How did you get involved in the case?
Sheriff's office
received a 911 call that there was a dead female
out in the middle of nowhere.
I knew this was no hunting accident.
She was totally nude.
She had a gunshot wound to the back of her head.
It looked like an execution.
An officer gave me the news that they had found her.
Why would somebody do this?
[Letty] I just started banging the wall.
My life went blank. It was just horrible.
There had been a guy that Inez had been in the Navy with
that had harassed her.
Inez had told her sister, "If anything happens to me,
you need to look at him."
Law enforcement pulled a photograph of his truck,
and it showed a dark-headed female with him.
It was just another piece of the puzzle.
Have you ever heard a more callous murder?
The cold-bloodedness does stand out.
Inez, out in the middle of nowhere,
shot in the back of the head.
[gunshot blast]
This was just...
awful.
[theme song playing]
Hi, I'm Paula Zahn, and tonight we're on the case
in Edwards County, Texas,
not far from the Mexican border.
The region's sprawling countryside is
a nature lover's dream, with many more miles
of rugged terrain than residents.
Folks who visit come prepared to face the elements,
but no one here was ready for what unfolded after
a woman's lifeless body was discovered
near a remote campsite.
What they found led investigators to sift through
the clues of a bizarre mystery that hid a sinister plot
filled with betrayal and deception.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Paula] September 2nd, 2012.
It was the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, and while much
of the country was enjoying backyard barbecues by the pool,
Mark Bauer and his friends had a different plan
for celebrating the holiday.
We were out here recreational hunting
and just enjoying our company and time out in nature.
[Paula] It was around noon when Mark and his friend Tommy began
a typical day of boar hunting.
But first, Tommy made a life-changing decision
to check on their friend in a neighboring campsite.
Tommy went up the road to check on a fellow, Troy,
because we had drank all night, and Tommy wanted to make sure
that he was good to drive because some of the terrain
out here is pretty extreme.
[Paula] But what Tommy found was far more disturbing
than he could have imagined.
He drove up on what appeared to be a dead girl.
Tommy asked what happened, and Troy said,
"I found her like this."
[Paula] Tommy was stunned.
He raced to his campsite and brought Mark with him
to the grisly scene.
Upon arriving up on the scene, it was shocking
to find a female body
laying on the side of the road with clothes
scattered about in the brush.
I knew this was no hunting accident because she was
totally nude and she had a trash bag over her head.
It was very, very concerning, and that's when I called
the sheriff's department.
[siren wailing]
[Paula] Mark's report triggered a rush of law enforcement activity.
How did you get involved in the case?
Sheriff's office received a 911 call.
The individual reported that there was a dead, naked female.
They arrived.
They started processing the scene.
They then requested assistance from the Texas Rangers.
[Paula] Mark, Tommy, and Troy were waiting
for investigators at the gruesome crime scene.
Was it obvious how she had been murdered?
No, she was found face down.
It wasn't until they removed the bag that they were able
to see the gunshot wound to the back of her head.
Did it appear as if the victim had been killed there?
Yes, the way they're able to determine that is through
the puddle of blood that was surrounding the body.
[camera shutter clicks]
Could they get any sense as to how long
the victim had been there?
Not exactly, no.
However, it had not been very long.
[Paula] Based on those early observations, police began
to formulate a theory of the crime.
Did the investigators believe
that sexual violence was the motive?
Yes, because the body was naked, there's always gonna
be an assumption it was sexual violence.
And this young lady had abrasions and contusions
that were indicative of sexual trauma.
[Paula] But as investigators continued to process the area,
they noticed some clues that didn't fit.
Were there any signs of struggle at the crime scene?
No, there was not.
There was blood on the clothing, which indicated that she was
murdered prior to being unclothed.
The gunshot wound was to the back of her head,
suggesting that she did not even know it was coming.
Looked like a execution.
And there was another clue that raised suspicions.
Investigators noted the unmistakable smell
of bleach, often used to destroy DNA.
What did that indicate to you?
Well, that indicated to me that the suspect was trying
to throw the investigators off.
[Paula] The garbage bag over the victim's head,
as well as the body's proximity to the Mexican border,
raised new concerns.
It was disgusting that possibly the cartel might have had
something to do with the murder.
[Paula] Could the young woman have been murdered by sadistic drug lords
who had tried to cover their tracks?
Police hope that a wallet found along with the victim's clothing
might help them answer that question.
