Mobile, AL – The 19-year-old man who murdered Mobile Police Officer Sean Tuder on Sunday had already been on the run for weeks.

Marco Perez was due to appear in court on Jan. 8 for a pre-trial hearing on firearms charges, WPMI reported.

However, his parents had reported Marco missing after he failed to come home after New Year’s Eve.

Their story was elaborate and involved terrifying text messages that alluded to their son being dead.

“The text message I got said Marco won’t be able to make it. He won’t be able to make it to anything ever again in his life,” his mother, Tiffany Perez, told police.

Later she claimed Marco had called her and told her he had been abducted and didn’t know where he was, WPMI reported. His mother also claimed that he said his leg was injured.

Mobile Police Corporal Laderrick Dubose said authorities didn’t buy the kidnapping story, and continued to hunt for the fugitive, eventually finding him at a house, WPMI reported.

He fled on that occasion and police didn’t catch him.

Just a few days before Officer Tuder’s murder, Marco’s mother was arrested for aiding her son by filing a false police report that claimed he had been kidnapped AL.com reported.

Police said officers had wasted 90 hours searching for Marco on that false report, WALA reported.

Marco was already well-known to police before his fake disappearance.

The 19 year old had a lengthy criminal history that included being a suspect in 18 car break-ins and a warrant on federal gun charges. .

Marco was wanted by the Mobile police for a false police report and theft of property, and by federal authorities on a probation revocation, when he was found at the Peach Place Inn in West Mobile on Jan. 20, according to WALA.

Officer Tudor was part of a group of officers searching for Marco at about 4 p.m. on Jan. 20 when he was fatally shot.

Police have not yet released any details of the shooting.

Marco was arrested at the scene.

“We will be asking for Perez to be held without bond and he will be booked into Metro Jail tonight,” District Attorney Ashley Rich said. “I am authorizing charges against the suspect for capital murder for killing a law enforcement officer.”

On Monday morning, Marco appeared before District Court Judge Joe Basenberg at the jail, WKRG reported.

He was charged with capital murder and possession of a stolen firearm.

Basenberg did not grant bond to the alleged cop killer.

Officer Tuder was a 3-year veteran of the department, but had prior law enforcement experience and served in the National Guard.

“Not only was he serving our community as a police officer, he was serving our country because that’s the kind of person that he was,” the district attorney said. “He was a man of service. His entire life revolved around it and his wife and his family.”