The One That Got Out (Rebroadcast)

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Everybody was scared that you were showing up to Loreto.

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

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

It is a female in her mid-30s.

It seemed like an actual execution.

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

What kind of person would do this?

A monster?

These back streets became a killer's hunting ground.

There was concern out there.

Could we be next?

And then another victim is found.

And I've got a female in the grass lane.

Come on, y'all.

Y'all gotta hurry.

And I think my whole neighborhood heard me scream.

Just to know that she was like left there

to die.

I'm.

I'm sorry.

Nobody deserves that.

Nobody.

We may have a serial killer on our hands.

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

And that's just the beginning of our nightmare.

That's just the beginning.

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

So we are in the back streets of San Bernardo Avenue in downtown Laredo,

commonly known as La Samber.

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

She stayed around this area.

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

Claudine Lueta was a mother.

She loved her five children and her family loved her.

Let's talk about your mom.

What was she like?

My mom, she was perfect.

She was beautiful.

She was funny.

She was the best cook ever.

You know, very thoughtful, very lovable.

Always reminding me how much she loved me.

We were, I think, well-grounded by my family.

And, you know, we didn't have much, but we had what we needed.

We were known as the Weritas, the little white girls, because my mother was originally from Glasgow, Scotland.

And my father, he was born and raised here in Laredo, Texas.

Family was very important for her.

She

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

So then she resorted to the streets.

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

And we started noticing more habits.

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

Did you worry about her safety?

Every day.

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.

Claudine was a woman who worked on San Bernardo Avenue.

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

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.

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

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.

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

Laredo is known for the jalapeno festival.

This town is called the Gateway City.

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

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.

I'm here driving by Jeffrey's Road.

I believe I I found a step party there.

I uncuerpo, please.

I'll go ahead and send somebody.

Okay, thank you.

She was found in Webb County in a colonia area.

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.

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

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.

What happened to about right here?

Right here.

It seemed like an actual execution.

Back of the head and shot her here.

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.

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.

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?

The

evidence that was

in the body.

I mean, the show cases were right there next to the body.

The eagle-eyed detectives find.40 caliber shell casings as well as distinct tire tread marks that appear to be from a pickup truck.

And where were the tire marks found?

Show me back here.

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

And then he just left her here.

Just left her.

What kind of person would do this?

A monster.

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.

I was extremely worried that that could have been my mother.

That was a fear, you know, I had every night growing up.

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

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

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

Two detectives go to your front door.

What do they say?

We found your daughter dead in a ranch up north.

I felt my blood left my body and I collapsed.

I collapsed.

I couldn't talk.

I could only cry and scream.

I grew up with Melissa since we were little.

We were best friends, so I know her since she was a baby.

Everybody just

loved being around her because she was always joking around singing and dancing and she was a human being a beautiful human being

I spoke to my mother, and you know, I was very relieved that it wasn't her.

She did share with me that somebody from Samber had been murdered.

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

What was their relationship like with Melissa?

They were

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

No one knew what happened, how it happened.

It was just a waiting game.

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.

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

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

Who was that person?

That person ended up being a police officer.

This photo here, I took it.

This one, too.

This one I also took.

That's with her little boy?

Si

when you remember your daughter, what do you think?

That I really miss her.

When do you think of her?

every day

every day i think of her

every day i miss her

at night i cry every day

you're lucky you took these pictures

good afternoon i'm brendan camacho it's a story that shook the laredo community melissa ramirez's body was found on us 83 north near camino colombia road

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.

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.

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.

How did she start working at San Bernardo Avenue?

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

She never told you.

I didn't know that.

I didn't know anything.

I never saw her.

Never saw her drink or do drugs.

Whatever she did, she did, and who was we to judge?

What if she was going to already leave that live?

We don't know.

She was private.

She was very, very private.

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.

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

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

She was ashamed.

But addicted, right?

And she was like severely addicted to heroin.

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

When Melissa did go out, did you worry?

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

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

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

She told me, they're going to kill me just like that.

They're going to kill me with a gun like this.

It's like she saw the future.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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 to get research done.

And they had 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.

Law enforcement is able to identify the driver.

Who was that person?

