The One That Got Out (Rebroadcast)

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Speaker 4 Everybody was scared that you're showing up to Laredo.

Speaker 4 Somebody needed to put it out there, you know, something was wrong and bodies were being found all over the place.

Speaker 4 It was along this dusty road that a rancher found a woman's body face down in that brush.

Speaker 6 It is a female in her mid-30s.

Speaker 4 It seemed like an actual execution.

Speaker 7 How can someone just be thrown on the side of the road?

Speaker 4 What kind of person would do this? A monster?

Speaker 8 These back streets became a killer's hunting ground.

Speaker 9 There was concern out there. Could we be next?

Speaker 4 And then another victim is found.

Speaker 4 And I've got a female in the grass lane. Come on, y'all.
Y'all gotta hurry.

Speaker 10 And I think my whole neighborhood heard me scream.

Speaker 9 Just to know that she was like left there

Speaker 11 to die.

Speaker 11 I'm.

Speaker 12 I'm sorry. Nobody deserves that.

Speaker 3 Nobody.

Speaker 4 We may have a serial killer on our hands.

Speaker 4 I told the chief you need to find him because there's gonna be more.

Speaker 3 And that's just the beginning of our nightmare.

Speaker 14 That's just the beginning.

Speaker 12 It's a border town, but it's also one of the biggest border towns in the United States.

Speaker 12 So we are in the back streets of San Bernardo Avenue in downtown Laredo.

Speaker 12 Commonly known as La Samber.

Speaker 12 This is personal to me because this is often where my mother worked and walked around.

Speaker 12 She stayed around this area.

Speaker 12 There would be times where I would have to come down here to look for her.

Speaker 4 Claudine Luetta was a mother. She loved her five children and her family loved her.

Speaker 4 Let's talk about your mom. What was she like?

Speaker 12 My mom, she was perfect. She was beautiful.
She was funny. She was the best cook ever.
You know, very thoughtful, very lovable.

Speaker 12 Always reminding me how much she loved me.

Speaker 8 We were, I think, well-grounded by my family. And, you know, we didn't have much, but we had what we needed.

Speaker 15 We were known as the hueritas, the little white girls, because my mother was originally from Glasgow, Scotland and my father he was born and raised here in Laredo, Texas.

Speaker 15 Family was very important for her.

Speaker 15 She

Speaker 12 wanted us to have a better life and felt like she couldn't provide that for us.

Speaker 13 So then she resorted to the streets.

Speaker 8 She started going into a depression and she didn't know there would be a way out.

Speaker 15 And we started noticing more habits.

Speaker 12 She had her own demons, but at the end of the day, she loved us.

Speaker 4 Did you worry about her safety?

Speaker 15 Every day.

Speaker 12 I would, you know, cry, pray to God because she was on the streets. You know, I always had that worry in the back of my head.

Speaker 9 Claudine was a woman who worked on San Bernardo Avenue.

Speaker 9 San Bernardo has a unique kind of character on its own.

Speaker 9 It's known as having those little mom-and-pop shops. It's also known for its dark side, the drug use, the drug exchanges.

Speaker 9 It's always been really known as that sort of red light district.

Speaker 4 I was born and raised right here in South Texas, so I know the good people of Laredo are humble, warm, welcoming, and grounded in their Mexican-American heritage.

Speaker 19 You're going to see so much of the Mexican culture here in Laredo.

Speaker 19 Laredo is known for the jalapeno festival.

Speaker 19 Laredo!

Speaker 4 This town is called the Gateway City.

Speaker 4 And because it's right here on the border, there's a heavy law enforcement presence here.

Speaker 4 This is not a place where people fear for their safety. And that's why the murder of a young woman on the outskirts of town in 2018 shook this community to its very core.

Speaker 4 I'm here driving by Jeffrey's Road. I believe I found a dead part here.

Speaker 3 Are you Cuerpo?

Speaker 4 I'll go ahead and send somebody. Okay, thank you.

Speaker 9 She was found in Webb County in a colonia area.

Speaker 20 There's nothing after. Once you get outside of the city limits, it's rural Texas.
It's, you know, it's just farmland, it's very flatland, dirt roads.

Speaker 9 Not an area that city folks will visit unless they have a purpose to be there.

Speaker 4 It was along this dusty road that a rancher found a woman's body face down in that brush. She had been shot at close range several times.
To investigators, this wasn't just a murder.

Speaker 4 What happened to about right here?

Speaker 4 Right here. It seemed like an actual execution.

Speaker 4 Back of the head and shot her here.

Speaker 4 Captain Federico Calderon of the Webb County Sheriff's Office and Texas Ranger E.J. Salinas led the investigation and they brought us to the crime scene.
And she was found out in the open.

Speaker 4 Anyone could have seen this. Right here, half on the road, half on the berm there, but yeah, completely out in the open.
How long has she been out here? Hours.

Speaker 4 It could have happened that night before. What leads you to believe that she was killed here and not somewhere else and then her body dumped here?

Speaker 3 The

Speaker 4 evidence that was

Speaker 4 in the body. I mean, the showcases were right there next to the body.

Speaker 4 The Eagle-Eye detectives find.40 caliber shell casings as well as distinct tire tread marks that appear to be from a pickup truck.

Speaker 4 And where were the tire marks found? Show me back here.

Speaker 4 So the tire marks would have been here from where he turned around.

Speaker 4 And then he just left her here. He's just left her here.

Speaker 4 What kind of person would do this? A monster.

Speaker 21 We have new information regarding the body of a woman found in northwest Webb County. Authorities have not yet released the name of the victim.

Speaker 12 I was extremely worried that that could have been my mother. That was a fear, you know, I had every night growing up.

Speaker 4 Later that day, the medical examiner was able to identify the victim, but it wasn't Claudine Lueda, as her daughter Sierra had feared.

Speaker 22 Authorities confirmed tonight that the victim in this case is 29-year-old Melissa Ramirez from right here in Laredo.

Speaker 8 As soon as law enforcement identified the victim as Melissa Ramirez, investigators notified her mother, Maria Cristina Benavides.

Speaker 4 Two detectives go to your front door. What do they say?

Speaker 25 We found your daughter dead in a ranch up north.

Speaker 25 I felt my blood left my body and I collapsed.

Speaker 10 I collapsed.

Speaker 10 I couldn't talk.

Speaker 25 I could only cry and scream.

Speaker 27 I grew up with Melissa since we were little. We were best friends, so I know her since she was a baby.
Everybody just

Speaker 27 loved being around her because she was always joking around, singing, and dancing, and she was a human being, a beautiful human being.

Speaker 12 I spoke to my mother, and you know, I was very relieved that it wasn't her and she did share with me that somebody from Samber had been murdered.

Speaker 8 The community itself in San Menarlo, everybody knew each other and they would watch out for each other.

Speaker 4 What was their relationship like with Melissa?

Speaker 15 They were

Speaker 12 very close and they would protect each other in the streets.

Speaker 19 No one knew what happened, how it happened.

Speaker 13 It was just a waiting game.

Speaker 4 But it wasn't long before investigators get a break in the case. A vehicle had been seen leaving the scene of the crime in a suspicious manner.

Speaker 4 Witnesses at the scene had spotted a dark truck along Jeffrey's Road near the victim's body.

Speaker 8 Before the vehicle left the scene, witnesses were able to get a license plate.

Speaker 3 Who was that person?

Speaker 4 That person ended up being a police officer.

Speaker 10 This photo here, I took it.

Speaker 25 This one too. This one I also took.

Speaker 4 That's with her little boy?

Speaker 3 Si.

Speaker 4 When you remember your daughter, what do you think?

Speaker 9 That I really miss her.

Speaker 4 When do you think of her?

Speaker 3 Every day,

Speaker 25 every day I think of her.

Speaker 25 Every day I miss her.

Speaker 3 At night I cry.

Speaker 28 Every day.

