Crime Weekly - S3 Ep157: Crime Weekly News: Serial Killer Identified as Border Patrol Agent!

Episode Date: November 16, 2023

In September of 2018, the bodies of four women were found along roads on the outskirts of Laredo, Texas. 29 year old Melissa Ramirez, 42 year old Claudine Anna Luera, 35 year old Guiselda Alicia Cantu and 28 year old Janelle Ortiz were all sex workers, and an arrest in their murders would be made that same month, but the person responsible for their deaths would shock everyone. Try our coffee!! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod

Going to the gym can be discouraging, especially if you're putting in the work but barely seeing changes. But with Tonal, you can actually see your progress with every workout. Tonal provides the convenience of a full gym and the expertise of a personal trainer anytime at home with one sleek system. Designed to reduce your mental load, Tonal is the ultimate strength training system, helping you focus less on workout planning and more on getting results. No more second-gu second guessing your technique. Tonal gives you real-time coaching cues to dial in your form and help you lift safely and effectively. After a quick assessment, Tonal sets the optimal weight for every move and adjusts in

one pound increments as you get stronger, so you're always challenged. Tonal lets you choose from a variety of expert-led workouts, from strength to aero hit to yoga and mobility to keep you coming back for more. For a limited time, go to tonal.com to get $500 off your tonal purchase, plus a free four-year warranty. That's tonal.com for $500 off, plus a free four-year warranty. Tonal.com. Hey everyone, welcome back to Crime Weekly News. I'm Derek Levasseur. And I'm Stephanie Harlow. And real quick, we're going to get to the episode, the story we're going to be covering tonight. You probably see it in the thumbnail or the title if you're listening on audio.

Two things. Update, because this is coming out on Thursday, tomorrow, November 17th, 2 p.m. on our YouTube channel, because it's not going to really work for audio. On our YouTube channel, we're going to have the stream for the Preble Penny press conference. We will be live. We're going to stream a live session. We're going to talk about it for the Preble Penny press conference. We will be live. We're going to stream a live session. We're going to talk about it a little bit before, a little after. We may hop on a couple minutes early. We're going to watch the press conference together, and then maybe we'll discuss it for a little while afterwards. So if you can make it, 2 p.m. East Coast time, Preble Penny press conference. That's a lot of Ps. On our YouTube

page, Crime Weekly YouTube page. If you're not already watching this on YouTube, if you're listening on audio, go over, subscribe, turn your notifications on. You should be on there. And you can join us as we hear the press conference for the first time. We know what they're going to say, but maybe there's going to be some more information. You're going to get to see a lot of the faces behind this case, including the ones that we featured on our social media a little while ago when we went out to Utah and worked with Intermountain Forensics. Anything you want to add on that, Stephanie? No, I'm excited though. I'm excited too, because we already know, right? But still, I am excited to get more details. I'm excited for you guys to hear it, because I feel like

we haven't been able to share anything for so long, even though we knew what was going on behind the scenes. So it's nice to be able to talk about it now. So that for me, from a personal angle, that's what I'm looking forward to, being able to speak about this publicly, because I know we're both very proud of this and it's what we had dreamed of when we started it. This was the goal. So make sure you're there. Secondly, thank you to everyone who purchased Criminal Coffee, but specifically people who tried our local delivery. Everyone who tried it on the day of or the day after they got all their deliveries today to their door and it knock on wood went pretty well. And we already have some more going. So if you're from Rhode Island or Southern mass, give it a try. We'll get it to you. You can save

some shipping money and you know, you get to have today was my brother. My brother was making those deliveries, shout out Matt. Uh, and, uh, he got to meet a couple of you guys and interact for a little bit and you guys had some kind words so we both really appreciate it and we're going to keep it going absolutely anything on that stephanie might deliver an order you never know you might you might work around she might be there delivering it i i would absolutely me could be her you never know dude if i was there just up. We should do that one time. We should do that one time. We're going to do it, actually. It's going to be funny. We're not going to say when, but we're just going to be making deliveries. Me and you in a car for eight hours together.

