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Massacre at Loma Alta: The Arellano Family Murders · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

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About two hundred miles west of the dead center of San Antonio, Texas,
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lies the tiny, sleepy town of Loma Alta in Valverde County. It's
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the type of place where your dad might crack the joke don't blink or you'll
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miss it while traveling through, although in the case of Loma Alta, it
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would be more of a warning than equip The town was formed in nineteen o
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six by brothers ray Len and Emery Davis, who sought to take advantage of
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the area's wide open space and try their hand at ranching while raising their families
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there. Loma Alta never caught on as a destination spot for homesteaders. The
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population was only thirty as of the two thousand census, and a small gas
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station slash convenience store is the only obvious attraction you'll find there. But if
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you look close enough while driving through Loma Alta on US Highway to seventy seven,
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you'll also find a memorial dedicated to five people who died there. It
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was erected by Peter Gomez Senior, a resident of Sonora, Texas, a
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small town about thirty five miles north of where the monument sits. Besides the
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large stone memorial that resembles a tombstone, passers by who don't know any better
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might think that the site is honoring the victims of a terrible car crash.
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In reality, though, the site represents the memory of an event that was
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so unimaginably horrific and gruesome it has haunted Peter Gomez since nineteen sixty eight.
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The memorial marks the site of the massacre of five people and the attempted slang
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of a six, a place where an entire family fell victim to the senseless
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brutality of a merciless devil whose evil seems incomprehensible to any whose character contains even
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the smallest iota of humanity. On Tuesday April sixteenth, nineteen sixty eight,
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one Manuel Ariano Senior heard the thumping of a flat tire as he drove his
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blue four door nineteen fifty eight Buick Special on a desolate stretch of US Highway
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two seventy seven. One and his family were just forty miles north of the
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Mexican border, where he and his wife Monica, twenty nine and twenty four
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years old, respectively, had loaded their three children into the vehicle in Via
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de Fuente, a town not too far south of Padras Negras, which is
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directly across the Rio Grande River from Eagle Pass, Texas. After one stopped
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to change the tire, a couple highway workers checked to make sure everything was
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okay, and since it was just a flat and the men didn't have the
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appropriate tools anyway, one waved the workers on. He switched the tire out
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with a spare, and they were back on the road in no time.
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It was about six pm. The family continued their way down the lonesome road
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to visit one sister in San Angelo, Texas, about one hundred and ninety
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miles away from their home in Via de Fuente. She was with child.
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His other sister, twenty one year old Rosa Aliyah, who also lived in
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Via de Fuente, accompanied her brother, sister in law, niece, and
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nephews. The children, five year old Juan Manuel Junior, who was called
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Manuel by the family, two an a half year old Letitia, and fifteen
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month old Eduardo, were eager to make the trek to see their expecting aunt
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and uncle. The Arianos had plenty of relatives in Texas, and in fact,
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although he lived in Mexico, Juan was an American citizen born in the
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West Texas town of Kermit. One of Juan's brothers in law, Raymond Garza,
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was in the running for Zavala County Sheriff, and Juan's fifty eight Buick
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promoted the campaign with Garza for sheriff bumper stickers. The car also sported Texas
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license plates. The United States was far more familiar to Juan than Mexico.
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Not only was he born in Texas, but Juan was also a migrant worker
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and had done plenty of work as a farmhand up in Iowa, where he'd
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spend his summers at a turkey processing plant. His first language was perhaps hard
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to gauge, the man spoke both Spanish and English fluently. The trip to
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see family was normal, though a few issues arose during their journey. About
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five miles up the road from where Jan had just fixed the buick's flat tire,
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another tire on the car went flat. The spare had already been used,
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of course, so the family waited around, hoping someone passing through would
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stop and give them a lift to the nearest auto garage to get the tire
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patched up. Someone did finally come upon them, a man in a pickup
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who gave the Ariano family a ride thirty miles up Highway two seventy seven to
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Sonora. As they waited for the tire to be fixed, Juan and five
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year old men well hiked it over to a near by restaurant on foot and
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picked up some burgers. After the tire was repaired, the good samaritan who
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had picked them up had the family pile back into his vehicle so he could
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take them back to the abandoned buick. It was approximately ten pm the following
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morning, Wednesday, April seventeenth, nineteen sixty eight. A hand employed by
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the wr Lee Whitehead Ranch noticed what appeared to be blood extending from one of
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the ranch's gates into the brush. He followed the trail, which appeared to
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be leading to a large tree that stood nearby. The ranch hand stopped dead
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in his tracks as he glanced down in a tall patch of weeds at a
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boy lying face down, covered in blood, dirt and gravel. The boy
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who's back appeared ripped with slash wounds, begged the man for water. The
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boy was five year old Juan Manuel Ariano by this time, one of the
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highway workers who'd offered the family assistance the first time that got a flat.
