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Liz Barraza ////// 815
01:08:31
Liz Barraza ////// 815 Part 1 of 1 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com This week we feature an unsolved case that left Houstonians baffled and in fear, and a police force hunting a killer. A young woman, Liz Barraza was shot and killed in her driveway just before 7AM on a Friday. The murder was captured on home security cameras. The vehicle that the murderer was driving to and from the scene was captured on several cameras. In fact, police found footage of the vehicle in the neighborhood from several hours prior to the murder. Why was the killer patrolling this quiet and safe neighborhood? Were they perhaps familiarizing themselves with the street, the victim's house, and planning when to strike? Liz Barraza was well liked and loved by so many. Who wanted her dead and so badly that they committed the murder where they could be seen by many? Her family is still holding out hope that they can get justice for Liz. Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers by calling...
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- [00:00]
Captain
SA.
- [00:40]
Nick
Welcome to True Crime Garage, wherever you are, whatever you were doing. Thanks for listening. I'm your host, Nick, and with me, as always, is a man who knows True Crime Garage. Four out of five dogs approve.
- [00:52]
Colonel
Here is the captain.
- [00:53]
Captain
It's good to be seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend.
- [00:58]
Nick
Foreign this week we are excited to be featuring Tropic Boom by the Art car brewers at St. Arnold Brewing Company. Tropic Boom is an imperial IPA with a bright and vibrant burst of tropical flavors like mango, apricot and honey ABV 9.5%. So watch out garage grade 4 out of 5 bars bottle caps. And let's give some thanks and praise to our good friends that helped us fill up the old garage fridge for this week. First up, we have a shout out to Roxy in Louisville. And I'll go ahead and give a shout out to Roxy's dog, Summer who is most definitely listening to True Crime Garage.
- [01:41]
Captain
And a big we like your jib goes out to Shelly Hennings from Castle Rock, Colorado.
- [01:47]
Nick
Next up we have Benjamin or as I like to say, Ben Jamming from Columbia City, Indiana. And last but certainly not least, we have a double fisted cheers going out to dawn and his daughter Laura from South Lake, Texas. Everyone we just mentioned, they went to true crime garage.com clicked on the pint glass and helped us out with this week's beer fund. And for that we thank you.
- [02:10]
Captain
Yeah, bww, are you in? Thank you and thank you and thank you and thank you for everything. True Crime. Check out true crime garage.com and Colonel that's enough of the business.
- [02:22]
Nick
All right everybody gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime.
- [02:48]
Colonel
Early in 2019, wife and husband Liz and Sergio Barrazza were planning to leave for Orlando, Florida for a trip to Universal Studios and Disney. But just days before this trip, celebrating the couple's fifth wedding anniversary and to everyone's shock and Horror, on Friday, January 25th at approximately 6:55am Liz Barraza was shot multiple times while setting up a yard sale in front of her home. During the incident, the victim was approached by an unknown suspect in her driveway. The suspect shot the victim multiple times and fled in a dark colored Nissan Frontier pickup truck. Detectives are hoping that footage from security cameras that captured the incident will lead to the identification of the murderer. Liz's husband, Sergio Barraza said, it is so cruel and evil what they did to Liz. She didn't deserve any of this. Sergio, who is now remarried, says he still loves Liz and hopes an arrest in the case will be made soon. I hope police just have something they're holding on to and getting ready to.
- [04:07]
Nick
Snap their jaws around it.
- [04:09]
Colonel
Liz's parents created a website who killed Lizberaza.com which is dedicated to the case as they aim to get justice for Liz. This is the still unsolved case of Liz Barraza and this is True Crime Garage.
- [04:38]
Nick
Elizabeth Marie Barraza, who went by Liz is, was just 29 years old when she was killed in front of her home on Friday, January 25, 2019. She was born Elizabeth Marie Newelli on June 26, 1989 to parents Robert and Rosemary. Liz has an older brother. His name is Robert Newelli iii. She was born in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. The family moved to Texas and Liz graduated from Klein Collins high school in 2008. Four years later, Liz graduated from Sam Houston State University with a bachelor's degree in psychology. Liz met Sergio Barrazza while in college at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. The two married and were getting ready to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary at the time that Liz was attacked and killed. Liz and Sergio adopted a dachshund puppy while in college and named him Diesel. And there are plenty of pictures and images online of little Diesel. Now, a little bit about Liz that we absolutely must know before we move forward. Liz loved the Chicago Cubs. She loved Harry Potter, the whole franchise and was constantly reading the books and rereading the Harry Potter books. Liz and Sergio love to go to the Texas Renaissance Festival dressed in costumes that they had created themselves. And I've seen some of these pictures online here. Captain and these were very, not just creative costumes but also very detailed and look like they spent, yeah, a lot of time and a lot of effort and probably a lot of expense went into creating these very intricate and detailed costumes. The Barras is volunteered for a group that works with the Make a Wish Foundation. So the two, especially Liz, would go to hospitals and visit sick kids in the hospital dressed in some of these costumes to try to cheer them up. Especially around holidays like Halloween and Christmas time.
- [06:50]
Captain
Yeah, mostly like Star wars characters and things like that.
- [06:54]
Nick
She loved fantasy, attended Comic Con conventions with Sergio and was known for her kindness and generosity. Liz and Sergio Barrazzo were married on February 1, 2014. They did not have any children. The married couple purchased their home in the Princeton Place subdivision in April of 2016. This is located in Tumble, Texas. Liz and Sergio were both members of the 501. I also have written down here Captain the 501st Legion Star Garrison South Texas Squadron. And from my understanding, this is one of the groups that they belong to, sort of a club. And this is where they would get to show off their Star wars fandom with other big fans of the franchise. And this was part of their Make a Wish foundation charity work that they did as well.
