1:59

Yeah, that Pena the Gun at her. She's

2:02

in shock, man. Trooper

2:05

Hernandez gathered that the woman was a sex worker

2:08

who knew both Melissa Ramirez and Claudine

2:10

Luera, the women who'd been murdered over the past 10

2:12

days. She's one of

2:14

those girls, you know what I mean? She

2:17

knows who they are, some judges.

2:18

Yeah, man.

2:20

Pena didn't know much about the guy, Hernandez

2:23

said, but what she did know might

2:25

help authorities identify him. So

2:28

she knows that guy's name, like the first name

2:30

and where he lives, though. Just

2:33

the first name, David. Calderon

2:38

had seen promising leads before, the

2:40

truck that sped away from the first crime scene, the

2:43

blood-soaked sheets at the Siesta Motel, the

2:45

man who'd argued with Claudine the night she was killed.

2:49

But this was different. If

2:52

Erica's attacker was in fact the same guy

2:54

who'd killed Melissa and Claudine, she could

2:56

lead the cops straight to him. Still,

2:59

the clock was ticking. Calderon

3:01

told the trooper to bring Erica to the station as

3:03

fast as he could. Their new suspect

3:06

was now on the run and he must have

3:08

known the cops were closing in.

3:12

This is Gone South. I'm

3:14

Jed Lipinski, episode four,

3:18

David. I

3:26

remember that evening was a drizzling, raining, and

3:30

I remember seeing the trooper pull up and she comes

3:32

out with him, and she's distraught, crying. She's

3:37

completely frantic,

3:40

and she's convinced someone's out there after her and

3:42

it's going to be a very, very difficult

3:44

time. And I remember seeing her, I remember seeing

3:46

her, she was in the car, she

3:48

was in the car, she was in the car, she

3:51

was in the car, she was in the car, and someone's

3:54

out there after her and it's going to

3:56

hurt her, kill her. Erica

3:59

Pena arrived at the...

3:59

Web County Sheriff's Office around 9.30 p.m. Calderon

4:03

could tell she was in shock. He pulled

4:05

out a pack of cigarettes and offered her one.

4:08

She starts, you know, chain-smoking cigarettes

4:10

outside in the substation, and after she

4:12

calms down, you know, she starts to tell us

4:14

exactly what happened.

4:18

We spoke with Erica in early 2023. She

4:21

explained that the man she knew as David had first

4:23

picked her up around five months earlier.

4:26

I remember when I first met David, I had

4:28

told my mom that he was very tall,

4:30

that he was very handsome, and

4:33

I told my mom, I'm talking to this guy,

4:36

but he's married, and the

4:39

wife is never around, and I remember

4:43

my mom told me just

4:45

to be careful, to be safe.

4:48

She continued to see David every few weeks.

4:51

He would give her money to buy drugs, and

4:53

they would go to his house or the Cactus Motel

4:55

on San Bernardo Avenue. She

4:57

found him polite, funny, and charming.

5:00

Of the sex workers he'd been with, David

5:02

told her she was his favorite.

5:04

We became friends, me and David. We

5:07

would talk, right? We

5:10

would talk a lot.

5:11

According to Erica, David confided in

5:14

her about the struggles he was having with his wife,

5:16

who didn't like living in Laredo. He

5:18

imagined what it would be like if they lived together and

5:21

Erica stopped using drugs.

5:23

At the time, my life was

5:25

out of control, so I couldn't

5:28

get sober from one day to the next.

5:31

He would just say that there

5:34

was so much good in me that

5:37

he had a lot of faith in me

5:39

being sober.

5:42

Despite such intimate exchanges,

5:44

Erica told Calderon that much of David's

5:46

life remained a mystery to her.

5:48

She didn't know what he did or who he was really,

5:51

but she started telling us he drove

5:53

a white pickup, and

5:56

that she had been to his house before.

6:00

Erica told Calderon that after Melissa was

6:02

killed she'd stopped going out at night, fearful

6:05

that the killer might return to San Bernardo. She'd

6:08

ventured out for the first time earlier that evening,

6:10

only to see David's truck pull up.

6:13

I was standing up on San Bernardo

6:16

by the bus stop and

6:19

I remember I see David driving by

6:22

and he drives

6:23

around.

