WEBVTT - Rick Jervis: The Devil Behind the Badge 0:00:00.880 --> 0:00:05.480 This story contains adult content and language. Listener discretion is advised. 0:00:13.240 --> 0:00:15.840 So now they got two women, both shot in the 0:00:15.880 --> 0:00:18.760 back of the head with forty caliber bullets, and they 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:22.120 realize that now they have a serial color on their hands. 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:31.560 I'm Kate Winkler Dawson, a nonfiction author and journalism professor 0:00:31.640 --> 0:00:32.720 in Austin, Texas. 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:33.800 I'm also the co. 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:37.199 Host of the podcast Buried Bones on Exactly Right, and 0:00:37.240 --> 0:00:41.000 throughout my career, research for my many audio and book 0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:44.720 projects has taken me around the world. On Wicked Words, 0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:47.240 I sit down with the people I've met along the way, 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:52.839 amazing writers, journalists, filmmakers, and podcasters who have investigated and 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:56.600 reported on notorious true crime cases. This is about the 0:00:56.680 --> 0:01:00.320 choices writers make, both good and bad, and it's a 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:05.880 deep dive into the unpublished details behind their stories. On 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:08.959 this week's episode of Wicked Words, we're traveling to the 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:13.560 Texas border town of Laredo, when four vulnerable women are murdered. 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:17.520 Police suspected that a well respected US Border Patrol agent 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:21.120 has turned into a serial killer. Author Rick Jervis tells 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:24.520 me the story behind his book The Devil Behind the Badge, 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:28.720 The Horrifying twelve Days of the Border Patrol Serial Killer. 0:01:31.440 --> 0:01:34.679 Where does it make sense for you to start the story. 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:37.360 Well, it takes place right in Laredo, so we could 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:40.720 start there. And also San Bernando Avenue is a major 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:43.200 character like in the book also, so we could talk 0:01:43.200 --> 0:01:45.240 about that as well and give a backdrop. 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:48.520 I mean, normally I say, what was Laredo like in 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:50.960 blah blah blah, But you know, whatever the year is, 0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:53.840 but this is so recent. What is Laredo like now? 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:56.520 Unless things have dramatically changed since twenty eighteen. 0:01:57.040 --> 0:01:59.720 Laredo's a really interesting place. You know, it's right on 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:02.120 the order. It has a lot of history. It was 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:05.760 founded in seventeen fifty five, first by Spain and then 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:08.639 later became part of Mexico, became part of the US 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:11.280 in eighteen forty eight, and it always had the sort 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:13.640 of reputation of being this kind of rough and tumble 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:16.280 outpost right because it was right on the border. So 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:20.280 it drew a lot of like bundidos and outlaws trying 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:23.240 to sort of run away from the actual law. It 0:02:23.240 --> 0:02:26.280 had a lot of Apache Indian attacks early in the day. 0:02:27.160 --> 0:02:29.960 And it's probably most known as as a sort of 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:34.239 backdrop of select Larry mcmultrie novels, you know, like Streets 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:37.959 of Laredo and so like Lunesome Dove, but more sort 0:02:37.960 --> 0:02:43.480 of contemporarily. Today, it's a sort of bustling border city. 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:45.920 You know, it's home to about two hundred and sixty 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:52.240 thousand people. There's something like fifteen thousand trucks crisscrossing. It's 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:56.519 like port of entry every day. It's a major overland port, right. 0:02:57.120 --> 0:02:59.959 It basically ferries some three hundred billion dollars worth of 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:03.680 gives every year, about half of all US Mexico trade 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:07.200 goes through Laredo. But it's also you know, it also 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:11.400 obviously draws drug cartels and human and drug smuggling, and 0:03:11.600 --> 0:03:14.200 some of that product you know, unfortunately leaks out into 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:17.200 the streets of Laredo. Laredo has been kind of struggling 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:21.880 with a drug problem there for generations. You know, black 0:03:21.919 --> 0:03:25.880 tar heroin basically made it appearance in the nineteen seventies 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:28.160 and it's like still a problem today. But it's also 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:30.560 a very safe town, you know, because you've got like 0:03:30.600 --> 0:03:34.160 border patrol there, you got DEA operating there, you got 0:03:34.400 --> 0:03:38.440 Homeland security investigators, so you got all of these sort 0:03:38.440 --> 0:03:41.640 of law enforcement agents operating there, and like the cartels, 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:44.040 no better than to like set up shop and do 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:47.120 anything done there, So they tend to bypass with Laredo. 