The Shooting

Summary

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The Brothers Ortiz – Episode: "The Shooting"

Date: January 21, 2026
Produced by: Campside Media & iHeart Podcasts
Host/Narrator: Sean Flynn

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Overview

Theme:
This episode, "The Shooting," brings listeners into the immediate and chaotic aftermath of Larry Ortiz’s murder during a home invasion at a rented beach house. Through firsthand family accounts, Sean Flynn narrates a night of mounting unease, the sudden eruption of violence, and the raw shock felt by the Ortiz family. It’s a story of love, regret, and the complicated bonds that tether family together—even as those bonds absorb the trauma of violent loss.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Night Leading Up to the Shooting

• Setting:
  The Ortiz family gathers at a rented beach house, CI la Vie, in Treasure Island, Texas—a familiar, intimate family gathering spot filled with kids' games, laughter, and, underneath, the sense that something is “off” about Larry.

• Atmosphere & Larry’s Mood:
  Larry is notably quieter and more reserved than usual. Both his daughter Larissa and sister Alicia notice him glued to his phone and not fully engaged with the group.

  • “He wasn’t very talkative. I could tell something was bothering him... He was really in his phone a lot that night.” – Larissa [06:35]

• Family Details:

  • Larissa, with her kids and their father, is in one room.
  • Alicia and her kids, PJ and Halo, drop in and plan to return after getting outfits for a quinceañera.
  • Nadlin, Larry’s eldest, arrives late, sharing fast food and laughs with him.

• A Rare Moment of Affection:

  • Nadlin unexpectedly hugs her dad and says "I love you," a rarity in their family.
    • “We're not really affectionate much... so yeah, I got to, like, hug and kiss him. And I went down. I just went to sleep.” – Nadlin [09:34]

2. The Invasion & The Shooting (Starting ~[15:43])

• Chaos Unfolds:

  • Larissa is woken up by commotion and hears what she thinks is fighting. She soon realizes it’s not family drama but an invasion.
    • “It literally sounded like fighting. And that's when I […] seen a man with a mask standing in front of the door, and he had a gun.” – Larissa [16:53]

• Multiple Intruders:

  • There are both male and female intruders, armed and masked, demanding money.

• Hostage Situation:

  • Alicia mistakes the armed woman for her cousin PJ before realizing the gravity: “The girl just turned the gun to me, and I’m like, damn... this is real.” [17:32]
  • Family members are forced to comply, lie on the floor, and comfort scared children.

• Larry’s Response:

  • Larry tries to de-escalate:
    • “I could just hear my dad, like, relax, chill. Like, we could fix this, you know? Like, we don’t have no money. My mom’s saying, like, we don’t have money.” – Alicia [19:11]

• The Gunshot:

  • Amid the chaos, a single gunshot is fired. Panic and screams erupt.
    • “All you hear is, like, a pop. My mom started screaming my dad's name, and I just heard one gunshot. And I just said, ma’am, I think my dad's been shot.” – Alicia [20:16]

• Aftermath:

  • Larissa’s boyfriend leads her and their daughter out, shielding them from the worst. Larissa later reflects on crossing over her father’s body to exit.
    • “I had to literally cross him to get out of the beach house. I can’t say that I cried ‘cus I was just like... it didn’t feel real what we were going through.” – Larissa [21:26]

3. The Family Learns of Larry’s Death

• First Calls:

  • Alicia is at a Whataburger drive-thru when she gets the call from Kissy, Larry’s wife, screaming. Alicia races back, devastated.
    • “I just remember putting my foot down as hard as I could and just going as fast as I could to get back to that beach house.” – Alicia [22:51]

• Gabe’s Experience:

  • Gabe wakes to Kissy’s hysterical call, learning his brother is unresponsive. A sheriff’s deputy confirms the grim news.
    • “Probably one of the few times in my life where I just absolutely felt helpless, like there’s nothing that I can do.” – Gabe [02:34]
    • “Now I’m fucking pissed. And it was like I disassociated myself at that moment... Then I became a DPS criminal investigator because that’s what I’ve done best.” [03:21]

• Gloria (Mother) Learns the News:

  • Gloria’s wrenching call from police is recounted in full.
    • “I said, ‘Who’s deceased?’... ‘Your son Larry Ortiz is dead.’... I couldn’t move. I was just. I was numb. I felt my body just coming numb. And I wanted to scream, but the scream could not come out.” – Gloria [24:06]

