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Fort Worth Does Identified · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Gone Cold podcasts may contain violent or graphic subject matter.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised. 1986 was an extraordinarily deadly year
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: in Fort Worth, Texas. The year before, the city recorded
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  Speaker 1: 128 murders. By the end of 86, that number had
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: risen to 200 under the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting System.
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  Speaker 1: an increase of more than 56% in a single year.
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  Speaker 1: The Fort Worth police counted even higher, recording 202 homicides,
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  Speaker 1: the highest annual total in its history. With a population
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  Speaker 1: of roughly 433,000 at the time, the FBI figure gave
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Fort Worth a murder rate of more than 46 per 100,000
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  Speaker 1: residents in 1986. Nationally, the average rate was less than 9.
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  Speaker 1: But the violence was not distributed evenly throughout Fort Worth's population.
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  Speaker 1: According to homicide detectives quoted shortly after the year ended,
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  Speaker 1: more than 40% of those killed were black, slightly more
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  Speaker 1: than 30% were Hispanic, and just under 30% were white.
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  Speaker 1: Those numbers were particularly disproportionate considering the city's population. Black
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  Speaker 1: residents represented approximately 23% of Fort Worth at the time,
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  Speaker 1: while Hispanic residents made up only about 13%. Contemporary reports
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  Speaker 1: also note that, in most cases, victims and their killers
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  Speaker 1: were of the same race. Tarrant County Medical Examiner Dr.
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  Speaker 1: Nizam Pirwani kept a map marking homicide locations. and the
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  Speaker 1: greatest concentration of those markers appeared in neighborhoods on the
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  Speaker 1: city's south side. The circumstances surrounding the killings were often
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  Speaker 1: far less mysterious than the staggering total might suggest. Homicide
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  Speaker 1: detectives attributed a significant portion of the deaths to domestic disputes, arguments, fights,
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  Speaker 1: and confrontations in and around bars. Firearms, particularly handguns, were
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  Speaker 1: responsible for the majority of homicides, according to Pirwani. Other
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: common causes were bludgeonings, stabbings, and strangulation. The sheer volume
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  Speaker 1: of death strained the county medical examiner's office. Officials later
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  Speaker 1: recalled occasions when there was insufficient room for the number
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  Speaker 1: of bodies arriving at the morgue. And then, Almost as
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  Speaker 1: suddenly as the number had risen, it fell. In 1987,
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  Speaker 1: Fort Worth recorded 135 murders, 67 fewer than they'd counted
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  Speaker 1: the previous year. That made 1986 something of an anomaly,
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  Speaker 1: even during a period already characterized by considerable violence. and
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  Speaker 1: it wasn't necessarily explained by the same forces driving violent
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  Speaker 1: crime in comparable American cities, including the crack cocaine epidemic.
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  Speaker 1: For Fort Worth, in fact, no year before, or since,
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  Speaker 1: has produced a homicide total quite like it. In two
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  Speaker 1: separate murder cases that year, the identities of both a
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  Speaker 1: male and a female victim were never discovered. Their bodies
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  Speaker 1: were found months apart and in completely different parts of
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  Speaker 1: Fort Worth, one in the city's south-central area and the
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  Speaker 1: other in its far northwest. In 2026, four decades after
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  Speaker 1: they died, two very different forensic technologies finally restored their identities.
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  Speaker 1: But giving them back their names didn't solve their murders.
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  Speaker 1: On Monday, February 24th, 1986, at about 7.30 a.m. on
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  Speaker 1: the 1300 block of Karoke Street, not far from East
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  Speaker 1: Magnolia Avenue and near Hillside Park in south-central Fort Worth,
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  Speaker 1: a woman driving her children to school noticed what looked
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  Speaker 1: like a body under a brown blanket. Not entirely sure
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  Speaker 1: if her eyes had deceived her, and because she didn't
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  Speaker 1: want her kids witnessing it if they hadn't, She dropped
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  Speaker 1: them off at school and drove back past the scene.
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  Speaker 1: The woman confirmed it and hurried home to call the police.
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  Speaker 1: Officers and detectives arrived at Kuroki Street shortly thereafter. The
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  Speaker 1: body belonged to a white female, approximately 35 to 40
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  Speaker 1: years of age, and was lying near the street curb
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  Speaker 1: in the driveway of a vacant lot. She was about
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  Speaker 1: 5 feet 3 inches tall. and weighed 120 to 130 pounds.
