A Minute and a Half – The Murder of Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Barraza

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
You're listening to Human Wreckage, where we examine

(00:02):
the destructive forces that turnordinary days into irreparable
tragedy.
I'm your host, Thomas, andtoday's story begins on a quiet
street in a Houston suburb, aplace where nothing ever seemed
out of the ordinary.
Neighbors wave from driveways.
Families walk dogs at sunset,and safety felt almost like a
guarantee.
But on the morning of Januarytwenty fifth, twenty nineteen,

(00:24):
that illusion was shattered injust a minute and a half.
A young woman beloved, gentle,generous, was gunned down in
front of her own home as she setup for a simple garage sale.
Her name was Elizabeth Barraza.
Most knew her as Liz.
What happened to her stunned thecommunity, baffled
investigators, and left a trailof questions that remain
agonizingly unanswered.

(00:45):
This is her story.
To know the meaning of thisloss, we have to start with the
life that came before it.

(01:35):
She married her high schoolsweetheart, Sergio Barraza, and
together they built a life fullof love, laughter, and shared
passions.
One of their biggest sharedloves, Star Wars.
Not just as fans, but as activemembers of fan organizations,
especially charity-orientedgroups like the 500 First
Legion, where they dressed inmeticulously crafted costumes,

(01:56):
stormtroopers, Jedi, iconiccharacters, and visited
hospitals, charity events, andchildren's organizations.
It wasn't just cosplay.
For Liz, this was service, a wayto contribute something
meaningful.
She worked in HR on the nightshift for a logistics company.
Friends described her aspatient, organized, and deeply
kind the kind of person whoremembered birthdays, asked

(02:18):
about your life, and actuallylistened.
By the start of twenty nineteen,she and Sergio were saving for a
fifth wedding anniversary tripto Disney World.
They planned to leave just a fewdays after her murder.
Life felt full, secure, ontrack.
Friday, january twenty fifth,twenty nineteen, began like any
other day.
It was early around six fortyfive AM, still the kind of dim,

(02:41):
gray morning where mostneighbors were asleep or just
starting coffee.
Liz had decided to host a garagesale to clear out space and
raise a little extra money forthe Disney trip.
Sergio helped her carry itemsinto the driveway.
Moments later he left for work.
Everything that followedhappened within an incredibly
short timeline, less than twominutes.

(03:01):
Security cameras from theneighborhood captured a truck
driving slowly through thesubdivision.
A Nissan frontier, dark colored,with distinctive features
investigators would lateranalyze frame by frame.
The truck passes their homeonce, loops around the block,
then returns.
It pulls up to the curb in frontof the Barraza home, outsteps

(03:22):
the shooter.
The figure is small in stature,possibly a woman, though heavily
clothed and concealed under whatlooks like a long wig or head
covering.
Liz smiles.
She appears to greet them.
Maybe she thinks it's an earlycustomer.
There's no sign of panic.
No sign she recognizes danger.
The shooter approaches, thenlifts a gun.

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Four shots fire.
Close range.
Liz collapses onto the driveway.
The killer calmly walks back tothe truck, gets in, and drives
away.
The entire attack lasts eighteenseconds.
Eighteen seconds that changedeverything.
A neighbor hears the gunfire andrushes out.
He sees Liz lying face down andcalls nine.
One point one.

(04:03):
The audio from that call ishaunting an urgent voice trying
to make sense of somethingsenseless.
By the time first respondersarrive, Liz is still alive
barely.
They rush her to the hospital,but the injuries are
catastrophic.
She is pronounced dead not longafter.
The community reels.
Word spreads through family,friends, coworkers, charity

(04:23):
groups.
Sergio arrives home to yellowtape, cruisers, and the news no
husband should ever hear.
For investigators, the clockbegins immediately, and so does
the confusion.
At the heart of this case, thething that has kept both
armchair detectives and homicideexperts up at night is the
surveillance footage.
It shows everything.
And explains nothing.

(04:44):
Let's break it down.
The truck.
A dark colored Nissan FrontierPro 4X crew cab with unique tire
rims and a bed cover.
The Pro 4X model is notextremely common, but not rare
enough to immediately single outa suspect.
The driver's behavior.
The truck circles theneighborhood before the attack.
Slowly, deliberately, not lost.

(05:07):
This is a purposeful movement.
The shooter.
Much debate surrounds theiridentity.
Short, slight build.
Clothing that seems deliberatelydistracting, almost
costume-like.
Was it a disguise?
Almost certainly.
The interaction.
Liz appears comfortable at leastfor a second.
She doesn't step back.
She doesn't raise her hands.

