FBI confirms 2002 murder suspect has been caught

Thursday, October 8, 2009
Jorge Alberto Lopez-Orozco

The FBI confirmed Saturday afternoon that the man wanted since 2002 in connection with a gruesome triple murder of his girlfriend and two of her young children, whose bodies were found in a burned-out car in rural Elmore County, has been arrested in Mexico.

Jorge Alberto Lopez-Orozco, 33, has been on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted " list since March 17, 2005. He also has been featured on the American's Most Wanted television show, most recently in a July 2008 episode.

Since his arrest Wednesday, the FBI Legal Attaché in Mexico has worked with authorities in Mexico to positively identify the suspect in custody as Lopez-Orozco. The FBI used fingerprint technology to confirm his identity.

The Elmore County prosecuting attorney's office, along with the U.S. Department of Justice and authorities in Mexico will work together on extradition proceedings, the FBI said in a prepared statement.

Acting on leads, the U.S. Marshal's Service and the FBI Legal Attaché, both in Mexico City, in cooperation with the Mexican Federal Ministerial Police, arrested Lopez-Orozco on Wednesday, Oct. 7. He was arrested without incident while hauling a load of metal into a scrap yard located in Zihuatanejo, Mexico.

"Since the day the murder charges were filed the apprehension of Lopez-Orozco has remained a priority," Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Salt Lake City Field Office, Timothy J. Fuhrman said. "The FBI Salt Lake City Field Office worked closely for a long period of time with law enforcement authorities in Idaho and Mexico to arrest this dangerous and violent fugitive."

Because there have been "a couple of cases where we thought he'd been caught before, but it turned out it wasn't him," Elmore County Sheriff Rick Layher said, the FBI has been particularly careful in making sure the identification was correct. Some technical problems in transmitting fingerprints, for example, delayed final identification.

Lopez-Orozco is now awaiting extradition proceedings in Mexico City. If he is extradited back to the United States he will face a number of charges, including three counts of first-degree murder.

However, because Mexico will not extradite if a person faces the death penalty, local authorities had agreed to remove that option from the table in order to be able to prosecute him here. County Prosecutor Kristina Schindele said when she took office she signed off the the agreement made by her predecessor, Aaron Bazzoli, that the death penalty wouldn't be sought if he was caught in Mexico.

"We've always suspected that's where he has been," she said. "So we had to remove the death penalty if we were ever going to extradite him."

If convicted, he would face a life sentence on the charges. That would not require the specially certified attorneys necessary for a death penalty case. It would be Schindele's first case where she would be the lead attorney trying a capital murder case.

She said Friday she wasn't sure when Lopez-Orozco would be extradited, but the US. Attorney's office would be pushing to get him back to Elmore County as soon as possible.

"It is very important for the families and the (surviving) children that we seek justice in this case," she said, "and hopefully, we can find it.

"This was a very emotional case for the officers involved," she added. "The images they saw of the victims were enough to make it very emotional for all of them."

Schindele said she was "scouring the case files" working to identify where all the major witnesses they would need for the case are currently located. Almost none have remained in the local area.

County Public Defender Terry Ratliff said he expected to be handed the case. With the specialized witnesses he anticipates he and the prosecutor would be calling he guessed that the case could ultimately wind up costing the county as much as half a million dollars.

Lopez-Orozco has been sought for the murder of Rebecca Ramirez, 29, and two of her seven children, Miguel, 2, and Ricardo, 4.

Their bodies had been found by two Mountain Home AFB airmen in a car that had been set on fire on Nielsen Road, also known as Gravel Pit Road, just off the Bruneau Highway near the Snake River Bridge in southern Elmore County.

Identification of the bodies had tentatively been made at the time based on jewelry found on Ramirez at the crime scene, but the bodies were so badly burned in the fire, where temperatures were believed to have reached 2,000 degrees, that only DNA testing was able to confirm that.

Both Ramirez and the 4-year-old were found to have died from gunshot wounds, the autopsy reports had indicated. So little remained of the younger child that forensic pathologists could not say if he also had been shot or not.

Lopez-Orozco was not the father of either of the children. Elmore County Sheriff Rick Layher said at the time that the deaths of the two children made it emotionally one of his most difficult cases in all his years of law enforcement.

