November 1, 2024 • 34 mins
Introducing American Homicide. There and Gone hosts, Andrea Gunning and Ben Fetterman, speak with American Homicide host Sloane Glass about the brand-new podcast.
American Homicide explores mysterious and iconic murder cases from all across America. Whether it’s the spacious skies and vast deserts of New Mexico or the backwaters of the Louisiana Bayou, these murders are connected to their settings. Journalist Sloane Glass leads you through each crime with interviews from the victim's family and investigators.
Please take a moment to listen and subscribe to American Homicide by clicking here. You will find American Homicide on the iHeartApp, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And if you want to listen to episodes one week early and ad-free, you can sign up for iHeartTrueCrime+, exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Thank you for listening!
American Homicide
S1: E1 – The Father’s Day Murders, Part 1
On Father’s Day 2011, Cherie Ortiz discovered her parents and brother brutally murdered in their home in the quiet village of El Rancho, New Mexico. In the first episode of American Homicide, journalist Sloane Glass unravels the shocking crime that devastated a close-knit community and ignited a search for answers.
To reach out to the American Homicide team, please email us at AmericanHomicidePod@gmail.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, Aaron Gone listeners, this is Andrea Gunning and I'd
like to introduce you to a new true crime series.
Our team at Glass podcast just launched. It's called American Homicide.
I'm here today with my co hosts from There and Gone,
Ben Fetterman, and the host of American Homicide, Sloane Glass.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hey, guys, Hey, Andrea, Hey, dre Ben.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
You and I worked very closely on There and Gone,
and you've been producing and writing American Homicide. What do
you feel like they'rein Gone listeners will appreciate about American Homicide.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
So American Homicide explores some of the most mysterious and
iconic murder cases in our country, and the podcast takes
listeners to the local communities where these crimes took place.
I think what's interesting about both these podcasts is that
in There and Gone, Andrea and I thought we understood
the landscape of Philadelphia. You know, we both grew up
(00:52):
there and it's a place that we still call home.
But as a part of our investigation, I think we've
both reed and learned there was so much about our
city that we didn't understand. The other thing that we
took out of There and Gone is We explored the
impact that Danielle and Richard's disappearance had on both their
(01:13):
families and the communities they grew up in.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Ben, I think that you guys have been taxed with
a very difficult challenge with Aaron Gone of going into
an unsolved crime and an American homicide. We're walking you
through these stories after and arrest, and I think what
stays unsolved with American homicide is the long term impact
(01:38):
that these cases have on the communities. What do you.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Feel is unique about American Homicide as a true crime show.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
I'm such a fan of true crime podcast and what
makes American Homicide different from anything else I've seen out there?
American Homicide it's not just a retelling. It's a re
examination of infant miss true crime stories through first hand accounts.
You are hearing from law enforcement who is behind the investigations.
(02:08):
You are hearing from lawyers, you are hearing from judges,
you are hearing from victims and their friends and family.
And I think what makes it so significant and special
really plays off of when you are covering a story.
It can be the same crime in a different location
(02:29):
and it will have a totally different impact, depending.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
On the community. What do you mean by that?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
So, I think depending on where you are and what
your community looks like, it's going to inevitably have a
different effect on how you see the crime. I learned
this as a local news reporter and later as a
national news reporter, that you are dealing with very different
circumstances wherever you are in the country. When a crime
(02:55):
takes place in let's say a small town, what comes
to mind for me in my personal experience as a journalist.
I think of in Delphi, Indiana, there was a case
that had gone cold for six years. Two girls had
been killed, and it was a town of thirteen hundred people.
That's different from when a crime like that happens in
(03:16):
a city. The first story that we have in American homicide,
it made me feel that same way.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
So tell me a little bit about the episode that
we're going to hear.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Yeah, so this is part one of the Father's Day murders.
Now you just have to imagine it's Father's Day. You
go to your parents' house for dinner, You open the door,
and you find your mom, dad, and brother beaten to death.
And that's what happened to a woman in the small
town of l Rancho, New Mexico. And this is a
case with no arrest for years. The main suspect for
(03:51):
a substantial amount of time was the daughter who had
found her family. Everyone is looking at her like she
was involved.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
It justly you wondering what was going on here.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
I'm so excited for the series.
Speaker 5 (04:04):
Loan.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
You're phenomenal. The storytelling is fantastic. The episodes that I
have heard you are just every twist and turns on
the edge of your seat. Here's American homicide Father's Day Murders,
Part one, benef on Lays.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
It was Father's Day twenty eleven when Charie or Teas
walked into her parents' home and found the bodies of
her mother and father.
Speaker 6 (04:37):
They had been shot in the head, and it occurred
sometime earlier.
Speaker 7 (04:41):
In the day I just walked.
Speaker 6 (04:46):
The brutality was unspeakable.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
The hunt to find the killer would tear the community
apart and devastate Cherie.
Speaker 5 (04:54):
I really do have hope this is going to get solved.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
My name is Sloane Glass. I'm a journalist who covered
the Long Island serial killer, the Delphi, Indiana murders, and
many other high profile true crime cases. And now I'm
the host of American Homicide, a podcast where we take
you across the country to investigate some of America's deadliest crimes.
(05:18):
We'll explore how these murders are shaped by their unique landscapes,
and how these tragedies have shaped the fabric of these
American communities forever. Today, we're in the tiny village of
El Rancho, New Mexico, for part one of the Father's
Day Murders on American Homicide. As a note, this podcast
(05:40):
contains subject matter which may not be suitable for all audiences.
Discretion is advised. Let me paint a picture for you.
Santa Fe, New Mexico, is called the city Different for
its rich culture and diverse community. Native American ancestries blend
with Spanish culture and is state with one of America's
(06:01):
richest landscapes.
Speaker 8 (06:03):
Northern New Mexico in particular. It's a very unique place.
It's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Alex Tomlin was a local TV news reporter who lives
in the area.
Speaker 8 (06:12):
It has impeccable weather and the mountains are incredible.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
The region is home to natural hot springs and wild rivers.
Speaker 8 (06:19):
You can drive an hour north and go whitewater rafting,
or you can go down to White Sands and enjoy that.
But kind of on the outskirts of Santa Fe, you
get a lot of the smaller communities.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
And one such place is the tiny village of El Rancho.
The predominantly Hispanic community is about twenty miles from Santa
Fe and is built around co op farming and churches.
Speaker 8 (06:42):
It's a lot of people who have kind of grown there,
have families there, kind of all know each other.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
But it's also a desolate place.
Speaker 8 (06:50):
But one of the things about New Mexico is it's
so opit. When you go to someone's home, often they
have a significant sized property. There's not neighbors very close.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
And even though the homes are all spread out across
the desert.
Speaker 8 (07:04):
Everyone kind of knows each other that there is an
interesting dynamic here. As much as it's known for its beauty,
is also known for the crime.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
The tragic murders on Father's Day twenty eleven would stretch
the fabric of l Rancho to its limits.
Speaker 8 (07:20):
So June eighteenth, twenty eleven, seemed like any normal night.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Shari Orties had dinner plants with her parents, Lloyd and Dixie.
Speaker 8 (07:28):
Shari Orties. She lived on the property with the Ortizes.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Her parents and brother lived in a large one story house,
and Shari and her husband lived in an RV next door.
Even though there's a fence around their spacious property, the
family had an open door policy.