That should be interesting. We're going to live stream that. I think that would be fun. You'll be sleeping in the passenger seat the whole time. I don't sleep in a car. You'll be high on gummies while I'm driving, being a dad with my GPS. No, I'll let you drive because I'm a passenger princess, but I'll be in control of the music. And then I'll be like, where'd she go? And you'll just be like sleeping on someone's stairs. Daphne, let's go. We got more deliveries. We definitely should do that. It'll be fun. 100%. Okay, we'll do that. I just want to put those two things out there. They've been said.

You'll give me a cup of coffee. I'll be wired and jumping around and you'll be super annoyed. No, never. Not me. Not me with you. That's what's going to happen. Doesn't happen. Yeah. Never going to be the case.

Okay. We're going to get into it. Serious note. This is a real, it's a sad, shocking case. Just covered it on Crime Feed. Actually, it hasn't even aired yet on Crime Feed. It's going to come out next week, this week or next week, but the case overall has been very crime feed. Yeah, it's been, it's been very highly publicized. So you, you may have already heard about it, but I'll tell you as

a law enforcement officer, this one even shocked me. This is, this is a police officer's worst nightmare. So in September of 2018, the bodies of four women were found along roads on the outskirts of Laredo, Texas. The women were 29-year-old Melissa Ramirez, 42-year-old Claudine Ana Larea, 35-year-old Giselda Alicia Cantu, and 28-year-old Janelle Ortiz. They were all sex workers, and the arrest for their murders would be made that same month. But the person responsible for those deaths would shock everyone. And that is not salacious. That is not a clickbaity title. I promise you when Stephanie tells you this story, you're not going to see this one coming. Dude, when you told me last night, I was shocked. I was like, how did I not hear about this? How did I not hear about this? Well, you're hearing about it now.

Everyone else is hearing about it now. You obviously know it, but yeah, it's crazy. Well, it is crazy because over the course of 12 days, four women who were found dead sparked a massive manhunt in Laredo and investigators actually caught a break when another woman who had worked as a sex worker, she told the police, listen, one of my clients just threatened me with a gun and I narrowly escaped with my life. And she identified this client as Juan David Ortiz. And Juan David Ortiz happened to be a supervisor intelligence officer with United States Border Patrol. This woman said that she'd known Ortiz for months. He'd been her client for that long. And he had told her that he'd picked up Melissa Ramirez, which is one of the four dead had told her that he'd picked up Melissa Ramirez,

which is one of the four dead women, and that he'd had sex with her days before she was found on the side of the road. And now he was worried that the police would find his DNA on her. This is what Ortiz is telling the sex worker. And then after this, he drove her to a gas station. He pulled his service weapon on her. She was able to luckily run and get out of his truck and get help. And then she went to the police with this information saying, I think I know who's killing these women. Now, Juan David Ortiz, he has a background that wouldn't really suggest he would become a serial killer. He was a former medical technician for the United States Navy. He'd done a tour in Iraq, and then he joined the U.S. Border Patrol in 2009. His friends and peers

respected him greatly, and he was even promoted to the position of intelligence supervisor at the South Texas Border Intelligence Center. He was a good husband to his wife, Daniela. He was a good father to their two young children. This family seemed happy and loving. Every Sunday they attended church, no one would have ever said that Juan David Ortiz had a dark side or that he seemed to have this irrational hatred for sex workers. In fact, he was actually included in the investigation into the deaths of the four women. Ortiz was arrested on September 14th, 2018.