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A big husky man named J. T. Quigg was on the scene.
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He'd come quickly after hearing a ranch worker had found someone who might be sick.
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Quigg had no idea what he was in for, but scrambled defined the
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little boy a canteen with some water. Police arrived on the scene soon thereafter
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and began combing the area inside the barbed wire fence that ran alongside US Highway
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two seventy seven, about seventy five yards from the road and close to a
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water trough in a pasture. There they found the body of a man,
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one senior. Not far from one's body laid a baby boy, fifteen month
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old Eduardo, who was also deceased. In the gravel and brush where the
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rattlesnakes slither and armadillo's lay low to scavenge for food, A small girl was
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found two an a half year old Latitia. She was severely injured but still
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alive. Ambulances rushed Latitia and Manuel away to a nearby hospital about a mile
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south of where One's body was found in a ditch around thirty yards off Highway
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two seventy seven, the body of his wife, Monica was found. As
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detectives further inspected the immediate area surrounding Monica, they found clothes torn and scattered,
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and One's sister, Rosa's naked and lifeless body lying in the brush and
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weeds a few feet away. Valverde County Sheriff's Office investigators had never seen anything
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like this before. They were in shock and overcome by emotion at the site
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of the massacre, and of course they were appalled and angry that children won
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a helpless fifteen month old baby were included in the remorseless attack. A depraved
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devil had orchestrated This looks like the work of a maniac. Whoever did it
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had to be crazy. Shaff Hermann Richter remarked in disbelief. J. T.
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Quigg, the tall, burly and stout heavy equipment highway worker who'd seen
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the trail of destruction what he called the most bloodthirsty thing he'd ever seen,
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remembered the family from the day before, when he and another worker on his
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crew had offered them assistance. Quigg told reporters for the Del Rio News Harold
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that he snuck off to weep after seeing the carnage, particularly the ravaged children.
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There's an approximate eight mile stretch of US Highway two seventy seven that rides
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the line that separates two counties. Because of this, the bodies of Ariano
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family members were found close to one another, but some were in Valverde County
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and some in Edwards County, which might have otherwise led to a jurisdictional disaster
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on top of the nightmare that already was. However, everyone seemed to be
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in agreement that during this initial investigation, the Valverde County Sheriff's Office would take
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the lead. After a massacre that left four of his family members dead,
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five year old Manuel Ariano was taken to a hospital in Del Rio, and
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though his injuries were quite severe he'd been stabbed four times and suffered a gunshot
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wound to the back of his head, doctors assessed that his condition was fair
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enough that he could be moved to a facility that could better treat him.
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He was transported by helicopter to an intensive care unit at Santa Rosa Medical Center.
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In San Antonio for further treatment. Two and a half year old Letitia's
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injuries, however, were incredibly serious. The young girl was struggling to hold
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on to life, and transporting her anywhere whether the facility was better equipped to
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deal with the situation or not, was out of the question. The little
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girl had to remain at the hospital that she'd originally been taken to in Sonora.
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Letitia had been repeatedly stabbed and beaten, the right side of her body
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paralyzed as the result of a gunshot wound between her eyes. Autopsies were soon
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performed on Je Senior, Monica, Rosa and baby Eduardo Juan Manuel Ariano Senior
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had been stabbed, beaten, and died instantly upon being shot in the head.
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Monica de Lopez Ariano was stabbed and shot in the head. One's younger
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sister, Rosa Eliya Ariano, had been raped, stabbed, and shot in
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the head. It appears she was thought to have been the last killed.
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On her death certificate, it lists the time of death as eleven thirty pm
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on April sixteenth, nineteen sixty eight, a half hour after the time listed
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on the rest of the family. Fifteen month old Eduardo Ariano was stabbed in
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the back three times, puncturing his liver, spleen, and left lung.
