EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Today was the second day of the capital murder trial for Atruro Ortega Garcia, the man accused of stabbing and killing a family of three in East El Paso in 1994. As ABC-7 has reported, Dante Santoni, 3, his mother, Connie Villa, 28, and Villa’s longtime partner and Dante’s father,
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Retired El Paso Police Department detective John Guerrero was part of what became known the “Desert Deaths” task force organized in 1987 to at first investigate the disappearances – and then the murders – of girls and young women in northeast El Paso that year. “This girl is missing. That girl
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — A man who was in prison alongside David Leonard Wood, aka “The Desert Serial Killer” of El Paso, says that the testimony of two other men who also served time with Wood was falsely given in return for deals on their sentences and reward money. George Hall was serving 45
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — The attorney for a man convicted of six murders in El Paso decades ago has filed a last-minute appeal to stop his execution scheduled for just next week. Greg Wiercioch has been representing David Leonard Wood for about 16 years, taking on his case after the 1992 conviction and death sentence.
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Janet Balderrama, 25, was critically wounded in a crash caused by a drunk driver, according to El Paso police. She died on July 15, 2013, leaving behind two children. The woman accused of intoxication manslaughter, Desiree Skaf, 21, eventually accepted a plea deal to serve 7 years in a state prison.
Update (March 4, 2025): The March 3 trial date was canceled. A new trial was scheduled for June 2, 2025 at 8:30 AM. That is according to court records. Update (September 26, 2024): Triple murder suspect Arturo Garcia Ortega appeared at a court hearing this morning. The judge set his trial for March 3, 2025.
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Kimberly Esparza was walking home with her husband after watching a football game at a bar Sunday night when she was hit by a car and killed. The driver left the scene, and Esparza, a 32-year-old mother of two, died on the street. More than 12 years after her death,
This episode of the Borderland Crimes Podcast won a 2024 National Edward R. Murrow Award. EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — On Dec. 4, 2001, the man behind a chilling crime that stunned the El Paso community was arrested. David Renteria was charged with capital murder in the death of Alexandra Flores, 5, who had gone missing more
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — As the Borderland nears the fifth anniversary of the deadliest mass shooting in El Paso’s history, we are nowhere near the start of the state trial for the man who claimed responsibility for the massacre in a federal court last year. The lack of a definitive trial date for Patrick
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — An El Paso girl has tried to move past the sexual assault she endured when she was only 5 years old. The girl is now 17, locked in the grinding wheels of the justice system. Edward Alvarado is facing multiple charges of continuous sex abuse of a child, and has been
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Eight years after police charged Edward Alvarado with the abuse of four young girls, Alvarado’s fate has yet to be determined by a jury. “It takes a toll,” one of the individuals impacted by the case told ABC-7. Watch the video for Stephanie Valle’s Borderland Crimes report that aired July
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — On May 17, 2024, three murder suspects who all had once each faced a capital murder charge formally accepted their sentences as part of a plea agreement. Adam Acosta, Tristan Chilton, and Brandon Olsen pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of murder in the death of Tyler Croke, 23. In
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — ABC-7 has confirmed that an El Paso man who had his 2019 murder conviction overturned by a state appellate court is no longer in prison. The District Attorney’s Office tells ABC-7 Leonel Hernandez was released on a personal recognizance bond on March 16. We reported back in Feb. when the
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Jennifer Ann Crecente, 18, was a high school senior and preparing to graduate with honors. On Feb. 15, 2006, she was shot to death by a former boyfriend. Friends and family knew he was controlling, manipulative and verbally and emotionally abusive. Despite having a felony criminal history and evidence showing
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Maria Luisa Corral was found dead on April 29, 2005. The 20-year-old had been beaten and strangled; her lifeless body was shoved inside a bedroom closet of the Lower Valley home belonging to the mother of Corral’s boyfriend, 19-year-old Richard Flores. Flores had thrown himself a birthday party at the house the
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — A once-cold case at the center of Episode Six of ABC-7’s Stephanie Valle’s Borderland Crimes podcast is one step closer to resolution today. According to court documents newly obtained by ABC-7, multiple people are facing capital murder charges in the killing of 20-year-old El Paso DJ Terrance Lamont Kinard Jr.
