0:06

Up man. An innocent

0:08

young woman meets a brutal end very

0:11

well, though with blood, all

0:13

over the place. you could tell Elizabeth's

0:16

fault, hard to get away.

0:20

Small town neighbors fear a killer lives

0:22

among them. That

0:22

was awful. It was tragic. it kinda rocked

0:25

the whole community. I was scared.

0:26

At first, a few prints in

0:28

the dirt are the only evidence. Without

0:31

the tire impressions and the shoe impressions,

0:34

We had nothing. And that lack

0:36

of clues has police bracing

0:38

for another murder.

0:40

He was on his path to being

0:42

a serial killer.

1:05

Located on a high plain just

1:07

over the border with West Texas, The

1:10

city of Hobbs is known as the oil

1:12

capital of New Mexico. Oil and

1:14

gas has been a big part of the economy here

1:16

or is longest hobbes has been here. It it probably what

1:18

put hobbes on the map. More

1:21

than eight thousand people, nearly

1:23

twenty cent of the city's population,

1:25

work in energy production. It's

1:27

really like a small town. The population

1:30

has grown primarily due to the oil

1:32

and gas industry three.

1:37

On a January afternoon in two thousand

1:39

two, two men were driving on

1:41

a dirt road a few miles out of town

1:44

when they came across the body of young

1:46

woman. she was

1:48

laying on her back, her sweatshirt

1:50

was up around her her neck, her

1:53

throat was cut, she had stabs

1:55

at her abdomen, her chest, her head,

1:57

her arms, her back. Some

2:01

of the blows to this victim were so forceful

2:03

they'd broken bones. she'd been

2:05

dead for hours. It's

2:07

such a balanced scene. It

2:09

tends to connect that

2:11

you would think that she knew

2:14

who she was where.

2:15

Investigators got

2:17

an early break since at least

2:19

part of the murder happened on a dirt road,

2:21

some evidence became apparent immediately.

2:26

We saw tire tracks, and

2:28

it looked like the vicar had pulled up off

2:30

the main road and

2:32

stopped right outside

2:34

where the pastor's front door would have

2:36

been. We located a

2:38

clump of hair. Evidence

2:41

in the dirt showed the victim had been

2:43

dragged from the passenger's seat to

2:45

where she was ultimately killed. She

2:48

had been scratching, trying to get away and close

2:50

to those scratch marks would be

2:52

pools of blood. She was clearly

2:55

trying to get away from her attacker, and

2:57

fought for her life out there.

3:00

Since the victim was fully clothed,

3:02

detectives couldn't determine on-site

3:05

if this was a sexually motivated crime.

3:08

The question now was, who was

3:10

she? A tattoo on her

3:13

domic helped provide the answer. Her

3:16

name was Elizabeth Garcia, a

3:18

twenty six year old single mother.

3:20

Elizabeth Garcia was a young woman

3:23

who was really trying to make

3:25

a better life for herself. She

3:27

had been married and

3:29

had three kids and she

3:32

was going back to school, attending classes

3:34

at New Mexico Junior College, but she had

3:36

to work.

3:37

And that meant working nights at

3:39

a convenience store called All Subs,

3:42

so she could go to school during the

3:44

day. This created a possible

3:46

connection to the murder.

3:48

Elizabeth was working for her shift

3:50

at night at the Oscars. And

3:52

her boyfriend had to go to work early,

3:54

had to be at work at three AM.

3:57

And he was gonna

3:59

stop by and just see her for, you know, a couple

4:01

minutes on his way.

4:03

But when Elizabeth's boyfriend Jaime

4:05

Pacheco got to the convenience store,

4:08

Elizabeth was gone. In fact,

4:10

the store was wide open. and

4:12

apparently abandoned, he could not

4:14

find Elizabeth. Her car was

4:17

in a parking lot, but

4:19

she was nowhere to be found. Police

4:22

were call to the store. Ten

4:25

hours later, Elizabeth was

4:27

found brutally murdered on the outskirts

4:29

of town. How would the

4:31

store and crime scene connected

4:34

or were they connected? At

4:36

first, police had no idea

4:38

and turned to impressions in the dirt

4:40

for answers.

4:47

There's interviews,

4:50

and then there are Chris Wallace interviews.