Speaker 4 You're lucky you took these pictures.

Speaker 9 Good afternoon. I'm Brennan Camacho.
It's a story that shook the Laredo community. Melissa Ramirez's body was found on US 83 North near Camino, Colombia Road.

Speaker 9 On the day that we found out who the victim was, our reporters started going out in the field. We had learned that she was a sex worker that was picked up on San Bernardo.

Speaker 20 San Bernardo Avenue is known in Laredo. It's definitely a place at night where the sex workers walk along.
You know, there's probably drugs being sold along the roadway as well.

Speaker 8 According to investigators, Melissa Ramirez had been on the streets for years using money from sexual encounters to buy drugs, but her family says she kept this lifestyle a secret from them.

Speaker 4 How did she start working at San San Bernardo Avenue?

Speaker 25 She never told me that she was gonna go to the streets, do this and that.

Speaker 4 She never told me

Speaker 25 I didn't know that.

Speaker 25 I didn't know anything.

Speaker 15 I never saw her.

Speaker 25 Never saw her drink or do drugs.

Speaker 13 Whatever she did, she did.

Speaker 30 And who was we to judge?

Speaker 27 What if she was going to already leave that life?

Speaker 4 We don't know.

Speaker 13 She was private.

Speaker 27 She was very, very private.

Speaker 8 We do have to think about why people choose to do sex work. Often it's addiction or the need to feed our children.
And once that cycle begins, it's very difficult.

Speaker 4 Claudine Luetta's daughter Sierra watched her mother struggle with those problems.

Speaker 12 She never wanted to tell me, like, oh, I'm a sex worker.

Speaker 4 She was ashamed.

Speaker 4 But addicted, right?

Speaker 12 And she was like severely addicted to heroin.

Speaker 12 And she would need to go back to San Bernardo to get that fix.

Speaker 4 When Melissa did go out, did you worry?

Speaker 25 Yes, I was worried because sometimes she went out for two to three days.

Speaker 9 I would tell her, Talk to me, talk to me, because I stay waiting for you.

Speaker 4 In fact, two weeks before her daughter's murder, Christina says Melissa came to her with a chilling premonition.

Speaker 25 She told me, they're gonna kill me just like that.

Speaker 25 They're gonna kill me with a gun like this.

Speaker 25 It's like she saw the future.

Speaker 27 We were trying to find out who did it. At that point, we didn't know who it was because anybody can be a suspect.

Speaker 4 And while Melissa Ramirez's family questioned who might want her dead,

Speaker 4 investigators were chasing down that lead about a black pickup truck seen near her body.

Speaker 4 There was a vehicle on that specific ranch road where her body was found and the homeowners that were at an adjacent property saw the vehicle.

Speaker 4 They see that it was parked there for some amount of time that caught their attention and when they saw it drive away they noticed that there was a body next to the truck.

Speaker 4 So they naturally came to the conclusion that truck was involved with that body somehow.

Speaker 4 I'm the district attorney. My communication to the deputies who are working the scene is we need to find this man who did this.
We had to find that truck.

Speaker 9 Police use any sort of resource they can pool to get that license plate and figure out all of the information attached to it.

Speaker 9 At some point, they enlist the health of Border Patrol to track down whose license plate is this.

Speaker 4 At the time, I was assigned to an intel center that's housed there with Border Patrol. And every time we run across a name, a number, I usually call up there there to get research done.

Speaker 4 And they have cameras out there. They monitor cameras that's mainly along the river in some brush areas.
That can be helpful. That can be beneficial.
So that was one of my first calls.

Speaker 4 Law enforcement is able to identify the driver.

Speaker 3 Who was that person?

Speaker 4 That person ended up being a police officer.

Speaker 9 It was surprising to hear that a police officer was in that truck and could have potentially been the suspect.

Speaker 4 We're making sure that cross your T's, dot your I's, but yes, they're thinking hopefully we have the person.

Speaker 4 The sheriff's office and the rangers confronted him, brought him in for questioning, and they got a search warrant to go to his house and recover weapons and trying to check his alibis, check his history.

Speaker 8 This individual cooperated with investigators and told his side of the story.

Speaker 4 According to the officer, he was out with his kids looking at properties for sale. He never saw the body on the side of the road.

Speaker 4 At the end, it ended up being a case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Speaker 9 All of that was corroborated and he was cleared as a suspect.

Speaker 23 The victim in this case is 29-year-old Melissa Ramida. So far, no arrests have been made.

Speaker 9 Once police already ruled out the police officer as the suspect, they go back to the drawing board.

Speaker 4 It was important to try to get information on any of the John's or boyfriends that may have been visiting with her leading up to the murder.

Speaker 4 We didn't know if we were dealing with a person who was in the drug or prostitution world or human trafficking. We were trying to find what happened that night, who she was with.

Speaker 4 Melissa's mother, Christina, had provided investigators with the name of a man she says spent time with her daughter just days before her murder.

Speaker 4 He was a regular

Speaker 4 customer. He was driving a vehicle similar to a vehicle that was in the area early on.
And he had picked her up. And he had picked her up.

Speaker 8 When investigators ran a background check on the suspect, they learned he owned a gun similar to the one used to kill Melissa.

Speaker 4 With that information in hand, law enforcement sets up surveillance at his home.

Speaker 9 Anything could have happened in that situation.

Speaker 4 He could be armed and dangerous. Investigators were prepared for a confrontation.

Speaker 4 Initially, you thought you had a suspect. Yes, we had several leads.
Of course, being in the business, you tend to pick up different people.

Speaker 8 Investigators had set their sights on a suspect who, according to Melissa's family, had seen her days before the murder. And so they placed his home under surveillance.

Speaker 9 Their concern is: what is the situation going to be like once we confront him? They have to be careful with this situation because you don't know: is this guy going to pull out a gun?

Speaker 9 Is he armed in dangerous?

Speaker 9 Law enforcement had a clock that was ticking.

Speaker 4 On September the 6th of 2018, when they were conducting surveillance, was the first time they got a look at him.

Speaker 4 Sure enough, they're able to intercept him as he's walking out of his home. Once they approach him, they identify themselves as to what their purpose is.
He cooperates and agrees to go to the station

Speaker 4 and question him as to when the last time he saw Melissa. He relates that it would have been two to three days before her murder and that he picked her up on San Bernardo Avenue.

Speaker 4 He's with her that evening. And at the end of the night, he drops her off at the Pan American Motel.
And that is the last time that he saw her.

Speaker 8 He handed over his cell phone and was eventually cleared as a suspect after cell tower data placed him elsewhere on the day of the murder.

Speaker 4 At the end, his story checked out.

Speaker 4 And at this point, you have some names of Ramirez's associates.

Speaker 3 Correct.

Speaker 4 In fact, you followed up on three leads of three men who had known Melissa. Correct.

Speaker 4 And none of them turned out to be the killer. They all seemed like good leads at the time, and we did our investigation and we followed up, interviewed, and we did what we had to.

Speaker 4 But at the end of the day, they weren't panning out as

Speaker 4 viable suspects.

Speaker 4 Were you praying for

Speaker 4 that the killer be found?

Speaker 25 Yes, I had her ashes in the house, and I would get the urn and hug it close to me and ask her, tell me who it was.

Speaker 26 Who took your life?

Speaker 25 I prayed to God that we needed to find the person that killed her.

Speaker 4 I know that they were working tirelessly, the investigators in this case.

Speaker 4 We weren't sleeping.

Speaker 4 Me and Fred were tied at the hip for those next couple of days. They're trying to, you know, hone in on who could have picked up Melissa, who was this person.

Speaker 4 They were literally working non-stop trying to find the kid.

Speaker 4 We were out there every day talking to people.

Speaker 4 visiting different you know residences and businesses driving up and down san bernardo and the areas around that area and talking to people on the streets, talking to people in the front yards and hoping somebody could give us some information.

Speaker 4 Old-fashioned police work. Exactly.