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  Speaker 1: The woman's eyes were green, and her hair shoulder-length, wavy,
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  Speaker 1: and brown. She had a small scar on the bridge
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  Speaker 1: of her nose, and another V-shaped scar on her upper
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  Speaker 1: left arm. Though the body was unclothed other than a
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  Speaker 1: white bra, articles of clothing thought to be hers were
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  Speaker 1: found inside the blanket that partially covered her. No identification
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  Speaker 1: of any kind was found on the scene, and in fact,
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  Speaker 1: evidence there, or lack thereof, led police to believe that
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  Speaker 1: the deceased woman had died elsewhere and was subsequently placed
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  Speaker 1: where she was discovered. An autopsy was performed the same
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  Speaker 1: day the body was found, and the Tarrant County Medical
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  Speaker 1: Examiner determined that the woman had been manually strangled to death.
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  Speaker 1: Although the pathologist told a Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporter that
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  Speaker 1: he was awaiting test results to decide whether the slain
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  Speaker 1: woman had been sexually assaulted, that information remains publicly unknown.
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  Speaker 1: In an earlier episode covering victims of what the press
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  Speaker 1: began referring to as the February slayings, Gone Cold called
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  Speaker 1: the unidentified woman Hillside Jane Doe. because of the proximity
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  Speaker 1: of her discovery to the park of the same name. However,
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  Speaker 1: she was never mentioned alongside the other women in this
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  Speaker 1: series of crimes, which began in 1967 with the murder
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  Speaker 1: of Mildred May. Despite detectives' efforts during the initial investigation,
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  Speaker 1: the woman's identity remained unknown. Years became decades. Then, sometime
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  Speaker 1: in the mid-2000s, previously stored evidence from the case was
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  Speaker 1: located and submitted for STR DNA analysis. Investigators were able
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  Speaker 1: to develop DNA profiles from that evidence, but there was
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  Speaker 1: still a problem. They had no investigative lead pointing them
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  Speaker 1: toward a possible identity, and therefore no person against whom
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  Speaker 1: the profile could be compared. Her case was eventually entered
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  Speaker 1: into NAMIS, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, a
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  Speaker 1: centralized national repository and resource center for missing, unidentified, and
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  Speaker 1: unclaimed person cases throughout the United States. And there, the
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  Speaker 1: case of Hillside Jane Doe remained. Until July of 2025.
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  Speaker 1: That month, the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office submitted evidence
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  Speaker 1: belonging to the woman to Othram Labs for advanced DNA
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  Speaker 1: testing and forensic genetic genealogy. Scientists at Othram successfully developed
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  Speaker 1: a DNA extract from the evidence and constructed a comprehensive
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  Speaker 1: SNP profile that, unlike STR DNA, which is the standard
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  Speaker 1: for CODIS, can be used for a forensic genetic genealogy search.
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  Speaker 1: A team at Othram then began building family connections from
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  Speaker 1: that profile, eventually generating new investigative leads that were provided
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  Speaker 1: to law enforcement. Their genealogical research pointed toward members of
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  Speaker 1: the family name McLaren as possible relatives of the unidentified woman.
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  Speaker 1: That led investigators to a man named Floyd Ray McLaren,
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  Speaker 1: who appeared to be her brother. Floyd hadn't seen his sister,
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  Speaker 1: Brenda Darnell McLaren Smith, since early 1986. Born February 23, 1950,
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  Speaker 1: Brenda had left their parents' home on a February day
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  Speaker 1: that year, intending to hitchhike to Dallas. It was something
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  Speaker 1: that apparently was not unusual behavior for her. She'd done
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  Speaker 1: that before and always come back, but she didn't come
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  Speaker 1: back that time. We were just kind of in limbo.
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  Speaker 1: We didn't know what happened to her, Floyd told WFAA-TV.
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  Speaker 1: He agreed to provide a DNA sample. When his DNA
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  Speaker 1: sample was compared to the DNA profile developed from the
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  Speaker 1: unidentified woman, the results proved a biological sibling relationship. Combined
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  Speaker 1: with the information Floyd provided to investigators, the evidence was
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  Speaker 1: sufficient for the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office to conclusively
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  Speaker 1: identify the woman found beside Karoke Street 40 years earlier.
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  Speaker 1: Her family had known only that Brenda had vanished, Now
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  Speaker 1: they knew that someone killed her. She disappeared off the
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  Speaker 1: face of the earth, but now we know somebody murdered her,
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  Speaker 1: Floyd said. Brenda had turned 36 years old just hours
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  Speaker 1: before she was murdered. Floyd McLaren who was 72 when
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  Speaker 1: he spoke with WFAA following the identification, said learning what
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  Speaker 1: had happened to his sister was pretty shocking. When somebody's
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  Speaker 1: gone that long, you assume the worst, and it turned
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  Speaker 1: out to be the worst. If they ever catch him,
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  Speaker 1: I want to know because I want to go to court.
