Siblings held for aiding murder suspect

Two siblings, a sister and a brother, of Jorge Alberto Lopez-Orozco have been charged with accessory to murder, after the fact, for helping Orozco and his family flee Idaho after he allegedly murdered Rebecca Ramirez and two of her young sons, ages 4 and 2.

Authorities allege that Orozco informed them that he had committed the murders and they then helped him flee the area. Sheriff Rick Layher said all evidence now points to the fact that Orozco is in Mexico -- which will not extradite to the United States because of the death penalty here.

Elmore County Prosecuting Attorney Aaron Brazzoli said it might be possible for Mexican authorities, if they find Orozco, to prosecute him there based on evidence obtained here. Such a trial would not constitute double jeapordy, however, if he ever were returned to the United States. The U.S. Attorney's office was in the process of filing the formal papers this week to request that Mexican authorities find and arrest Orozco.

The best hope of getting Orozco back, Layher said, however, was to have members of his family convince him to return to face the triple-homicide charges pending against him in Elmore County.

"Right now, at least two members of his family are in jail because of him, and there may be more in the future," Layher said. "He's caused that family a lot of problems."

The two siblings arrested last week were Jose Leobardo Lopez-Orozco, 19, who was being held on a $400,000 bond, and Maria E. Lopez-Orozco, 21, who was being held on $200,000 bond.

Both were being held in Ada County after being arrested on Aug. 13 by Immigration and Naturalization Service officials for immigration violations. Those arrests came two days after the burned and bullet-riddled bodies of Ramirez and her children were found in a burned out car in southern Elmore County.

Authorities also were in the process of attempting to obtain a third warrant for another member of Orozco's family who also may have helped him flee the area, and San Jose, Calif., police were looking into possible charges against a fourth member of Orozco's family who helped hide him there and assisted him in escaping to Mexico. Orozco is one of 11 children and has an extensive network for aunts, uncles and cousins, Layher said.

Layher praised the public for its assistance in offering tips concerning the investigation, but hoped more information might be forthcoming. "We've still got about five hours unaccounted for" between the time Orozco was last seen with Ramirez and when they now believe the murders were committed.

Ramirez, who had been staying at the I-84 Motel in Caldwell, and her two children were last seen alive at 7:30 p.m. on July 30, when she dropped two of her other children off at the home of her father in Nyssa, Ore., (she has seven children), and drove off with Orozco in a white Pontiac Grand Am, the car in which the three bodies were found nearly two weeks later on Aug. 11 by some airmen heading to a fishing hole along the Snake River.

Orozco was last seen in that car in Mountain Home between 2:30 and 3 a.m. the morning of July 31, but witnesses did not report seeing the victims in the car at that time.

Ramirez was the girlfriend of Orozco, who also had a wife and three children, including a newborn infant. Authorities said the relationship between Orozco and Ramirez was "real rocky, with a lot of violence," and had been going on for at least a year.

Layher said that cell phone records indicated that between 4 and 6 a.m. that morning Orozco called his brother, Jose, and others, asking them to come pick him up along a rural road near where the three victim's bodies were later found. Orozco apparently had had to walk over a mile from that site to reach an area where his cell phone would work.

The sheriff said the two siblings arrested last week for helping him told them Orozco had admitted at that time that he had murdered Ramirez and her two children. Jose allegedly drove out to the area, couldn't find Orozco, drove back to Mountain Home, linked up with another person, not identified by authorities, whom Orozco also had called, and then drove back out and found Orozco.

They then met Orozco's wife at the Exit 90 Chevron, where she gave him some cash, and Orozco and the as yet unnamed person drove to California where family members in San Jose helped hide him.

Meanwhile, Orozco's sister, Maria, allegedly helped hide Orozco's wife and children for several days, before Jose drove them to California to join up with Orozco.

The story of what happened began to be revealed after a brother in California, questioned by authorities there, eventually broke down and told what he knew of the case. That, combined with the evidence of the cell phone calls, resulted in Jose and Maria, eventually recanting earlier denials of any knowlege of the crime and, under questioning in Ada County, providing authorities with the rest of the story, Layher said.

"Nobody was really telling us the truth until we showed them the cell phone bills," Brazzoli said, adding that it was an unusual case in which two persons alleged to be accessories to murder are likely to face trial long before the murder suspect is brought to justice.