Investigators found her billfold,
and inside the billfold were items that helped them
to identify her as being Inez Santa Cruz from Arizona.
What did they learn about her?
They learned that she was a nurse at a hospital in Tucson
and a Navy reservist in the military.
Police were puzzled.
Inez was more than 700 miles from her Tucson home and seemed
an unlikely victim for this type of crime.
Do they have any understanding of how she ended up
in such a remote place?
They had no idea why she was there or how she got there.
Investigators now had a lot of questions for the men
who had found Inez.
Could investigators find any ties between
the hunters and the victim?
Only the proximity of the victim to the hunters.
According to the hunters, they did not know who Inez was.
[Paula] In fact, those at the scene offered little
that advanced the investigation.
Did any of the hunters report hearing gunfire
that morning in the area?
They did, but that would not have been unusual at all.
[suspenseful music builds]
The whole scene was odd.
I mean, here's a woman out literally
in the middle of nowhere. There's hunters nearby.
They separated them. They asked them questions.
That led the investigators to realize, "Well, we're gonna
have to do some more work on this."
[Paula] Would the jumble set of puzzle pieces start to fit together
after detectives spoke with
Inez Santa Cruz's loving family?
[suspenseful music builds and stops abruptly]
2 [mysterious music playing]
[Paula] Police trying to solve the brutal murder
of 27-year-old Inez Santa Cruz had little to go on.
They hoped that the Naval Reservists' autopsy report
might provide a new lead.
Instead, the findings only added mysterious new details,
starting with the odd test results from Inez's blood.
What did the toxicology report indicate?
She had the presence of benzodiazepines in her system.
A very strong dose of Xanax, basically.
[Paula] The large amount of sedative was surprising.
It didn't fit with any of the other aspects
of the brutal crime.
It was just another piece of the puzzle they were
trying to put together.
[Paula] The medical examiner's sexual assault exam also told
an unexpected story.
The autopsy revealed no DNA evidence that would be
consistent with a sexual assault.
What did they make of that?
Once he knew she was dead, he removed her clothing.
[camera shutter clicks]
[Dorian] He wanted to make it look like a sexual assault.
[Paula] Police were convinced that whoever murdered Inez
had gone out of his way to leave evidence that muddied the true
motive of the crime.
But why?
When officers arrived to deliver
the heartbreaking death notification to Inez's family,
they had few specific details to offer.
When did you find out that something tragic had happened?
It was Sunday morning. An officer gave me the news
that they had found her.
[Letty] They said they found Inez's body.
I just started banging the wall.
It was just horrible.
I just couldn't believe it. It was like my life went blank.
And I was like, "What do you mean, 'found'?
Like, what happened?"
I really thought it was like an accident.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Paula] Erica Santa Cruz told police that her sister Inez had been
kind-hearted and humble.
What is it that you most respected about her?
What I respected about her was each accomplishment,
it was as if it was nothing.
She never bragged about what she had done.
She was just so down to earth.
[Paula] One of those achievements
was a successful enlistment in the U.S. Navy.
It was there as a corpsman that Inez learned the skills
she needed to become a top surgical assistant.
She had just been chosen to do an open-heart surgery.
It was one of the first ones that was gonna be done
in Tucson, Arizona.
She loved it.
She loved helping people.
[Paula] Inez could have worked anywhere, but she had chosen
to settle down in Tucson so she could be
close to her family.
How would you describe where she was in her life
at the time of this tragedy?
Inez seemed to be very happy.
She had many, many friends.
I was so proud of her.
[Paula] Letty and Erica told police there was no reason for Inez
to be in the remote area where she was found.
As far as they knew, she was supposed to be spending
that weekend with her friend Rosa Medina in San Antonio.
Rosa had a photo shoot to do, and she didn't have anybody
to help her with her daughters.
Inez had planned on babysitting Rosa's two daughters while Rosa
did photography at a wedding.
[Paula] Police quickly followed up on the lead.
What happened when investigators reached out to Rosa?
She told investigators that although her and Inez initially
had plans that weekend, that Inez had canceled her trip.
[Paula] Rosa was devastated to hear that her friend had been murdered.
She and Inez's family were quick to point police
to a potential suspect.
What did investigators find out?
Investigators were told about a coworker, a naval cadet,
and evidently he was pretty sweet on her and made
her uncomfortable so much that Inez had told her sister that,
"Hey, if anything happens to me, you need to look at him."
[Paula] It was investigators' first big lead.
Did you think it was possible he could have been involved?
Yes.
