Jury selection begins Monday in the high-profile murder case of Sue Ann Marcum, a beloved American University professor who was found strangled and beaten at her Bethesda home nearly 15 years ago.

Marcum’s trusted friend, Jorge Rueda Landeros, 55, is charged with first-degree murder. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole. The trial is scheduled to last until Oct. 29, according to the clerk’s office at the county’s circuit court.

Authorities linked him to the killing through DNA allegedly discovered under Marcum’s fingernails and on a weapon discovered at the home, according to court records. He managed to elude American authorities for more than a decade.

Rueda Landeros, 55, was extradited back to the U.S. from Mexico in 2023.

Investigators in the case discovered that he would be the sole beneficiary of a $500,000 life insurance policy were Marcum to die.

Rueda Landeros appeared on investigators’ radar shortly after her body was found. An arrest warrant was filed for him six months after Marcum’s death. Complicating the case, detectives also learned that in addition to the life insurance policy, Marcum and Reuda Landeros shared an investment account worth more than $100 million. Marcum, 52, was stressed about how Rueda Landeros was handling the funds, according to court records.

An investigation revealed Marcum met Rueda Landeros between 2005 and 2006. A court record elaborated on their financial interactions but not on the nature of their personal relationship: She made an initial contribution to the investment fund in 2008, and a 1099 form from that year, in Marcum’s name, lists its proceeds as more than $100 million.

In late 2022, FBI personnel in the Baltimore field office received a tip Rueda Landeros was likely living in Guadalajara and working as a yoga instructor under the alias Leon Ferrara, police said.

Months after Marcum’s death, Rueda Landeros was regularly crossing the border between Juarez, Mexico, and El Paso, Texas, police said.

Though details about Marcum’s personal relationship with Landeros are murky, she was a successful professor admired by students and colleagues.

According to her obituary, Marcum was named professor of the year at the Kogod School of Business three consecutive times, and directed her department’s master’s degree program.

A scholarship supporting university alumni who want to pursue a master’s in accounting at its Kogod School of Business has been named for her, according to the university.