And during his police interview, he told investigators that although he'd been a customer to some of these women, he found sex workers to be dirty and trash and he killed them because he wanted to clean up the streets. Now, one woman would testify during his trial that Ortiz was a regular customer of hers. She said he was a normal guy, nice, funny, smart. He'd even give her money to buy narcotics with. He would drive her to go get the drugs, and then he would have sex with her in his truck or at a park or even at his house when his wife and children were out of town. During his interrogation, Ortiz said that he suffered from PTSD and he was on medication prescribed for depression and anxiety. And he said sometimes when he took these pills and then mixed them with alcohol, which you're not supposed to do, he would black out completely and then not

remember what had happened. And it seemed to be that he was implying that it was during these blackout periods that the murders were committed. And that's always my favorite defense, by the way, when people are like, I blacked out, I can't remember what happened. It's like, no one's ever heard of you having blackouts before. And all of a sudden, you're just regularly blacking out, committing full ass murders. And then you have no recollection of it, even though I'm sure, you know, like, cause they, they believe he killed these women with his, his service revolver. You know, what he had as a border patrol, you didn't notice bullets were missing. You didn't have blood

on you that you had to clean up the next day. You just woke up and you were completely normal. Nothing was out of place. Like, come on. So obviously the district attorney did not buy this. He claimed that Ortiz knew exactly what he was doing. He had plotted these killings and then he hid his behavior from everyone around him, including his fellow investigators who were trying to find the killer. And reportedly the South Texas Border Intelligence Center had been called by the police and the police were requesting help trying to locate a sex worker named Claudine Larea, who was known to frequent the San Bernardo Avenue area.

Apparently, she had been telling people that she had a theory about who was behind the murders. And then the next day, Claudine was found dead. And Ortiz was on duty the day the call came in. And obviously, it was likely he'd heard about the call and then he tracked her down in order to silence her. Now in January of 2019, Ortiz pleaded not guilty to four counts of murder that he had been charged with. And on December 7th, 2022, he was found guilty

of all four murders and he's been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. But this is crazy. This is absolutely crazy that he moved basically unseen, unknown, carrying on two separate lives for a very long time, essentially. That's right. And there's a couple of things to this. So the woman you were referring to, the sex worker, her name's Erica Pena. And she- The one who came forward, right? She came forward. There's actually body cam footage from the interaction where they're at like a gas station or something, but they're inside the car. He was fine most of the night, but she says that basically he started asking her about the murders.

And when he did, his demeanor completely changed and she knew something was up. And at one point he reached in the glove compartment and pulled out the.40 caliber semi-automatic pistol that they believe may have been used in some of these other murders. And it wasn't hard for her to identify him because he had told her multiple times that he was a federal officer. And I will tell you, she was a huge component to this trial, to this case. And without her, I don't think we'd be here right now because she was the one who basically put this all together. But I will say also what really did him in is, and I think you mentioned it in the kind of breakdown. So Erica

goes to the police about this and she tells them what just happened. And before they can catch up to him, he actually goes out that night and kills his final two victims, Giselda and Janelle. He kills them that night when the police are already looking for him. And when he's eventually apprehended, he brings them to where they were killed. He's the one who does it. And what's interesting about this case, I'm going to get into it in a second, but if we can play real quick, Shannon, if you want to plug it right here, just play a quick snippet from the confession here, because what I'm going to explain next will make more sense to you why I'm talking about it. All right, so you just watched that clip. And what's so important about that clip is guilt

knowledge, right? It's not known to everyone. They know that these sex workers were shot, but it's not known to the public exactly what location they were shot in and how many times they were shot. And that's important because in this clip, you're seeing that he's basically telling them two shots and then one more execution style. That is something that would only be known to a person who was there or more importantly, the person who carried out the murder. So that's extremely important. And why I bring that up is because originally what was interesting is Ortiz confessed to all of the killings, but then later retracted his statement saying that it was coerced out of him, which is comical. It's comical. They always go that route.

So fortunately for everyone, he has been found guilty. Like Stephanie said, he's no longer a threat to society. But to go back to the original point that I was making at the top of the show, this is worst case scenario as an investigator. This is the absolute nightmare to have, you know, what is that? What is that saying? Like a wolf in the hen house or what? I'm saying it wrong, but like basically a Trojan horse. A fox in the hen house a wolf in the hen house or what? I'm saying it wrong, but like basically a Trojan horse. A fox in the hen house. Fox in the hen house, thanks.