4:53

He's sitting down with some of the biggest names

4:55

out there on his new show. Watch

4:57

who's talking to Chris Wallace, Sundays

4:59

on CNN.

5:12

Following the breakup of Elizabeth Garcia's

5:15

first marriage, the single mother

5:17

was determined to make a better

5:19

life for herself AND HER THREE YOUNG

5:21

CHILDREN. Reporter:

5:21

Elizabeth GOT pregnant IN

5:24

HOSPITAL AND

5:26

THEN HAD TWO OTHER CHILDREN TO FOLLOW AND

5:28

SO SHE WAS A did

5:30

mom. But it definitely changed

5:32

her path for probably what her

5:34

plans were.

5:35

Detectives at the store from where Elizabeth

5:38

disappeared were immediately dealt

5:40

a bad break. They were surveillance

5:42

cameras, but they weren't working at the time.

5:45

There was no sign of a struggle in the

5:47

store. It

5:49

looked as if Elizabeth either left

5:51

voluntarily or was

5:53

forced out with some kind of weapon.

5:55

It was as if she just disappeared. Her car

5:58

was there, her books were there,

6:00

on the countertop, her coat was

6:02

there in the store, There was no

6:04

money in the cash register, but

6:06

there was a potential clue.

6:08

A last transaction was at two twenty

6:10

four AM Elizabeth had

6:12

written down on a piece of paper that

6:14

whoever it came in at that particular

6:16

time didn't have enough money to

6:18

pay for what they were trying to purchase She

6:20

wrote down on the receipt that it was a

6:22

rude customer or a mad customer, and

6:24

that's the last contact they

6:26

had showing her that it was at two

6:28

twenty four AM. With

6:30

no surveillance video and no

6:32

witnesses, there wasn't a way

6:34

to identify this customer. Detectives

6:39

now turned to fire tracks, and

6:41

impressions from two different shoes at

6:43

the scene of the murder. One of

6:45

those impressions matched back to Elizabeth

6:47

Garcia's shoes, The other shoe

6:49

prints and tire tracks

6:52

were presumably from the killer and his

6:54

vehicle, but analysts had

6:56

to work ask. Dirt roads do not

6:58

hold shoe impressions well. They don't hold

7:00

tire impressions well. The wind blows

7:02

here a lot. Analysts

7:06

use Dental Stone, the material

7:08

used to create permanent casts of

7:10

patients' teeth and dentures to

7:12

make casts of the impressions in

7:14

the dirt. This produced

7:16

high quality casts, but detectives

7:19

were unable to definitively actively

7:21

identify the brand of tires or

7:23

shoes. There are many,

7:25

many treads on shoes.

7:27

as we found out, tires

7:30

are the same way, so it was

7:32

hard to narrow it down. However,

7:34

if detectives could identify a

7:36

suspect and could get their

7:38

hands on their tires and shoes, the

7:40

casts could be matched to a

7:42

particular brand and then

7:44

back to their suspect. Detectives

7:46

were looking at the boyfriend of

7:49

Elizabeth as a potential suspect.

7:52

He laughed after talking to law enforcement

7:54

went on to work knowing she was missing. And

7:57

so for law enforcement, you

7:59

know, that was

7:59

a lot of red flags.

8:01

but Jaime's story held

8:03

up. He was seen at work

8:05

by numerous coworkers around

8:07

the period when Elizabeth had been

8:09

killed. there was not enough time for him

8:11

to kill her and then be at his job by

8:13

three o'clock. Elizabeth's

8:16

autopsy showed she'd been stabbed

8:18

fifty six times and was sexually

8:20

assaulted. DNA

8:22

recovered from her clothing was tested,

8:24

but in two thousand two, this

8:26

took time. With Elizabeth's

8:28

boyfriend apparently eliminated as

8:30

a suspect, detectives turned to her

8:33

ex husband Jesus Mendoza.

8:35

He wasn't paying child support. He wasn't

8:38

supporting her in any way. So

8:40

there was tensioning in between Elizabeth

8:42

and her ex husband. your

8:44

relationship had fallen apart. Obviously,

8:47

when you've got children with

8:49

someone, there's always that chance

8:51

that somehow something has come up and

8:53

something has triggered some of

8:55

that reactive violence that happened.

