http://www.tdn.com/articles/2006/01/29/ ... news09.txt

Murder suspect remains at large
By Leslie Slape and Evan caldwell
Jan 29, 2006 - 12:05:13 am PST

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
July 3, 2005: a day of sunshine, family picnics, live music, recreational sports --- and Longview's second murder in as many days.

Eduardo Farfan Argica, 33, was shot to death at Roy Morse Park, where he had been watching a soccer game.

Seven months later, the shooting suspect -- Daniel Gomez Pimentel, 25 -- remains at large and the trail is growing colder. The police investigation has revealed two possible motives: revenge or drugs.

Meanwhile, some in the local Latino community are scared to talk about the case for fear of retaliation, and they hope Pimentel is caught soon.


The known facts

Both Pimentel and the victim, Arciga, come from Puruaran, a small town in the state of Michoacan, Mexico.

Both have lived in the local area off and on for many years and maintained low profiles.

Both were connected to the Puruaran soccer team --- Pimentel, briefly, as a player, and Arciga as a fan.

Can you help?
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Daniel Gomez Pimentel or who has information about the July 3 shooting of Eduardo Farfan Arciga at Roy Morse Park is encouraged to call Longview Police Detective Doug Kazensky at 442-5825.


Both men are illegal aliens who were deported to Mexico after felony convictions: Pimentel in 2001 for cocaine-trafficking, and Arciga in 2004 for residential burglary (domestic violence) when he lived in Vancouver.

Michoacan is a major source of Mexican immigrants to the United States, and many of these immigrants return to Mexico for the winter.

Michoacan is also, according to state narcotics investigators, a major center for Mexican cartels that have been involved in smuggling black tar heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana and cocaine into the Northwest for decades.

Violence linked to the Mexican drug cartels led to the deaths of more than 1,500 people in Mexico in 2005.


Day of the shooting

Some of the only other details known are from the day of the shooting, shortly after 2:30 p.m., when Pimentel ran through a crowd of about 200 fans and players attending a Spanish Soccer League tournament at Longview's Roy Morse Park.

Eduardo Farfan Arciga of Vancouver, a former Kelso resident, stood under a tree on the south side of the park watching a match between Estrella de America and Puruaran.

Witnesses told police that Pimentel stopped a few yards away from the soccer field, raised his handgun and fired at Arciga, 33, who died about an hour later at St. John Medical Center of multiple gunshot wounds to the chest. Police have not released how many shots were fired.

The shooter jumped into the passenger side of a brown Honda Accord. Longview police, who had been at the station working on a homicide case from the previous day, arrived at the park as crowds were still fleeing. A patrol sergeant took off after the Accord but failed to catch it.

The car was found abandoned near Coal Creek and Niemi roads later that day. A man in the 6200 block of Ocean Beach Highway, about a half-mile past Coal Creek Road, reported hearing "rustling in the brush" about 10:30 p.m. that night. The next morning, he found a driver's license with Pimentel's name. He gave it to a neighbor, who turned it over to police.

Police checked 614 1/2 N. First Avenue in Kelso -- the address listed on the driver's license -- but did not locate Pimentel. Residents who have lived at the apartment complex since it was remodeled in late 2000 said they were not aware of Pimentel living there.

The driver of the getaway car has not been identified.


Competing theories

Longview police detective Doug Kazensky said he has interviewed "a large number of witnesses" and follows up on the case weekly. He said people have offered "competing theories" as a motive for the killing: revenge or drugs.

"We have our guesses, but people are telling us different things," he said. "Until we have him in custody and can ask, we won't know."

Local Latinos, speaking with a reporter on condition of anonymity, said they've heard that Pimentel shot Arciga because Arciga shot and killed Pimentel's father in Mexico.

Some members of the Latino community have speculated that if Pimentel did return to Puruaran, Arciga's family would take revenge on him. Kazensky prefers not to guess.

"I hate to speculate what they would do to him, for him, with him or against him," he said.

The drug angle as a motive is supported primarily by Pimentel's record --- the 2001 cocaine-trafficking arrest --- and by speculation that Arciga also was involved in the drug trade.

Narcotics agents said they have heard both names mentioned to undercover operatives for many years, although Arciga has never been arrested in Southwest Washington in connection with drugs.

"I've had people tell me, 'No no no,' " as to whether Arciga was involved with drugs, Kazensky said. "Others tell me 'Yeah, he had been a little bit here, a little bit there.' I can't know until I talk to all parties involved."


The suspect

Daniel Gomez Pimentel --- also known as Jose Pimentel, Juan Garcia Pimentel, Checko and "el Toro" (the bull) --- didn't call much attention to himself when he lived at 1104 10th Avenue, Apt. 6, in Longview.

"He was very quiet. We never had any problems with him," said Sheila Soto, a local property manager who ran the complex. "He actually complained about other people sometimes being too loud."

Soto's records show he lived there from May 2004 to February 2005 under the name Jose Pimentel, then moved without leaving a forwarding address. Police said he also lived in Portland on and off.