That person ended up being a police officer.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

The victim in this case is 29-year-old Melissa Darmita.

So far, no arrests have been made.

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

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.

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.

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.

He was a regular

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.

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

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

Anything could have happened in that situation.

He could be armed and dangerous.

Investigators were prepared for a confrontation.

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.

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.

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?

Is he armed in dangerous?

Law enforcement had a clock that was ticking.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

At the end, his story checked out.

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

Correct.

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

Correct.

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, but at the end of the day, they weren't panning out as viable suspects.

Were you praying for

the killer to be found?

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.

Who took your life?

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

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

We weren't sleeping.

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.

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

We were out there every day talking to people,

visiting different, you know, residences and businesses, driving up and down San Bernardo and 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.

Old-fashioned police work.

Exactly.

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.

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

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

I think their friends that worked in the same

industry probably pieced it together first.

Somebody's going around killing our friends.

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 Sanvo.

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?

Um,

I don't know exactly how to say.

I don't really know how to explain explain myself.

I guess necessities.

You heard what happened.

How scary was that to you?

Very.

I actually was asleep that night.

I was going to be out here, you know, and thankfully I was asleep.

You were going to be out here that night?

Yeah.

You know, because I'm always around here.

So.

Yeah.

How dangerous is it?

Very.

You never know whose car you're getting into.

Yeah.

Why do you do it?

I really don't know.

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

It's dangerous.

Do you think you'll ever leave the streets?

Yes.

All right.

Be careful, okay?

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

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

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?

She was afraid.

She was worried.

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.

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

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

In the days following Melissa's murder, there have been no arrests.

No arrests.

Are you feeling pressure from the community?

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

in this manner.

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

She's just as important as every other person.

So the community wanted answers and they wanted to prevent it from happening again.

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

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.

There was concern out there.

Could we be next?

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

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

And that's just the beginning of our nightmare.

That's just the beginning.

This show is supported by Unicorn Girl, an Apple original podcast.

Meet Candace, mother of two, nurse, CEO, and founder of multi-million dollar companies.

Candace went from being a stay-at-home mom to making millions traveling the world and saving lives.

There was just one problem.

Was it all a lie, or was it all true?

It turns out the truth might be even harder to believe.

From the creator of Scamanda, this is Unicorn Girl, an Apple original podcast produced by Seven Hills.

Apple TV Plus subscribers get special early access to the entire season.

Follow and listen on Apple Podcasts.

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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.

Ten days into the investigation, we still didn't have much.

We still didn't have much.

And then another victim was found.

Correct.

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.

That's okay.

And I've met a female in the grass lane.

He initially thought that she probably got hit by a car.

But then closer inspection,

he learned she was shot.

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 was probably there laying for hours before law enforcement found her.

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.

Was she able to give you a description of her assailant?

No, she really couldn't process

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

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

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

There were a lot of personal belongings.

And even her shoes were there.

There was 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.

My husband told me I saw it on the news, it said second victim found.

I didn't know anything.

Nobody knew anything.

It was a similar circumstance to Melissa.

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?

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

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.

We have to find her.

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

And what happens?

You get a phone call?

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

And she tells me the most beautiful things, like, chula armos apreciosa, like that I love more than anything in this world to infinity and beyond.

It was like the most beautifulest message she had sent.

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.

Captain Calderon responded and I responded as well.

After surveying the scene, collecting some of the stuff that she had,

We learned her name.

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

Well, her kids are about to come home from school.

I go, What am I supposed to tell them?

I go, She's not answering her phone.

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

And at that point, I just lost it.

I think my whole neighborhood heard me scream.

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

The images that I saw,

you know, of the blood on the ground and how much blood.

It could look almost like she dragged her body.

And she fought.

And she fought very hard.

That, just to know that she was like left there to die.

I mean.

I'm sorry.

Nobody deserves that.

Nobody.

She had such a good heart.

She was just the sweetest lady.

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.

What really went through my mind was that

she was still alive.

She was on the side of the road and he threw her like trash.

So who does that, you know?

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.

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

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

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

That's correct.

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?

You know, he was trying to tie up Lucen's.

