EL PASO, Texas – About 30 years ago a couple and their baby son were stabbed to death inside an El Paso, Texas home One of the city’s most shocking unsolved murders,
El Paso police over the weekend arrested 69-year-old Arturo Ortega García on charges of killing several people in the brutal 1994 Santoni family murder, officials said.
Concepcion “Connie” Villa, 28, her boyfriend, 59-year-old Francisco Santoni, and their 3-year-old son, Dante Santoni, were stabbed to death inside their home in El Paso on August 11, 1994.
According to the news archives of the El Paso Times, part of the USA Today Network, the arrest follows a long, and sometimes depressing, cold case investigating the death of a family that was stabbed more than 10 times.
El Paso police said in a statement that the US Marshal Lone Star Fugitive Task Force arrested Ortega Garcia on Friday after he was extradited from Mexico City, where he has been in prison since 2020.
Police said that during the initial investigation, investigators recovered evidence that did not develop practical clues until 2015, when “technological advances” resulted in the identification of Ortega García as a suspect in the murders. A warrant was issued for Ortega Garcia’s arrest in 2015, but his whereabouts were unknown until detectives learned of his arrest in Mexico City in 2020.
‘Lady of the Dunes’:Investigators seek information about Cape Cod murder victim’s ‘husband’
forecast:Subtropical Storm Nicole may reach hurricane strength before hitting Florida
Ortega Garcia is being held in the El Paso County Jail under a $5 million bond.
Police officers have not disclosed the progress that leads to the identity of the suspect, nor have they given a possible motive for the murders and what connection, if any, Ortega García had to the Santoni family.
In Texas, the death penalty is punishable by the death penalty or for life in prison without parole.
El Paso family killed in home
According to newspaper archives, the murder of the Santoni family was extremely brutal.
Detective Jim Holland told the El Paso Times in 1997, “There was an intensive, full-blown task force on the matter for a few weeks, then all leads were exhausted.”
Articles in the El Paso Times suggest that investigators believe Willa, a travel agent, was the first to be killed in the bedroom of the family home just after midnight. Then the killer went into the child’s room and repeatedly stabbed him while lying on the bed.
The killer then removed some clothing and other items from the master closet and took them to the family’s 1994 Dodge Colt in the garage. Police said that clothes and jewelery were stolen from the house.
Francisco Santoni, the owner of an international auto parts business, then came home and was surprised by an intruder in the hallway, who repeatedly stabbed him. His body was found in the same bedroom of the villa.
According to newspaper archives, soon after the murders, the family car was found in El Paso, more than a dozen miles from the home.
Despite the investigation being open for nearly three decades, the road turned cold.