6:26

Erica was relieved to see a familiar face

6:28

and she climbed in. As he'd

6:31

done before, David took her to buy heroin

6:33

and then drove her back to his house, where

6:35

she shot up at his kitchen table. At

6:38

that point, the conversation turned to Melissa's

6:40

murder. According to court documents,

6:43

Erica had seen David with Melissa shortly

6:45

before she died. She asked if

6:47

he'd heard anything about it.

6:49

I had told David, hey, do

6:51

you know what's going on? They found

6:53

Melissa dead, right? And

6:57

the only thing he said was, yeah, I

7:01

saw it in the news.

7:03

According to Erica, David's demeanor changed.

7:07

David gave me a different weird

7:09

vibe. He had never given

7:12

me an off vibe.

7:16

David admitted that he'd been with Melissa not

7:18

long before she died, Erica said.

7:21

He worried the cops might find his DNA

7:23

on her and consider him a suspect.

7:26

And that's when I got scared. That's

7:28

when I snapped. Well, why are you going to be afraid

7:30

for someone to check your DNA? We have nothing

7:32

to do with it.

7:35

Erica suddenly felt sick. She

7:38

said she heard a voice in her head telling her to get out

7:40

of the house. She told David she

7:42

needed a cigarette. Then she walked into the front

7:44

yard and threw up on the sidewalk. David

7:47

followed her and suggested they take a ride. She

7:50

offered to get her something to eat at a nearby Circle

7:52

K. Erica was petrified,

7:55

but felt she had no choice. So

7:57

she reluctantly got back into his truck.

7:59

On the way over there, the ride was quiet.

8:02

David was very nervous. David was not

8:05

himself.

8:06

Erica managed to keep her composure as they slowly

8:09

pulled up behind the circle K. Then

8:11

David put the car in park and turned to

8:13

her.

8:14

He just looked at me and he

8:16

didn't say anything. That's what trips

8:19

me out that he didn't say anything. He just looked

8:21

at me and that's when David

8:24

took out a gun and pointed it at

8:26

me.

8:27

Erica screamed and tried to honk the truck's

8:30

horn, but David grabbed her shirt and

8:32

restrained her.

8:33

He was trying to grab me from my shirt

8:35

and some way somehow I

8:37

was able to take off my shirt and take off running.

8:42

It was then that Erica spotted Trooper Hernandez

8:44

gassing up his vehicle across the parking lot.

8:47

So I ran to the officer

8:49

and I told him what had just happened to me and yes

8:53

everything happened so fast. So, so,

8:55

so fast.

8:56

Trooper Hernandez asked Erica if she knew

8:58

where David lived. She told him she could

9:00

probably find it.

9:02

So I remember the day he picked

9:04

me up I was paying real close attention

9:07

to the streets and I remember

9:09

telling the trooper please don't forget

9:11

this name because this is the name of the street.

9:13

You're going to sign here or something like that,

9:15

right?

9:15

I'm not going to. I'm going to sign here.

9:18

Sign here? I think that's what

9:19

it is.

9:21

Erica repeated the street name to Calderon as they stood

9:23

outside the sheriff's station.

9:26

She is able to describe the house very

9:29

particularly and she tells us about

9:31

you know the lahmach

9:33

she left on the sidewalk and she's

9:35

telling us it's by the academy in North

9:38

Laredo. So that kind of

9:40

gives us the neighborhood and I

9:42

think I know where she's talking about. And so at 11 p.m that night, Calderon,

9:44

Erica

9:47

and a cadre of sheriff's deputies drove through the streets

9:49

of Northeast Laredo searching for David's house. So she's telling

9:52

us the house looks like this with

9:56

steps like that. got

10:00

a driveway here, I vomited here, so that's

10:02

what we were looking for.

10:05

Then, as they entered the San Ysidro neighborhood,

10:08

a middle-class subdivision full of newly built

10:10

single-family homes, Erica spotted

10:12

it.

10:12

I just said, uh, that's the house

10:15

right there.

10:16

And it was, as she described, with

10:18

the stairs leading up to the door and the small pathway

10:21

going up to the driveway and

10:23

the vomit where she said it would be.

10:26

No one appeared to be home, so Calderon

10:29

ran a background search on the property. It

10:31

indicated that a white 2015 Dodge

10:34

Ram pickup, like the one Erica described,

10:36

was registered to the address. The

10:39

owner of the house was listed as Juan David

10:41

Ortiz.

10:43

We found out that it didn't

10:45

list a current employer, but

10:47

it did list a previous employer as

10:50

U.S. Navy.

