Chapter 11 | For a naive young wife, the darkness comes to light

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

Investigations into the murders of Brenda Salazar and Armida Garcia had gone into the cold-case files. Although Andy Ortiz was arrested in connection with Armida's murder, prosecutors did not consider the evidence against him adequate for trial. He was sent to prison for an unrelated parole violation and released in 1999.

CHAPTER 11

Anna had much in common with the victims of Andy Ortiz. She was young, for one thing, just 15 when she met the north-side gang member, who was eight years older. She was also pretty, with dark hair and lovely eyes. And like many of the others, she was hopelessly naive, another starry-eyed child who bought Ortiz's pickup lines, another girl who would believe his declarations of love.

But there was something different about Anna, though exactly what it was perhaps only Ortiz could say. While he typically skulked around in the shadows, seducing young girls in places where no one else would see, he courted Anna in plain sight, with the blessing of his parents and hers. Her name would end up tattooed on Ortiz's right arm, near the name of his mother, Stella.

They had met early in 1997, introduced by Ortiz's older brother, David, who had met Anna's family a few months before. The relationship between Andy and Anna began later that year when Ortiz was sent to prison for violating his parole and he began to write to the girl from his cell.

One topic of conversation was what had happened that August, when police had accused him of raping and strangling a 15-year-old girl named Armida Garcia. In his letters to Anna, he insisted that he was innocent. The cops had tried to make him a scapegoat because of his long criminal record, he said. If he were guilty, Andy wrote to Anna, he would have been tried for murder, but that never happened.

So the girl believed him, especially when Ortiz began to write that he loved her, that he wanted her to be his girlfriend. Anna began taking weekend drives to prison with Ortiz's parents, sitting with them in visiting rooms as she and her older boyfriend made awkward conversation.

Then came the day in July 1999 when David Ortiz Sr. and his wife, Stella, came by Anna's house on the south side of Fort Worth, saying that they had a surprise for her. It was "a big bear," they said, but the girl, then 17, would have to ride with them to see it. So, with her parents' permission, Anna hopped into the back seat of the Ortiz family SUV.

It was a long trip, as it turned out, all the way to downtown Dallas and a parking spot outside the bus station. Stella Ortiz rushed off into the afternoon, leaving her husband and Anna waiting in the SUV. When Stella returned a few minutes later, Andy was at her side, wearing khakis and a white shirt. He hugged Anna, then sat with her in the back seat as his father stopped at Wendy's to buy hamburgers as a way of celebrating his son's freedom. But for Anna, there was one more big surprise that day. The ex-con, her 25-year-old boyfriend, was coming to live at her house.

An odd living arrangement

It was hard not to feel for the Ortiz family. The summer before, Andy's younger brother, Elton, had been arrested in the fatal shooting of a man in a dispute over a girl. (Elton would eventually be sentenced to 99 years in prison.) Then, early in 1999, the family's north-side home on Lee Avenue was badly damaged in a fire, rendering most of the place unlivable. That was why Stella Ortiz approached Anna's mom, Leticia, with this question: When Andy was released from prison, could he stay with them? (At their request, Anna and her parents are not identified by their full, legal names.)

How could Leticia say no? She and her husband, Jesus, were devout Christians and thus felt obligated to help those in need. Given his criminal past, Andy clearly needed religion in his life, and perhaps Anna's family could help steer him to the Lord. What's more, Andy and Anna had grown close in recent months, a development the girl's parents were not happy about. But Anna seemed smitten, determined to carry on with the guy, and with Andy living in the house, it would be easier to keep an eye on the young couple.

At first, the strange living arrangement seemed to work. Andy was respectful to Anna's parents and playful with her younger brothers. He was glad to help out around the house. He bought Anna flowers and trinkets and seemed genuinely affectionate. He also seemed genuine in his desire to straighten out his life. Leticia would always remember that Sunday morning in church when Andy stepped forward to the altar during a healing ceremony and the minister placed his hands on each side of the ex-con's head.

"I see you have been through a lot of darkness, a lot of danger," the minister said. "But the Lord will save and protect your life."

Andy sobbed as the minister spoke, shedding the kind of tears that spill directly from a person's battered soul, Leticia thought that day. A person didn't see heavy tears like that very often.