Speaker 4 We had been able to piece together the days leading up and who she had been with and who she had frequented with, but that critical time before she died was what we were missing.

Speaker 27 I think the number one thing that we wanted to know is to find peace and to make sure that that that person didn't hurt someone else or hurt our family.

Speaker 4 With a killer on the loose, the city of Laredo remained on high alert and so did the women of La Sambur.

Speaker 4 I think their friends that worked in the

Speaker 4 industry probably pieced it together first.

Speaker 4 Somebody's going around killing our friends.

Speaker 4 Though Melissa Ramirez's case confounded investigators, they suspected that these back streets had become a killer's hunting ground. I'm walking down San Bernardo Avenue, better known as La Sando.

Speaker 4 It's Laredo's red light district. And although things have changed a little bit since 2018, it's still business as usual here.
What brings you out here?

Speaker 31 Um,

Speaker 31 I don't know exactly how to say. I don't really know how to explain myself.

Speaker 13 I guess necessities.

Speaker 4 You heard what happened. How scary was that to you?

Speaker 31 Very. I actually was asleep that night.
I was going to be out here, you know, and thankfully I was asleep.

Speaker 4 You were going to be out here that night.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 31 You know, because I'm always around here.

Speaker 4 So.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 4 How dangerous is it?

Speaker 27 Very.

Speaker 4 You never know whose car you're getting into.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 4 Why do you do it?

Speaker 31 I really don't know.

Speaker 4 And even after what happened, you're still out here.

Speaker 4 It's dangerous. You think you'll ever leave the streets?

Speaker 3 Yes.

Speaker 4 All right.

Speaker 4 You be careful, okay?

Speaker 4 One of the names that had come up is Claudine Luera.

Speaker 4 It's a friend of Melissa's, who would have been also working on the San Bernardo.

Speaker 4 Law enforcement felt that perhaps she could have provided information on the last time that Melissa was picked up. How did your mom react to Melissa's murder?

Speaker 12 She was afraid.

Speaker 4 She was worried.

Speaker 12 My mother had asked me to get her a taxi and to pay for it, for her to get taken to my apartment. And she asked if she could stay there then, because she just didn't feel safe.

Speaker 12 She just, you know, I could tell there was fear.

Speaker 22 Police are still not releasing much information in connection to the case of a woman found dead in a rural part of Webb County.

Speaker 4 In the days following Melissa's murder, there have been no arrests. No arrests.
Are you feeling pressure from the community?

Speaker 4 There's always pressure when somebody's been killed, especially

Speaker 4 in this manner.

Speaker 19 People cared because how can someone just be thrown on the side of the road and nothing's done about it?

Speaker 9 She's just as important as every other person. So the community wanted answers and they wanted to prevent it from happening again.

Speaker 4 One of the biggest challenges we have in law enforcement is time, right?

Speaker 4 So time is the biggest enemy that we have when I say that because only the criminal can decide when, where, and how to commit the crimes.

Speaker 9 There was concern out there. Could we be next?

Speaker 4 10 days later, there were reports of a second victim.

Speaker 21 The victim victim was found about a mile away from Laredo's previous homicide victim.

Speaker 14 And that's just the beginning of our nightmare. That's just the beginning.

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Speaker 34 Mom Talk started as a sisterhood and that's gone to flames.

Speaker 6 New secrets and lies are coming out. This is going to be catastrophic.

Speaker 34 We're fighting for our marriages and the girls are just putting us through hell. They make everything about themselves.
I can't.

Speaker 6 Hopefully this doesn't end in a bloodbath.

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Speaker 4 It started with a phone call in the early hours of the morning.

Speaker 35 Hi, one one. What is the address to your emergency?

Speaker 4 A terrified woman tells the operator she's been kidnapped, assaulted, and that she's trapped in a room with her attacker.

Speaker 4 He's fallen asleep, so she quietly and ever so carefully finds his phone and calls for help.

Speaker 33 Is there any way you can get out of the building? I don't know without waking him out.

Speaker 4 This 911 call began an investigation that would turn the town of Ashland into a crime scene.

Speaker 33 We've got something big going on here. The first thing you hit my mind is a monster.

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Speaker 4 Who did you think would have been responsible for this crime? It was a whodunit at that time. And law enforcement's trying to catch up.

Speaker 4 10 days into the investigation, we still didn't have much. We still didn't have much.
And then another victim is found.

Speaker 3 Correct.

Speaker 4 On the morning of September 13th, 2018, a truck driver spots the body of a young woman in a ditch about a mile up the road from where Melissa Ramirez was killed.

Speaker 4 Hey, I'm at

Speaker 4 Highway 255,

Speaker 3 283.

Speaker 4 And I've met a female in the grass laying

Speaker 4 he initially thought that she probably got hit by a car

Speaker 4 but then closer inspection uh he learned she was shot

Speaker 4 the victim had been shot in the back of the head but was still clinging to life and i don't know if she's unconscious but she is breathing right now but there is blood all over the grass okay so y'all better send a paramedic and the police first she probably there laying for hours before law enforcement found her.

Speaker 4 I can't believe nobody else stopped for this freaking lady. Come on, y'all.
Y'all gotta hurry. She's still breathing, though.
Y'all gotta hurry.

Speaker 4 Was she able to give you a description of her assailant? No, she really couldn't process

Speaker 4 much information other than the amount of pain that she was feeling.

Speaker 21 The victim was found this morning after a concerned citizen reported the discovery to the Webb County Sheriff's Office.

Speaker 21 She was alive when deputies arrived, but later later died at the hospital, and an investigation is now underway.

Speaker 4 There were a lot of personal belongings, and even her shoes were there.

Speaker 4 There were two casings recovered from this crime scene, but the victim had only one impact to the back of her head, which was indicative to me that the victim was trying to run away at the time that she was shot.

Speaker 8 My husband told me I saw it on the news: it said, Second victim found.

Speaker 8 I didn't know anything, nobody knew anything.

Speaker 9 This is a similar circumstance to Melissa.

Speaker 9 We had no idea who the victim was yet, but based off of how she was found and the similarities in the case, it was natural to assume could it possibly be another sex worker?

Speaker 4 News travels fast in Laredo and Claudine's sisters were soon hearing rumors that she may have been killed.

Speaker 8 People are saying that the person they found was Claudine. That's the word in the street.
And I call my sister and I'm shaking and I'm like, you need to call the police. We have to find her.

Speaker 8 We have to find her.

Speaker 12 The last time I spoke with her was on Tuesday, I believe it was the 11th.

Speaker 4 And what happens? You get a phone call?

Speaker 12 Yeah, and I get a phone call.

Speaker 12 I answer, we talk for a bit, and then I get some messages just telling me how much she loves me.

Speaker 12 And she tells me the most beautiful things, like, chula, ermosa preciosa, like that I love more than anything else in this world to infinity and beyond

Speaker 12 it was like the most beautifulest message she had sent

Speaker 15 I called an investigator friend to see what was going on and I gave my sister's description of all the tattoos all her scars that I can recall and she immediately said this case belongs to the Texas Rangers

Speaker 4 Captain Calderon responded and I responded as well. After surveying the scene, collecting some of the stuff that she had,

Speaker 4 we learned her name.

Speaker 15 I ended up calling the coroner's office, but for some reason, they didn't want to release any information.

Speaker 9 Her kids are about to come home from school.

Speaker 15 I go, what am I supposed to tell them?

Speaker 16 I go, she's not answering her phone.

Speaker 15 And I guess, you know, the lady felt sorry for me and she said, we can't confirm that it is Claudine Luera.

Speaker 3 And at that point, I just lost it.

Speaker 10 I think my whole neighborhood heard me scream.

Speaker 4 Colette then had to break the devastating news to her niece Sierra.