Yeah, a fox in the hen house. Although a wolf would be worse, wouldn't we agree? Be tough to get in there, but- I don't think a wolf could fit in a hen house. That's what I'm saying. That'd be a bad situation. So it is a wolf in a hen house. We're going big time here.

This wolf is really limber. He can like get in between things. He's limber, he's nimble, whatever you want to put. He's flexible. He's flexible. He can get in there. But this is horrible because this is someone who's wearing the same uniform as everyone else, but has a completely different agenda. And he's seeing how far along law enforcement is into apprehending him. So it's horrible. And that's why Claudine- But he had blackouts and he couldn't remember doing it, but he's like trying to get information from his fellow investigators and from other sex workers like

to try to figure out what are they saying on the streets you know what who's who's saying what so that he knows who who he has to kill next but he has blackouts and can't remember and and i'm not saying it's not possible that he doesn't have PTSD. He could. Yeah, but that's not why he was doing this. Right. Yeah, it's not why he was doing this. I don't buy it. PTSD is not something you turn on and off, right? You know what I mean? There's a lot of people out there that suffer with it every day and wish they could turn it on and off. So I call bullshit on that. And clearly the judge

and the jury felt the same way. But with Claudine, that's the thing about a lot of people, and I do think that's why a lot of these cases go unsolved. It's the same thing with But with Claudine, that's the thing about a lot of people, and I do think that's why a lot of these cases go unsolved. It's the same thing with Gilgo Beach. Because they're sex workers, investigators, they don't necessarily take them as seriously, right? And so they go by the wayside. But fortunately in this case, these women from this small town, they talk to each other, they communicate with each other. It was a network. And even though they're in a situation that none of them want to be in, Claudine, being a sex worker herself, a veteran, someone who had been out there a long time,

knew what was going on and wanted to help. She was going to put herself out there, her own safety in order to stop this. And unfortunately, unbeknownst to the patrol officers and the other border patrol agents, they didn't know of Ortiz yet. And unfortunately, he heard that call and he got to Claudine before she was able to relay her story. But again, that just shows you when we're talking about these cases, specifically speaking to police departments, every victim, man, woman, regardless of profession, religion, doesn't matter. They're a victim. They should all be treated equally. And when we look at these cases, oh, it's a sex worker. She'll turn up eventually. That's why serial killers are targeting groups of people like this. That's why they're targeting sex workers, because they know law enforcement doesn't necessarily take those cases as seriously. And that's why they see an opportunity there to get away with a lot of

murder in a short period of time without anybody raising an eyebrow. So it's a bigger problem. And I think usually I'll say there's a lesson in these episodes for you guys, but I think the lesson tonight is more so about the law enforcement community and the men and women who watch the show, who work in that capacity to say, Hey, when you see something like this, it may be your typical John or a typical sex worker. We got to take them seriously because the offenders out there are looking for people like that. So I would even argue when we have a case like that, where you have one or two sex workers that suddenly aren't where they're supposed to be, we have to take those cases even more seriously because it's a high potential that somebody out there is now capitalizing on their situation, assuming that you, the investigator,

will not look at it properly. So let's learn from this as a law enforcement community to get on these cases proactively to avoid this from happening. That's my takeaway tonight. It seems like they did act quickly in this case, though, because the bodies were found dead in September. Yeah, I mean, but it seems like law enforcement was paying attention to it you know it wasn't like they were just like oh some sex workers are dead who cares they were

actively investigating it happened over like a four-day period you know between the well it was melissa melissa was on the third or fourth she was on like it was all in the same month she was on she was over to the course of 12 days. 12, exactly. This is, this all happened in 12 days, yeah. And so Claudine was killed on the 13th and the two other girls, Gisela and Janelle, they were killed on the 14th. So, and it was before, and then he was caught on the 15th.