0:03:47.400 --> 0:03:50.520 So it's it's like a relatively safe city, you know, 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:53.200 home to about. It basically has something like ten to 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:56.960 twelve homicides a year, so the murder rate is is 0:03:57.000 --> 0:04:00.000 like relatively low compared to other Texas cities or even 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:01.080 across the US. 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:04.000 Who is the person do you think that is attracted 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:07.160 to being a border patrol agent? Why not be a 0:04:07.160 --> 0:04:10.160 police officer in Laredo or work for DEA? Is there 0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:13.120 kind of a type of person who would feel passionate 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:14.160 about this type of job. 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:17.640 Border patrol is kind of a coveted position there along 0:04:17.680 --> 0:04:20.560 the border. First of all, like pays well, it pays, 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:24.160 it pays better, significantly better, like in some cases than 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:28.200 sheriff's deputies or local police, and so people along the border. 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:31.160 I've actually met people who are from Laredo who are 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:34.640 actually Border patrol agents who said that they basically came 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:37.320 up the ranks. Maybe they were like a police officer 0:04:37.480 --> 0:04:40.120 for a couple of years, but their goal was always 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:43.280 to be border patrol agent. Because they have this long 0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:46.360 history there. They're the ones who own like the really 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:50.599 nice houses down in Laredo, and so it draws a 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:53.320 lot of people who are interested in like law enforcement, 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:55.640 but are interested in kind of stepping up to the 0:04:55.720 --> 0:04:59.360 sort of next level financially. It also draws a lot 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:02.320 of former like sort of military people, right, because there's 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:05.120 a lot of it's a lot of parallels there, right, 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:08.520 because you're basically asked to go out and sort of 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:13.000 patrol in these kind of remote areas. You're armed, there's 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:15.880 a sense of camaraderie with some of the other agents. 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:19.920 So more and more throughout the years, really, but recently, 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:23.119 you know, you're getting a lot of people coming from 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:27.920 conflicts in like Afghanistan and like Iraq who come back 0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:31.520 to Stateside and are interested in border patrols. 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:34.000 Now, I know you said eight to twelve murders a year, 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:36.600 which seems very low for a city that size. 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:37.120 Correct. 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:41.880 Yeah, tell me how active the sex work trade is 0:05:41.960 --> 0:05:45.240 in Laredo in twenty eighteen, since that's sort of the 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:48.240 community we're focusing on, as well as the folks who 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:49.280 work at border patrol. 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:52.880 Yeah, the sex worker community is pretty active there and 0:05:52.920 --> 0:05:56.440 it has been for for like a long time. So 0:05:56.480 --> 0:06:01.040 like Laredo has its history of sex workers working there. 