(05:27):
She doesn't run.
This suggests one of twopossibilities.
She knew the person, or theperson approached in a way that
seemed harmless.
But what stands out most is thecold efficiency.
The shooter fires four timeswith control, then leaves
without rushing.
This wasn't panic.
This wasn't chaos.
It was an execution.
As investigators dig into Liz'slife, one thing becomes clear

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quickly.
There's no obvious reason forsomeone to want her dead.
No affairs, no debts, nocriminal involvement, no secret
life.
She was, by all accounts, thelast person anyone would target.
So then why?
Many believe Liz was murdered bysomeone with a personal grudge,
not a random attacker.
The timing is too precise.

(06:11):
The shooter arrived exactly whenshe was alone, within minutes of
Sergio leaving.
But who would hate Liz enough todo this?
There has never been a clearanswer.
Could the killer have thoughtLiz was someone else?
Possibly, but unlikely.
The shooter drives straight tothat house, that driveway, that
person.
Nothing in the footage suggestsconfusion.
Some have speculated aboutinterpersonal drama within

(06:34):
charity costuming circles.
Personality conflicts, disputes,jealousies, but nothing
uncovered by police evervalidated this theory publicly.
Another theory is that theintended target was not Liz but
the husband.
Personal or romantic rivalry isa common motive in homicide, but
again, no evidence has emergedto support this theory.

(06:54):
The Harris County Sheriff'sOffice took the case seriously
from the start.
They released surveillancefootage to the public relatively
early, hoping someone wouldrecognize the truck or the
shooter's gate.
The response was overwhelming.
Tips flooded in.
Clips went viral.
True crime communities dissectedevery frame, but leads fizzled.

(07:14):
Nothing concrete materialized.
One of the challengesinvestigators faced was the
professionalism of the attack.
The shooter left no evidence onthe scene, no weapon, no
casings, no footprints.
They wore heavy clothes despitethe mild weather, and their face
remained entirely hidden.
Everything about the crime wasdesigned to prevent
identification.
For Liz's parents Bob andRosemary, the grief is

(07:37):
indescribable.
They became vocal advocates forjustice, speaking at press
conferences, organizingcommunity events, and ensuring
that their daughter's story wasnever forgotten.
Sergio, too, mourned deeply.
Their marriage, by all accounts,was loving and stable, but the
aftermath of violent loss oftenfractures rather than binds.
The pain, the pressure, thesuspicion from internet sleuths,

(08:00):
the media scrutiny, all of ittook its toll.
Over time they separated.
It's important to emphasizethis.
There is no public evidenceimplicating him in the crime,
and he has not been named assuspect by law enforcement.
But in tragic cases like this,families often break under the
weight of trauma.
The real enemy is the killerstill unidentified.
If we pull back and look at thetimeline, the entire crime from

(08:24):
the killer's arrival to theirescape takes about ninety
seconds, ninety seconds in aquiet neighborhood, ninety
seconds that should have beenpeaceful.
Ninety seconds that turned intoviolence.
When people hear this case, theyask, why didn't anyone else see?
Why didn't more cameras capturethe truck?
Why didn't the shooter rush?
But this is what makes the crimeso chilling.

(08:44):
The killer didn't need to rush.
They were confident, prepared,unhurried.
That level of calm can mean manythings, but one possibility is
expertise someone who had eitherdone this before or had planned
meticulously for the moment.
Liz's murder received local andnational coverage, but as months
passed without answers, the caserisked growing cold.

(09:05):
Her parents fought hard to keepit alive.
The arrest gave hope.
It suggested police knew morethan they'd ever revealed
publicly.
But hope is not closure not yet.
Today, the neighborhood whereLiz died has moved on invisible
ways, new families, new cars,holiday decorations.
But the driveway where she fellwill never feel entirely normal

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again.
Friends in the Star Wars charitycommunity still speak her name
with reverence.
They hold memorial events.
They honor her service bycontinuing the work she loved.
Her parents keep her memoryalive with the grace and
determination of people whorefuse to let their daughter's
life be reduced to a footnote inan unsolved crime.
Before we end, let's return tothe heart of this story.

(09:47):
Liz was not defined by herdeath, she was defined by her
compassion, her love for herhusband and family, her joy in
bringing smiles to childrenthrough costuming, her laughter
with friends at conventions andcharity events, her desire to
make life, even in small ways,better for others.
Her murder is haunting, but herlife was beautiful.

(10:08):
That's what the killer tried totake away.
That's what we refused to letthem erase.
Someone out there knows whopulled the trigger in those
early morning hours of januarytwenty fifth, twenty nineteen.
Someone recognizes the gate, thetruck, the clothing, the way the
figure moves.
Someone has heard somethingboastful, whispered, accidental.
If you know anything, no matterhow small, contact the Harris

(10:30):
County Sheriff's Office or CrimeStoppers Houston.
For Liz.
For her family.
For a community that still waitsfor justice.
You've been listening to humanwreckage.
Stay safe, take care of eachother, and remember, even in the
darker stories, what mattersmost is the human light we
refuse to lose.