Speaker 1: This story contains adult content and language. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2: So now they got two women, both shot in the
Speaker 2: back of the head with forty caliber bullets, and they
Speaker 2: realize that now they have a serial color on their hands.
Speaker 3: I'm Kate Winkler Dawson, a nonfiction author and journalism professor
Speaker 3: in Austin, Texas.
Speaker 1: I'm also the co.
Speaker 3: Host of the podcast Buried Bones on Exactly Right, and
Speaker 3: throughout my career, research for my many audio and book
Speaker 3: projects has taken me around the world. On Wicked Words,
Speaker 3: I sit down with the people I've met along the way,
Speaker 3: amazing writers, journalists, filmmakers, and podcasters who have investigated and
Speaker 3: reported on notorious true crime cases. This is about the
Speaker 3: choices writers make, both good and bad, and it's a
Speaker 3: deep dive into the unpublished details behind their stories. On
Speaker 3: this week's episode of Wicked Words, we're traveling to the
Speaker 3: Texas border town of Laredo, when four vulnerable women are murdered.
Speaker 3: Police suspected that a well respected US Border Patrol agent
Speaker 3: has turned into a serial killer. Author Rick Jervis tells
Speaker 3: me the story behind his book The Devil Behind the Badge,
Speaker 3: The Horrifying twelve Days of the Border Patrol Serial Killer.
Speaker 3: Where does it make sense for you to start the story.
Speaker 2: Well, it takes place right in Laredo, so we could
Speaker 2: start there. And also San Bernando Avenue is a major
Speaker 2: character like in the book also, so we could talk
Speaker 2: about that as well and give a backdrop.
Speaker 3: I mean, normally I say, what was Laredo like in
Speaker 3: blah blah blah, But you know, whatever the year is,
Speaker 3: but this is so recent. What is Laredo like now?
Speaker 3: Unless things have dramatically changed since twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2: Laredo's a really interesting place. You know, it's right on
Speaker 2: the order. It has a lot of history. It was
Speaker 2: founded in seventeen fifty five, first by Spain and then
Speaker 2: later became part of Mexico, became part of the US
Speaker 2: in eighteen forty eight, and it always had the sort
Speaker 2: of reputation of being this kind of rough and tumble
Speaker 2: outpost right because it was right on the border. So
Speaker 2: it drew a lot of like bundidos and outlaws trying
Speaker 2: to sort of run away from the actual law. It
Speaker 2: had a lot of Apache Indian attacks early in the day.
Speaker 2: And it's probably most known as as a sort of
Speaker 2: backdrop of select Larry mcmultrie novels, you know, like Streets
Speaker 2: of Laredo and so like Lunesome Dove, but more sort
Speaker 2: of contemporarily. Today, it's a sort of bustling border city.
Speaker 2: You know, it's home to about two hundred and sixty
Speaker 2: thousand people. There's something like fifteen thousand trucks crisscrossing. It's
Speaker 2: like port of entry every day. It's a major overland port, right.
Speaker 2: It basically ferries some three hundred billion dollars worth of
Speaker 2: gives every year, about half of all US Mexico trade
Speaker 2: goes through Laredo. But it's also you know, it also
Speaker 2: obviously draws drug cartels and human and drug smuggling, and
Speaker 2: some of that product you know, unfortunately leaks out into
Speaker 2: the streets of Laredo. Laredo has been kind of struggling
Speaker 2: with a drug problem there for generations. You know, black
Speaker 2: tar heroin basically made it appearance in the nineteen seventies
Speaker 2: and it's like still a problem today. But it's also
Speaker 2: a very safe town, you know, because you've got like
Speaker 2: border patrol there, you got DEA operating there, you got
Speaker 2: Homeland security investigators, so you got all of these sort
Speaker 2: of law enforcement agents operating there, and like the cartels,
Speaker 2: no better than to like set up shop and do
Speaker 2: anything done there, So they tend to bypass with Laredo.
Speaker 2: So it's it's like a relatively safe city, you know,
Speaker 2: home to about. It basically has something like ten to
Speaker 2: twelve homicides a year, so the murder rate is is
Speaker 2: like relatively low compared to other Texas cities or even
Speaker 2: across the US.
Speaker 3: Who is the person do you think that is attracted
Speaker 3: to being a border patrol agent? Why not be a
Speaker 3: police officer in Laredo or work for DEA? Is there
Speaker 3: kind of a type of person who would feel passionate
Speaker 3: about this type of job.
Speaker 2: Border patrol is kind of a coveted position there along
Speaker 2: the border. First of all, like pays well, it pays,
Speaker 2: it pays better, significantly better, like in some cases than
Speaker 2: sheriff's deputies or local police, and so people along the border.
Speaker 2: I've actually met people who are from Laredo who are
Speaker 2: actually Border patrol agents who said that they basically came
Speaker 2: up the ranks. Maybe they were like a police officer
Speaker 2: for a couple of years, but their goal was always
Speaker 2: to be border patrol agent. Because they have this long
Speaker 2: history there. They're the ones who own like the really
Speaker 2: nice houses down in Laredo, and so it draws a
Speaker 2: lot of people who are interested in like law enforcement,
Speaker 2: but are interested in kind of stepping up to the
Speaker 2: sort of next level financially. It also draws a lot
Speaker 2: of former like sort of military people, right, because there's
Speaker 2: a lot of it's a lot of parallels there, right,
Speaker 2: because you're basically asked to go out and sort of
Speaker 2: patrol in these kind of remote areas. You're armed, there's
Speaker 2: a sense of camaraderie with some of the other agents.
Speaker 2: So more and more throughout the years, really, but recently,
Speaker 2: you know, you're getting a lot of people coming from
Speaker 2: conflicts in like Afghanistan and like Iraq who come back
Speaker 2: to Stateside and are interested in border patrols.
Speaker 3: Now, I know you said eight to twelve murders a year,
Speaker 3: which seems very low for a city that size.
Speaker 2: Correct.
Speaker 3: Yeah, tell me how active the sex work trade is
Speaker 3: in Laredo in twenty eighteen, since that's sort of the
Speaker 3: community we're focusing on, as well as the folks who
Speaker 3: work at border patrol.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the sex worker community is pretty active there and
Speaker 2: it has been for for like a long time. So
Speaker 2: like Laredo has its history of sex workers working there.
Speaker 2: I found articles dating back to like the early nineteen
Speaker 2: hundreds where kind of turned the century, prostitutes were working
Speaker 2: in these in these like sort of bordellos along some
Speaker 2: Bonanando Avenue. Since it's always drawn these these these type
Speaker 2: of crowds of like rum runners and fugitive and lawmen
Speaker 2: and so like bonitos bordellos brought it up to service
Speaker 2: a lot of these folks. In twenty eighteen, it was
Speaker 2: like pretty vibrant. You know, There's there's quite a number
Speaker 2: of sex workers working along there, and they tend to
Speaker 2: congregate along this one stretch called some Betanando Avenue, and
Speaker 2: some Benando Avenue obviously plays like a really big role
Speaker 2: in my book. It's it's where all these four victims
Speaker 2: lived and worked and where a lot of the sex
Speaker 2: workers congregate. But the sex workers that work in Laredo,
Speaker 2: as far as I could tell, almost to a tea,
Speaker 2: almost every single one that I met down there were
Speaker 2: doing it because they also had these really sort of
Speaker 2: like debilitating sub since abuse disorders. All of them were
Speaker 2: struggling with drug addictions. Again mostly black tar heroin, but
Speaker 2: also cracked cocaine and like a number of other different drugs.
