It's a border town, but it's also one of the biggest border towns in the United States.

So.

We are in the back streets of San Bernardo Avenue in downtown Laredo, commonly known as La Sander. This is personal to me because this is often where my mother worked and walked around. She stayed around this area. There would be times where I would have to come down here to look for her.

Claudine Lueta was a mother. She loved her five children, and her family loved her. Let's talk about your mom. What was she like?

My mom, she was perfect, beautiful, she was funny. She was the best cook ever, very thoughtful, very lovable, always reminding me how much she loved me.

We were, I think, well grounded by my family, and we didn't have much, but we had what we needed.

We were known as the Waritas, the Little White Girls, because my mother was originally from Glasgow, Scotland, and my father, he was born and raised here in Loreto, Texas. Family was very important for her.

She wanted us to have a better life and felt like she couldn't provide that for us. So then she resorted to the streets.

She started going into a depression, and she didn't know there would be a way out.

And we started noticing more habits.

She had her own demons. But at the end of the day, she loved us.

Did you worry about her safety?

Every day. I would cry, pray to God because she was on the streets. I always had that worry in the back of my head.

Claudeen was a woman who worked on San Bernardo Avenue. San Bernardo has a unique character on its own. It's known as having those little mom and pop shops. It's also known for its dark side, the drug use, the drug exchanges. It's always been really known as that red light district.

I was born and raised right here in South Texas, so I know the good people of Loreto are humble, warm, welcoming, and grounded in their Mexican-American heritage.

You're going to see so much of the Mexican culture here in Loreto. Loreto is known for the Jalapeño Festival.

This.

Town is called the Gateway City.

And.

Because it's right here on the border, there's a heavy law enforcement presence here. This is not a place where people fear for their safety, and that's why the murder of a young woman on the outskirts of town in 2018 shook this community to its very core. 909. I'm here driving by Jeffrey's Road. I believe I found a dead body there.

I'll go.

Ahead and send somebody.

Okay, thank you.

She was found in Webb County, in a colonial area.

There's nothing after. Why don't you get outside of the city limits, it's rural Texas. It's just farmland. It's very flatland, dirt roads.

Not an area that city folks will visit unless they have a purpose to be there.

It was along this dusty road that a rancher found a woman's body faced down in that brush. She had been shot at close range several times. To investigators, this wasn't just a murder.

What happened to them? Right here. Right here. It seemed like an actual execution. Back of the head and shot her here.

Captain Federico Calderón of the Webb County Sheriff's Office and Texas Ranger E. J. Salinas led the investigation, and they brought us to the crime scene. She was found out in the open where anyone could have seen this.

Right here. Half on the road, half on the burn there, but yeah, completely out in the open.

How long has she been out here?

Hours. It could have happened that night before.

What leads you to believe that she was killed here and not somewhere else, and then her body dumped here.

The evidence that was left in her body, I mean, the shell cases were right there next to the body.

The Eagle Eye detectives find 40 caliber shell casings, as well as distinct tire tread marks that appeared to be from a pickup truck. And where were the tire marks found? Show me back here.

So the tire marks would have been here from where he turned around. And then.

He just left.

Her here. He just left her here.

What person would do this?

A.

Monster. We have new.

Information regarding the body of a woman found in Northwest Webb County. Authorities have not yet released the name of the victim.

I was.

Extremely worried that that could have been my mother. That was a fear I had every night growing up.

Later that day, the medical examiner was able to identify the victim, but it wasn't Claudine Lueta, as her daughter Cierra had feared.

Authorities confirm tonight that the victim in this case is 29-year-old Melissa.

Ramirez from right here in Loreto. As soon.

As law enforcement identified the victim as Melissa Ramirez, investigators notified her mother, Maria Christina Benavides.

Two detectives go to your front door. What do they say? I grew up.

With Melissa since we were little. We're best friends, so I know her since she was a baby. Everybody just love being around her because she was always joking around, singing and dancing. And she was a human being, a beautiful human being.

I spoke to my mother, and I was very relieved that it wasn't her. And she did share with me that somebody from Sambar had been murdered.

The community itself in San Marlo, everybody knew each other and they would watch out for each other.

What was their relationship like with Melissa?

They were.

Very close. They would protect each other in the streets. No one.

Knew what happened, how it happened.

It was.

Just a waiting game.

But it.

Wasn't long before investigators get a break in the case.

A vehicle had been seen leaving the scene of the crime in a suspicious manner.

Witnesses at the scene had spotted a dark truck along Jeffrey's Road near the victim's body.

Before the vehicle left the scene, witnesses were able to get a license plate.

Who was that person?

That person.

Ended up.

Being.

A policeofficer. (car engine starting to do something).