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Though doctors were hopeful at first, remarking that she had responded well to stimulants,
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one and Monica's daughter, two and a half year old, Letitia Rio,
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succumbed to her injuries the day after the attack against the family. The
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mass murder of the Ariano family shook the Valverde Sheriff's Office investigators to their core,
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but they wasted little time organizing a large scale manhunt for the killer or
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killers. An individual or individuals capable of such a thing remaining on the loose
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was too much for the department to consider. They held out hope too,
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that Manuel would pull through, not only for the sake of the young boy's
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life, but also thinking that he would be able to provide them with information
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as to the perpetrator's identity. Fields, ditches, wooded areas, and roads
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were combed over for clues, but ultimately the police were left scratching their heads.
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At this point, investigators thought the family had pulled over to fix the
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tire, and some one stopped posing as a good samaritan just before slaying them.
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All. Although detectives knew that the firearm used was a twenty two caliber,
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they didn't know if the weapon was a rifle or pistol, and no
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weapons used in the savage attack were found. Investigators did find tire tracks that
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they presumed to be those of the perpetrator's vehicle near the family's nineteen fifty eight
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buick, which was still sitting with a flat tire, around eight miles from
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where the Ariano's bodies were found. The pockets of one's blue jeans were pulled
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inside out, but investigators weren't convinced the motive was robbery. They theorized instead
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that the pockets were pulled out with the intention of making it look that way.
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Valverde County Sheriff Hermann Richter told reporters he was certain at least two people
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were responsible for the unimaginable crime, a belief that seemed to be held by
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most who would go on to investigate the case. During the following months,
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the Texas Rangers sent three of their own to assist ay Ali Junior, who
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followed his great grandfather, grandfather, and father's footsteps in becoming a Texas Ranger,
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began leading the investigation. Ali was as seasoned and as tough as they
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come. He looked at two in his ten gallon cowboy hat, blue jeans,
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and pistols strapped to his side. When he took over, he hit
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the ground running and aggressively, so as rangers often do. Fingerprints from the
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Ariano's buick were given to the Department of Public Safety and checked against prints in
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police files from around the state. Ranger Ali was on the hunt for several
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vehicles not to have been interacting with the Ariano family during their bouts with car
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trouble in, including a fifty six Chevy that had been parked on the side
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of the road close by for four days but was gone after the family was
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slain. The occupants, it was reported, were quote four buggy looking white
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boys end quote. Though there was some confusion as to the identity of Rosa,
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as she had crossed the border using a passport that bore the name Maria
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Antonia Lopez Cantu, presumably a relative, deputies were able to locate family who
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identified her Monica. Monica Ariano's brother, Gabriel Lopez, identified the bodies and
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assisted the coroner with familial information. For the death certificates. Raymond Garza's opponent
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in the race for Zavala County Sheriff C. L. Sweeten, was tasked
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with telling him about the unimaginable demise of his brother in law, brother in
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law's wife and their other family members. He and his wife were doing everything
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they could to go to San Antonio to stay with Manuel in the hospital,
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but the distraught couple were tasked with making funeral arrangements for Juan, Monica,
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Letitia Rosa, and baby Eduardo. Garza later told the San Antonio Express that
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he didn't think the motive could have possibly been robbery. The family was modest
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and Juan rarely carried much cash or anything valuable. In fact, he currently
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only drew a modest unemployment check of fifty six dollars a week. Garza told
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them that Juan was a nobleman who was honest and hard working, and the
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family struggled with the idea that anyone would want to hurt him or the rest
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of the family, particularly of course, the children. The funerals were held
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in de Fuente, Mexico, where one and Rosa's parents lived. Law enforcement
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utilized the media to plead for the public's help in obtaining information and it worked.