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  Speaker 1: I want to ask him why. Because it was a
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  Speaker 1: senseless murder. There's no point to it. Tarrant County investigators
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  Speaker 1: later took Floyd to the Serenity section of Cedar Hill
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  Speaker 1: Memorial Park on Mansfield Highway in Arlington. There, they showed
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  Speaker 1: him the plot where his sister had been buried. Brenda
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  Speaker 1: McLaren-Smith had spent 40 years in an unmarked grave. Floyd
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  Speaker 1: McLaren is now working to change that and have a
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  Speaker 1: marker placed for his long-lost sister. At least I know
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  Speaker 1: where she's at now, he said. I hope they catch him,
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  Speaker 1: whoever did it. If you have information about the 1986
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  Speaker 1: murder of Brenda Darnell McLaren Smith, please contact the Fort
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  Speaker 1: Worth Police Cold Case Unit at 817-392-4307. On Friday, October 17, 1986,
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  Speaker 1: the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that authorities were attempting to
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  Speaker 1: identify another homicide victim. This time, the decomposing remains belonged
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  Speaker 1: to a man. He'd been found in a drainage ditch
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  Speaker 1: in a grassy field along the 5800 block of Marine
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  Speaker 1: Creek Parkway, an area in far northwest Fort Worth that
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  Speaker 1: was largely undeveloped at the time. Homicide detective Ray Sharp
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  Speaker 1: told the newspaper that a man walking down the street
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  Speaker 1: had discovered the body. The deceased man appeared to be
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  Speaker 1: in his 20s, Sharp said, and the article described him
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  Speaker 1: as wearing a gray shirt and blue jeans. There was
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  Speaker 1: a bullet wound in his right side. Investigators could not
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  Speaker 1: determine whether he had been shot where he was found
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  Speaker 1: or killed somewhere else before his body was left in
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  Speaker 1: the ditch. Detective Sharp estimated that he'd been dead for
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  Speaker 1: several days. The body could be seen from the road,
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  Speaker 1: he said, if you were walking on that side and
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  Speaker 1: close enough. But sight, Sharp added, was not necessarily what
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  Speaker 1: would have drawn someone's attention. The odor of decomposition had
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  Speaker 1: become so strong that, as the lawman put it, walking
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  Speaker 1: by you'd have known something was there. Besides the clothing
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  Speaker 1: of the unidentified man, of which the shirt was described
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  Speaker 1: incorrectly in the article detailing his discovery, both the police
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  Speaker 1: and the newspaper offered no other distinguishing characteristics at all.
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  Speaker 1: But there were plenty to describe. The man was Hispanic,
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  Speaker 1: for starters, with black, curly hair that stretched out to
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  Speaker 1: approximately six inches long. He had a short, full beard
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  Speaker 1: and mustache. There was a gap between his upper central
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  Speaker 1: incisors and a three-and-a-half-inch scar on his abdomen. Though he
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  Speaker 1: was partially decomposed, his tattoos were well-preserved. On his right
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  Speaker 1: posterior forearm was a tattoo of two hearts, each with
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  Speaker 1: a ribbon or banner crossing them in the middle. The
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  Speaker 1: word Susanna was on one and love was on the other.
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  Speaker 1: On the anterior of his left forearm was a tattoo
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  Speaker 1: of a woman's head with long dark hair and bright
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  Speaker 1: red lips. She wore a bandana, also bright red. The
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  Speaker 1: unidentified man wore a blue and white plaid long-sleeved shirt,
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  Speaker 1: blue jeans, blue briefs with a yellow pattern, and one
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  Speaker 1: gray low-top sneaker. According to the Texas Department of Public Safety,
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  Speaker 1: he stood anywhere from 5 feet 3 inches tall to
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  Speaker 1: 5 foot 9 and weighed between 120 and 140 pounds.