Did you think he was in love with her?
He was.
He was becoming a little too controlling for her.
[Paula] Investigators immediately set about tracking down Inez's
former Navy coworker.
But when they found him, the promising lead became
a dead end.
He had been on duty over Labor Day weekend.
[Marty] They checked his whereabouts during the time of the murder
and found out that he wasn't anywhere close to Texas,
so they ruled him out pretty fast.
[Paula] Investigators were back at square one with challenging
questions to answer.
How did Inez Santa Cruz end up dead
at an isolated campsite in Texas?
And who had a motive to kill her?
2 [mysterious music playing]
[Paula] Police, trying to solve the murder of Inez Santa Cruz,
still couldn't understand why she was in the secluded area
of Texas where she was killed.
That led them to dig deeper into Inez's relationship
with Rosa Medina, the only person she knew
in the Lone Star State.
Some aspects of the long-term friendship raised new questions.
Rosa had a pretty troubled background,
and so Inez's mother helped raise Rosa.
Rosa was living with them while they were in high school.
I did always accept Rosa as like my daughter.
She'd call me mom. Very respectful young lady.
My parents' house was always open for everyone.
She would stay with us.
[Paula] But what really caught investigators' attention was
that their friendship had actually been something more.
I noticed that Rosa did have a crush on Inez,
but she knew that I was against any type of relationship.
If it did happen, it happened behind my back.
They actually started the romantic relationship
when they were in high school.
[Erica] I don't think, I would say they fell in love.
My sister was just one of those people who,
whether it was love or just a friendship,
she was always gonna be there for everyone.
[Paula] After Inez left home for the Navy,
her family believed the couple had drifted apart.
It looked like she had moved on from the relationship with Rosa.
[Paula] But Inez and Rosa remained close, even as Rosa struggled
through a failed relationship that left her a single mother
of two young girls.
Rosa would be gone for two, three years,
and then she'd show back up, bring the kids over.
I always kept in touch one way or another.
[Paula] The new information about the nature of Rosa's
relationship with Inez led the Texas Rangers to bring
her in for a formal interview.
[Paula] Investigators read the text message Inez sent Rosa.
[detective] Amor, I'm not gonna be able to go.
[Paula] In fact, Inez's cancelation forced Rosa to change all
of her holiday weekend plans.
Instead of doing the photo shoot she had scheduled,
she went to a concert with her kids.
She had recorded footage of the concert on her phone.
There was no question that she was at this concert.
[Paula] The evidence had police ready to accept Rosa's story,
but there was one detail that just didn't fit.
According to the airlines, Inez Santa Cruz had actually
boarded her flight that weekend, just as she had
originally planned.
She flew Southwest Airlines from Tucson to San Antonio.
Was Rosa confronted with the fact that Inez had gotten
on the plane? -She was.
What was her reaction?
She said she had no idea what had happened.
[Paula] So far, everything Rosa had told police had only
deepened the mystery.
But before detectives ended the interview,
Her answer to a routine question would give
the investigation a very clear focus.
[suspenseful music builds and ends]
2 [mysterious music playing]
[Paula] Police believe that Inez's friend Rosa Medina had shared
everything she knew about the case when a routine
question about Troy Ryder, the hunter who had discovered
Inez, changed everything.
How did his name come up in the first place?
They asked her about Troy Ryder because he was at the scene
where Inez was murdered.
Did Rosa reveal anything that advanced the investigation?
Yes.
The most shocking thing that they found out was Rosa knew
Troy Ryder for approximately three months.
[Paula] Police were stunned.
And when they told Rosa he had found Inez's body,
she appeared to be as surprised as they were.
[Paula] Rosa immediately told police everything she could about
her relationship with Troy Ryder,
including a detail she was desperate to keep hidden
from her friends and family -- how she and Troy had met.
She revealed that she knew him through the adult club
where she was a dancer.
[Paula] Rosa insisted the relationship was platonic,
but admitted she had seen Troy outside of the club.
She had established a friendship with him,
and they had gone to lunch a few times.
[Paula] Investigators pressed Rosa about whether Troy had ever met
Inez, or if he knew that she and Inez had a romantic history.
[Paula] Suddenly everything police knew about Inez's murder had to be
viewed through a different lens.
Once investigators established that Rosa Medina knew Troy,
how did they go about investigating him?
At that point, he was a suspect in the murder.
[Paula] And that meant re-interviewing the hunters who had been
with him the night before Inez had been killed.