Speaker 2: But it was very vibrant down there. In twenty eighteen.
Speaker 3: When I started learning about the Long Island serial case
Speaker 3: Gilgo Beach case, I had not known that with some
Speaker 3: escorts they will have drivers go with them for safety.
Speaker 3: Is there any sort of safety with the women we're
Speaker 3: talking about in this story or is this they're on
Speaker 3: the street on San Fernando Avenue and people are stopping
Speaker 3: and picking them up. Is there any level of safety
Speaker 3: at all with them?
Speaker 2: No? That's like a really interesting part that I learned
Speaker 2: about the sex trade there in downtown Laredo, especially around
Speaker 2: Sambernando Avenue, is that they don't they don't really have
Speaker 2: pimps per se, there is no sort of protection. For
Speaker 2: the most part, sex workers, along asime bet now theo
Speaker 2: are generally on their own. I did actually meet a
Speaker 2: couple of folks. It was like a couple of guys
Speaker 2: who I would describe more as kind of like hangers on,
Speaker 2: just folks who who like to sort of orbit around
Speaker 2: the sex trade down there, And they were looked at
Speaker 2: as kind of like big brothers and like friends to
Speaker 2: some of these sex workers. They basically helped them out
Speaker 2: with scheduling or sort of connecting with different clients, and
Speaker 2: they would do it for you know, just a party
Speaker 2: with them, or to get a little bit of the
Speaker 2: heroin from them. Later they call it chiva, so they
Speaker 2: would do it just for like a hit or two
Speaker 2: of like chiba later. For the most part, there's a
Speaker 2: real lack of actual protection for any of these sex workers.
Speaker 2: They're not generally escorted anywhere, and they're usually on their own.
Speaker 3: Well, tell me now where we go. Do we talk
Speaker 3: about the victims in a chronological order, or do we
Speaker 3: talk about the we haven't named him yet, or do
Speaker 3: you want to just sort of unfold it a little
Speaker 3: bit like a mystery. It's kind of up to you
Speaker 3: what your comfort level is.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about the victims. I think that's actually a
Speaker 2: good place.
Speaker 3: Okay, So victim number one, let's talk about what you
Speaker 3: know about her and then the circumstances that have her
Speaker 3: meeting Juan David Ortiz, who is the offender in this case.
Speaker 2: Melissa Ramidez was the first victim. She was twenty nine
Speaker 2: years old when she was killed, so she's one of
Speaker 2: the younger victims. I got to know her family first.
Speaker 2: Christina Benavidez, so like Melissa's mom, and she lives in
Speaker 2: a in a place called Rio Bravo, and that's sort
Speaker 2: of a suburb of like downtown Laredo. It's just a
Speaker 2: couple of miles outside. It's known as a colonia, which
Speaker 2: is sort of really kind of like kind of poor
Speaker 2: suburb of Laredo. And I went out there early on
Speaker 2: and got to meet Christina, and she she really opened
Speaker 2: up to me and told me about about like Melissa
Speaker 2: growing up. She was one of four children and Christina
Speaker 2: Benavidez was basically raising them like her own. And when
Speaker 2: I interviewed her, it was about a week after Melissa
Speaker 2: was found dead, and I was talking to like Christina,
Speaker 2: she had these dark classes on and she would look
Speaker 2: down and she told me these stories and like we
Speaker 2: had to stop kind of repeatedly because she kept crying.
Speaker 2: She told me about sort of Melissa growing up. She
Speaker 2: was fiercely sort of protective of her younger brother Sasad,
Speaker 2: and they were they basically went they went sort of
Speaker 2: everywhere together. And then somewhere around middle school is when
Speaker 2: she when sort of Melissa starts to stray, and she
Speaker 2: starts staying out longer. She's hanging out with friends. Sometimes
Speaker 2: overnight she begins popping pills, mostly his annex, which she takes,
Speaker 2: which which she finds from other people, and like develops
Speaker 2: this addiction to crack cocaine, and shortly after that basically
Speaker 2: drops out of high school and starts doing sex work
Speaker 2: to sort of support her habit. One thing Christina didn't
Speaker 2: tell me because she either didn't know or was in
Speaker 2: like denial over it, but that I was told by
Speaker 2: several other people, including Melissa's sister in law, Gracie, who
Speaker 2: was very close to her, that when she was around
Speaker 2: middle school age, Melissa was sexually assaulted by an older
Speaker 2: family member, and Gracie kind of points to that period
Speaker 2: when everything starts to really fall apart for her. So
Speaker 2: she's she's having trouble at school. Christina's called in one
Speaker 2: day because she goes to the school and the school
Speaker 2: counsil tells her that that so Melissa has been slicing
Speaker 2: her arms, so she's hurting herself. Also, they take it
Speaker 2: to a therapist and she's diagnosed with by polarism and
Speaker 2: sort of prescribes pills. I think it was prozac at
Speaker 2: that point, and like Christina comes home and like she
Speaker 2: she actually told me later she was like really surprised
Speaker 2: because she had no that Melissa was struggling with taking
Speaker 2: pills and taking medication. And so they take it to
Speaker 2: a doctor and she actually prescribes more more pills, and
Speaker 2: she she kind of felt distinctively that that wasn't like
Speaker 2: the right route for her, but she hopes that the
Speaker 2: actual pills could get her better. Well, Melissa just gets
Speaker 2: worse and worse, ends up dropping out of school and
Speaker 2: joining other sex workers along alongside Better Nando, and just
Speaker 2: lives from like hotel room to hotel room out there.
Speaker 3: So how do we know that Melissa goes missing and
Speaker 3: is in trouble as who finds out first the women
Speaker 3: that she works alongside, or is it a family member
Speaker 3: who reports her missing or what happens just a.
Speaker 2: Couple of days before she's she's actually found dead. Christina Benavidez,
Speaker 2: Melissa's mom, gets in the car with Melissa's two young children,
Speaker 2: who Christina has has actual custody of, and drives along
Speaker 2: time Better Now they're looking for her, like she's actually
Speaker 2: looking for her. She really wants to go to the
Speaker 2: movies with her. I think it was Labor Day. She's
Speaker 2: actually driving around trying to find like sort of Melissa
Speaker 2: to have this day at the movies with Melissa's children.