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  Speaker 1: According to Tarrant County Medical Examiner records, the weapon used
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  Speaker 1: to kill the unidentified man was a centerfire handgun, though
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  Speaker 1: no caliber is listed. For nearly 40 years, the John
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  Speaker 1: Doe went unidentified. But in an effort to identify him,
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  Speaker 1: in 2025, the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office collaborated with
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  Speaker 1: the Fort Worth Police Department. They were able to recover
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  Speaker 1: the archived evidence, which consisted of all 10 of the
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  Speaker 1: man's fingers, which were removed at autopsy, a tube of
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  Speaker 1: his blood, and an evidence bag containing a bullet, presumably
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  Speaker 1: the bullet that killed him. The items were transferred to
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  Speaker 1: the medical examiner's office to undergo forensic evaluation. Unlike Brenda McLaren-Smith,
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  Speaker 1: whose identity was ultimately restored through DNA and forensic genetic genealogy,
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  Speaker 1: the answer in this second case was found at the
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  Speaker 1: unidentified man's fingertips. Tarrant County medical examiner analysts examined the
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  Speaker 1: preserved fingers and were able to successfully develop fingerprints using
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: a microcell casting technique. Microcell is a silicone casting material
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  Speaker 1: capable of capturing high-resolution, friction-ridge detail from preserved, mummified, or
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  Speaker 1: decomposed fingers when conventional fingerprint inking no longer works, at
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  Speaker 1: least in this case. It can also be used on
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  Speaker 1: latent fingerprints. The process begins by preparing the skin. The
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  Speaker 1: finger pad is gently cleaned with isopropyl alcohol to remove oils, residue,
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  Speaker 1: and decomposition byproducts, then allowed to dry completely. Equal lengths
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  Speaker 1: of microcell compound and its matching hardener are dispensed side-by-side
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  Speaker 1: onto a mixing card. The materials are then blended quickly
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: with a wooden mixing stick or tongue depressor until the
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  Speaker 1: tracking color, such as blue, completely disappears. Once mixed, the
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  Speaker 1: silicone is scooped up and smoothed into a thin, even
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  Speaker 1: layer directly across the friction ridge skin of the finger pad.
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  Speaker 1: The cast is then left undisturbed for approximately 10 to
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  Speaker 1: 15 minutes until the material has completely cured and is
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  Speaker 1: firm to the touch. Beginning at one edge, an analyst
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  Speaker 1: carefully peels the hardened silicone away from the finger. What
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  Speaker 1: remains is a three-dimensional negative impression of the fingerprint. Because
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  Speaker 1: it is a negative, the ridge detail is reversed from
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  Speaker 1: what would normally appear on a standard rolled fingerprint. The
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  Speaker 1: cast can then be photographed. or its surface can be
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  Speaker 1: inked using traditional fingerprint ink so that a readable flat
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  Speaker 1: impression can be rolled or transferred for entry into fingerprint databases.
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  Speaker 1: In this case, the microsol casting technique worked. The resulting
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  Speaker 1: prints were entered into multiple databases, and they generated an identification.
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  Speaker 1: In the summer of 2026, the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's
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  Speaker 1: Office announced that the man recovered on October 16, 1986,
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  Speaker 1: had finally been identified. His name was Jose Francisco Reyes Ortega.
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  Speaker 1: He was born on April 11, 1956. But while one
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  Speaker 1: mystery had been resolved, others remained. First of all, who
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: killed Jose? there's no starting point for an investigation. No
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: known next of kin could be located, and he was
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  Speaker 1: assigned an unclaimed person number. The medical examiner's office is
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: now asking anyone related to the homicide victim, or anyone
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  Speaker 1: with information that could help investigators identify or locate his relatives,
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  Speaker 1: or even kill her, to come forward. The Tarrant County
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  Speaker 1: Medical Examiner's Office can be reached at 817-9200 5700, and
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  Speaker 1: the Fort Worth Police Cold Case Unit at 817-392-4307. Around
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  Speaker 1: the time of Jose Francisco Reyes Ortega's identification, the Tarrant
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: County Medical Examiner's Office identified another man who was found
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  Speaker 1: deceased in the year 2000. Discovered on August 18th of
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  Speaker 1: that year, this man was identified as Ciro Estrada Hernandez,
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  Speaker 1: born July 16, 1969. The identification was made through routine
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: fingerprint re-examination protocol. Due to improvements in fingerprint databases and
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: potential for archive data uploads by law enforcement, the Medical
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: Examiner's Office periodically re-submits all unidentified cases in which fingerprint
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: evidence is available. The re-submission hit on a criminal history
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: for Ciro Hernandez out of California. According to the medical
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: examiner's website, the man died of natural causes. Ciro Estrada
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  Speaker 1: Hernandez also has no known next of kin. and the
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  Speaker 1: medical examiner is seeking anyone who is related to him,
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  Speaker 1: or anyone who has any information at all that might
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: help locate relatives. Again, if you have information, you can
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: contact the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office at 817-920-5700. If
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: you'd like to join Goncold's mission to shine a light
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: on unsolved homicides and missing persons cases, get the show ad-free.
• 20:35
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• 20:40
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  Speaker 1: we appreciate you. Thanks for listening, y'all.