KERRVILLE, Texas -- Last year, when a U.S. Marine was extradited from Mexico to face charges in the slaying of a pregnant Marine, Charlie Vela of Kerrville got to wondering. Was there an arrest warrant for his stepfather, Jose De la Fuente, who was also was in Mexico?

De la Fuente had fled the country after the 1991 slaying of Vela's mother, who was fatally wounded in rural Kerr County during a bitter divorce.

In April, Vela told KSAT 12 News that he discovered there was no arrest warrant.

At the time, Kerr County Sheriff Rusty Hierholzer said that his department did not have $3,000 to translate the needed paperwork to Spanish. The following month, Hierholzer agreed to pay for the translation after talking with then Kerr County District Attorney Ron Sutton.

Late last year, De la Fuente was arrested by Mexican authorities and was extradited this week to Kerrville, where he is being held in lieu of $500,000 bond on a charge of murder.

"(I) never thought this day would come," Vela said while holding the journal he kept to chronicle a year's worth of phone calls and e-mails to officials from Washington to Mexico City.

"So many just so my voice would be heard," Vela said.

Reading from a recent journal entry on Nov. 5 when he was notified Mexico had agreed to extradite De la Fuente, Vela wrote "Now what? Where do I go from here? I've waited 18 years, but will I ever be able to face him?"

Vela was 12 years old when he was awakened by his grandmother.

"Where's mommy at?" Vela said he asked his grandmother. "And, she said, 'She was shot,'" Vela said tearfully.

De la Fuente was extradited during the same week as Vela's mother's birthday, which Vela marked by visiting her gravesite Monday.

A month earlier, Vela said his grandmother apparently sensed De la Fuente's imminent return, saying in Spanish, "The killer is calling me. He's outside," Vela said.

Vela has this message for families who are trying to solve a cold case slaying of their own: Hope and prayer are vital but involvement is critical.

"Had I not done anything, nothing would have ever happened. This man would probably still be in Mexico," Vela said.