Speaker 2: Drives around and cannot find her and this and so
Speaker 2: and so she like starts to worry. Christina told me
Speaker 2: she was always worrying, Like she was constantly worrying because
Speaker 2: Melissa would would go missing and just be out of
Speaker 2: pocket for days, sometimes weeks, and so it basically was
Speaker 2: always troubling to her when she would just go kind
Speaker 2: of like radio silence. So this was another instance of
Speaker 2: so like Melissa not being found. And so one of
Speaker 2: the people she was living with at the time, Emily
Speaker 2: but Ela, who Melissa was was sort of roommates with
Speaker 2: at the time, had a big fight with her like
Speaker 2: the night before, doesn't doesn't actually hear from her the
Speaker 2: following day or the following day after that, and so
Speaker 2: she starts to get worried. Melissa's body is actually found
Speaker 2: in this in this rural stretch of Webb County, like
Speaker 2: northwest of Laredo's by a passerby who calls it in.
Speaker 2: Calls in the actual Webb County sheriff's office who actually
Speaker 2: goes out there and starts the investigation. And that's what
Speaker 2: Melissa's bodies found. She had been shot several times at
Speaker 2: like close range behind the head. But that's all they got, Like,
Speaker 2: all they have is sort of Melissa's body and a
Speaker 2: couple of forty caliber casings nearby.
Speaker 3: Did they do a rape kit and all of that,
Speaker 3: Were there signs of a sexual assault?
Speaker 2: There was not. That's something which the sort of medical
Speaker 2: examiner looked at closely and basically determined that there wasn't
Speaker 2: any of that. And so they were just going on
Speaker 2: the sort of premise that she was taken out there
Speaker 2: and shot twice in the head. The thing about Melissa too,
Speaker 2: she was also known as kind of a hot head,
Speaker 2: like she had hot temper where she basically displayed sometimes
Speaker 2: two friends like she was known to get into fistfights
Speaker 2: with friends over the smallest things, sometimes with just people
Speaker 2: on the street and other times with clients also. So
Speaker 2: the initial assumption, at least among some of her friends
Speaker 2: and fellow sex workers was that she she basically had
Speaker 2: a falling out with a client. They got into a
Speaker 2: verbal spat and things went sideways, and that's why she
Speaker 2: was shot and killed. So that was a sort of
Speaker 2: wide spread assumption among some of her friends. But the
Speaker 2: sheriff's office launches a investigation into it, and as is
Speaker 2: protocol sometimes down there, with high profile cases or even
Speaker 2: most sort of murder cases, the web County Sheriff's office
Speaker 2: will call in somebody from the Texas Rangers to basically
Speaker 2: assist them. And the Texas Rangers they have more resources,
Speaker 2: they have more money, and they tend to be especially
Speaker 2: trained for things like murder and cartail violence. So the
Speaker 2: lead investigator to the Webbs County Sheriff's office, this person
Speaker 2: by the name of Captain, got their own, got their own,
Speaker 2: calls in EJ. Salinas, who is the main Texas Ranger
Speaker 2: for that region, and together cut it on and Selena's
Speaker 2: launched this this sort of investigation into who this person
Speaker 2: is and why she was killed.
Speaker 3: So they're taking it seriously, which surprises me considering, you know,
Speaker 3: we're talking awful lot about police officers not being particularly
Speaker 3: interested in the murders of sex workers, but it sounds
Speaker 3: like that wasn't the case here, So that's good. They're
Speaker 3: taking the case seriously, and of course no one's picked
Speaker 3: up on this yet that this will become the work
Speaker 3: of a serial killer.
Speaker 2: I was sort of interested in that too, Like I
Speaker 2: I was interested in how serious they actually took it
Speaker 2: early on, and from everything that I found, like they
Speaker 2: did take it, you know, extremely serious as soon as
Speaker 2: it happened. There aren't a ton of murders in Laredo,
Speaker 2: so this one would seems so so brutal, you know,
Speaker 2: the sort of close range shots like in the head
Speaker 2: kind of execution style, really like prompting them to take
Speaker 2: it serious right away. And so they actually launched this
Speaker 2: pretty intense of investigation into it right away. Obviously, like
Speaker 2: they don't know that this is the work of a
Speaker 2: serial killer who is planning on killing again, but they
Speaker 2: like take it as serious as possible. They branch out
Speaker 2: through the Samberternando corridor talking to folks. They basically find
Speaker 2: out soon after who this person is. They're able to
Speaker 2: actually identify her through fingerprints and other methods, and they
Speaker 2: like learn early on that she's a sex worker working
Speaker 2: along some better Nando avenue. They basically begin to spread
Speaker 2: out throughout this corridor, talking to other sex workers, talking
Speaker 2: to people who may have known her, people who have
Speaker 2: seen them who have seen her last, trying to figure
Speaker 2: out what exactly happened to her.
Speaker 3: And I think he's say in the book that they
Speaker 3: end up reaching out eventually to the next three victims
Speaker 3: because they're all sex workers.
Speaker 1: Is that right?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Early on, Clauding loydra is one of the top
Speaker 2: people which they're interested in talking to. Clauding Loida was
Speaker 2: really close with so like Melissa, they were known to
Speaker 2: sort of hang out in the same sort of motels
Speaker 2: along Samberanando Avenue. They were known to even share clients
Speaker 2: now and then Claudine Lola was older. She's she's forty two,
Speaker 2: so she's kind of looked at as a sort of older,
Speaker 2: wiser sex worker out there. Melissa is kind of the younger,
Speaker 2: like hot headed worker, and so Claudine kind of like
Speaker 2: takes her under her her wing, and they were they
Speaker 2: were actually pretty tight. So investigative zero in and like
Speaker 2: Claudie Louila right away.
Speaker 1: So they talked to Claudine.
Speaker 3: What does she say that you know, does she give
Speaker 3: any insight on clients or any theories about what happened?
Speaker 2: So they don't talk to actual Claudine. She's on their
Speaker 2: their list of like people of interest, and they're actively
Speaker 2: looking for her. They're they're they're like trying to locate her.
Speaker 2: So you can imagine it's not the easiest thing to
Speaker 2: like sort of locate somebody in this world because lots
Speaker 2: of time, like they may not even have a smell phone.
Speaker 2: They're very transient. They're bouncing around from my people's couch
Speaker 2: to hotel rooms to somewhere else, and so they're like
Speaker 2: actively trying to look at her. Claudine is one of
Speaker 2: like four or five names that Captain Cardan has on
Speaker 2: his list of people of interest, and they're actively trying
Speaker 2: to find Claudine when Claudine also ends up as a victim.
Speaker 3: Similar circumstances, gunshot, similar location.
Speaker 2: Claudine Leuta's body is actually found just a couple of
Speaker 2: miles from where Melissa's Body's found, also this sort of
Speaker 2: rural stretch of northwest Webb County. Similarly, she's found like
Speaker 2: on the side of the highway with a gunshot wound
Speaker 2: to the back of the head. But what was different
Speaker 2: about Claudine is that she was still alive somehow kind
Speaker 2: of miraculously. So she was shot once in the back
Speaker 2: of the head and she managed to crawl and drag
Speaker 2: herself to the shoulder of the actual highway where she
Speaker 2: could be better found, and sure enough, the truck driver
Speaker 2: passes by, sees her stops and she's actually still alive,
Speaker 2: like she's incoherent, like she's asking for water, saying she's
Speaker 2: like really thirsty, and she's mumbling stuff. The truck driver
Speaker 2: calls nine one one, and this ambulance comes out as
Speaker 2: well as deputies come out, and then ambulance comes up,
Speaker 2: scoops her on and raises her to the actual nearest hospital,
Speaker 2: and she's still alive all the way to the hospital.
