HOUSTON (AP) – A South Texas Border Patrol supervisor charged in the killing of four women and a possible attempt on the life of a fifth is jailed in Laredo on a $2.5 million bond.
Webb County jail records show Juan David Ortiz is being held Sunday on four counts of murder, with bond set at $500,000 per charge. He also faces charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and unlawful restraint, and bond is set at $250,000 for each of those counts.
Jail records don’t list an attorney to speak for Ortiz, a 35-year-old agent from Laredo. He was arrested early Saturday when investigators found him hiding in a truck in a hotel parking lot in Laredo, about 145 miles (230 kilometers) southwest of San Antonio.
Texas authorities have accused him of killing four female sex workers and an attack on a fifth who escaped and found help.
Webb County District Attorney Isidro Alaniz says authorities consider Ortiz to be a serial killer. The victims, including a transgender woman, had been murdered since Sept. 3. The names of the victims have not been released, but Alaniz says two are U.S. citizens. Nationalities of the others are not yet known.
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