Speaker 8 (07:45):
Anyone could come in, have dinner at their table, or
spend time with them. They were just kind of a
good family in this community that was very tight knit.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Lloyd or Ties was a man who loved to use
his hands. He owned his own ceramic tile business. His
craftsmanship turned up in homes and even luxury hotels all
over northern New Mexico.
Speaker 8 (08:06):
He was an incredibly loving father, a hard working man
who provided for his family. His wife, Dixie, they sound
like a perfect pair.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Dixie was passionate about working with the elderly and the disabled.
She was an activities director at a local retirement home,
and she fostered children with special needs.
Speaker 8 (08:26):
They took in a child who had shacken baby syndrome
and adopted him as their own raise That child loved
that child.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
That child's name was Steven. Steven had special needs from
his early life injuries. His brain never developed beyond that
of a nine year old, but he matured into a
young man that his family called the gentle Giant. He
loved to play drums, ride his atv, and fish with Lloyd.
Speaker 8 (08:53):
They were just really giving, loving people, burying northern New Mexico.
Hard working, you know, love the land, love the culture
kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Since it was Father's Day, Sharie or Teas whipped up
a plate of homemade enchiladas for dinner.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
It was her gift.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Just before seven o'clock that evening, she took them and
walked next door to her parents. Even though it was June,
white Christmas icicle lights still hung on the gutters of
her parents' home. Inside, the walls were adorned with crucifixes
and some of Lloyd's handmade tiles.
Speaker 8 (09:28):
Cherie said, she walks in and realizes something's very wrong.
She found her mother in bed. Her mother's head was
pretty damaged. Thought someone maybe had shot her. She then
went into the kitchen area and found what she thought
was her father on the kitchen floor. The body was
(09:48):
just so impacted by what was used against them. There's
these two bodies, there's flood everywhere. She goes screaming out
of the house and for her husband. Again. They lived
on the property, so it was pretty close.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Sarie's husband, Jesse, ran right over to investigate.
Speaker 8 (10:07):
Her husband then comes in the house and he realizes
it's not her father on the kitchen floor, it's actually
her brother, and that's when he starts searching around and
finds her father outside right outside the back door, kind
of in the field there.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Lloyd's Bonnie was found on a cinderblock path that connected
the Ortiz back porch to their fenced in yard. He
was face down, wearing only his underwear. His eyeglasses sat
just inches away. Covering his head was some green shrubbery.
By now, Shari was on the phone.
Speaker 5 (10:43):
Bene onwards her.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
What is your name?
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Scheri frantically told the nine one one operator that her mother, father,
and brother were.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
Shot to death.
Speaker 7 (11:02):
I just everybody shot, and my.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Mom's still This was Scherie's second attempt at a nine
on one call, since Ury and her parents' homes were
out in the middle of the desert. Her cell reception
was body. Imagine the panic, the fear that your call
would drop again when you're trying to get emergency help
for your family. And she didn't know where the perpetrator
(11:29):
was or if they were still on the property.
Speaker 7 (11:32):
Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, I
am freaking out. I can't even walk over there because
I don't service.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
And then there's another problem.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Al Rancho is way off the beaten path, which delays
the response time for law enforcement.
Speaker 7 (11:49):
Oh my god, you have.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
With no local police force of their own. The New
Mexico State Police were dispatched to an investigate.
Speaker 7 (12:01):
I can't be already dead. I can't believe I didn't
come check earlier this morning. Oh my god, oh my god,
oh my god. Why you know, because I didn't have
money for a father's sacred but I didn't want to
go into I finished and chiava for him. Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Scharise stayed on the phone for nearly twenty minutes before officers.
Speaker 5 (12:25):
Arrived, so I kind of get there.
Speaker 7 (12:28):
I'm going to watch to the gate and way to them.
I'm my too nervous, just sitting in my yard.
Speaker 6 (12:34):
My name is Paul Chavez. I was a member of
the full Time Crimes Unit as an agent with the
New Mexico State Police.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
The two hundred homicide cases Officer Chavez worked in his
career didn't prepare him for what he saw inside the
Ortis house.
Speaker 6 (12:49):
In this case, the magnitude of the violence evolved was
the worst that I had seen in my career. The
brutality was unspeakable. Show your tease. Had found her parents
and her adopted stepbrother dead within the residence. She reported
that they had been shot in the head, and it
occurred sometime earlier in the day.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
It turns out that although Cheri said she didn't see
who committed these murders, she did hear something that there was.
Speaker 6 (13:19):
Reportedly gunshots heard the previous night in the area.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Now, hearing gunshots isn't entirely unusual in New Mexico. But
Cheri and her parents' homes sit on a dead end
street in the rural New Mexico Desert. It's a remote
area with unpaved roads and no nearby street lights. Their
nearest neighbor is about fifty yards up the road. Inside
(13:44):
the Orties' home, Officer Chavez and his team assess the situation.
Speaker 6 (13:48):
Once I enter into the residence, there is a master
bedroom immediately to the left as you walk in, and
that is where the first victim identified is. Dixie Ortis
is in her bed in her nightgown under the blankets.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Dixie was found clutching her pillow.
Speaker 6 (14:05):
Her upper extremities and her head is completely saturated in
blood where she had sustained apparent trauma. From that bedroom,
there is a drip trail which extends to the kitchen
area where we have a second victim, a young man
identified as Stephen Ortez.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Stephen, her adopted brother, lay face down in a pool
of blood, wearing only his underwear. Police noted that he
took the brunt of the attack.
Speaker 6 (14:33):
This scene was absolutely brutal.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Stephen was twenty one years old at the time of
his murder, and based on his injuries, police believed that
he tried to fight off the killer before ultimately losing
that battle.
Speaker 6 (14:47):
The blood continued from that area out the back door,
where the third victim, Loiter Tease, was found. Outside the
back porch, there was a significant amount of bloodshed, indicating
that he did sustained some massive trauma, and there was
also shrubbery from a nearby bush that was covering his head.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
That's two bloodied bodies inside the home and one outside.
And then something else stood out to law enforcement.
Speaker 6 (15:12):
There was a small marijuana grow on the property. It
was fenced off and pad locked. They did have a
medical marijuana card for Stephen for some of the medical conditions.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
He had, but none of the seventeen marijuana plants appeared
to be disturbed. In fact, nothing seemed to be stolen
or even out of place. On the kitchen table in
plain view sat Lloyd's wallet containing hundreds of dollars.
Speaker 6 (15:38):
This did not look like a robbery. It looked like
a case of anger, a lot of anger. Based on
the brutality that occurred.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
It was a father's date to forget for residents in
this tiny suburb of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Lloyd and
Dixie Ortiz were pillars of the tight knit Aloranto community.
They were quick to lend a helping hand to need
So who was angry enough to harm them?
Speaker 4 (16:04):
And why sure?
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Your teas lived in an RV right next door to
her parents house on the same property. Both home sat
on a sprawling lot surrounded by hills in the dusty
El Rancho, New Mexico desert. On the evening of Father's
Day twenty eleven, Shuri walked into her parents' house and
found her mother, father, and brother savagely murdered. Like many
(16:38):
others in the community, Pastor John Truhio was in shock.
Speaker 5 (16:42):
I get a phone call. They call me PJ.
Speaker 9 (16:44):
Pastor John says, PJ, they found Stephen Lloyd and Dixie dead.
