Only on ABC-7: Alexandra Flores’ brother remembers his sister ahead of convicted killer’s execution

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- David Renteria is set to be executed Nov. 16 in Huntsville, Texas.

The El Paso man has been on death row since being convicted of the 2001 kidnapping and killing of Alexandra Flores, 5, in a crime that stunned the El Paso community.

One person who will be a witness to Renteria's execution is Ignacio Frausto, one of Alexandra's brothers.

"Alexandra was very fun. Very funny. She was a funny character," Frausto said. "She loved her dolls. She loved to play with the dolls. She constantly liked to poke at us, the older siblings."

Alexandra Flores was the baby of the family.

And Frausto, who was nine years older, was one of those "older siblings."

His face just lit up when he described his little sister.

"She had that laugh, you know, contagious to make everybody laugh. And she was really cute. And we just wanted to make her laugh even more. Because, you know, that's, that's very contagious," he said.

But it clearly still hurt Frausto talk about what happened to Alexandra on Nov. 18, 2001.

"My older brother and I were in the northeast playing basketball. And he gets a call from my dad, (saying) in Spanish, "Vengase para ca, vamos a encontrar Alexandra." So I was just thinking, Alexandra was just being herself. She was just hiding, playing, playing hide and go seek at the store," Frausto said.

Frausto and his brother began driving to the Walmart on Alameda to help find his younger sister.

"On the way there, you know, I kind of felt like, this is getting serious," he said. "We haven't received a call back saying, 'We found her.'"

Once they arrived, they saw the Walmart was being evacuated, and people weren't allowed to leave the parking lot.

Frausto and his brother started to search for Alexandra, he said.

"Just driving up and down the parking lot, just looking into cars. ... so the search continued to like three, four in the morning; we expanded our search to- there's a canal, like a drainage canal, and in the rear of Walmart right by the train tracks, I remember walking the train tracks, walking by the canal, going down to the port of entry, the Zaragoza port of entry, and standing there literally checking every car going south we're doing that," Frausto said, then he stopped and choked up. 

"It's just horrible. I didn't want to go home because Alexandra wasn't home."

Alexandra didn't make it home.

Her body was found the following morning at a parking structure in west central El Paso, miles from where she was last seen.

"Alexandra was not found in time or with her life. But even up to now, he's still breathing. He's living his life. A life," Frausto said, referring to Renteria.

As the 22nd anniversary of Alexandra's death approaches, so does the scheduled death for Renteria.

"I want to see it through," Frausto said. "I was too young, not having the maturity that I have now, when we're going through the trial, to comprehend and grasp everything."

Frausto was 14 when his sister was killed.

But he said he's unsure how he will feel once Renteria is executed.

"He gets to die peacefully. From what we learned on the case, my little sister suffered. And I'm not saying make him suffer. Because I'm not the type of man. But he has it easy. He's had it easy. Solitary confinement, being protected," Frausto said.

It is customary for death row inmates to be given an opportunity to deliver last words before the execution. Renteria has maintained he was only responsible for taking Alexandra from the Walmart, not for her murder. He declined ABC-7 request for an interview.

When asked if Frausto would want to say anything to Renteria, he replied, "Like my victim impact statement at the trial, I remember telling him I will not forgive him. Only God will forgive them. I still stand with the same words that I said to him."

Frausto has spent 19 years working in the El Paso District Attorney's Office, first as a victim's advocate, now as the office's chief investigator.

It's a career path he said was inspired by his family's experience with the criminal justice system.