- [07:48]
Captain
Yeah, Liz and Sergio would have made a excellent couple on the show Big Bang Theory. They like to nerd out, which I think is super cool. I think everybody should nerd out more.
- [08:00]
Nick
At the time of her death, Liz was on the command staff as an event coordinator for the South Texas squad, the 501 501st. For work, Liz worked at the Rosin Group as a data reporter and Sergio worked with his father Oscar as a crew chief installing floors and flooring. Liz and Sergio were planning to leave for Orlando, Florida for a trip to Universal Studios and Disney on Sunday, January 27, 2019, again to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary. I do need to point out here, Captain, that some reports state that they were due to leave on Monday morning.
- [08:43]
Captain
Rather than Sunday, but either way, they're expected to leave days after she was murdered.
- [08:50]
Nick
Yes, either the Sunday after or the Monday after. So just a short period after this horrible incident takes place. And as said sadly, before any of that could take place, and to everyone's shock, on Friday, January 25, 2019 at approximately 6:55am, Elizabeth Barraza was shot multiple times in front of her home. During the incident, the victim was approached by an unknown suspect in her driveway while preparing for a garage sale. The suspect shot the victim multiple times and fled in a dark colored Nissan Frontier pickup truck. The victim, Liz, died as a result of the injuries and Liz's family and the Barraza family is requesting the community's help with identifying the suspect responsible for this murder. There are four amazing sources that we leaned on heavily for this episode and those were clicktohouston.com which is KPRC2 news, also K H O U 11 and friend of the show, Mike Morford's podcast, Murder in my family, episodes 139 and 140. And if you are interested in learning more about the Elizabeth Barraza murder case, then go to her site, her website, who Killed Lizberaza.com was created by Liz's parents and it's maintained by them as well. We have a timeline of events that we're going to go through and the time frames here, Captain, starts with January 24, 2019. Now we have a very precise timeline of events to go through thanks to the website. Who killed Liz Barraza.com there is an FYI on the site for the timeline. So let's start there. FYI, the events listed here are critical points in the incident timeline. These times were gathered from four sources. The Bozeman video, a commercial retail video, the Barraza Nest doorbell video, and the call slip from the incident. Discrepancies may be due to the cameras not all having the correct time. Entries marked approximately are according to our memories and may not be exact. So starting off on January 24, 2019, that's a Thursday. Okay. Now we had already mentioned that either on Sunday or Monday they're taking off for this trip that both have been looking forward to. I saw some interviews with Sergio and it sounded like a good deal of planning had gone down for this trip, that they had even made T shirts that they were going to wear during the course of this trip and that Liz had already packed her suitcase and was ready to roll.
- [11:44]
Captain
Were they matching T shirts?
- [11:46]
Nick
I, I have no idea.
- [11:47]
Captain
I just wanted to see how nerdy we're going to get because if you're going to go, go all out, right.
- [11:53]
Nick
Their husband and wife, they made shirts. I'm assuming there, there was some, some connection that they're either matching or that they are identical or look alike, something of that nature. So on this Thursday, we have husband and wife, Sergio and Liz, discussing a garage sale setup. The plan was to have a garage sale on Friday and Saturday. Sergio would be going to work as normal on Friday, but Liz had already made arrangements to be off from work on that Friday. That same evening, they go to two different places, two different locations in their neighborhood, and they put up a garage sale sign announcing the garage sale for the Friday and Saturday.
- [12:36]
Captain
And this is kind of a spur of the moment idea. The Barrazas, they had money. They didn't have money problems. They lived in a nice neighborhood, they drove nice cars, they were going on this nice trip. The wife was planning to be off on that Friday, I'm guessing because of the trip, to get ready for the trip and spur of the moment, Thursday night, they're like, hey, let's have a garage sale and we'll have a little bit of extra walking around money for, I'm guessing for the trip.
- [13:04]
Nick
Yeah. It's key to know that this was not planned so well in advance for the garage sale because they didn't do any type of advertising other than the two signs that were put out. And this will become key because we know that she is killed during the process of setting up that garage sale. So it's already a limited number of people that would know about the garage sale itself. One thing that Mike Morford cleared up, this case has been reviewed extensively online. And anytime you have that, you have a wealth of good information and you also have a wealth of not great information on the case. And so some of the details are just wrong online that you will find. And one thing Mike Morford was able to do was to clear up a discrepancy that needed to be cleared up, frankly, was that it was reported and cited online many times that this was an annual deal for them. Like they would take the trip, they would, they would have a garage sale right before they would take a trip. And that this was an annual thing that the couple did. And in fact, it wasn't. This was not the case at all. They didn't have an annual garage sale. So that is one thing that will be key to know going forward. So let's go into Friday. Right? We're going to start off quite early on Friday morning. The first event that we have in our timeline is at 6:08am Liz drives by herself to the local Starbucks to get a coffee. This is before she is setting up for her garage sale. At 6:16am she returns home. And we know this because she arrives home and is seen on surveillance video and she begins setting up items in her driveway for the garage sale. Just one minute later, after she returns, Liz is joined by Sergio who is helping to bring items outside and placing them on the driveway. From my understanding, Captain, some of these were rather larger items. I know that there was a treadmill and some other large items. And Sergio, part of the plan from the night before was, hey, we got, we got to get up a little early because I have to be at work at a specific time.
- [15:26]
Captain
Right.
- [15:27]
Nick
But these heavy items I want to help you with before I leave for work.
- [15:32]
Captain
And I think it's crucial to point out that he was running a little bit late to work because he was helping his wife set out some of these items. And I also think it's important to note that I believe Liz's father was planning to come over to help her with the garage sale that morning.