10:52

When Calderon showed Erica a photograph of

10:54

Ortiz, she confirmed it was the same man

10:56

who just assaulted her. So we

10:58

feel like we have a pretty good lead and

11:01

we have a pretty good suspect,

11:04

but that's not the first time we've felt that.

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11:40

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11:41

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11:46

and under the radar cases from across

11:49

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12:17

Once Erica Pena had identified Juan

12:19

David Ortiz's house, Calderon sent

12:22

her back to the station while a few deputies

12:24

stayed behind in case he showed up. In

12:26

the meantime, Calderon issued a bolo for

12:29

Ortiz's white Dodge pickup.

12:31

Calderon told a group of state troopers and

12:44

Webb

12:46

County deputies to saturate San Bernardo,

12:49

as well as the areas where Melissa and Claudian's bodies

12:51

were found. He warned them that Ortiz,

12:54

who may have been responsible for two murders and an aggravated

12:56

assault, was ex-military. Less

12:59

than an hour later, a state trooper was driving

13:01

south on San Bernardo when he saw a white

13:03

Dodge truck parked outside of Stripes' convenience

13:06

store. He watched as a man who

13:08

appeared to match the description of Juan David

13:10

Ortiz exited the truck and walked

13:12

inside. The trooper radioed

13:14

for backup, and the dispatcher relayed

13:16

the call.

13:25

In seconds, another trooper arrived. This

13:39

is body cam footage recorded by one of the state

13:41

troopers. As they approached the front

13:43

of the store, Ortiz walked out. The

13:46

two troopers ordered him to put his hands in the air.

13:57

In

14:02

the video Ortiz passed himself down

14:04

as if he's looking for something. He

14:07

then tells the troopers you guys are freaking me

14:09

out. Okay, okay,

14:12

I'm gonna explain to you. Sir, we

14:14

got a positive idea. This truck right

14:16

here is matching with the murders that's been

14:18

happening within the past two weeks. We want

14:20

to do an interview. We want to do some questioning. We

14:23

just need for you to cooperate with us, okay? Alright,

14:25

fine. Just turn around and make my way this

14:27

way, okay?

14:30

But Ortiz doesn't turn around. Instead,

14:33

he slowly backs away.

14:36

Turn around.

14:38

Yes, turn around. Please, turn

14:40

around. Okay,

14:44

okay, okay, okay, okay.

14:47

The troopers chase him and fire their tasers,

14:49

but Ortiz is out of range. He then

14:52

takes a hard left and disappears somewhere

14:54

in the vicinity of the Eva Hotel. Watch

14:56

out. Where's the angle? Right.

15:07

By the time Calderon showed up, the scene was

15:09

swarming with local, state, and federal law enforcement.

15:12

He was briefed by one of the troopers who chased Ortiz.

15:15

The trooper says he lost him somewhere in that area

15:18

of the hotel. He's convinced that he's somewhere

15:20

in that area, that he didn't make it further than the hotel.

15:23

Oh, you lost him here? Right here,

15:25

look, right here. Okay. The guy's

15:27

turning right there. Right there, we lost him

15:29

right there. The trooper

15:31

then explained that Texas Rangers had searched

15:33

Ortiz's truck and found a holster and an

15:36

empty magazine in the front seat. Is

15:38

anyone that tip his hand? Nothing. Nothing?

15:41

Did they check the truck? Did they see the truck? They

15:43

found an empty magazine on the truck. So he's got a

15:45

weapon. He's got a weapon. On his head in the

15:47

truck? It's on the truck.

15:50

At that point, a ranger tells me, hey,

15:52

I saw a holster, but I didn't see a gun. So

15:55

he's probably armed. He had a gun on

15:57

him. So we're fully expecting him to be armed.

16:00

As Calderon debated how to approach Ortiz,

16:03

word came over the radio of another disturbing

16:05

development across town. A

16:07

motorist had just discovered a body by

16:09

the Highway 35 interchange. We

16:12

advise we get another possible victim

16:14

on 35 near the interchange.

16:17

It might be related to this traffic. A

16:20

deputy had already responded and he said it

16:22

looked a lot like the other two murder scenes. Calderon

16:25

relayed the information to his men. We

16:28

have another surprise. What's the 20? It's

16:31

a 20 mile mark order and we have an interchange to H35. Deputies

16:34

don't seem to be

16:34

securing the scene for now.