4. The Immediate Investigation (Post-Shooting)

• Gabe’s Cop Instincts:

  • Gabe recognizes his dual roles as brother and law enforcement. He alerts his extensive network in Texas law enforcement but chooses not to intervene at the scene to avoid conflicts of interest.
    • “There’s the balance between, hey, he’s my brother, but I’m also a DPS officer... I didn’t want it to be perceived that way.” – Gabe [32:01]

• On Motive and Targeting:

  • The narration points out:
    • “Random home invasions... are exceedingly rare… Instead, these kinds of attacks are targeted... The bad guys almost always know who they’re going after and what they’re trying to get.” [32:53]
    • It’s implicitly suggested that the intruders may have had knowledge of Larry’s activities or believed he had cash on hand.

• First Break in the Case:

  • About a month after the shooting, Gabe is informed that murder warrants are secured for six suspects.
    • “I get the phone call that hey, we’ve got good news, we just got the judge to sign off on these murder warrants for all... six of the suspects.” – Gabe [34:10]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Larry's Demeanor and Foreboding:

  • “He was just... it was off a little bit. He was a little off.” – Alicia [07:02]

• Family Chaos and Trauma:

  • “The whole house is screaming. I still had this gun to my head... my dad falls to the ground, like, face forward.” – Alicia [20:24]
  • “I always thought he was so invincible to things. Like a bullet took my dad away. Just hurt.” – Larissa [21:26]

• Gabe on Feeling Helpless:

  • “Probably one of the few times in my life where I just absolutely felt helpless, like there’s nothing that I can do.” – Gabe [02:34]

• Gloria’s Grief:

  • “I wanted to scream, but like the scream could not come out... finally I just screamed. It came out and I said, Larry’s gone.” – Gloria [24:06]

• Investigator’s Insight:

  • “Random home invasions... are exceedingly rare… Instead, these kinds of attacks are targeted.” – Sean Flynn (narrator) [32:53]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:34] – Gabe receives the call about Larry being shot
• [02:34] – Gabe’s conversation with the sheriff’s deputy, his helplessness
• [06:05] – Family describes Larry’s mood and behavior at the beach house
• [15:43] – Night devolves: Third (Larry III) returns, events leading to the invasion
• [16:53] – Larissa encounters masked intruder with a gun
• [17:32] – Alicia confronted at gunpoint, realizes the situation’s severity
• [19:11] – Hostage dynamics, family pleading with intruders
• [20:16] – The fatal gunshot is fired; chaos erupts
• [21:26] – Family evacuates, Larissa crosses over her father’s body
• [22:51] – Alicia gets the news, rushes back to the beach house
• [24:06] – Gloria receives the confirmation call of Larry’s death
• [29:35] – Gabe summarizes what he was told about the shooting
• [30:05] – Gabe’s breakdown and reflection on Larry’s life
• [32:53] – The narrator explains investigative logic regarding targeted invasions
• [34:10] – Investigation breakthrough: warrants issued for six suspects

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Conclusion

Tone:
The episode is raw, immediate, and emotionally charged, delivered in the candid, plainspoken style of working-class Texans enduring unspeakable loss. Family voices dominate, painting a vivid picture of love, regret, guilt, and confusion in the aftermath of violent crime.

Cliffhanger:
The episode closes with Gabe receiving word of warrants for the suspected killers, setting the stage for the investigation's next phase and the family’s pursuit of answers—and possibly, justice.

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Transcript

[Sean Flynn]

What if mind control is real?

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

If you could control the behavior of.

[Sean Flynn]

Anybody around you, what kind of life would you have? Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car?

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings.

[Sean Flynn]

Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you?

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused.

[Sean Flynn]

Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on me to access my subconscious mind games. A new podcast exploring nlp, AKA Neuro Linguistic Programming. Is it a self help miracle, a shady hit, hypnosis scam, or both? Listen to mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

Hey listeners, I'm Sean Flynn, host of the Brothers Ortiz Podcast and I'm excited to share this riveting story with you. But I'm also excited to tell you that you can now get access to all episodes of The Brothers Ortiz 100% ad free and one week early through the iHeart True Crime plus subscription available exclusively on Apple Podcasts Plus. You'll get access to other chart topping true crime shows you love like like the Girlfriends, Paper Ghosts, Piketon Massacre, Murder Homes Unrestorable, the Godmother, Betrayal and more. So don't wait. Head to Apple podcast, search for iHeart True Crime plus and subscribe today.

