A Maryland woman’s years-long search for justice ended in court after she used social media to help capture the man who killed her mother in Greenbelt. Kiany DeJesus was only 11 when her mother, Emilia Ignacio, was murdered by her ex-boyfriend, Juan Miguel Roman-Balderas, in April 2014. On Tuesday, DeJesus watched as Roman-Balderas was sentenced to decades in prison for the killing, closing a painful chapter for her family.

After the murder, Roman-Balderas fled to Mexico, leaving behind his young son and starting a new family. For over a decade, DeJesus and her family pushed for answers, but it was DeJesus’s determination and use of social media that finally led to a breakthrough. She credited the Instagram account Crime Time Tea Time for helping bring renewed attention to the case, which eventually resulted in Roman-Balderas’s arrest in Mexico last December.

DeJesus posted old family photos and reached out to people on Instagram and Facebook, hoping someone would recognize him. Her persistence paid off when someone contacted her, saying they knew Roman-Balderas, who was living under a new name in Mexico. The tip led authorities to arrest him, as confirmed by Greenbelt Police.

DeJesus said, "Without her, we wouldn't have been able to get the ball rolling at all. We tried. We pushed a lot, and she was the only person to respond to us, and as soon as we started, you know, connecting with her, everything just one by one by one started falling into order."

In court, DeJesus delivered a tearful victim impact statement about her mother’s loss. She told the judge how Roman-Balderas had been abusive, recalling that he burned her hand as a child and mistreated her dog. Roman-Balderas pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in February and showed no emotion during sentencing in Upper Marlboro. His attorney asked for a lighter sentence, arguing he had changed, but the judge imposed the maximum allowed under the plea agreement, stating that Roman-Balderas had tortured Ignacio.

Ignacio, who was 28 when she was killed, had been set to graduate from the University of Maryland and hoped to become a lawyer to help others in the immigrant community. DeJesus said she now hopes to become a lawyer or detective herself, inspired by her journey to find justice for her mother.

As DeJesus told reporters, "The judge herself telling me that she was really proud of me – it made me really happy. It made me feel like all of the work that I did was, you know, for something good to finally come out of it." The case highlights the growing role of social media in helping families seek justice when other avenues have stalled.

The Vinnie Penn Project