We can speculate, but that's too much of a coincidence.

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.

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

this is real.

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.

The information that was relayed to me was: Mr.

DA, we have another one.

We have a female works in prostitution, shot execution style.

Very similar.

Very similar.

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 Sandburg.

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

Some serial killers choose sex workers because they presume no one will care.

But in Laredo, they cared.

Law enforcement took this seriously.

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.

The same thing.

Same thing.

Almost showing it off.

Almost showing it off, you know, and that's the challenge.

There's the body.

Good luck finding the killer.

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.

They were able to recover a very good rateable cast of the tire tread, which matched the tire tread in the first area.

Crime scene two,

crime scene one, matched.

But that's not all.

The shell cases recovered from Claudine's murder appear to match the gun used to kill Melissa.

We are at 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.

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.

So the firing pin, when it strikes the back of the case, it leaves a very specific indentation.

Right here?

Yes, 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?

They're being reckless, which is good for us.

Police are still not releasing much information.

We knew of the coverage of these murders,

but police weren't saying much.

You must have tried to keep the facts of the case out of the media initially.

That's hard to do, obviously.

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

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.

The thought of a serial killer in a community like ours was unfathomable.

And now that it was real, it brought along real fears.

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

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

That is what I'm thinking.

This is going to continue unless we stop this person and the very next day after claudine lueta's murder investigators get a call about a possible third victim

it's early evening on san garnardo avenue a man picks up sex worker erica bena

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

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.

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

She tries to calm him down and saying, if you were involved with her, That's no big deal.

You didn't kill her.

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

That statement set off alarm bells for Erica.

She is trying to find a way to get out.

She starts getting sick to her stomach.

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.

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

In that moment, Erica comes face to face

with a killer.

And that's when he pulls his.40 caliber HK and points it at her.

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.

Stop right there.

Stop, stop, stop, stop.

Hey, hey, hey, hey.

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

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

And he got very weird all of a sudden.

I got invited.

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

The killer had used that type of gun.

We got another body, bro, by the 15-mile marker.

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.

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

You could see the monster coming out.

I don't know if you ever see the devil coming out of somebody.

Kind of like that.

My dear Christina, Melissa, we're inseparable.

You know, and that's the thing that gets me: it's like,

why did you have to take her?

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

The biggest similarity is that they were both sex workers.

They both worked on San Bernardo.

And also, Luera was found not far.

from where Melissa was found.

Families were telling their loved ones, be careful when you go out there.

Something's going on.

26-year-old Erica Pena 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.

She suddenly realizes this could be the killer terrorizing Laredo.

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.

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.

And it was all captured on those security cameras.

So on that 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.

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

Yes, I got really scared.

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

a possible kidnap.

It's just that suddenly I had a feeling, sir, of something about him.

I got invited.

A bad vibe.

Did he assault you when when he took your shirt off?

When he took my shirt off, I took my shirt off to get out.

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.

A very pretty house.

Very pretty.

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

That's what you think.

Well, he lives well.

He lives well.

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.

No one was home.

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 at his door.

A record search showed that the homeowner's name was Juan David Ortiz.

Police issued an alert and started looking for him.

That night, we were actively patrolling 35.

Receive a bolo with

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

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.

One of the troopers saw the vehicle and eventually matched it with a license plate, and they waited for the person to come out of the gas station.

Stop right there.

Stop, stop, stop, stop.

Stop.

Is this your truck?

Is this your truck?

Okay, all right.

Turn around.

Turn around.

He was saying you're scaring me.

What's going on?

And then

that's when he decided to run.

Turn around.

Please.

Turn around.

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!

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

Where's he at?

No, bro.

He went out here.

He's in here.

He came back up westbound onto the other streets.

When he hooked up to go to the garage ramp,

that's when we both lost sight.

So after regrouping, backup does show up.

Troopers, Wave County SO, the Rado PD.

You have multiple law enforcement agencies basically barricading the whole hotel, kind of making it seem like the movies.

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

All I know that Texas Rangers, DPS, the Laredo Police Department, Sheriff's Department are here at this time.

She live streams the event from her phone.

Everybody has their firearms at hand.

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

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

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

on Facebook saying, you know, this is Doc.