- [15:50]
Nick
So this setup takes place between 6:17 and 6:47am now at 6:47am A Nissan Frontier arrives and pulls into the neighborhood, the Preston Place Drive location from. And I'm going to give my best shot on this one here, Captain. Kai Kendall Road. And I'll spell it if anybody wants to look it up. Just in case I completely butchered the pronunciation. It's K U Y K E N D A H L road. So this Nissan Frontier pulls into Preston Place Drive and then drives into the Goddard school parking lot. And it, we're assuming that it just kind of sits there briefly. Now unfortunately we have a lot of detailed information and a lot of great timestamps here on our timeline, but this is one part that is missing, right? We have a lot of this information because of surveillance cameras. We listed the four sources that they come from, but the Goddard school parking lot cameras were not working on this day. Now within seconds, maybe a minute at most, the Nissan Frontier leaves the Goddard school parking lot and is not seen. It must be concealed somewhere on a different Street. At 6:48am Sergio leaves to go to work. So he hops in his white panel van and drives off. That's 6:48. At 6:51 the Nissan Frontier comes back into view on one of the surveillance cameras, heads toward the Barraza home. Then at 6:52am the murderer, the driver of the, the truck does a three point turn on Cedar Walk and then drives up and parks behind Liz's car. Gets out of the vehicle, walking toward the driveway where Liz is still. She's busy setting up the garage sale. At this time it's believed that Liz says good morning and then the murder speaks to her for just seconds. There are three quick shots and then a fourth shot delivered point blank once Liz has collapsed on the driveway. This whole incident, the, from, from start to finish, from the, the killer approaching the driveway to the, to the shots fired, four of them takes approximately 30 seconds. So it's very quick. We know that it, it's a dark color, color pickup truck, it's seen pulling up and then the suspect who. And we'll get into some of the speculation and thoughts about the suspect when we go through some of the later details in our timeline here. Again, this happens very, very quickly. So by 6:53am Captain, the murder sprints back, truck gets in the truck and leaves. Now we have a neighbor who's listed it as Mr. D. This Mr. D calls 911 saying I heard four gunshots, tells the operator, look, I even saw this truck, this pickup truck leave.
- [19:12]
Captain
Yeah. So just to reiterate everything you're saying, we have this truck that pulls into this neighborhood and stop me at any point that you think I'm wrong, but to describe this neighborhood to me it's, it's the typical American suburb neighborhood. This truck pulls into a position that they can See the van leave, ban the van, the suspect or the killer approaches Liz. Like you said, it's very nonchalant. There's, it seems like there's this individual is not rushing. Something is exchanged, some kind of words or conversation. Like you said, there's four shots, but I think it's important to know that the shots, there's four shots, but it goes like bang, bang, bang, bang. Like three consecutive shots. A little bit of a pause and then the fourth shot. And then the individual, like you said, takes off running, gets into the truck and then takes off. But doesn't seem like they take off like a bat out of hell or anything.
- [20:26]
Nick
Yeah. The one part of this too is like the captain was saying, with the fourth shot, it's three shots and then the killer moves in for a point blank shot. Fourth shot, the fourth and final shot. So then we have one of the neighbors calling 911 at 6:53. That's the Mr. D saying he heard four gunshots and sees this truck leaving at 6:58. About five minutes later we have a another neighbor, Mrs. O calls 911, says that she can. She's observing someone lying in the neighbor's driveway and prior to that she had heard four gunshots. And by this point she starts to see police arriving on the scene during her call to 911 almost at this exact same time. Captain, we have another neighbor who goes by Mrs. B. Called 911 saying someone is shot. I saw it on my home security camera.
- [21:30]
Captain
So we have multiple eyewitnesses, but we also have multiple angles of surveillance footage of the attack and of this individual.
- [21:40]
Nick
Yes. And so we're going to go back in time just a couple of minutes here because while all of this is going down, we have some more movement that we know about this truck. So at 6:55am the murderer in the truck exits Preston Place subdivision, but then does a U turn to re enter the neighborhood. And then seconds later the truck is captured on Liz's doorbell camera passing back by Liz's house. That's at 6:55, a little after 6:55. And remember the. The killer based on this timeline had just left the driveway, sprinting back to the truck at 6:53. So there's a lot of things going on here very quickly. By 6:58, before 6. The timestamp here, Captain, is 6:58 with 52 seconds. Harris County Precinct has got four officers arriving to investigate and to secure the scene. And of course they're arriving to the scene and they see the victim dead. Or dying laying in the driveway helpless at 7.19am so just 20 minutes later, the officers decide to enter the Barraza home. They need to clear and secure the home. This set off the Baraza's alarm system. So the garage door, the big garage door was open and inside the garage door, the man door leading from the garage into the home, that door was closed and unlocked. However, the alarm was set. So as soon as that door is opened it's going to trigger the Barraza's home security alarm. I want to discuss this detail a bit here. From my understanding this was a safety precaution. Now what I could not sort out is was this a safety precaution specifically set up and arranged for this day for the garage sale or was this a safety precaution that the Barrasas used all of the time? Right, Because I know with, and this is something that I always tell people. There are people that live alone and then when they find out what it is that, that I do for a living, they ask for like safety tips. And one of, one of the tips I give them is this same tip right here. I, I live by this one and shout out to simply safe and all the great security systems that have sponsored this show over the years. But one thing that everybody should be doing with their alarm system is this, right? If you are outside, if you are, especially if you're home alone, but even if you're not home alone, if you're outside and you're doing things like yard work or anything that's going to take up any amount of time at all and you got that garage door open, set the alarm to your house that way if you're in the backyard. How are you to know if somebody just walks right up your driveway and walks into your home and waits there for you?
- [24:53]
Captain
There's no way who set the alarm that day?
