Borderland Crimes

Dante Santoni was brutally murdered, days after celebrating his third birthday. He, his mother Connie Villa, 28, along with Villa's longtime partner and Dante's father, Francisco Santoni, 59, were found stabbed to death on Aug. 11, 1994 in their east El Paso home.

But it wasn't until 2022 when El Paso police announced they had arrested a suspect responsible for this heinous act. Arturo Ortega Garcia was extradited from Mexico and h...

The November 5, 2024 election could change who leads the prosecution of the Aug. 3 Cielo Vista Walmart shooting trial.

As the Borderland marks the fifth anniversary of the deadliest mass shooting in El Paso's history, we are nowhere near the start of the state trial for the man who claimed responsibility for the massacre in a federal court last year.

The lack of a definitive trial date for the shooter m...

An El Paso girl has tried to move past the sexual assault she endured when she was only 5 years old. The girl is now 17, locked in the grinding wheels of the justice system. Edward Alvarado is facing multiple charges of continuous sex abuse of a child, and has been in jail since 2016 awaiting a jury trial. ABC-7's Stephanie Valle investigates what is to blame for the delay.

Listen to Borderland Crimes episode 12 for more background...

On May 17, 2024, three murder suspects who all had once faced a capital murder charge formally accepted their sentences as part of a plea agreement.

Adam Acosta, Tristan Chilton, and Brandon Olsen pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of murder in the death of Tyler Croke, 23.

In 2017, Croke was ambushed in a friend's East El Paso apartment while showering, and was stabbed repeatedly during an attempted robbery sparked over drugs.

Seve...

Kimberly Esparza was walking home with her husband after watching a football game at a bar Sunday night when she was hit by a car and killed. The driver left the scene, and Esparza, a 32-year-old mother of two, died on the street.

More than 12 years after her death, Esparza's oldest daughter is trying to get to the bottom of what happened. She not only wants the driver to come forward, but she also questions the police report that ...

Jennifer Ann Crecente, 18, was a high school senior and preparing to graduate with honors. On Feb. 15, 2006, she was shot to death by a former boyfriend. Friends and family knew he was controlling, manipulative and later, learned about how he was verbally abusive.

Despite having a felony criminal history and evidence showing he planned the shooting, Justin Crabbe was granted a plea deal of 35 years behind bars. His first parole hea...

El Pasoan Maria Luisa Corral was found dead on April 29, 2005.

The 20-year-old had been beaten and strangled; her lifeless body was shoved inside a bedroom closet of the Lower Valley home belonging to the mother of Corral's boyfriend, 19-year-old Richard Flores. 

Flores had thrown himself a birthday party at the house the night before, and was nowhere to be found. 

With a history of violence between the couple, El Paso polic...

ABC-7 anchor and Borderland Crimes podcast producer Stephanie Valle served as a media witness to an execution in Huntsville, TX.

On Dec. 4, 2001, the man behind a chilling crime that stunned the El Paso community was arrested. David Renteria was charged with capital murder in the death of Alexandra Flores, 5, who had gone missing more than two weeks earlier from the Lower Valley Walmart.

Renteria was ultimately convicted and senten...

At long last, there is a conclusion in the case centered around a deadly shooting outside an east El Paso bar in the early morning hours of Jan. 29, 2017. The suspected shooter, Moises Galvan, was arrested at the scene. Galvan was accused of murdering RJ Franco, 22, and gravely wounding Franco's friend, David Ortega.

Galvan claimed the shooting happened in self-defense.

It took nearly 7 years, two trials -- one of those, a mis...

Sophia Martinez, 18, headed out to a blind date on Friday, March 10, 2000. But she never made it to the dance club in downtown El Paso. Sophia’s body was found in the desert just north of the city limits the following day; she had been shot numerous times. The only clue to what happened was a grainy ATM surveillance video showing someone shooting her while she pulled cash. The man in a black beanie then climbed into her car and for...

The peace and quiet in an affluent, historic Central El Paso neighborhood was shattered by gunfire during a violent attack in Nov. 2020. Georgette Kaufmann, a respected state attorney and beloved mother and wife, was killed. Her husband Daniel was shot, but survived. The gunman escaped into the night, not to be found for almost a year. The suspect’s alleged motive leads investigators – and many in the community – to believe he targ...

The date between Erika Gaytan and Ricardo Marquez to a concert ended with Gaytan not returning home. Her family immediately believed something terrible happened to the 29-year-old woman; her mother said there was no way she would abandon her 7-year-old son. Continuous searches throughout El Paso – including in the sprawling desert east of the city – did not yield her remains. Despite her body not being found and a cause of death un...

An Army vet who survived combat in Afghanistan was murdered in El Paso.  Tyler Croke was in the shower at a friend’s apartment when he was ambushed, held at gunpoint, then brutally killed.

A total of five people – some of them soldiers – were arrested and charged with Tyler’s murder. El Paso police investigators said they had wanted to rob Tyler of the drugs he had been selling.

And five years later, only two suspects have been sen...

In this special episode of Borderland Crimes, ABC-7 talks with one of the survivors of the massacre at Las Cruces Bowl on the 32nd anniversary of the crime.

Ida Holguin recounts the morning two men held her and six others at gunpoint, shooting them and leaving them for dead. Three of the five who died were children.

If you have information in the case, you can call Las Cruces Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS.

For a full retelling o...

RJ Franco was shot to death outside of a bar in east El Paso on Jan. 29, 2017. The moments leading up to the shooting, as well as the shooting itself, were caught on surveillance camera and the suspect was arrested at the scene. The suspect, Moises Galvan, told police he shot Franco in self-defense. Nearly 5 years after the shooting, Galvan remains in jail as both he and Franco’s parents await justice. There was a mistrial in 2019,...

A little girl got separated from her family during a holiday shopping trip to a busy retail store and seemed to vanish into thin air. Dread settled in for her family and the entire community once surveillance camera video emerged, showing the 5-year-old girl walking out of the store with an unknown man. The girl was found dead the following morning. It’s a case that traumatized a community and reminded parents that danger really ca...

The murder of Robert Rocha, 43, has remained unsolved for nearly three decades. The retired U.S. Navy veteran and father of three daughters was found shot to death at Mesilla Dam outside Las Cruces, NM, on June 28, 1994. The Dona Ana County Sheriff's detectives still haven't arrested and charged anyone with the crime. But Rocha's daughter thinks someone who was once close to her father -- and is well known by the entire family -- h...

When Gloria Marmolejo, a 54-year-old mom and grandmother, was found dead in the southern New Mexico desert in the summer of 2009, her family pleaded for the community’s help to find whoever murdered her. But investigators with the El Paso Police Department believed her son, David, was the killer -- and they learned he was hiding other secrets big enough to destroy his family.

If you are in a violent relationship or someone you know...