He vowed at the time not to rest until Lopez-Orozco was arrested, and over the years pursued, along with the FBI and other state and federal agencies, a number of leads whenever they turned up. Most, however, did not pan out.

Layher said the FBI received a tip meriting investigation concerning Lopez-Orozco's whereabouts almost every week since the murders, and on several occasions contacted the Elmore County Sheriff's Office for investigative assistance.

"It's been a long ordeal for the family as they have waited years for Lopez-Orozco to be brought to justice " Layher said, adding that he has been keeping the family informed of developments. "I spoke to them (Thursday) night and they were relieved to hear the news of the arrest.

"It's been very emotional for all of us," he added, explaining that he and his fellow deputies put in not only thousands of hours investigating the crime, "but we took it personal. I know we're not supposed to, but because of the nature of this crime, it meant a lot to us to bring to justice the man who (allegedly) committed this horrendous crime.

"You just don't want someone like that walking around, " he said.

Ramirez, who was described by authorities as Lopez-Orozco's "off and on " girlfriend, was last seen with Lopez-Orozco in Nyssa, Ore., on July 30, 2002, when she dropped two of her other children off at her father's house, apparently indicating at that time she expected to return shortly.

She then drove off with Lopez-Orozco and two of her children in the Pontiac that later was found in Elmore County. Her other children were staying with other relatives at the time of her death. Since then, her former common-law husband, from whom she had been divorced, took custody of Rameriz's surviving children.

It is believed she was killed on Aug. 1. The bodies were not found until Aug. 11. Rameriz's mother in Glenns Ferry had talked to Elmore County deputies in early August of that year about her concerns that she hadn't been able to reach her daughter in several days, but did not follow up by filing a formal missing person's report. Nor had her father filed a missing person's report in Nyssa when she had failed to return to pick up her other two children.

Lopez-Orozco had lived in the Mountain Home area for six or seven years prior to the alleged murder, although he may have been an illegal alien. He fled the area after the murders occurred.

On Aug. 8, 2002, he had called from San Jose, Calif., to his home in Meadows Trailer Park, to ask his wife and three children, including the couple's newborn infant at the time, to join him in San Jose.

According to a federal fugitive warrant criminal complaint filed in United States District Court in 2002, Lopez-Orozco allegedly confessed his crime to family members after he fled to California.

Lopez-Orozco had been arrested at least twice before in Elmore County on minor offences, giving authorities different ages and names each time. He also had gone by several other aliases, including Raul Solario, Raul Solorio, Jorge Orozco-Lopez, Jorge Alberto Orozco-Lopez and "Pepe," according to FBI wanted posters that had been displayed around the country.

The initial investigation into the triple homicide, led by Chief Deputy Nick Schilz and Detective Capt. Mike Barclay, was not easy.

It began with the license plates from the car, which was found to have half a dozen bullet holes in it.

It took nearly 24 hours to physically find the person to whom the plates were registered. But that person, who lived in Wendell, had sold the car to someone else. The second person was eventually tracked down, but he also had sold the car -- to Lopez-Orozco.

In each case, the car had been re-registered under the original plates and original owner's name.

About that same time investigators also discovered Lopez-Orozco's relationship with Rameriz, which gave them their first break in helping tentatively identify the victims. Investigators also learned about that same time of the phone call Lopez-Orozco had made from San Jose, asking his family to join him. His wife and children subsequently went to California, but where there are at present is not known.

San Jose law enforcement authorities served a search warrant on the home there but Lopez-Orozco was not present when they did. At the time, authorities believed he had fled to Mexico.

Over the years local authorities received a number of conflicting reports that he was in Mexico, in the United States, and even briefly in Elmore County, according to some reports. However, none of those reports had been made in a timely manner, and investigators were never able to confirm them.

Ramirez had lived in the Mountain Home and Glenns Ferry area for several years, but was believed to be living in Caldwell at the time of her death. Her mother lived in Glenns Ferry and her father in Nyssa, Ore.

The motive behind the slaying remains unknown.

Sheriff Layher said at the time that family members who were subsequently interviewed did not indicate that Rameriz and Lopez-Orozco had any serious problems, although friends investigators interviewed said the couple did argue on occasion.

A $100,000 reward had been posted by the FBI for information leading to Lopez-Orozco's capture. It's not immediately known if the tips leading to his arrest will qualify for that reward.

