An uncomfortable question

After a bizarre start, the Oscar Sanchez kidnapping has now become utterly sad.

At every stop, help was too late by just an hour or so. He was on his cell phone when he was abducted but no one could reach the scene in time. The police raided the house where he was held but the criminals had fled only hours before -- on their way to bury the dead body of Mr. Sanchez.

But one thing bothers me for an ugly, selfish reason: with the FBI on the case and hot on his trail, Sanchez's killer was able to fly out of the country using his own name.

That's not the kind of thing that should happen in these days of Homeland Security. Is it?