Speaker 2: I actually interviewed the paramedic who took her, and she
Speaker 2: said Clouding was actually being kind of combative, which is
Speaker 2: which is somewhat natural, he said, for like these types
Speaker 2: of victims, he sees it a lot, like they're really
Speaker 2: confused and disoriented. And she was swinging in her arms
Speaker 2: to the point that they had to like hold her
Speaker 2: down and basically strap her down. And he's telling her,
Speaker 2: you know, just to take it easy, that somebody's going
Speaker 2: to take care of her, and they're still operating, like
Speaker 2: under the assumption he assumed that she got hit by
Speaker 2: a car and left them like he didn't know that
Speaker 2: this was a gunshot until they take her to the hospital.
Speaker 2: They wheel her into the hospital and the doctor comes
Speaker 2: out maybe twenty thirty minutes later saying that Claudine passed away,
Speaker 2: that she actually died, and that it wasn't a auto accident.
Speaker 2: That they found a bullets lug in the back of
Speaker 2: her head. So now this information is basically relayed to
Speaker 2: Captain Goddown and E. J. Salinas, the Texas ranger, who
Speaker 2: are at the scene looking at the crime scene, and
Speaker 2: they noticed that there's a couple of casings there also
Speaker 2: forty caliber, just just like the first incident. And so
Speaker 2: now they got two women, both of them sex workers,
Speaker 2: both of them shot in the back of the head
Speaker 2: with forty caliber bullets. And they realized that now they
Speaker 2: have a serial killer on their hands.
Speaker 3: And not just two sex workers. Two sex workers who
Speaker 3: were intimate friends. I mean, they knew each other very well.
Speaker 3: I don't know how big the industry is in Laredo
Speaker 3: at the time, but you know, these are friends who
Speaker 3: knew each other really well, and I'm sure they took
Speaker 3: that into consideration absolutely.
Speaker 2: And it's not only that, like they knew each other well,
Speaker 2: but that that, like investigators were actively trying to find Claudine,
Speaker 2: they also found that very very interesting that that this
Speaker 2: is somebody that they were trying to find to interview
Speaker 2: about about sort of Melissa's death, and now she also
Speaker 2: ends up dead.
Speaker 3: When Claudine is waving her arms and you know, being
Speaker 3: combative in the ambulance, is she saying anything that can
Speaker 3: be at all useful to the Texas Rangers or the sheriff.
Speaker 2: So that's what the Sheriff's office asked this paramedic later
Speaker 2: ray He basically could understand what she was saying. She
Speaker 2: was muttering something, but it didn't make any sense to him.
Speaker 2: So nothing came out of what she said in those
Speaker 2: in like those final moments. Unfortunately, you don't know.
Speaker 3: I was thinking when you were talking about the scene,
Speaker 3: and you know, she's dragging herself to the shoulder and
Speaker 3: trying to get attention, and she's bleeding and exhausted and thirsty,
Speaker 3: and I was thinking, September, I mean, in Texas is awful.
Speaker 3: It's sometimes the hottest, it can be hotter than August.
Speaker 3: It must have been just her will to live must
Speaker 3: have been incredible to be able to do that in
Speaker 3: the desert.
Speaker 1: I mean, gosh, how horrific for.
Speaker 2: Her, especially on the border. You know, the border gets
Speaker 2: really hot. It's like a solid ten fifteen degrees hotter
Speaker 2: than what you feel in Austin or Dallas or Houston.
Speaker 2: And so yeah, it was like really hot at the time,
Speaker 2: and her will to live and how she fought it
Speaker 2: all the way to the end was just remarkable. You know,
Speaker 2: she gets shot in the back of the head and
Speaker 2: just manages to kind of hang around until somebody picks
Speaker 2: her up. The actual paramedic thought she actually had a
Speaker 2: chance because he basically stopped the bleeding and brought it
Speaker 2: to the hospital, but unfortunately she just expired soon after that.
Speaker 3: Do they find that both Melissa and Claudeen have heroin
Speaker 3: or some sort of drug in their system at the time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the medical examiner finds out out later Melissa had
Speaker 2: crack cocaine in her system and Claudine had had pretty
Speaker 2: large amounts of opiate's mostly heroin in her system. Claudine
Speaker 2: had a very sort of debilitating heroin addiction. It really
Speaker 2: really was really strong with her and kept her on
Speaker 2: the streets for like a long time.
Speaker 3: Are their friends in industry. Are they able to say
Speaker 3: who they thought they were last with? They have clients?
Speaker 3: I mean, how did they even begin investigating who the
Speaker 3: last person was with these two women?
Speaker 2: They had some fairly good leads. Melissa, like I said earlier,
Speaker 2: was with Emily Varella last. And she's also pretty interesting.
Speaker 2: She's a transgender woman who lived and worked on San Bernardo.
Speaker 2: She was friends with like so like Melissa for you years,
Speaker 2: for like a long time. They met in high school
Speaker 2: and like stayed friends over the years. Emily and Melissa
Speaker 2: were sharing a room at the Pan American Courts Motel
Speaker 2: right on San Bernando, and so and so sheriff's deputies
Speaker 2: and captain got that own quickly roll up to like
Speaker 2: Emily and question her and like interview her. Emily tells
Speaker 2: them everything she knew, which is that they were there
Speaker 2: like the night before. She was kind of upset with
Speaker 2: with sort of like Melissa because she she wasn't like
Speaker 2: sort of earning her keep and she was really messy.
Speaker 2: Emily was on sort of probation because she had been
Speaker 2: arrested earlier, and I kind of needed to stay clean
Speaker 2: and sort of Melissa was violating a lot of that
Speaker 2: she was smoking crack in the actual room and stuff
Speaker 2: that could really get sort of Emily like in trouble.
Speaker 2: And so Emily was kind of upset with her and
Speaker 2: had give her like a ton lashing like the night
Speaker 2: before and felt obviously really bad about that later, but
Speaker 2: that's all she knew that like the last time she
Speaker 2: had seen her was when Melissa walked out of their
Speaker 2: sort of motel room at like around like midnight the
Speaker 2: day before she was found. Nobody had actually seen her
Speaker 2: after that. And Claudine also had a couple of people
Speaker 2: which investigators thought were really close to her, including like
Speaker 2: an ex boyfriend of hers called Chong Cho N And
Speaker 2: Chong was this person of interests early on. There's this
Speaker 2: really interesting scene in my book where sheriff's deputies go
Speaker 2: to Cholnes's house like to try to talk to him
Speaker 2: about about some like Claudine's murder. Chong has a long
Speaker 2: rap sheet he's been he's been in out of jail. Also,
Speaker 2: he also has a very sort of debilitating substance abuse disorder.
Speaker 2: There's a swarm of deputies waiting for him at like
Speaker 2: Chones Choln's house, and Joan rows up in his car.