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:04.720 I found articles dating back to like the early nineteen 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:08.800 hundreds where kind of turned the century, prostitutes were working 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:11.200 in these in these like sort of bordellos along some 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:15.400 Bonanando Avenue. Since it's always drawn these these these type 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:19.360 of crowds of like rum runners and fugitive and lawmen 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:23.360 and so like bonitos bordellos brought it up to service 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:26.880 a lot of these folks. In twenty eighteen, it was 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:29.719 like pretty vibrant. You know, There's there's quite a number 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:33.479 of sex workers working along there, and they tend to 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:37.120 congregate along this one stretch called some Betanando Avenue, and 0:06:37.160 --> 0:06:40.080 some Benando Avenue obviously plays like a really big role 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:42.760 in my book. It's it's where all these four victims 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:46.360 lived and worked and where a lot of the sex 0:06:46.400 --> 0:06:50.480 workers congregate. But the sex workers that work in Laredo, 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:52.880 as far as I could tell, almost to a tea, 0:06:53.000 --> 0:06:56.119 almost every single one that I met down there were 0:06:56.200 --> 0:06:58.599 doing it because they also had these really sort of 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:02.039 like debilitating sub since abuse disorders. All of them were 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:06.960 struggling with drug addictions. Again mostly black tar heroin, but 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:11.040 also cracked cocaine and like a number of other different drugs. 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:14.560 But it was very vibrant down there. In twenty eighteen. 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:20.920 When I started learning about the Long Island serial case 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:25.160 Gilgo Beach case, I had not known that with some 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:29.120 escorts they will have drivers go with them for safety. 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:33.000 Is there any sort of safety with the women we're 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:36.840 talking about in this story or is this they're on 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:39.960 the street on San Fernando Avenue and people are stopping 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:42.960 and picking them up. Is there any level of safety 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:43.920 at all with them? 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:47.040 No? That's like a really interesting part that I learned 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:50.920 about the sex trade there in downtown Laredo, especially around 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:55.800 Sambernando Avenue, is that they don't they don't really have 0:07:55.920 --> 0:08:00.280 pimps per se, there is no sort of protection. For 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:03.240 the most part, sex workers, along asime bet now theo 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:06.880 are generally on their own. I did actually meet a 0:08:06.920 --> 0:08:09.600 couple of folks. It was like a couple of guys 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:13.240 who I would describe more as kind of like hangers on, 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:16.920 just folks who who like to sort of orbit around 0:08:17.040 --> 0:08:20.640 the sex trade down there, And they were looked at 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:23.280 as kind of like big brothers and like friends to 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:27.280 some of these sex workers. They basically helped them out 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:32.160 with scheduling or sort of connecting with different clients, and 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:35.000 they would do it for you know, just a party 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:37.439 with them, or to get a little bit of the 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:40.880 heroin from them. Later they call it chiva, so they 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:43.520 would do it just for like a hit or two 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:46.440 of like chiba later. For the most part, there's a 0:08:46.480 --> 0:08:49.400 real lack of actual protection for any of these sex workers. 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:53.560 They're not generally escorted anywhere, and they're usually on their own. 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:55.959 Well, tell me now where we go. Do we talk 0:08:56.000 --> 0:08:59.200 about the victims in a chronological order, or do we 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:02.160 talk about the we haven't named him yet, or do 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:03.920 you want to just sort of unfold it a little 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:05.560 bit like a mystery. It's kind of up to you 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:06.800 what your comfort level is. 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:08.839 Let's talk about the victims. I think that's actually a 0:09:08.920 --> 0:09:09.400 good place. 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:13.520 Okay, So victim number one, let's talk about what you 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:17.400 know about her and then the circumstances that have her 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:21.480 meeting Juan David Ortiz, who is the offender in this case. 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:26.080 Melissa Ramidez was the first victim. She was twenty nine 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:28.439 years old when she was killed, so she's one of 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:31.840 the younger victims. I got to know her family first. 