Caretaker Tells Nuevo Laredo Police He Killed Texas Priest

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico (AP) – The caretaker of a Texas priest’s home in Mexico today admitted he killed the 69-year-old reverend and said the two were intimately involved.

Manuel Martin Torres told Nuevo Laredo police and reporters that he attacked Rev. Jesse Euresti of Austin with a machete.

Torres, who’s from Honduras, said he killed the priest after learning the Texan was kicking him out. Torres says he demanded Euresti pay him up to $15,000.

Torres said he had been seeing the priest for the past year.

The caretaker says Euresti recently met someone else.

Messages seeking comment from the Diocese of Austin and Euresti’s family weren’t immediately returned.

Euresti vanished last week ago after going to the Nuevo Laredo retirement house he bought in September to do repairs. A neighbor called police after finding blood in the home.

The priest’s body was identified yesterday.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)