Speaker 2: He has a Cadillac. He rows up, he sees all
Speaker 2: of these deputies swarming outside of his house, panics, guns it,
Speaker 2: and like speeds off basically, and so like all the
Speaker 2: deputies hop in their car and speed off after him.
Speaker 2: John manages to sort of elude them, like he just
Speaker 2: he goes through a bunch of downtown streets and like
Speaker 2: gets away, but then calls calls like a contact that
Speaker 2: he has, like at the Laredo Police and saying, Hey,
Speaker 2: why are all these cops at my house? Like he
Speaker 2: has no idea, what's what's actually going on? I think
Speaker 2: he had heard at that point that Ladine was like killed,
Speaker 2: but he had but he had nothing to do with him.
Speaker 2: So he panics and like takes off. He ends up
Speaker 2: coming in and having an interview with Captain Gaddon and EJ.
Speaker 2: Sealinas and they like go over everything, which he knows
Speaker 2: he had seen her, I think a couple of days before,
Speaker 2: but not the day before, and says he has like
Speaker 2: he has no idea who may have killed him. Police
Speaker 2: kind of check out his story. He's not completely crossed
Speaker 2: off the list, but they also feel kind of strongly
Speaker 2: that that like it wasn't.
Speaker 3: Him, tell me about the third victim, because now we
Speaker 3: have to Texas Rangers in the Sheriff's department saying it
Speaker 3: sounds like we've got the same person murdering these two
Speaker 3: different women. Is Gizelda friends with both Claudine and Melissa.
Speaker 2: She is, she said, this nickname is like Chilli, and
Speaker 2: she is also part of this sex worker sort of community.
Speaker 2: They've been friends for like a long time. He said.
Speaker 2: That is thirty five at the time, so she had
Speaker 2: been out there for almost two decades. Also has an
Speaker 2: extremely hardcore heroin addiction, which she operates in the sex
Speaker 2: trade just to just to sort of feed that. And
Speaker 2: she had a really rough sort of upbringing, you know.
Speaker 2: Chlly is from a really kind of rough and tumble
Speaker 2: part of Laredo. She was two years old when her
Speaker 2: mother is murdered by like an ex boyfriend. The mother
Speaker 2: was like a single mother raising her and her older brother, Joey,
Speaker 2: And so Joey and Kelly go to live with a
Speaker 2: grandmother and that's the one who basically raises them. But
Speaker 2: they're it's still out to oversight and they're basically on
Speaker 2: the streets a lot, and so they kind of succumb
Speaker 2: to some of the vices of the actual street. Joey
Speaker 2: joins a gang, ends up getting into trouble and goes
Speaker 2: away to prison for twenty two years. Chilly gets into
Speaker 2: drug habits and basically develops a really bad heroin addiction
Speaker 2: and that's what gets her on the streets.
Speaker 3: Also, how long after they discover Claudeine do they then
Speaker 3: discover Chilly.
Speaker 2: So it's about a day and a half. But something
Speaker 2: really pivotal happens in between that, And that's the case
Speaker 2: of Ericapana and Erica Penna is also a sex worker.
Speaker 2: She's also on the streets, and she's kind of a
Speaker 2: repeat client, but she's the one who actually escapes and
Speaker 2: alerts alerts police that she may know the actual identity
Speaker 2: of this serial killer.
Speaker 3: This happens after Claudeine, but before Chilly.
Speaker 1: Is it right?
Speaker 2: That is correct? Yep?
Speaker 3: So he is he aware that this could turn on
Speaker 3: him pretty quickly, and yet he then still decides to
Speaker 3: pursue another victim.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's this really interesting thing like he up until
Speaker 2: this point it was more or less calculated, like he
Speaker 2: would target his victim, drive him off so really sort
Speaker 2: of remote places, and then go back to work as
Speaker 2: if nothing was happening right, and he was leading this
Speaker 2: double life. Once Erica Panna basically escaped from him and
Speaker 2: starts to alert police about this is the person who
Speaker 2: probably killed some of my friends and he's aware of
Speaker 2: that he or he basically assumes that. Once he assumes that,
Speaker 2: like the actual police are after him, it kind of
Speaker 2: becomes this almost like suicidal spasm of violence towards the end,
Speaker 2: and his whole goal is just to pick up as
Speaker 2: many sex workers as possible, shoot him, kill him before
Speaker 2: police actually catch up with him.
Speaker 1: Well, I guess we need to talk about him.
Speaker 3: So who does Erica and encounter the night where she
Speaker 3: clearly saves her own life and escapes set up that
Speaker 3: scenario because now we have somebody who can actually explain
Speaker 3: what happens to these women.
Speaker 2: So his name is Juan David Ortiz, thirty five, like
Speaker 2: at the time of the murders, he's a ten year
Speaker 2: veteran of the US Vota Patrol. He's married with three
Speaker 2: young young kids, and he's from Texas. You know, I
Speaker 2: grew up like in Brownsville, Texas, raised by a single mom.
Speaker 2: And for those who aren't really familiar with Brownsville, that's
Speaker 2: the southern like it's literally like the southern most point
Speaker 2: of Texas that's right on the border across the river
Speaker 2: from Mantalmodos, Texas. David Ortiz grows up in Brownsville with
Speaker 2: a single mom. He has three other sisters, all of
Speaker 2: them younger, so he's the older. He's raised liked about
Speaker 2: evangelical Pentecostal Christian, so he's very sort of religion focused.
Speaker 2: Even in sort of high school, he basically leads like
Speaker 2: the Bible study group. He's constantly leading Bible study is
Speaker 2: like at home, he's on the swim team, and by
Speaker 2: all accounts, he's a really focused, like kind of ambitious
Speaker 2: student who knows who knows like what he wants to
Speaker 2: do once he graduates, and that is to join the
Speaker 2: actual military, which he does as soon as he actually graduates.
Speaker 2: Just a couple of months after graduating. He basically joins
Speaker 2: the Navy in two thousand and one. He's eighteen years old,
Speaker 2: and this is two months before like the terrorist attacks
Speaker 2: for like ninety eleven. So he's a Navy corman, which
Speaker 2: is like a medic, and he's attached to like a
Speaker 2: marine unit that is deployed out to Iraq. During Operation
Speaker 2: Iraqi Freedom, and he's a Corman, so he is it's
Speaker 2: basically like on the front lines, helping helping people who
Speaker 2: get injured and get and get hurt out there. And
Speaker 2: his unit starts in Basra to the south and goes
Speaker 2: all the way up Iraq and ends up in Baghdad,
Speaker 2: and they spent some time in Baghdad. I talked to
Speaker 2: a couple of his sort of military buddies out there
Speaker 2: who all say, you know, sort of comparatively like they
Speaker 2: didn't see all that much action as some of the
Speaker 2: other marine units out there, but they did see their
Speaker 2: fair share of like really gruesome stuff, especially around Baghdad
Speaker 2: and Baghdad things got We're just really chaotic and a
Speaker 2: lot of bodies, a lot of dead people around, and
Speaker 2: they sort of participate in like a lot of that.