Speaker 12 The images that I saw

Speaker 12 you know of the blood on the ground and how much blood could look almost like she dragged her body. And she fought and she fought very hard

Speaker 9 that just to know that she was like left there to die

Speaker 9 i mean

Speaker 12 i'm sorry nobody deserves that nobody

Speaker 3 but she had such a good heart and she was just the sweetest lady and she tried you know she had her vices she had her addiction but she still fought she still tried she still was you know trying to be present for us

Speaker 8 what really went through my mind was that

Speaker 3 she was still alive she was on the side of the road and he threw her like trash i said who does that you know

Speaker 12 did you wind up asking yourself who might have been responsible yes i thought it would have been one of her ex-boyfriends because she was always in toxic relationships

Speaker 15 I was just thinking, who else could it have been?

Speaker 8 And while Claudine's family questioned who was responsible, investigators had a theory.

Speaker 4 You said that Claudine Luetta might have been a possible witness to Melissa's murder. That's correct.

Speaker 4 We were looking for her as one of the last possible witnesses that had seen Melissa with the unknown person who ended up later killing her. Do you think that's why Luetta was killed?

Speaker 4 You know, he was trying to tie up Luce ends. We can speculate, but that's too much of a coincidence.

Speaker 9 You can start seeing that the suspect has created a form of M.O., that this is the group that he's targeting because the similarities are just uncanny.

Speaker 19 I've always felt very safe here, and this was probably the first time where I thought, goodness,

Speaker 19 this is real.

Speaker 4 I told the chief deputy of the sheriff's office, we may have a serial killer on our hands. You need to get this guy.
You need to find him because there's going to be more.

Speaker 4 The information that was relayed to me was, Mr. DA, we have another one.

Speaker 4 We have a female works in prostitution, shot execution style. Very similar.
Very similar.

Speaker 4 These were among the darkest days Laredo had ever faced. A possible serial killer was on the loose, targeting vulnerable women on the streets of La Sanburg.

Speaker 9 The women on San Bernado were more hiding because they're coming after our own.

Speaker 8 Some serial killers choose sex workers because they presume no one will care. But in Laredo, they cared.
Law enforcement took this seriously.

Speaker 4 They were so callous. The locations where they were found, on the outskirts, it appeared to me that these people were brought to their final resting pace.
Same thing. Same thing.

Speaker 4 Almost showing it off. Almost showing it off, you know.
And that's the challenge. There's the body.
Good luck finding the killer.

Speaker 4 It had become a deadly game of cat and mouse. And in the wake of the murders, clues left behind that could help investigators catch a killer.

Speaker 4 They were able to recover a very good readable cast of the tire tread which matched the tire tread in the first area. Crime scene two,

Speaker 4 crime scene one matched.

Speaker 4 But that's not all. The shell cases recovered from Claudine's murder appear to match the gun used to kill Melissa.

Speaker 4 We are at the the Arena Gun Club in Laredo, Texas. So we're going to demonstrate a.40 caliber semi-automatic handgun.
The killer had used that type of gun. Yes, sir.

Speaker 4 Captain, that was a pretty good shot. What's happening to the shell cases when you're firing? The blowback from the discharge of the bullet itself pushes the slide back, it jakes the casing.

Speaker 4 So the firing pin, when it strikes the back of the case, it leaves a very specific indentation. Right here.
Yes.

Speaker 4 And through forensics, we can analyze that and we're able to link the different shell casings at the different crime scenes. And whoever killed these women, why did he leave these all over the ground?

Speaker 4 Being reckless, which is good for us.

Speaker 23 Police are still not releasing much information.

Speaker 20 We knew of the coverage of these murders,

Speaker 20 but police weren't saying much.

Speaker 4 You must have tried to keep the facts of the case out of the media initially. That's hard to do, obviously.

Speaker 23 Now, what we do know is that the case is being treated as a homicide.

Speaker 4 Laredo is a small community. Crime is always on the front page.
So people start to get nervous, people start to get scared, and rightfully so.

Speaker 19 The thought of a serial killer in a community like ours was unfathomable. And now that it was real, it brought along real fears.

Speaker 4 In the aftermath of the murders, the women of Lysander, like the young woman we met, feared that a menacing killer roamed these streets.

Speaker 4 And it was only a matter of time before he chose his next victim.

Speaker 4 That is what I'm thinking. This is going to continue unless we stop this person.

Speaker 4 And the very next day after Claudine Lueta's murder, investigators get a call about a possible third victim.

Speaker 4 It's early evening on San Bernardo Avenue. A man picks up sex worker Erica Benia.

Speaker 9 She was taken to a client's home, a client that she knew by the name of David.

Speaker 4 But once there, things do not go as planned, and the night begins to take a very unexpected turn. He starts making some real bizarre comments to her.

Speaker 20 He started bringing up Melissa. and how he was concerned police were going to suspect him because he had been with her.

Speaker 4 And she tries to calm him down and saying, if you were involved with her, that's no big deal.

Speaker 4 You didn't kill her.

Speaker 4 But he's emphasizing, well, she may have my DNA, so they may think it's me.

Speaker 4 That statement set off alarm bells for Erica.

Speaker 9 She is trying to find a way to get out. She starts getting sick to her stomach.

Speaker 20 At that point, he was like, let's go get you something to eat. And maybe that'll help your stomach.
So she went with him. They stopped at a local gas station that wasn't far from his home.

Speaker 19 He deliberately parked behind the gas station near the truck drivers away from cameras or witnesses.

Speaker 4 In that moment, Erica comes face to face

Speaker 4 with a killer. And that's when he pulls his.40 caliber HK and points it at her.

Speaker 4 She was the one that really broke the case for us. And this video of it.
That's right. A woman running for her life.

Speaker 4 Hey, hey.

Speaker 4 Three victims and one possible serial killer on the loose, but not for long.

Speaker 38 Yes, it is.

Speaker 3 Relax.

Speaker 4 It's a real-life thriller that's playing out on surveillance tape and police cams.

Speaker 30 And it got very weird all of a sudden. I got invited.

Speaker 35 I bad bite.

Speaker 4 Then with 2020 on the ground in Laredo, Texas.

Speaker 4 The killer had used that type of cup.

Speaker 4 We got another body, bro. By the 15-mile marker.

Speaker 4 All the law enforcement around me jumps away from the table. They scoot their chairs back.
Everybody rushes for the door to get in their units to go find her.

Speaker 4 How did you find out that she'd been killed?

Speaker 35 This is where the monster came out of the king.

Speaker 4 You could see the monster coming out. I don't know if you ever see the devil coming out of somebody.

Speaker 4 Kind of like that.

Speaker 27 My dear Cristina, Melissa, we're inseparable.

Speaker 27 You know, and that's the thing that gets me is like,

Speaker 39 why did you have to take her?

Speaker 4 The why may never come, but after Claudine Luetta's body was discovered, investigators were able to make a clear connection between the two victims.

Speaker 20 The biggest similarity is that they were both sex workers. They both worked on San Bernardo.
And also, Luetta was found not far from where Melissa was found.

Speaker 20 Families were telling their loved ones, be careful when you go out there. Something's going on.

Speaker 4 26-year-old Erica Peña is staring down the barrel of a.40 caliber pistol held at gunpoint by a man who picked her up on San Bernardo Avenue. In the past 12 days, two women she knew had been murdered.

Speaker 4 She suddenly realizes this could be the killer terrorizing Laredo.

Speaker 4 She begins to get panicked and she's trying to leave the vehicle and a struggle happens and he ends up ripping off her shirt.

Speaker 4 It was at this service station that investigators got their big break. A state trooper was pumping gas here when a shirtless woman ran up to him saying that a man was trying to kill her.

Speaker 4 And it was all captured on those security cameras.

Speaker 4 So on that night, night, I finished refueling. All of a sudden I see the lady coming from the side of the store, kind of rapid, walking towards my patrol car.

Speaker 32 He took out the gun and he wanted me to get in. And I started yelling, help me, help me.

