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The Savage Slaying of Esther Gevara Broberg · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: The Gone Cold. Podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised. Just after nine thirty am on
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  Speaker 1: May twenty second, nineteen eighty three, police officers were dispatched
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  Speaker 1: to E. H. Gibvens Park in Austin, Texas, minutes before
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  Speaker 1: softball players were making their way to the baseball diamond
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  Speaker 1: there when they noticed in the distance articles of clothing
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  Speaker 1: scattered around in a grassy field just southeast of the
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  Speaker 1: park swimming pool. It was out of the ordinary, at
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  Speaker 1: least enough to draw the ballplayer's curiosity, even if they
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  Speaker 1: thought little of the significance of the littered articles. As
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  Speaker 1: they drew nearer, however, they realized the gravity of their discovery,
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  Speaker 1: and it was something that would weigh heavily on their
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  Speaker 1: minds for decades to come, if not for the rest
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  Speaker 1: of their lives. Near the clothing, also in the grass,
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  Speaker 1: laid the nude and bloodied body of a woman. One
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  Speaker 1: of these passers by rushed to the nearest phone to
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  Speaker 1: call nine to one one. The emergency call system was
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  Speaker 1: only a year old in Austin, but was the most
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  Speaker 1: sophisticated in the state. Officers arrived at Gibbons Park in
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  Speaker 1: no time. It was a scene all too familiar to
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  Speaker 1: Austin Police homicide detective Sergeant Juan Gonzales. When he and
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  Speaker 1: other investigators arrived, Sergeant Gonzales's mind began racing the brutal
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  Speaker 1: murder of this woman. He thought couldn't be the work
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  Speaker 1: of the Barton Creek rapist since he stocked his victims
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  Speaker 1: clear on the other side of town. Or could it
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  Speaker 1: that assailant, whoever he was, might have killed thirty three
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  Speaker 1: year old Sally Tulos almost three months before, to the
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  Speaker 1: west of the city's downtown at Zilker Metropolitan Park. This
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  Speaker 1: victim looked as if she could be the same age range,
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  Speaker 1: and like Sally, she had been stabbed in the neck,
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  Speaker 1: but this woman had also been stabbed several other times.
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  Speaker 1: Sergeant Gonzales noticed she had died as the result of
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  Speaker 1: violence in which he'd seldom seen matched in its sheer brutality.
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  Speaker 1: The detective knew whoever was responsible needed to be taken
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  Speaker 1: off the streets of his city and fast. A few
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  Speaker 1: miles northwest, in Austin's Hyde Park neighborhood, Roy Broberg and
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  Speaker 1: his two daughters were getting ready for church esther the
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  Speaker 1: girl's mother hadn't made it home the night before. She
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  Speaker 1: was supposed to have called Roy for a ride home,
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  Speaker 1: but hadn't. Though he was worried, Roy figured Esther had
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  Speaker 1: just tied one on and crashed at her close friend
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  Speaker 1: Paula's house, with whom she'd been out late the night before.
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  Speaker 1: Then came a knock on the door. Roy answered when
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  Speaker 1: the men standing on the porch identified themselves as APD
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  Speaker 1: Austin Police, he knew before they said another word. The
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  Speaker 1: girls heard their father cry out in disbelief as the
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  Speaker 1: policeman told Roy that their mother, Ester Gavara Broberg, was
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  Speaker 1: found dead in Gibbons Park. Ester Gavara was born on
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  Speaker 1: May tenth, nineteen forty eight, in Travis County, Texas. As
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: a lifelong resident, she had many friends in the state's
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  Speaker 1: capital city, Austin. It helped that one of Ester's favorite
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  Speaker 1: pastimes was bowling. While doing so, she interacted with folks
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  Speaker 1: from all over the community. She also loved to go fishing.