Speaker 2: He comes back to the US and he has really
Speaker 2: high sort of accolades from his time in the military,
Speaker 2: and in two thousand and nine joins Border Patrol again.
Speaker 2: You know, this is a really coveted position. He has
Speaker 2: an offer to join the San Antonio Police Department or
Speaker 2: the Sheriff's office there, and he turns them down to
Speaker 2: join Border Patrol, which is seen as a much more
Speaker 2: coveted position, better pay, and he joined in two thousand
Speaker 2: and nine. He's based first in Katy, which is halfway
Speaker 2: between San Antonio and like downtown Laredo, and then later
Speaker 2: is transferred to Laredo. In twenty seventeen. One of the
Speaker 2: things which's up which he does like in Laredo, is
Speaker 2: that he's basically assigned to join this unit called the
Speaker 2: Targeted Enforcement Unit. And this is sort of like highly trained,
Speaker 2: specialized unit that does things like raids stash houses and
Speaker 2: goes out and like goes after cartel operatives. And this
Speaker 2: is an important time for him because as part of
Speaker 2: the Targeted Enforcement Unit, he is focusing and trying to
Speaker 2: break up a lot of this sort of this sort
Speaker 2: of like listed activity happening around the San Bernando Corridor.
Speaker 2: So it's his introduction to this corridor and all the
Speaker 2: different activities happening there. So he kind of repeatedly raids
Speaker 2: some of the drug houses, he starts to know who,
Speaker 2: like who the sex workers are working on there, and
Speaker 2: so in twenty eighteen, like at the beginning of twenty
Speaker 2: eight team, he's basically promoted to supervisory agent and is
Speaker 2: assigned to the Joint Intel Center, which I mentioned earlier,
Speaker 2: which is a center right there at the Vorder Patrol
Speaker 2: headquarters in central Laredo where Vorder Patrol shares information with
Speaker 2: the Sheriff's office and the DEA and DPS troopers and
Speaker 2: they're all sharing information going after some of the biggest,
Speaker 2: most sensitive cases there along the border.
Speaker 3: No red flax from Ortis at all, No disciplinary action
Speaker 3: nowhere anywhere, not even a speeding ticket with this guy.
Speaker 2: Nothing, And that's something that I really dug into trying
Speaker 2: to figure out and trying to find out. Unfortunately, Customers
Speaker 2: and Vorder Protection, which is the agency that oversees Vorder Patrol,
Speaker 2: they weren't really cooperative with me and basically declined to
Speaker 2: give any interviews for this book, much less share any
Speaker 2: records or anything about RTS. I did actually manage to
Speaker 2: get some of his personnel records through other sources. Everything
Speaker 2: in his record was pretty scotch cleaning. There was nothing
Speaker 2: like there were no former red flags. The only thing
Speaker 2: in he had a minor incident back in Cotula with
Speaker 2: one of the migrants, which he picked up that the
Speaker 2: migrant claimed that David Ortiz took a cigarette away from him,
Speaker 2: and that was the only only thing that I came
Speaker 2: up in his whole file.
Speaker 3: What does eric Opinia say happened with Juan David Ortiz?
Speaker 1: How did they even meet?
Speaker 2: So eric Openna is working along San Bernando Avenue, just
Speaker 2: just like some of these other women, and she meets
Speaker 2: him just the same way that he meets others. So
Speaker 2: starting around twenty eighteen, early twenty eighteen one, David Ortiz
Speaker 2: starts to start the cruise down outside Banado, and this
Speaker 2: time he's like not working, he's he's actively engaging with
Speaker 2: some of these sex workers and actually picking them up.
Speaker 2: Eric Opena meets him right around then, early early twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2: David Ortiz picks her up and they like drive off
Speaker 2: and they kind of hit it off, like he first
Speaker 2: of all. Erica Panna says later that he's kind of
Speaker 2: an ideal client, that he has money, he pays cash
Speaker 2: on time, he pays up right away, and she actually
Speaker 2: knows early on that he's involved with border patrol. He
Speaker 2: doesn't make a secret out of it, and that's an
Speaker 2: ideal client because she knows that he doesn't want to
Speaker 2: get caught with this that like it could be embarrassing
Speaker 2: so he's like discreet, he has money, and he becomes
Speaker 2: like a reliable client for her. So he picks her
Speaker 2: up repeatedly half a dozen times or so over the
Speaker 2: course of twenty eighteen, including taking her back to his
Speaker 2: house on different occasions. His wife, His wife, Daniella, has
Speaker 2: family both in San Antonio and don in Brownsville, and
Speaker 2: she would take the kids like visit family, and Juan
Speaker 2: David Ortiz will like take advantage of those times and
Speaker 2: take Erica, Panna and other women back to his empty house.
Speaker 2: So they really get to know each other. They create
Speaker 2: this sort of rapport between each other. And so she
Speaker 2: gets picked up on that day, September fourteenth, twenty eighteen,
Speaker 2: after he has killed like sort of Melissa, after he's
Speaker 2: killed Claudine, and he picks up eric Opania as just
Speaker 2: another night in the town.
Speaker 3: So what does she say changed, what made this night
Speaker 3: different than the nights she was already used to spending
Speaker 3: with Ortiz.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so she says later that she gets in the
Speaker 2: car and starts talking about the same topic that everybody
Speaker 2: alongside Bernado is talking about at that point, which is
Speaker 2: the actual murders of Claudine and Melissa and she like
Speaker 2: brings that up, and he kind of plays it off like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, I think I heard about that, but I'm
Speaker 2: not like really following it, and they talk about it.
Speaker 2: It kind of comes up and goes. She does what
Speaker 2: she usually does, which is like shoots up heroin, and
Speaker 2: then he takes her back to his house. His wife
Speaker 2: again is visiting family up in San Antonio, so so
Speaker 2: like the house is empty, so he takes her back
Speaker 2: to his house and then Erica claims that as they're
Speaker 2: sitting down like in their living room, something comes over
Speaker 2: him and that she noticeably sees something change in his
Speaker 2: face and his and in his sort of demeanor, and
Speaker 2: he starts telling her that he's really worried that the
Speaker 2: police might think that he has something to do with
Speaker 2: Melissa's death because he had been with her a couple
Speaker 2: of days before she was found, and that they might
Speaker 2: find his his sort of DNA on her. But that's
Speaker 2: something drastically changes, like in his sort of demeanor, that
Speaker 2: his mood just kind of darkens to the point that
Speaker 2: she gets this this sort of revelation that's that something
Speaker 2: is like really wrong and she and she kind of
Speaker 2: excuses herself and runs out of the house, goes to
Speaker 2: the front yard and throws up like on the sidewalk,
Speaker 2: like she's so overwhelmed with his dark of him that
Speaker 2: it just kind of like it just sort of possesses her.
