Ex-East Palo Alto Resident Extradited To Bay Area After 8 Years

MENLO PARK, CA — A 33-year-old man who fled the country after allegedly killing a 6-year-old girl in a crash during a street race in Menlo Park in 2009 was arrested in Guatemala in 2016 and was finally extradited back to the Bay Area on Tuesday night, police said Wednesday.

Shannon Steven Fox was wanted in connection with the death of Lisa Xavier in a collision at the intersection of Willow Road and Bayfront Expressway on the afternoon of Nov. 12, 2009.

Fox was allegedly driving a Ford Mustang that was one of two vehicles involved in a street race on northbound Bayfront Expressway when the Ford hit a Toyota Camry carrying Lisa and her parents, Charles Suresh and Shiji Varghese, according to police.

The 6-year-old died a day after the crash and her mother suffered serious injuries but has since recovered. Her father was uninjured.

Investigators determined that Fox was the driver of the Mustang and that he had gotten into the Honda Prelude he was racing with and then fled, police said.

Officers tried to locate Fox, who had an address in East Palo Alto at the time, but learned that after the crash he had traveled to the Mexico border and eventually made his way to Central America.

In June 2010, the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office obtained an indictment against Fox for vehicular manslaughter, felony hit-and-run causing death, and participating in a speed contest.

Investigators worked with the FBI, who found that Fox was living in Central America and may have been helped by relatives there.

In December 2016, the FBI was able to locate Fox in Guatemala and he was arrested there. He and his attorneys fought attempts to extradite him back to the U.S., but he lost his final appeal in April to the Guatemalan Supreme Court, police said.

At about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Fox landed at San Francisco International Airport and was taken into custody by San Mateo police. He has since been booked into San Mateo County Jail and is due in court on Thursday morning, according to jail records.

— By Bay City News Service / Patch file photo by Renee Schiavone