I'm signing out.

To my wife and kids, he said, I love you.

farewell so he's checking out

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

they finally get to the top floor where they see a black truck

he was laying face up in the trunk and uh at that point we just you know we grabbed him

Tonight a terrifying arrest in Texas

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

I really couldn't believe it.

Somewhere in the course of that evening,

they find out that he's law enforcement.

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.

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.

I'm disappointed.

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

This was a Border Patrol agent that people trusted.

This was a law enforcement officer who was committing horrific crimes.

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

One of the things that stands out during his interview is that air of arrogance that he has.

He even made fun of the troopers that chased him on foot for being out of shape.

Turn around, please.

Turn around.

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,

hey, hey.

It was the trooper I spoke to.

The trooper couldn't keep up with me, dude.

Tell him he used to work out some more, man.

Two.

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.

Grew up in Brownsville, served a tour in the Middle East.

He was a medic

in the Navy and he was assigned to a Marine unit.

He helped save people.

He did.

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.

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.

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?

The next eight hours will tell.

Hello, sir.

Hello?

Hello?

Do you know okay?

Good, good.

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

What's your name?

You guys are in.

And in the early stages of the interview, what was his demeanor like?

He was evasive,

didn't want to really cooperate.

you're thinking, why

it doesn't drive local things.

You want me to explain something that I

don't know Jack about.

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?

Do you have something against drug users?

Do you have something against prostitutes?

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

I've confirmed that I got PTSD.

They

put me on all those pills, on sleeping pills, mining pills, all kinds of

seen a psychiatrist a bunch of times.

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.

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

Is it like often or?

Ortiz

jumps at it and he runs with it.

I'm going to say I had a blackout.

I had a blackout.

Started blacking out

when that's where it happened

when I drank.

I took those pills.

I take the pills every day, so in other words, when I drank this pill.

Initially, he completely denied knowing who Erica was.

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.

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

So it's further over there?

Yes, sir.

He passed through here to get to his house.

Over there.

He lives over there.

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.

You go inside, then on this side, you see the kitchen, the sofas, and a TV, and a long table.

table.

And there is a door to exit towards the back over there.

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

Physical evidence, photographic evidence.

Look at my phone, please.

That's Melissa.

Where do you come from Smith and Western from the back of the head?

More than once.

Back of the head.

So more than one shot.

That's why I said more than one.

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

That's Claudine when she was alive.

This is what she looked like before.

That's what she looked like after you.

After she had an encounter with you.

This is what Melissa looks like before.

This is actually her in the village.

And this is what happened to Melissa after.

She left five kids behind.

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

And the shell casings were picked up, all 40 caliber.

Awesome as the women, 40 caliber.

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

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

He didn't leave anything else in the pickup truck.

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

So back here is where some of the belongings were.

There were makeup bags or purses.

Let me start showing you some stuff.

Not your wife.

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

He starts to fidget with his handcuffs.

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I'm sure I would remember something like that.

That's how I'm sure you.

The interview of Border Patrol Agent and now multiple murder suspect Juan David Rotiz is looking hopeless.

He was uncooperative, manipulative, playing games with the investigators.

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

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.

The investigators say they'll try.

Ortiz submits to a DNA sample.

and photos.

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

My mom's very hard in Texas, you know.

She really is.

She really is.

I'm the part and joy of the whole family.

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

You serve your country.

You've done the right thing.

Help us for now.

Help us do the right thing.

Help yourself through the right thing.

The turning point close to 11.30 in the morning is when he starts to fidget with his handcuffs.

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

No, he sounds a friend of mine, not a friend of mine, but like a son of a friend.

Here is that dramatic moment where Captain Calderon is removing the handcuffs.

We felt like that was a moment, so we removed his cuffs.

And sure enough, he let us have it.

He eventually admits to knowing Erica and

what happened between them.

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

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

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

And he starts off talking about Melissa,

how he picked her up.

He was friends with Melissa.

He would take her to buy drugs, that he would just take her to buy food.

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

Complete

deep f ⁇ asleep.

He got annoyed.

And he just shot her.

What does he tell you about the murder weapon?

