TX TX - Elizabeth Barraza, 29, murdered setting up garage sale, Harris Co, Jan 2019 #7

It could be any number of things as to why the murderer turned the truck around after leaving the Barraza house to drive past it again after the murder going the opposite direction. Maybe they had a police scanner and were surprised at how quicky the crime was reported when they heard it over the scanner? Then they turned around to go back where they came from realizing police would be traveling to the crime scene from Kuykendahl Road.

Whoever it was that murdered Elizabeth Barraza, I think it is safe to assume they were not at their home between approximately 6:30am - 8 am as they would have to travel somewhere to get rid of that Nissan Frontier Pro-4X truck and get back into their regular vehicle to go home. People arriving home after the murder happened would be of interest. Also, they may have needed time to change out of their costume. It could be a man in this case as the shooter sounds like a man, but the audio is so difficult to make out. Alibis are important in this case as are people who knew Elizabeth Barraza who had access to or own a Nissan Frontier Pro-4X truck.

The video below is from Alex Lewis (WelshChappie). It shows the responding officer dash cam from 7am until 8:12am. Most of it is just listening to the background noise of a morning talk show until the last half hour when that gets turned off and you can hear the conversation between Sergio and the officers. I do not think Sergio has anything to do with it based on his conversation with the officers, but I can understand why so many times it does turn out to be the husband or boyfriend. Sergio does ask about his wife's condition and whether or not he can go and see her.

I watched the entire 1 hour and 11 minute video from 7 am to 8:12am because after the officer parks their car I was looking to see if any of the neighbors let their dogs out or if I could hear dogs barking. Dogs can get very scared upon hearing gunshots or fireworks going off and I was trying to see who might have come out of their house at that time to see what was going on. With the flashing lights and noise from responding vehicles I thought it might have woken the neighbors. I could not hear the Barraza's dog barking or any of the other neighbor's dogs barking because like so much of this case, with the quality of the audio it was too difficult to tell.

 
What is sort of surprising about this case is that with all the audio and surveillance video it remains unsolved.

We do not get to look at all the evidence, but at least in this case there is something to try and draw some conclusions from because of the people like Arin Stoner and Alex Lewis (WelshChappie) who were able to get useful information.

I know one piece of evidence I would love to see. I would want to see what other surveillance video from previous days the owner of the surveillance camera at the corner of Brogan Court and Sandusky Drive has. The reason is that if we assume for a second that the murderer might have planned out that escape route at the end of Sandusky Drive, then they might have done a run through on previous days. I do not think they drove into the grass on previous days, but they probably would want to be familiar with the exit route at the end of Sandusky Drive.

On the day of the murder, the Nissan Frontier Pro-4X truck passed the surveillance camera at the corner of Brogan Court and Sandusky and never came back into view on the surveillance camera even though Sandusky Drive ends at the cul-de-sac. But on a different previous day when police are not looking for the murderer's truck right away, what I would expect is that either someone walking or driving would pass in front of the surveillance camera and then come back to pass in front of it again.

I can only imagine police checked this idea out already.
 
It could be any number of things as to why the murderer turned the truck around after leaving the Barraza house to drive past it again after the murder going the opposite direction. Maybe they had a police scanner and were surprised at how quicky the crime was reported when they heard it over the scanner? Then they turned around to go back where they came from realizing police would be traveling to the crime scene from Kuykendahl Road.

Whoever it was that murdered Elizabeth Barraza, I think it is safe to assume they were not at their home between approximately 6:30am - 8 am as they would have to travel somewhere to get rid of that Nissan Frontier Pro-4X truck and get back into their regular vehicle to go home. People arriving home after the murder happened would be of interest. Also, they may have needed time to change out of their costume. It could be a man in this case as the shooter sounds like a man, but the audio is so difficult to make out. Alibis are important in this case as are people who knew Elizabeth Barraza who had access to or own a Nissan Frontier Pro-4X truck.

The video below is from Alex Lewis (WelshChappie). It shows the responding officer dash cam from 7am until 8:12am. Most of it is just listening to the background noise of a morning talk show until the last half hour when that gets turned off and you can hear the conversation between Sergio and the officers. I do not think Sergio has anything to do with it based on his conversation with the officers, but I can understand why so many times it does turn out to be the husband or boyfriend. Sergio does ask about his wife's condition and whether or not he can go and see her.

I watched the entire 1 hour and 11 minute video from 7 am to 8:12am because after the officer parks their car I was looking to see if any of the neighbors let their dogs out or if I could hear dogs barking. Dogs can get very scared upon hearing gunshots or fireworks going off and I was trying to see who might have come out of their house at that time to see what was going on. With the flashing lights and noise from responding vehicles I thought it might have woken the neighbors. I could not hear the Barraza's dog barking or any of the other neighbor's dogs barking because like so much of this case, with the quality of the audio it was too difficult to tell.

