Sentence brings closure in 1994 murder

Nearly 14 years after Wood Dale teen Michael Bruce was fatally stabbed at a Memorial Day picnic in Hoffman Estates, his fugitive killer has met his fate.

Hugo Zarco, 33, was sentenced Monday to 27 years in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree murder.

Shortly after Zarco learned he was a suspect in the 1994 murder, he fled to Mexico to start a new life. He was found under a new name, teaching English in the Mexican state of Guanajuato with a wife and three children.

An anonymous call a dozen years later tipped off police to Zarco's whereabouts. He was detained in August 2006 by Mexican authorities and transferred to Houston, where Hoffman Estates detectives picked him up.

Prosecutors said several people witnessed the altercation outside a Hoffman Estates home at 175 Berkley Lane, where Zarco used a 6-inch kitchen knife to stab the 16-year-old once in the heart. He died about an hour later.

The slaying was retribution for a fight Bruce had earlier in the day with Zarco's 17-year-old sister, police said.

"I know that I pleaded guilty today to first-degree murder, but it was an accident and I'm sorry," Zarco said Monday in court.

Bruce's family was relieved to be spared of a trial. The plea was a surprising development, considering lawyers were about to begin jury selection when the deal was announced.

"The defense would (have tried to) make it seem like he deserved to be killed," said Bruce's mother, Jennifer Kover. "It's their job, but we didn't want that for him."

A former Conant High School student, Bruce's family had relocated to Wood Dale and he was to start his junior year at Fenton High School the next fall.

Before the confidential tip, police reopened the case every few years. But Zarco seemed to have vanished for good.

Kover remembers the call she got from a Hoffman Estates detective that authorities were closing in on Zarco.

"He said, 'Are you sitting down? I think we've got him,'Œ" Kover recalled. "I was elated that he was finally behind bars."

Bruce's sister, Monica Calverley, said she knows the identity of the tipster, though authorities have never revealed it. It was someone close to Zarco, she said.

"We spent so many years looking for (Zarco)," she said. "All the money spent on private detectives and going door to door for signatures to put him on 'America's Most Wanted.' … I can't believe it's done."

Zarco's murder conviction carried a sentence of 20 to 60 years in prison. He must serve 85 percent of his term, and received credit for the 562 days he spent in custody on a $3 million bond.