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Prosecutor: Border agent charged in 2-week killing spree

Posted at 12:03 AM, Sep 16, 2018
and last updated 2018-09-16 00:03:24-04

HOUSTON (AP) — Texas authorities have charged a U.S. Border Patrol supervisor with murdering four female sex workers during a two-week killing spree that ended when a fifth woman escaped from him and found help.

Juan David Ortiz was arrested Saturday after he was found hiding in a truck in a hotel parking lot in Laredo.

Webb County District Attorney Isidro Alaniz says he was charged with four counts of murder as well as aggravated assault and unlawful restraint.

The victims, including a transgender woman, had been murdered since Sept. 3. Alaniz says authorities consider Ortiz a serial killer.

The names of the victims were not released but Alaniz says two are U.S. citizens. Nationalities of the others are not yet known.