- [24:56]
Nick
Well, I, I can't say with, with 100 certainty but we know by the time that he leaves Sergio leaves for work, the alarm is, has been activated. So either him or Liz set the alarm that day while she's still outside working on the setting up the garage sale. And he gets a notification, right? He gets a notification as well that the alarm's going off. What happens here is this is also going to trigger another event where Liz's parents are notified by her alarm company that the alarm has been triggered and they cannot reach Liz because they'll often call. Sometimes they will try to call to say, hey, is this a false alarm? Do you need any help? Should we send fire. Should we send police? Right when they can't get a hold of Liz, they call Liz's parents and Liz's parents. Not knowing what triggered the alarm, they immediately leave and head toward Liz's home.
- [25:55]
Captain
Some information that I'm not that clear on, which I'd like to know the answer to is her father was supposed to be there early in the morning. There was a reason why he was running late. He also is an individual that is always carrying a firearm on him. So if he would have been there he could have protected his daughter. Like what we were saying earlier about the event of having a garage sale was sporadic. It was not known until the day before. But the husband would have known. I'm assuming the husband would have known that his father in law was coming over to be with his wife during the garage sale time.
- [26:42]
Nick
Yes, it gets real tricky here Captain, because like we said earlier, very few people knew or had awareness in advance of this garage sale that was going to be taking place Foreign you've probably.
- [27:07]
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- [28:06]
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- [29:12]
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- [30:12]
Nick
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- [30:13]
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- [30:31]
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- [31:58]
Captain
All right, we are back. Cheers mates. Talk. Hands in the air.
- [32:05]
Nick
Cheers.
- [32:06]
Captain
Cheers to the people in the back. Party to the people. Onward and upward. Cheers to you, Colonel.
- [32:12]
Nick
Cheers to you, Captain. Now, we don't know exactly what time, but Cypress Creek EMS arrive on the scene and they notify the Memorial Herman life flight. So they're arranging for a life flight for Liz. The life flight arrives to transport Liz to Memorial Herman at 7:21am Then her parent, then her parents, Rosemary and Bob arrive on the scene at 7:36am this is just after the life flight takes off. And so when they get to the scene, they're the first thing they are learning is something happened. Somebody was shot in the the driveway and there a life flight has taken place, which is never, you know, you're only doing a life flight in the most dire of situ situations.
- [33:05]
Captain
Yeah. And so to be clear, Liz is shot four times. We have eyewitnesses and ear witnesses that hear four shots. She is hit by all four of those shots.
- [33:16]
Nick
Two minutes after Rosemary and Bob arrive on the scene, Sergio arrives back at the house and he's immediately detained by law enforcement for questioning right then and there. And as he describes it, he gets the notification, tells his dad and tells his crew that he's working with that day, that he has to go home, he has to take off. And so he returns rather quickly. And as said, he's arriving on the scene just two minutes after her parents arrive on the scene. And then at 8:02am, Rosemary and Bob leave Liz's house. This was to go to the hospital. Now, what's crazy about this whole situation, I mean, there's a million things that, that we need to get into the details of. But one detail that the police figure out rather quickly, remember they have this is a middle class suburban neighborhood, as typical middle class suburban neighborhood as any of you can picture. And so you have a lot of neighbors and people that live in this neighborhood that have the nest. Doorbell cameras, they have security systems, they have security cameras. Police are going to go and do a, you know, knock on doors and question people, what did you hear? What did you see? One thing that they quickly learn is that with all these people that have doorbell cameras and with security cameras that they are able to view this footage, put together this timeline that we just reviewed. But they find a even more disturbing detail that the black Nissan Frontier, believed to be the exact same truck, was observed on cameras driving by Liz's house in the early morning hours at approximately 2am she shot around 6:55. This same vehicle seems to be doing some reconnaissance here, taking intel of the situation prior to the shooting that takes place Roughly five hours later.
- [35:24]
Captain
Well, it's crazy too, and a little strange. Last week we cover a case in Texas. What is the suspect driving? A black truck. So what did I say last week? Finding a black truck in Texas is like a needle in a haystack. But the difference here is that we do know it's a Nissan. There was some confusion at the beginning to figure out what model of Nissan it was, but the model that it is and the package, because these trucks normally have these packages, it becomes a very rare type of truck. So that should narrow down your search and make it easier. I think this case is so frustrating because you have ear witnesses, eyewitnesses, we have tons of camera footage. Why isn't this case solved?
- [36:16]
Nick
The next day, Saturday, January 26, 2019, sadly, Liz Newelli Barraza is pronounced dead by the trauma team. The life gift team assumes control of her care to prepare her for organ donation. Liz was an organ donor and her generosity saved four lives and gave one other the gift of sight that Wednesday. Captain. The following Wednesday, Crime Stoppers of Houston hosted a press conference to review the case and announce a reward of $20,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible. Then let's fast forward to January of 2021 when we get new information that comes out and they up the reward money when this new information is released to the public. And what they were doing was they were releasing additional surveillance video that was taken from the neighborhood on the morning of the murder. The new video came from a neighbor's nest doorbell camera which showed the suspect drive past the house, turn around, come back and park their vehicle, park the truck. The suspect then gets out to approach Liz while. And some of this is up for, for debate. This description here says the suspect gets out and approaches Liz while wearing boots, a nightgown dress or a moomoo and possibly wearing a wig. And you can see in this video, we'll do our best to try to tell you what we think we are seeing, what we think we are observing in this video. Yeah, the suspect to me is walking purposefully, right. It's not casually, not trying to be quiet, fair, not trying to sneak up on Liz. This person, person is walking with a purpose. And I almost, it looks to me almost like this per person is marching up to the driveway just in front of Liz. And there does appear to be some interaction between Liz and the suspect.