Speaker 2: So he actually drives her off and says, well, let's
Speaker 2: just let's just get you something to eat. Maybe he
Speaker 2: just needs something to eat. And at this point, through
Speaker 2: her mind she's she's actually thinking, maybe this is the
Speaker 2: guy who, like, who has actually killed my friends. And
Speaker 2: again it's nothing which which he's actually sort of like
Speaker 2: admitted to at this point. It's just it's just a
Speaker 2: feeling she has. So he basically drives her to this
Speaker 2: gas station nearby, and he drives around back and pulls
Speaker 2: in the back, and it's a it's kind of it's
Speaker 2: kind of a darkened lot in the back, and he's
Speaker 2: reaching down and he's and and she's asking him, what
Speaker 2: are you reaching for? And when he comes back up,
Speaker 2: he has his gun drawn and if pointing right out
Speaker 2: her chest, and of course everything just clicks there for her.
Speaker 2: She she basically realizes, like in like in one second,
Speaker 2: that this is a guy who has killed both of
Speaker 2: her friends. And now the gun's pointed at her, so
Speaker 2: she starts to freak out. She initially tells them please
Speaker 2: don't kill me, and doesn't know what to do, but
Speaker 2: then like instinct takes her over. And Erica had been
Speaker 2: on the streets also for about a decade, and her
Speaker 2: instinct in those situations is not till I cower into
Speaker 2: her corner, but to kind of fight back, and so
Speaker 2: she kind of lunges at the steering wheel trying to
Speaker 2: like hunk the horn and kicks open the actual door.
Speaker 2: David Ortiz grabs her with his right hand. He's actually
Speaker 2: left handed, so he has the left hand pointed like
Speaker 2: on the gun pointed at Erica, and with his right
Speaker 2: hand grabs her by by like her shoulder, but he's
Speaker 2: like grabbing more, he's grabbing more of the blouse, and
Speaker 2: so she manages to like wiggle out of her blouse,
Speaker 2: kicks open the door, and jumps out in just a
Speaker 2: bra and runs off. You only help me, help me,
Speaker 2: help me. And she's at a gas station where it
Speaker 2: just so happens at that point in time that there's
Speaker 2: a Texas State trooper pumping gas at one of the pumps,
Speaker 2: and so she kind of darts towards him and tells
Speaker 2: them everything which just happened, and that somebody pulled out
Speaker 2: a gun on her and that she's pretty sure that
Speaker 2: it's the same guy who has killed these two other women.
Speaker 1: And he takes it seriously, obviously he does.
Speaker 2: It's really interesting, like there's a couple of things that
Speaker 2: if they don't happen, David Ortiz may have actually killed
Speaker 2: again and again and again. One of which is that
Speaker 2: Eric Apenna tells him like this whole story, and the
Speaker 2: trooper does what he's supposed to do, which is called
Speaker 2: the local life or the police. This all happened within
Speaker 2: so like Loreto city limits, so he has to call
Speaker 2: Lreto PD to basically report it. So he calls the
Speaker 2: actual local police. Local police tell him, yeah, we'll send
Speaker 2: somebody out soon, and so they basically wait five minutes,
Speaker 2: ten minutes, fifteen minutes, It gets up to eighteen minutes
Speaker 2: and still nobody has actually arrived. So he kind of
Speaker 2: pivots and said, well, let me just call somebody who
Speaker 2: I think is actually familiar with the case. So he
Speaker 2: calls one of his colleagues, which is EJ. Selena's the
Speaker 2: Texas Ranger, who's one of the lead investigators on the
Speaker 2: other two murders. He basically explains that he has a
Speaker 2: woman here who just came running up to him claiming
Speaker 2: that someone pulled a gun on her and that she
Speaker 2: thinks that he's involved with these other two murders, and
Speaker 2: hej Selenas tells him bring it or me, and that's
Speaker 2: what really launches this sort of manhunt for Kuan David Ortiz.
Speaker 3: But in the meantime, you said, he sort of responds
Speaker 3: in a panic, and his way of panicking is to
Speaker 3: kill two more women, to kill Chilly and to kill
Speaker 3: Janelle Ortiz.
Speaker 1: Is that right?
Speaker 2: That's right? So what So what he does is that
Speaker 2: he goes back to his house, right, So, he basically
Speaker 2: sees Eric Apana run up to the trooper and knows that, okay,
Speaker 2: the gig's up. The actual police are probably going to
Speaker 2: be knocking on my door like any minute. So he
Speaker 2: goes back to his house and basically what does he do.
Speaker 2: He gathers every single piece of weaponry which he has
Speaker 2: in his house, including like a sort of like AR
Speaker 2: fifteen rifle, his forty caliber gun, his nine sort of
Speaker 2: millimeter pistol, lays them all like on his kitchen island,
Speaker 2: and he's basically waiting for like police to knock on
Speaker 2: his door and come and get him, because because in
Speaker 2: his mind, he's just going to shoot it out with
Speaker 2: them and die by a shootout basically. But he waits
Speaker 2: there for like thirty minutes, forty five minutes, it's it's
Speaker 2: like over an hour, and nobody shows up. So he goes, well,
Speaker 2: maybe she didn't tell me, And so he gets back
Speaker 2: in his truck and he like decides, well, I'm just
Speaker 2: going to go back to San Bernando and now I'm
Speaker 2: just going to start killing more of them.
Speaker 1: What is his mentality?
Speaker 3: I mean, you had mentioned this quite a while ago
Speaker 3: that he's hoping to murder as many sex workers as possible.
Speaker 3: Where does that come from?
Speaker 1: Do you think? I mean, what do you make of that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a that's a tough nut to crack, and
Speaker 2: it's one that I kind of sort of dug in
Speaker 2: to quite a bit during my research trying to figure
Speaker 2: out not just why he would do it, but where
Speaker 2: was that moment, Like, was there anything that really turned
Speaker 2: him towards that? And there was very little evidence anywhere
Speaker 2: that pointing to anything. The clearest insight we have is
Speaker 2: this nine hour videotape confession that he later gives to
Speaker 2: like investigators, where he basically talks about each of the murders.
Speaker 2: He talks about doing it and like the only reason
Speaker 2: that he actually gives is that he just wanted to
Speaker 2: clean up the streets of these like undesirables. I mean,
Speaker 2: this is his this is his words, and he used
Speaker 2: harsher terms in that he called them mietadas like pieces
Speaker 2: of crap. But it's unclear where like where that comes from.
Speaker 2: It's unclear if that was truly his actual motive or
Speaker 2: if he was just kind of responding to these really
Speaker 2: evil instincts inside of him. Also, he was taken at
Speaker 2: the time quite a bit of sort of medication. He
Speaker 2: was really struggling with PTSD and like anxiety. He was
Speaker 2: was actually diagnosed with PTSD and was given this sort
Speaker 2: of concoction of I think it was eight psychotropic medications
Speaker 2: which she was taken every day. But he also was
Speaker 2: sort of abusing them too, like had friends. Friends actually
Speaker 2: told me later that they would see him popping pills
Speaker 2: but then drinking copious amounts of beer and alcohol and
Speaker 2: that all that stuff made him like a different person
Speaker 2: like he was more like aggressive he was, he just
Speaker 2: wasn't like the same person after taking all these pills.
Speaker 2: Did that player role, you know, possibly, but it's really
Speaker 2: unclear how or why he basically took it upon himself
Speaker 2: to start targeting all of these sex workers.