I said, what are you talking about? Was there cracks
in what happened? He says, no, they're it seems like
they were murder in their home. You need to get
down here right away. And as I drive.
Speaker 5 (17:05):
Up, the community is already showing up.
Speaker 9 (17:09):
State police are there, And about that time, Shari made
her way out and she was just in tears, in
tears and tears, and she's Pastor John, my family's dead.
My family's dead. Somebody murdered my family. Somebody killed my family.
How do you handle that?
Speaker 5 (17:26):
What do you do?
Speaker 9 (17:26):
I mean, can you imagine the emotional and physical and.
Speaker 5 (17:31):
Just spiritual distraught that you would faith, nobody can't prepare
for that. I don't care. Nobody's prepared to walk into
a scene like that, especially the daughter.
Speaker 9 (17:45):
The family was grieving and they were mourning. It's all Rancho.
This isn't supposed to happen in a community like this.
People are speculating that could this happened from the community.
Did somebody come here from somewhere else? Was it a
family member, Was it a friend? Was it a robbery
that went wrong? You know why why?
Speaker 6 (18:04):
It was?
Speaker 5 (18:04):
Like? Okay, we need some answers.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Since al Rancho didn't have a police force of their own,
the New Mexico State Police handled the investigation. By morning,
the police still didn't know much.
Speaker 5 (18:16):
We're still unsure as to what happened out there.
Speaker 6 (18:19):
The guys are still working, working very hard to determine
what exactly happened.
Speaker 5 (18:24):
But at this point, we still.
Speaker 9 (18:25):
Don't know how in the world could something like this happen.
You know, one person dead, okay, but when there's three,
it raises a lot a lot of questions.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Police believe that three victims were shot to death inside
their home, but nothing appeared to be missing. Investigators wondered
if it was a murder or a murder suicide. Officer
Paul Chavez was one of the first responders.
Speaker 6 (18:50):
My role primarily is to process and document the crime scene,
try and make sense of what occurred there.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
But the severity of the crime scene limited what he
was able to do.
Speaker 6 (19:00):
You can't disturb the body much, and with the amount
of bloodshed that was present, we weren't able to assess
the wounds as well as we would like to have
been able to so.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Originally, the police believed all three victims were shot to death,
but the results of the autopsies for each victim revealed
something far more personal.
Speaker 6 (19:19):
That these were in fact not gunshot wounds. There were
actually lacerations that were penetrating with a blood object.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Clearly something was missing. When the police returned to the
scene of the crime, they found a five pound pick
axe lying on the ground just over the fence of
the adjacent property, and the pick axe contain bloodstains.
Speaker 6 (19:42):
What the pick axe did provide us was DNA from
all three victims, so we unequivocally had our murder weapon. However,
we were unable to forensically link a suspect to the pickaxe.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
So what does that mean? A murder weapon with DNA
of the victims but nothing to indicate a suspect.
Speaker 6 (20:00):
It could mean a number of things that maybe they
were wearing gloves, or they covered their handness some way
or shape or form, and just sometimes the lab just
can't find it. It's not one hundred percent certainty that
they're going to be able to find DNA when something
is touched. There's a chance that we will, but it
doesn't always work out that way.
Speaker 8 (20:19):
So the one thing about the Ortez murder was really
the pressure on the police.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Reporter Alex Tomlin covered the story for a local TV station.
Speaker 8 (20:27):
There was an incredible amount of pressure from that small
knit community, but also the surrounding communities, and so there
was a lot of pressure on them to get who
did it, make it a clean investigation, and let's get
this person behind bars. And I'm sure at times that
pressure was overwhelming.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
The people of l Rancho couldn't shake the fear that
they could be next.
Speaker 8 (20:46):
Nobody wants to think that they're going to go to
sleep and somebody who's pick axed a couple and their
son to death is going to come into.
Speaker 5 (20:53):
Their home next.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
They even refuse to talk to TV reporters, not because
they felt pestored, but they were fearful of their own safety.
Speaker 8 (21:01):
And that's the other terrifying thing. Think about the strength
it takes to push that pickaxe back multiple times and
pick act someone to death that is cold blooded, that
is calculated. That is incredibly scary for a community because
that person is dangerous. You know, when you can't easily
(21:23):
tie up a case like this, when you can't say, oh,
it's you know, a scorned lover, or it's you know,
a drug deal gone wrong, or different things like that.
Then it becomes a well in my next you want
to find who did this because you don't want the
community looking at you and saying, what are you doing?
Why aren't you protecting us? Why don't you have the answers.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
With no suspects a weapon and murder seeing free of
any DNA, investigators started to look at the person who
first discovered the bodies. That person was Shuri or Tisse.
Speaker 8 (21:54):
When something this horrific happens, the community wants answers and
they want them quickly, right, So you want to be
able to tie in uppo on this thing and be
done with it. And Sharen her husband seemed like that
nice bow. They lived on the property. You could come
up with a motive.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
The police wondered if Shari and her husband, Jesse knew
more than they were saying, especially after they listened back
to Shari's original limo on uncle.
Speaker 8 (22:17):
She's very frantic in that nine one one call, as
you can hear, she made some comments on that nine
one one call about you know they must have been
shot because of how they looked.
Speaker 7 (22:33):
I just talked.
Speaker 8 (22:41):
It wasn't later until the Office of the Medical Investigator
determined that actually they had been pick axed to death.
Speaker 9 (22:47):
I have no idea who would.
Speaker 7 (22:48):
Have done that anybody around. Oh my god, they were
such good people. O my god, Oh my god, Oh
my god, Oh my god, oh my god.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Hurry.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Desperate and upset, Shari spent seventeen minutes on that nine
on one call, but as investigators listened back, they zeroed
in on a comment Chari said, Now listen closely to
what CHERI told the operator. So Shari said her parents
had been dead since that morning. How did she know that?
(23:28):
And why didn't she call nine one one till seven
that evening.
Speaker 7 (23:33):
I can't believe I didn't come check ear here this morning.
Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Why you know?
Speaker 7 (23:42):
I can because I didn't have money for a father's
sacred but I didn't want to go until I finished
the insue out up for him.
Speaker 8 (23:48):
They one thought she was a main suspect.
Speaker 7 (23:52):
I can't believe this.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
When Lloyd Dixie and Stephen Ortiz were brutally murdered in
their l Rancho home, their daughter Shari and her husband, Jesse,
appeared to investigators to be the only people with motive
and the access to execute such a violent crime. For months,
Shari and Jesse felt the stairs and heard the whispers.
(24:20):
Their pastor, John Truhio, tried to be the voice of reason.
Speaker 9 (24:25):
I think when you have to go through that like
Jesse and Shari did, I think it was just a
reassurance that said, listen.
Speaker 5 (24:32):
You know you need to do this. You need to
go through this.
Speaker 9 (24:35):
Just cooperate with the State Police investigators whatever you need
to do, because it's just a process of elimination. They're
looking for answers just as much as everybody else's and
they need a starting point somewhere. Just go through the process,
answer the questions, be honest, be truthful, and let them
eliminate you, and then they can move forward from there.
Speaker 6 (24:55):
So there were a number of red flags that required
us to investigate Cherry and Jesse to the fullest.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
State Police Agent Paul Chavez took the difficult line of
questioning a mourning Shari.
Speaker 6 (25:08):
Could family gain from the death of the victim? Sure
they kind of there is in insurance policies in place?