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — At long last, there is a conclusion in the case centered around a deadly shooting outside an east El Paso bar in the early morning hours of Jan. 29, 2017. The suspected shooter, Moises Galvan, 19, was arrested at the scene. Galvan was accused of murdering RJ Franco, 22, and gravely wounding Franco’s
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Sophia Martinez, 18, headed out on a blind date on a Friday night in March 2000. But she never made it to the dance club in downtown El Paso. Sophia’s body was found in the desert just north of the city limits the following day; she had been shot numerous
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — The peace and quiet in an affluent, historic Central El Paso neighborhood was shattered by gunfire during a violent attack in Nov. 2020. Georgette Kaufmann, a respected state attorney and beloved mother and wife, was killed. Her husband Daniel was shot, but survived. The gunman escaped into the night, not
EL PASO, Texas — The date between Erika Gaytan and Ricardo Marquez to a concert ended with Gaytan not returning home. Her family immediately believed something terrible happened to the 29-year-old woman. Her mother said there was no way she would abandon her 7-year-old son. Continuous searches throughout El Paso – including in the sprawling
EL PASO, Texas — An Army vet who survived combat in Afghanistan was murdered in El Paso. Tyler Croke was in the shower at a friend’s apartment when he was ambushed, held at gunpoint, then brutally killed. A total of five people – some of them soldiers – were arrested and charged with Tyler’s murder.
EL PASO, Texas — RJ Franco was shot to death outside of a bar in east El Paso on Jan. 29, 2017. The moments leading up to the shooting, as well as the shooting itself, were caught on surveillance camera. Police arrested the suspect, Moises Galvan, 19, at the scene. Galvan told police he shot
EL PASO, Texas — A little girl got separated from her family during a holiday shopping trip to a busy retail store and seemed to vanish into thin air. Dread settled in for her family and the entire community once surveillance camera video emerged, showing the 5-year-old girl walking out of the store with an
LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — The murder of Robert Rocha, 43, has remained unsolved for nearly three decades. The retired U.S. Navy veteran and father of three daughters was found shot to death at Mesilla Dam outside Las Cruces on June 28, 1994. Dona Ana County Sheriff’s detectives still haven’t arrested and charged anyone with
EL PASO, Texas — Gloria Marmolejo, a 54-year-old mom and grandmother, was found dead in the southern New Mexico desert in the summer of 2009. Her family pleaded for the community’s help to find whoever murdered her. But El Paso police investigators believed her son, David, killed his mother. And they learned he was hiding
EL PASO, Texas — An El Paso woman learned a horrible secret about her family: Her great-grandfather had been massacred, along with 14 other men and boys, on Jan. 28, 1918. When Arlinda Valencia learned who was to blame for the terrible act, she realized more needed to be done to expose the dark past
EL PASO, Texas — In the summer of 1987, a serial killer stalked the streets of El Paso. The bodies of six teenage girls and young women were found buried in the desert in the northeast outskirts of the city. All had been reported missing earlier that year. An extensive investigation led police to David
EL PASO, Texas — On Jan. 26, 2019, Terrance Kinard Jr. was shot outside a house party in northeast El Paso. The case has gone unsolved despite there likely being many witnesses to the murder of the 20-year-old father and aspiring rapper. His parents are opening up about their pain, their plea for justice and
EL PASO, Texas — Over four days in 1995, people stumbled upon a woman’s spray-painted body parts — including her decapitated head. Police investigators in El Paso had no idea who she was. As they worked to identify her, they made an unusual and unprecedented request of local newsrooms in the hopes of identifying her