When Troy showed up at my camp, he had stated that he was out
looking for a place to go dove hunting.
One thing I found peculiar was he was not dressed
in hunting clothes.
He was in a dress cowboy shirt, blue jeans.
He didn't have any camping gear.
When police dug deeper into Troy's activities
that weekend, what struck them?
That he had been woefully unprepared
for a hunting weekend out in the desert.
[Marty] He was there to hunt birds.
And he didn't bring a shotgun, which he would normally use
to hunt birds. He brought a.22 rifle.
[Paula] That was the same caliber rifle as the one used to kill Inez.
That convinced investigators that Troy Ryder had not visited
the campsite to hunt.
He had been there to murder Inez Santa Cruz.
[suspenseful music builds]
[Paula] And they quickly got additional evidence to support
their theory from the U.S. Border Patrol.
Law enforcement ran his plate,
and they saw where it had gone through
a Border Patrol checkpoint.
They were able to pull a photograph of the vehicle,
and it showed Troy Ryder in his truck with a female.
[Paula] The woman was small
and had dark hair like Inez.
Can you make out Inez's face in that surveillance video?
No, ma'am, you cannot. But Mr. Ryder had said
that he had gotten out to the campsite by himself.
[Paula] It seemed like all the pieces were rapidly coming together.
Police felt they now had enough to confront Ryder face to face.
Investigators visited with him, hoping to get
a confession from him.
Did he admit to knowing Inez?
No, ma'am. He said he didn't know Inez.
He claimed that he had picked a hitchhiker up on the highway
and he had given her a ride to Brackettville, Texas.
[Paula] Detectives were confident that Ryder was lying,
and cameras that captured Inez getting off her flight
in San Antonio provided proof.
What did the surveillance video actually show
at the airport when Inez landed?
There are cameras located throughout the airport,
which showed her leaving the arrivals area,
walking through the baggage claim area.
[Paula] And Troy Ryder was there,
waiting to meet her.
Mr. Ryder had actually made a little cardboard sign
that said Inez on it.
There's a short conversation between the two of them.
The next surveillance we have is of the two of them
walking out to the parking area next to each other,
with Inez being in no visible state of distress
or anything like that.
[Paula] Police were puzzled.
Why would Inez have willingly left the airport with a man
she had never even met?
A man they now believe shot her to death
less than 24 hours later.
[suspenseful music builds and ends]
2 [mysterious music playing]
[Paula] The damning video evidence that documented Inez Santa Cruz
being lured out of the San Antonio airport was chilling
even for veteran investigators like Pamela Elliott.
[Pamela] The weirdest part of this that kind of gave me the creeps was
to watch him stand in the corner in baggage
and watch her walk.
But it was like a lion stalking its prey.
[Paula] Prosecutors were confident that the case police had composed
proved Troy Ryder was a sadistic killer.
Investigators quickly took Ryder into custody.
[handcuffs clicking]
He was initially charged with capital murder.
Capital murder in Texas is punishable by either
life in prison without parole or the death penalty.
[Paula] At first, Ryder tried to stonewall police,
but the possibility of the death penalty
forced him to reconsider.
I guess Troy had sit in jail long enough.
He was ready to confess and go ahead and give information.
[Paula] Police still had no idea why Ryder had targeted Inez.
And the story he shared was shocking.
He claimed that Rosa Medina,
as his best friend and lover,
was the real mastermind of the crime.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Paula] Police were skeptical. Why would Rosa want Inez dead?
Ryder's answer was stunning.
Rosa told Troy that Inez was blackmailing her
and threatening her to tell Rosa's family
that Rosa was a stripper.
And Rosa was afraid she was gonna lose her
two daughters.
[Paula] The story was a lie.
The investigation revealed that Rosa's family already knew
she was a dancer and there was no threat
of losing her children.
But there was a simple reason why Ryder never questioned it.
What Ryder explained was that he wanted a relationship with
Rosa Medina, and that Rosa Medina had said that while
she would like that, there was this roadblock,
and this roadblock was Inez.
[Paula] Rosa told Ryder the only way for them to be together was
for him to execute her murderous plan.
[Paula] Rosa also gave Ryder the story that persuaded Inez to leave
the airport with him.
He told her that Rosa had sent him.
[Paula] But not all of the plot worked as planned
Rosa had supplied Ryder with what she believed
was a deadly dose of Xanax.
[Paula] In the truck, Ryder gave Inez the spiked drink.
[Paula] Ryder then drove Inez to the campsite.