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Witnesses who'd seen the family and the man who is thought to have slain
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them began coming forward after the murders were reported in the press. An oil
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filled bus lines driver who drove the route where the Ariano's buick sat with a
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flat tire, told police that at about seven pm on the night before their
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bodies were found, he saw the family, their car, a white man
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in a cowboy hat, and a white pickup truck on its way south toward
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Del Rio. He described the man as having sandy hair with freckles or liver
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spots on his forehead, liked complexioned, and wearing cowboy attire. The bus
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driver remarked that he wore fancy boots. He also told police that he noticed
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the Ariano's vehicle again on his way back up north later that night, but
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no one was around the buick. David Lordon, the service station attendant in
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Sonora who repaired the Ariano's flat tire there, also came forward. Lordon told
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investigators for the first time that the Arianos and the unidentified man arrived at his
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service station in a nineteen sixty seven fleet Side Series ten pickup truck that was
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green or blue with a white top. The man who'd driven the truck,
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he said, was white, stood about six feet to six feet two inches
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tall, and weighed somewhere around two hundred pounds. The man's hair was a
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sandy color. He had light eyebrows, and there were pock marks or possibly
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a rash on his neck. His cowboy boots had an eagle design on the
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side, Lorden remembered, and he wore a western shirt and a straw cowboy
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hat. He was about thirty to thirty five years old. The service station
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attendant speculated a large hunting knife hung from the man's belt. A composite sketch
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was made and released in the papers. The Texas Department of Public Safety issued
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a nationwide alert to law enforcement to be on the lookout for such a man.
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The alert suggested that officers look closely at vehicles they stopped for blood stains,
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and since Juan's wallet was missing, the alert highlighted that officers should look
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specifically for it when an individual garnered suspicion. Several witnesses came forward with a
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similar description of a man who'd been hanging around up in Sonora for a few
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days before the slangs, all saying he dressed in elaborate cowboy clothing, but
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no one had seen him since. Texas Ranger Ay Ali Jr. Along with
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both Valverde County Sheriff's Office and Edwards County Sheriff's Office, deputies brought in several
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individuals for questioning. However, David Lorden, the service station attendant, couldn't
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identify any of them as the man who had driven the Ariano family to his
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station. A Mexican national who had come across detective's radar was found sleeping along
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a road close to Del Rio, though it took police only a brief line
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of questioning to eliminate him. Nothing was panning out two weeks after the attack,
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and Well was able to communicate with remarkable clarity, considering the injuries he
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had sustained and the multiple head and brain operations he underwent. His hearing was
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significantly damaged by the gunshot wound to his head, and the boy only spoke
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Spanish, so investigators scattered to find an interpreter, but not before setting up
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protection for young Manuel. The man who had set up the highwayside monument decades
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after this tragedy, Peter Gomez had a younger sister who worked as a registered
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nurse at the San Antonio hospital where Manuel's life was saved. She told the
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San Angelo Standard Times that day and night a police guard stood by the door
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of the room where the boy laid recovering, and also because of her,
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police didn't have to continue their search for an interpreter. The young nurse's husband,
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spoke fluent Spanish and English, was more than willing to help, and
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arrangements were made to get him there fast. Manuel began telling police about what
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happened. He told investigators that the white man, a big cowboy, he
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called him, began shooting his gun out the window of the pickup truck on
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the way back from getting the Ariano's tire patched in Sonora. Edwards County Sheriff
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Tom Henderson, who shared jurisdiction of the crime with Valverde County Sheriff Hermann Richter,
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had to piece together the details of what Manuel was telling investigators and matched
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them with the known details of the crime scene to make sense of what happened.
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It wasn't easy, and the result of the collaboration is nothing short of
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horrifying. Manuel told the police that the big cowboy was shooting at deer and
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rabbits after headlighting them, meaning he would shoot the animals after they froze at
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the sight of the truck's headlights. Juan Ariano was upset by this. It
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was presumably scaring his wife, sister, and especially the children. He asked
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the man to stop, but the big cowboy didn't stop shooting. Instead,
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he stopped the vehicle. He fired at a deer on the other side of
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a barbed wire fence that ran alongside the road. The boy recalled and demanded
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one accompany him to retrieve the fallen animal. Once they were near where the
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deer would have fallen, about seventy five yards from Highway to seventy seven,
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One's wife, sister, and children witnessed in the glow of the headlights,
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the big cowboy point his weapon at One's head and fire. The man quickly
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returned to the pickup, where the Ariano family was screaming in terror and paralyzed
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with fear. The big by subsequently beat shot, and stabbed them all.
