Male suspect in UK coach’s killing flees US for Mexico

A MAN suspected of murdering a British football coach in New York has fled to Mexico, according to reports.

Mike Jones, 25, from Tarleton, Lancashire, was found with a ­severed ear and stab wounds to his torso and neck in the early hours of last Sunday.

Mr Jones, who coached the juniors of US Major Soccer League team New York Red Bulls, was rushed to hospital from close to 25 West 14th Street but was dead on arrival.

Police sources told local media that suspect Orlando Orea, 32, bought a one-way ticket with cash shortly before he flew out of Kennedy International Airport. He left the country early on Tuesday morning, about 15 hours before detectives ­identified him and asked for him to be placed on a no-fly list.

Detectives interviewed a woman who said she spoke to Orea in a bar close to the murder scene just before it happened.

The Daily News said the suspect may have attacked Mr Jones in the street after mistaking him for someone he had argued with inside Bunga’s Den bar.

Mexico has an extradition treaty with the United States in cases where there is no possibility of a death penalty, as is the case in New York State.

Mr Jones’s parents, Perry and Carole, are following developments from their home in Tarleton and want his body returned to the UK as soon as possible.