Triple-homicide suspect, victims ID'd

Authorities believe it is likely that their prime suspect in the murder of a young woman and her two children, whose charred and bullet-riddled bodies were found in a burned out car in Elmore County, is now hiding somewhere in Mexico.

An arrest warrant was issued last week for Jorge Alberto Lopez Orozco on three counts of first-degree murder.

Orozco is believed to be 26 or 27 years of age. He had been arrested at least twice before in Elmore County on minor offences, giving authorities different ages and names each time. He also has gone by the name of Raul Solorio.

Orozco, who has lived in the Mountain Home area for the last six or seven years, was last known to be in San Jose, Calif., on Aug. 8, after he had called to his home at 161 Meadows Trailer Park to ask his wife and three children, including the couple's newborn infant, to join him in San Jose.

"I would hope that even his family will look at what he did and not feel comfortable being around him," Sheriff Rick Layher said Friday during a press conference in which both the suspect and his victims were identified.

"I hope they call in because of the type of crime," he said, noting that the deaths of the two children made it emotionally one of his most difficult cases in 26 years of law enforcement in Elmore County. "I hope he won't rest until we get a chance to deal with him."

Layher hopes Orozco is still in the United States. If he has managed to flee to Mexico with his family finding him would be difficult and returning him to the United States probably even harder. Like many countries around the world, Mexico will not extradite anyone to the United States if they are facing the death penalty, and Elmore County Prosecutor Aaron Bazzoli said "this is clearly a death-penalty type of case" and he expected that he would seek the death penalty if Orozco is found and returned to Elmore County to stand trial.

The victims found in the car have tentatively been identified as Orozco's girlfriend, Rebecca Ramirez, 29, and two of her seven children, ages 2 and 4. Ramirez has lived in the Mountain Home and Glenns Ferry area for the last several years, but was believed to be living in Caldwell at the time of her death. Her mother lives in Glenns Ferry and her father in Nyssa, Ore. Neither were identified specifically by authorities. Her other children were staying with relatives at the time of her death and remain in their care.

The two children were not immediately identified because their fathers (each had been fathered by a different man) had not been found and notified as of Friday.

Identification of the bodies was made 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, which will take weeks to return from the lab, will be able to say for certain.

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

Ramirez, who was described by authorities as Orozco's "off and on" girlfriend, was last seen with Orozco in Nyssa on July 30 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 Orozco and two of her other children in the Pontiac that later was found in Elmore County.

Rameriz's mother in Glenns Ferry had talked to Elmore County deputies in early August 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.

Authorities believe Ramirez and her children were murdered sometime within the 48 hours after she left her father's home.

After the story broke last week, the Elmore County Sheriff's Office received a number of tips, one of which was from an individual who reported seeing the burned out car Aug. 1 on Nielsen Road (also known as Gravel Pit Road, just off the Bruneau Highway near the Snake River Bridge). That individual did not look in the car. "Unfortunately," Layher said, "old burned out and rusting cars in rural Elmore County aren't unusual."

It wasn't until Aug. 11 that two airmen, not identified by authorities, who were recreating in the area, saw the car and looked inside. They spotted what appeared to be one burned body in the front passenger seat and immediately called the sheriff's office.

When deputies arrived they found the other two bodies and the investigation kicked into high gear.

Eventually, almost all of the local sheriff's department, half a dozen investigators from the Idaho State Police, and the FBI, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the state Fire Marshal's Office, and even the BLM, joined the investigation. Autopsies were conducted last Monday and Tuesday in Ada County by the forensic pathologists from the Ada County Coroner's office, and an anthropologist was even called in to help identify the remains. The fire marshal's office and local Fire Chief Phil Gridley were investigating the cause of the fire in the car, which is believed to be arson, but so far the exact cause remains unknown.

The investigation into the triple homicide, led by Chief Deputy Nick Schilz and detective 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 Orozco. In each case, the car had been re-registered under the original plates and owner's name.

By Tuesday afternoon Layher had obtained a search warrant for Orozco's mobile home. No one was home and authorities have not said if any evidence relating to the crime was discovered there.

But the fact that Orozco had a wife, two young children, and an infant, led them to initially fear the victims were members of his family. They looked again in the ashes in the car to see if there were any remains from a fourth body, that of the infant, that they might have missed.

But about the same time, the 15 investigators in the case, who would eventually interview more than 30 people, discovered Orozco's relationship with Rameriz. That gave them their first break in helping tentatively identify the victims. Earrings and a bracelet found at the scene were identified by Ramirez's family as jewelry they had given her.

Investigators also learned about that time of the phone call Orozco had made from San Jose, asking his family to join him. San Jose law enforcement authorities began monitoring the home there where Orozco was believed to be, and as soon as the formal warrant for Orozco's arrest was issued Thursday night, obtained a search warrant and entered the home.

Neither Orozco nor his family were there, and authorities would not say what, if any, evidence was found there. And there remains some concern for Orozco's family, since they have not been seen for nearly two weeks, themselves.

Layher said that while Orozco had lived and worked in the area for several years, they suspect he may be an illegal alien. The Immigration and Naturalization Service is trying to help track that down and authorities on both sides of the border are attempting to locate any other relatives of Orozco who may be able to help them find the suspect.

The motive behind the slaying remains unknown. Layher said family members did not indicate that Rameriz and Orozco had any serious problems, although friends investigators interviewed said the couple argued on occasion.