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  Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty six, Esther met Roy Albert Broberg, and
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  Speaker 1: a year later, in June of nineteen sixty seven, she
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  Speaker 1: became Ester Gavara Broberg for reasons unknown to us, Roy
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  Speaker 1: and Esther divorced in nineteen seventy five, but they remained
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  Speaker 1: close friends and co parents for their daughters, Gloria and Ramona.
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  Speaker 1: In December of nineteen eighty two, Roy, then vice president
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  Speaker 1: and general manager of the lumber company Austin Red Cedar's
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  Speaker 1: Supply Incorporated, sustained major injuries as the result of an
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  Speaker 1: auto accident. Esther, who had been working at an area
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  Speaker 1: car wash, quit her job and moved her and the
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  Speaker 1: girls back in with Roy so she could help him recover.
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  Speaker 1: She was a kind hearted person, her daughter Romo later said,
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  Speaker 1: as a special thanks to Esther for nursing him back
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  Speaker 1: to health, Roy planned to give her a sixty six
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  Speaker 1: Ford Mustang he had restored. Back together under one roof,
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  Speaker 1: a romance was rekindled. Esther and Roy decided to remarry
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  Speaker 1: once he was able to get up and around better.
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  Speaker 1: The family, it seemed, though never truly broken, was on
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  Speaker 1: the mend. On the evening of Saturday May twenty first,
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  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty three, Roy and ester Broberg went out to
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  Speaker 1: eat before he dropped her off at a tavern in
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  Speaker 1: East Austin to meet some friends. That was about ten
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  Speaker 1: thirty pm. At about two am now Sunday, May twenty second,
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  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty three, Esther's close friend Paula Pheelin later said
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  Speaker 1: the party moved to a place called Ernie's Chicken Shack,
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  Speaker 1: a popular after hours joint that was known to be
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  Speaker 1: in the crosshair of the local cops and TABC or
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  Speaker 1: Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. At Ernie's, Esther hung out with Paula,
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  Speaker 1: of course, as well as Paula's brother, thirty two year
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  Speaker 1: old Jose Reyes and Paula's son eighteen year old Robert Rayes,
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  Speaker 1: along with some of his friends, including it was later
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  Speaker 1: said twenty year old Fernando Estrada. In an effort to
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  Speaker 1: avoid being witnessed to sunrise, the group parted ways at
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  Speaker 1: about five thirty am. About four hours later, prospective softball
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  Speaker 1: players at Givens Park found the body of Esther Gavara Broberg.
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  Speaker 1: Roy Broberg, who Esther was planning to remarry, and their daughters,
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  Speaker 1: were devastated by the news of her death. Had it
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  Speaker 1: been a tragic accident, the death would have been a nightmare.
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  Speaker 1: But it wasn't. This was something else, something far worse,
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  Speaker 1: as the autopsy showed this was an act that was
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  Speaker 1: unfathomable and brutally depraved in its perpetration. On Monday May
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  Speaker 1: twenty third, nineteen eighty three, Travis County Medical Examiner doctor
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  Speaker 1: Roberto Bayardo reported the findings of his autopsy to the
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  Speaker 1: detectives on the case. Ester Broberg had been stabbed a
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  Speaker 1: total of eleven times in her back, right shoulder, right buttock, chest,
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  Speaker 1: and neck. The wounds were made using a single edged knife, probably,
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  Speaker 1: doctor Bayardo said, a large folding knife. There were other injuries,
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  Speaker 1: but police kept them from the press for the time being.
