Victims ID'd in Valley home invasion killings (fake cops murder case, 6 killed in Edinburg, Texas)

EDINBURG, Texas - Police in this border town searched the site of two ramshackle homes for details in a home invasion that left six young men dead and the mother of two of them bound in electrical cord.

Aside from a rental car that had been ransacked at the scene and a missing pickup truck that belonged to one of the victims, investigators reported little in the way of leads in the 1 a.m. Sunday killing.

On Monday, Police Chief Quirino Munoz identified the victims as Jerry Hidalgo, 24, and Ray Hidalgo, 30, brothers who lived at the home. Also killed were brothers Juan Delgado Jr., 32, and Juan Delgado III, 20.

A fifth victim was identified as Ruben Rolando Castillo, 32. The sixth person killed had not been identified by authorities on Monday morning.

Police tape surrounded the property, which includes a small white frame house and a smaller structure where most of the victims were found.

"It was a horrific crime scene," Sgt. Rey Ramirez said, describing how bodies, some bullet-ridden beyond recognition, were found in different rooms of the smaller house. He summarized the killing style as "overkill."

The mother, who wrested herself free within 10 minutes of the massacre, told police at least one assailant was wearing garb with "police" written on it. She said she had been forced to look at a wall as one of her sons was shot in another room.

One of the victims was found in the larger home, in a different room from the witness. Another was found outside the smaller house. Four more were found within. All had multiple shots to the head and body.

The four to five invaders were clearly after drugs, guns or money, Ramirez said. He said police hoped to find fingerprints or other evidence in the rental car.

The homes shared a lot fronting acres of vacant land in this semirural city just east of McAllen and about 15 miles from the Mexican border. Just across the road is a development of more upscale homes, a sign of the region's growing affluence.

The past year has been a rash of "pseudo cop" incidents and home invasions, Ramirez said, but this was different because none of the previous victims had been killed.

Ramirez stopped short of calling the murders gang-related and said it was premature to report whether drugs or drug paraphernalia had been found.

Neighbors reported hearing gunshots but had little other information, Ramirez said.

"All I heard was shots ... about six or seven or eight," said Carlos Lopez, a 59-year-old who lives about 20 yards away from the crime scene. "Then I came out walking to see what happened."

He said he saw a swarm of ambulances and police cars before police advised him to leave.

"It's scary. You never know. They might sometimes get confused and get the wrong house. It's hard, especially for the mother," he said.

Police also withheld the name of the witness, an ill woman in her 50s who spent the day in the care of relatives.

"All of a sudden we went over," Ramirez said. "What a way to start the New Year. With six people dead."

"I have been living here for 20 years, and I have never seen something like this," neighbor Linda Lopez said in a story in Monday's editions of The (McAllen) Monitor. "This is ugly, that this could happen so close to us."

The missing truck was described as a Ford F-150 with Tasmanian devil license plates.

Six Slaughtered in Edinburg - - Shooting may be work of assassin, police say

By Travis M. Whitehead,

Colton Joseph Chapman and Mary Moreno

EDINBURG — Six men were shot to death in what police said may have been a professional hit early Sunday in two homes on Monte Cristo Road in far north Edinburg.

The shootings appear to be the work of a professional hit man, said Edinburg Police Det. Rey Ramirez.

“If it’s a hired hit, they’re not going to leave anything behind that will link us back to them,” Ramirez said. However, spent shell casings from high-powered weapons were found at the scene. Ramirez would not say exactly what type of weapons they came from or if automatic weapons were used.

Edinburg police received a call reporting shots fired at about 1 a.m. in the 2900 block of East Monte Cristo Road, said Police Chief Quirino Muñoz.

“When we got there, we found a multiple murder-type situation,” Muñoz said. “A possible witness said that an individual wearing a mask and jacket with police lettering on it was demanding weapons and drugs.”

Muñoz said at least three people took part in the massacre, which occurred on a large lot near the Monte Cristo Golf Course with two wooden houses, one smaller than the other. Muñoz said police will need another two days to identify all the bodies. However, he said the men ranged in age from their 20s to their early 30s.

“Five of them were in the smaller house and one was in the larger house,” Muñoz said. “All had gunshot wounds, and some had multiple gunshot wounds.”

Justice of the Peace Charlie Espinoza pronounced all six dead at the scene and ordered autopsies.

Muñoz said the victims were up and moving about the houses when they were gunned down.

“They might have been there visiting, not a party necessarily,” Muñoz said. “There was at least one set of brothers, and there may be another set. Two of the victims were residents. Some of the victims were known to police.”

The mother of two of the victims was tied up in the larger house before the killings began, said Det. Ramirez. One of her slain sons was also tied up with electrical wire in another room of the same house.

Ramirez would not reveal the name of the mother or her sons.

However, Lupita Huerta, 53, said two of her nephews — brothers Ray Hidalgo and Jerry Ramos — were among the victims. Their mother, Rosie Ramos, was in the larger house and was tied up by one or two assailants, Huerta said.

Huerta said she was in San Antonio when the killings occurred. She knew something was wrong when she checked her cell phone in her car and saw she had missed 15 calls, she said.

“Why would anyone want to come in and start shooting,” Huerta asked.

She said there had been no real problems with Ramos or her two sons.

“Everyone has family problems, you know,” she said. “Jerry called us last night and said he’d like to barbecue. Jerry is the baby of her boys.”

The killings could be revenge-related, Ramirez said.

“We don’t have a motive,” Ramirez said. “Just because they came in demanding weapons and drugs doesn’t mean it’s drug related.”

Some of the victims were shot in the head, leaving their faces disfigured and making it difficult to identify them.

Four were killed inside the small house, one was killed outside the small house, and the last man killed was one of Rosie Ramos’ sons in the big house, Ramirez said.

Police are looking for one of the victim’s vehicles, which is missing. The vehicle is described as a red Ford F150 pickup truck with a Tasmanian devil on the front license plate.

Muñoz would not speculate on a connection between these killings and the killings of four women in Donna in September. Hidalgo County Sheriff’s deputies have still made no arrests in the case.

Ramirez said Edinburg had five homicides in 2002. Five days into 2003, there have now been six homicides in Edinburg.

“It’s the worst homicide we’ve had here in Edinburg,” Ramirez said.

At the crime scene Sunday afternoon, Edinburg police escorted Rosie Ramos back into the house to retrieve some clothes. As she neared the door, she broke down, overcome by the sudden, brutal loss of her two sons.

Anyone with information should call the Edinburg Police Department at 383-7411 or Edinburg Crime Stoppers at 383-TIPS.

http://www.themonitor.com/NewsPub/News/Stories/2003/01/05/10418269981.shtml

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