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:35.760 Christina Benavidez, so like Melissa's mom, and she lives in 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:38.880 a in a place called Rio Bravo, and that's sort 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:42.280 of a suburb of like downtown Laredo. It's just a 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:45.320 couple of miles outside. It's known as a colonia, which 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:48.440 is sort of really kind of like kind of poor 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:52.640 suburb of Laredo. And I went out there early on 0:09:52.679 --> 0:09:55.840 and got to meet Christina, and she she really opened 0:09:55.920 --> 0:09:59.480 up to me and told me about about like Melissa 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:04.000 growing up. She was one of four children and Christina 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:08.319 Benavidez was basically raising them like her own. And when 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:11.200 I interviewed her, it was about a week after Melissa 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:15.079 was found dead, and I was talking to like Christina, 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:17.600 she had these dark classes on and she would look 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:20.120 down and she told me these stories and like we 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:22.440 had to stop kind of repeatedly because she kept crying. 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:25.640 She told me about sort of Melissa growing up. She 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:29.440 was fiercely sort of protective of her younger brother Sasad, 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:32.680 and they were they basically went they went sort of 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:37.480 everywhere together. And then somewhere around middle school is when 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:40.840 she when sort of Melissa starts to stray, and she 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:44.840 starts staying out longer. She's hanging out with friends. Sometimes 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:50.560 overnight she begins popping pills, mostly his annex, which she takes, 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:53.960 which which she finds from other people, and like develops 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:58.640 this addiction to crack cocaine, and shortly after that basically 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:01.640 drops out of high school and starts doing sex work 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:06.120 to sort of support her habit. One thing Christina didn't 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:08.880 tell me because she either didn't know or was in 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:11.520 like denial over it, but that I was told by 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:15.440 several other people, including Melissa's sister in law, Gracie, who 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:18.720 was very close to her, that when she was around 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:24.360 middle school age, Melissa was sexually assaulted by an older 0:11:24.440 --> 0:11:28.440 family member, and Gracie kind of points to that period 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:32.320 when everything starts to really fall apart for her. So 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:36.920 she's she's having trouble at school. Christina's called in one 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:41.200 day because she goes to the school and the school 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:44.199 counsil tells her that that so Melissa has been slicing 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:47.520 her arms, so she's hurting herself. Also, they take it 0:11:47.559 --> 0:11:51.520 to a therapist and she's diagnosed with by polarism and 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:54.520 sort of prescribes pills. I think it was prozac at 0:11:54.520 --> 0:11:56.880 that point, and like Christina comes home and like she 0:11:56.880 --> 0:11:59.160 she actually told me later she was like really surprised 0:11:59.160 --> 0:12:02.920 because she had no that Melissa was struggling with taking 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:06.080 pills and taking medication. And so they take it to 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:09.360 a doctor and she actually prescribes more more pills, and 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:12.440 she she kind of felt distinctively that that wasn't like 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:15.520 the right route for her, but she hopes that the 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:18.920 actual pills could get her better. Well, Melissa just gets 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:21.400 worse and worse, ends up dropping out of school and 0:12:21.559 --> 0:12:25.840 joining other sex workers along alongside Better Nando, and just 0:12:25.960 --> 0:12:28.600 lives from like hotel room to hotel room out there. 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:32.520 So how do we know that Melissa goes missing and 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:35.760 is in trouble as who finds out first the women 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:38.400 that she works alongside, or is it a family member 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:41.000 who reports her missing or what happens just a. 