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  Speaker 1: Doctor Bayardo also reported that Esther likely bled to death
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  Speaker 1: within ten minutes of the stabbing, and that she was
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  Speaker 1: killed less than two hours before she was found. Where
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  Speaker 1: the wounds were inflicted was a short distance from where
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  Speaker 1: her body was discovered. Esther had been raped on Monday
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  Speaker 1: May twenty fourth, nineteen eighty three. Funeral services for ester
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  Speaker 1: Broberg were held at Mission Funeral Home. Later that day,
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  Speaker 1: she was buried at Assumption Cemetery. Alongside details of the
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  Speaker 1: autopsy report, an Austin Police spokesperson announced they had no
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  Speaker 1: suspects in the preceding month and a half that certainly
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  Speaker 1: appeared to be the case, The capital city's newspaper, The
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  Speaker 1: Austin American Statesman, had little to nothing to report about
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  Speaker 1: the investigation, nor did other local news sources. Meanwhile, two
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  Speaker 1: hundred and seventy miles away, not far from the Texas
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  Speaker 1: Oklahoma border, in the small city of Montague, Henry Lee
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  Speaker 1: Lucas began confessing to many of the state's unsolved murders
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  Speaker 1: while locked up in the county jail. Law enforcement described
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  Speaker 1: Lucas's as a drifter, which was incredibly deceptive, but created
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  Speaker 1: purposefully to explain the hundreds of confessions to come stretching
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  Speaker 1: across the United States, including a handful in Austin, Texas. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 1: media and even a few small town police agencies continued
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  Speaker 1: to propagate the false drifting prolific serial killer narrative to
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  Speaker 1: this day. Anyway, had the Austin police needed a suspect
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  Speaker 1: after Henry Lee Lucas became a jet setting Texas sensation,
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  Speaker 1: there's no doubt they would have looked to him for
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  Speaker 1: the murder of Ester Gavara Broberg. But no matter what
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  Speaker 1: they told the media, they didn't need one. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: detectives had arrested someone within hours of the discovery of
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  Speaker 1: Esther's body. On Thursday, June ninth, nineteen eighty three, Austin
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  Speaker 1: Police detectives arrested thirty two year old Jose Rayes again,
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  Speaker 1: although it had been kept quiet. Rayes was arrested just
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  Speaker 1: a few hours after the body of Esther Broberg was
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  Speaker 1: found in a grassy field at Givens Park, within several
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  Speaker 1: hours of the brutal sexual assault and murder of a
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  Speaker 1: woman who had celebrated her thirty fifth birthday less than
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  Speaker 1: two weeks before, and been celebrated on Mother's Day just
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  Speaker 1: two days before that. However, Rayes was released later that day.
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  Speaker 1: The second arrest followed a diligent investigation by Austin Police
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  Speaker 1: Homicide Detective Sergeant Juan Gonzales. Subsequently, the lawman took the
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  Speaker 1: confession of Jose Rayes. He was among his sister Paula
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  Speaker 1: and others at Ernie's Chicken Shack just hours before the
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  Speaker 1: discs recovery of Esther's body. Paula was also Ester's close friend.
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  Speaker 1: Others were there, including Robert Reyes, Paula's eighteen year old son,
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  Speaker 1: and allegedly his friend Fernando Estrada, twenty years old. When
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  Speaker 1: they all parted ways. These two young men and Jose Rayes,
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  Speaker 1: he confessed to Sergeant Gonzales, all took part in the
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  Speaker 1: murder of Esther Gevara Broberg. After they left Ernie's, Rayes
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  Speaker 1: told him they forced Esther into Estrada's blue nineteen seventy
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  Speaker 1: six linking Continental. Then they drove her the short distance
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  Speaker 1: to Gibbons Park, which was vacant at that time, and
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  Speaker 1: stopped the car in a poorly lit area. Upon pulling
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  Speaker 1: Esther from the car, two of them held her down
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  Speaker 1: as the other raped her. All three took their turns,
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  Speaker 1: all sexually assaulted Esther and all stabbed her, Rayes said
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  Speaker 1: in his statement to police. She was stabbed a total
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  Speaker 1: of eleven times, according to the Travis County Medical Examiner.
