Missing toe helps ID fugitive homicide suspect on the run for 11 years

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas – A man who has been on the run since being accused of killing his girlfriend 11 years ago was captured in Mexico this week and authorities used his missing toe to help identify him.

"The toes don't lie," said Deputy U.S. Marshal Cameron Welch.

William Joseph Greer, 50, allegedly killed his girlfriend, Tammy Marie Esquivel, on Dec. 19, 2006. According to the U.S. Marshals Service, Esquivel's death was not discovered until Greer was found naked and intoxicated three days later and confessed to "accidentally" killing her. He was arrested for public intoxication but let go when police apparently could find no evidence of a crime. And by the time evidence did surface, Greer was gone.

According to Deputy Welch, Esquivel's body was never found and there is still an active criminal investigation into her disappearance.

Welch told CBS News' Crimesider that Greer was last spotted in Kentucky in 2008, and that the Marshals Service recently got information he might be in a small town in southern Mexico. Part of how Mexican authorities were able to establish that the man they had been led to was, indeed, Greer, was by confirming he had a missing toe.

At the time of his capture Greer was one of the U.S. Marshals' 15 Most Wanted Fugitives. 

Greer was extradited to the U.S. and is now in the custody of the Harris County Sheriff's Office.