[ad_1]
A supervisor of the US border patrol who confessed to killing four women and assaulting a fifth who managed to escape remained in jail on Monday, the police said in a statement.
Juan David Ortiz is being held in Laredo on $ 2.5 million bail for four counts of murder, aggravated assault with a lethal weapon and unlawful restraint.
According to affidavits, Ortiz, 35, "provided voluntary verbal confessions" early Saturday in the deaths of women. Ortiz was arrested one day after being found hidden in a truck in a hotel car park in Laredo, around 2 am Saturday, limiting what investigators described as 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 Customs and Border Patrol Supervisor continued to work as usual throughout this time.
"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 court records, 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. Her mother, Maria Cristina Benavides, told San Antonio Express-News Sunday that she had collected donations at the corner of a street Saturday to pay for her daughter's funeral.
"I have suffered a lot, all I want is justice, I want this man to die in jail for taking my daughter's life," Benavides said.
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.
Alaniz said that one of the unknown victims 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.
US Customs and Border Protection issued a statement offering their "sincere condolences" to the families of the victims and declaring that the criminal activities of its employees are 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 did not return several messages requesting comments.
The prison records do not mention a lawyer for Ortiz, who had been working for the Border Patrol for 10 years. He is the second border patrol officer in Laredo to be arrested for murder this year after Ronald Anthony Burgos-Aviles was charged with the murder of a woman he was involved with and his one-year-old child. Prosecutors are asking for the death penalty in this case.
Source link