He told us he used his

H ⁇ K 40 caliber service pistol.

what he used for work every day.

His service revolver.

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

I go straight to my house to find out my case.

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

shocking.

This is where a monster came out of it.

That's when the monster came out.

You could see the monster coming out.

It kind of took me back because I don't know if you ever see the devil coming out of somebody.

It's kind of like that.

He was so callous about the way that he talked about

the women.

He didn't care.

Does he ever tell you why he killed these women?

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

The first one was not planned.

After that, I saw it like

this

is stupid.

Like, I'm not going to clean up the streets and my home is going to f ⁇ .

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

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.

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

So I was like, you know,

people,

so I convinced myself of that.

That was his mindset.

That these women, based on the choices that they had made, that they did not deserve to live.

and that he was in a position to be judge, jury, and executioner.

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.

Goodbye.

And that's just despicable.

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

You're probably to kill me.

You're probably to

You're probably get out.

She gets up.

You're probably kidding.

He takes her near the area where Melissa was killed.

The outskirts of Laredo.

Did she take me or should it take home?

She saw it.

So after confessing about Melissa, about Claudine,

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

And it was that proverbial last question that every cop asks, right?

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

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.

I still remember the phone call my mom, scared.

Mija, that they killed a girl.

And then, I think a week later, Mija, another one?

They killed another one, Mija.

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

I did call Janelle because you just never know.

She was like, no, yeah, I'm okay.

You know, nothing will ever happen to me.

You know, all my angels protect me.

When Janelle Ortiz came out as transgender, her mother was accepting.

She refers to Janelle using male pronouns.

So you started dressing as a girl, high heels, everything.

You look beautiful, like those drag queens.

i would just be safe come on decent hour

how would you describe her really friendly really outgoing she was really funny

by the time one david rotiz is in that room with investigators janelle's family is frantic

you went to the streets at two in the morning looking for her yeah

you were wishing hoping i was praying praying

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.

After Erica's escape at around 9, 9.15 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.

Grab my 9-0, I got my 40k, I'll start loading them.

I've got my M-15, start loading them.

But he doesn't stay there.

He doesn't wait for law enforcement.

He decides that he's going to go back to San Bernardo Avenue.

The next time we see Juan David Ortiz is at the Murphy's gas station.

This is somewhere between 10.45 and 11 p.m.

on September the 14th.

We have video surveillance of him going into the gas station.

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

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

walks out, and he drives away.

It turns out that very night, Ortiz had unfinished business.

After Eric Apene escapes, he returns to his hunting ground, La Sambur.

Even as police throw a dragnet across Laredo, in just two hours, between 11 p.m.

and 1 in the morning, Ortiz

kills again.

He started telling us about Janelle Ortiz

and how he had just killed that person.

Incident the 17, there's barricades.

There's gravel mountains.

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.

We got another body, bro.

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

Another one?

That's another one.

Yeah.

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

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

Exactly,

I got that phone call.

A phone call you never expect, you know?

I went to my niece.

I prayed for two and a half hours.

I mean, I know she had her battles.

She chose the path, you know, but she was loved.

Very loved.

After killing Janelle, Ortiz returns yet again to San Bernardo Avenue.

That's when he picks up Guiselda Hernandez-Cantú.

She is to a sex worker.

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

They park under the underpass and he tells her,

San Antonio's to the north,

Laredo's to the south.

You go north.

He's letting her go.

He's letting her go.

She's like, what?

I heard about all this.

I'm the one that did it.

Muse Giselda takes a few steps away from his truck.

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.

I'm telling you to walk away.

Just walk away, okay?

Walk away.

Giselda started talking to him, telling him about God.

He didn't want to hear it.

I'm telling you to walk away, but you're not listening to me.

Nonetheless,

I just

crossed the blade interchange over here by Mile Marker 21, and

there's a body.

There's a person laying on the ground right underneath the bridge.

Captain Ferl Calderon gets a phone call and says, Captain, we found another one.

As the the Border Patrol agent confesses, an unsettling realization dawns on investigators.

His job had given them access to the investigation all along.

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.

It sounds like something out of a movie.

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

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.

Everybody dressed in white t-shirts.

