Reno Businessman Finds Love At First Sight

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Mike and Nazira Cross were married for almost eight years before, family members say, Nazira began embezzling money from him.

For Reno, Nev. entrepreneur Mike Cross, excelling and thriving in the business world seemed like second nature.

Since the 1980s, Mike owned and operated successful car dealerships in the Reno area, but while this self-made man was a titan when wheeling and dealing, he wasn't so lucky in love.

That is until he took a fateful vacation to Costa Rica, where he met a woman named Nazira Ugalde. Within a week, Mike was telling friends that Nazira was the girl he planned to marry.

The happy couple were wed in 2000, just weeks after they met. Nazira had worked in a clerical position at Reno High School, but soon Mike put her at the helm of a new business venture, Cross Janitorial.
 
In addition to their successful careers, the Cross family found lots of time to socialize and entertain.

They had friends over for parties and barbecues, where Nazira would cook and dote on Mike. For years, it seemed they had it all: a prosperous, happy marriage, and two successful careers.
 
Then, in January 2008, Mike suddenly left town for a few days. Friends were shocked when he returned to tell them he’d gotten a divorce from Nazira, and their marriage was over.

Family members say Mike was an intensely private man who didn’t want any mention of the divorce made public. Nazira returned to her native Costa Rica, where she had some family, and Mike continued on with his life.
 
On July 30, 2008, Nazira returned to Reno to meet with Mike; in the months they spent apart, they had remained in touch and on good terms due to the businesses they had together.

They met at Mike’s vacation home in Chilcoot, Calif.

Cops: Strange Calls Mask A Deadly Plot

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Authorities say Nazira Cross poisoned her husband Mike in his Chilcoot, Calif. vacation home in July 2008.

The next morning, Nazira called Mike’s neighbors in a panic. Mike was having trouble breathing, his eyes were rolling towards the back of his head, and he seemed unresponsive.

She begged them to help her lift him into his car so she could take him to the hospital.
 
They obliged and sent Nazira on her way. Hours went by, and Mike’s neighbors hadn’t heard any news, so they started calling local hospitals. One by one, each hospital replied that no one had checked in under the name Mike Cross.  
 
Friends started calling Mike’s cell phone and each other, desperate to see if anyone knew anything. The phone went unanswered several times until, finally, Nazira answered.

She lightheartedly told one friend that Mike was fine and that he’d gone out drinking with some friends.

But she told another that Mike was at home, resting, and that he was shaken, but fine. As the day progressed, the phone calls to Mike’s mobile phone got even stranger.

A couple of times, a man answered, claiming to be Mike.

Friends knew instantly it wasn’t him.

Then, in a very strange coincidence, Reno police Sgt. Chuck Lovett received a call from a man claiming to be Mike Cross.

The caller said he was fine and that there was no reason for anyone to be concerned for his safety. It was bizarre, especially given that Chuck had known and been good friends with Mike Cross for 20 years. When Chuck demanded to know who was on the line, the caller hung up.
 
That evening officers went to Mike’s home in Reno. Nazira was there, and she had her bags packed at the front door. She was just getting out of the shower.

Two of Mike’s best friends arrived and saw Nazira for the first time in months. When they asked where Mike was, they knew something was horribly wrong with her and her story.

A Marriage Ends In Murder

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Before cops could charge Nazira Cross for the murder of her ex-husband Mike Cross, she skipped town. She could be in Peru or Costa Rica.

Fact is, they had every reason to not trust Nazira; only Mike’s closest friends knew that the reason Mike divorced Nazira is because he caught her embezzling tens of thousands of dollars from him.

Despite the divorce, they remained in touch while she was in Costa Rica because she promised to pay him back what she owed him. As a matter of fact, the excuse she gave Mike for coming back to Reno was to tend to a business venture she organized to help pay down her debt.

Nazira gave cops a story that Mike was feeling fine while en route to the hospital, so she turned around and took him back to his home in Reno, Nev.

She claims that upon arrival to the home, Mike had a stroke and died a short time later. Nazira says she panicked, then picked up his body, drove out to his ranch in Lovelock, Nev., dug a grave and buried him -- all by herself.
 
However, she said the shallow grave needed to be more compact so she backed up over the body numerous times to flatten the mound. Mike’s friends noticed surgical gloves and medical equipment at Mike’s house that night, and police believe that Nazira poisoned Mike for her own financial gain.

As a matter of fact, on the day Mike died, Nazira wrote herself three checks from his business account.
 
In the months to follow, police would learn that there was a lot more to Nazira Cross than the soft-spoken woman everyone thought they knew.     
 
Everyone now knows that Nazira never took Mike to the hospital, but where cops have proof of her whereabouts that day has them confounded.
 
Presumably while Mike lay dying or near death in her car, Nazira is caught on security video buying $40 worth of nicotine patches at a Reno area Wal-Mart.

Neither she nor Mike smoked cigarettes.

It also turns out that Nazira’s nephew was the person on the phone impersonating Mike Cross.
 
Also, Nazira’s time in Costa Rica was spent cooking up a get-rich-quick insurance fraud scheme that involved her faking her own death and sending a fake death certificate to a friend in the United States to help collect the fraudulent insurance death benefits.

The scheme didn’t work, and since she could not produce the money she promised to pay Mike, cops believe her sole motive in returning to Reno was to kill Mike Cross.
 
In addition to bringing the motive with her from Costa Rica, Nazira also brought the means. Cops say that Mike Cross’ home was littered with various Spanish prescription medicine, which they believe Nazira used to kill him.
 
Before the toxicology report came back and before cops could officially charge Nazira with murder, she skipped town and left Reno sometime around September 2008.

Plumas County Sheriff’s investigators believe that she’s now living in Costa Rica or Peru, where she has family.