16:38

Calderon suspected Ortiz was behind this

16:40

one too. He assumed Ortiz had

16:42

spotted deputies near the first two crime scenes

16:44

and dumped the body off Interstate 35 instead.

16:48

We called you up and we put

16:50

our deputies on 83 North and on 255.

16:52

So he didn't go back over there if

16:54

he went on 35 and he dumped her there. We

16:57

got another body right now.

17:00

Amidst the chaos, Calderon established

17:02

a perimeter around the hotel and ordered the

17:05

Laredo police to shut down the block. When

17:07

the Webb County SWAT team arrived, Calderon

17:10

ordered them to move in. Stand forward. This is

17:12

what I want y'all to do. I want y'all to stay right here. I'm

17:14

going to go up top. I'm going to take top cover. Stand

17:16

forward? Yeah, let's go. All right.

17:19

Damn it, Ortiz! Come out!

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19:36

Around the time troopers spotted Ortiz's truck

19:38

outside the stripes convenience store, LaGordiLoco

19:41

was headed to Laredo's club district to meet some

19:43

friends. I remember that I had

19:45

gone out one night and

19:47

I was downtown we

19:49

were getting into the bar when all of a sudden we

19:52

see what was Border Patrol first

19:55

and then when I saw DPS

19:58

following I was like this is

19:59

looks interesting, right? And then

20:02

I saw police following after that, and I was

20:04

like, uh-uh, I'll be back. And everybody's like, where are you

20:06

going? I'm like, when

20:07

it's lights and sirens,

20:08

it means there's something bad going on. So

20:12

I turned around, got in my truck, and hauled ass behind

20:14

them.

20:15

La Gordy Loca followed them to the Eva Hotel

20:17

on San Bernardo, where officers had surrounded

20:20

the hotel's parking garage.

20:22

So I park, and I just basically

20:24

take out my camera and start recording.

20:27

I don't know what is going on. All I

20:29

know that Texas Rangers, DPS,

20:32

the Laredo Police Department, Sheriff's

20:35

Department are here at this time. Everybody

20:37

has their firearms at hand. Like

20:41

I said, I don't know what the fuck is going on,

20:43

but this shit right here is serious. Like,

20:46

very, very fucking serious. It

20:51

was now close to one in the morning, and Ciara

20:53

Munguia was at home, unable to sleep. Ciara

20:56

had learned just hours earlier that her mother,

20:59

Claudine Loera, had been murdered,

21:01

and that the perpetrator had likely killed Melissa

21:03

Ramirez as well. Her

21:05

family had urged her to stay with them, but

21:08

she told them she wanted to be alone.

21:10

And of course, I'm on Facebook, just scrolling,

21:13

and I see people sharing that La

21:15

Gordy Loca as live for a manhunt.

21:19

Ciara clicked on La Gordy Loca's livestream.

21:22

She recognized the area as the part of San Bernardo

21:24

Avenue she had walked in search of her mom earlier

21:26

that year.

21:27

They're outside of the

21:29

Eva Hotel, and there's like a

21:32

lot of commotion, a lot of cars,

21:34

a lot of people.

21:35

All I know is that everything is closed

21:38

off. Everybody has their

21:40

guns in their hands. Everybody's

21:43

hiding behind a fucking truck. I don't know why I should

21:45

be hiding behind my truck.

21:48

Ciara struggled to understand what she was seeing,

21:51

but then La Gordy Loca revealed that the commotion may

21:53

have been connected to her mother's murder.

21:56

La Gordy Loca says that she suspects.

21:59

that it is the

22:02

murder being chased.

22:03

I'm more than sure that it's related

22:06

to the two recent deaths of the two females.

22:10

I mean, I don't know how bad this thing's

22:12

gonna get, but it's gonna get pretty bad.

22:15

As La Gordiloca livestreamed the scene outside,

22:18

the SWAT team and other officers continued clearing

22:20

the parking garage.

22:21

I was at the top of the ramp. SWAT team

22:23

was searching the bottom, trying to clear that empty

22:26

lot area. So they go to look car by

22:28

car to see if he's there.

22:37

Back outside, Calderon's partner, E.J.

22:40

Salinas, placed a call to the Border Intelligence

22:42

Center, requesting background information

22:45

on their new suspect, Juan David Ortiz.

22:47

Within minutes, Salinas got

22:49

a call back.