Speaker 7 Yes, if where? Did he leave already?

Speaker 6 Yes, I got really scared.

Speaker 4 She had mentioned to me that she just had gotten assaulted by an individual and that this individual pointed a gun at her. I know, because it's a shock.
I mean, you just escaped from

Speaker 4 a possible kidnap.

Speaker 32 It's just that suddenly i had a feeling sir of something about him

Speaker 30 and it got very weird all of a sudden i got invited

Speaker 35 a bad vibe

Speaker 4 did he assault you when he took your shirt off

Speaker 32 when he took my shirt off i took my shirt off to get out

Speaker 4 they take her to the substation where she begins to tell a story and she begins to explain about this one guy named david who drives a white truck she even says that i was at his house tonight before I escaped.

Speaker 32 A very pretty house.

Speaker 24 Very pretty.

Speaker 4 I would imagine he might work in the oil fields, right?

Speaker 4 That's what you think.

Speaker 32 Well, he lives well.

Speaker 9 He lives well.

Speaker 4 They start canvassing that area with Erica in the car, and she points out the house where she had been. With a search warrant, we got into the house.
Noah was home.

Speaker 4 He had an AR-15 and pistols and they were staged ready for use. What did that tell you? That he was ready to shoot it out for anybody knocking on his door.

Speaker 4 A record search showed that the homeowner's name was Juan David Ortiz. Police issued an alert and started looking for him.

Speaker 4 That night, we were actively patrolling 35. Receive a bolo with the

Speaker 4 picture of the suspect that we were looking for, along with the license plate number.

Speaker 4 Four hours have passed since Erica escaped from Ortiz's truck, and now, seven miles away, that same truck is spotted at another gas station.

Speaker 4 One of the troopers saw the vehicle and eventually matched it with a license plate.

Speaker 4 And they waited for the person to come out of the gas station.

Speaker 40 Stop right there. Stop, stop, stop, stop.

Speaker 40 Stop.

Speaker 40 Is this your truck? Is this your truck?

Speaker 37 Okay, all right.

Speaker 40 Turn around.

Speaker 37 Turn around.

Speaker 4 He was saying, you're scaring me. What's going on? And then

Speaker 4 that's when he decided to run.

Speaker 40 Turn around, please.

Speaker 37 Turn around. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!

Speaker 40 Hey!

Speaker 4 Hey! Running at full speed, the troopers have their body cams on and you see the footage as the foot chase begins.

Speaker 22 Where's he at, bro?

Speaker 40 No, bro.

Speaker 4 He went out here. He's in here.
He came back up westbound onto the other streets.

Speaker 4 When he hooked up to go to the garage ramp,

Speaker 4 that's when we both lost sight.

Speaker 4 So after regrouping, backup does show up. Troopers, Webb County SO, Laredo PD.

Speaker 4 You have multiple law enforcement agencies basically barricading the whole hotel. Kind of make it seem like the movies.

Speaker 4 The police activity even attracted Priscilla Villarreal, known to her Facebook followers as La Gordi Loca.

Speaker 5 All I know that Texas Rangers, DPS, Little Radio Police Department, Sheriff's Department are here at this time.

Speaker 4 She live streams the event from her phone.

Speaker 5 Everybody has their firearms at hand.

Speaker 4 Priscilla isn't the only one posting social media updates.

Speaker 8 From his hiding spot, Juan David Ortiz hears police closing in on him and sends ominous messages online to family and co-workers.

Speaker 4 He turns to his social media page and starts to send messages

Speaker 4 on Facebook saying, you know, this is Doc.

Speaker 4 I'm signing out. To my wife and kids, he said, I love you.
Farewell. So he's checking out.

Speaker 4 They started going up the parking garage and they were doing a very thorough search. They clear floor by floor.
They were checking doors, cars, you know, every corner that he could potentially be at.

Speaker 4 They finally get to the top floor where they see a black truck.

Speaker 4 He was laying face up in the truck, and uh, at that point, we just, you know, we grabbed him.

Speaker 38 Yes, it is. That's it.

Speaker 3 Relax, relax.

Speaker 37 Where's the weapon at, man? Hey, where's the weapon?

Speaker 37 Where'd you leave it?

Speaker 3 What's your name, bro?

Speaker 3 Huh? You already know.

Speaker 3 You already know.

Speaker 38 Tonight, a terrifying arrest in Texas.

Speaker 8 Police think they've stopped the San Bernardo killer, but when they learn who Juan David Ortiz is, it raises more questions than answers.

Speaker 4 I really couldn't believe it.

Speaker 4 Somewhere in the course of that evening,

Speaker 4 they find out that he's law enforcement.

Speaker 4 Investigators say minutes before he's captured, people at the Border Patrol Intelligence Center suddenly realize Juan David Ortiz is actually Agent Juan David Ortiz.

Speaker 4 They call him and told him, hey, the guy you're looking for is, you know, one of our guys, supervisor. I'm completely shocked.

Speaker 4 I'm disappointed, obviously, and I'm saddened by the news that it's an agent, you know, that they have in custody.

Speaker 20 This was a Border Patrol agent that people trusted. This was a law enforcement officer who was committing horrific crimes.

Speaker 4 It was here in this tiny interview room in this very chair that Juan David Ortiz sat handcuffed for nearly eight hours.

Speaker 4 One of the things that stands out during his interview is that the air of arrogance that he has. He even made fun of the troopers that chased him on foot for being out of shape.

Speaker 40 Turn around, please. Turn around.

Speaker 37 Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

Speaker 35 Who's the trooper I suppose, man?

Speaker 35 Tell him he needs to work out some more fans.

Speaker 4 Juan David Ortiz was 35, married for 14 years to a woman he met in high school. They're raising their three children in a comfortable home north of Laredo.

Speaker 4 Grew up in Brownsville, served a tour in the Middle East. He was a medic

Speaker 4 in the Navy and he was assigned to a Marine unit. He helped save people.
He did.

Speaker 13 I am sickened and saddened by the events that have occurred and offer my deepest condolences to the families and the friends of the victims.

Speaker 4 There was nothing in his background, certainly, that would have alerted CBP or have indicated that Mr. Ortiz was capable of anything like this and nothing disciplinary.

Speaker 4 This clean-cut guy sipping water, fixing his hair, lounging, could he be the guy hunting the streets of Laredo, haunting the border town with a series of execution-style murders.

Speaker 4 The next eight hours will tell.

Speaker 4 It has to be one of the top, if not the top, interview that I've done in this room here.

Speaker 35 What's your name?

Speaker 35 You guys are ready.

Speaker 4 And in the early stages of the interview, what was his demeanor like? He was evasive,

Speaker 4 didn't want to really cooperate.

Speaker 4 There's no doubt in their mind that he is the person. The big challenge is going to be, is he going to be willing to talk?

Speaker 35 Do you have something against drug users?

Speaker 35 Do you have something against prostitutes?

Speaker 19 And he starts talking about how he needs help in the VA and how he's been affected with the medicines.

Speaker 35 I confirmed that I got PTSD.

Speaker 35 They

Speaker 35 put me on all those pills, on sleeping pills, migraine pills, all kinds of

Speaker 35 seen a psychiatrist a bunch of times.

Speaker 4 And there's one word that comes out sort of at the beginning of the interview that's interesting, and it's the Texas Ranger that interjects it.

Speaker 35 Has there ever come a time where you blackout that you don't know what you did?

Speaker 35 Is it like often or?

Speaker 4 Ortiz

Speaker 4 jumps at it and he runs with it. I'm gonna say I had a blackout.
I had a blackout.

Speaker 35 Started blacking out really.

Speaker 35 When that started happening.

Speaker 35 When I drank.

Speaker 35 I took those pills. I take the pills every day.
So in other words, when I drank those pills.

Speaker 4 Initially, he completely denied knowing who Erica was.

Speaker 4 And unbeknownst to him, Erica is just down the hall giving an interview to police. That's right.
So Erica has already given all this information.

