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The Execution of Henry Gutierrez Jr · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Gone Cold. Podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised. Christmas Eve twenty fifteen fell on
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: a Thursday in Shirts, Texas, about twenty five miles northeast
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  Speaker 1: of San Antonio. The morning air was cool, but not cold.
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  Speaker 1: The city, with a population hovering around thirty six thousand
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  Speaker 1: at the time, was the kind of place that marked
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  Speaker 1: itself on safety, growth, and stability. It sits along Interstate
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  Speaker 1: thirty five and near FM three thousand and nine, a
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  Speaker 1: corridor lined with steady development and municipal expansion. Shirts is
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  Speaker 1: not a place known for violent crime, and it is
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  Speaker 1: certainly not a place accustomed to execution style killings of
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  Speaker 1: prominent businessmen inside their homes. Seventy one year old Henry
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  Speaker 1: Manuel Gutierrez Junior lived on a property connected to his
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  Speaker 1: company Bear Waste along the twenty two hundred block of
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  Speaker 1: FM three thousand and nine. The location isn't remote, but
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  Speaker 1: it isn't a suburban cul de sac either. It's industrial,
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  Speaker 1: familiar territory for a man whose life had revolved around
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  Speaker 1: waiste hauling routes, municipal contracts, and expansion strategies. On the
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  Speaker 1: morning of December twenty fourth, twenty fifteen, Henry was at
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  Speaker 1: the center of a major financial turning point. He and
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  Speaker 1: his uncle George were in negotiations to sell Bear Waste
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  Speaker 1: to Republic Services, one of the largest waste management corporations
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  Speaker 1: in the United States. The sale would be significant, a
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  Speaker 1: continuation of a business model Henry had employed for decades.
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  Speaker 1: Build a trash company, grow it, sell it. At nine
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  Speaker 1: am that morning, a meeting was scheduled regarding that sale,
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  Speaker 1: but Henry never showed. The absence was noticed immediately. He
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  Speaker 1: had a reputation for being casual about time. He could
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  Speaker 1: run late every once in a while, but missing a
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  Speaker 1: meeting of that magnitude one involving the structured transfer of
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  Speaker 1: a multimillion dollar enterprise was not consistent with his pattern.
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  Speaker 1: Calls were placed to his phone, there was no answer.
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  Speaker 1: Miguel Gutierrez, Henry's son and vice president of operations at
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  Speaker 1: Fair Waste, decided to drive to the house. The property
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  Speaker 1: sat near the yard where the company's trucks were parked.
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  Speaker 1: Employees were already on site. One had arrived around six
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  Speaker 1: thirty am and reported not seeing Henry. As Miguel approached
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  Speaker 1: the residence, he noticed the absence of his father's twenty
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  Speaker 1: thirteen white Ford expedition. Miguel moved toward the front door.
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  Speaker 1: It was a jar. Through a pane of glass, he
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  Speaker 1: could see into the living room. A plaid blanket covered
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  Speaker 1: the upper half of a seated figure. Boots protruded from
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  Speaker 1: the lower edge. Miguel pushed the door open. There was
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  Speaker 1: blood on the floor, shell casings nearby. The blanket remained
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  Speaker 1: in place over his father's head. Henry Gutierrez had been
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  Speaker 1: shot multiple times. Police were called at approximately ten fifty am.
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  Speaker 1: The scene inside the residence presented immediate complexity. Henry had
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  Speaker 1: been seated in the recliner when he was shot. Later
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  Speaker 1: reporting would describe wounds to the head, chest, and leg.
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  Speaker 1: The nature of the shots led investigators to characterize the
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  Speaker 1: killing as execution style. The blanket covering his head had
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  Speaker 1: not been dislodged by movement. It had been placed there
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  Speaker 1: after the fact. Lieutenant Thad Siweki of the Shirt's police
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  Speaker 1: department would later comment that the placement of the blanket
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  Speaker 1: suggested familiarity. In his experience, that kind of gesture covering
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  Speaker 1: a victim's face could indicate the shooter knew the person.
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  Speaker 1: The home showed signs of disturbance. Rooms appeared rummaged through.