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He threw two of the children over the barbed wire fence. Manuel was either
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thrown in front of the fence or was able to run several feet from the
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pickup. This precise detail is unclear, and the Big Cowboy climbed in the
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truck and drove off, with both Monica and Rosa either already dead or barely
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clinging to life. He dumped their bodies a mile away, but not before
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stripping and raping Rosa. Young Manuel was released from the hospital into his uncle,
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Raymond Garza's care on Monday, May sixth, nineteen sixty eight. Garza
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told reporters that police supplied the boy with a photo lineup, and he pointed
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an individual out, saying I know that man. Manuel added to the description
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of the big cowboy, telling investigators that he had head shoulders and slim hips
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and that the knife he carried was bone handled. Few other details of the
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boy's statement to police have been publicized. The next promising lead came from Fort
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Worth on Monday, May thirteenth, nineteen sixty eight. Police there contacted Texas
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ranger ay Ali Junior with something potentially huge after stopping two men in a car
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because the vehicle's muffler was defective. The driver of the automobile had two drivers
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licenses, both expired, one from Texas and one from Colorado. The men
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were detained after officers who were aware of the national bulletin that had been put
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out in search of the slayer of the Ariano family, found that the men
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were in possession of a billfold that contained the identification of a Mexican national.
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They also had about one hundred and sixty paceos and and a twenty two caliber
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pistol. One of the men in particular had officers attention. He was forty
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years old, his hair recently dyed black from a sandy brown color, and
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he wore cowboy boots with eagles embroidered on the sides. The suspect and the
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murders of the Ariano family was said to have sandy colored hair and fancy boots
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with an eagle. Ranger Ali quickly gathered David Lordon, the service station attendant
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who'd seen the family and the man with them. Along with Ranger Arthur Hill
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and Edwards County Sheriff Tom Henderson, the group headed north. Fort Worth.
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Police were ready for their guests with a lineup. When they arrived, Lorden
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didn't have to look hard. He told investigators that neither of these men even
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came close to the man he'd seen with the Ariano family shortly before they were
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slain. No matter the known witness accounts describing only one perpetrator, Lawman consistently
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told reporters they believed two men were involved in the killings. It isn't clear
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if the notion was based on facts or if the investigators simply did not believe
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one man could have performed an almost complete family annihilation. Texas Rangers and the
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Valverde County Sheriff's office exhausted leads and spent months trying to track down either a
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white pickup, a green pickup with a white top, or a blue pickup
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with a white top in which the owner matched the description of the man seen
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by so many. In September of nineteen sixty eight, Valverde County Sheriff Hermann
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Richter was forced to dispel rumors in the Del Rio News Herald that the murderer
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had been caught and charged. This report began in newspapers in Mexico and quickly
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made it across the border, but of course no killer was in custody.
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Sheriff Richter told a reporter that similar news had been reported some time before as
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well. Wishful thinking perhaps on the part of those who so desperately wanted justice.
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Over the next several months, police nailed down many persons of interest who
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they signed to either eliminate or take a closer look at. But they had
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a huge problem. Their best witness was nowhere to be found. David Lordon,
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the service station attendant, had been arrested on forgery charges and held in
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a Sonora jail, the perfect though unfortunate place for such a witness to be,
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but he escaped the facility with another man held there on February twenty eighth,
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nineteen sixty nine. The two had somehow obtained a guard's rifle, made
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their escape, and both fled the area. Again, another line of investigation
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slipped right from their hands. A few months later, however, Texas rangers
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and Valverde County Sheriff's Office detectives came across a man who they considered a suspect
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capable of the monstrous act of murdering nearly an entire family. On Wednesday,
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June fourth, nineteen sixty nine, in Limestone County, Texas, about three
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hundred and twenty six miles northeast of Loma Alta, police arrested and charged twenty
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six year old carlos At Dawn Stults for the murder of Mahea High junior Kathy
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Jones, the seventeen year old victim and head baton twirler for her school's marching
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band, was an outgoing, popular and friendly teenager. The day before Stults's
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arrest, he followed Kathy into her home immediately after she arrived there for school
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lunch break. When he accosted her inside, she screamed, and Stults responded
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by plunging a knife into her chest and abdomen a total of eighteen times until
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she went limp. He later confessed he then rolled her into a quilt,
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loaded her into the bed of his truck, and drove her about three miles
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away to a muddy field at a ranch, where he stripped off some of
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her clothes and raped her before he dumped her in a clump of brush.
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Sts then drove back into town and disposed of the knife before catching a movie
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with his expectant wife. The rancher who owned the land found Kathy Jones fat
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after following the tire tracks left by Stultz's pick up a ranch hand himself.