So yes, again, it's not necessarily these guys here, but I also think that in general, I wouldn't put it past them as well. When they see these cases, it's like, ah, what are you going to do? This is the, you know, this is the type of job they're in. These things happen. That's the, um, that's the barriers you enter when you work in that profession. You have those, those are the dangers that you take on. But I, you know, even more so in Gilgo, I know that they push those off, but that is my takeaway from this episode. Uh, these

are people, they're human beings, they need to be treated as such, and their lives matter just as much as you or I. So I'm glad they got them off the streets when they did. I wish it was sooner. But overall, I don't know what you guys think. Way down in the comments, if you're watching on YouTube, shocker, right? Not something you normally expect to see, but it does happen and it's not an isolated case. I'm sure there are others out there, maybe some that haven't even been caught yet. I was reading that another border patrol agent in that same location, I think a few years ago, had killed a woman too. So yeah, it seems more common than we probably think. And they were

saying that Ortiz most likely has more victims under his belt that just haven't been uncovered yet. And I will say so often, as you were suggesting earlier, sex workers are overlooked, but they are part of a vulnerable population, just like runaways, right? And so often somebody will have a teenage kid run away, they'll go to the police and the police will be like, well, you know, they'll come back or they'll probably just blowing off steam or whatever. But these are people who are in the most vulnerable positions because teenage runaways have no home to go to. Right. So sometimes they're sleeping on streets or sometimes they're taking rides from hitchhikers or sometimes they're, you know, just meeting someone online and then crashing on their couch because they don't have a place to go. They ran away from home and they are

very vulnerable, the most vulnerable. So those are the cases that probably need the most immediate attention, as you were saying. I completely agree. Yeah, I'm with you. Well, again, I'm glad they got him off the street. I'm glad that the judicial system did what it was supposed to do and it found him guilty. He can bitch and moan all he wants about it being coerced out of him. He killed those women.

Now he's going to spend the rest of his life in prison. Actually, did they go after, I don't know this part. Did they go after the death penalty with him? They were saying at first that they were going to, and then after he was charged before trial, the DA was like, we're not going to pursue the death penalty, which is kind of weird because it's Texas. If anybody was going to, I feel like it would be Texas. And what he did is pretty heinous, but maybe they just felt like they couldn't get it or I don't know. I'm like it would be Texas. And what he did is pretty heinous, but maybe they just felt like they couldn't get it or I don't know. I'm not sure why they decided not to, but he got life in prison without parole. My question would be if this case isn't a death penalty case, what is,

right? I mean, I don't know. I mean, it seems pretty self-explanatory to me. The guy showed you where the bodies were. He confessed to it. He told you he basically did it because he wanted to clean up the streets. He's never going to see the light of day again. We're not going to find out a year or two from now that it was someone else. It's not going to happen. Like I said, he took the people to where the bodies were. He was positively identified by one of the victims. What are we talking about here? But again, different story, different day. Yeah, I'm not sure why they chose. I don't know why they chose not to pursue the death penalty. It's, it's very strange. I mean, maybe it's an easier trial. Maybe they thought they would, maybe they thought that the death penalty would be harder for the,

the jury to, to find him guilty. You know, like I know that that's sometimes a concern. I don't know. I mean, I will, yeah, I will say, yeah, that the stakes are higher, right? Because now it's psychologically, as a jury member, you're not only sentencing someone to life in prison, if the death penalty is on the table, you're essentially deciding to kill that person. And there's no correcting that after the fact. So I do think the burden and the stress of making that decision is higher as a human being because at the end of the day, if that person's put toro Alaniz requested to remove the death penalty and pursue life without parole. He believes that this could possibly speed up the trial. Quote, the strategy will not change. The same evidence will be used.

