Austrian police have arrested an American woman sought in connection with the killing of her ex-husband, who died when a pipe bomb exploded in his car more than a decade ago, law enforcement officials said Friday.

The officials said that extradition proceedings have begun for the woman, Pamela Phillips, 52 of Aspen, Colo.

A police statement said an international warrant accuses her of paying a hit man $400,000 to kill her former husband, Tucson businessman Gary Triano. Triano died 13 years ago when the bomb destroyed his car north of Tucson in 1996.

Triano's mother, Toni Ferrara, told The Associated Press that she wept when she heard Phillips had finally been captured.

"I am very happy that Pam is caught, but I don't want her to have the death penalty, in part because I want her to be miserable for the rest of her life," said Ferrara, of Grass Valley, Calif., about 50 miles northeast of Sacramento. "She had no reason to kill my son except for the dang insurance money."

Authorities last year arrested Ronald Young, 67, after he was indicted in Triano's murder. Back then, local law enforcement officials said that like Young, Phillips will face murder charges on accusations that she paid Young to kill Triano to get a $2 million life insurance policy.

The brief police statement said she was detained after midnight Thursday in a hotel in Vienna's upscale 19th district, a leafy area of luxury apartments and stately villas.

The mass circulation daily Kurier said she was with an unidentified male companion at the time of her arrest.

"The woman did not want to say anything about her identity at first but the case was clear after we found her passport," Kurier quoted an unidentified policeman involved in the operation as saying.

It said police initially got involved after her driver filed a complaint because of back wages he was owed by Phillips.

Both police and officials with the Vienna prosecutor's office declined to discuss the Kurier report or provide further details.

Announcing Young's arrest late last year, Sheriff Clarence Dupnik of Pima County in Arizona said authorities believe Phillips first flew to London and then caught a Sept. 26 flight to Milan, Italy. Kurier said she then flew on to Switzerland, where her trail was lost.