[Alicia Ortiz]

Campsite Media.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

January 28, 2023. Early morning hours before dawn, Gabe Ortiz is asleep at home in Austin. Or he was until his phone wakes him up.

[Gabe Ortiz]

I see Kissy's name and I know this can't be a good phone call. For one, Kissy never calls me. Secondly, it's 2:58am it's been nine weeks.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

Since Larry confessed to Gabe that he was broke, that he shot a guy once, that he was still in the dope game. But Gabe isn't thinking about any of that.

[Gabe Ortiz]

I was thinking, okay, they either got into an argument or, you know, maybe my brother got into a fight somewhere. But when I answer the phone, she is screaming frantically, they shot him. They shot him. They shot your brother.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

Gabe is shaking off the sleep, trying to decipher what's happening, who's they. But all he gets from Kissy is that Larry is face down and bleeding. A Brazoria county sheriff's deputy is already there. Kissy gives him the phone, I speak.

[Gabe Ortiz]

To him and I'm like, hey, I'm an officer with DPS and what can you tell me? He said, sir, we're still trying to figure out what's going on ourselves. I said, hey, that's my brother. That's being worked on officer to officer. What does it look like? Is it that bad? And he's like, sir, it's not looking good. I don't know that he's breathing. And they can't find a pulse. And I just probably one of the few times in my life where I just absolutely felt helpless, like there's nothing that I can do.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

He gets in the shower. Gabe knows that at some point he'll have to start driving toward Brazoria County. He might as well get ready.

[Gabe Ortiz]

I haven't prayed in a long time, and I'm crying in the shower and I'm praying, please, God, save him. Just saw just this one time. I'm asking that maybe you can, you know, let him pull through. And so I'm crying in the shower and I get another call, and I can't remember if it was a deputy or who I spoke to, but it was basically, he didn't make it. I was like, now I'm fucking pissed. And it was like I disassociated myself at that moment. And that was probably my way to cope with the situation. But then I became a DPS criminal investigator because that's what I've done best. And that's what I know.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

From Campside Media and I heart podcasts. This is the Brothers Ortiz, Episode seven the Shooting. I'm Sean Flynn. The beach house Larry rented for the last week in January is in a little vacation community called Treasure island, which isn't actually an island. It's a few sandy roads scraped into the north end of another island, San Luis. There's a handful of older, smaller houses shaded by newer and bigger McMansions, with a view of the Gulf to the east and of the chemical plants, plants on the mainland to the west. It's also not far from where Larry grew up. Cross the bridge out of Freeport, turn left on the Bluewater highway and keep going for about 20 minutes. If you reach the bridge to Galveston, you've gone too far. Larry rented one of the smaller places out there. One floor, set up on pilings with a wide wraparound deck. It's not oceanfront, but you can see the water between the bigger houses on the beach. All beach houses have names. It's kind of a thing. This one is CI la Vie, like c' est la vie. Such is life. But starting with C S E A. It's cute and it's five stars on Airbnb. Larry and his family began arriving on Friday afternoon, January 27th.

[Sean Flynn]

When we got there, he was Outside.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

Larry's daughter Larissa, he gave me a hug.

[Sean Flynn]

He gave the kids a hug. He gave my kid's father a handshake.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

Larissa and the kids went inside, claimed one of the bedrooms.

[Sean Flynn]

Then he was drinking a beer. My dad, so I got me a beer and I was like, let's play a game or something. He was waiting for the basketball game to come on. So he was like, okay, let's play a game before basketball. So we started playing Connect 4 with my kids and my little cousin that.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

Was there, but something wasn't sitting right.

[Sean Flynn]

He wasn't very talkative. I could tell something was bothering him. Honestly, he wasn't really active with us. He was really in his phone a lot that night.

[Alicia Ortiz]

We got there probably about 9:30ish, and we just hung out, you know, the kids played their little games. Everybody was having a good time.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

This is Larry's sister, Alicia. She noticed it too.