22:51

And he gets a phone call and he's stunned

22:53

by whatever phone call he received, and I'm asking him what's

22:55

going on. And he's asking

22:57

him, are you sure? Are you sure? Yes.

23:00

He goes, a guy we're looking for. He

23:02

said he's a Border Patrol agent. And I said,

23:05

he works for Border Patrol or he's an agent? He goes,

23:07

no, he's an agent. I said, how

23:09

sure are you? He goes, if it's Juan

23:11

David Ortiz that drives that truck, we're

23:13

looking for a BP agent. He

23:15

tells me that whoever he's talking to was finding

23:18

out that he's a supervisory Border

23:20

Patrol agent and assigned to the Border

23:22

Intelligence Center.

23:24

The Border Intelligence Center was the same facility

23:27

Calderon and Salinas had been collaborating with

23:29

for the past two weeks in search of Melissa

23:31

and Claudine's killer. Calderon

23:33

realized Ortiz may have been following, if not

23:35

interfering with, the investigation all

23:38

along. When

23:40

agents at the Border Intel Center discovered their

23:43

colleague was the subject of a countywide manhunt,

23:45

they were as shocked as Calderon. They

23:48

began calling Ortiz's cell phone, but

23:50

he didn't pick up. When

23:53

they tried to message Ortiz on Facebook though, they

23:55

noticed some alarming posts on his page. To

23:58

my wife and kids, I love you. one of them

24:00

read. The other read, Doc

24:02

Ortiz checks out, farewell. Fearing

24:06

that Ortiz was about to commit suicide, one

24:09

agent called Ortiz again, and this time,

24:11

he picked up. It's over, Ortiz

24:14

told him. The agent asked what he was talking

24:16

about, but Ortiz simply repeated himself

24:19

before hanging up.

24:28

By now, the SWAT team had cleared the first

24:30

two floors of the parking garage. Only

24:32

the third floor remained. Calderon

24:35

followed closely behind the tactical unit as

24:37

they weaved in between parked vehicles, searching

24:39

under and inside each one, until one of

24:41

the officers approached a truck in the corner of the

24:43

garage. As

24:46

he raised his assault rifle and peered into the truck

24:48

bed, Juan David Ortiz popped out,

24:51

brandishing what appeared to be a gun. But

24:59

it wasn't a gun. It was his phone.

25:02

Our officers didn't fall for it. They'd noticed

25:04

it was not a gun and they didn't engage him.

25:10

The SWAT team pinned Ortiz to the ground and handcuffed

25:13

him. Calderon made his way through the

25:15

crowd and looked at Ortiz for the first

25:17

time. He

25:20

was sweaty and, you know, he wasn't

25:22

saying too much. Ortiz

25:26

was putting a squad car and driven to the station,

25:29

where a new phase of the investigation was

25:31

about to begin.

25:34

Next on Gone South. We're

25:36

dealing with a cop. He knows how we operate

25:39

and he worked at that border

25:41

intelligence center. So how much

25:43

does he know of what we know? Why are there

25:45

round missions from your guns right now? Why

25:48

are we missing rounds from your neck? And he

25:50

takes off, opens

25:50

the handcuffs and takes them off. And

25:54

the floodgates open from there.

26:02

If you have questions or information for the Gone

26:04

South team, please email us at gone

26:06

south podcast at gmail.com

26:09

and if you're enjoying the show, please leave us a review.

26:13

Gone South is written and narrated by me,

26:15

Jed Lipinski. Executive produced

26:17

by Jed Lipinski, Tom Lipinski and

26:19

Ken Lee. Our story editor

26:22

is Tom Lipinski. Directed

26:24

by Lloyd Lockridge. Produced

26:26

by Anna Worrell. Edited,

26:28

mixed and mastered by Chris Basil. Original

26:31

music by Marshall Chadbourne. Production

26:34

support from Ian Mott, Bill Schultz,

26:36

Bob Tabidor and Sean Cherry. Special

26:39

thanks to JD Crowley, Jenna

26:42

Weiss Berman, Maura Curran, Josephina

26:44

Francis, Kurt Courtney and

26:47

Hilary Schuff. Gone

26:49

South is an Odyssey original.

27:00

Gone South, the Sign Cutter is an Odyssey

27:02

original podcast. You can listen to all

27:04

episodes now exclusively on the free

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and sports that matter to you. That's

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