The Mercury News

$2.5M bond for border agent in killings of 4

- By Juan A. Lozano Associated Press reporters Diana Heidgerd and Matt Sedensky contribute­d to this report.

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

Juan David Ortiz, 35, was in custody 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” whose victims were believed to be prostitute­s.

Alaniz described how the Customs and Border Patrol 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-yearold 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.

Jail records don’t list an attorney to speak for Ortiz, who had worked for Border Patrol for 10 years.

Alaniz said the dead are believed to have been prostitute­s and that one of them was a transgende­r woman. At least two were U.S. citizens; the nationalit­ies of the others were not known, he said. He said investigat­ors are still working to determine a motive.

Ortiz was believed to have acted alone.

The federal agency issued a statement offering its “sincerest condolence­s” to the victims’ families and saying criminal activity by its employees is not tolerated.

 ?? DANNY ZARAGOZA — THE LAREDO MORNING TIMES VIA AP ?? Law enforcemen­t officers gather near the scene where the body of a woman was found near Interstate 35 north of Laredo, Texas, on Saturday.
DANNY ZARAGOZA — THE LAREDO MORNING TIMES VIA AP Law enforcemen­t officers gather near the scene where the body of a woman was found near Interstate 35 north of Laredo, Texas, on Saturday.
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Ortiz

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