PINEVILLE, N.C. -- Police said they have arrested a man accused of killing a nurse's aid in a Pineville hospital parking lot Thursday afternoon.

Authorities had been searching for 26-year-old Jesus Rangel for several hours after the hospital employee was found slain late Wednesday. Rangel was arrested at his apartment in Rock Hill around 1:30 p.m. and waived extradition, allowing him to be taken back to North Carolina immediately.

Rangel is accused of killing 23-year-old Virginia Sanchez. Officers said a woman driving through the back parking lot of Carolinas Medical Center-Pineville found her co-worker slumped over in her car around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday and called 911.

Officers said it appears the woman was strangled, but an autopsy will determine her cause of death. They said she was found in the passenger seat, which indicates there was likely a struggle in the vehicle.

Sanchez, who lived in Fort Mill, had worked at the hospital for only about four months. She had just ended her shift when the attack happened.

Police said Sanchez, Rangel and their respective spouses were all friends until they had a falling out about a year ago, possibly over child care, and a feud had been ongoing ever since. Investigators said there is no evidence Rangel went to the hospital specifically to harm Sanchez.

People who worked with the woman laid flowers down in the parking lot in memory of her. A card on the flowers reads, “You may be gone, but not forgotten. You will be missed. Love, your co-workers.”

Sanchez’s former neighbors also said they’ll miss her.

“She was very friendly. Like I said, she was a good girl. She worked hard, kept her family going,” said Debbie Bonnell.

Bonnell and her husband, George, said Sanchez, a mother of three, was harassed for months by Rangel and even moved to get away from him.

The Bonnells said Rangel still came by.

“A Mistubishi would come through here every week or two,” George Bonnell said. “I guess they were looking for her.”

Police reports from Fort Mill reveal someone slashed the tires on Sanchez’s car on two occasions last spring and someone also smashed the back window of her minivan with a rock. According to the reports, Sanchez blamed Rangel.

Sanchez told police after the last incident that Rangel was waiting for her at her home and told her, “If you don’t quit calling my wife and bothering her, I’m going to hurt you and your family.”

In August, one week after that alleged incident, Sanchez filed a restraining order against Rangel and his wife, but her request was denied.

The judge who made that ruling said there wasn’t enough evidence to prove Rangel was responsible for the damage to Sanchez’s minivan.

The Bonnells said Sanchez moved because the restraining order was denied, but she was so nice that she still stopped by to say hello.

“Even after she moved she would stop back and check on us and check on the baby,” Debbie Bonnell said. “She was a very good girl.”