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  Speaker 1: As she fought, Rayes continued, his nephew Robert, was the
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  Speaker 1: first to thrust the knife into Esther, striking her in
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  Speaker 1: the throat. Estrada, Rayes told Detective Sergeant Gonzales had stabbed
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  Speaker 1: Esther in her abdomen. They got back in the car
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  Speaker 1: to flee the scene. Jose Reyes told the detective and
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  Speaker 1: Fernando Estrada expressed that he was going to run over Esther,
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  Speaker 1: and according to Rayes, he did. The fact that the
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  Speaker 1: victim sustained injuries consistent with being run over by a
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  Speaker 1: car hadn't been made public before the confession. It had
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  Speaker 1: been reported to police early on that these three men
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  Speaker 1: had argued with Esther and some friends at an East
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  Speaker 1: Austin bar a week before the slang, and while that
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  Speaker 1: might have had some bearing on the egregious crime, the
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  Speaker 1: motive at its core appeared to be nothing more than
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  Speaker 1: to sexually assault her. Warrants for the arrests of Fernando
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  Speaker 1: Estrada and Robert Rayes were quickly written up and signed
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  Speaker 1: off on by a Travis County judge. Estrada was soon
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  Speaker 1: taken into custody. He denied any involvement. Austin Police investigators
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  Speaker 1: also secured a warrant to search Estrada's linking continental. Inside
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  Speaker 1: the vehicle, police found a large knife. Tests determined stains
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  Speaker 1: found on the weapon or human blood. At some point,
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  Speaker 1: a relative of Robert Rayes had told police he had
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  Speaker 1: confessed Esther's murder to him. Austin Police detectives took Robert
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  Speaker 1: into custody. He also denied involvement. On Friday, June tenth,
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  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty three, Jose Rayes, Fernando Estrada, and Robert Rayes
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  Speaker 1: were officially charged with capital murder, and a judge ordered
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  Speaker 1: them to be held without bail. Justice, it seemed, was
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  Speaker 1: on the horizon. They sat in custody for some time. However,
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  Speaker 1: charges against Fernando Estrada and Robert Rayes were dismissed and
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  Speaker 1: the two young men were released from the Travis County jail.
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  Speaker 1: Austin Police homicide detectives were unable to develop any further
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  Speaker 1: evidence against Robert and Estrada, leaving them with only the
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  Speaker 1: confession of Jose Reyes implicating them in the crime. According
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  Speaker 1: to the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, a conviction to
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  Speaker 1: directly quote the law cannot be had upon the testimony
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  Speaker 1: of an accomplice unless corroborated by other evidence tending to
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  Speaker 1: connect the defendant with the offense committed. This went for
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  Speaker 1: being held in jail as well. The relation who claimed
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  Speaker 1: Robert Reyes confessed to him had since recanted his statement.
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  Speaker 1: Although a large knife had been found in the blue
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  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy six link in Continental that belonged to Fernando Estrada,
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  Speaker 1: blood typing analysis had failed. Police could not determine if
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  Speaker 1: the traces of blood found on the knife were a
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  Speaker 1: match for Ester Gavara Broberg. The disappointment and frustration the
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  Speaker 1: victims loved ones felt was unimaginable, impossible to fathom. Still,
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  Speaker 1: Jose Reyes remained in custody, at least for the time being.
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  Speaker 1: On the morning of Wednesday, July twenty fifth, nineteen eighty four,
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  Speaker 1: after nearly a year behind bars, a Texas State District
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  Speaker 1: Court jury gathered at the Travis County Courthouse at one
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  Speaker 1: thousand Guadalupe Street before District Judge Bob Perkins or d
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  Speaker 1: Assistant District Attorney David Reynolds, Sergeant Jan Gonzales of Austin
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  Speaker 1: Police homicide, psychiatrist doctor Richard Coons, and psychologist doctor George Parker,
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  Speaker 1: defense attorney Larry Dowling, and the defendant himself, Jose Reyes,
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  Speaker 1: now thirty three years old. This was a competency hearing
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  Speaker 1: to determine whether or not Rayes could even go to trial.