- [38:29]
Captain
Yeah, I believe law enforcement has stated that they have audio. I just don't know how clear that audio is.
- [38:36]
Nick
So that that's really interesting to me here, Captain, because you're exactly right. They do have some audio that was picked up and I believe it was picked up from Liz's doorbell camera. And you know, so the, the motion activates the doorbell camera. Now the camera is recording and it's going. Some of them will pick up audio as well. And it seems like every report that I've reviewed, it seems like the belief is that Liz says hello to the person or hi. So it seems like the, the, the general consensus, everybody agrees that that high or hello is stated. Now whatever is said after that, it's quite distorted. And people have offered up their thoughts online about what it is that was said. One of them that I found incredibly eerie and intriguing at the same time is one person thought that they were hearing the Force sent me or I was sent by the Force, which would play a role into their Star wars club that they belong to.
- [39:43]
Captain
Yeah.
- [39:43]
Nick
And a lot of these, you know, the Comic Cons or the, the events that they would go to these festivals with like minded individuals, there's definitely that something that is said. Words are exchanged. It doesn't sound, it sounds more like pleasantries being exchanged rather than some like, like somebody being angry or aggressive with their words. But what is clear to me, what my eyeballs are telling me, Captain, is the suspect doesn't have the gun visible to our victim until right before the shooting starts.
- [40:17]
Captain
Well, like I said, we have ear witnesses, we have eyewitnesses, we have multiple camera angles. And from one of the angles, to me, it almost looks as if I was acting it out to somebody. The person walks up, like you said, not rushing, but with a purpose. And then you see a arm go out and extend. You know, like presenting the gun to Liz but not taunting her, just it's almost a matter of fact pull the gun out, bang, bang, bang, bang. And then takes off running. And I believe in some of the clips or there's also a lot of still images of the video I could see where people say, well, this person is wearing some kind of dress or muumu or nightgown. And also in one of the still images I've seen, you go, oh, they definitely look like they're wearing boots, like ugg boots or something like that.
- [41:18]
Nick
I've even heard people say, go, go boots or boots that could be come up past the. The knee.
- [41:26]
Captain
Yeah. So there's been speculation both ways. Is this person wearing something as simple as a nightgown and some boots, or is this individual wearing some kind of.
- [41:38]
Nick
Costume like Cosplay costume. I've watched it a dozen times. I'm convinced that the. What I'm seeing is the person went to some effort to disguise their appearance.
- [41:52]
Captain
Yeah.
- [41:52]
Nick
To what degree, I can't say with any level of certainty because there's been. For those that don't know this case, there's been quite a bit of debate whether the suspect seen in the footage is female or male. Could it be a male dressed up, hoping that if seen fleeing the. Because here's the thing. The gun is loud. The killer knows prior to going there. I'm going to do this.
- [42:19]
Captain
Mm.
- [42:19]
Nick
This is going to be loud. I'm in this neighborhood. People are likely going to hear this. There's a good chance that somebody looks out their window or sees me fleeing the scene. It's probably a great idea if I don't look like I normally look.
- [42:36]
Captain
Well, let me point out a couple things about this individual that I noticed. Like you said, all this gun is going to be loud. Okay. So if this was a hired hit or this was planned, why wouldn't you try to get some kind of weapon with a silencer? But the weapon that they used, this gun, was a revolver. So there is no shell casings. So you go on one hand, it's not smart to have a loud gun in a heavily, heavily populated neighborhood because that's going to draw attention, but kind of smart to have a revolver where you're not leaving any casings behind. And then also four shots, all four shots hit the victim. First bullet, they believe went through her or hit her neck, I believe, then ricocheted and hit the house. And then the other two shots were fired into her chest. And then the final shot, which they believe ultimately killed her was to the face.
- [43:37]
Nick
Yeah, that was the point. Blake shot after the killer moved in closer, having already fired the three shots sticking to the gun here, it's believed that the gun used is a.380 revolver. And like the captain said, no shell casings found at the scene because it is a revolver. It's strange to me. This, to me feels very much like a mission kill. And I'm describing that. That term is loose. You say that to some people and they. They have an idea exactly what that means. That, oh, you know, you. We've had serial killers throughout history that have decided, oh, I'm going to rid the world of sex workers. So they're often described as mission style killers or mission oriented or mission driven killers. What I mean by mission here is I think the killer set out to not just Harm Liz Barraza that day set out to kill her. This killer I think was on a mission. I think they are marching up to that driveway. But what's intriguing to me, if it is a mission driven killer that I'm going to, I'm going to carry out this mission, no questions asked. Revolvers are typically six shot. I don't, I'm a little confused as to why they didn't just unload the gun. Yeah, and the other thing too, watching the video and I, I, I will say this, I feel very good and very confident about saying this. It appears to me that the person that fired that gun is inexperienced with guns. This person does not look like they are, are familiar with this specific gun. They almost like if you were to point something like, like, like take your hand and bend your elbow a bit and then just point but drive your arm, your hand forward at the same time. It looks like the killer is almost kind of pushing the gun when they're firing it. Elbows not locked. That's perfectly clear. And that's, that's gun shoot. That's shooting 101. Elbows locked on.
- [45:49]
Captain
The killer is so close to the suspect. So I think one can make the argument. Well, four shots are fired and four hits are made. So maybe a little more experience but maybe doesn't have the strength to operate the gun in a manner that, that they would look proficient. But so I think you could make an argument either way. I see all your points as being super valid but I could see somebody making the argument, well, they shot her four times and all four of them hit.
