Sue Marcum thought she found someone to teach her yoga. He would take everything from her.

When Sue Marcum met yoga instructor Jorge Rueda Landeros in the summer of 2005, she had no idea she was about to meet the man who would ultimately take everything from her.

The accounting professor at American University in Washington, D.C., was immediately smitten with Landeros.

Her closest friends watched as Sue fell "over the moon" with the charming yoga teacher, who also offered to teach her Spanish, CNN reports.

But something about him didn't sit right with them. They couldn't quite put their finger on it, and by the time Sue also realised something was off, it was too late.

Sue Marcum was an accounting professor at American University in Washington, D.C. Image: Supplied.

On October 25, 2010, Sue was found dead in her Bethesda home in Maryland. Authorities attributed her death to blunt force trauma and asphyxiation.

She was 52.

Police said the scene had been staged to look like a burglary gone bad.

An investigation began and detectives began digging deeper into Sue's life. Among her personal documents, they discovered a $500,000 life insurance policy. Landeros was named as the sole beneficiary.

And so investigators quickly zeroed in on a prime suspect, but he had vanished.

For over a decade, Landeros remained on the FBI's Most Wanted list. It would emerge he was living under the assumed name Leon Ferrara in Guadalajara, Mexico, where he continued working as a yoga instructor.

In December 2022 authorities finally caught up with Landeros. He was arrested in Guadalajara, Mexico and taken into custody. In July 2023, he was extradited to Montgomery County, Maryland, where he faced first-degree murder charges.

Then the truth of what happened to Sue began to come to light.

A web of manipulation.

Over the course of the trial, prosecutors argued that Landeros didn't just become Sue's teacher; he became her confidant, her advisor, and eventually, the person she trusted most with her financial future.

According to Landeros' arrest warrant, and per People, Sue and the yoga teacher had "a personal and financial relationship."

Prosecutors alleged that over approximately two years, Sue lost $312,000, while Landeros pocketed $252,000 of her money through joint investments.

Friends told CNN that Sue was initially drawn to Landeros due to his intelligence. He had worked as a stockbroker, in addition to teaching Spanish, yoga and meditation.

"You couldn't really put your finger on him," Beverly Myers, Marcum's friend for 25 years, told the outlet. "I think that's what she liked.

"The stuff that she said to us [made us want to warn her] kind of like, 'run Sue, he sounds nutty.

"But the nuttier he was, the more appealing he was to her."

As the months passed, Sue began to see through the facade.

The woman who had once been so enamoured with her yoga instructor was now losing sleep, consumed by anxiety about where her money had gone.

"Making myself sick trying to figure out how to pay the mortgage," she wrote in one desperate email to Landeros, which was shown to jurors. In another message, she confessed: "I don't know how I allowed myself to get into this mess I'm in. I just want out of the whole situation."

Justice finally served.

On Thursday, October 30, 15 years after Sue's death, a jury found Landeros guilty of second-degree murder, according to a news advisory from the Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office.

During the trial, prosecutors painted a picture of manipulation and greed.

Jorge Landeros was found guilty of second-degree murder. Image: Montgomery County Department of Police.

"Jorge Landeros is a master manipulator," Assistant State's Attorney Debbie Feinstein told the jury. "He preyed upon Sue Marcum's caring nature, and he used her for his own gain. And when she had nothing left to give her, he killed her."

The prosecution argued that after Sue confronted Landeros about the missing money, he attacked her and then staged the scene to look like a burglary gone wrong, WTOP reports. His defence team maintained it was simply a burglary that turned violent.

American University said Sue "lived to better her community," and personally established the Sue Marcum Scholarship in 2006 to help students.

"She was remembered as always going above and beyond her duties as a teacher and a mentor, leaving an unforgettable impact on all of her students. While her students may have graduated, Marcum's memory still lives on through her scholarship," the university wrote of the professor.

Landeros now faces up to 30 years in prison and is scheduled for sentencing on February 6, 2026.

Feature image: Supplied.