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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 farHomicide Detective Joe Thornton was sure that gang member Andy Ortiz had killed 15-year-old Armida Garcia, but he still had to prove it. His opportunity came when Ortiz was finally arrested and taken to police headquarters for interrogation.CHAPTER 8Detective Joe Thornton was the first to admit that he might not be suited to a long career investigating murders. If ever there was a job that needed to be left at the office, it was that one, with its gore and heartbreak and regular acquaintance with evil. Thornton was far too prone to taking his work home."I can remember waking up at night and thinking about a case, wondering if I did this, did I do that? Did I do what I should have done?" Thornton, now a supervisor in the Fort Worth Police Department's narcotics division, remembered in an interview. "And I would have to make a note to check it in the morning. A lot of times, I wouldn't go back to sleep because my head started going about things. I don't know that my personality was such that I could have done it for a lot of years, like some guys did. I don't know if I would have gotten any rest."Thornton's stint in homicide began in early 1997. It ended two years later, when he was promoted to sergeant and transferred to the SWAT team as a supervisor. During those two years, no murder case disrupted his sleep more than the rape and strangulation of a 15-year-old north-side girl named Armida Garcia. And nothing about that case haunted him more than the interrogation late on Friday night, Aug. 8, 1997.Thornton got the call he had been waiting for about 10:30 that night. The homicide supervisor, Sgt. Paul Kratz, said that suspect Andy Ortiz had been arrested and that Ortiz would be waiting for Thornton in the homicide unit interrogation room downtown. So Thornton said goodbye to his family and set off for police headquarters, mentally preparing his line of questioning and tamping down his adrenaline before the crucial confrontation.And it was crucial. Thornton's case against Ortiz to that point was lacking in physical evidence. The girl's autopsy had indicated rape, but there was no recoverable semen, meaning no DNA. What had seemed to be bite marks on the victim's right shoulder had actually been made by some sort of tool, which meant there was no chance to compare the wound with Ortiz's teeth. Several hairs that might have belonged to the killer were recovered from Armida's body, but the results of genetic testing might not be available for weeks or longer. Simply put, Thornton needed a confession.He rode the elevator to the third-floor homicide unit, then conferred with one of the officers who had made the arrest, hearing how Ortiz had begged not to be killed. The lack of belligerence was encouraging, Thornton thought.
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