Or is there property a place? Is there something to
be gained. That's definitely something that was going to be
looked at.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Investigators asked about Scheri's credit card debt and the fact
that she didn't pay her car loans or even the
rent on her RV, and then there was this. Suri
also told investigators that she had removed eighty thousand dollars
in cash from her parents' home, but she didn't tell
this to police until three days after the murders.
Speaker 6 (25:41):
Jesse and Scherie involvement couldn't be ruled out.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Jesse and Suri told detectives that they were at a
local casino on the night of the murders, but.
Speaker 6 (25:51):
Thought there was some conflicting statements between Shari and Jesse.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
The triple murder that rocked the close knit village of
l Rancho turned friend into enemies, families into suspects.
Speaker 8 (26:04):
At the time, there was a lot of speculation about
her and her husband and whether or not they had
been involved in this crime.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Alex Tomlin worked as a reporter for a local TV station.
Speaker 8 (26:14):
The case was a little bit cold at this time,
and we got a call saying, she's willing to talk
to you.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Shari was on the defensive and wanted to publicly clear
her name, so she scheduled an interview with.
Speaker 8 (26:26):
Alex Scherie offered to show me the home where her
parents had lived and had been murdered.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Alex met Sharie at her home and interviewed her just
steps away from where Lloyd, Dixie and Stephen were murdered.
Speaker 8 (26:40):
I remember distinctly being in the kitchen and we were
talking about her brother, Stephen, and when the autopsy came out,
he had held about a dozen or so blows. I
think about maybe seventeen blows. And I remember her talking
to me about how he was such a big guy,
that he was kind of a teddy bear, but he
was such a big guy.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
And it's such a weird sensation.
Speaker 8 (27:01):
We're standing in someone's kitchen and you're seeing marks on
the floor and you know their body had been there.
And she cried a lot during that interview, understandably, but
really thinking about this young man coming out who didn't
really have the cognitive ability to understand what was happening,
you know, very much still a child kind of in
a man's body, and to have that many blows to him.
(27:25):
My only thought in that moment was he must have
been trying to protect his parents. He must have been
really scared, he must have really fought back, and that
was just so sad. It was so sad to think
about those final moments and what that must have been
like for him, either knowing that he was dying or
(27:46):
knowing that something had happened to his parents. It was
just really traumatic standing there and knowing this is where
he died, and he died in such a violent way.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
With the cameras rolling. Alex asked Shari about the investigation.
Leave they're going through it with tunnel vision, just specifically
focusing on us in instead of.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
The real people or I know it had to be people.
Speaker 5 (28:10):
How could one person do that?
Speaker 8 (28:12):
So it left this very weird sensation in the community
where some people were still speculating other people really believed them.
Why would they do this?
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Shari said her parents had life insurance, but she could
not collect that money since she and her husband were
considered suspects and without that money, Suri said they couldn't
pay their bills and worried their homes would be foreclosed.
Speaker 8 (28:35):
So it was really this sense from her of trying
to advocate for herself, but advocate for her parents and
her brother to say, I need to know who killed them,
and at the same time, I need people to know
it wasn't me. And so that was really what this
conversation centered around. We could lose.
Speaker 5 (28:51):
Everything my dad worked so hard for.
Speaker 8 (28:54):
I actually saw like marks on the floor in different
things like that where this had happened. It was a
really horrific experience.
Speaker 5 (29:01):
Something has to give. I really do have hope. I
know this is going to get solved.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
With tears in her eyes, Shari then looked into the
camera to try to clear her name and her husband
Jesse's as well.
Speaker 8 (29:13):
We had nothing to do with it.
Speaker 5 (29:16):
My god, that was my mom, and Mike added my
little birth.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
It was no secret that the two were being looked
at in the triple murder, But were they that desperate
for money that they would murder their own family? Paul
Shavez investigated, If you.
Speaker 6 (29:32):
Don't investigate Justin and Shirvey to the foolest, you make
a very easy argument for a deference attorney to create
dowt in jury's mind. And that's exactly what have happened
if we had not followed up on all of the
red flags that came up during the course of the investigation.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
But as the investigation dragged on, Shari shifted the blame
back on the state police. She claimed that they botched
the investigation and said casino security guards or even children
could have done a at our job. Against the advice
of law enforcement, Shari even set up a po box
where people could anonymously submit information about who might be responsible.
(30:13):
A year after the murders, the police promised a press
conference to share some breaking news on the case, but
that press conference never happened.
Speaker 6 (30:24):
There was a lot of leads that came in that
were followed off on, but none of them pouned out.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
A billboard even went up along a local highway with
a picture of Lloyd, Dixie and Stephen then offered a
one thousand dollars reward for information, but still there were
no arrests.
Speaker 6 (30:42):
That was the hardest part of this case for me
was knowing that we have not been able to bring
justice for this family.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
And it wasn't just Shari who was pressuring the New
Mexico State Police. Here's TV reporter Alex Tomlin.
Speaker 8 (30:56):
There was an incredible amount of pressure from that small
knit community, but also the surrounding communities and pretty much
all of the state, saying you've got to find who
did this. You could not take a family who more
people said nice things about and have a more awful
thing happen to them. I mean they are bludgeoned to
death with a pickaxe.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Publicly, the police didn't reveal much about other potential suspects,
but behind the scenes it was a different story. Aside
from Shari and her husband Jesse, investigators interviewed numerous people. Then,
sixteen months after the murders, a local twenty three year
old woman named Ashley Roibald got arrested. While she's in custody,
(31:39):
she tells the police something astonishing little gay.
Speaker 5 (31:42):
To call you, Ashley, all right, I understand that you
know some details I did.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Ashley tells detectives that she knows who killed Lloyd Dixie
and Stephen Ortiz.
Speaker 8 (31:55):
It isn't until Ashley Roibald gets in trouble that all
of a sudden she's willing to tell police what happened.
Speaker 5 (32:00):
So let you go ahead and tell me the story.
Speaker 8 (32:01):
It was almost like the answer everyone had been waiting for.
Speaker 6 (32:04):
It.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Ashley Roibal kept quiet for sixteen months. During that time,
Shi juggled losing her mom, dad, and brother well being
looked at by everyone as a suspect, all while she
couldn't collect their life insurance money and was scared she'd
lose everything. But now, sixteen months later, Ashley was finally
(32:26):
ready to talk, and.
Speaker 6 (32:28):
This was the turning point in the investigation.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
But would anyone believe Ashley?
Speaker 8 (32:33):
There's things that kind of don't match up their shifting stories.
Speaker 5 (32:36):
We just want the truth, they say.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
The wheels of justice move very slowly, and in this
case that would prove to be an understatement.
Speaker 8 (32:45):
And I remember thinking, oh God, here we go again.
This poor family has been through the ring error.
Speaker 5 (32:51):
I would have never suspected that it was going to
come down to this.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Find out what Ashley says really happened that night in
part two of The Fun Murders. That's next time on
American Homicide. You can contact the American Homicide team by
emailing us at American Homicide Pod at gmail dot com.
(33:15):
That's American Homicide Pod at gmail dot com. American Homicide
is hosted and written by me Sloane Glass and is
a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group,
in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced
by Nancy Glass and Todd Gambs. The series is also
(33:37):
written and produced by Todd Gambs, with additional writing by
Ben Fetterman and Andrea Gunny. Our associate producer is Kristin Melcurrie.