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  Speaker 1: It looked as though someone had searched for something, and
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  Speaker 1: several things were missing. Henry's wallet cash that was believed
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  Speaker 1: to have been kept at the house, sometimes in significant
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  Speaker 1: amounts due to business, a distinctive sterling silver ring he
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  Speaker 1: was known to wear regularly, a ring bearing the likeness
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  Speaker 1: of a Native American chief in a war bonnet, several
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  Speaker 1: Christmas gift cards he had purchased to distribute as gifts,
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  Speaker 1: and the Ford Expedition. To understand the potential motives, investigators
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  Speaker 1: began working backwards. Henry Gutierrez was born November twenty fifth,
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  Speaker 1: nineteen forty four, to Henry Y. Gutierrez Senior and Rosie R. Gutierrez.
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  Speaker 1: His family's connection to the waste business began in nineteen
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  Speaker 1: sixty one when his parents launched Gutierrez Disposal in Shirts
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  Speaker 1: His mother drove house to house collecting trash herself. By
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  Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine, when his uncle George joined the company,
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  Speaker 1: expansion accelerated. Within two years, they had forty eight trucks
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  Speaker 1: and a landfill along FM three thousand and nine, Henry
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  Speaker 1: graduated from shirts Sea Below High School and attended Southwest
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  Speaker 1: Texas University in San Marcos on a baseball scholarship. After
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  Speaker 1: his father's death in nineteen eighty two, he assumed control
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  Speaker 1: of the family business. In nineteen eighty five, he sold
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  Speaker 1: it to Waste Management. That sale set a pattern. He
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  Speaker 1: later partnered with a man named Ephraim Gonzales to create
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  Speaker 1: Alamo Waste. That company was sold in the nineteen nineties
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  Speaker 1: to USA Waste for an estimated six or seven million dollars.
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  Speaker 1: Then came Bear Waste, his third major venture. It grew
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  Speaker 1: to operate approximately fifty five trucks daily at one stage,
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  Speaker 1: and eventually employed roughly eighty individuals. The company held contracts
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  Speaker 1: with multiple municipalities, including the city of Shirts and other
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  Speaker 1: surrounding communities. Henry handled political relationships. He attended city council meetings,
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  Speaker 1: he cultivated contracts. Every Christmas Eve, he delivered Tamali's pies, tacos,
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  Speaker 1: and bicycles to city employees. Henry donated gift cards in
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  Speaker 1: fifty and one hundred dollars increments to families in need.
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  Speaker 1: His friendliness and generosity were well known. However, he was
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  Speaker 1: also described as someone who made enemies over the years,
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  Speaker 1: such as the native of business. Perhaps At the time
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  Speaker 1: of his death, Henry's estate was valued at approximately fourteen
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  Speaker 1: point six million dollars, and eight months before his murder,
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  Speaker 1: a lawsuit had been filed against him. On April fifteen,
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  Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, Ephraim Gonzales Senior filed suit claiming a nineteen
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  Speaker 1: ninety nine handshake agreement entitled him to fifty percent of
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  Speaker 1: the eventual sale proceeds of Bare Waste. He alleged that
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  Speaker 1: between nineteen ninety nine and twenty fourteen he had provided
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  Speaker 1: equipment in exchange for that future share. Henry denied such
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  Speaker 1: an agreement existed and filed a counter claim alleging unpaid debt.
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  Speaker 1: The civil case was headed toward trial in Bear County
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  Speaker 1: when Henry was killed. After his death, a confidential settlement
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  Speaker 1: was reached. The sale of Bare Waste to Republic Services proceeded.
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  Speaker 1: As a part of civil outcomes, Gonzales gained control of
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  Speaker 1: the land parcel that included the roadway leading to Henry's residence.
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  Speaker 1: Police would later identify Gonzales as a person of interest,
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  Speaker 1: though he was not publicly named as a suspect. Back
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  Speaker 1: at the crime scene, detectives worked through forensic collection. One
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  Speaker 1: unknown fingerprint was recovered. DNA samples collected inside the residence
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  Speaker 1: matched Henry. Police would later discover there was no immediate
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  Speaker 1: external DNA link. Investigators examined the timeline. Henry had texted
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  Speaker 1: a girlfriend around midnight on December twenty fourth. After that message,
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  Speaker 1: there was no confirmed communication, and employee arrived at a
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  Speaker 1: approximately six thirty am and did not see him outside.
