Thread: Deportee is linked to 3 cold-case murders

Deportee is linked to 3 cold-case murders

LONG BEACH: DNA leads to arrest of a gang member for 2001, 2002 killings.

By Tracy Manzer, Staff Writer
Posted: 01/07/2011 05:37:35 PM PST

Juan Pablo Camacho was slated for return to Mexico.

LONG BEACH - Long Beach Police have arrested a 33-year-old known gang member, who was awaiting deportation from New York to Mexico, for the murders of three Long Beach-area people dating back to the early 2000s.

Advances in DNA science and extensive work by cold case detectives led to the identification of Juan Pablo Comacho, a convicted felon awaiting deportation to Mexico at a New York prison, late last year.

The documented gang member is suspected in the slaying of three people, including a couple killed in 2001 and a man gunned down in 2002.

Two of the victims were killed in Long Beach and the third was killed in South Gate, said Lisa Massacani, a Long Beach Police Department spokeswoman.

Long Beach homicide detectives began investigating the first murder on Oct. 14, 2001, after police were called to the 6600 block of Rose Avenue at about 6:30 a.m.

There, police found 30- year-old Richard Murillo shot to death in an alley. At approximately 8:45 p.m. that same day, 33-year-old Carrie Waltier was found dead in the road on the 10000 block of Pinehurst Street in South Gate.

Homicide detectives from Long Beach and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department determined the slayings were related and later learned the victims were boyfriend and girlfriend and had been together before their deaths.

The investigation found Murillo was shot and killed at the scene in Long Beach, while Waltier was abducted from that location and shot to death in South Gate before her body was dumped in the street, Massacani said.
Evidence, including DNA, found at both scenes helped detectives link the cases at that time. Eventually all leads were exhausted, however, and a suspect was not identified at that time, Massacaniii said.

"The field of DNA testing has changed and improved significantly since 2001, and a national DNA database has been created and greatly expanded since then," Massacani said. "Continuing advances in DNA testing have allowed for investigators to revisit cold cases and identify suspects, which was not possible before these advances."

In 2008, the Long Beach Police Department was awarded a National Institute of Justice (NIJ) grant to solve cold case homicides, Massacani said.

Working with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, LBPD homicide detectives submitted DNA evidence from the South Gate killing to the Sheriff's Crime Lab.

Utilizing the 2008 grant, the sample was sent to a private lab for testing. That lab notified Long Beach Police in October they had a positive match, which identified Camacho.

Through follow-up investigations, detectives were able to connect the third murder, which occurred on May 19, 2002, to Camacho, Massacani said.

Long Beach Police learned of that slaying after someone reported shots fired in the

300 block of East Esther Street at 8:40 p.m. Officers responding to the call found 32-year- old Richard Graves dead at the scene.

In October, Long Beach investigators were notified of Camacho's match to both crimes. At the time, Camacho was in federal custody in Plattsburgh, N.Y., as a result of being arrested on weapons charges and illegal entry into the United States and he was awaiting a December deportation to Mexico, Massacani said.

Both the LBPD and Sheriff's Department notified federal authorities in New York and obtained an arrest warrant for Camacho for all the killings.

Camacho was detained on the new arrest warrant and extradition procedures were carried out when Long Beach Police Department detectives traveled to New York and brought him back to Long Beach on December 29, Massacani said.

On Wednesday, more than nine years after the 2002 homicide, Camacho will be arraigned in Long Beach Superior Court. The accused is being held without bail in the Los Angeles County Jail on three counts of murder.

The motive for these killings is still under investigation, Massacani said.

"Without the funding provided by the National Institute of Justice Cold Case Federal Grant program, as well as the hard work of the Long Beach Police Department Cold Case unit and the Los County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau, these cases may not have been solved." she said.

And there is still more work to be done, she noted.

Anyone with any information about the Richard Murillo or Richard Graves case is urged to call LBPD Homicide Detective Bryan McMahon at 562-570-7244.

To leave an anonymous tip via phone, text or e-mail, go to www.longbeach.gov/police.

Anyone with information about Carrie Waltier's killing is asked to contact Sheriff's Cold Case Homicide Detective Domenick Recchia at 323-890-5500.

Anonymous tips may be called in to "LA Crime Stoppers" by dialing 800-222-TIPS (8477), or by texting the letters TIPLA plus your tip to CRIMES (274637), or via the website http://lacrimestoppers.org.

tracy.manzer@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1261

http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_17036152

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