Our iHeart team is Ali Perry and Jessica Crimecheck. Audio
editing and mixing by Matt Delvecchio, additional editing support from
Nico Ruka Tanner, Robbins, brit Robashow, Dave Saya, and Patrick Walsh.
(34:01):
American Homicide theme song was composed by Oliver Bains of
Noisier Music Library provided by my Music. Follow American Homicide
on Apple Podcasts and please rate and review American Homicide.
Your five star review goes a long way towards helping
others find this show. For more podcasts from iHeart, visit
(34:23):
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts,
Hi, Aaron Gone listeners, this is Andrea Gunning and I'd
like to introduce you to a new true crime series.
Our team at Glass podcast just launched. It's called American Homicide.
I'm here today with my co hosts from There and Gone,
Ben Fetterman, and the host of American Homicide, Sloane Glass.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hey, guys, Hey, Andrea, Hey, dre Ben.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
You and I worked very closely on There and Gone,
and you've been producing and writing American Homicide. What do
you feel like they'rein Gone listeners will appreciate about American Homicide.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
So American Homicide explores some of the most mysterious and
iconic murder cases in our country, and the podcast takes
listeners to the local communities where these crimes took place.
I think what's interesting about both these podcasts is that
in There and Gone, Andrea and I thought we understood
the landscape of Philadelphia. You know, we both grew up
(00:52):
there and it's a place that we still call home.
But as a part of our investigation, I think we've
both reed and learned there was so much about our
city that we didn't understand. The other thing that we
took out of There and Gone is We explored the
impact that Danielle and Richard's disappearance had on both their
(01:13):
families and the communities they grew up in.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Ben, I think that you guys have been taxed with
a very difficult challenge with Aaron Gone of going into
an unsolved crime and an American homicide. We're walking you
through these stories after and arrest, and I think what
stays unsolved with American homicide is the long term impact
(01:38):
that these cases have on the communities. What do you.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Feel is unique about American Homicide as a true crime show.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
I'm such a fan of true crime podcast and what
makes American Homicide different from anything else I've seen out there?
American Homicide it's not just a retelling. It's a re
examination of infant miss true crime stories through first hand accounts.
You are hearing from law enforcement who is behind the investigations.
(02:08):
You are hearing from lawyers, you are hearing from judges,
you are hearing from victims and their friends and family.
And I think what makes it so significant and special
really plays off of when you are covering a story.
It can be the same crime in a different location
(02:29):
and it will have a totally different impact, depending.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
On the community. What do you mean by that?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
So, I think depending on where you are and what
your community looks like, it's going to inevitably have a
different effect on how you see the crime. I learned
this as a local news reporter and later as a
national news reporter, that you are dealing with very different
circumstances wherever you are in the country. When a crime
(02:55):
takes place in let's say a small town, what comes
to mind for me in my personal experience as a journalist.
I think of in Delphi, Indiana, there was a case
that had gone cold for six years. Two girls had
been killed, and it was a town of thirteen hundred people.
That's different from when a crime like that happens in
(03:16):
a city. The first story that we have in American homicide,
it made me feel that same way.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
So tell me a little bit about the episode that
we're going to hear.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Yeah, so this is part one of the Father's Day murders.
Now you just have to imagine it's Father's Day. You
go to your parents' house for dinner, You open the door,
and you find your mom, dad, and brother beaten to death.
And that's what happened to a woman in the small
town of l Rancho, New Mexico. And this is a
case with no arrest for years. The main suspect for
(03:51):
a substantial amount of time was the daughter who had
found her family. Everyone is looking at her like she
was involved.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
It justly you wondering what was going on here.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
I'm so excited for the series.
Speaker 5 (04:04):
Loan.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
You're phenomenal. The storytelling is fantastic. The episodes that I
have heard you are just every twist and turns on
the edge of your seat. Here's American homicide Father's Day Murders,
Part one, benef on Lays.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
It was Father's Day twenty eleven when Charie or Teas
walked into her parents' home and found the bodies of
her mother and father.
Speaker 6 (04:37):
They had been shot in the head, and it occurred
sometime earlier.
Speaker 7 (04:41):
In the day I just walked.
Speaker 6 (04:46):
The brutality was unspeakable.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
The hunt to find the killer would tear the community
apart and devastate Cherie.
Speaker 5 (04:54):
I really do have hope this is going to get solved.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
My name is Sloane Glass. I'm a journalist who covered
the Long Island serial killer, the Delphi, Indiana murders, and
many other high profile true crime cases. And now I'm
the host of American Homicide, a podcast where we take
you across the country to investigate some of America's deadliest crimes.
(05:18):
We'll explore how these murders are shaped by their unique landscapes,
and how these tragedies have shaped the fabric of these
American communities forever. Today, we're in the tiny village of
El Rancho, New Mexico, for part one of the Father's
Day Murders on American Homicide. As a note, this podcast
(05:40):
contains subject matter which may not be suitable for all audiences.
Discretion is advised. Let me paint a picture for you.
Santa Fe, New Mexico, is called the city Different for
its rich culture and diverse community. Native American ancestries blend
with Spanish culture and is state with one of America's
(06:01):
richest landscapes.
Speaker 8 (06:03):
Northern New Mexico in particular. It's a very unique place.
It's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Alex Tomlin was a local TV news reporter who lives
in the area.
Speaker 8 (06:12):
It has impeccable weather and the mountains are incredible.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
The region is home to natural hot springs and wild rivers.
Speaker 8 (06:19):
You can drive an hour north and go whitewater rafting,
or you can go down to White Sands and enjoy that.
But kind of on the outskirts of Santa Fe, you
get a lot of the smaller communities.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
And one such place is the tiny village of El Rancho.
The predominantly Hispanic community is about twenty miles from Santa
Fe and is built around co op farming and churches.
Speaker 8 (06:42):
It's a lot of people who have kind of grown there,
have families there, kind of all know each other.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
But it's also a desolate place.
Speaker 8 (06:50):
But one of the things about New Mexico is it's
so opit. When you go to someone's home, often they
have a significant sized property. There's not neighbors very close.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
And even though the homes are all spread out across
the desert.
Speaker 8 (07:04):
Everyone kind of knows each other that there is an
interesting dynamic here. As much as it's known for its beauty,
is also known for the crime.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
The tragic murders on Father's Day twenty eleven would stretch
the fabric of l Rancho to its limits.
Speaker 8 (07:20):
So June eighteenth, twenty eleven, seemed like any normal night.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Shari Orties had dinner plants with her parents, Lloyd and Dixie.
Speaker 8 (07:28):
Shari Orties. She lived on the property with the Ortizes.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Her parents and brother lived in a large one story house,
and Shari and her husband lived in an RV next door.
Even though there's a fence around their spacious property, the
family had an open door policy.
Speaker 8 (07:45):
Anyone could come in, have dinner at their table, or
spend time with them. They were just kind of a
good family in this community that was very tight knit.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Lloyd or Ties was a man who loved to use
his hands. He owned his own ceramic tile business. His
craftsmanship turned up in homes and even luxury hotels all
over northern New Mexico.
Speaker 8 (08:06):
He was an incredibly loving father, a hard working man
who provided for his family. His wife, Dixie, they sound
like a perfect pair.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Dixie was passionate about working with the elderly and the disabled.
She was an activities director at a local retirement home,
and she fostered children with special needs.