[Alicia Ortiz]

Larry was very quiet that night. He was more observant, more just kind of just looking back at everybody on his phone, recording people. So I don't know, he's just. It was off a little bit. He was a little off.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

Larry. Larissa and her kids played another game of Connect 4. Then Larry moved to the couch. The Raptors and Golden State warriors were on at 9:00 o', clock, Texas time. Larissa played Uno with her cousins for a while, then called it a night. Around 11:30, she had an early appointment the next morning back in town, I.

[Sean Flynn]

Was like, all right, dad, I'm gonna go lay down. He said, good night. Before y' all leave, y' all wake me up in the morning. And I was like, okay.

[Alicia Ortiz]

That was gets time to where everything's kind of winding down. Probably about 12:30, something like that. He asked if we were staying.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

By we, Larry meant Alicia and two of her kids, PJ, who was 11, and Halo, who was 15.

[Alicia Ortiz]

I said, bro, I'm not staying tonight, but Halo and I will be back in the morning. We're gonna go get our outfits for the quinceanera. PJ's got his. He's got his outfit. And then he asked if PJ could stay. And I said, yeah, PJ can stay.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

About the same time Alicia is leaving, Nadlin, Larry and Kissy's eldest daughter, is arriving. She caught a late flight from Orlando, where she lives with her girlfriend and her eight year old daughter, Kalea, and then she drove two hours from Houston.

[Alicia Ortiz]

Me and my dad love Jack in the Box tacos, so I just bought a lot of Jack in the Box Tacos. For us. We sat at the table, we ate, just laughing, you know, having a good time.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

On the main floor of the house, there was the kitchen and living room, and three bedrooms down below was a separate sleeping area. That's where Nadlin is staying with her girlfriend.

[Alicia Ortiz]

And Kalea, my daughter, begged me to stay upstairs. And I'm like, no, you're tired.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

They all go downstairs. Larry comes too.

[Alicia Ortiz]

My dad turned on the shower for Kalea because he was like, kalea, you're gonna sleep upstairs with us.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

Which is what happens. Kalea showers and goes back upstairs. A little while later, Nadlin goes up to retrieve a charger for her phone in the living room. She tells Kalea she can't be up all night, but she's too busy goofing off with her cousins Larissa and Alicia's kids.

[Alicia Ortiz]

Before I left to go back downstairs, I went to my parents room and they were already knocked out. And I just kissed them and I told them I love them and they told me they love me. And I hugged them. And I honestly never do that.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

Like.

[Alicia Ortiz]

I don't know. We're not really affectionate much, all of us, but my dad is. He'll hug us all day long. He'll just hug, hug, hug, hug, hug. Like, even on vacation, he'll just come and hug us. Like, I love you so much. So, yeah, I got to, like, hug and kiss him. And I went down. I just went to sleep. All of us, yeah.

[Sean Flynn]

What if mind control is real?

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

If you could control the behavior of.

[Sean Flynn]

Anybody around you, what kind of life would you have? Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car?

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings.

[Sean Flynn]

Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you?

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused.

[Sean Flynn]

Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on me to access my subconscious. Nlp, AKA Neuro Linguistic programming, is a blend of hypnosis, linguistics, and psychology. Fans say it's like finally getting a user manual for your brain.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

It's about engineering consciousness.

[Sean Flynn]

Mind Games is the story of nlp, its crazy cast of disciples, and the fake doctor who invented it at a New age commune and sold it to guys in suits. He stood trial for murder and got acquitted. The biggest mind game of all, nlp, might actually work.

[Alicia Ortiz]

This is wild.

[Sean Flynn]

Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

Hey, listeners. I'm Sean Flynn, host of the Brothers Ortiz Podcast, and I'm excited to share this riveting story with you, but I'm also excited to tell you that you can now to all episodes of The Brothers Ortiz 100% ad free and one week early through the iHeart True Crime plus subscription available exclusively on Apple Podcasts Plus. You'll get access to other chart topping true crime shows you love like the Girlfriends, Paper Ghosts, Piketon Massacre, Murder Homes Unrestorable, the Godmother, Betrayal and more. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts, search for IHEART True Crime plus and subscribe today. If you're seeking to try to understand the forensic science behind these cases that we hear about in the news, body Bags is where you need to turn. There's no fluff. We do a deep dive into the forensics Listen to Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free IHEART Apple and search Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan and.

[Alicia Ortiz]

Start Listening On June 11, 1998, a deputy from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department went missing. It's an all out manhunt for John Awjay. Every search and rescue team in LA.

