00:00:01
[TENSE MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Garland, Texas, 1986. Police learn of a
disturbance at the home
00:00:16
of a married couple, Barbara
Carr and Domingo Villarreal. Neighbors of Barbara said
that Domingo had showed up
00:00:27
at their house with his
arms tied behind his back and was covered in blood. He tells them, hey,
you know, these two guys
00:00:35
just broke into our house,
took my wife into a room. They took me into another room.
00:00:40
They tied me up. He was able to
somehow free himself. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Police rush to the scene
00:00:46
and enter the home. There, they find a
horrible crime scene. Barbara was lying face
down near the front door.
00:00:55
She had sustained
multiple stab wounds, and there was a lot of blood. They did their best with
the scientific evidence
00:01:02
they had at the time. The labs weren't as
capable then of giving them answers that would be
useful for creating leads
00:01:09
like they are today. The case went cold
that first year. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Years later,
00:01:17
advancements in DNA
science and testing will crack this case wide open. The biggest part
of this investigation
00:01:24
that moved it
forward was our use of investigative
genetic genealogy. I want to find the
person who did this.
00:01:31
We were actually shocked
when the results came back. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
This is the story
00:01:37
of how anger and deceit
hides the identity of a killer for 38 years. I'm Nancy Grace.
00:01:46
This is "Bloodline Detectives." [THEME MUSIC] Garland, Texas, 1986. A diverse and vibrant
city in the Dallas-Fort
00:02:19
Worth metropolitan area. Garland is one of the larger
suburbs in Dallas County. Good, hard-working
people live there.
00:02:29
Garland is a
bedroom community, as they would refer to it. It's a suburb of Dallas.
00:02:36
A lot of families live there
and then work either in Dallas or outside the city.
00:02:42
Not a lot of violent crime
whatsoever in Garland. We had four kids. I was the oldest, and
Barbara was the youngest.
00:02:51
We lived in the country. Our grandparents
lived across the road. She was just very
quiet, very sweet.
00:03:01
I just remember her always
being kind to everybody. She had been going out
with Domingo Villarreal.
00:03:08
We all called him "Jesse." We were told that
was his nickname. He was from Mexico.
00:03:14
I don't remember the
name of the town, but we were told that
he had 15 siblings,
00:03:19
and they lived in this little
shack with a dirt floor. But she seemed
very happy, and she
00:03:25
had taken a lot
of Spanish courses and spoke very fluent Spanish. And something must have clicked.
00:03:35
She was like my hero,
and I think most of it was because everyone
said I looked like her when I was young.
00:03:41
I just remember her
laughing and smiling. And when she asked me to be
her flower girl, it was just--
00:03:46
I was ecstatic. My cousin always got
to be the flower girl because she was older than me.
00:03:51
So I was always the last one. But I got to finally
be the flower girl, and I felt pretty special.
00:03:58
I remember every time that I
was with them, it was good. It was fun. Jesse taught me how
to color, and he was--
00:04:05
at the time, I would
have probably said that he was my favorite uncle. I thought he was fun
and made me happy.
00:04:10
And my Aunt Barb was happy. So I think everyone
in the family was happy just to see her happy.
00:04:16
That's-- that's what we wanted. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Behind closed doors, the couple is having
marital problems.
00:04:25
A lot of disagreements. Barbara was the primary
breadwinner in the house. Seems that Domingo just
sat around the house
00:04:33
and lived off of her and that
had moved a brother in with him, and they were both
staying at home,
00:04:40
and Barbara was making the
money, paying the bills, and funding their lifelong
vacation, I guess.
00:04:46
[TENSE MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
November 7, 1986. Garland Police are notified
of a disturbance at the home
00:04:55
of the married couple. Her husband runs
out of the house and bangs on the
door of a neighbor.
00:05:03
He tells them, hey, these two
guys just broke into our house, took my wife into a room.
00:05:09
They took me into another room. They tied me up. He made claims of sexual assault
that were made on him by the two
00:05:15
males and that he was able
to somehow free himself, ran next door, couldn't
say anything about what
00:05:22
had happened to his wife. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): The
terrified neighbor calls 911.
00:05:28
When the police do arrive
at the Villarreal home, they find Barbara's body on
the floor and obvious trauma.