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  Speaker 1: Doctor Parker reported that Reyes could neither perform simple addition
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  Speaker 1: nor repeat back a series of four numbers immediately after
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  Speaker 1: they were spoken to him with an IQ of only
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  Speaker 1: fifty one. They found that the defendant was not only
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  Speaker 1: incompetent to stand trial, but also that he didn't have
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  Speaker 1: the mental capacity to understand and then waive his constitutional
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  Speaker 1: right to have an attorney present. He could not have
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  Speaker 1: waived his right to remain silent knowingly and intelligence the
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  Speaker 1: doctors testified, which they said called into question the validity
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  Speaker 1: of his confessions, as far as the legality of their
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  Speaker 1: use against him in a court of law. Rayes didn't
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  Speaker 1: understand the questions police asked they told the jury, nor
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  Speaker 1: could he comprehend the statements he was signing. Doctor Coons
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  Speaker 1: wrote in his report that Rayes had poor judgment, poor
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  Speaker 1: emotional control, and is easily led. Sergeant Jan Gonzales agreed
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  Speaker 1: the accused was easily influenced, adding that after all, he'd
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  Speaker 1: been influenced to kill Ester Broberg. It did not matter
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  Speaker 1: whether you could read or write. The homicide detective remarked,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: you can still commit murder. Still, the district court jury
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: leaned in favor of the psychiatrist and psychologist. Capital murder
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: charges against Jose Rayes, they ultimately decided should be dismissed.
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  Speaker 1: Sergeant Gonzales was annoyed. Rayes was competent and sane when
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: he gave his several confessions. Rayes's conscience was getting the
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  Speaker 1: best of him, as he cried like a baby while confessing.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: Gonzales continued meaning he believed his suspect was fully capable
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  Speaker 1: of understanding everything from the moment he abducted Esther Broberg,
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  Speaker 1: a beloved mother of two, to the point in which
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: he admitted to his role in the crime. His inconsolable
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: sobbing during confessions showed that he knew damn well the
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: difference between right and wrong. Much later, science would uncover
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: something that strongly suggests Detective Sergeant Juan Gonzales was more
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: correct than he ever could have possibly imagined at the time.
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  Speaker 1: Assistant DA David Reynolds also expressed his disappointment with the
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  Speaker 1: disas it was a shame the criminal justice system couldn't
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: do more with people like Jose Rayes, he said, But
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: Reynolds continued he was pursuing having Rayes institutionalized in a
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: mental health facility to get him off the streets. That
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: didn't go he or Sergeant Gonzalez's way either. After arguing
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: at a later hearing that Jose Rayes was a danger
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  Speaker 1: to society. Prosecutor Reynolds likely felt confident the state jury
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  Speaker 1: would agree the horrific crime against esther Broberg, after all,
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  Speaker 1: would certainly strike the cord of decency within any human
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  Speaker 1: being that had won. Rayes, whether incompetent to stand trial
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  Speaker 1: or not, hadn't been coerced into any of his many confessions.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: A team of mental health professionals, however, disagreed that Rayes
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: was a risk to anyone. They testify that, despite the
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: allegations against him, Rayes had been cooperative and friendly and
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: was fully capable of functioning independently in the community. That
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: last finding was one that seemed to go against the
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: psychological and psychiatric profile at the first hearing, when doctors
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: Coons and Parker decided Rayes was incapable of knowingly and
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: intelligently doing just about anything. This new team of doctors suggested,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: as a sort of meet in the middle solution to
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: the problem that Jose Rayes be placed in a residential
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: care facility. The state district jury at the second hearing,
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: perhaps doubling as county treasurers by Night, decided against both
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: institutionalization and residential care. Rayes went back home instead, to
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: his mother's house just south of Gibbons Park, where Esther
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: was slain. For Esther Broberg's family, the only thing more
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: devastating than the outcomes of these hearings was the callous
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: and depraved crime itself. With no evidence against the other
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: two men Jose Rayes implicated in the abduction, rape and murder,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: the case went cold. In another statement that would eventually
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: age like a carton of milk left out in the
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: summer Texas sun, Jose Rayes's defense attorney, Larry Dowling said
