A Florida man wanted in two killings ran to Mexico. He came back through the Rio Grande Valley.

His name is Joseph Ronnie Raker. He is 46. He faces two counts of homicide in Wakulla County, Florida.

U.S. Marshals caught him on Aug. 13. Mexican authorities helped. He was in Mexico, just south of Brownsville.

Then came the part most people never hear about. Mexico handed him to U.S. officers. He did not fly straight to Florida. He went to the Hidalgo County jail.

WCTV, WTXL and Fox 49 all report the same thing. The Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office held Raker while the legal paperwork moved. Lawyers worked out how to get him back east.

That took about three weeks. Wakulla County booked him into its jail on Sept. 5.

Here is what nobody has said yet. No agency has named the bridge he crossed. No agency has named the port of entry. El Tejano could not confirm it, so we are not going to guess.

The other odd part is the county. Raker was caught across from Cameron County. But Hidalgo County deputies are the ones who held him.

Why does the Valley keep showing up in cases like this? Look at a map. Raker was caught in Mexico, a short drive below the Texas line. The fastest way back into this country by land is right here. The bridges are here. So a Valley county ends up holding somebody else's suspect.

There are two ways to bring a runner home. One is extradition. That is a treaty deal. Courts in Mexico look at the case first. It is slow.

The other way is faster. If Mexico says a person came in illegally, it can just deport him. Fox 49 reported that Raker faced extradition. It also reported he could get back sooner if Mexico deported him. No agency has said which way it went.

The case started on Aug. 2. A caller told deputies about a man at a Crawfordville business. The caller said the man seemed drunk. The caller said he talked about a shooting on Otter Creek Road.

Deputies looked around. They found no one hurt. Later that night they found signs of a fight at the property. They got a search warrant. They set a perimeter and waited.

Around 1 a.m. the next day, fire broke out there. Deputies pulled Raker out of the home. An ambulance took him to a hospital. He had breathed in smoke.

Detectives talked to him there. The sheriff's office says he played down his own part in the two disappearances. He blamed another person. He said he would show deputies proof. He never did. Deputies had no probable cause to hold him. So he walked out.

Search teams found the bodies that same day. John William Luper III, 49, was in heavy brush in the St. Marks Wildlife Refuge. Rebecca Lynn Thomas, 58, was about 100 yards away, under debris.

WCTV reports both were shot. The sheriff's office has not said much more about how they died.

Warrants came on Aug. 6. A $10,000 reward went out. The sheriff's office said Raker should be treated as dangerous.

He was gone about 10 days.

Sheriff Jared Miller said it short and plain. "This manhunt is over," he said.

He said this too: "He can no longer hide from us or evade the justice system."

Miller also said the case is not closed. Detectives are still looking for anyone who helped, he said. More arrests are expected.

The sheriff said the two victims are not forgotten. "We will not forget Rebecca Thomas or John Luper," he said.

A lot of agencies worked this one. The U.S. Marshals ran the hunt. Mexican police helped. So did state police in Florida, the Florida prison system, search and rescue crews, and three nearby sheriff's offices. Then Hidalgo County held him.

No news outlet has listed a bond for Raker. He sits in the Wakulla County Jail on two counts of homicide. That is the same charge the warrants named back on Aug. 6.

For Valley readers, the lesson is simple. Running south is not an exit. It is a detour. It often ends at a jail here in the Valley first.

A charge is not proof. Everyone is innocent until a court says otherwise.