Bond set for border agent accused of killing four

A U.S. Border Patrol supervisor was jailed Sunday on $2.5 million bond in Texas, accused in the killing of at least four women and of injuring a fifth who managed to escape.

Juan David Ortiz, 35, was being held in Laredo on four counts of murder along with charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and unlawful restraint, Webb County jail records showed.

Ortiz was arrested a day earlier, after being found hiding in a truck in a hotel parking lot in Laredo, at about 2 a.m. Saturday, capping what investigators portrayed as a 10-day string of violence. Webb County District Attorney Isidro Alaniz said Saturday that investigators “consider this to be a serial killer.”

Alaniz described how the Customs and Border Patrol intel supervisor continued going to work as usual throughout that time.

“As law enforcement was looking for the killer ... he would be reporting to work every day like normal,” he said.

It all began with the discovery Sept. 4 of the body of 29-year-old Melissa Ramirez. According to a police affidavit, Ortiz said he killed Ramirez a day earlier. Like the other victims, Ramirez was shot in the head and left in a road in rural northwest Webb County. She was a mother of two. A second victim, 42-year-old Claudine Anne Luera, was found shot and left in the road Thursday morning, badly injured but still alive, according to the affidavit.

The mother of five died at a hospital later that day.

On Friday, according to the affidavit, Ortiz picked up a woman named Erika Pena. She told police she struggled with Ortiz inside his truck, where he pointed a pistol at her, but that she was able to flee. She made it to a gas station where she found a state trooper whom she asked for help.

According to the affidavit, Ortiz told investigators that after Pena ran off, he picked up his last two victims, whose identities have not yet been released by authorities.