Oh my god, that was the most annoying radio show I have ever heard in my life! I couldn't believe he sat there with that on for that long. There's something wrong with those DJs.

So if anyone wants to watch this video but wants to avoid having to hear that cop's car radio playing that awful morning show, I thought I'd tell you the time on the video that he finally thankfully turns it off. Right about 43:50 he turns off the radio. Then I think it was just silence til 44:40 when you first hear Sergio's voice.

I did notice that in this video, they didn't redact the name of the person that Sergio offers up in reply to the officer when he asks if they had any enemies etc. You can hear him say and spell her name at 44:51.

One thing I'm confused about is how did the shooting, the neighbor's call to 911 reporting the shooting, the first officer arriving on scene, the LifeFlight helicopter arriving and loading Liz into the helicopter, and her parents arriving on scene, all have time to happen before Sergio gets there? Just seems like an awful lot happened in the time it took him to get the alert on his phone, turn around and return to the house.
 
I did notice that in this video, they didn't redact the name of the person that Sergio offers up in reply to the officer when he asks if they had any enemies etc. You can hear him say and spell her name at 44:51.
I wonder, if this is the same person, lonewanderer has in her view for her own reasons?
 
Oh my god, that was the most annoying radio show I have ever heard in my life! I couldn't believe he sat there with that on for that long. There's something wrong with those DJs.

So if anyone wants to watch this video but wants to avoid having to hear that cop's car radio playing that awful morning show, I thought I'd tell you the time on the video that he finally thankfully turns it off. Right about 43:50 he turns off the radio. Then I think it was just silence til 44:40 when you first hear Sergio's voice.

I did notice that in this video, they didn't redact the name of the person that Sergio offers up in reply to the officer when he asks if they had any enemies etc. You can hear him say and spell her name at 44:51.

One thing I'm confused about is how did the shooting, the neighbor's call to 911 reporting the shooting, the first officer arriving on scene, the LifeFlight helicopter arriving and loading Liz into the helicopter, and her parents arriving on scene, all have time to happen before Sergio gets there? Just seems like an awful lot happened in the time it took him to get the alert on his phone, turn around and return to the house.
As for the person named in the video by Sergio I think we need to understand that while sometimes police miss things, by now that person would have been checked out.

I do not know how to explain everything happening before Sergio got there, but Sergio did say that he saw the Nest video audio clip and watched it. I am sure this delayed his arrival as he tried to process what he thought had just happened. He knew about a black truck leaving the scene shortly after the shots rang out, but did not know at that time if that truck was simply passing by or had something to do with his wife's death. The only part I thought was a little strange was how concerned he was with Elizabeth being alone at the garage sale. Sergio said he thought her mother or his mother should have been there with her that morning. It looks like Sergio and Liz lived in a nice neighborhood so that was a little hard to understand why all the cautiousness.

In my opinion, there is no evidence that I have seen to suggest Sergio or the person Sergio names in the video had anything to do with Elizabeth Barraza's murder. But because this murder does seem very personal I can understand why people closest to Elizabeth Barraza seem like likely suspects.

For reference I have the Lifeflight helicopter taking off around 7:34am according to the time on the officer's dash cam(according to what I hear is the sound of a helicopter). Then Elizabeth Barraza's parents arrive around 7:36am. Then Sergio arrives in his white van around 7:38am.

This is one of those cases where because of all the surveillance video I would want to know what a normal day looks like on the surveillance cameras in the neighborhood and compare it to the day of the murder and a few days before the murder to see whether there are any noticeable differences. But after this long, all this is hindsight now.
 
I tend to think they went the wrong way intentionally either because they felt it was safer to turn around in a certain place without their license plate showing up on camera or because they were hoping that any 911 calls would point the police in the wrong direction.

If they did drive out through the dead end than I believe they must have known the neighbourhood pretty well. Even if you searched it on google maps you really wouldn't know if you could drive it back to a road easily unless you've either already drove it or at least walked it. I highly doubt they just got lucky when they went down a dead end to get away, if that's what they did.
I have also wondered about the car turning around to drive back past the house. I wonder if it could have been done on purpose in case LE may have been close by when the call came in and was able to respond very quickly. Seeing a vehicle driving TOWARDS the scene would be less likely to appear suspicious.
 
According to the timeline (based on home security videos) the truck left the crime scene, made the u-turn and passed the crime scene again all within a 90 second time frame. There was not enough time for there to have been a law enforcement response. Returning to Cedar Walk and leaving the neighborhood through the Sandusky cul de sac just got them back to Kuykendahl just less than a 1/4 mile south of where they would have entered had they not returned to the scene. They gained nothing but lost some critical time. I think they were in phone communication with someone who told them to go go back and check out the murder scene. But who; why?
 