Speaker 8 (08:26):
They took in a child who had shacken baby syndrome
and adopted him as their own raise That child loved
that child.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
That child's name was Steven. Steven had special needs from
his early life injuries. His brain never developed beyond that
of a nine year old, but he matured into a
young man that his family called the gentle Giant. He
loved to play drums, ride his atv, and fish with Lloyd.
Speaker 8 (08:53):
They were just really giving, loving people, burying northern New Mexico.
Hard working, you know, love the land, love the culture
kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Since it was Father's Day, Sharie or Teas whipped up
a plate of homemade enchiladas for dinner.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
It was her gift.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Just before seven o'clock that evening, she took them and
walked next door to her parents. Even though it was June,
white Christmas icicle lights still hung on the gutters of
her parents' home. Inside, the walls were adorned with crucifixes
and some of Lloyd's handmade tiles.
Speaker 8 (09:28):
Cherie said, she walks in and realizes something's very wrong.
She found her mother in bed. Her mother's head was
pretty damaged. Thought someone maybe had shot her. She then
went into the kitchen area and found what she thought
was her father on the kitchen floor. The body was
(09:48):
just so impacted by what was used against them. There's
these two bodies, there's flood everywhere. She goes screaming out
of the house and for her husband. Again. They lived
on the property, so it was pretty close.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Sarie's husband, Jesse, ran right over to investigate.
Speaker 8 (10:07):
Her husband then comes in the house and he realizes
it's not her father on the kitchen floor, it's actually
her brother, and that's when he starts searching around and
finds her father outside right outside the back door, kind
of in the field there.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Lloyd's Bonnie was found on a cinderblock path that connected
the Ortiz back porch to their fenced in yard. He
was face down, wearing only his underwear. His eyeglasses sat
just inches away. Covering his head was some green shrubbery.
By now, Shari was on the phone.
Speaker 5 (10:43):
Bene onwards her.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
What is your name?
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Scheri frantically told the nine one one operator that her mother, father,
and brother were.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
Shot to death.
Speaker 7 (11:02):
I just everybody shot, and my.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Mom's still This was Scherie's second attempt at a nine
on one call, since Ury and her parents' homes were
out in the middle of the desert. Her cell reception
was body. Imagine the panic, the fear that your call
would drop again when you're trying to get emergency help
for your family. And she didn't know where the perpetrator
(11:29):
was or if they were still on the property.
Speaker 7 (11:32):
Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, I
am freaking out. I can't even walk over there because
I don't service.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
And then there's another problem.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Al Rancho is way off the beaten path, which delays
the response time for law enforcement.
Speaker 7 (11:49):
Oh my god, you have.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
With no local police force of their own. The New
Mexico State Police were dispatched to an investigate.
Speaker 7 (12:01):
I can't be already dead. I can't believe I didn't
come check earlier this morning. Oh my god, oh my god,
oh my god. Why you know, because I didn't have
money for a father's sacred but I didn't want to
go into I finished and chiava for him. Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Scharise stayed on the phone for nearly twenty minutes before officers.
Speaker 5 (12:25):
Arrived, so I kind of get there.
Speaker 7 (12:28):
I'm going to watch to the gate and way to them.
I'm my too nervous, just sitting in my yard.
Speaker 6 (12:34):
My name is Paul Chavez. I was a member of
the full Time Crimes Unit as an agent with the
New Mexico State Police.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
The two hundred homicide cases Officer Chavez worked in his
career didn't prepare him for what he saw inside the
Ortis house.
Speaker 6 (12:49):
In this case, the magnitude of the violence evolved was
the worst that I had seen in my career. The
brutality was unspeakable. Show your tease. Had found her parents
and her adopted stepbrother dead within the residence. She reported
that they had been shot in the head, and it
occurred sometime earlier in the day.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
It turns out that although Cheri said she didn't see
who committed these murders, she did hear something that there was.
Speaker 6 (13:19):
Reportedly gunshots heard the previous night in the area.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Now, hearing gunshots isn't entirely unusual in New Mexico. But
Cheri and her parents' homes sit on a dead end
street in the rural New Mexico Desert. It's a remote
area with unpaved roads and no nearby street lights. Their
nearest neighbor is about fifty yards up the road. Inside
(13:44):
the Orties' home, Officer Chavez and his team assess the situation.
Speaker 6 (13:48):
Once I enter into the residence, there is a master
bedroom immediately to the left as you walk in, and
that is where the first victim identified is. Dixie Ortis
is in her bed in her nightgown under the blankets.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Dixie was found clutching her pillow.
Speaker 6 (14:05):
Her upper extremities and her head is completely saturated in
blood where she had sustained apparent trauma. From that bedroom,
there is a drip trail which extends to the kitchen
area where we have a second victim, a young man
identified as Stephen Ortez.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Stephen, her adopted brother, lay face down in a pool
of blood, wearing only his underwear. Police noted that he
took the brunt of the attack.
Speaker 6 (14:33):
This scene was absolutely brutal.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Stephen was twenty one years old at the time of
his murder, and based on his injuries, police believed that
he tried to fight off the killer before ultimately losing
that battle.
Speaker 6 (14:47):
The blood continued from that area out the back door,
where the third victim, Loiter Tease, was found. Outside the
back porch, there was a significant amount of bloodshed, indicating
that he did sustained some massive trauma, and there was
also shrubbery from a nearby bush that was covering his head.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
That's two bloodied bodies inside the home and one outside.
And then something else stood out to law enforcement.
Speaker 6 (15:12):
There was a small marijuana grow on the property. It
was fenced off and pad locked. They did have a
medical marijuana card for Stephen for some of the medical conditions.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
He had, but none of the seventeen marijuana plants appeared
to be disturbed. In fact, nothing seemed to be stolen
or even out of place. On the kitchen table in
plain view sat Lloyd's wallet containing hundreds of dollars.
Speaker 6 (15:38):
This did not look like a robbery. It looked like
a case of anger, a lot of anger. Based on
the brutality that occurred.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
It was a father's date to forget for residents in
this tiny suburb of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Lloyd and
Dixie Ortiz were pillars of the tight knit Aloranto community.
They were quick to lend a helping hand to need
So who was angry enough to harm them?
Speaker 4 (16:04):
And why sure?
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Your teas lived in an RV right next door to
her parents house on the same property. Both home sat
on a sprawling lot surrounded by hills in the dusty
El Rancho, New Mexico desert. On the evening of Father's
Day twenty eleven, Shuri walked into her parents' house and
found her mother, father, and brother savagely murdered. Like many
(16:38):
others in the community, Pastor John Truhio was in shock.
Speaker 5 (16:42):
I get a phone call. They call me PJ.
Speaker 9 (16:44):
Pastor John says, PJ, they found Stephen Lloyd and Dixie dead.
I said, what are you talking about? Was there cracks
in what happened? He says, no, they're it seems like
they were murder in their home. You need to get
down here right away. And as I drive.
Speaker 5 (17:05):
Up, the community is already showing up.
Speaker 9 (17:09):
State police are there, And about that time, Shari made
her way out and she was just in tears, in
tears and tears, and she's Pastor John, my family's dead.
My family's dead. Somebody murdered my family. Somebody killed my family.
How do you handle that?
Speaker 5 (17:26):
What do you do?
Speaker 9 (17:26):
I mean, can you imagine the emotional and physical and.