But then Leticia started to see his darker side, the rage that would fill his eyes and the shadows that crossed his face when he became angry. One night was particularly memorable. Anna, who was still a student at Paschal High School, insisted on going out with her friends, but Andy flew into a rage and seemed to come within an eyelash of striking her. He followed Anna out of the house and threatened one of her friends with a brick.

What's more, a woman had called from down the street, saying that Andy had been leering at her young daughter as he followed her home from school. Anna's friends told her that Andy had started hitting on them, too. When Anna confronted him, he was vehement in his denials. And despite her growing doubts, she continued to be drawn to him.

On a night in late 1999, Andy proposed to Anna in the family living room, with the girl's mother sitting right there. On Jan. 29, 2000, standing before a judge in that same living room, the couple exchanged vows, then spent a honeymoon night at the Renaissance Worthington Hotel downtown.

But if anything, the marriage only intensified Anna's growing doubts about her husband. She took her wedding vows seriously and began to ponder a lifetime spent with a guy who had a perpetually roving eye, a guy who always seemed on the verge of rage.

"At that time, I would pray to God every day," Anna remembered. "I felt in my heart I had made a big mistake with this man. I asked God to do something to take him out of my life."

Anna's mother, it turned out, would be the answer to her prayers. On March 8, 2000, just more than a month after the wedding, Leticia had had enough. She could stand idly by no more and ordered Andy out of the house. Anna returned from school that day just as her husband was leaving.

"When he left, I was so happy," Anna remembered. "I thought, 'I'm free.'"

But she wasn't, at least not yet. According to police complaints filed by Anna, Andy started calling her house after the breakup, threatening to "kill you all." On the afternoon of March 22, when Leticia picked up Anna at school, Andy and a friend followed them down the street in a pickup. Andy pulled up next to Leticia's car at a nearby convenience store and again threatened to kill Anna.

The incident was reported to police the next day. Officers called Andy's parole officer and the threats quickly ended. Anna burned all of Andy's letters and tried to move on with her life after divorcing him. It was sometime in August that the horrifying headlines appeared about Andy and the dead girls, news that made Anna shudder.

"That could have been me," she thought.

"To Catch a Killer" is taking a three-day break, and will resume Sunday with Chapter 12: Another grisly discovery.

Timeline

1984: Detective Curt Brannan joins the homicide unit of the Fort Worth Police Department.

Nov. 25, 1990: Andy Ortiz is arrested in the burglary of a car, the first of his many arrests as an adult.

Sept. 4, 1991: Ortiz is accused of kidnapping a 13-year-old girl. An aggravated-kidnapping charge is dismissed as part of a plea bargain when Ortiz agrees to a nine-year sentence for earlier burglaries. He is paroled after nine months.

Aug. 8, 1993: Ortiz is accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl, but there isn't enough evidence to go to trial. He is returned to jail on a parole violation and is released after serving one year.

Early 1995: Ortiz first meets 13-year-old Armida Garcia at a convenience store and gets her phone number.

1995: Ortiz begins corresponding with and calling Garcia from jail, where he is doing time on a theft charge.

December 1995: Ortiz is released from prison.

Summer 1996: Nineteen-year-old Brenda Salazar moves to North Texas to pursue a job in the airline industry.

1997: Detective Joe Thornton joins the homicide unit.

May 26, 1997: Salazar's roommate returns from out of town and discovers Salazar's body in their apartment just after 5 p.m. She was killed either late on May 25 or early on May 26.

July 9, 1997: A 12-year-old girl is raped by a man matching Ortiz's description; fearful of reprisals, she decides not to pursue the case.

July 19, 1997: Ortiz tries to kiss Garcia and is rebuffed by her; they don't speak again for two weeks.

Aug. 3, 1997: Garcia is strangled in her parents' bedroom.

Aug. 4, 1997: A caller tips off Thornton that Ortiz might be her killer.

Aug. 5, 1997: A warrant is issued for Ortiz on a charge of capital murder.

Aug. 8, 1997: Ortiz is arrested in Garcia's killing; Thornton tries to get a confession from Ortiz but is unsuccessful.

Fall 1997: The Salazar murder case grows cold.

Late 1997: Ortiz is jailed on parole violations. January 1998: Thornton gets a tip that someone may have seen Ortiz fleeing from Garcia's home the night of the killing, but he's unable to find the witness.

July 1999: Ortiz is released from jail.

On TV: A Star-Telegram documentary about Andy Ortiz's crimes will debut at 8 p.m. March 9 on KTXA/Channel 21.