According to the timeline (based on home security videos) the truck left the crime scene, made the u-turn and passed the crime scene again all within a 90 second time frame. There was not enough time for there to have been a law enforcement response. Returning to Cedar Walk and leaving the neighborhood through the Sandusky cul de sac just got them back to Kuykendahl just less than a 1/4 mile south of where they would have entered had they not returned to the scene. They gained nothing but lost some critical time. I think they were in phone communication with someone who told them to go go back and check out the murder scene. But who; why?
The problem is that the murderer would literally have to call this other person almost immediately after the murder while they are driving in the truck and the moment they contacted this person on the phone, the person would have to tell them immediately to go back and check to make sure Elizabeth Barraza is dead. It seems like it takes a very short time driving to go from 8623 Cedar Walk back to Princeton Place entrance at Kuykendahl Road.

There has always been one assumption in this case that bothers me. That assumption is that the reason the Nissan Frontier Pro-4X came to the Barraza house at around 6:51am that morning was because the murderer was parked somewhere close and actually saw Sergio and his white van leave.

Everything about this case from the truck driving around at 2 am on the morning of the murder to coming back to the Barraza house shortly after the murder to somehow leaving the subdivision by going off road at the end of Sandusky drive all says that the murderer in this case is not a neighbor who watched the Barraza house because they do not even know how to navigate the roads to leave the subdivision.

Even though it would be a good tv mystery plot, I think that would have been rather clever if the murderer actually was a neighbor or neighbors.

The open garage door made me wonder too. Why not make Elizabeth Barraza walk into the garage at least before committing the crime? There are a lot of unanswered questions in this case.
 
The problem is that the murderer would literally have to call this other person almost immediately after the murder while they are driving in the truck and the moment they contacted this person on the phone, the person would have to tell them immediately to go back and check to make sure Elizabeth Barraza is dead. It seems like it takes a very short time driving to go from 8623 Cedar Walk back to Princeton Place entrance at Kuykendahl Road.

There has always been one assumption in this case that bothers me. That assumption is that the reason the Nissan Frontier Pro-4X came to the Barraza house at around 6:51am that morning was because the murderer was parked somewhere close and actually saw Sergio and his white van leave.

Everything about this case from the truck driving around at 2 am on the morning of the murder to coming back to the Barraza house shortly after the murder to somehow leaving the subdivision by going off road at the end of Sandusky drive all says that the murderer in this case is not a neighbor who watched the Barraza house because they do not even know how to navigate the roads to leave the subdivision.

Even though it would be a good tv mystery plot, I think that would have been rather clever if the murderer actually was a neighbor or neighbors.

The open garage door made me wonder too. Why not make Elizabeth Barraza walk into the garage at least before committing the crime? There are a lot of unanswered questions in this case.
But not a known neighbors. Was there any new neighbor moving in recently? Or a neighbor’s relative staying in for holidays?
 
I don't think leaving through the dead end was some kind of lucky mistake. They must have known about it, either by living nearby or pre-scouting the area.

I wonder if police ever got tire track impressions from the truck going off-road?
Hard for me to see it as planned. Just seems like such a risky maneuver to take when fleeing the crime scene, when it's crucial not to catch attention of a cop or get pulled over, etc. I mean, if a cop had just happened to be right there and saw the truck do that, I expect they'd get pulled over. Maybe it's different from how I'm picturing it though, not so conspicuous as it sounds.

Did you think it was an odd choice for them to go past her house at first, then make a U-turn to park at the curb in front of her house, if the plan was to exit the way they did, which meant they had to make another U-turn when they left, and also meant they'd have to drive right back past her house after the shooting?

I assume they did that so they'd be parked on her side of the street, so didn't have to run across the street. Not so much to be legally parked facing the right direction on the street. Doubt they'd have any qualms about breaking a parking law while out to murder someone, especially since they knew how short a time they'd be parked there. But if that wasn't a concern, they could have just parked on her side of the street facing the wrong way, avoiding having to turn around on arrival and departure both. Maybe it was more trying to stay out of view of a camera they'd seen or something.
 
Just because the truck that was pulled over by police "had a reason to be there" , doesn't mean they couldn't have added shooting Liz to their to do list that day.. Was there ever any more follow up on the driver of that truck after it was initially dismissed?
 
Hard for me to see it as planned. Just seems like such a risky maneuver to take when fleeing the crime scene, when it's crucial not to catch attention of a cop or get pulled over, etc. I mean, if a cop had just happened to be right there and saw the truck do that, I expect they'd get pulled over. Maybe it's different from how I'm picturing it though, not so conspicuous as it sounds.

Did you think it was an odd choice for them to go past her house at first, then make a U-turn to park at the curb in front of her house, if the plan was to exit the way they did, which meant they had to make another U-turn when they left, and also meant they'd have to drive right back past her house after the shooting?