Speaker 32 Yes, it seems to me that, yes, he had to pass through here.

Speaker 8 So it's further over there?

Speaker 28 Yes, sir.

Speaker 15 He passed through here to get to his house.

Speaker 8 Over there.

Speaker 32 He lives over there.

Speaker 4 Now we know he's lying because we know Erica was in his house. Erica was able to describe his house particularly inside and out.

Speaker 32 You go inside, then on this side, you see the kitchen, the sofas, and a TV and a long table. And there is a door to exit towards the back over there.

Speaker 4 Little by little, the investigator and the ranger are able to confront him with evidence. Physical evidence, photographic evidence.

Speaker 35 Look at all this home, please.

Speaker 35 I smell this.

Speaker 35 Ordinary Smith and Wesley from the back of the head.

Speaker 35 More than once.

Speaker 35 Back of the head. So more than one shot.
That's why I said more than once.

Speaker 8 The investigators show Ortiz photos of his alleged victims, Melissa Ramirez and Claudine Luera, before and after pictures, alive and dead.

Speaker 35 That's Claudine when she was alive.

Speaker 35 This is what she looked like before.

Speaker 35 That's what she looked like after after you.

Speaker 35 After she had an encounter with you.

Speaker 35 This is what Melissa looks like before.

Speaker 35 This is actually a pretty good woman. And this is what happened to Melissa after.
She left five kids behind.

Speaker 4 So they start to talk to him about the ballistics, matching the casings to his gun.

Speaker 35 And the shell casings we picked up, all 40 caliber.

Speaker 35 Awesome as the west, 40 cal.

Speaker 35 The same type of ammo you have in your service system.

Speaker 4 Also in his vehicle, he has two women's purses.

Speaker 4 I didn't leave anything else in the pickup truck.

Speaker 6 My little purse, a little flowered purse that I had with me.

Speaker 4 So back here is where some of the belongings were.

Speaker 4 There were makeup bags or purses.

Speaker 35 Let me start showing you some stuff.

Speaker 35 Please look at your truck. Not your wife.

Speaker 4 There's a turning point in this story that's very dramatic. He starts to fidget with his handcuffs.

Speaker 4 I turned to everybody in the rooms. I said, guys, get ready.
Here it comes.

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Speaker 35 I didn't do any of the

Speaker 35 guys we said. You didn't do it, or you agree?

Speaker 35 I mean, that's pretty dramatic. I'm sure I would remember something like that.
That's how I'm sure you do.

Speaker 4 The interview of Border Patrol agent and now multiple murder suspect Juan David Ortiz is looking hopeless. He was uncooperative, manipulative, playing games with the investigators.

Speaker 35 I may remember this one.

Speaker 35 You tell me,

Speaker 35 you tell me.

Speaker 8 The first sign of emotion comes when Ortiz asks for a photo of his family from his phone.

Speaker 8 He reacts to nothing except his family, which is really interesting. I mean, cold, cold, cold.
And then the one time he reacts is with his family.

Speaker 35 Do you know what y'all wearing?

Speaker 35 It was with Mother's Day.

Speaker 4 The investigators say they'll try.

Speaker 8 Ortiz submits to a DNA sample

Speaker 8 and photos.

Speaker 8 Then the Border Patrol agent gets a new uniform from Forest Green to Jailhouse Orange.

Speaker 35 My mom's very hard attack to see me. She really is.
She really is. I'm the pride and joy of the whole family.

Speaker 4 There's a turning point in this story that's very dramatic.

Speaker 35 You've served your country. You've done the right thing.
Help us right now. Help us through the right thing.
Help yourselves through the right thing.

Speaker 4 The turning point close to 11:30 in the morning is when he starts to fidget with his handcuffs.

Speaker 19 He kind of just like lets out this breath and he's like, okay, I'll tell you.

Speaker 35 No, he sounds a friend of mine. Not a friend of mine, but like a son of a friend.

Speaker 4 Here is that dramatic moment where Captain Calderon is removing the handcuffs. We felt like that was a moment, so we removed his cuffs.

Speaker 35 Take their rub.

Speaker 4 And sure enough, he let us have it.

Speaker 19 He eventually admits to

Speaker 19 knowing Erica and

Speaker 19 what happened between them.

Speaker 35 Erica was in my house.

Speaker 35 Erica was in my city.

Speaker 4 What did he tell you about the murders of Melissa and Claudine?

Speaker 4 He basically told us a story that when he was an Intel Border Patrol agent, he used to patrol those areas in San Bernardo.

Speaker 4 So he got to know the crack houses, he got to know the streetwalkers and stuff like that.

Speaker 19 And he starts off talking about Melissa, how he picked her up.

Speaker 4 He was friends with Melissa. He would take her to buy drugs.
That he would just take her to buy food.

Speaker 4 The night he killed Melissa Ramirez, Ortiz says she used drugs and passed out in his truck.

Speaker 35 Complete

Speaker 3 deep

Speaker 3 sleep.

Speaker 35 Driving around.

Speaker 18 He got annoyed.

Speaker 19 And he just shot her.

Speaker 4 What does he tell you about the murder weapon? He told us he used his

Speaker 4 HNK.40 caliber service pistol, what he used for work every day. His service revolver.

Speaker 35 I got in my truck and busted a U-turn.

Speaker 35 I came straight to my house to my young wife and kids.

Speaker 4 And he says these words around this time that were quite just

Speaker 4 shocking.

Speaker 35 This is where the monster came out of it.

Speaker 4 That's when the monster came out. You could see the monster coming out.
It kind of took me back because

Speaker 4 I don't know if you ever see the devil coming out of somebody. It's kind of like that.

Speaker 19 He was so callous about the way that he talked about the

Speaker 7 women.

Speaker 15 He didn't care.

Speaker 15 Why

Speaker 35 doesn't anybody take out these bitches like that?

Speaker 4 Does he ever tell you why he killed these women? His

Speaker 4 claim is that he was quote-unquote cleaning up the streets.

Speaker 35 The first one was that man.

Speaker 19 He willfully admits he's this vigilante trying to clean up the streets of Laredo.

Speaker 4 It's quite a contradiction. Correct.
Absolutely. He's buying them drugs.
He's paying these prostitutes himself. Correct.
And then he claims he's trying to clean it up.

Speaker 4 It was a poor attempt at justification for the horrible crimes he had committed.

Speaker 35 So I was like,

Speaker 35 so I convinced myself of that.

Speaker 4 That was his mindset: that these women, based on the choices that they have made, that they did not deserve to live, and that he was in a position to be judge, jury, and executioner.

Speaker 8 We'll just have a trial right here on the side of the road, and I'll take you out. What you're doing is wrong, it's illegal, you're not worthwhile.

Speaker 3 Goodbye.

Speaker 8 And that's just despicable.

Speaker 4 Ortiz says Claudine Luera, his second victim, realized in her final moments that he was the one who killed her friend, Melissa.

Speaker 35 Get out.

Speaker 35 She gets up. You're probably the killer.

Speaker 4 He takes her near the area where Melissa was killed.

Speaker 4 The outskirts of Lado.

Speaker 35 Did she take a comment or shouldn't take a

Speaker 35 I think she's not a movie.

Speaker 19 So, after confessing about Melissa, about Claudine,

Speaker 19 and about Erica, investigators ask him if there's anything else he'd like to get off his chest.

Speaker 4 And it was that proverbial last question that every cop asks: right?

Speaker 4 Is there anything else or anyone else you haven't told us about?

Speaker 4 The fear gripping Laredo, Texas now has a name. Juan David Ortiz, a Border Patrol agent killing the very people he was sworn to protect.

Speaker 35 I still remember that phone call, my mom.

Speaker 20 Scared.

Speaker 10 Mija, that they killed the girl.

Speaker 41 And then, I think a week later, Mija, another one? They killed another one, Mija.