Lopez-Orozco's brother, Simon, is also wanted by the FBI for allegedly driving Lopez-Orozco to California. In 2003, a federal arrest warrant was issued for his arrest, but he has not been captured.

Two of Lopez-Orozco's other relatives, a brother and sister, were charged in 2002 with being accessories after the fact and harboring a fugitive. Both entered plea agreements to cooperate with the investigation and face lesser charges.

Leo Bardo Lopez-Orozco eventually was sentenced to six months to three years in prison, on a forgery charge related to writing a check with Jorge Alberto Lopez-Orozco's name on it.

Maria E. Lopez-Orazco was sentenced to one year in jail and one year probation for resisting/interfering with a police officer.

"We deeply appreciate our law enforcement partners, particularly those in Mexico, for the assistance they have provided in this matter," Fuhrman said. He also thanked the Elmore County Sheriff's Office in Idaho for its investigation of the crime. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Idaho, the Idaho State Police and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement also assisted in the case.

U.S. Marshal for the District of Idaho, Patrick E. McDonald, stated Mexican law enforcement officials, the FBI, the U.S. Marshal's Service and the Elmore County Sheriff's Office "have done an outstanding job in the relentless pursuit of those associated with the criminal activity in Idaho.

"Those who have steadfastly worked on both sides of the border should be commended for their dedication," McDonald said.

As of Oct. 7, a total 491 fugitives have been on the "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives " list, including Osama bin Laden. Of those, 463 individuals have been located, 152 of them as a direct result of citizen cooperation. The list is designed to publicize particularly dangerous fugitives who might not otherwise merit nationwide attention. "The FBI values and recognizes the need for public assistance in tracking fugitives, " a spokesperson said.

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  • Praise the Lord.

    -- Posted by outtathere on Thu, Oct 8, 2009, at 11:07 PM
  • *

    This guy, if convicted needs to die! If he goes to state prison he will live a good life hooked up with the rest of the mexican population that runs the inmate population. The only hope is some skinhead will take him out perhaps.

    -- Posted by docd700 on Sat, Oct 10, 2009, at 5:59 AM
  • Oh great, now he can have a cell to himself with three squares a day,tv etc. for the rest of his life. Where's the real punishment there,this guy needs to suffer as the family of the victims have!

    -- Posted by Moanah on Sat, Oct 10, 2009, at 2:23 PM
  • He will only be convicted if the PA can get the job done. The PD in town is no fool. Just think...he could always go free and walk the streets with us due to a crappy job by the PA or, if you prefer, a better job by the PD.

    CJW, you are correct! The situation sucks. This is why it is a criminal justice system that does very little for "victims." Bazooka, you are correct regarding Joe. Do not forget the pink underwear!

    -- Posted by OpinionMissy on Sun, Oct 11, 2009, at 7:49 PM
  • *

    That's if he asks for the PD. It's possible he could hire his own attorney-you never know!

    Best case scenario would be if he pleads guilty right from the start, and go to sentencing. Knowing the death sentence is off the table because it has to be in order for Mexico to extradite him, he knows he'll be facing life in prison. And what could be so hard about that??

    -- Posted by LongTimeListener on Mon, Oct 12, 2009, at 12:19 PM
  • ...and a left, followed by another right, the jabs just keep on coming.

    -- Posted by MrMister on Mon, Oct 12, 2009, at 5:12 PM
  • Yes, I am sure sas that he will hire an attorney. I am sure he saved a lot of money while he was on the run in Mexico just so he could have a good legal defense. Why pay for it if you can get it for free?

    -- Posted by OpinionMissy on Tue, Oct 13, 2009, at 9:57 AM
  • *

    OM,

    While working for the PD for 5 years, I saw more hispanic people hire private attorney's than I did more WHITE people. Believe it.

    -- Posted by LongTimeListener on Tue, Oct 13, 2009, at 10:47 AM
  • *

    ...and if not his own money, family rallies around-really! That's how the Hispanic culture reacts.

    But you know what? I don't care if you believe me or not...I know what I've seen and that's all that matters to me anymore.

    And, Hey! YOU have a great day!

    -- Posted by LongTimeListener on Tue, Oct 13, 2009, at 11:10 AM
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