Speaker 5 (17:31):
Just spiritual distraught that you would faith, nobody can't prepare
for that. I don't care. Nobody's prepared to walk into
a scene like that, especially the daughter.
Speaker 9 (17:45):
The family was grieving and they were mourning. It's all Rancho.
This isn't supposed to happen in a community like this.
People are speculating that could this happened from the community.
Did somebody come here from somewhere else? Was it a
family member, Was it a friend? Was it a robbery
that went wrong? You know why why?
Speaker 6 (18:04):
It was?
Speaker 5 (18:04):
Like? Okay, we need some answers.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Since al Rancho didn't have a police force of their own,
the New Mexico State Police handled the investigation. By morning,
the police still didn't know much.
Speaker 5 (18:16):
We're still unsure as to what happened out there.
Speaker 6 (18:19):
The guys are still working, working very hard to determine
what exactly happened.
Speaker 5 (18:24):
But at this point, we still.
Speaker 9 (18:25):
Don't know how in the world could something like this happen.
You know, one person dead, okay, but when there's three,
it raises a lot a lot of questions.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Police believe that three victims were shot to death inside
their home, but nothing appeared to be missing. Investigators wondered
if it was a murder or a murder suicide. Officer
Paul Chavez was one of the first responders.
Speaker 6 (18:50):
My role primarily is to process and document the crime scene,
try and make sense of what occurred there.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
But the severity of the crime scene limited what he
was able to do.
Speaker 6 (19:00):
You can't disturb the body much, and with the amount
of bloodshed that was present, we weren't able to assess
the wounds as well as we would like to have
been able to so.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Originally, the police believed all three victims were shot to death,
but the results of the autopsies for each victim revealed
something far more personal.
Speaker 6 (19:19):
That these were in fact not gunshot wounds. There were
actually lacerations that were penetrating with a blood object.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Clearly something was missing. When the police returned to the
scene of the crime, they found a five pound pick
axe lying on the ground just over the fence of
the adjacent property, and the pick axe contain bloodstains.
Speaker 6 (19:42):
What the pick axe did provide us was DNA from
all three victims, so we unequivocally had our murder weapon. However,
we were unable to forensically link a suspect to the pickaxe.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
So what does that mean? A murder weapon with DNA
of the victims but nothing to indicate a suspect.
Speaker 6 (20:00):
It could mean a number of things that maybe they
were wearing gloves, or they covered their handness some way
or shape or form, and just sometimes the lab just
can't find it. It's not one hundred percent certainty that
they're going to be able to find DNA when something
is touched. There's a chance that we will, but it
doesn't always work out that way.
Speaker 8 (20:19):
So the one thing about the Ortez murder was really
the pressure on the police.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Reporter Alex Tomlin covered the story for a local TV station.
Speaker 8 (20:27):
There was an incredible amount of pressure from that small
knit community, but also the surrounding communities, and so there
was a lot of pressure on them to get who
did it, make it a clean investigation, and let's get
this person behind bars. And I'm sure at times that
pressure was overwhelming.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
The people of l Rancho couldn't shake the fear that
they could be next.
Speaker 8 (20:46):
Nobody wants to think that they're going to go to
sleep and somebody who's pick axed a couple and their
son to death is going to come into.
Speaker 5 (20:53):
Their home next.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
They even refuse to talk to TV reporters, not because
they felt pestored, but they were fearful of their own safety.
Speaker 8 (21:01):
And that's the other terrifying thing. Think about the strength
it takes to push that pickaxe back multiple times and
pick act someone to death that is cold blooded, that
is calculated. That is incredibly scary for a community because
that person is dangerous. You know, when you can't easily
(21:23):
tie up a case like this, when you can't say, oh,
it's you know, a scorned lover, or it's you know,
a drug deal gone wrong, or different things like that.
Then it becomes a well in my next you want
to find who did this because you don't want the
community looking at you and saying, what are you doing?
Why aren't you protecting us? Why don't you have the answers.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
With no suspects a weapon and murder seeing free of
any DNA, investigators started to look at the person who
first discovered the bodies. That person was Shuri or Tisse.
Speaker 8 (21:54):
When something this horrific happens, the community wants answers and
they want them quickly, right, So you want to be
able to tie in uppo on this thing and be
done with it. And Sharen her husband seemed like that
nice bow. They lived on the property. You could come
up with a motive.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
The police wondered if Shari and her husband, Jesse knew
more than they were saying, especially after they listened back
to Shari's original limo on uncle.
Speaker 8 (22:17):
She's very frantic in that nine one one call, as
you can hear, she made some comments on that nine
one one call about you know they must have been
shot because of how they looked.
Speaker 7 (22:33):
I just talked.
Speaker 8 (22:41):
It wasn't later until the Office of the Medical Investigator
determined that actually they had been pick axed to death.
Speaker 9 (22:47):
I have no idea who would.
Speaker 7 (22:48):
Have done that anybody around. Oh my god, they were
such good people. O my god, Oh my god, Oh
my god, Oh my god, oh my god.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Hurry.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Desperate and upset, Shari spent seventeen minutes on that nine
on one call, but as investigators listened back, they zeroed
in on a comment Chari said, Now listen closely to
what CHERI told the operator. So Shari said her parents
had been dead since that morning. How did she know that?
(23:28):
And why didn't she call nine one one till seven
that evening.
Speaker 7 (23:33):
I can't believe I didn't come check ear here this morning.
Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Why you know?
Speaker 7 (23:42):
I can because I didn't have money for a father's
sacred but I didn't want to go until I finished
the insue out up for him.
Speaker 8 (23:48):
They one thought she was a main suspect.
Speaker 7 (23:52):
I can't believe this.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
When Lloyd Dixie and Stephen Ortiz were brutally murdered in
their l Rancho home, their daughter Shari and her husband, Jesse,
appeared to investigators to be the only people with motive
and the access to execute such a violent crime. For months,
Shari and Jesse felt the stairs and heard the whispers.
(24:20):
Their pastor, John Truhio, tried to be the voice of reason.
Speaker 9 (24:25):
I think when you have to go through that like
Jesse and Shari did, I think it was just a
reassurance that said, listen.
Speaker 5 (24:32):
You know you need to do this. You need to
go through this.
Speaker 9 (24:35):
Just cooperate with the State Police investigators whatever you need
to do, because it's just a process of elimination. They're
looking for answers just as much as everybody else's and
they need a starting point somewhere. Just go through the process,
answer the questions, be honest, be truthful, and let them
eliminate you, and then they can move forward from there.
Speaker 6 (24:55):
So there were a number of red flags that required
us to investigate Cherry and Jesse to the fullest.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
State Police Agent Paul Chavez took the difficult line of
questioning a mourning Shari.
Speaker 6 (25:08):
Could family gain from the death of the victim? Sure
they kind of there is in insurance policies in place?
Or is there property a place? Is there something to
be gained. That's definitely something that was going to be
looked at.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Investigators asked about Scheri's credit card debt and the fact
that she didn't pay her car loans or even the
rent on her RV, and then there was this. Suri
also told investigators that she had removed eighty thousand dollars
in cash from her parents' home, but she didn't tell
this to police until three days after the murders.
Speaker 6 (25:41):
Jesse and Scherie involvement couldn't be ruled out.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Jesse and Suri told detectives that they were at a
local casino on the night of the murders, but.
