A United States Border Patrol agent has been charged with murder in Laredo, Texas, after his 28-year-old wife was found stabbed in the back of a vehicle in the early hours of Wednesday, October 28, and died in hospital, according to the Laredo Police Department and reporting by KGNS and the Laredo Morning Times.
Police said callers reported a domestic disturbance at a home in the 5500 block of Texana Street in Laredo, Webb County, at about 2:45 a.m. on Wednesday. Officers who reached the area began searching for a vehicle seen leaving the home, Laredo Police Chief Miguel Rodriguez told the Laredo Morning Times.
A pilot flying a Laredo police drone spotted the vehicle leaving the area and radioed nearby officers, who stopped it. Inside, officers found the 28-year-old woman in the back of the vehicle with stab wounds. She was still alive when officers reached her, was taken to a hospital, and died there, police said.
The driver was detained at the scene. In updated reporting on Thursday, October 29, KGNS identified the detained man as Abel Garza, 30, a U.S. Border Patrol agent, and reported that the woman who died was his wife. Garza has been charged with murder and was transported to the Webb County Jail, where he is being held on a $1 million bond, according to KGNS and the Webb County Sheriff's Office.
Chief Rodriguez said the case is being treated as domestic violence, but investigators did not yet know what led to the stabbing. Police were waiting for a search warrant to process the home on Texana Street, and were seeking additional warrants for blood, saliva and other samples, he said.
Officers who checked the home after learning that children were inside found the children unharmed, police said. The woman's name had not been publicly released by police in the reporting available on Thursday morning, and no motive has been announced.
A border city where the Border Patrol is part of daily life
Laredo, on the Rio Grande across from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, is one of the busiest land crossings between the United States and Mexico and the northern anchor of the Interstate 35 trucking corridor, through which a large share of U.S.-Mexico trade moves by road. The Border Patrol's Laredo Sector is one of the city's biggest federal employers, and its agents live in the same neighbourhoods they patrol — which is why a murder charge against a serving agent has landed heavily in the community.
The city has been here before. In 2018, another Laredo Border Patrol agent, Juan David Ortiz, was arrested for the killings of four women and was later convicted, a case that shook trust in the agency locally. Police have not suggested any connection between that historical case and the Garza case; it is background only, but it explains the sensitivity around Wednesday's arrest.
Anyone in the United States facing domestic violence can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or text START to 88788. The service is free, confidential and available around the clock.
What happens next
Garza remains in the Webb County Jail on the $1 million bond while the Laredo Police Department's investigation continues, including the search of the Texana Street home and the forensic samples police said they were seeking. His next court appearance had not been announced in the reporting available on Thursday morning, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection had not announced his duty status. A murder charge is an allegation: Garza is presumed innocent unless he pleads guilty or is convicted in court.