Affidavit Reveals Details In Slaying Of Northeast El Paso Woman

Yanira Caballero?s death has her family wondering if there was anything they could’ve done to keep her safe and possibly prevent her death.

Caballero?s body was found Monday night bound in a closet in her Northeast El Paso home and El Paso Police accuse her husband, Antonio Brown, of killing her.

Police were called to the home to do a welfare check because Caballero had not been seen or heard from in days. Caballero’s 2005 Nissan Xterra also was missing.

Family claim Brown?s behavior went from good, to odd, to criminal.

“We called him when we found her body,? said Priscilla Ramos, Caballero?s cousin. ?We called him and he said ?I?m on my way.?”

But Brown never showed up. Brown was arrested about two hours later driving the Xterra on I-10 West in Las Cruces. He is being held in the Dona Ana County Detention Facility on a $1 million bond and is awaiting extradition to El Paso where an arrest warrant for murder was issued for him.

Ramos and Caballero?s father, Victor Caballero, said they are still in shock even though they noticed something was wrong with the relationship between Caballero and Brown.

?I thought they were normal but after what happened with the (credit) cards I was just like, ?wow,?? said Ramos, who claims Brown stole the credit cards of Caballero?s parents. Ramos said Brown started using the credit cards while Caballero?s mother was recovering from life-threatening surgery. A police report was filed five weeks ago accusing Brown of credit card theft.

When Caballero found out, her cousin said she planned on leaving Brown.

But she never did.

Caballero’s family remains convinced Brown killed her and shortly after, ransacked the home they shared.

?He stole her washer and dryer and all her TVs while she was dead in the house,? Ramos said. ?He stole everything that she had worked so hard for.?

Victor is haunted by thoughts that things could have turned out differently if Brown had been found earlier.

?If you put him in jail that wouldn’t have happened,? Victor said.

Family and friends say 32-year-old Caballero was a beautiful woman. Ramos described her as motherly, adding that there were few days that she didn?t offer her encouraging words to stay in school and make something of herself.

A neighbor, Raymundo Suarez, who was with family members who went into the home through a window to investigate why no one had seen Caballero in days, said he and several others found her body Monday.

Edgard Gonzalez, a childhood friend, said the story was bigger than the alleged homicide He said the real travesty is the family she leaves behind – a mother, a 15-year-old daughter, and scores of friends who love her like family.

Gonzalez said they weren?t blood relatives, but he loved her like a sister.

?She was always smiling with a happy face,? said Gonzalez. ?I know she’s up there looking down with that happy face at us…even now I feel her in spirit. I love her.”

Caballero grew up in the Lower Valley and attended Riverside High School before moving around the country with Brown. The two returned to El Paso about two years ago when they began living in their home in Northeast El Paso.

Those who lived nearby said she and her husband would fight, but that they had only heard verbal arguments. She would leave the home for a day or two, but always returned.

This time no one heard from her for over three days, and she didn?t turn up at her mother?s home like she usually did. When family members realized her dogs were left outside they panicked. Caballero is said to have loved her dogs like they were family, and it was peculiar to find them not being taken care of. That?s what caused them to enter the home and find her dead inside.

Caballero’s cause of death is pending autopsy results. This is the sixth homicide of 2012 compared to 12 at this same time last year.

ABC-7 Reporter Matthew Smith contributed to this report.