[Sean Flynn]

County has been called in to help. Within days, tips started flooding into the sheriff's department. The ruler around the drug scene was that a deputy was taken care of.

[Alicia Ortiz]

Is this the story of a man who just got lost in the desert? Or of a cover up inside the nation's largest sheriff's department?

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

A homicide captain saying detective, do not find out if this guy's guilty or innocent. Who does that?

[Sean Flynn]

Valley of Shadows, a new series from Pushkin Industries about crime and corruption in California's high desert.

[Alicia Ortiz]

Do you have any advice for us while looking into this disappearance?

[Sean Flynn]

I wouldn't do it alone. Listen to Valley of shadows on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

Let's reset the scene. Bask in it just for a moment. It's January 2023. Larry Ortiz has rented a small beach house to spend a weekend with his family. With his kids, his grandkids, his sister, his nieces and nephews, he was quieter than usual, watching, studying, as if he wanted to make sure the memories were processing that he was capturing it all. At half past two in the morning, he's in bed on the main floor of the house with his wife Kissy, who he'd been with for 30 years. His daughter Larissa, her daughter and her daughter's father are in another bedroom on the main floor, and his daughter Nadlin and her girlfriend are downstairs on the ground floor. The kids, nieces, nephews, grandkids. The ones who hadn't fallen asleep were playing video games in the living room. His mom, Gloria, she's not there yet because she doesn't drive at night. It's her eyes. But she'll be there in the morning. She's going to cook a big pot of her Mexican rice. It was all just about perfect. But there's one person, one member of the family, still not in for the night. His son, Larry iii, is across the bridge in Freeport, where he's been making the rounds of the local bars with a friend. He sent Nadlin a message.

[Alicia Ortiz]

My brother texted me, like, wake up, let's finish drinking.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

Third had been there at C La Vie earlier in the evening. But about the time Larry was winding things down, Third decided to go out.

[Sean Flynn]

My mom didn't even want him to go out because the tags were out on the truck anyway.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

That's Larissa noting that the truck Third was driving had expired plates.

[Sean Flynn]

But my dad still said yes. And he knew the tags were out because he just didn't know how to tell him no. I think he just didn't like arguing or. I don't know, but he just never told that boy no.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

So third drove 15, 20 minutes down the Bluewater Highway. It's not really a highway, just a two lane blacktop. And went over the bridge to Freeport, hit a couple of bars with his friend Lucas. And now, close to 2am, third is pestering Nadlin, my best friend.

[Alicia Ortiz]

She was supposed to come too, with my brother to see me and hang out with me. But I'm like, we're so tired. Everyone's asleep. We're already in bed. Just come home and we're gonna party tomorrow. I'm like, drive safe. I love you, you know?

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

But she's still awake.

[Alicia Ortiz]

It was just such a weird night. I could not sleep. Just tossing and turning, tossing and turning. I just kept hearing things outside. I hear car doors, but I'm like, oh, my brother's home.

[Sean Flynn]

I can't tell you exactly what time it is, but I remember getting woken up by my brother.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

Larissa, unlike Nadlin, had been sound asleep.

[Sean Flynn]

He came in the room that I was in and was like, I'm so fucked up. And I was like, what? And he was like, yeah, I'm lit. And I was like. I said, you're crazy. And he shut the door. I laid my head down for like, not even 0.2 seconds. I started hearing a lot of noise.

[Alicia Ortiz]

Finally, I'm going to sleep. It's like 2:15, 2:30. And I just hear fighting. And I'm thinking is my brother coming home drunk, fighting with my dad or fighting with my sister's boyfriend or something? He's always acting crazy. You know, he's drunk. And I put my shoes on, and I ran right upstairs. And I didn't know. I didn't notice the door broken at all. I'm just. I'm half asleep.

[Sean Flynn]

I got up, and I opened the door a little bit to see what was going on, because it was a lot of booming against the walls. Like, it literally sounded like fighting. And that's when I kind of seen what I seen, which was a man with a mask standing in front of the door, and he had a gun.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

Larissa peeking through a cracked door has a limited view. What she doesn't see, what she can't see, is that there's more than one stranger in the house, and there's more than one gun. At the top of the stairs, at the exact place where Nadlin is running to, there's a woman. She's short and wearing a mask, and she has a gun, too.

[Alicia Ortiz]

I thought it was my cousin pj, and I'm like, pj, what are you doing? You know, like, stop playing. And the girl just turned the gun to me, and I'm like, damn.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

Like.