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: his client had been quote victimized like that woman had
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: been victimized end quote. But to be fair, Dowling had
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: no idea what technology would be able to do in
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: a couple decades. When the case against Jose rays As
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: fell apart, rendering the ester Gaevara Broberg homicide case cold,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: the detective who had investigated it from the beginning was
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: rightfully angry. I think the judicial system is lacking, Austin
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: police sergeant Jan Gonzales told reporters, after minimalizing his feelings
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: as annoyance through gritted teeth, I'm frustrated and this is
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: one of the reasons I'm looking to get out of homicide.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: He added. The detective lamented about having to tell the
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: families that their loved ones likely killer is to be
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: released set back out on the streets of Austin. The
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: victim's ex husband, who she was soon to remarry, Roy Broberg,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: had also begun to question the justice system he'd been
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: taught to trust. Roy retired and moved to Mexico a
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: couple years later. He died in January of two thousand
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: and two after a long battle with illness. It was
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: four years before the most important development on Ester's case occurred.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: In August of two thousand and six. Quietly, a Travis
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: County grand jury indicted Jose Reyes for the nineteen eighty
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  Speaker 1: three capital murder of Ester Broberg. In two thousand and five,
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Sergeant John Neff was among the detectives working cold cases
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: at the Austin Police Department when they stumbled upon Ester's case.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: As they flipped through the files they could find, they
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: discovered physical evidence had been collected, blood taken from one
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: of the suspect's car, and seamen from the victim's body.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: The items were located, found to be well preserved, and
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: given to the APD's forensic lab for DNA analysis. When
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: the results came back, investigators weren't necessarily surprised to learn
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: that there were two separate male DNA profiles. They quickly
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: filed search warrant affide fit, requesting a judge allow them
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  Speaker 1: to take finger and palm prints, as well as saliva
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  Speaker 1: from three original suspects, Fernando Estrada, then forty four years old,
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: Robert Rayes forty two years old, and Jose Rayes fifty
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: five years old. All three were still living in the
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  Speaker 1: Austin area. One of the men saliva matched the DNA
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: evidence collected in Esther's case. Jose Rayes was arrested and
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: booked into the Travis County Jail on Tuesday, September nineteenth,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: two thousand and six. They located Robert Rayes, who by
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: this time had a lengthy criminal record ranging from drugs
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: to burglary, and was no stranger to Texas prisons, but
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: he wouldn't be sent back in this case. He gave
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: his DNA and when compared, it was not a match
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: to the second profile. They tracked down Fernando Estrada, who
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: said he was eager to give a saliva sample, so
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: he could be cleared of the crime against Esther once
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: and for all. He wasn't even at Ernie's chickenshack the
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: night she was killed, he told reporters for the Austin
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: Statesman newspaper. It was subsequently reported that police had no
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: new evidence against Estrada or Robert Reyes, meaning Estrada wasn't
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: a match to the DNA evidence. Neither were a match
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: for partial prints found at the scene either. While it
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: didn't necessarily mean Fernando and Robert weren't there, it certainly
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: implicated someone else in the heinous attacks against Esther Broberg,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: someone unknown and not on the cops radar. And there
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: was an even bigger implication than that. Really, it meant
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: that Jose Reyes, whose DNA was found on Esther, had
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: almost certainly lied to protect that unknown someone. This level
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: of criminal intelligence is at odds with psychiatrist and psychologist
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: diagnoses that Rayes couldn't understand his miranda rights or how
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: to respond to them. The DNA match shattered doctor's suggestions
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: that detectives influenced or coerced his many confessions. Still, and
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: although Esther's daughters were again dragged through the painful memories
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: and newly emerged horrific details about the crime. A competency
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: evaluation of Rayes was again ordered, and by one of
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: the same doctors who had diagnosed him in nineteen eighty four,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: psychiatrist Richard Coons. The same judge in fact, was again