- [46:19]
Nick
Yeah, I get what you're saying but keep in mind that's close proximity and right even in even an inexperienced shooter. To any inexperienced shooters out there, if you are ever forced to defend yourself and you find yourself with a gun in your hand and you don't know, think you know what you're doing. Aim at the body, right. It's the largest part of the person. And so if you aim at the body, your, your chances increase greatly on hitting your target. The other curious thing here Captain is the fact that the killer in the vehicle, the truck, return the speculation here seems to be there is a thought. Maybe it's just as simple as the killer got lost, got turned around and had to turn around and find their way out of the neighborhood.
- [47:09]
Captain
Right.
- [47:09]
Nick
Again, going back to if this was a person on a mission. One of the biggest reasons that a pyromaniac will get caught, somebody that sets fires will get caught is because the drive inside of them. Some of them just simply do not possess the ability to leave the scene. They have to stand there and watch the whole damn structure burn to the ground.
- [47:35]
Captain
Yeah. Or maybe there's so many things that you can speculate. Maybe the person got lost. Maybe they only knew one way in, one way out. I think you could then make an argument that, like you said, they didn't. They didn't shoot all their bullets. So did they just drive by to see if she was moving? Did they get.
- [47:56]
Nick
That's what I thought. I. That's. I'm going back to the mission. This person was on a mission. The mission was to kill Liz. They drove back by to make sure. Because here's. Here's what keeps going through my head. They went and made. They made an effort. They made a decision. Part of their plan was to make sure that they didn't do this when Sergio was home. Part of their plan was to make sure that Liz was dead. I think whoever did this could be identified by one or both of either Liz or Sergio. And a large part of their plan was structured in such a way that Sergio's not going to see me because he could. He could potentially identify who I am. And Liz, it doesn't matter that she recognizes me, because when I leave that driveway, when I leave her home.
- [48:52]
Captain
Right.
- [48:52]
Nick
She'll be dead, and she can't tell anybody who did this.
- [48:55]
Captain
I like to, when we're doing research and. And also, as you're telling the story, write down questions of what I would want to know as law enforcement. And so one of the questions I have is, do we know? And I don't think law enforcement has released this information, but do we know if the killer was the only one in the vehicle? Is the killer the only one in that truck? Because you could make some argument, hey, we're going to meet in this neighborhood. You're going to drive me over. I'm going to commit the crime. I'm going to get back in the truck, we're going to drive off. I'll drop you off at your vehicle, and then we go our separate ways. Is there a possibility that there's more than one individual in that truck? And I think because of that neighborhood and because of the amount of cameras, I think law enforcement would know that answer.
- [49:49]
Nick
Yeah, I hope. And here's the thing. If they do know that answer, I would hope that after this amount of time, if they know for certain that there were two people in that vehicle, or let's say even three, if there were more than just the killer in that vehicle. I would hope that they would release that information. And I not just hope, I believe that they would have by now. Because you and I know this vehicle is the best clue, it's the best tip, the best lead that they have, probably in this case. And they've got to be frustrated as hell that they've not been able to track down this truck.
- [50:24]
Captain
Well, it's easier to find a vehicle than it is to find an individual. My question, though, and I haven't had, haven't seen anybody put this out there on Reddit or any of the forums that I looked up this case and, and maybe you will pick up what I'm putting down. So the question is, what is this individual wearing? Are they disguising themselves just in case they're seen by Sergio or I guess in case Liz makes it out alive? Is this a wig? Is this a bathrobe nightgown? What kind of boots are these? Is it a costume like you said? Does it have something to do with their Star wars charity and community service? Does it have anything to do with that? But here's what I also wondered. Is it possible that this individual is wearing some kind of hospital gown? Because we know that Liz did a lot of charity work and volunteer work at the hospital.
- [51:38]
Nick
I think it's too difficult to say with any.
- [51:41]
Captain
Yeah, I think it's too grainy to.
- [51:43]
Nick
Say because some people even said that they're seeing a bathrobe.
- [51:47]
Captain
Right. I haven't seen that put out there. Is it possible? Because also what, you know, if somebody was, let's say, undergoing cancer treatment and, and they were going through chemo and they lost their hair, that they maybe would wear a wig. Is the wig a part of a costume or just disguise? Or is it part of what the person was wearing daily at the time?
- [52:11]
Nick
Yeah, what I think I'm seeing is. I can't say if I'm seeing a wig or not or if the person just simply has long hair. But what, what I believe I'm seeing is somebody wearing high heeled boots. That would be typical of a, a lady, a female wearing that, that come up either just to the knee or maybe even past the knee, and that they are also wearing some kind of. To me, it looks like whatever the long garment that they are wearing, whether you want to call it a robe or a moo moo or whatever. To me, I would go more that it's not a robe, but more that style because it looks to me like it's open in the front. And we do know that the killer pulls the gun from somewhere. The gun was concealed prior to. And that's the thing. Had this killer been so aggressive that they. Look, one thing that didn't happen, they didn't park the truck right at the end of the driveway and block in the driveway and then come running out of the truck with a gun in hand. Because, look, unfortunately, I wish it would have went down that way because I think that there's a good chance that Liz would have made it back into her home, run into the garage and into that door and had a chance to lock it behind her. So that gun was concealed somewhere and for the purpose of just being quick and really getting the jump on her. Because if this person, if Liz knew this person in any form or fashion, right, like somebody close to her or somebody on, on the fringes of something that they have some ties to, I think that she would recognize this person. I don't think. There's clearly not good blood here. There's bad blood, right? Unless it's a hired individual. Unless this is a hired hit, right? If this is somebody wearing a disguise or otherwise, they need to have the ability to pull the gun with some level of quickness. The other thing though too, to circle back to one thing that you were saying about the car, the vehicle, is there a chance that there was another person in the vehicle? Personally, I don't think so. But I will say this. I'm a big believer in some cases of intuition, especially in some of these homicide cases that we've covered. And one thing that I thought was rather strange was the words of some of the people closest to the victim. So Liz's father said, quote, the people that did this, he's talking about. So one of the interviews he did, he does toss out a theory and he says, look, I think that somebody hired this person that we see in the video to kill my daughter. And that is certainly a possibility. But I couldn't get over the fact that he says the people that did this, meaning two or more people. And then later Sergio says, quote, it's so cruel and evil what they did to Liz. She didn't deserve any of this. I to hear they and the people, it feels like some form of intuition. Now, I don't know that there were two people directly red handed involved in the murder, the homicide of Liz Barraza. But what I think that the husband and father and probably other people close to this case as well, might be spot on with their intuition. I think that this killer that somebody knows and is close to the person that did this and knows that this person did this, so it would be appropriate to say what they did. And also the people that did this, because somebody has had this knowledge of this person having committed this horrible homicide in. In the early morning hours In January of 2019, they've had that information since.