Speaker 4 Elva Enriquez's daughter, 28-year-old Janelle Ortiz, was a regular on San Bernardo Avenue in September 2018 when the killings began.

Speaker 12 I did call Janelle because you just never know.

Speaker 12 She was like, no, yeah, I'm okay. You know, nothing will ever happen to me.
You know, all my angels protect me.

Speaker 8 When Janelle Ortiz came out as transgender, her mother was accepting. She refers to Janelle using male pronouns.

Speaker 39 So he started dressing as a girl, high heels, everything.

Speaker 4 You look beautiful, like those drag queens.

Speaker 6 I will just be safe.

Speaker 42 Come on, Diesenhauer.

Speaker 4 How would you describe her?

Speaker 12 Really friendly, really outgoing. She was really funny.

Speaker 4 By the time one David Ortiz is in that room with investigators, Janelle's family is frantic.

Speaker 4 You went to the streets at 2 in the morning looking for her.

Speaker 12 Yeah.

Speaker 4 You were wishing, hoping.

Speaker 27 I was praying, praying.

Speaker 8 Back in that room at the Webb County Sheriff's Substation, Juan David Ortiz finally reveals what he was doing in those missing hours before his capture.

Speaker 4 After Erica's escape at around 9, 9.15 15 p.m. on September 14th, we know that Juan David Ortiz goes back to his home and waits for law enforcement.
He's waiting for a confrontation.

Speaker 9 But he doesn't stay there. He doesn't wait for law enforcement.
He decides that he's going to go back to San Bernardino Avenue.

Speaker 4 The next time we see Juan David Ortiz is at the Murphy's gas station. This is somewhere between 1045 and 11 p.m.
on September the 14th. We have video surveillance of him going into the gas station.

Speaker 9 I just remember that they showed surveillance of him getting more Bud Light.

Speaker 4 He grabs three Bud Light tollies, brings them to the counter,

Speaker 4 walks out, and he drives away.

Speaker 4 It turns out that very night, Ortiz had unfinished business. After Erika Fenia escapes, he returns to his hunting ground, La Sambo.

Speaker 4 Even as police throw a dragnet across Laredo, in just two hours, between 11 p.m. and 1 in the morning, Ortiz kills again.

Speaker 4 He started telling us about Janel Ortiz

Speaker 4 and how he had just killed that person.

Speaker 35 Excellent the 15th, the starrings,

Speaker 35 there's gravel mountains.

Speaker 4 All the law enforcement around me jumps away from the table. They scoot their chairs back.
Everybody rushes for the door

Speaker 4 to get in their units to go find her. We got another body, bro.

Speaker 4 By the 15-mile marker or by some gravel pits.

Speaker 3 Another one?

Speaker 4 Some of the investigators from the Whip County Sheriff's Office went out there and confirmed that there was a body out there.

Speaker 4 He gave you information that only the killer would know, correctly.

Speaker 12 Sadly

Speaker 24 I get that phone call

Speaker 12 a phone call you never expect you know

Speaker 25 I went to my niece I prayed for two and a half hours

Speaker 19 I mean I know she had her battles she chose a path you know but she was loved very loved

Speaker 4 After killing Janelle, Ortiz returns yet again to San Bernardo Avenue. That's when he picks up Guiselda Hernandez-Cantú.

Speaker 13 She is to a sex worker.

Speaker 9 He takes her to the typical spot he goes to in the outskirts of Laredo.

Speaker 4 They park under the underpass and he tells her,

Speaker 4 San Antonio's to the north,

Speaker 4 Laredo's to the south. You go north.

Speaker 4 He's letting her go? He's letting her go.

Speaker 35 Why don't you just let him go?

Speaker 35 And I said, I want you to relay a position. She's like, what?

Speaker 35 I'm the one that did it.

Speaker 4 Guisenda takes a few steps away from his truck.

Speaker 4 She turns around and she comes back. She came back.
She came back to the truck and she tells him, what you need is God. And God can forgive you for whatever you've done.

Speaker 35 I'm telling you, walk away. Just walk away, okay? Walk away.

Speaker 19 Guisenda started talking to him, telling him about God.

Speaker 19 He didn't want to hear it.

Speaker 35 I'm telling you to walk away. You're not listening to me.

Speaker 4 Nonetheless,

Speaker 35 I just

Speaker 4 crossed the web interchange over here by Mile Marker 21.

Speaker 35 And

Speaker 4 there's a body. There's a person laying on the ground right underneath the bridge.

Speaker 4 Captain Fred Calderon gets a phone call and says, Captain, we found another one.

Speaker 4 As the Border Patrol agent confesses, an unsettling realization dawns on investigators. His job had given him access to the investigation all along.

Speaker 4 And so it became revealed that he did in fact have knowledge of the help that was being asked to investigate the murders that he had committed. The alleged killer had been helping the investigation.

Speaker 4 It sounds like something out of a movie.

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Speaker 6 A somber evening in downtown Laredo, one with tears of sadness over the tragic loss.

Speaker 6 This was the side over at San Agustin Plaza a few hours ago. Candles flickered over the memories of the four victims Juan David Ortiz admitted to taking.

Speaker 39 Everybody dressed in white t-shirts. Some had already the picture of their daughter or whoever it was.

Speaker 12 And like, this is me and all my siblings.

Speaker 7 And we're wearing shirts with my mom's face.

Speaker 28 People from the church came by

Speaker 39 and we're praying and we're talking.

Speaker 3 I was crying. I couldn't stop crying.

Speaker 38 Tonight, a terrifying arrest in Texas. Authorities say Juan David Ortiz, a U.S.
Border Patrol agent, is allegedly a calculated murderer.

Speaker 4 Was Agent Ortiz or the Border Patrol involved in the investigation? Ortiz did have knowledge of the requests being made at the time of Melissa's murder.

Speaker 4 In his confession, he talks about downplaying the requests.

Speaker 9 He was the one that law enforcement asked to help them help locate this license plate, help locate somebody, a suspect that we expect passing through this area.

Speaker 35 That's it, that's all they say.

Speaker 19 It was something out of a movie because the person you were looking for

Speaker 19 is the one responsible

Speaker 3 for helping you find the person responsible.

Speaker 4 What do you mean, a border patrol?

Speaker 3 And I was like,

Speaker 3 just in shock. I was like, what's wrong with him?

Speaker 4 It was at that courthouse behind me that the public got their first glimpse of Juan David Ortiz. Emotions ran high for the families of the victims who demanded justice.

Speaker 21 Border Patrol Agent Juan David Ortiz enters a plea of not guilty in court today.

Speaker 8 They bring him out in shackles. When they're bringing him back out, one of the moms, Melissa's mom, starts yelling at him.

Speaker 40 Martí Pazino!

Speaker 3 Martí, Segastiano! Order! Order!

Speaker 20 And she yells out in the courtroom, Assassino! Which is assassin.

Speaker 8 He turns around and

Speaker 3 smirks.

Speaker 3 Makes you think, like, what the hell? Like,

Speaker 15 no remorse whatsoever.

Speaker 4 Juan David Ortiz,

Speaker 4 you don't even want to hear his name.

Speaker 3 No.

Speaker 10 No.

Speaker 25 I feel a lot of anger.

Speaker 25 a lot of anger, a lot of resentment, and a lot of feelings of

Speaker 25 not being able to do something for Melissa.

Speaker 8 Ortiz's legal team quickly secures a change in venue in this high-profile capital murder case, and the trial is moved 150 miles north to San Antonio.

Speaker 8 Adding to the family's anguish, the pandemic delays the trial indefinitely.

Speaker 15 Anxiety to the max.

Speaker 15 It was the longest four years of my life.

Speaker 3 I had

Speaker 18 lost hopes already when COVID hit.

Speaker 4 You had lost hope?

Speaker 12 Yeah, I'm like,

Speaker 12 we're not going to get a justice.