Speaker 3: He ends up killing Shelley, he ends up killing Janelle,
Speaker 3: and then you know he had had Erica escape. How
Speaker 3: does he eventually get caught? And this is a twelve
Speaker 3: day period, right, it finally ends after twelve.
Speaker 2: Days, correct, it's only twelve days, and he's finally caught.
Speaker 2: He's caught only because so once Erica basically talks with
Speaker 2: like investigators, they're able to basically identify him. So so
Speaker 2: they have his name, they have his picture, they have
Speaker 2: his sort of description of of like his white truck,
Speaker 2: and they put out a bolo be on the lookout
Speaker 2: basically alert to all sort of law enforcement like in
Speaker 2: the area. And after David Ortiz kills Shelley and then
Speaker 2: then like Janelle, he goes through a gas station because
Speaker 2: he has to he has to use the actual restroom,
Speaker 2: and so he's on he's on some Bernando and his
Speaker 2: plan is to like keep is to keep on killing
Speaker 2: is to just pick up one after another and just
Speaker 2: keep on killing sex workers. But he stops out of
Speaker 2: Stripe's gas station to like use the bathroom and Texas
Speaker 2: State Trooper uh sees his sees his truck, spots his truck,
Speaker 2: realizes that there's a bolo off for it, and him
Speaker 2: and another trooper basically confront him at this gas station.
Speaker 2: They basically have guns drawn on him that they're like
Speaker 2: tolding him to like put his hands up, to turn
Speaker 2: around to get on the floor. And what does David
Speaker 2: Etz do? He has his hands up, He runs off.
Speaker 2: He speeds off, and these troopers chase after him, but
Speaker 2: they end up losing him here. He runs like a
Speaker 2: couple of blocks, ends up at the parking lot of
Speaker 2: a sort of nearby hotel. He jumps in the back
Speaker 2: of a pickup truck and basically hides out there. It
Speaker 2: takes police, you know, the Webb County SWAT team shows up,
Speaker 2: Border patrol agents show up, a bunch of other people.
Speaker 2: The place is swarming with like sort of law enforcement agents.
Speaker 2: Takes him over an hour to like find him, but
Speaker 2: they finally find him. They like pull him out of
Speaker 2: the truck and then they arrest him, so.
Speaker 1: To shorthand the rest of this.
Speaker 3: He goes on trial and is convicted, of course, and
Speaker 3: he is given a life sentence without parole. This being Texas,
Speaker 3: how is this not a capital case? How is he
Speaker 3: not on death row?
Speaker 1: At this point?
Speaker 2: It's actually a really good question. It's up to the
Speaker 2: actual district attorney to ask for the death penalty or not. Initially,
Speaker 2: he like he had played and to ask for the
Speaker 2: death penalty, but he told me later, the district attorney
Speaker 2: told me later that he has to have like the
Speaker 2: buy in of all the victim's families, Like all the
Speaker 2: victim's families have to agree that they all also want
Speaker 2: the death penalty. Like, he can't be in a courtroom
Speaker 2: asking for the death penalty and then having victim's families
Speaker 2: giving TV interviews saying that they're against capital punishment. It
Speaker 2: just like doesn't work that way, And so he has
Speaker 2: to He basically pulled all of the families, and they
Speaker 2: were like mostly split. Some of them wanted the actual
Speaker 2: death penalty, some of them didn't really believe in it,
Speaker 2: and so the families were fairly split. But there's this
Speaker 2: real interesting scene that I have in the book where
Speaker 2: Joey khon Too, Shelley's older brother, who had just spent
Speaker 2: twenty two years in a Texas State prison, stands up
Speaker 2: during one of the meetings where like the district attorney
Speaker 2: is meeting with some of the victim's families talking about
Speaker 2: penalty phase. He stands up and he says, you know,
Speaker 2: you all don't really know me, but I just spent
Speaker 2: twenty two years in a prison. And he goes on
Speaker 2: to sort of describe how bad it is in these
Speaker 2: Texas State prisons and that he has seen grown men
Speaker 2: crumble mentally and it's just a really hard existence day
Speaker 2: in day out, and that he would rather see David
Speaker 2: Ortiz spend the rest of his life in that situation
Speaker 2: than take the death penalty. To him, he felt like
Speaker 2: the death penalty was the sort of easy way out,
Speaker 2: and he basically convinces the rest of the families that
Speaker 2: that's the way to go. And so the district attorney
Speaker 2: polls all of the family members and all of them
Speaker 2: basically agree that he should pursue life in prison and
Speaker 2: not the death penalty, and that's what happens.
Speaker 3: What is your takeaway from all of this? There are
Speaker 3: so many victims here survivors. His wife, Daniella, and their
Speaker 3: three children are victims. You know, this is just the
Speaker 3: wake of misery this man left behind, with the women
Speaker 3: and the lives that were already difficult to begin with.
Speaker 3: What is your takeaway from your book when by the
Speaker 3: time you were done writing.
Speaker 2: It, Well, that's actually one of the things that I
Speaker 2: wanted to show throughout the book is that there were
Speaker 2: more than just four victims here, that the level of
Speaker 2: pain and sort of destruction just kind of like ripples out.
Speaker 2: The families are like still going through some really hard times,
Speaker 2: missing a lot of the victims. Eric Opanna, who actually
Speaker 2: escapes and lives to tell about it, also goes through
Speaker 2: really hard time and relapses and is back into like
Speaker 2: heroin addiction. She has like severe PTSD over it. I
Speaker 2: actually chose to end my book with Lubita Rocha, who
Speaker 2: is David Ortiz's mother, crying alone in this courtroom after
Speaker 2: he's basically found guilty and is likely going to have
Speaker 2: life in prison. It's actually automatically life in prison with
Speaker 2: no parole. I kind of end the book with a
Speaker 2: real touching moment that I thought was just her crying
Speaker 2: the courtroom's empty and she's just heaving through these uncontrollable sobs,
Speaker 2: and it just shows that there's victims on his day too,
Speaker 2: like that family's ruined too. His wife and kids are
Speaker 2: probably going through incredible hardship also. So these acts really
Speaker 2: impacted so many people on so many different levels, and
Speaker 2: I really wanted to show that throughout the book.
Speaker 3: If you love historical true crime stories, check out the
Speaker 3: audio versions of my books The Ghost Club, All That
Speaker 3: Is Wicked, and American Sherlock and Don't Forget. There are
Speaker 3: twelve seasons of my historical true crime podcast, Tenfold More
Speaker 3: Wicked right here in this podcast feed, scroll back and
Speaker 3: give them a listen if you haven't already. This has
Speaker 3: been an exactly right production. Our senior producer is Alexis Mrosi.
Speaker 3: Our associate producer is Christina Chamberlain. This episode was mixed
Speaker 3: by John Bradley. Curtis Heath is our composer, artwork by
Speaker 3: Nick Toga, executiveduced by Georgia Hardstark.
Speaker 1: Karen Kilgarriff and Danielle Kramer.
Speaker 3: Follow Wicked Words on Instagram at tenfold More Wicked and
Speaker 3: on Facebook at Wicked Words Pod