- [56:29]
Captain
Well, unless, again, if you're law enforcement, you have to go from the inside out. So of course they have to question Sergio, because now does it look. Does this individual look like Sergio dressed up in some kind of muumu or dress? I don't think so. And I think we have because of the surveillance footage. I guess one of my questions for law enforcement would be, okay, well, if we have this vehicle and we can track this vehicle through the neighborhood, did you track Sergio's van as well? And like you said before, eventually he makes it to this work site, but he was running late. Well, how late was he? Would he even have the time to commit the crime? Do we have any. So we have to dive into Sergio again. A lot of these crimes, when you have a husband or wife that kills the other individual, their other partner, there's some kind of financial difficulties or there's some kind of affair going on. We have no evidence of an affair. We have no evidence that they had money problems. It's also weird to me that a lot of these crimes take place a couple days before they're supposed to go on vacation. But I believe he also had a small life insurance policy on his wife, which is not abnormal. But I believe he hasn't even cashed it because he doesn't want people to bring that up as a point to speculate that he's involved somehow. But it's also strange to me to hear Liz's father say, look, I believe this is a hired job. Well, the first person you would suspect would hire a hit would be that person's spouse.
- [58:21]
Nick
Yes, and I wouldn't say that I believe that Liz's father is floating that out there to point the finger at Sergio.
- [58:32]
Captain
No, no, I don't believe so.
- [58:33]
Nick
Here's. Here's the problem with it being a hired hit, okay? And you're exactly right. I wanted to know what was the financials of the. The victims here of the Barazas, Liz and Sergio. Well, every report that we're told is that their financials were fine, they weren't in any kind of financial trouble. And Sergio has been up front and said, look, I understand that a lot of people think that I did this, that, you know, that's just the way these Things work that a lot of people will believe that the husband is guilty. And he did say, regarding the insurance money, that he didn't take it because he was worried that that would point even bigger finger at him. But if I were to have the chance, the opportunity to counsel Sergio, from my understanding, Captain, it wasn't a policy that he had on his wife or the. From my understanding, it was just a. Sometimes at work, with your health insurance and your benefits for work, you will have a life insurance policy that's just built in. From my understanding, Sergio was saying he didn't. He wasn't even aware that there was an insurance policy, a death benefit for his wife, Liz, and that when he was made aware of it, he chose not to accept the insurance money. Now, I don't know how long every. Every policy is different, but I don't know how long he has to decide whether to receive that or not. But I would recommend to him, if he still has the opportunity to collect that insurance money, I think I would collect it, and I would add it to the reward money. The thing here is, Captain, we do know that they upped the reward money that was up to $50,000. January 25, 2022. But again, I think the problem with it being a hit is you have this truck that is probably the best clue in the case. Right. So we have this dark or black Nissan truck driven by Liz's killer. Police described it as follows. It's a Nissan Frontier Pro 4X Edition Crew Cab, model year 2013-2019, with a Pro 4X sticker on the rear of the truck. That's pretty detailed. Pretty detailed. And the problem with it being a hit is now all you have to do is find some transfer of money. And what I mean is, as far as it being a hit with Sergio being responsible or hiring it out is now you're going. You would be able to find some transfer of money or transfers of money and connect it to somebody that has access to a truck that looks like this. Now, you've just received your paper trail leading you to a very good suspect. And the husband looks rather guilty, too.
- [61:47]
Captain
Yeah, I don't think law enforcement has cleared the husband, but he's been very cooperative. And I believe they did a polygraph test. And he passed the polygraph.
- [61:57]
Nick
He's passed a polygraph, and so has his. He's remarried his wife Amber. That was something that, of course, people online started to freak out about. Well, he. Of course, he had his wife killed or he killed her so that he could move on. To this other relationship. Well, again, there would be some paper trail for that for police. And we have seen plenty of times in plenty of investigations that even when a situation where a husband wasn't the killer, if they were doing anything that wasn't on the up and up, police have a very difficult time moving off of them because they found other misdealings within the marriage. And I didn't just think about. When wondering about their financials and then thinking about possible affairs, you can't stop short of thinking of the other side of the fence. The affair doesn't have to be Sergio out running around on his wife. And then once her dead, there's equal chance, and I hate to say this, that maybe Liz had something going on, because that's actually where my first thought went. After reviewing the case and looking at the video, I thought, is this some guy's girlfriend or some guy's wife?
- [63:17]
Captain
Yeah.
- [63:18]
Nick
And. But again, if she is running around on Sergio, there would be a paper trail. There would be something in her computer history and her cell phone history that should be tipping police off, pointing them in the right direction now.
- [63:35]
Captain
Well, and we should make the statement that law enforcement hasn't released everything. We don't know what they're holding back.
- [63:43]
Nick
Exactly. And they could be holding back a lot.
