18 Years On The Run_ The Most Wanted Family Killer _ The New Detectives

A mother of four is stabbed to death inside a van. Her husband reports her missing, wipes tears for the cameras, and vanishes into thin air. For eighteen years, he lives a free man. Then cold case detectives reopen the file.In December 2007, 33-year-old Delia Lerma left her South Bend, Indiana home to visit a grocery store. She never returned. Days later, her body was found stabbed to death inside a van. Her husband Lucio Lerma Sr. filed the missing person report and told a TV station: "I feel my heart is broken, I cannot even talk" [citation:8]. For nearly two decades, the case sat cold. Then South Bend Police cold case investigators Craig Whitfield and Gary Hasbrook revisited the evidence. They worked with the reality TV series Cold Justice, which featured Delia's case in November 2025 [citation:8]. A grand jury indicted Lucio Lerma Sr. on a murder charge in March 2026 [citation:8]. Eighteen years after his wife's death, the husband who played the grieving widower was finally arrested. He remains in custody without bond. Turn down the lights, put on your headphones, and press play because the man who cried on camera was hiding the truth the entire time.