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Stultz was a suspect immediately, particularly because law enforcement knew of his past convictions
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in Oklahoma, which included burglary, theft, and rape. Following his arrest
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and confession to Kathy's rape and murder, Stults was put under constant security at
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the Limestone County Jail and grows back and denied bond for his own safety as
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rumors of a lynch mob forming circulated around the small town of Mahea. Now
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there's way too much to this story to go into here, but FYI,
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I'm currently working on a comprehensive Patreon exclusive episode about Stultz's depraved acts, including
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another of which that occurred in Grand Prairie, Texas the previous year. On
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Wednesday, August twentieth, nineteen sixty eight, eleven year old Karen Kubat of
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Dallas was staying with her father and stepmother and Grand Prairie. A little before
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four am, a sound awoke Karen, who was sleeping on the living room
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couch. She rose up and stared directly into the face of a burglar.
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Karen screamed, and the intruder, Carlos Don Stults, immediately plunged a bayonet
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in the little girl's neck. The coward then fled. Karen's parents rushed into
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the room as the result of the commotion, and as her father called police,
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the little girl tried describing the man who had hurt her. All she
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could say was that she recognized him. Three and a half hours later,
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at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, the eleven year old girl succumbed to her injury.
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The bayonet was found a few days later on a neighbor's lawn. Stults
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was a suspect right off the bat. He'd already been suspected of some area
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burglaries, and he lived just a few doors down and across the street from
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the Kubat home. But the cops had nothing and the case went cold until
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his arrest in Mahea for the murder of seventeen year old Kathy Jones. As
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he had for the murder of Kathy, Stults eventually confessed to killing eleven year
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old Karen since he lived close to a victim of theirs when she was slain.
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Dallas County Sheriff's Office detectives liked Carlos Don Stultz for one of their cold
34:37
cases as well, the murder of sixteen year old Barbara Ann Brian on approximately
34:43
Monday October fourteenth, nineteen sixty eight. Barbara went missing the day before and
34:50
wasn't found until the following Thursday, floating face down in the Trinity River's Elm
34:54
Fork. She'd been beaten and strangled to death with a pill, which was
35:00
still knotted around her neck when her body was found. Though they had a
35:06
relatively detailed timeline via witnesses of Barbara's last known movements, evidence seemed virtually non
35:14
existent, and the case was cold almost as soon as it began. When
35:20
he came on their radar after being charged with the brutal crime down in Maheia
35:24
nearly eight months later. The Dallas County Sheriff's office considered Carlos don Stoltz as
35:30
good a suspect as they ever had, especially considering he lived nearby Barbara at
35:37
the time. On Wednesday, June eleven, nineteen sixty nine, Dallas County
35:43
detectives drove the ninety six miles straight south to the small town of Grosbeck,
35:47
picked up Carlos don Stoltz at the Limestone County Jail, and brought him back
35:52
to the big city. After an interview and undergoing a polygraph examination. Dallas
35:59
County Deputy Sheriff Cecil Gentry reported that they'd cleared Stults of Barbara's murder, being
36:06
eliminated after passing a polygraph we now know, of course, is bullshit.
36:10
But in defense of the cops here, Stultz had confessed to two other murders
36:15
already, so if he was guilty of killing Barbara, why not confessed to
36:21
a third. Stultz was returned to Grosbeck later that day. Fort Worth Police
36:29
homicide Lieutenant Oliver Ball told reporters for the Fort Worth Star Telegram he was interested
36:35
in Carlos Don Stults for the February third, nineteen sixty seven murder of Mildred
36:39
May in his city, But Lieutenant Ball seemed to be going on the presumption
36:45
that Stults had murdered sixteen year old Barbara and Brian in Dallas County. Like
36:52
Barbara, thirty eight year old Mildred May had been severely beaten and strangled to
36:57
death. Mildred's body had been left on the levee of Trinity Rivers West Fork.