Speaker 20 The high-profile trial that was moved from Webb County to Bear County is now underway.

Speaker 4 This case, the evidence will show,

Speaker 4 is about a man

Speaker 4 who betrayed his badge.

Speaker 4 He betrayed his country.

Speaker 4 He betrayed his family. He betrayed his community.

Speaker 4 In their opening statements, the defense paints Ortiz as a victim of PTSD, who they claim was prescribed a toxic mix of meds. They gave him a bunch of psychotic pills.

Speaker 4 You know, he's under a lot of stress. He starts drinking.
And then, yes, the issue of blackouts. That was my biggest fear, that they would go ahead and

Speaker 4 empathize with him and forget the victims. And my job was to put the victims, you know, front and center.

Speaker 4 They called Erica Pena.

Speaker 4 Good morning. Good morning.
Who was the most compelling witness? Erica Peña. Without a doubt.
Without a doubt. She came forward.
She went to San Antonio and she told the same story, almost fact by

Speaker 3 Inside the truck, tell us about what you remembered when he pulled the gun.

Speaker 13 He just pointed it right at me.

Speaker 4 When he pointed it at you, show the ladies and gentlemen, jury, where he pointed to you.

Speaker 3 Right here at my face.

Speaker 4 You've got somebody who's obviously intoxicated. She says she's intoxicated and her credibility is at issue.
At that time, you were still getting high ravian.

Speaker 42 Yeah, but to the point where I know what's going on.

Speaker 42 I was high, but I'm alert. I'm still alert.

Speaker 15 Erica Pena. She stood her ground and her testimonies were on fire.

Speaker 20 I know the defense tried to discredit her testimony, but her story

Speaker 20 from that day to the day she was in court years later was the exact same.

Speaker 20 When you see the dash cam video and the body cam video of that DPS trooper to when she's on the stand, it is the exact same. None of that changed.

Speaker 12 That was the most beautiful testimony. I know it was so hard for her and you can tell.
You can hear it in her voice and she's my hero.

Speaker 4 Can you make that tell?

Speaker 3 Yes.

Speaker 8 After eight days of testimony and nearly 200 exhibits, the state rests its case. The defense also rests without calling a single witness.
The The defense never denies Ortiz murdered these four women.

Speaker 8 Still, in their closing statement, they try to convince the jury that Ortiz is not a cold-blooded serial killer.

Speaker 4 Was it really a common scheme and plan? Was that really, did he have the capacity to do that? You have to decide. He served his country.

Speaker 4 And when he came back and he had issues, we did not take care of him. We created that problem.
We as a society did.

Speaker 4 And I would submit to you that given the evidence that we have, who this young man suddenly, after he starts taking these pills in February of 2018, to become this, is this guy really a serial killer?

Speaker 14 Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you will be able to see, hear, and analyze

Speaker 4 the confession. You will see him lie,

Speaker 4 lie, and lie, and lie. He took that first word

Speaker 4 Blackouts and he ran with it. Mr.
Perez comes up here and he asks

Speaker 4 Is Mr. Ortiz a serial killer?

Speaker 4 I'll answer that question.

Speaker 4 Mr. Ortiz was a serial killer then.

Speaker 4 A serial killer now.

Speaker 4 What really worried me about this case, that the jury would empathize with the defense.

Speaker 20 San Antonio is actually known as Military City. It's a huge military community.

Speaker 20 So I could see why Mr. Alanis was concerned.
And a Bear County jury is one that I can never predict.

Speaker 36 Following a week and a half of testimony and evidence presentations, 12 jurors will decide whether what was shown proves that Juan David Ortiz was responsible for the murders of Melissa Ramirez, Claudina Andruera, Griserda Hernandez-Cantú, and Janelle Ortiz.

Speaker 12 I was kind of doubting, like, oh man, this might not go in our favor.

Speaker 3 You were worried.

Speaker 12 Yeah.

Speaker 12 I was very worried. I was anxious.
I was like sick to my stomach. I couldn't imagine what was to come.

Speaker 4 Will the jury find the defendant Juan David Ortiz guilty of the offense of capital murder as charged in the indictment.

Speaker 9 When they said that he was guilty, I just said,

Speaker 25 Thank you, God.

Speaker 15 Hearing the word guilty

Speaker 15 was just such a relief.

Speaker 15 In my mind, it was just like, okay, it's over.

Speaker 9 And tears

Speaker 15 just start rolling down.

Speaker 12 That it was like

Speaker 19 I just wanted to scream of relief.

Speaker 4 Well,

Speaker 39 I had a heavy heart for four years.

Speaker 39 And

Speaker 41 when I heard it, it just went away.

Speaker 33 Finally, I had my justice.

Speaker 10 And I said, now you can write in hell.

Speaker 8 This guilty verdict for capital murder comes with an automatic sentence of life without parole.

Speaker 8 The possibility of death was taken off the table shortly before the trial started.

Speaker 4 We would have periodic meetings with the surviving family members. I wanted their input.
And there was one family member that stood out.

Speaker 4 That family member is Uselda's brother, Joey Cantu, who argues to spare Juan de Vertiz's life. He presents his case in a passionate statement to the court.

Speaker 12 He said, You know, I murdered or went to prison for murder and I served my time and I paid for what I did.

Speaker 4 When I was ran on parole, the sister of my victim wrote me and told me that she forgave me for what I had done.

Speaker 4 And now I find myself here in front of the person who killed my little sister.

Speaker 4 And I want you to know that I forgive you. And I hold no ill will towards you, but

Speaker 4 did you want Ortiz to face the death penalty?

Speaker 12 I did. I did until I met Joey.

Speaker 4 I had literally representatives from the victims' families

Speaker 4 come together and unanimously ask me to abandon the death penalty and pursue life without the possibility of parole. And that they felt that that was justice.

Speaker 4 The families of the victims may have agreed to show mercy, but not all were willing to forgive.

Speaker 12 You deserve to suffer in prison and go to hell.

Speaker 9 You said you wanted to clean up the streets of Laredo.

Speaker 12 Our streets in Laredo will only be clean when people like you are put away in jail forever.

Speaker 20 This story is not about Juan De de Rustiz.

Speaker 20 It's about four women. who horrifically lost their lives, but should always be remembered for the loving women they were.

Speaker 12 I love to visit my mom and pray to her and just let you know affirm her and remind her that we're okay and we're here and we're always going to miss her.

Speaker 4 What life do you think your mother would want you to live?

Speaker 12 The life I'm living.

Speaker 4 The life Sierra is living when she works as a clerk here at the Webb County Sheriff's Office is something she would never have thought possible.

Speaker 12 Because I hated men in law enforcement after what happened to my mother. Like now, I've met some of the greatest people, especially Captain Calderon.

Speaker 12 You know, he was one of the main investigators in my mom's case, and he's my boss now.

Speaker 4 What lies ahead? Might you become an officer or go to law school?

Speaker 3 I want to.

Speaker 12 So, right now, I'm getting my degree in psychology and a minor in criminal justice.

Speaker 12 I think she would be so proud of me.

Speaker 4 And we should note tonight that from prison, Juan David Ortiz did send 2020 a message which included a litany of complaints about law enforcement.

Speaker 13 Yeah, but David, one thing he did not mention is the four women he's convicted of murdering. He's appealing that conviction.

Speaker 26 That's our program for tonight. Thanks so much for watching.
I'm Deborah Roberts.

Speaker 4 And I'm David Muir from All of Us Here at 2020 and ABC News. Good night.

Speaker 11 It's one of Britain's most notorious crimes: the killing of a wealthy family at Whitehouse Farm. But I got a tip that the story of this famous case might be all wrong.

Speaker 33 I know there's going to be a twist, won't they? A massive twist. At every level of the criminal justice system, there's been a cover-up in this case.

Speaker 11 I'm Heidi Blake. Blood Relatives is a new series from In the Dark and The New Yorker.
Find it now in the In the Dark podcast feed.