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This series contains explicit language and graphic descriptions of violence.
Editor's note: To Catch a Killer is the true story of killer Andy James Ortiz, his young victims, and the Fort Worth police and Tarrant County prosecutors who brought him to justice.The story so far A search of the Ortiz home turned up artifacts of sexual obsession. Among the items confiscated were dozens of photographs of Hispanic girls, some of whom are shown being fondled by Andy Ortiz, and more than 100 slips of paper with girls' phone numbers written on them. As police began calling the numbers, Brannan took a phone call. It was Ortiz, saying he was willing to talk.CHAPTER 17Late on the afternoon of Wednesday, July 26, 2000, Detective Curt Brannan pulled up again to the house on Lee Avenue where he and a team of officers had executed a search warrant that morning. But this time, he didn't even have to knock. Murder suspect Andy Ortiz had been watching for him and emerged from the back of the house to meet Brannan and two other officers, Detective Tom Boetcher and crime scene specialist Weldon Walles. So this was the famous Andy James Ortiz, Brannan thought, the gang member who had terrorized the north side for years, the sadistic pervert who had probably killed at least two girls and God only knew how many more.Talk about a wolf in sheep's clothing. Ortiz was short and overweight, with close-cropped dark hair and a goatee on a doughy face. He was dressed in baggy pants and a T-shirt. His handshake was flabby, his voice little more than a whisper, as if he thought he could fool the police with a choirboy demeanor. Go ahead, Brannan thought. Try to play me. Just keep thinking you're smarter than I am. Keep thinking you're two or three steps ahead of the cops. Keep thinking that because you beat a murder rap three years ago, you can beat another one now. Brannan, a Fort Worth senior homicide detective, had been down this road before.As he stood with Ortiz, Brannan decided to use the "Columbo" approach: Keep the conversation casual, the likable cop just checking things out, needing the suspect's help. After the handshake, the tall detective in a white cowboy hat patted Ortiz reassuringly on the shoulder. He thanked the suspect for calling. He apologized for any inconvenience. Brannan wanted Ortiz to like him, to think that the detective was really on his side, all part of the delicate dance between veteran homicide detective and hardened criminal. Anything to keep him from clamming up, Brannan thought. Anything to keep him talking."You're out there playing semi-ignorant, not by acting dumb but just by being kind of blase about it, like it was no big deal," Brannan recalled recently. "I would tell him that I'm not out there to cause any problems or arrest anybody. I'm just trying to figure out what happened to this girl. We think she might have been over here at a party or something. I would say, 'I'll tell you what's going on and maybe you can help.' That kind of approach.
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