The main difference here now is that the trial will go from two months to maybe two weeks or less. So because now that we are not seeking the death penalty, the case is going to get shorter. The punishment is life without parole. And so it's not as complex. It's still a complicated case, but it's not as complex. End quote. Yeah. And some would argue life in prison is worse than death. I wouldn't. Well, I wouldn't. Tomato, tomato. Because you'd have to assume he feels bad about it, right? Like you'd have to live under- Oh, I don't think you have to feel bad about it. I think he'd just feel bad for himself. Even if he doesn't feel- under i don't think you have to feel bad about it i think you just feel bad for himself even he doesn't yeah but he's not gonna feel bad for himself man i mean although he is law enforcement he might not do well in prison that's what i'm saying it's not

gonna be not gonna be a good road for him not in gen pop that's for sure maybe life in prison for him is a worse penalty it could potentially be um any final words from you no i mean it's just sad honestly because i was listening to people who had worked with him when he was younger and even when he first started with Border Patrol and they were like, he's so kind, he's so caring, like he truly cares about the plight of these immigrants. He really like he's not just trying to kick them out. He cares about making sure they're safe. And, you know, he seems to be very just empathetic.

And so where did this hatred for sex workers come from? And why is somebody who hates sex workers so much, not only frequenting them as a customer, but bringing some of them to his home that he shares with his wife and children when they're not there? Those two things don't add up, right? To me, they don't add up. You don't think they're disgusting and trash and you're bringing them to your home and getting naked with them and exchanging bodily fluids. You know what I mean? That's just it doesn't really make a ton of sense. So I think there is something else there.

There is something deeper. But it seemed like he was just this stand up, really great, kind, caring person. And then overnight he became like Jack the Ripper. Yeah, there you go yeah i mean right does that make sense to you that you hate sex workers but you're like having sex with them and bringing them home well i think i don't even know to get into the mind i think there are like sick people out there who get sexual gratification over disgust or hurt you know you see that where they look at them and disgust and like they hate them for what

they do but they also get off on it it's kind of a twisted thing or maybe they they hate like he hated the sex workers because he saw himself as this like upstanding family man but he was like lustful for them and so he like blamed them in a way for that like oh you're just walking around here making good upstanding family men, you know, do immoral things that that could be something, you know, that sometimes serial killers are like that, like they, they can't take their own moral weaknesses as being their fault. So they have to blame like these external sources. Oh, these women are out here just being seductive and making me lustful. And if I remove them, I'll remove the temptation.

And then I can be a good man who goes to church and can be a good husband and father again. I don't know. Nah, well, he's off the streets now. I don't know, man, but he needs help. I'm hoping those were the only four. And I can tell you this right now, if they didn't catch him when they did, there would have been more. So good job by law enforcement.

Good job by the community to come together. There's more parts to this story. You should definitely look it up. There was locals who initially law enforcement was not taking it that seriously, did not see the connection. And it was a local who was Facebook streaming this that kind of put the pressure on them. We had her on the show. I'm going to save it for crime feed, but there's a lot to this story. You should definitely check it out. Listen, we appreciate you guys being here. Like, comment, subscribe. If you're watching on YouTube, if you're listening on audio, leave a review.

And like I said at the top of the show, tomorrow, if you're watching this on Thursday or listening to it, 2 p.m. on our YouTube page, we will be streaming live for the press conference regarding Preble Penny. This is the criminal coffee. Some of you guys were asking in the comments. For those of you who don't know, we plug it all the time. Criminal Coffee Company is a company that Stephanie and I started with the purpose of donating a portion of the proceeds to helping fund unsolved cases. Preble Penny was the first case that we funded and the results from that funding and from that case are going to be revealed tomorrow. So we hope to see you there. Everyone stay safe. We'll see you soon. Yo, Derek, did we plan this? We're both wearing North Face.

I'm only wearing it because I forgot to turn on my heater. And this is not a sponsor, but they should be a sponsor. I forgot to turn on my heater. And this is not a sponsor, but they should be a sponsor. I forgot to turn on my heater when I was gone. So for three days, it's been freezing. I just saw your shirt and I'm like, hold on a second.