Border Patrol Intelligence Supervisor Juan David Ortiz Murdered Four Women. A Fifth Woman Escaped and Ended His Killing Spree.

 

Border Patrol Intelligence Supervisor Juan David Ortiz Murdered Four Women During a Two-Week Killing Spree

Juan David Ortiz spent a decade with the U.S. Border Patrol and had risen to the position of intelligence supervisor in Laredo, Texas.

He was also a serial killer.

Over approximately two weeks in September 2018, Ortiz murdered four women:

Melissa Ramirez, 29.
Claudine Anne Luera, 42.
Griselda Alicia Cantu, 35.
Janelle Ortiz, 28.

All four were sex workers.

The killing stopped because a fifth woman, Erika Peña, escaped.

According to investigators, Ortiz pulled a gun on Peña while they were at a gas station. She managed to get out of his vehicle, ran to a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper, and told authorities what had happened.

Police found Ortiz the following day hiding in a convenience-store parking lot.

After his arrest, Ortiz gave investigators a lengthy videotaped confession. During his trial, prosecutors said he had deliberately targeted sex workers and told investigators he wanted to “clean up the streets.”

A jury convicted Ortiz of capital murder on December 7, 2022.

The victims' families explicitly asked prosecutors not to seek the death penalty. They wanted Ortiz to spend the rest of his life in prison.

That's exactly what happened.

Ortiz was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

His victims were women whose lives he apparently decided mattered less because they sold sex.

They fucking mattered.

Melissa Ramirez. Claudine Anne Luera. Griselda Alicia Cantu. Janelle Ortiz.

Four women with names. Four women with lives. Four women who deserved to go home.