00:05:35
She had been stabbed
multiple times and was pronounced
dead on the scene. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): This
is now a homicide investigation.
00:05:46
Detectives commence to
work the crime scene. There was certainly
a large amount of blood
00:05:52
where Barbara was, on her
body, seeping into the carpet. There were some blood
stains in that game room.
00:05:59
That's typically gonna be
mostly the victim's blood. But what was interesting
is that there
00:06:04
was blood found in other
parts of the house, including out on the patio. Whoever had done this would
have had to likely travel.
00:06:12
That was probably
their point of exit. And that blood certainly
becomes a much more important
00:06:19
and valuable piece of evidence. It's very common that whoever
did a stabbing, especially one
00:06:24
that was this brutal,
almost impossible not to have cut yourself. They also recovered a glove,
which had a cut mark in it.
00:06:34
And I think pretty quickly,
law enforcement realized that that glove had been
worn by the murderer,
00:06:41
and it was an important
piece of evidence. [TENSE MUSIC] Near her were several
items of clothing.
00:06:50
There were a shoebox
containing a pair of shoes. The shoes had blood on them. And the shoebox also
had blood on it.
00:06:58
There were a pair
of jeans there. Obviously, these jeans were
either used to clean up
00:07:04
or someone was wearing them
and got blood all over them, and they took them off
and left them there.
00:07:09
In 25 years of working
homicide cases, I have never seen a single
scene where the killer brought
00:07:20
a change of clothes and
left his bloody clothes laying in the house. There was no signs of
forced entry in the house.
00:07:27
There-- a pair of
shoes in a shoebox. A killer would bring a shoebox
in with shoes, extra shoes?
00:07:33
It just-- things didn't
sit well with me. The knife was found. It was left at the scene.
00:07:39
It was covered in
blood and damaged. The blade was damaged. It was a fairly long knife.
00:07:45
I remember it was bent. And that's typically from
hitting something hard, hitting
00:07:50
bone, going through the body. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Medical examiners arrive at the crime scene to
examine Barbara Carr's body.
00:08:00
Barbara had defensive
wounds on her hands that she tried to fight off
the person, trace evidence.
00:08:07
Even in 1986, there was fibers,
different things, clothing, hair. They're looking for a
lot of different things.
00:08:13
So they're there to preserve
the body as evidence. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
The body of 27-year-old
00:08:21
Barbara Carr taken for autopsy. There was no sexual
assault. The evidence does not suggest that at all.
00:08:29
The stab wounds, you
know, were all over. Often, in a case
like this, they can say it could have
been this stabbing
00:08:36
which was the fatal blow. Sometimes they're
not able to tell. There's multiple stab
wounds that could kill--
00:08:42
the neck, the heart, the head. And she had stab
wounds all over. She was stabbed to death, and
it was classified as a homicide.
00:08:52
From an investigator's
standpoint, this type of homicide would
be something very personal.
00:08:59
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): The
people of Garland, Texas, are terrified. Could the killer strike again?
00:09:05
It always causes fear and
concern, especially when you don't have an immediate
suspect and people
00:09:11
feel like there's a potential
crazed killer out on the loose. Yeah, it always causes concern.
00:09:17
This was not only
big news in Garland, but in the Dallas-Fort
Worth metroplex, this was a case that certainly
caused and received a great
00:09:26
deal of media attention. Anytime there's a home
invasion and a young woman is murdered in this fashion, it
puts everybody on high alert.
00:09:34
NANCY GRACE
(VOICEOVER): A murder investigation now underway. Will detectives find the person
responsible for the brutal
00:09:41
stabbing of Barbara Carr? That's next on
"Bloodline Detectives." [TENSE MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
1986, Garland, Texas.
00:09:57
Police called to the
home of a couple, Barbara Carr and Domingo Villarreal. Wife, Barbara, found murdered.
00:10:06
The evening that she was
killed, I had tried to call her and didn't get an answer.
00:10:11
Garland Police had
notified the South Bend Police, which is where
my parents lived at the time.
00:10:17
And the South Bend Police
knocked on my parents' door about 2 o'clock in the morning
and told them that they
00:10:25
had been informed of her death. So then they called me. And at the time, my daughter
had a house full of 13-year-olds
00:10:35
for her birthday party. I remember my mom screaming. I kept hearing different
names being thrown around,
00:10:45
and I didn't know who-- who or what or why. And I don't remember
them actually sitting me down and telling me.