Some had already the picture of their daughter or whoever it was.

And like, this is me and all my siblings.

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

People from the church came by and we're praying and we're talking.

I was crying.

I couldn't stop crying.

Tonight, a terrifying arrest in Texas.

Authorities say Juan David Ortiz, a U.S.

Border Patrol agent, is allegedly a calculated murderer.

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.

In his confession, he talks about downplaying the requests.

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.

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

is the one responsible

for helping you find the person responsible.

What do you mean, a Border Patrol?

And I was like,

just in shock.

I was like, what's wrong with him?

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.

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

They bring him out in shackles.

When they're bringing him back out, one of the moms, Melissa's mom, starts yelling at him.

Marco Cassino!

Marquis Sargastiano!

Order!

Order!

Marquis!

And she yells out in the courtroom, Assassino!

Which is assassin.

He turns around and

smirks.

Makes you think, like, what the hell?

Like,

no remorse whatsoever.

Juan David Ortiz, you don't even want to hear his name.

No.

No.

I feel a lot of anger.

A lot of anger, a lot of resentment, and a lot of feelings of

not being able to do something for Melissa.

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.

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

Anxiety to the max.

It was the longest four years of my life.

I had

lost hopes already when COVID hit.

You had lost hope?

Yeah, I'm like,

we're not going to get her justice.

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

This case, the evidence will show,

is about a man

who betrayed his badge.

He betrayed his country.

He betrayed his family.

He betrayed his community.

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.

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

empathize with him and forget the victims.

And my job was to put the victims, you know, front and center.

They called Erica Pena.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Who was the most compelling witness?

Erica Pena.

Without a doubt.

Without a doubt.

She came forward.

She went to San Antonio and she told the same story, almost fact by fact.

Inside the truck, tell us about what you remember when he pulled the gun.

He just pointed it right at me.

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

Right here at my face.

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 raving.

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

I was high, but...

I'm alert.

I'm still alert.

Erica Pena.

She stood her ground and her testimonies were on fire.

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

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

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.

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.

Can you make that tell?

Yes.

After eight days of testimony and nearly 200 exhibits, the state rests its case.

The defense also rests without calling a single witness.

The defense never denies Ortiz murdered these four women.

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

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 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.

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?

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you will be able to see, hear, and analyt

the confession.

You will see him lie,

lie, and lie, and lie.

He took that first word,

blackouts, and he ran with it.

Mr.

Perez comes up here and he asks,

is Mr.

Ortiz a serial killer?

I'll answer that question.

Mr.

Ortiz was a serial killer then,

a serial killer now.

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

San Antonio is actually known as Military City.

It's a huge military community, so I could see why Mr.

Alanis was concerned.

And a Bear County jury is one that I can never predict.

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, Vicerda Hernandez-Cantú, and Janelle Ortiz.

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

You were worried.

Yeah,

I was very worried.

I was anxious.

I was like sick to my stomach.

I couldn't imagine what was to come.

We, the jury, find the defendant Juan David Ortiz guilty of the offense of capital murder as charged in the indictment.

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

Thank you, God.

Hearing the word guilty

was just such a relief.

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

And tears just start rolling down.

That it was like

I just wanted to scream of relief.

Well,

I had a heavy heart for four years.

And

when I heard it, it just went away.

Finally, I had my justice.

And I said, now you can write in hell.

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

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

We would have periodic meetings with the surviving family members.

I wanted their input and there was one family member that stood out.

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.

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

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

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

And I want you to know that I forgive you.

And I hold no ill will towards you, but.

Did you want Ortiz to face the death penalty?

I did.

I did until I met Joey.

I had literally representatives from the victims' families

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.

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

You deserve to suffer in prison and go to hell.

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

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

This story is not about Juan De Berstiz.

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

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.

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

The life I'm living.

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.

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.

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

What lies ahead?

Might you become an officer or go to law school?

I want to.

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

I think she would be so proud of me.

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.

Yeah, but David, one thing he did not mention is the four women he's convicted of murdering.

He's appealing that conviction.

That's our program for tonight.

Thanks so much for watching.

I'm Deborah Roberts.

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

Good night.

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