37:04
Barbara's body found floating in the Trinity River's elm Fork. Mildred May also
37:10
had a heavy connection to Maheia, where Stults had finally been arrested for the
37:15
last time. However, this line of inquiry by the Fort Worth police went
37:21
nowhere. Not only had the Dallas County Sheriff's Department discounted Stolts for Barbara's murder,
37:28
the man or monster appears to have been in Oklahoma prison after a rape
37:32
conviction when Mildred May was slain, though I cannot stress enough that we're not
37:38
totally sure about that, since we're still in the process of trying to track
37:43
down that particular record. Perhaps Lieutenant Ball was onto something seeking a connection between
37:50
Barbara and Mildred's murders, but by all known indications, Carlos Don Stoltz was
37:57
not. Its fort Worth and Grant Prairie were hardly the only police agencies interested
38:05
in stults for unsolved murders and their jurisdictions. In Valverde County, Texas,
38:12
Department of Public Safety, Sergeant Don Lee and W. B. Webb,
38:16
the county jailer, were comparing known facts about Carlos Don Stultz's depraved acts to
38:22
the inhuman slangs of five people and the attempted murder of a boy in their
38:29
jurisdiction. After requesting reports from Maheia. They wondered if Stultz was responsible for
38:36
the massacre of the Ariono family, Juan Manuel, his wife Monica, their
38:42
two children, two and a half year old Letitia, fifteen month old Eduardo,
38:46
and Juan's sister twenty one year old Rosa Aliyah. Also the attempted murder
38:52
of five year old Juan Manuel Junior, who had miraculously recovered after suffering two
39:00
wounds to his head. The suspected burglar, rapist, and killer certainly fit
39:06
the profile of someone capable of such an atrocity. He also drove a truck
39:13
and was a rancher. Perhaps they thought he might have been conducting some sort
39:16
of business in Valverde or Edward's County on behalf of the ranch he worked for
39:22
up in Mahaea. Carlos Don Stultz brutally and remorselessly stabbed his known victims and
39:30
raped one, allegedly. At this point, it should be noted twenty one
39:36
year old Rosa of the Ariano family had also been raped. Perhaps what struck
39:42
Texas rangers and Valverde County authorities the most after the similarities were taken into account,
39:47
was the fact that Stultz looked very similar to the composite sketch of the
39:52
Ariano family killer, whatever the case, and unlike investigators in Dallas, Fort
39:59
Were and Grand Prairie, they kept their scrutiny of Carlos Don Stultz close to
40:05
the chest, and little more is publicly known about their investigation into him pertaining
40:10
to the Ariano family massacre, although his attorney presented family witnesses and psychologists on
40:29
the stand in an attempt to claim an insanity defense, Stults was indicted and
40:35
convicted of the murder of seventeen year old Kathy Jones of Maheia in March of
40:39
nineteen seventy. It's reported he sat emotionless during his trial as prosecutors described him
40:47
as a murderer because he enjoyed it a card carrying psychopath, particularly persuasive to
40:53
a jury in a day when the term card carrying communist was still being thrown
40:59
around, and even as Limestone County District Attorney Holloway Martin Junior loudly pounded his
41:06
fist on a table eighteen times, one for every stab wound Stults inflicted on
41:13
Cathy Jones. He even sat stone cold as the judge read the guilty verdict.
41:21
Though he was sentenced to die in the electric chair that was commuted to
41:24
life in prison, along with every other death row prisoner when in nineteen seventy
41:30
two the Supreme Court struck down capital punishment statutes. One of the longest serving
41:37
state prison inmates, a monster who took the lives of at least two children
41:42
and outlived virtually all of the investigators and prosecutors who brought him to justice and
41:49
most of the victim's immediate family members. Stults died of natural causes in a
41:54
Tennessee Colony, Texas prison on June twenty fifth, twenty twenty one, after
42:00
serving more than fifty years behind bars. The Jones and Kubitt families, along
42:06
with both original prosecutors and their successors, prevented Stultz's release around thirty times by
42:14
protesting his potential release at parole hearings over the decades. Fittingly, perhaps if
42:21
he is guilty of the crime, the older Stultz got, the more he
42:25
resembled the composite sketch in the case of the Ariano family murders back in nineteen
42:34
sixty nine. As far as their witness was concerned, Texas law enforcements luck
42:38
changed when in November of that year, San Francisco California authorities contacted them with
42:45
news that former service station attendant David Lorden had been taken back into custody.
42:52
There, he was extradited back to Sonora, Texas. Police told the press
42:59
that Lorden was cleared as a suspect in the Ariano family massacre. He was
43:04
simply a material witness and lucky for them again, he was now being held
43:09
on several charges that guaranteed he wouldn't be released on bond since he escaped before.
43:16
He was a major flight risk. Police told reporters that they needed Lorden
43:22
to see a particular suspect that was being held in a Johnson County jail among
43:27
others and maybe making identification. Reporters were either skeptical or were simply performing their
43:36
due diligence when they called the Johnson County Sheriff for information on the man the
43:40
department supposedly had. The sheriff there told them that he wasn't holding anyone.