Speaker 6 (25:51):
Thought there was some conflicting statements between Shari and Jesse.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
The triple murder that rocked the close knit village of
l Rancho turned friend into enemies, families into suspects.
Speaker 8 (26:04):
At the time, there was a lot of speculation about
her and her husband and whether or not they had
been involved in this crime.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Alex Tomlin worked as a reporter for a local TV station.
Speaker 8 (26:14):
The case was a little bit cold at this time,
and we got a call saying, she's willing to talk
to you.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Shari was on the defensive and wanted to publicly clear
her name, so she scheduled an interview with.
Speaker 8 (26:26):
Alex Scherie offered to show me the home where her
parents had lived and had been murdered.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Alex met Sharie at her home and interviewed her just
steps away from where Lloyd, Dixie and Stephen were murdered.
Speaker 8 (26:40):
I remember distinctly being in the kitchen and we were
talking about her brother, Stephen, and when the autopsy came out,
he had held about a dozen or so blows. I
think about maybe seventeen blows. And I remember her talking
to me about how he was such a big guy,
that he was kind of a teddy bear, but he
was such a big guy.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
And it's such a weird sensation.
Speaker 8 (27:01):
We're standing in someone's kitchen and you're seeing marks on
the floor and you know their body had been there.
And she cried a lot during that interview, understandably, but
really thinking about this young man coming out who didn't
really have the cognitive ability to understand what was happening,
you know, very much still a child kind of in
a man's body, and to have that many blows to him.
(27:25):
My only thought in that moment was he must have
been trying to protect his parents. He must have been
really scared, he must have really fought back, and that
was just so sad. It was so sad to think
about those final moments and what that must have been
like for him, either knowing that he was dying or
(27:46):
knowing that something had happened to his parents. It was
just really traumatic standing there and knowing this is where
he died, and he died in such a violent way.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
With the cameras rolling. Alex asked Shari about the investigation.
Leave they're going through it with tunnel vision, just specifically
focusing on us in instead of.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
The real people or I know it had to be people.
Speaker 5 (28:10):
How could one person do that?
Speaker 8 (28:12):
So it left this very weird sensation in the community
where some people were still speculating other people really believed them.
Why would they do this?
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Shari said her parents had life insurance, but she could
not collect that money since she and her husband were
considered suspects and without that money, Suri said they couldn't
pay their bills and worried their homes would be foreclosed.
Speaker 8 (28:35):
So it was really this sense from her of trying
to advocate for herself, but advocate for her parents and
her brother to say, I need to know who killed them,
and at the same time, I need people to know
it wasn't me. And so that was really what this
conversation centered around. We could lose.
Speaker 5 (28:51):
Everything my dad worked so hard for.
Speaker 8 (28:54):
I actually saw like marks on the floor in different
things like that where this had happened. It was a
really horrific experience.
Speaker 5 (29:01):
Something has to give. I really do have hope. I
know this is going to get solved.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
With tears in her eyes, Shari then looked into the
camera to try to clear her name and her husband
Jesse's as well.
Speaker 8 (29:13):
We had nothing to do with it.
Speaker 5 (29:16):
My god, that was my mom, and Mike added my
little birth.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
It was no secret that the two were being looked
at in the triple murder, But were they that desperate
for money that they would murder their own family? Paul
Shavez investigated, If you.
Speaker 6 (29:32):
Don't investigate Justin and Shirvey to the foolest, you make
a very easy argument for a deference attorney to create
dowt in jury's mind. And that's exactly what have happened
if we had not followed up on all of the
red flags that came up during the course of the investigation.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
But as the investigation dragged on, Shari shifted the blame
back on the state police. She claimed that they botched
the investigation and said casino security guards or even children
could have done a at our job. Against the advice
of law enforcement, Shari even set up a po box
where people could anonymously submit information about who might be responsible.
(30:13):
A year after the murders, the police promised a press
conference to share some breaking news on the case, but
that press conference never happened.
Speaker 6 (30:24):
There was a lot of leads that came in that
were followed off on, but none of them pouned out.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
A billboard even went up along a local highway with
a picture of Lloyd, Dixie and Stephen then offered a
one thousand dollars reward for information, but still there were
no arrests.
Speaker 6 (30:42):
That was the hardest part of this case for me
was knowing that we have not been able to bring
justice for this family.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
And it wasn't just Shari who was pressuring the New
Mexico State Police. Here's TV reporter Alex Tomlin.
Speaker 8 (30:56):
There was an incredible amount of pressure from that small
knit community, but also the surrounding communities and pretty much
all of the state, saying you've got to find who
did this. You could not take a family who more
people said nice things about and have a more awful
thing happen to them. I mean they are bludgeoned to
death with a pickaxe.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Publicly, the police didn't reveal much about other potential suspects,
but behind the scenes it was a different story. Aside
from Shari and her husband Jesse, investigators interviewed numerous people. Then,
sixteen months after the murders, a local twenty three year
old woman named Ashley Roibald got arrested. While she's in custody,
(31:39):
she tells the police something astonishing little gay.
Speaker 5 (31:42):
To call you, Ashley, all right, I understand that you
know some details I did.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Ashley tells detectives that she knows who killed Lloyd Dixie
and Stephen Ortiz.
Speaker 8 (31:55):
It isn't until Ashley Roibald gets in trouble that all
of a sudden she's willing to tell police what happened.
Speaker 5 (32:00):
So let you go ahead and tell me the story.
Speaker 8 (32:01):
It was almost like the answer everyone had been waiting for.
Speaker 6 (32:04):
It.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Ashley Roibal kept quiet for sixteen months. During that time,
Shi juggled losing her mom, dad, and brother well being
looked at by everyone as a suspect, all while she
couldn't collect their life insurance money and was scared she'd
lose everything. But now, sixteen months later, Ashley was finally
(32:26):
ready to talk, and.
Speaker 6 (32:28):
This was the turning point in the investigation.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
But would anyone believe Ashley?
Speaker 8 (32:33):
There's things that kind of don't match up their shifting stories.
Speaker 5 (32:36):
We just want the truth, they say.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
The wheels of justice move very slowly, and in this
case that would prove to be an understatement.
Speaker 8 (32:45):
And I remember thinking, oh God, here we go again.
This poor family has been through the ring error.
Speaker 5 (32:51):
I would have never suspected that it was going to
come down to this.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Find out what Ashley says really happened that night in
part two of The Fun Murders. That's next time on
American Homicide. You can contact the American Homicide team by
emailing us at American Homicide Pod at gmail dot com.
(33:15):
That's American Homicide Pod at gmail dot com. American Homicide
is hosted and written by me Sloane Glass and is
a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group,
in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced
by Nancy Glass and Todd Gambs. The series is also
(33:37):
written and produced by Todd Gambs, with additional writing by
Ben Fetterman and Andrea Gunny. Our associate producer is Kristin Melcurrie.
Our iHeart team is Ali Perry and Jessica Crimecheck. Audio
editing and mixing by Matt Delvecchio, additional editing support from
Nico Ruka Tanner, Robbins, brit Robashow, Dave Saya, and Patrick Walsh.
(34:01):
American Homicide theme song was composed by Oliver Bains of
Noisier Music Library provided by my Music. Follow American Homicide
on Apple Podcasts and please rate and review American Homicide.
Your five star review goes a long way towards helping
others find this show. For more podcasts from iHeart, visit
(34:23):
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts,
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Andrea Gunning
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