[Alicia Ortiz]

Like, this is real. Like, you know, she's like. Like, get down on the ground or whatever. Like, I just fall, like. Cause you're just. You know, you just don't. You don't know what to do.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

So.

[Alicia Ortiz]

I just fall, and I'm just praying to God, like, please don't shoot me. And Kalea is like. She wants me. So my daughter's like, mom, like. And I'm looking at her, and I'm trying to talk to her with my eyes, like, to hush, to be quiet, to lay down.

[Sean Flynn]

I kept the door open, and I watched anything that I could. The guy had the ski mask on with the gun. He had knocked my brother out unconscious on the floor. I see my brother laying on the floor, and then I seen his friend on his knees, and the guy was hitting him over the head with a gun, demanding money. Like, where's the money? Give me the money. Give me the money. At that point, my kid's father was like, you need to shut the door. I was already calling 911 on the phone. I remember just getting transferred between Missouri County, Galveston, and Surfside. Back and forth. Operators, operators, operators. And I was just like, there's guns and there's. I don't know how many people, but there's people in here and in the back.

[Alicia Ortiz]

I could just hear my dad, like, relax, Chill. Like, we could fix this, you know? Like, we don't have no money. My mom's saying, like, we don't have money. We don't have money. And she was like, we got this off Groupon. She's still just holding the gun to me. And I kept telling her, the money's in the car. The money's in the car. I don't know why I kept saying that, but, like, I'm just saying that because I know that they're demanding money. I can see my dad. He's walking in the hallway, but he has his hands up, and he's telling him, like, please don't shoot me. Like, we can take care of this. Relax. Like, calm down. My dad's just trying to calm him down. So I'm just praying to God. Praying to God. Like, I just. I don't know. Just. I don't want to die, you know? I don't want to be shot. I don't know. I just. It's just so much. So my dad's walking down the hallway, and all you hear is, like, a pop.

[Sean Flynn]

My mom started screaming my dad's name, and I just heard one gunshot. And I just said, ma', am, I think my dad's been shot.

[Alicia Ortiz]

The whole house is screaming. I still had this gun to my head. So I just see my dad. He's just, like, holding the wall with one hand, and he has one hand over the gun wound because he has an over. So you can see the gun. My dad falls to the ground, like, face forward. And the girl still has the gun to me, so I still can't get up.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

The short woman with the gun and all of the intruders, they finally run.

[Alicia Ortiz]

And there's blood everywhere. So I got up, and I ran to my dad, and I just seen his body, and I just knew he was gone.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

Larissa's boyfriend slips out of the room to see what's happening. He comes back for Larissa and their daughter.

[Sean Flynn]

He said, we have to walk out here because this is the only way we can get out. But when we walk out here, put your head in my chest. And I said, why? He said, just do what I said. He said, don't. Don't pick your head up. I knew immediately once I opened that door that we were going to be walking into something. My dad was laying on the floor right there. So I had to literally cross him to get out of the beach house. I can't say that I cried cuz I was just like. It didn't feel real what we were going through. I didn't even think that he was dead at that time. You know, I'm just thinking like he shot and he's alive. So after we went outside, the cops finally showed up. They wouldn't let us go back upstairs after everything started processing and I heard a cop say that he wasn't alive. I tried to go back upstairs and they wouldn't let me go up there. I wish I would have just stayed there with him. And I didn't want to believe like you know, he was dead. I always thought he was so invincible to things. Like a bullet took my dad away. Just hurt.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

It's almost 3 o' clock in the morning. Larry and Gabe's sister Alicia is still not home. She'd stopped to have a drink with a friend and now she's in the drive through at Whataburger when her phone.

[Alicia Ortiz]

Rings and it was kissy screaming. That was something that I wouldn't want nobody to ever experience. I just knew. I just remember just like putting my foot down as hard as I could and just going as fast as I could to get back to that beach house. And it just like. It seemed like it took forever to get back. Everybody was just screaming when I pulled up and I was just like, where's Larry? Somehow I ended up on the phone with Gabe and I remember Gabe asking me like to give him a play by play of what was going on. I tell Gabe the ambulance is leaving and they're not, they don't have Larry. I don't understand what's going on. It wasn't clicking why they didn't have Larry in the ems. And I can remember Gabe just saying it's not good leash, that's not good. And I just, I just remember just kind of just falling to the ground.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

Gloria, Larry's mom, she got a phone call right about then. It was kissy again. Screaming.