I assume they did that so they'd be parked on her side of the street, so didn't have to run across the street. Not so much to be legally parked facing the right direction on the street. Doubt they'd have any qualms about breaking a parking law while out to murder someone, especially since they knew how short a time they'd be parked there. But if that wasn't a concern, they could have just parked on her side of the street facing the wrong way, avoiding having to turn around on arrival and departure both. Maybe it was more trying to stay out of view of a camera they'd seen or something.
I'm not sure if going through the dead end was the original plan but I think they knew it was an option, maybe they saw something like a cop car go by or even a lot more traffic than they were expecting. It's also possible it was part of the plan so any 911 call would say they went in a different direction than they did. Also, I don't think it's possible to see the road from the dead end so I just find it too hard to believe that they didn't know they could go that way.
 
I don't think leaving through the dead end was some kind of lucky mistake. They must have known about it, either by living nearby or pre-scouting the area.

I wonder if police ever got tire track impressions from the truck going off-road?
I agree. But this is another assumption that everyone makes in this case, that the truck went off-road at the end of Sandusky Drive. I understand why it is a good assumption based on the video surveillance evidence at the intersection of Brogan Court and Sandusky Drive.

Was there ever any news reported confirming that police found tire tracks in the grass at the end of Sandusky Drive? Were police able to get a tread pattern to figure out if it was a unique tire to try and trace back a sale?

Why has this information about the Nissan Frontier Pro-4X never been released to the public? What harm would come from releasing that information after all this time since logically it seems like the correct assumption to make about how the Nissan Frontier Pro-4X truck left the subdivision?

I do think someone would want to walk the grassy part at the end of the cul-de-sac on Sandusky Drive first to make sure they knew how to get back to Kuykendahl Road.
 
Just because the truck that was pulled over by police "had a reason to be there" , doesn't mean they couldn't have added shooting Liz to their to do list that day.. Was there ever any more follow up on the driver of that truck after it was initially dismissed?

The truck was not pulled over exactly there. What I’d think:

- if there is any public place nearby, like a hospital, a library, maybe a court (to pay a ticket), everyone has the right to be there

- when I was pulled over, each time they checked their database. I assume the policeman did it too and there is some information about the car/registration/license?

- the only time they let me go immediately was when I was pregnant- there is something about policemen not willing to upset a pregnant woman. Could the driver be?

- if not so, and if they just let the car go without checking license/registration, it does raise questions. I hope someone has all these answers.
 
According to the timeline (based on home security videos) the truck left the crime scene, made the u-turn and passed the crime scene again all within a 90 second time frame. There was not enough time for there to have been a law enforcement response. Returning to Cedar Walk and leaving the neighborhood through the Sandusky cul de sac just got them back to Kuykendahl just less than a 1/4 mile south of where they would have entered had they not returned to the scene. They gained nothing but lost some critical time. I think they were in phone communication with someone who told them to go go back and check out the murder scene. But who; why?

Just the way people drive. I know a guy who was taught to park with the back first, so he used to, all the time. It is more difficult, but he is a good parker...

This driver is not that great. Either indeed the car had manual transmission which is usually difficult for North Americans to manage, or the driver is young (a teenager?), or simply it is not their usual car so they don’t feel the size too well (normally would drive a sedan?)

I think if they are not an ace driver, they turned the way it was easier, and had to turn back.

If I were driving a rented/another person’s car, I’d probably drive like this, not to scratch it or such.

Assume the person is not “acing” that car, for whatever reason.
 
I do not think the murderer in this case is a hitman because I do not think a hitman would care about having a conversation with the victim when you consider how quickly they ran back to the Nissan Frontier Pro-4x truck after the crime. I am not sure about anything else in this case.
 
I do not think the murderer in this case is a hitman because I do not think a hitman would care about having a conversation with the victim when you consider how quickly they ran back to the Nissan Frontier Pro-4x truck after the crime. I am not sure about anything else in this case.

The murderer is not a hitman, but as far as one can see from the video, Liz' body language is as is she didn't know "them." This is why I wonder whether there was either one degree of separation, or it was a while ago and the person has significantly changed since that time.
 
IMO the vehicle is the biggest lead here. I haven't followed this case from beginning to now so my apologies if this has been discussed, but please tell me that LE has investigated any/all Nissan Frontier 4x4s in the general area in these 5 years. Start with Tomball, branch out. Who had one registered, who had rented one. The list can't be THAT DAMN BIG to not have gotten thru in 5 damn years! With computers and databases these days, it can't be that damn hard. I'm truly surprised there hasn't seemed to be any real leads from the vehicle.

Any thoughts here from those who have followed this case from the beginning? Any reason/theories as to why the Nissan ON CAMERA didn't produce any suspects?
 

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