Under the name Juan Garcia Pimentel, he was arrested in 2001 by the Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Narcotics Task Force as part of an investigation into cocaine delivery and was deported to Mexico. It's unknown when he returned.

Police say that in addition to changing his name, Pimentel is skilled at altering his appearance. Police said that he is able to look like a different person by gaining or losing weight and wearing his hair differently.

Because of this, authorities did not want to release a photo to the newspaper. The photo of Pimentel accompanying this story was found on the U.S. Marshals "most wanted" Web site.


The victim

Shortly after the shooting, a longtime friend of Eduardo Farfan Arciga described him as a carefree man who had many friends in the area and was known by the nickname "la Rana," or "the frog."

"He never said a bad word to me and was just a really nice guy," Mauro Cruz, director of the Spanish Soccer League, said at the time. He said the victim was a regular spectator at the games.

Arciga divided his time between Vancouver and Kelso and was living in Vancouver at the time of his death, Kazensky said.

He had children, but Kazensky said he didn't know how many. He said that Arciga had an ex-wife in Vancouver.

Clark County records show that under the name Eduardo Arciga Farfan, he pleaded guilty in September to a July 4, 2004, charge of residential burglary (domestic violence).

Kazensky said Arciga was deported to Mexico following his conviction in September. He returned several months before the shooting, he said.

"My understanding is he loved his kids and wanted to be with his kids in Vancouver," Kazensky said.


The Michoacan connection

Both Pimentel and Arciga come from Puruaran, a town of about 15,000 people in the state of Michoacan in the mountains of central Mexico, about 50 miles away from Morelia, the capital.

The state of nearly 4 million people features breathtaking scenery and beautiful colonial architecture. But Michoacan (mih-chu-a-KAN), the seventh-most populated of Mexico's 32 states, is primarily known in the United States as one of its main sources of Mexican immigrants. According to Central Washington University's Study Abroad Program, 60 percent of Michoacan's immigrant population settles in the Pacific Northwest.

More recently, Michoacan has become notorious for its rising death toll from organized crime. The El Universal newspaper in Mexico City reported that rival cartels battling for control of the lucrative narcotics trade killed 295 people in Michoacan in 2005, the third-highest death toll in the Mexican states.

Puruaran's economy suffered after the closure of six sugar mills in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Consequences of unemployment included a rise in crime, including drug addiction and trafficking.

Members of the local Latino community said there are rival groups from Michoacan in Southwest Washington, and sometimes they clash over drugs.

Kazensky said that agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration tell him that Puruaran is " 'a very, very rough place.' It's a common place for people that they've run across."

However, not all Latino immigrants get in trouble with the law. Police say that many of the local Latinos are hard-working, honest people who are used to living conservatively.


Local Latinos fearful

Soto and others in the Latino community said they would like to see Pimentel caught and think the police should be devoting more time to it. Many said they would like to see police involved more in the Latino community.

Although police have regularly issued pleas for witnesses to come forward, some in the Latino community said they are scared to talk about the murder for fear of retaliation.

"There's a real fear of retribution," Kazensky said. "That's part of our hindrance ... It's something we have to work through and work with them. I certainly understand that concern."

The Daily News interviewed a dozen members of the Latino community. Some live in a Longview apartment building where Pimentel used to live and others live on Eighth Avenue in Longview, where a man who may have been his cousin formerly lived.

None of them had been questioned by police. However, no one said they knew or had seen Pimentel, Arciga or Pimentel's suspected accomplice, the driver of the getaway car.

Kazensky said he still wants to talk to potential witnesses who haven't come forward.


A lot of hurdles

Kazensky said the investigation is hampered by language, cultural differences and -- if Pimentel returned to Mexico -- the problem of dealing with another government.

"There's a lot of hurdles, but it's not impossible," he said.

Another challenge is that many of the witnesses might be in Mexico right now. The majority of the witnesses are from Puruaran. Traditionally, most Mexican immigrants spend the winter in Mexico and return in March or April.

Kazensky hasn't received any definite information on Pimentel's location. Reports have placed Pimentel in California, Chicago or even lying low in Cowlitz County.

"We get information that he's here, he's there, he's on Mars," Kazensky said. "It's just a matter of time before we locate him."

Kazensky said has discussed with the U.S. Marshals Office what to do if Pimentel is hiding in Mexico.

"If he has gone over the border, there are some hurdles and it will take even longer to find him," he said. "It would take for him to be in custody by Mexican authorities and them willing to turn him over to us."

He said that despite an extradition treaty, "It takes over a year to make that happen and the success rate is very low."


Tips still coming in, slowly

Although work on the case has slowed down since the initial investigation -- which involved the entire detective division in the weeks immediately after the shooting -- Kazensky said he continues to follow up every lead that comes in.

"It's not going away," he said. "We're still working on it. We're still investigating."

That includes interviewing Cowlitz County Jail inmates who have a possible connection to either man, he said.

"Every time we get wind of a name that may be associated, we look at every angle," Kazensky said. "Every tip I get I look at it, try to do as much follow up as well as I can. So far they haven't panned out, but eventually we'll catch up with Mr. Pimentel."