Kurt Sonnenfeld is charged with shooting his wife to death and Denver prosecutors know exactly where he is living.
Kurt and Nancy Sonnenfeld
But they may never be able to bring him to trial. His fate is being decided more than 4,000 miles away by federal judges in Argentina.
Sonnenfeld, a videographer who recorded recovery efforts at “Ground Zero” after 9/11, was a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Administration when he allegedly killed his wife Nancy, with whom he had been married 10 years, on New Year’s Day 2002.
Sonnenfeld traveled to Argentina in 2003 after murder charges against him were filed then dismissed because of insufficient evidence. In Argentina, he fell in love with Paula Duran, married her and has stayed ever since, working as a videographer. He has twin 3-year-old daughters.
When Denver authorities filed murder charges against him for a second time the following year and had him arrested, he fought extradition. An Argentina federal judge and the nation’s supreme court have rejected Denver’s repeated attempts to extradite, citing concern about Colorado’s death penalty.
Sonnenfeld wrote a book, which was published in May called “El Perseguido,” in which he claims U.S. authorities have hunted him for what he knows about 9/11.
Sonnenfeld has been quoted as saying that U.S. government operatives conspired with Denver prosecutors to file false murder charges to destroy his credibility, knowing he has evidence U.S. authorities had a hand either in allowing 9/11 to happen or actually participated in the airliner attacks.
Joining Sonnenfeld’s cause have been a juggernaut of advocates including people close to Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, 1980 Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and a dozen human rights groups.
In a series of e-mail exchanges, Sonnenfeld did not explain how his videotapes of Trade Center ruins prove U.S. complicity in 9/11, but he did amply rebut evidence presented in an arrest warrant affidavit by Denver homicide detectives.