00:10:53
I just remember going
to all my friends and them having to
call their parents to have them come get them
because we had a family
00:11:01
emergency and we had to leave. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
After the initial shock fades,
00:11:06
Barbara's loved ones
arrange her funeral. I remember wanting to pick
out clothes for her to wear
00:11:13
because I knew what
her favorite dress was, and I so badly wanted her to
be buried in her-- what she had
00:11:18
told me her favorite dress was. And they told me that that
wasn't possible because
00:11:22
of her injuries. I just remember
just crying and not understanding what had happened
and how it could have happened.
00:11:31
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
It's SOP, standard operating procedure. The first place where police
look is the spouse, the lover,
00:11:40
the boyfriend of
the murdered victim. And that's what
happens in this case, as detectives
immediately hone in
00:11:48
on husband, Domingo Villarreal. He was initially the
focus of the investigation.
00:11:57
They had determined that
Barbara and Domingo had lived in another house in Garland
before living in the one where
00:12:03
she was murdered. They located a neighbor, who
was still in touch with Barbara. And she had indicated
that Barbara told her
00:12:11
she was afraid of Domingo, and
she was scared that he would kill her and that he had a
gun, and she had actually
00:12:16
taken his gun and hidden
it from him for a while and then recently
returned it to him.
00:12:20
She also said that Domingo
had shown up to her house to see her husband and that he
had come into their kitchen,
00:12:27
and she had left
him alone in there. And she believes that the
knife used to kill Barbara was
00:12:32
a knife taken from her kitchen. He had been
violent, and there had been a recent volatile argument
that had been witnessed
00:12:40
by some friends and neighbors. He was arrested. Domingo gives a
pretty strange story.
00:12:50
He says that he and
Barbara had been fighting. There was talk of separation. He had actually
been gone for a day.
00:12:59
So they met at a restaurant
to discuss what was going on. And according to him, they had
kind of reconciled everything,
00:13:06
and he was gonna come back home,
and they were in separate cars. So Barbara came along first.
00:13:12
He said he had to stop
for gas or something. He was a little bit behind her. And he said when he
arrived in the driveway,
00:13:19
he could hear the dogs barking. And he said that was kind of
unusual for them to be barking.
00:13:25
So he went around
to the back and was gonna come in the back door
just to see what the dogs were
00:13:30
barking at and said when
he came to the back door, he was met by a white
male and a Black male, who
00:13:37
ordered him into the house and
ordered him into a bedroom. And-- and while he's
in there, he said he
00:13:43
could hear Barbara screaming. He claimed that he had
been assaulted, sexually assaulted, by one of the males.
00:13:51
And he said he laid there
tied up until things got quiet. And then after he felt that it
was quiet and safe to get up
00:14:01
that he managed
to get to his feet and get up and run to
the neighbor's house. I've heard a lot
of crazy stories,
00:14:07
and anything can be true, but
just something about this story didn't sound right.
00:14:13
That bothered me tremendously
that he never mentioned stopping and checking on his wife.
00:14:18
And if he feels like
it's safe enough to get out and run out and not
stop and check on his wife,
00:14:23
I had a little bit
of problem with that. But he did not stay
in custody very long.
00:14:28
They released him. They determined that
the clothing left behind by the killer that was covered
in Barbara's blood did not fit.
00:14:35
The shoes were too small. The pants were too short. And the gloves that
were worn by the killer
00:14:41
had a significant
cut across the palm, and Domingo did not
have a cut on his hand.
00:14:48
The case went cold probably
within like that first year. I know that they
continued to work it,
00:14:53
and there would certainly
be periods of time that they would look into it. And I know the
family would check in
00:14:57
with the Garland
Police Department to see if there was
any new developments. But again, once Domingo
was released, you know,
00:15:05
there was no real
other suspects. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Barbara Carr's family
00:15:09
still believes husband,
Domingo Villarreal, is some way involved
in her death. My whole family
knew he had to have
00:15:18
had something to do with it. I didn't want him near me. I didn't want to talk to him.
00:15:23
He would actually
come and joke with me that I'm your favorite uncle. And I said, not
anymore is all I could
00:15:30
answer to him is I just didn't
want to talk to him anymore. There was just a difference.