8:57

Mendoza, who did not have an

9:00

airtight alibi for the time of

9:02

the murder, was brought in for questioning, and

9:04

his behavior did nothing to allay

9:06

detective's suspicions. I

9:08

thought he would pull your guy. He made

9:11

several abatements it just didn't sound right.

9:13

He told me at one time you guys don't

9:15

have enough yet. He goes, I know

9:17

you're gonna be looking at me for this. As

9:19

so early on, I thought he was probably gonna

9:21

be our guy. Police

9:23

arrested Mendoza on an unrelated

9:26

charge. And in a jailhouse phone

9:28

call, he appeared to implicate

9:30

himself in his ex wife's murder.

9:32

We were monitored his phone calls, he older

9:34

friend had asked them to get rid of some

9:36

of his clothing in his cell phone. And

9:39

clearly, we thought we

9:41

had him. We we're gonna find the bloody clothes.

9:43

We're gonna find the the the shoes.

9:45

We're gonna find the tires. We're gonna find

9:47

everything we need to to solve this case.

9:49

And that's not what happened.

9:57

There's interviews,

9:59

and then there are Chris Wallace interviews.

10:02

He's sitting down with some of the biggest

10:04

names out there on his new show.

10:06

Watch who's talking to Chris Wallace Sundays

10:09

on Ciena.

10:16

The

10:22

unusual level of violence in

10:24

Elizabeth Guy's year's murder had

10:26

investigators convinced she

10:28

knew her killer. In Jesus

10:30

Mendoza, her ex husband

10:32

was acting like he might be involved.

10:35

When

10:35

they talk to him, instead of

10:37

him just being a I'm devastated by

10:40

this happening. I can't believe she's

10:42

gone. What can I do to he

10:44

was giving them odd replies and

10:47

saying things like, I know that you probably think

10:49

I did it. You know, you're probably gonna

10:51

find a way to put my DNA into

10:53

seen. A surge of Mendoza's home

10:55

turned up no shoes that matched

10:57

the impressions from the crime scene.

11:00

The same held true for his car

11:02

tires. While detectives

11:04

waited to see if his DNA matched

11:06

DNA from the crime scene,

11:08

they got a fresh tip about a man

11:10

named Stephen DeMoss. Stephen

11:12

DeMoss and another person

11:15

had been claiming they were gonna

11:17

rob an all sub store. They needed

11:19

money. They were they were both on methamphetamine.

11:22

Police combed Cobb City and the surrounding

11:24

area and couldn't find Demos.

11:27

They contacted his sister,

11:29

Shelly Lovett. she and her

11:31

husband, Paul, were once quite

11:33

close to Steven. I

11:33

remember them coming to my house and

11:36

them asking me about my brother you

11:38

know, that possibly they needed to question

11:40

him regarding this. And, of course, I

11:42

just felt like there's no way, you know, not my

11:44

brother can have possibly had something to

11:46

do with this. Shelley told detectives

11:48

she had no idea where her brother

11:50

was, but was convinced

11:52

he had a serious drug problem.

11:55

I do remember he would stay up

11:57

for maybe two or

11:58

three days.

11:59

And so there were there

12:02

were plenty signs of it. I

12:04

did suspect it pretty

12:07

early, and I knew.

12:09

And

12:09

now police learned of a weird

12:11

connection between Dimas and Elizabeth Garcia.

12:14

Dimas's father Randy was

12:16

apparently infatuated with

12:18

Elizabeth. While I was

12:20

trying to understand Elizabeth Garcia

12:23

and who she was, we learned

12:25

that she worked at a

12:27

parts store for a while, and that

12:29

a man had sent her roses or

12:31

some flowers and that

12:33

man was rammed into moss Detectives

12:37

tracked down Randy Demoss. While

12:39

he admitted an infatuation with

12:41

Elizabeth, he denied any

12:43

involvement in her murder. and

12:46

he had an alibi to back it up.

12:48

But the more police learned about his

12:50

son, Stephen. The more can soon

12:52

they became.

12:53

Stephen Demoss, I don't know if he would

12:56

be called a collector of knobs, but

12:58

he had knobs. He had had

13:00

some odd behavior. He had shaved his

13:03

head somewhere after they

13:05

believed that the offense had happened,

13:07

somewhere around that that night.

13:09

When

13:09

Demoste was finally tracked

13:11

down, he was not cooperative.