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:45.880 Couple of days before she's she's actually found dead. Christina Benavidez, 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:50.840 Melissa's mom, gets in the car with Melissa's two young children, 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:55.120 who Christina has has actual custody of, and drives along 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:57.320 time Better Now they're looking for her, like she's actually 0:12:57.320 --> 0:12:59.160 looking for her. She really wants to go to the 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:01.680 movies with her. I think it was Labor Day. She's 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:04.480 actually driving around trying to find like sort of Melissa 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:08.040 to have this day at the movies with Melissa's children. 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:11.120 Drives around and cannot find her and this and so 0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:13.720 and so she like starts to worry. Christina told me 0:13:13.760 --> 0:13:16.480 she was always worrying, Like she was constantly worrying because 0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:20.120 Melissa would would go missing and just be out of 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:23.520 pocket for days, sometimes weeks, and so it basically was 0:13:23.559 --> 0:13:27.240 always troubling to her when she would just go kind 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:30.920 of like radio silence. So this was another instance of 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:34.360 so like Melissa not being found. And so one of 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:36.640 the people she was living with at the time, Emily 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:41.240 but Ela, who Melissa was was sort of roommates with 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:43.560 at the time, had a big fight with her like 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:47.880 the night before, doesn't doesn't actually hear from her the 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:50.520 following day or the following day after that, and so 0:13:50.600 --> 0:13:54.640 she starts to get worried. Melissa's body is actually found 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:58.120 in this in this rural stretch of Webb County, like 0:13:58.360 --> 0:14:02.240 northwest of Laredo's by a passerby who calls it in. 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:05.720 Calls in the actual Webb County sheriff's office who actually 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:09.400 goes out there and starts the investigation. And that's what 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:13.360 Melissa's bodies found. She had been shot several times at 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:16.600 like close range behind the head. But that's all they got, Like, 0:14:16.679 --> 0:14:20.240 all they have is sort of Melissa's body and a 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:22.640 couple of forty caliber casings nearby. 0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:24.960 Did they do a rape kit and all of that, 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:26.520 Were there signs of a sexual assault? 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:30.160 There was not. That's something which the sort of medical 0:14:30.200 --> 0:14:34.520 examiner looked at closely and basically determined that there wasn't 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:37.280 any of that. And so they were just going on 0:14:37.320 --> 0:14:40.000 the sort of premise that she was taken out there 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:43.360 and shot twice in the head. The thing about Melissa too, 0:14:43.720 --> 0:14:46.160 she was also known as kind of a hot head, 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:50.200 like she had hot temper where she basically displayed sometimes 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:52.640 two friends like she was known to get into fistfights 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:56.200 with friends over the smallest things, sometimes with just people 0:14:56.240 --> 0:15:00.040 on the street and other times with clients also. So 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:03.360 the initial assumption, at least among some of her friends 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:07.600 and fellow sex workers was that she she basically had 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:10.920 a falling out with a client. They got into a 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:14.640 verbal spat and things went sideways, and that's why she 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:17.080 was shot and killed. So that was a sort of 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:20.840 wide spread assumption among some of her friends. But the 0:15:20.880 --> 0:15:25.640 sheriff's office launches a investigation into it, and as is 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:30.000 protocol sometimes down there, with high profile cases or even 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:34.760 most sort of murder cases, the web County Sheriff's office 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:37.920 will call in somebody from the Texas Rangers to basically 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:42.160 assist them. And the Texas Rangers they have more resources, 0:15:42.320 --> 0:15:45.320 they have more money, and they tend to be especially 0:15:45.480 --> 0:15:50.200 trained for things like murder and cartail violence. So the 0:15:50.280 --> 0:15:53.360 lead investigator to the Webbs County Sheriff's office, this person 0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:55.720 by the name of Captain, got their own, got their own, 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:59.120 calls in EJ. Salinas, who is the main Texas Ranger 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:02.880 for that region, and together cut it on and Selena's 0:16:02.960 --> 0:16:07.240 launched this this sort of investigation into who this person 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:09.480 is and why she was killed. 