00:15:35
[TENSE MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Fast forward, 2018. Barbara Carr's murder has
been cold for 32 years,
00:15:46
but now it's being re-examined
by a whole new team of investigators. Their suspicions still centers
on the original suspect,
00:15:55
Barbara's husband,
Domingo Villarreal. CODIS is the national
offender database for convicted
00:16:04
felons in the United States. If you have been convicted of
a felony in the United States,
00:16:09
and in some states, if you've
been arrested for a felony, you are required to submit your
DNA sample into this database.
00:16:16
If there is crime
scene DNA recovered and it's a strong
enough profile, it's then uploaded into
CODIS to see if there's
00:16:25
a match to any known offenders. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
The new team examines blood samples
taken from the crime scene
00:16:31
back in 1986. There was blood,
certainly, on clothing. That blood is gonna be tested.
00:16:39
But the real focus was
going to be the glove. There was a cut and a
slit in one of the fingers
00:16:46
that that would have
happened during the murder, cutting the murderer,
and that the murderer's
00:16:51
blood would be on that glove. And then there was
the blood that was taken around from that patio.
00:16:56
That would have been
the point of exit, and therefore, you might find
the perpetrator's blood there.
00:17:01
The result was that there
was blood on that glove and on that patio swab
that was male DNA unknown.
00:17:11
They entered it into CODIS,
and there was no match. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Next
on "Bloodline Detectives,"
00:17:17
will all the blood found
at the crime scene finally lead to Barbara Carr's killer?
00:17:25
[TENSE MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Garland, Texas, 2019. Detectives reopen the 1986 home
invasion murder of Barbara Carr.
00:17:43
Suspicion remains on
husband, Domingo Villarreal, just as it did 33 years before.
00:17:50
The killer's injured
in the attack. His DNA is uploaded
into the CODIS database.
00:17:57
Unfortunately, there
is not a match. Now, investigators ask the FBI
for help with forensic science.
00:18:06
Investigative
genetic genealogy is the technique
where we take DNA that we believe belongs to a
suspect or any unknown person
00:18:13
that we need to identify. We put it into publicly
available genealogical websites
00:18:19
that cooperate with law
enforcement in which people voluntarily opt in to
having their DNA compared
00:18:25
to law enforcement kits. And we develop
familial relationships that help us to
develop family trees,
00:18:32
which ultimately leads to us
identifying victims or suspects. The biggest part of
this investigation
00:18:37
that moved it
forward was our use of investigative
genetic genealogy. We had blood that had pooled at
the front door of the residence
00:18:45
on the inside and outside of
the door, droplets of blood, looked like it would
have come from the killer
00:18:49
instead of from Barbara. And it was male DNA. We knew that. So we took that DNA
and sent it to a lab
00:18:56
where we had a SNP
profile created. And as part of the process of
getting that SNP profile back,
00:19:02
we got some information
about the ethnic background of the person who
had left that blood.
00:19:06
And that significantly changed
the focus of our investigation. We determined that the DNA
left behind by the killer
00:19:13
was Hispanic and
was not consistent with the story Domingo had told
of a white male and a Black male
00:19:19
being in his home. We shifted gears and decided
we needed to properly identify who Domingo was.
00:19:24
We didn't believe
Domingo Villarreal was his true name,
that he had been using someone else's identity.
00:19:29
This is between '86 and '88. They find out that Domingo
Villarreal, when they start
00:19:36
to look further into
his name, there's two in the state of Texas. There's two Domingo Villarreals
with the exact same name,
00:19:45
the exact same date of birth. So it initially starts to
raise some concerns for them
00:19:49
about, OK, who is
this person really? They enlisted the help of
Department of Public Safety,
00:19:56
which in the state of
Texas, is our driver licensing agency as well. And so they're actually
troopers at the time.
00:20:04
One's assigned in Garland. There's another one assigned
down in Brownsville. And they both start to
conduct investigations
00:20:10
into who is actually the
real Domingo Villarreal. It came down to
the fact of the guy
00:20:17
in Brownsville was able to
produce family members-- you know, a mother and father
and a birth certificate
00:20:24
showing that this is me. The Domingo Villarreal,
who lived in Garland, was unable to produce
that, said he did not
00:20:31
know where his parents
were and that he lost his birth certificate. So it was ultimately concluded
that the guy in Brownsville
00:20:39
was the actual
Domingo Villarreal and the one in Garland was not. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Then
what's the real name of the man
00:20:48
Barbara Carr married? At the time of
his arrest in 1986, his fingerprints were taken.
