SPREE killer Juan David Ortiz murdered four women in September 2018.
The former Border Patrol agent was caught and arrested by Texas law enforcement after a potential fifth victim made a daring escape.
Who is Juan David Ortiz?
Juan David Ortiz seemingly lived the life of a typical suburbanite.
He was happily married to Daniella J. Ortiz and had three children.
On Sundays, the family attended the Assembly of God church.
The family lived in Laredo, Texas, a city right on the Mexican border.
The Rio Grande, the river that separates the US and Mexico, borders Laredo’s southern and western edges.
Before his stint at the Border Patrol, he was a combat medic and served in the US Navy for eight years.
He officially joined the Border Patrol in August 2009, working in Cotulla, Texas before settling in Laredo.
He quickly worked his way up to a supervisory position while pursuing higher education.
Ortiz earned a bachelor’s degree from American Military University before obtaining a master’s degree from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio in 2013.
Ortiz and his wife purchased a home in Laredo in 2017, just one year before he would go on a two-week killing spree.
In 2018, AP News reported that his neighbors said “they knew little about the man” besides seeing “him come and go” and “exchanging waves.”
In December 2022, Texas Monthly reported that those who knew Ortiz, including his coworkers, were “flabbergasted” when they heard the news that he was responsible for the murders of four women.
Ortiz was considered a “respected agent — dedicated and hardworking. He seemed destined for bigger and better things at the agency.”
According to Isidro Alaniz, Webb County District Attorney and the lead prosecutor in Ortiz’s trial, “just before the killings began in 2018, Ortiz was told he was being considered for another promotion at the South Texas Border Intelligence Center.”
Ortiz had even been a member of the law enforcement team assigned to find the four women’s killer in September 2018.
Who were Juan David Ortiz’s victims?
Ortiz was responsible for four homicides.
He also kidnapped another victim, Erika Peña, who managed to narrowly escape Ortiz’s truck.
All five women were sex workers in the Laredo area.
He shot each of his victims in the head before leaving their bodies on the side of a road.
His first victim was Melissa Ramirez, 29, who was killed on September 3, 2018.
Ramirez, a mother of two, had gotten out of Ortiz’s vehicle to urinate before he shot her multiple times.
Her body was found the next day on a rural county road in Webb County, a few miles outside of Laredo.
His second victim, Claudine Anne Luera, 42, was murdered on September 13, 2018.
Luera, a mother of five, had confronted Ortiz about the disappearance of her friend, Ortiz’s first victim, Ramirez.
She was getting out of his vehicle when Ortiz shot her in the head.
Luera was found alive but died in a hospital from the shooting hours later.
Ciara Munguia, Luera’s daughter, later told 20/20 that “she knew what her mother did to earn money, but said that she did it to help her family.”
“She wanted us to have a better life–and felt like she couldn’t provide that for us, so then she resorted to the streets,” Munguia said.
In a chilling twist, Ortiz had known his first two victims.
He admitted to authorities that he was a regular customer of the two women.
According to Texas Monthly, one woman who testified at Ortiz’s trial liked him: “He was nice, smart, funny, a normal guy.”
Ortiz would reportedly “give her money to buy narcotics, drive her to a drug house, and then have sex with her in his pickup on the side of a road, or at a park, or even at his home when his wife and children were out of town.”
Ortiz’s third potential victim was the one who got away, Erika Peña.
Between her escape and his arrest, Ortiz managed to kill two more women, Guiselda Alicia Hernandez Cantu, 35, and Janelle Ortiz, 28.
Both women were killed on September 15, 2018.
Each woman was taken on a trip in Ortiz’s car from Laredo to the city’s rural outskirts.
Ortiz confessed to investigators shortly after his arrest and led police to the site of each crime.
They were found on a five-mile stretch of Highway 35.
Unlike his first two victims, Ortiz had no prior contact with Cantu or Janelle.
Rose Ortiz, Janelle’s younger sister told 20/20 that her sister “was loved, very loved.”
Four years after the killings, Juan David Ortiz was convicted in all four murders.
Family members of the victims had reportedly asked the District Attorney to not seek the death penalty in this case.
Ortiz was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Janelle’s mother, Elva Enriquez, told 20/20: “I had a heavy heart for four years and when I heard it, it just went away.”
“Finally, I had my justice. And I said, ‘Now, you can rot in hell’.”
Who is Erika Peña and what happened to her?
Erika Peña was the third woman Ortiz picked up after killing both Ramirez and Luera.
In May 2019, The Guardian reported that the two “had been visiting [Ortiz’s] house together for months,” and “their relationship had morphed from client and sex worker to something less transactional.”
Ortiz could sense something was wrong during their outing, and Peña knew she had made a mistake when she said the name of her murdered friend, Melissa Ramirez.
She got out of the car and vomited on his front yard before coming up with an excuse, saying she needed to go get cigarettes.
Ortiz agreed to drive her to a local gas station, but the two started arguing again about Ramirez.
When Ortiz pulled up to the gas station, he parked between two empty trailers and put a pistol against Peña’s chest.
She fought and twisted her way out of his grasp, managing to break free after Ortiz ripped her shirt off.
She ran out of his car towards state trooper Francisco Hernandez, who was filling up his gas tank.
“He’s trying to kill me!” she screamed.
Ortiz had already driven off.
Peña was able to provide officers with the make and model of Ortiz’s car, along with his job and address.
When police broke into the house, Ortiz was gone, leaving behind “an arsenal of guns.”
On September 16, 2018, officers found Ortiz’s white Dodge Ram truck in a parking lot of a Valero gas station.
The truck was empty, but police could see a gun inside.
Ortiz had gone to use the restroom unarmed.
Ortiz saw the officers approaching the gas station’s storefront, and quickly made his escape out a side door.
Officers found him in a truck bed in a parking garage behind the Hotel Ava.
The Guardian reported that Ortiz “pointed his phone like a gun at the officers, hoping to be shot,” but his “suicide-by-cop” attempt failed.
Ortiz was apprehended, arrested, and transported to a nearby police station.
According to AP News, prosecutors later released Facebook posts that Ortiz allegedly wrote before surrendering to law enforcement.
One of the posts reads: “Doc Ortiz checks out. Farewell.”
The other reads, “To my wife and kids, I love u.”
Despite a nine-hour long videotaped confession recorded shortly after his arrest, Ortiz pleaded not guilty on four counts of murder and one count of assault in January 2019.
His trial began November 28, 2022.
Ortiz’s lawyer argued that the former Border Patrol agent had PTSD.
Jury members listened to recordings of Ortiz telling investigators he wanted to “clean up the streets,” referring to his victims as “trash” and “so dirty.”
Peña testified at the trial.
She took the stand to tell the jury how the two had argued about whether Ortiz had anything to do with Ramirez’s murder.
Peña showed members of the jury how Ortiz held a gun to her, and recounted how she managed to escape from his truck and get help.
Ortiz was sentenced to life without parole on December 7, 2022.
On Friday, November 17, 2023, audiences can watch the 20/20 broadcast The One Who Got Out at 9 pm ET.
The ABC special explores Erika Peña’s escape, along with the four murders, investigation, and Ortiz’s trial.
The 20/20 episode will also be available on streaming platform Hulu the following day.
Dateline also covered the case in a special two-hour broadcast titled Streets of Laredo.
The special first aired on September 15, 2023, and is available to stream on Peacock and NBC’s website.