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:13.760 So they're taking it seriously, which surprises me considering, you know, 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:17.320 we're talking awful lot about police officers not being particularly 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:20.880 interested in the murders of sex workers, but it sounds 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:23.320 like that wasn't the case here, So that's good. They're 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:25.600 taking the case seriously, and of course no one's picked 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:27.800 up on this yet that this will become the work 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:28.720 of a serial killer. 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:30.760 I was sort of interested in that too, Like I 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:34.040 I was interested in how serious they actually took it 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:37.600 early on, and from everything that I found, like they 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:40.200 did take it, you know, extremely serious as soon as 0:16:40.240 --> 0:16:43.680 it happened. There aren't a ton of murders in Laredo, 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:48.040 so this one would seems so so brutal, you know, 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:50.800 the sort of close range shots like in the head 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:55.240 kind of execution style, really like prompting them to take 0:16:55.280 --> 0:16:58.640 it serious right away. And so they actually launched this 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:03.080 pretty intense of investigation into it right away. Obviously, like 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:05.000 they don't know that this is the work of a 0:17:05.040 --> 0:17:08.760 serial killer who is planning on killing again, but they 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:12.760 like take it as serious as possible. They branch out 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:17.000 through the Samberternando corridor talking to folks. They basically find 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:20.679 out soon after who this person is. They're able to 0:17:21.040 --> 0:17:24.960 actually identify her through fingerprints and other methods, and they 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:28.040 like learn early on that she's a sex worker working 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:32.520 along some better Nando avenue. They basically begin to spread 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:35.679 out throughout this corridor, talking to other sex workers, talking 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:37.639 to people who may have known her, people who have 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:40.800 seen them who have seen her last, trying to figure 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:42.480 out what exactly happened to her. 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:45.360 And I think he's say in the book that they 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:49.600 end up reaching out eventually to the next three victims 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:51.440 because they're all sex workers. 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:52.000 Is that right? 0:17:52.600 --> 0:17:55.560 Yeah? Early on, Clauding loydra is one of the top 0:17:55.560 --> 0:17:59.760 people which they're interested in talking to. Clauding Loida was 0:17:59.800 --> 0:18:03.040 really close with so like Melissa, they were known to 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:05.200 sort of hang out in the same sort of motels 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:09.440 along Samberanando Avenue. They were known to even share clients 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:13.480 now and then Claudine Lola was older. She's she's forty two, 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:16.439 so she's kind of looked at as a sort of older, 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:20.280 wiser sex worker out there. Melissa is kind of the younger, 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:24.359 like hot headed worker, and so Claudine kind of like 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:28.359 takes her under her her wing, and they were they 0:18:28.359 --> 0:18:31.560 were actually pretty tight. So investigative zero in and like 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:32.920 Claudie Louila right away. 0:18:33.320 --> 0:18:34.879 So they talked to Claudine. 0:18:34.880 --> 0:18:37.720 What does she say that you know, does she give 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:41.360 any insight on clients or any theories about what happened? 0:18:41.880 --> 0:18:45.399 So they don't talk to actual Claudine. She's on their 0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:49.960 their list of like people of interest, and they're actively 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:52.920 looking for her. They're they're they're like trying to locate her. 0:18:53.240 --> 0:18:55.159 So you can imagine it's not the easiest thing to 0:18:55.240 --> 0:18:58.440 like sort of locate somebody in this world because lots 0:18:58.480 --> 0:19:00.680 of time, like they may not even have a smell phone. 