5/28/2014
Family and police seek justice, fear teenager's killer may have fled to Mexico
Family and police seek justice, fear teenager's killer may have fled to Mexico
Weslaco Police are asking for the public's help in solving a cold-blooded murder that happened in the summer of 2008. A young teenage boy was shot and killed in front of his family at a gas station.
It may have happened nearly six years ago, but Elissa Castro says she still remembers Saturday August 23rd, 2008 like it was yesterday. It was the day she lost her 14 year old son, and she told Action4 news since then, her life has never been the same.
“Not having him around, I miss him, my kids miss him. [Missing out on] graduation, everything, birthdays," said the victim’s mother, Elissa Castro.
Castro's oldest son, Robert, was shot and killed in a Weslaco Murphy USA gas station parking lot in August 2008. She remembers Robert wanting to go out and look for the family truck, which was stolen the night before. To their surprise, they found the truck, but the plates had already been switched. Castro called the police while her husband and son went to talk to the men inside the car.
"As soon as my husband gets off, my son gets off, they shoot him through the glass-through the vehicle," recalled a tearful Castro.
Robert died at the scene from a gunshot wound to the chest. Castro said the four men who took the teenager's life, have left her family scarred forever..
“I miss him, I miss him so much-it’s something you can’t describe-it's indescribable."
Two of the men including the shooter are still out there.
"That’s the hardest thing for me--I want him off the streets, I want to have some kind of closure for my family," Castro said.
This past Memorial weekend, the billboard company Lamar donated and displayed a wanted ad in the upper Rio Grande Valley. Weslaco Police said they hope it will help them locate Jose Antonio Sanchez Zapata and his cousin Jose Zapata Gonzalez, who investigators fear could be on the Mexican side of the Border.
“We’re working together with the US Marshals and the FBI to complete this investigation and hopefully apprehend both these subjects,” said Weslaco Police spokesperson Officer David Barbosa.
"My family needs closure, I need justice for my son, I don’t know how somebody can live with themselves after killing an innocent boy," said Castro.
She’s asking for the suspects to turn themselves in.
Castro said this year will be especially difficult for her family because the anniversary of Robert's death falls on a Saturday, the same as it did six years ago. However, she said her family will not give up hope and they will keep fighting until her son's killer is brought to justice.
The suspected shooter Jose Zapata, also known as Tony Loco, is wanted for capital murder. He is described as 5 foot 7 inches 190 pounds, with several tattoos including a panther on his right shoulder and a dragon on his left. Zapata also has the name ‘Sanchez’ tattooed on his abdomen. He is considered armed and dangerous.
A cash reward is being offered, anyone with information is being urged to call Crimestoppers at 968-TIPS or the Weslaco Investigations division at 968-8591.
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