- [63:47]
Captain
And I'm guessing that they were having a lot of conversation and in sharing some information with Liz's father, because one of the interviews that I heard him on, they asked, is this case going to be solved? He doesn't hesitate. He goes, oh, it's going to get solved. So I. Maybe it's just one of those things where it's. It's just a matter of time.
- [64:13]
Nick
Yeah. I think the gun information is a good clue, and again, I think the truck information is a really good clue. And I think the father's right to say that he thinks it's only a matter of time because police have said openly, this is not a cold case. We still receive tips. We still receive phone calls about this case. And Crime Stoppers in Houston has been a big part of helping to get more tips and get more information on this case for law enforcement. And we do know that. And I don't want to stick on this detail too long because I don't think that there's any. I don't think there's a lot of weight here, Captain. But we do know that when Sergio was asked by police, this is. Keep in mind, this is the day of the killing. Is there anybody that. That Liz didn't get along with or would have had an argument with recently or. I don't know the details of the question, but it was something of that nature which did lead to Sergio providing a name of a female to police while on that, from my understanding, that person has been questioned and been vetted now. Now, to what degree do they believe that this person could be responsible or involved? That we don't know. This person's name was publicly leaked at some point by, you know, one of these terrible podcaster people. And we're. We're not releasing that name here today. And I'm happy that it's rather difficult to find because terrible podcasters next week. Well, I have heard her parents say that he, Sergio, was simply providing an answer to a question from the police. This person probably has no involvement at all into. For their name to come out is just to smear them and be really horrible for this person who isn't considered a suspect by police.
- [66:23]
Captain
Well, if you allow me, just a couple things that are floating around in my head, and I don't know if we have the actual answers to them, but there was also a stray bullet. I don't know if you want to call it a stray bullet, but there was a bullet shot into Liz's work, which she was not at because she had the day off, but there was a bullet that was fired into the office of the building that she normally works at. So does that have anything to do with the murder? So if I'm law enforcement, I'm also thinking, does this trip have anything to do with the murder? I also want to check the GPS of the husband on the, on his phone or car. And I, I believe we talked about the cameras. If we're monitoring the actions in the vehicle of the murderer, did we monitor the actions of the husband? How many times did Sergio try to reach out to his wife after being notified by the alarm and then one or two people inside the truck? I think we both agree if we had to place a, like you say, a Franklin on it, I think we both would bet that this individual was a female. And then my call to action for law enforcement would be, okay, you have released some video and some audio. Is there any more that you could release that would help anything out? But I do know as of January 2024, Texas Rangers and the FBI are now on the case. And with all this video footage, you would think that they would be able to get some kind of license plate.
- [68:07]
Nick
Yeah, we do know that Texas Rangers, the FBI and the Texas Anti Gang Unit joined the Barraza Homicide investigation. And as said, tips continue to come in over the years. At some point, we do know that detectives went to Miami, Florida to interview a person of interest, a person that was described as a person of interest. I think that the person responsible had a, had a very personal grievance with Liz. I think they purpose the problem with Sergio. I get what you're saying about wanting to know the GPS of Sergio's phone or, or the white panel van that he was in, but the way that the timeline plays out to suggest that he's the shooter seems almost impossible. Like he may, if he had a role in this, if he had a hand in this, it was, it was getting somebody else to do it for him. I just don't see a way, I don't, I just don't see it to be possible that he could be leaving and then coming and going at the same time, basically.
- [69:18]
Captain
Yeah, I agree.
- [69:19]
Nick
And then he'd have to, he'd have to have enough time to, to, to conceal the van where it's not spotted in the neighborhood. Right. And I'm, and I'm guessing that they probably have. If they got footage of this truck driving around and arriving at Sergio and Liz's house to do the shooting. They got footage of his van leaving. So he would have to leave, then get into this truck and put on a disguise and then approach. Yeah, it just, I just don't see. It's, it's not possible. It just doesn't seem to be possible because we're talking seconds, not minutes.
- [69:57]
Captain
Well, and one of your favorite things in cases is notes. And there is some speculation that maybe that this killer, before killing Liz, that they were handing Liz a note or.
- [70:11]
Nick
Handed something to Liz.
- [70:14]
Captain
And so again, I think there's some hold back information from law enforcement. I'm going to do my best to try to find the different angles and different clips and still images and compile them all into one video. You'll be able to find those on our website@TrueCrimeGarage.com or subscribe to our YouTube channel, because we're adding new content to our YouTube channel basically every week. So join us there as well.
- [70:42]
Nick
Again, the vehicle is described as a Nissan Frontier Pro 4X Edition Crew Cab, dark color. Some reports say black model would be year 2013 to 2019 with a Pro4X sticker on the rear of the truck. And details of the shooter are not exact due to the poor quality of the video footage. And it's not even clear if the shooter is a man or a woman. In the video footage, they appear to be wearing a long robe or some type of long gown or coat or maybe even a dress. Again, some people have described boots seeing boots, some say thigh high white go go style boots.
- [71:25]
Captain
Right.
- [71:26]
Nick
And the person appears to have long hair or they are possibly wearing a wig. There is currently a reward of up to $50,000 for information in this case. If you have any details about the murder of Elizabeth Barraza, please call 713-222-TIPS and share what you know. You can also go to crimestoppers.org to submit your tip and remain anonymous.
- [72:08]
Captain
All right.
- [72:09]
Ad
I want to thank everybody for joining us here in the garage each and every week. Thanks for telling your mother. Thanks for telling your brother.
- [72:16]
Captain
Colonel, do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful listeners this week?
- [72:20]
Nick
I don't have any this week.
- [72:23]
Ad
Well, for everything true crime, check out truecrimegarage.com and make sure you subscribe to the podcast. And until next week, be good, be.
- [72:32]
Nick
Kind, and don't litter. Sa.