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: assigned the case, as was the original court appointed defense attorney,
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: Larry Dowling. The family of Jose Rayes, his sister and
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: brother in law with whom he lived, insisted he was
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: not the bad person everyone was making amount to be.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: This case is full of cringey quotes. Here's one. That
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: thing happened in nineteen eighty three, Rayes's brother in law
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: told an Austin Statesman reporter, adding, the guy doesn't even
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: remember that. But it wasn't just that thing. In nineteen
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: ninety six, Rayes was charged with two counts of indecency
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: with a child by contact after accusations made by his nieces,
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: one a teenager and the other eight years old. He
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: was indicted by a grand jury, but after being evaluated
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: by none other than doctor Richard Coons, charges were dropped
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: when Rayes was declared incompetent to stand trial, and again
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: in a report he filed. At the end of October
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: two thousand and six, doctor Coons determined Jose Rayes incompetent
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: to stand trial in the nineteen eighty three abduction, rape,
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: and murder of Esther go Zavara Broberg. He had mild
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: to moderate intellectual disability, the doctor said in similar outdated terms,
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: and will likely never gain competency to stand trial. District
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: Judge Bob Perkins ordered that Reyes be examined and treated
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: at a secure state mental health facility in Vernon. He
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: expected a second opinion competency report in one hundred and
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: twenty days. In April of two thousand and seven, doctors
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: at North Texas State Hospital also determined that Jose Rayes
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: was not fit for trial. Travis County Assistant District Attorney
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: Darla Davis was forced to drop the charges. However, she
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: wasn't about to relent. Davis filed a motion asking the
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: court to order Jose Rayes to a state residential living facility.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: Having committed the rape and murder of Vester Broberg in
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty three, the sexual abuse of his two nieces
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety six, there was no telling what other
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: heinous crimes he was responsible for in between and since
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: eighty A. Davis knew Rayes was an extreme and continued
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: danger to the community. A hearing was set for thirty days,
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: although it was delayed. In the meantime. On the twenty
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: fourth anniversary of her murder, Esther Broberg's family placed flowers
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: at her headstone. Ester's daughter Ramona, plastered flyers around East
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: Austin to get the word out about a three thousand
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: dollars reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: in her mother's case. The reward included funds from both
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: the Roberg family and Capital City crime Stoppers. At a
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: hearing on Friday July sixth, two thousand and seven, Judge
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: Bob Perkins ordered fifty seven year old Jose Rayes indefinitely
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: committed to a state institution, and the defense raised no objections.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: Ramona Broberg was glad this killer was taken off the streets,
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: but hardly felt that justice had been served for her mother.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: The contributor to a second DNA profile lifted from evidence
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: in Esther's case, after all, was still unknown. Someone else
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: had a hand in the terrible crime, and until that
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: person is identified and brought before a jury, there will
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: be no justice for Esther. In November twenty sixteen, one
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: of the other two suspects implicated by Jose Reyes in
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: his confessions, Fernando Estrada, died at age fifty four. If
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: you have any information about the abduction, rape, and murder
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: of Esther Gevara Broberg, please call the Austin Police Department
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: Homicide Tip Line at five one two four seven seven
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: three five eight AIS. The Homicide Cold Case Unit can
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: also be contacted by email. Will provide a link to
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: that in the show notes. You can provide information by
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: calling crime Stoppers at five one two four seven to
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: two eight four seven seven. If you like gon Cold's
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: mission to renew the public's interest in cold cases, you
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: can support the show at Patreon dot com slash Gone
• 31:26
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• 31:30
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• 31:34
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• 31:38
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• 31:40
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• 31:45
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• 31:49
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• 31:53
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• 31:57
  Speaker 1: Cold Podcast. You can also find a link in bio
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: in the episode's description. Thanks for listening, y'all.