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  Speaker 1: Police theorized the murder likely occurred between midnight and that time,
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  Speaker 1: though earlier public comments suggested a possible time closer to
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  Speaker 1: mid morning. An alarm system had been installed at the
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  Speaker 1: home following a burglary during Thanksgiving while Henry was away.
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  Speaker 1: That alarm was not activated the night of the murder.
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  Speaker 1: Henry's Ford expedition was entered into the system as missing.
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  Speaker 1: It was finally recovered months after the murder in March
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  Speaker 1: of twenty sixteen, when it was found it was parked
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  Speaker 1: at an apartment complex in San Marcos, roughly thirty miles
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  Speaker 1: to the northeast. By that time, investigators were unable to
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  Speaker 1: extract usable forensic evidence from the vehicle. A report surfaced
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  Speaker 1: that an older Hispanic woman had been seen near the suv,
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  Speaker 1: but she has never been identified. Meanwhile, the gift cards
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  Speaker 1: began to surface one hundred and eighty three miles east
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  Speaker 1: in Houston. The three missing gift cards were used days
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  Speaker 1: after the murder. Investigators traced them to individuals who reported
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  Speaker 1: purchasing the cards from a scraggly looking white man outside
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  Speaker 1: a gas station. A composite sketch was developed. The individuals
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  Speaker 1: who used the cards were not considered connected to the homicide.
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  Speaker 1: Police also indicated it was unlikely the man selling the
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  Speaker 1: cards was the actual killer. The fact that only three
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  Speaker 1: of five gift cards were taken from Henry Gutierrez's home
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  Speaker 1: stood out to investigators. It was another detail that didn't
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  Speaker 1: make any sense. Not much seemed to. In the days
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  Speaker 1: following the murder of seventy one year old Henry Gutierrez Junior.
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  Speaker 1: Scrutiny extended to those closest to the man. A change
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  Speaker 1: in his will had removed his son as executor and
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  Speaker 1: reassigned that role to his aunt, Christine, Henry's sister, while
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  Speaker 1: the bulk of his estate passed to his children. Police
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  Speaker 1: informed family members they would be considered persons of interest
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  Speaker 1: until evidence excluded them. Miguel, Henry's son and the person
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  Speaker 1: who found his body cooperated fully with investigators. Girlfriends were
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  Speaker 1: examined and were reportedly out of town. Approximately one hundred
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  Speaker 1: potential witnesses connected to Bear Waste were interviewed. Many employees
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  Speaker 1: had criminal histories complicating the investigative landscape, but no direct
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  Speaker 1: link emerged. Complicating the investigation. Further questions began to surface
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  Speaker 1: publicly about the handling of the case. The crime scene
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  Speaker 1: had been released the same day the body was discovered.
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  Speaker 1: When officers returned three days later, a cleanup crew was
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  Speaker 1: already present. Some local officials expressed concern that additional evidence
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  Speaker 1: may have been compromised. The Texas Rangers were not asked
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  Speaker 1: to assist until approximately nine months after the killing. The
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  Speaker 1: delay was criticized by many in the community. The shirts
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  Speaker 1: police denied investigative missteps and later worked alongside rangers and
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  Speaker 1: federal authorities. By early January twenty sixteen, gators were working
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  Speaker 1: two parallel tracks, physical evidence and motive development. The forensics
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  Speaker 1: path had produced very little one unknown fingerprint, no foreign
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  Speaker 1: DNA inside the home, no useable forensic evidence from the
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  Speaker 1: recovered vehicle. Shell casings were collected at the scene, but
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  Speaker 1: no publicly released ballistic linkage connected them to any individual
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  Speaker 1: or to other crimes. The motive track was more complicated.
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  Speaker 1: Henry Gutierrez was not a private man in a financial sense. However,
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  Speaker 1: his wealth was visible in business footprint, not in flashy displays.
