Border Patrol Officer Fined $ 2.5 Million for Killing 4 Women in Texas

HOUSTON – A supervisor from the US Border Patrol was jailed on a $ 2.5 million bail in Texas on Sunday. murder of at least four women and to have injured a fifth who managed to escape. Juan David Ortiz, 35, was detained in Laredo for four counts of murder with charges of aggravated assault with a lethal weapon and unlawful restraint, according to Webb prison records.

Ortiz was arrested a day earlier, after being found hidden in a truck in a hotel car park in Laredo, around 2am on Saturday, which was a series of 10-day violence. Webb District Attorney, Isidro Alaniz, said Saturday that investigators "considered this a serial killer" whose victims would be prostitutes.

Alaniz described how the supervisor of Intel Customs and Border Patrol continued to work as usual throughout this period.

"As the forces of the order were looking for the killer … he would come to work every day as usual," he said.

It all started with the discovery on September 4th of the body of Melissa Ramirez, 29 years old. According to a sworn statement from the police, Ortiz said he killed Ramirez a day earlier. Like the other victims, Ramirez was shot in the head and left on a road in rural northwestern Webb County.

She was the mother of two children.

A second victim, 42-year-old Claudine Anne Luera, was found shot and wounded and left on the road Thursday morning, seriously injured but still alive, according to the affidavit.

The mother of five died in a hospital later in the day.

On Friday, according to the affidavit, Ortiz took a woman named Erika Pena. She told the police that she had struggled with Ortiz inside her truck, where he had pointed her a gun, but that she could run away. She went to a gas station where she found a state soldier to whom she asked for help.

According to the affidavit, Ortiz told the investigators that after he had escaped, Pena had picked up his last two victims, whose identities had not yet been disclosed by the authorities.

The prison records do not mention a lawyer for Ortiz, who had been working for the Border Patrol for 10 years.

Alaniz said that the dead would be prostitutes and that one of them was a transgender woman. At least two were American citizens. the nationalities of the others were not known, he said. He stated that the investigators were still working to determine a motive.

Ortiz would have acted alone.

The federal agency issued a statement offering his "sincere condolences" to the families of the victims and stating that the criminal activity of its employees is not tolerated.

The Texas Department of Public Safety, which the Texas Rangers are investigating, has referred questions about the case to the Webb County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff Martin Cuellar has not sent back several messages asking for comments, but his spokesman has however told CBS News that a press conference would be held Monday.