13:13

He would twist the questions

13:15

around you could tell he was

13:17

touring with us and trying to

13:19

be evasive at the same time.

13:21

He said they may have talked

13:23

about Robin an awesome store, but they didn't do

13:25

it. Said he knew Elizabeth, said his dad

13:27

knew who Elizabeth was.

13:30

but he said he didn't do it.

13:33

Detectives took Stephen

13:36

Damoss' DNA and searched his

13:38

home and car. Once

13:40

again, no shoes or

13:42

tires match the casts taken from

13:44

the crime scene. Even worse

13:46

for the investigation, the

13:48

DNA results on all the potential

13:50

suspects finally came in,

13:53

and none of the suspects matched.

13:55

they

13:55

couldn't connect any of those

13:57

individuals

13:57

to her, to this crime.

14:00

It is

14:00

absolutely devastating. We

14:03

still got somebody out there to kill this

14:05

woman. We have no idea who it is.

14:07

Police and the general public

14:09

feared an arrest would never be

14:11

made. Then sixteen months

14:13

after Elizabeth's murder, there was an

14:15

odd development. One that turned

14:17

out to have a surprise connection to

14:19

the case Two guys are driving

14:21

down the west county road here in

14:23

Hobbs, and they they see a guy

14:25

walking down the road at at the edge of the

14:27

road. He's got a lot of scratch on

14:29

him, got some blood on him, and

14:31

they they pulled over to ask the guy, hey,

14:33

you okay? He goes, you

14:35

know, I got an all occasion last night. I

14:37

woke up in a ditch. He said I got

14:39

beat up pretty bad. Can you take me home?

14:47

There's interviews,

14:49

and then there are Chris Wallace interviews.

14:52

He's sitting down with some of the biggest names out there

14:54

on his new show. Watch who's

14:57

talking to Chris Wallace. Sundays

14:59

on Sienna.

15:09

In the

15:13

spring of two thousand three, another

15:16

woman from Hobbs, New Mexico, Thirty

15:18

five year old Patty Simon was

15:20

found brutally murdered and

15:22

sexually assaulted on the outskirts

15:24

of the city. she was finally laying

15:26

on her back to their legs open,

15:29

and there was a

15:31

shirt covering her face.

15:33

She had injuries to her face

15:35

in her head, and

15:37

her throat had also been cut.

15:39

Very bloody, very gruesome

15:42

crime scene. Much like Elizabeth

15:44

Garcia's crime scene. Patty

15:46

Simon and Elizabeth Garcia

15:48

did not know each other, but

15:50

there was a connection between

15:52

the cases It concerned a story

15:54

about a videotape allegedly

15:57

made by Elizabeth's killer

15:59

just after

15:59

her murder rumor got around through

16:02

the meth community that

16:04

there was a videotape. People

16:06

swore they saw the videotape. of

16:09

the murder of Elizabeth Garcia. They

16:12

can never give it to the police, but they swore they

16:14

saw it. Ultimately, This

16:16

video was supposed to have ended up in the

16:18

possession of Patty Simon. On

16:21

the morning, Patty's body was found

16:24

A man shirtless and bloody

16:26

was walking along a remote

16:28

highway when two oil

16:30

workers drove by and stopped to talk

16:32

to him. The man said

16:34

he got beaten up after defending

16:36

a woman at a nearby bowling alley the

16:38

night before. He said he

16:40

staggered away and woke up in a

16:42

ditch. The men who found

16:44

him dropped him off at his house.

16:47

A short time later, they heard of the

16:49

Patty Simon murder and called the sheriff

16:51

who rushed to get this man in custody.

16:53

They go

16:54

to his house. At that time, when

16:56

they get there, he's He's running a

16:58

bathwater, but he hadn't showered yet.

17:00

He

17:00

scratched up. He's sunburn. He's

17:03

got blood on his pants.

17:04

they say you're not getting to bathtub,

17:07

they detain him,

17:09

taken to

17:09

the sheriff's office, and began interviewing

17:12

him. The man was twenty three year old

17:14

Paul Lovett. Detectives

17:16

investigating the Garcia murder

17:18

had seen him before.

