, and how to change one's identity. The Oakland County Prosecutor's Office charged him with felony murder in 2003 — two full years after the killing — and the U.S. Attorney issued a warrant for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. The case attracted national attention, including a segment on