When they arrived, he expected that it was just
a matter of time until she was dead.
But the overdose of pills wasn't fatal.
When Ryder returned from a night of drinking
with the hunters he had met, he came back to his trailer
to find Inez alive, awake, and furious with Rosa.
At that point, he convinced her to call Rosa,
and her friend would explain everything.
Ryder explained there was a spot a few hundred yards away
where she could get reception.
He said that while she was on the rock trying to call Rosa,
he retrieved his.22 rifle out of his Suburban and shot her
in the back of the head.
[gunshot blast]
[Paula] As part of his confession, police took Ryder to the crime scene.
[detective] Today's date is 12-10-2012. The time is 5:35.
[Paula] Where he walked investigators
through the final moments of the attack.
[muffled gunshot blast]
[Paula] Ryder claimed it was his idea to stage the scene to look like
a sexually motivated cartel hit.
[Paula] Ryder may have done more to stage the scene if he hadn't
been interrupted by the arrival of the hunters.
Detectives still couldn't understand why Ryder would
murder a woman he didn't even know.
I drove up, came up that way, came around.
[Paula] The disturbing confession closed the case
against Troy Ryder.
He got a 75-year sentence in exchange for his guilty plea.
[dramatic music playing]
[Paula] But investigators knew their job was far from done,
and bringing the mastermind of the crime
to justice wouldn't be easy.
What evidence did you have against Rosa Medina?
The evidence against Rosa Medina was scant at best.
The primary evidence was Troy Ryder's statement.
That is not enough to indict somebody,
much less convict somebody of murder.
[suspenseful music builds]
[Paula] Still, police hope that one day they could support Troy Ryder's
confession with physical evidence.
And it would take a decade of improvements in
digital forensic science to uncover a trail of clues Rosa
believed to be buried forever.
In the end, what was the most indicting evidence that
came out of the advances in technology?
They were able to get deleted text messages,
and those text messages showed communication
between Inez and Rosa on September 1st, 2012.
Those messages showed Inez saying that she was getting
on the plane and that she would see her soon.
[Paula] It was concrete evidence that Medina knew Inez was flying
that day and that she had the information
to give to Troy Ryder.
And there was more.
The second component were the deleted web searches
on Rosa's phone. Some of those web searches
were for things like, "How do you slip a Mickey to somebody?"
"How to make untraceable phone calls."
[Paula] Each of those details were part of the murder plot,
and each was corroborated by the testimony of
Medina's accomplice, Troy Ryder.
Dorian Cotlar believed it was enough to issue a warrant
for her arrest.
She showed no empathy, just complete denial
and a lack of acceptance of responsibility.
[Paula] But when Assistant Attorney General Dorian Cotlar finished
showing her the evidence,
Rosa Medina agreed to plead guilty to manslaughter.
She was sentenced to 18 years behind bars.
Inez's family saw the plea deal as a blessing.
It took a lot off my shoulders because I didn't want to have
to hear anything from her or see her.
It's not gonna give me my daughter back.
[melancholic music playing]
[Paula] Rosa Medina has never offered a confession,
but police have a theory of the crime.
They believe that Medina was still in love with Inez,
and when Inez decided to settle down in Arizona,
it ended her last hope of them sharing a life together.
Rather than accept Inez's choice, Medina became enraged
and saw Troy Ryder as a tool she could use for vengeance.
She dances for a living, in an adult club.
She knows what sells.
She knows how to manipulate people.
She was never gonna enter into a relationship with Troy Ryder.
She used him.
[gunshot blast]
How many levels of betrayal are there in this story?
Rosa was very close with Inez's family.
She had been brought into their home.
It's a massive betrayal on the part of Rosa Medina.
[melancholic music playing]
[Paula] A betrayal that has left many wounds that will never heal.
Do you ever think you'll make sense of what happened to Inez?
No, I won't -- we won't.
Every day is a battle.
Every single day we wake up.
[melancholic music continues]
How do you keep Inez's memory alive?
There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about her.
She'll live on with us forever.
Investigators hope the new technology that allowed them
to bring Rosa Medina to justice will help them
to close other cold cases as well.
I'm Paula Zahn.
Please join us again next time when we're back on the case.
[Zahn] On the next On the Case...
Did your heart sink when
you watched the surveillance tape?
Absolutely.
You see her just walk into the darkness,
she's never seen again.
Someone was here waiting for the perfect
moment to abduct her.
This individual, he's a monster.