[Sean Flynn]

An officer comes on the line and he says, and he just says ma', am, I can't talk to you right now. I said we're trying to take care of a, of a crime that just happened. And yes, he's deceased. And I said, who's deceased? Who is deceased? I says larry Ortiz. And he goes yes. I said that's my son. And he goes, yes, your son Larry Ortiz is dead, ma'. Am. He's dead, deceased. And so I gotta hang up, I gotta take care of this. And click. I couldn't move. I was just. I was numb. I felt my body just coming numb. And I wanted to scream, but like the scream could not come out. And my husband is there and he's just all. I can hear him saying something like, gloria, Gloria, Gloria. But it's like an echo, you know, And I'm just like, finally I just screamed. It came out and I said, larry's gone. I never thought it was going to end up the way it ended up with Larry. Me as a mother, I never taught. I was just like. I would stay in church and I would be praying for all of them to be, you know, just to come back and just, you know, be walking right and serving the Lord like we used to when we were in a family in the older days. But it didn't happen like that. What if mind control is real?

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

If you could control the behavior of.

[Sean Flynn]

Anybody around you, what kind of life would you have? Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car?

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings.

[Sean Flynn]

Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you?

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused.

[Sean Flynn]

Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on me to access my subconscious. Nlp, AKA Neuro Linguistic Programming, is a blend of hypnosis, linguistics and psychology. Fans say it's like finally getting a user manual for your brain.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

It's about engineering consciousness.

[Sean Flynn]

Mind Games is the story of nlp, its crazy cast of disciples, and the fake doctor who invented it at a New Age commune and sold it to guys in suits. He stood trial for murder and got acquitted. The biggest mind game of all, nlp, might actually work.

[Alicia Ortiz]

This is wild.

[Sean Flynn]

Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

Hey listeners, I'm Sean Flynn, host of the Brothers Ortiz Podcast, and I'm excited to share this riveting story with you. But I'm also excited to tell you that you can now get access to all episodes of The Brothers Ortiz 100% ad free and one week early through the iHeart True Crime plus subscription, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts Plus. You'll get access to other chart topping true crime shows you love, like the Girlfriends Paper Ghosts, Piketon Massacre, Murder Homes Unrestorable, the Godmother, Betrayal, and more. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcast, search for Iheart True Crime plus and subscribe today if you're seeking to try to understand the forensic science behind these cases that we hear about in the news. Body Bags is where you need to turn. There's no fluff. We do a deep dive into the forensics. Listen to Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan and start listening.

[Alicia Ortiz]

On June 11, 1998, a deputy from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department went missing. It's an all out manhunt for John Awjay. Every search and rescue team in LA.

[Sean Flynn]

County has been called in to help. Within days, tips started flooding into the sheriff's department. The rumor around the drug scene was that a deputy was taken care of.

[Alicia Ortiz]

Is this the story of a man who just got lost in the desert? Or of a cover up inside the nation's largest sheriff's department?

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

A homicide captain saying, detective, do not find out if this guy's guilty or innocent. Who does that?

[Sean Flynn]

That Valley of Shadows, a new series from Pushkin Industries about crime and corruption in California's high desert.

[Alicia Ortiz]

Do you have any advice for us while looking into this disappearance?

[Sean Flynn]

I wouldn't do it alone. Listen to Valley of shadows on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

[Gabe Ortiz]

What I was told was that a number of people came in, there was an altercation and my brother woke up and confronted, immediately engages with the perpetrator and gets into a struggle and ends up getting shot in his chest.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

It's half past three in the morning. Gabe Ortiz at home in Austin has just been told his little brother Larry is dead.

[Gabe Ortiz]

That round pierced his aorta, severed it essentially, and he drops to his knees, collapses and just bled to death. I honestly didn't know at that moment what happened, but part of me felt like the way he lived his life and that lifestyle, that at some point something like this would happen. You know, he goes to bars and he wasn't afraid to fight and there was a lot of altercations that he got into. You know, obviously he was in the dope game for a long time. He was in and out of prison, had probably made a lot of enemies over the years. I just felt deep down that at some point something like this could possibly happen.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

As a brother, Gabe is distraught, confused. But he's also a cop and that's how he reacts like a cop.