0:19:00.960 --> 0:19:04.280 They're very transient. They're bouncing around from my people's couch 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:07.840 to hotel rooms to somewhere else, and so they're like 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:10.520 actively trying to look at her. Claudine is one of 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:14.440 like four or five names that Captain Cardan has on 0:19:14.640 --> 0:19:17.680 his list of people of interest, and they're actively trying 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:23.159 to find Claudine when Claudine also ends up as a victim. 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:26.240 Similar circumstances, gunshot, similar location. 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:30.399 Claudine Leuta's body is actually found just a couple of 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:34.960 miles from where Melissa's Body's found, also this sort of 0:19:35.080 --> 0:19:40.480 rural stretch of northwest Webb County. Similarly, she's found like 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:43.639 on the side of the highway with a gunshot wound 0:19:43.960 --> 0:19:46.359 to the back of the head. But what was different 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:50.000 about Claudine is that she was still alive somehow kind 0:19:50.040 --> 0:19:52.480 of miraculously. So she was shot once in the back 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:56.560 of the head and she managed to crawl and drag 0:19:56.600 --> 0:20:00.840 herself to the shoulder of the actual highway where she 0:20:00.880 --> 0:20:04.520 could be better found, and sure enough, the truck driver 0:20:04.760 --> 0:20:08.119 passes by, sees her stops and she's actually still alive, 0:20:08.200 --> 0:20:13.320 like she's incoherent, like she's asking for water, saying she's 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:17.480 like really thirsty, and she's mumbling stuff. The truck driver 0:20:17.640 --> 0:20:21.280 calls nine one one, and this ambulance comes out as 0:20:21.280 --> 0:20:23.560 well as deputies come out, and then ambulance comes up, 0:20:23.600 --> 0:20:26.760 scoops her on and raises her to the actual nearest hospital, 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:29.160 and she's still alive all the way to the hospital. 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:33.159 I actually interviewed the paramedic who took her, and she 0:20:33.240 --> 0:20:36.280 said Clouding was actually being kind of combative, which is 0:20:36.440 --> 0:20:39.520 which is somewhat natural, he said, for like these types 0:20:39.520 --> 0:20:41.960 of victims, he sees it a lot, like they're really 0:20:42.400 --> 0:20:46.359 confused and disoriented. And she was swinging in her arms 0:20:46.359 --> 0:20:48.119 to the point that they had to like hold her 0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:51.200 down and basically strap her down. And he's telling her, 0:20:51.240 --> 0:20:53.080 you know, just to take it easy, that somebody's going 0:20:53.119 --> 0:20:55.320 to take care of her, and they're still operating, like 0:20:55.440 --> 0:20:58.600 under the assumption he assumed that she got hit by 0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:01.200 a car and left them like he didn't know that 0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:05.080 this was a gunshot until they take her to the hospital. 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:08.760 They wheel her into the hospital and the doctor comes 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:13.159 out maybe twenty thirty minutes later saying that Claudine passed away, 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:17.640 that she actually died, and that it wasn't a auto accident. 0:21:17.840 --> 0:21:20.639 That they found a bullets lug in the back of 0:21:20.680 --> 0:21:24.919 her head. So now this information is basically relayed to 0:21:25.080 --> 0:21:28.840 Captain Goddown and E. J. Salinas, the Texas ranger, who 0:21:28.840 --> 0:21:32.119 are at the scene looking at the crime scene, and 0:21:32.160 --> 0:21:35.200 they noticed that there's a couple of casings there also 0:21:35.280 --> 0:21:40.040 forty caliber, just just like the first incident. And so 0:21:40.080 --> 0:21:43.240 now they got two women, both of them sex workers, 0:21:43.320 --> 0:21:44.880 both of them shot in the back of the head 0:21:44.960 --> 0:21:49.240 with forty caliber bullets. And they realized that now they 0:21:49.320 --> 0:21:51.440 have a serial killer on their hands. 0:21:51.440 --> 0:21:54.920 And not just two sex workers. Two sex workers who 0:21:55.040 --> 0:21:58.280 were intimate friends. I mean, they knew each other very well. 0:21:58.359 --> 0:22:00.920 I don't know how big the industry is in Laredo 0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:04.000 at the time, but you know, these are friends who 0:22:04.400 --> 0:22:06.840 knew each other really well, and I'm sure they took 0:22:06.840 --> 0:22:09.200 that into consideration absolutely. 0:22:09.520 --> 0:22:12.480 And it's not only that, like they knew each other well, 0:22:12.640 --> 0:22:16.120 but that that, like investigators were actively trying to find Claudine, 0:22:17.119 --> 0:22:21.199 they also found that very very interesting that that this 0:22:21.359 --> 0:22:24.200 is somebody that they were trying to find to interview 0:22:24.359 --> 0:22:27.640 about about sort of Melissa's death, and now she also 0:22:27.760 --> 0:22:28.359 ends up dead. 0:22:28.800 --> 0:22:32.440 When Claudine is waving her arms and you know, being 0:22:32.480 --> 0:22:36.000 combative in the ambulance, is she saying anything that can 0:22:36.040 --> 0:22:38.840