A woman allegedly hiding in Mexico for the past year was arrested on a warrant stemming from a fatal El Paso hit-and-run crash that killed an elderly woman, authorities said.
Eagle Pass Police Department officers arrested Melanie Christine Cuellar, 29, on outstanding warrant charging her with collision involving death charge in the death of 77-year-old Maria Lopez, the South Texas police department announced in a social media post.
Lopez was killed in July 2025.
Cuellar attempted to cross into the U.S. at a port of entry in Eagle Pass on Thursday, Sept. 17, when authorities discovered she had an active arrest warrant. She was taken into custody without incident.
Eagle Pass is in South Texas about 143 miles southwest of San Antonio near the U.S.-Mexico
border.
Authorities believed Cuellar fled to Mexico after the fatal crash. She was booked into the Tom Bowles Detention Center in Eagle Pass. She remains jailed there as she waits to be transferred to El Paso.
Cuellar was featured on Crime Stoppers of El Paso's most wanted fugitives list in August 2025.
Elderly woman killed in hit-and-run crash in South-central El Paso
Lopez was crossing the street on July 19, 2025 in the 6800 block of Alameda Avenue near Ascarate Park when she was hit by a light-colored SUV, El Paso Police Department officials said in 2025.
Police officials later identified the alleged hit-and-run driver as Cuellar.
No further information has been released. A complaint affidavit was not immediately available because Cuellar has not been booked into the El Paso County jail. The El Paso Times has filed a request to get the affidavit when it is filed with the El Paso County District Clerk's Office. Since the case has not been filed, no attorney is listed for Cuellar in court records.
El Paso hit-and-run suspect was on probation
Cuellar was on probation at the time of the fatal hit-and-run crash, according to court documents obtained by the El Paso Times.
She pleaded guilty to one count of driving while intoxicated with a child under 15 years old on Sept. 19, 2024, court records show. She received a suspended six-month prison sentence and two years of probation, according to a sentencing order filed in the 327th District Court.
The terms of the probation included Cuellar not being able to drive without a vehicle ignition interlock device, which is a breathalyzer that a driver must pass before the car will start.
Cuellar "failed to submit to testing during the window of 10 p.m. through 12 a.m. and has skipped all tests from July 20, 2025 to Aug. 5, 2025," a violation of probation order states. The fatal hit-and-run crash happened the day before the reported probation violations.
A bench warrant was issued for her arrest.
Woman admits to drunken driving with kids in SUV
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer reported to El Paso police that Cuellar was stopped at the Paso Del Norte bridge with her boyfriend, a 6-year-old girl and a 5-year-old boy in a silver 2014 GMC Yukon on March 29, 2024, an affidavit filed in the driving while intoxicated case states.
The officer also reported that Cuellar had "red, glassy, bloodshot eyes" and admitted to drinking, the affidavit states. An El Paso police officer questioned Cuellar in a holding cell.
She told the officer that she was on her way home to El Paso after visiting her brother in Juárez. Cuellar told the officer she had about four "tall boy" beers. The officer conducted a field sobriety test on Cuellar, which she failed, the affidavit states.
Cuellar was given a breathalyzer test. She registered a .157 and .159, the affidavit states. The legal limit in Texas is .08. She was arrested for driving while intoxicated with a child under 15 years old.
Aaron Martinez covers the criminal justice system for the El Paso Times. He may be reached at amartinez1@elpasotimes.com.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Woman wanted in fatal El Paso hit-and-run arrested in South Texas