[Gabe Ortiz]

I started making phone calls to all the people in law enforcement that I felt could possibly assist with what is now going to be a murder investigation.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

He called the sheriff of Brazoria County. They were rookie state troopers together back in the day. He called the head of the Texas Rangers. He and Gabe came up through cid, the criminal investigations division. He called the Department of Public Safety regional director in Houston who covers Brazoria County.

[Gabe Ortiz]

And I remember even, even calling the Colonel and letting him know that, hey, my brother's just been shot and murdered. And you know, one of the colonels said, do we need to put you on a plane to get you down there? And I said, no sir, we're going to drive. He said, well, Gabe, you let us know, we'll send the fucking cavalry down there.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

Gabe realizes he's in a somewhat awkward position. There's a line between grieving brother and high ranking cop, and it's a line he doesn't want to cross.

[Gabe Ortiz]

I made a decision that I didn't want to go to the crime scene. I didn't feel like that was helpful. You know, there's the balance between, hey, he's my brother, but I'm also a DPS officer and so I kind of kept that separate and I didn't want to go down there. Obviously, you know, at this point in my career I've got, you know, 20 years in criminal investigations, but I certainly don't want to dictate to another agency how to run their investigation. And I didn't want it to be perceived that way. So most of the time, and I made that pretty clear with the sheriff down there. I'm like, hey, he knew it was my brother. And he said, hey, Gabe, we'll, you know, we'll keep you in the loop as far as the investigation goes. And they did, you know, anytime they had updates about, hey, we've, we've got some new evidence. Here's what we know.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

Investigators aren't supposed to make assumptions. They don't want to get ahead of what they know. Facts and evidence are supposed to lead them to a conclusion, not the other way around. That said, experience and common sense will usually nudge them in the right direction. One thing cops know about a crime like this is that random home invasions, this idea of marauding bandits, kicking in any old door and pistol whipping whoever happens to be behind it, those are exceedingly rare. They basically never happen. Instead, these kind of attacks are targeted. The bad guys almost always know who they're going after and what they're trying to get. So without assuming anything, that's a good place for an investigation to start. What did those bad guys know or think they knew?

[Gabe Ortiz]

It's probably about a month, a little over a month later. I remember sitting at a restaurant with two other officers when I get the phone call that hey, we've got good news. We just got the judge to sign off on these murders warrants for all.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

Six of the suspects.

[Gabe Ortiz]

And I remember sitting at the table.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

And I was like, yeah, that's Next time on the Brothers Ortiz.

[Sean Flynn]

Foreign.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

The Brothers Ortiz is a production from Campside Media in partnership with iHeart podcasts. Listen on the iHeartradio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. The Brothers Ortiz was written, reported and hosted by me, Sean Flynn. Lane Rose is our Senior Producer. Story editing by Audrey Quinn Sound Design mix and engineering by Garrett Tiedemann Original music by Garrett Tiedemann Fact checking by Savannah Wright iHeart podcast executive producers are Lindsey Hoffman and Jennifer Bassett. Campside Media's Executive producers are Josh Dean, Vanessa Gregoriadis, Adam Hoff and Matt Sherry. A special thanks to our operations team, Doug Slaywin, Ashley Warren and Sabina Mara. If you enjoyed the Brothers Ortiz, please rate and review the show wherever you get your podcasts and thanks for listening.

[Sean Flynn]

What if Mind Control is real?

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

If you could control the behavior of.

[Sean Flynn]

Anybody around you, what kind of life would you have? Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car?

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings.

[Sean Flynn]

Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you?

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused.

[Sean Flynn]

Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on me to access my subconscious Mind games. A new podcast Exploring nlp, AKA Neuro Linguistic Programming. Is it a self help miracle, a shady hypnosis scam, or both? Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Narrator / Sean Flynn]

Hey listeners, I'm Sean Flynn, host of the Brothers Ortiz Podcast and I'm excited to share this riveting story with you. But I'm also excited to tell you that you can now get access to all episodes of The Brothers Ortiz 100% ad free and one week early through the iHeart True Crime plus subscription available exclusively on Apple Podcasts Plus. You'll get access to other chart topping true crime shows you love like the Girlfriends, Paper Ghosts, Piketon Massacre, Murder Homes Unrestorable, the Godmother, Betrayal and more. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcast, search for IHEART True Crime plus and subscribe today.