17:20

he was the husband of Shelley Lovett,

17:23

sister of one time suspect

17:25

Steven Demoss. Paul Lovett

17:28

needed to stinked impression on detectives the

17:30

night they interviewed his wife while

17:33

trying to find who killed Elizabeth

17:35

Garcia. I remember

17:37

myself and the other detective were there in

17:39

Shelly's house. Paul loved

17:41

it. He sat on the couch, kept his head

17:43

down, didn't say anything.

17:45

I thought, you know, this guy understands

17:47

how bad this situation is. Lovett said

17:50

he didn't even know Elizabeth Garcia

17:52

and didn't murder Patty Simon,

17:54

who he said was a friend

17:57

His story was that he was driving around

17:59

with Patty, and she let a man she knew,

18:01

but he had never seen into the

18:04

car. and that this

18:04

stranger was her killer. He got

18:07

in the

18:07

car and she said, he asked

18:10

her and he got in dope. She

18:13

said, yes. and then

18:16

we tried to rob

18:18

him. What do you mean? Go

18:21

put out a lot of stuff too far.

18:25

Lovett's wife,

18:25

Shelly, said her marriage to Paul,

18:27

had been falling apart.

18:29

and he left her shortly after the

18:32

Garcia murder. He'd stopped

18:33

at the house one night and told

18:35

me I'm leaving, I'm moving

18:38

to Alabama. He got in the car

18:40

with some girl and her

18:42

baby and left.

18:44

A search

18:45

of the Lovett's home revealed

18:47

no shoes or tires that

18:49

matched the Garcia crime scene.

18:52

Detectives asked Paul's wife, Shelly,

18:54

if she had any photographs of

18:56

Paul. from around the time Elizabeth

18:58

Garcia was killed. We happen

19:00

to have some photos of

19:02

a recent family event

19:04

that we had had and

19:06

the way that he was sitting

19:09

part of the bottom of his shoe, you could

19:11

see it in the photo. So

19:13

from that, they're able to

19:15

find out a shoe model,

19:17

a shoe brand. Nike

19:20

Air Integrity. with

19:23

the same kind of a Nike shoe that was

19:25

consistent with the tracks that was bounded,

19:27

the scene of the Garcia

19:30

homicide. As

19:33

for the tires, Shelley Lovett

19:35

told police Paul's car had been sold,

19:38

but she still had the wrist

19:40

seat for tires purchased months before

19:42

the murder. And now

19:45

analysts finally had another brand

19:47

to check against their crime scene.

19:49

and it was the same brand. This

19:53

combination of evidence tied Paul

19:55

Lovett to the Garcia murder.

19:57

There is no evidence he knew her.

20:00

Investigators don't know how he got her into

20:02

his car, but the evidence

20:04

indicates that once he got her out

20:06

of town, he sexually assaulted

20:08

her and then dragged her out of the

20:10

car. A vicious fight

20:12

followed with Elizabeth dying after

20:14

dozens of stab wounds,

20:16

unknown to love it, he left

20:18

shoe prints, tire impressions,

20:20

and his DNA at

20:23

the scene. He did know

20:25

Patty Simon through their

20:27

connection with local methamphetamine users.

20:30

There was no truth to the

20:32

rumor there was any videotape of the

20:34

Garcia murder. Why

20:36

Paul Lovett killed Patty Simon?

20:38

No one knows. But prosecutors

20:41

say her blood on his clothing his

20:43

on hers leaves no

20:45

doubt that he was responsible.

20:50

Paul Lovett was ultimately found guilty

20:52

of both murders and deserving

20:54

life without parole. I

20:55

was just shocked. It was embarrassing

20:57

to me. You know, that that

21:00

was part of my past that

21:02

I was married to him. someone

21:04

that can commit the crimes that he

21:06

committed is

21:07

evil. That's a monster.

21:11

Investigators think of it could have been a serial killer in the

21:13

making and say he might have killed

21:15

again if not for the forensics

21:17

that finally took him off

21:19

the streets. I

21:21

think after he killed Elizabeth, he

21:23

didn't have any problems with killing Patty

21:26

Simon. My opinion is he would've kept killing

21:28

if we wouldn't have caught him. Thank

21:30

god. They caught him before

21:32

there was another victim.

21:35

And it, hopefully, these

21:36

two were the only too. Hobbs has a

21:38

lot of murders, but they don't have a lot

21:40

of murders like this. It did happen on

21:43

my watch, and

21:45

I took