Reward in slayings upped to $100,000

The family of an elderly Cleveland couple hopes that increasing the reward in their slayings from $10,000 to $100,000 will prompt witnesses to come forward.

Antonio Zamora Rodriguez, 80, and his wife, Maria, 77, still grieving over the murder of a grandson the previous year, were found slain on April 14, 2005, in their home. The case remains unsolved, and police say they have exhausted all leads.

“We have pursued all leads, but nothing has panned out yet,” said Capt. James Primeaux, who leads the criminal investigation division for Cleveland Police Department.

“There is just nowhere else to turn right now. If someone out there knows something, they aren’t sharing it,” he said.

Now, the family of the slain couple, longtime Cleveland residents who raised 13 children, has boosted the reward in hopes that witnesses or others with knowledge of the crime will come forward and offer evidence.

“My brother raised the reward to $100,000 for anyone with information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the murders of our parents,” said Carolina Tejada.

Tejada found her parents dead in their Waco Street around 12:45 p.m. when she arrived to deliver their lunch. She discovered her mother beaten to death in her bed. Her father, a World War II veteran, had been killed in another room in the house.

A scent-tracking dog reportedly led authorities to a nearby apartment complex, but the trail ended and no arrests were made.

Tejada says the family is haunted by the knowledge that the killer has never been apprehended.

“Someone has to know something. I want them to know that it has been really hard for my family. We are anguished. It’s like the family is still stuck in that stage and on that day. Every holiday we have together goes back to the day our parents were murdered,” she said. “It’s hard moving on knowing someone out there is responsible for their deaths.”

At the time, the deaths marked the first double homicide that police in the Liberty County town about 40 miles northeast of Houston could recall in at least two decades

Primeaux said DNA evidence for the case has been registered in the national database, but no matches have been made.

“You can’t go out and fingerprint and take DNA from everyone in the world. Apparently the evidence we have in the system doesn’t belong to anyone else that has been entered into the system in all these years,” he said. “We need a break in this case. We need someone who has real information, not just rumors they heard from someone else.”

Murders in Cleveland are unusual, and most do not go unsolved, according to Primeaux.

“We average about one murder a year. There are only three that have gone unsolved in the last 17 years or so,” Primeaux said.

According to Primeaux, two of the unsolved homicides happened in a short span of time around 2003. The first was the shooting death of a Cleveland businessman. The second was the killing of an elderly woman. Police do not believe either of the cases is related to the slayings of Maria and Antonio Rodriguez.

The man was killed at his business on FM 2025 across from the location from the present-day Love’s Truck Stop.

“The owner of that business and a man believed to be a robber were both found shot,” Primeaux said. “A few months later, an elderly lady on the south side of town was murdered when someone broke into her home.”

If anyone has new information on the killings of Antonio and Maria Rodriguez, call Cleveland Police Department at 281592-2622.