43:47
Edwards County and Valverde County authorities were being a little less than truthful when they
43:53
said Lorden had been cleared as a suspect. It is unclear how many persons
44:00
of interest were ruled out by lorden while in police custody there or who they
44:05
were, but it seemed certain that he was never able to positively identify one.
44:13
Unfortunately, the investigation was slow moving, and by nineteen eighty two,
44:17
activity on the Ariano family slags froze completely. Then, in nineteen ninety nine,
44:25
the Texas Department of Public Safety received a call from an individual who claimed
44:30
to know who was responsible for the massacre of the Ariano family. As a
44:36
result, the Long filed away and reportedly gigantic stack of documentation on the case
44:43
was pulled out and reviewed. Texas rangers poured through every detail so they could
44:47
decide whether or not the caller was providing reliable information. They ultimately concluded that
44:54
the lead was a dead end. Rangers are Brooks. Long has tracked down
45:01
some witnesses who saw the Arianos and the man with whom they were last seen,
45:07
including the ranch hand who found the bodies of the family and the lawman.
45:12
Even attempted to locate the Ariano's buick, but was unsuccessful on that front.
45:17
Unfortunately, as a part of the renewed investigation, Sergeant Long found Manuel,
45:24
who was raised by his grandmother in Mexico. After the rest of his
45:29
family was slaughtered. He was still in Mexico in two thousand and six when
45:34
Long tracked him down. Manuel, forty two years old at the time,
45:38
had a family of his own, now a wife and children, and was
45:43
leading a relatively normal life working in the financial industry. Manuel showed Sergeant Long
45:50
the scars from the stab wounds that still remained, but he had virtually no
45:54
memory of what happened on that day in April of nineteen sixty eight. Although
46:00
Texas rangers told a reporter in two thousand and six that they were hopeful the
46:06
slangs of the Ariano family remained unsolved. Incredibly, and in stark contrast to
46:14
many cases as old as this one, pieces of physical evidence still exist.
46:21
In the last few years, a DNA profile was obtained but has yet to
46:25
hit a match. This likely means authorities have not yet submitted the evidence for
46:30
forensic genetic genealogy. DNA from the Ariano murders was compared against a man incarcerated
46:39
in California who had committed what police called a similar crime, but there was
46:45
no match. This was the same man reportedly who had fixed the flat tire
46:52
on the family's vehicle at the Sonora service station gave police the description of the
46:57
man that was used for the composite skill, and as a witness, eliminated
47:01
many persons of interest through police lineups. David Spicer Lorden. In a San
47:09
Angelo Standard Times newspaper article published in nineteen seventy eight, then former Texas Ranger
47:16
A. Y Ali reflects on the Ariano case. The lawman, who'd since
47:22
become a Brewster County Sheriff's deputy, doubted the authenticity of the description Lorden provided.
47:30
The sole survivor, Little Manuel, had more or less described a similar
47:36
man, though Ali seemed to believe the boy's description was more accurate. In
47:42
fact, Ali suggests in the article that David Lorden might have been involved,
47:46
as he points out the man's vast criminal record all over the United States.
47:53
Investigators, Ali said had learned that Lorden had lied about several of the descript
48:00
by his own admission. A couple of years after the crimes, the former
48:06
rangers said he'd take time off his current job to question Lorden again, especially
48:12
after he was convicted of a Fresno, California murder that took place in nineteen
48:16
seventy three. In September of that year, Lorden, then twenty five years
48:22
old, shot and killed John P. Milens as he and his girlfriend robbed
48:28
the man's bar and Fresno. When you think about it, Ali is quoted
48:32
as saying at the article's end, except for the fact that he was blackheaded,
48:37
Lorden described himself judging by an email we received from authorities in twenty nineteen
48:45
after we aired our original Ariano Family episode. The case is now solely in
48:52
the hands of the Edward County Sheriff's Office. If you have any information about
48:59
the nineteen sixty eight murders of the Ariano family, please contact the Edward County
49:04
Sheriff's Office at eight three zero six eight three four one zero four, or
49:10
to remain anonymous and receive a cash reward of up to three thousand dollars,
49:15
call the Crimestoppers Hotline at eight hundred two five two tips or eight four seven
49:21
seven. Find Gone Cold on TikTok and YouTube, where we finally released content
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