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  Speaker 1: He owned multiple properties and maintained relationships across business, political,
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  Speaker 1: and personal spears. He operated in a field, municipal wastehauling
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  Speaker 1: that intersects directly with city contracts, public budgets, and competitive bidding.
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  Speaker 1: City and county contracts for wastehauling are often multi year
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  Speaker 1: agreements worth millions. They are also political. Securing them requires
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  Speaker 1: attendance at council meetings, negotiation, and relationship cultivation. Henry had
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  Speaker 1: built a reputation for handling that side of the business personally.
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  Speaker 1: His uncle George described him as the one who did
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  Speaker 1: the political stuff. He showed up, he dined with council members,
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  Speaker 1: and he understood leverage. That reputation was an asset but
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  Speaker 1: also a liability. At the time of his death, the
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  Speaker 1: lawsuit filed by Fraying Gonzalez Senior was active and headed
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  Speaker 1: toward trial. If Gonzalez's claim were upheld in court, it
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  Speaker 1: would dramatically affect the financial structure of the sale to
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  Speaker 1: Republic Services. Again, police publicly acknowledged Gonzales as a person
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  Speaker 1: of interest. Investigators could not ignore the timing, But money
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  Speaker 1: disputes were not the only complexity. Henry's social life was
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  Speaker 1: wide ranging. He was described by his son as an
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  Speaker 1: eligible bachelor and kept multiple girlfriends. He texted one shortly
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  Speaker 1: before midnight on December twenty fourth, likely hours before he died.
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  Speaker 1: His relationships were examined. Investigators confirmed those women had alibis
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  Speaker 1: for the time of the killing. Henry was also known
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  Speaker 1: to keep cash at the residence, sometimes significant amounts due
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  Speaker 1: to business receipts. Henry was described by a private investigator
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  Speaker 1: hired by the family as someone who was loose, as
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  Speaker 1: a goose with money. That same investigators said many people
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  Speaker 1: knew where the spare key to the house was hidden.
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  Speaker 1: That detail mattered. The front door had been a jar
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  Speaker 1: when Henry's son Miguel arrived, There were no signs of
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  Speaker 1: forced entry. The alarm system installed after the Thanksgiving burglary
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  Speaker 1: had not been activated. One thing seemed obvious. Either the
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  Speaker 1: killer had access or the killer was let in. On
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  Speaker 1: March tenth, twenty sixteen, when Henry's ford expedition was located
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  Speaker 1: at an apartment complex in San Marcos. Investigator's canvassed that area.
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  Speaker 1: The vehicle had been parked there for weeks, possibly up
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  Speaker 1: to three. No identifiable suspect was linked to the complex.
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  Speaker 1: The delay between the murder and the recovery of the
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  Speaker 1: SUV drew criticism from local officials, who questioned whether a
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  Speaker 1: statewide alert might have produced stronger leads. Shirt's Police declined
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  Speaker 1: to characterize their response timeline as a failure, but the
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: perception of early investigative slowness began to circulate publicly. The
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  Speaker 1: stolen gift cards presented another angle. They were viewed by
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  Speaker 1: some investigators as possibly secondary items passed off quickly after
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  Speaker 1: the crime. The fact that only three were taken, not
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  Speaker 1: all five, continued to trouble detectives. It suggested either haste
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  Speaker 1: or selective removal. The type and nature of the cards
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  Speaker 1: were never expounded upon publicly as investigators worked the case
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  Speaker 1: through twenty sixteen. In twenty seventeen, they interviewed roughly one
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  Speaker 1: one hundred individuals connected to Henry's life and business. Employees
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  Speaker 1: of Bare Waste presented particular difficulty the significant number of
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  Speaker 1: them with criminal histories were reluctant to speak when approached.
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  Speaker 1: That was a natural and expected hurdle, but still difficult.
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  Speaker 1: Municipal politics were examined. Henry had reportedly complained about being
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  Speaker 1: pressured by an official in his service area for money,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: meals and benefits. Authorities stated he chose not to pursue
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  Speaker 1: a formal complaint. That thread remains a mystery, at least publicly.
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  Speaker 1: Henry's estate, valued at approximately fourteen point six million dollars,
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  Speaker 1: passed largely to his children. The will change that removed
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  Speaker 1: his son Miguel as executor was a potential red flag.
