The estranged boyfriend of a Central California woman whose body was found near the U.S.-Mexico border last week was taken into custody at a hotel in Mexicali on Thursday.

Adel Hussein, 44, was arrested on suspicion of murder in connection with the death of Brittney Steenbergen, 36, the Imperial County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

Adel Hussein, 44, is suspected in the death of a woman whose body was recently found near the U.S.-Mexico border, Tulare County Sheriff’s office said. (Tulare County Sheriff)

He was extradited to the United States and booked into the Imperial County Jail on Thursday afternoon, inmate records state. Hussein was awaiting extradition to Tulare County to face prosecution, the Sheriff’s Office said.


Hussein and Steenberger were separated but lived together at a home in Plainview with their four children, authorities said. They were reported missing by one of their daughters on New Year’s Eve.

Tulare County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the home and learned that a “possible domestic violence incident” had taken place and that the family’s SUV also was missing, investigators said.

The next day, Steenbergen’s body was found in a rural area of Imperial County, nearly 400 miles from her home. The SUV was found abandoned in El Centro, just north of the Mexico border.

Investigators launched a manhunt for Hussein, and his arrest stemmed from a joint operation by the U.S. Marshal’s Office, the Imperial County Sheriff’s Office and Mexican authorities, officials said.