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  Speaker 1: Police later stated the family had been fully cooperative. No
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: evidence publicly surfaced linked them to the killing, but the
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: blanket continued to draw investigative attention. Covering a victim's face
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: can be interpreted in several ways, remorse, familiarity, or staging.
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  Speaker 1: Police cautioned that it was not definitive proof of a
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  Speaker 1: personal relationship, but it certainly suggested the possibility, stronger than
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  Speaker 1: if it hadn't been there. It was a behavioral detail,
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  Speaker 1: not a forensic one, but important. Nonetheless, the missing ring
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  Speaker 1: also fueled speculation. The sterling silver ring bearing a Native
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  Speaker 1: American chief's likeness was described by acquaintances as something Henry
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  Speaker 1: war consistently. The private investigator theorized that if the killing
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  Speaker 1: were a professional hit, the ring could have been taken
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  Speaker 1: as a trophy. The house itself was packed with collectibles, rocks, fossils,
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  Speaker 1: artifacts gathered from Henry's travels. The clutter made it difficult
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  Speaker 1: to inventory precisely what may have been missing beyond the
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: immediate obvious items. Investigators also considered whether the scene had
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: been staged to resemble a burglary. The ransacked appearance could
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: have been genuine or manufactured. No conclusive evidence confirmed the theory.
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  Speaker 1: In twenty eighteen, the reward for information was increased to
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: seventy five thousand dollars, one of the largest in Texas.
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  Speaker 1: Despite media coverage, including televised segments announcing it, no arrest followed.
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  Speaker 1: The case continued under rotating investigative leadership within the shirts
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: Police Department. Lieutenant Soilwecki became the third local investigator to
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  Speaker 1: oversee it. He stated publicly that several trails were being pursued,
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  Speaker 1: but declined to identify specific targets to avoid compromising the investigation.
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  Speaker 1: In December twenty twenty two, nearly seven years after the homicide,
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  Speaker 1: the department formally designated the murder as a cold case.
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  Speaker 1: Chief James Lowry expressed that witnesses would be recalled and
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  Speaker 1: that the case would undergo in depth review. Miguel Gutierrez
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  Speaker 1: and his sister Adrian stood before cameras and asked for
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  Speaker 1: new tips. They stated that even the smallest bit of
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  Speaker 1: information could reignite the investigation. That year, SHIRTS Police's newly
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  Speaker 1: formed cold case team began revisiting evidence that included reviewing
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: forensic material, re examining interview transcripts, and reassessing persons of interest.
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  Speaker 1: Police stated that no one had been eliminated. The renewed investigation,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: it appears, went nowhere. On December nineteenth, twenty twenty four,
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: SHIRTS Police announced they had developed a new person of
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: interest through continued cold case investigation. They did not release
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: the identity, but stated investigative efforts were shifting in that direction.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: By December twenty twenty five, ten years after the killing,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: the reward remained active. Police stated they continued collaborating with
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: the Texas Rangers, the FBI, and other federal partners. What
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: remained are intersecting threads. A multimillion dollar business sale underway
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  Speaker 1: and an active civil lawsuit alleging entitlement to have the proceeds,
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  Speaker 1: a recent burglary at the home, an alarm system left off,
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  Speaker 1: a missing vehicle found weeks later without usable evidence, gift
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  Speaker 1: cards sold quickly by an unidentified man, and a ring
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  Speaker 1: that vanished, a blanket placed over Henry's face and body,
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  Speaker 1: employees with criminal histories, municipal tensions, a delayed involvement of
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: state investigators, and a crime scene released within hours. Henry
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  Speaker 1: Gutierrez was found seated in his living room, shot to death,
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  Speaker 1: covered by a blanket on Christmas Eve twenty fifteen. There
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: has never been a clear forensic link tying any one
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: individual to the trigger. More than ten years later, the
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: case remains open. If you have any information about the
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: murder of Henry Manuel Gutierrez, Junior, please call the Guadaloupe
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: County Crime Stoppers at eight seven seven four zero three
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: eight four seven seven. If you'd like to join Gon
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: Cold's mission to shine a light on unsolved homicides and
• 25:23
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