00:20:54
So his fingerprints were
placed into the AFIS database, which is the Automated
Fingerprint Index System.
00:21:01
And that database from that
arrest from 1986 had a match to an arrest in the 1970s in a
town called Sterling, Illinois.
00:21:09
And the person arrested at that
time was named Jesus Canales. We requested the booking
photo from that arrest.
00:21:17
And when that photo arrived
and we were able to compare it to the arrest of Domingo
Villarreal in 1986,
00:21:22
we realized that
Domingo Villarreal was actually Jesus Canales. It was a pretty big moment
to be able to positively
00:21:29
identify Domingo as Jesus. And the reason was because
since his release shortly after Barbara's murder,
he had disappeared
00:21:36
and not been heard from again. We weren't able to locate him. Very shortly after
identifying him properly,
00:21:41
we were able to locate a
death certificate for him in Guadalajara, Mexico
from 1988, where
00:21:48
he had been shot to death. [TENSE MUSIC] There were stories
of people that, you know, connected that to
being a cartel-related shooting.
00:22:01
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Investigators must locate a blood
relative of Jesus Canales
00:22:06
to rule him out as a suspect. So once we identified
the name Jesus Canales, we decided we needed to go back
and look through the file again.
00:22:14
We found a motor vehicle
accident that Barbara had been involved in in 1985. And in the vehicle with her at
the same time was a 12-year-old
00:22:22
girl with the last name
Canales, and it listed her address as Sterling, Illinois.
00:22:26
At that time, we
said, this could be a child of Jesus Canales
that maybe was visiting.
00:22:32
So we contacted the Sterling,
Illinois city clerk. And that city clerk was able
to provide us with a birth
00:22:39
certificate for two
different females that were the biological
children of Jesus Canales.
00:22:46
Once we identified the fact
that we had a Hispanic male and that Jesus
Canales had lied to us
00:22:50
or to the initial
investigators, we decided he's more of a suspect
to us now than he was before.
00:22:55
And when we identified
his two daughters, we said the only way for
us to properly exclude him
00:23:01
as a suspect is to test his DNA. Unfortunately, we know he's
deceased at this point,
00:23:06
and we're not gonna get his DNA. The next best thing, and
because of investigative genetic
00:23:10
genealogy, by testing
his daughters, we can determine how closely
related they are to our killer.
00:23:16
So a decision was
made to go locate them and ask them for samples. We interviewed both of them.
00:23:25
They were very upset about
the entire circumstance of their stepmother's death. They knew Barb very well
and thought highly of her
00:23:34
and-- and liked her. And so they both knew that
their father was deceased but didn't really know
the details of why.
00:23:40
And they both
provided DNA samples that we were able to test. NANCY GRACE
(VOICEOVER): DNA samples
00:23:46
from Jesus Canales'
two daughters are sent to a lab for testing. And the results
surprise investigators.
00:23:55
The results came back at
such a high centimorgan rate that we now knew that the
person we were looking for
00:24:01
was going to be a biological
brother to Jesus Canales. One of them lived in the
United States, in New Mexico,
00:24:07
and the other two
lived in Mexico. NANCY GRACE
(VOICEOVER): Detectives now turn their focus to
Jesus Canales's brother,
00:24:13
Juan, who lives in New Mexico. We were concerned that if we
went to him directly and spoke
00:24:20
to him that he could, if it is
him, flee the United States, be uncooperative,
or warn his brothers
00:24:25
and make it almost
impossible for us to collect DNA on anyone else. So we surveilled him
for several days.
00:24:32
He did not leave DNA anywhere. And ultimately, a decision
was made in coordination
00:24:37
with the Dallas County
District Attorney's Office to attempt to buy
some DNA evidence from him.
00:24:44
I got to give a lot of credit,
the FBI agents who worked on this case and who were
the boots on the ground doing
00:24:49
the surveillance on Juan at the
time because a situation arose where they were able
to-- you know, they
00:24:57
were thinking on their feet. And I remember they were calling
me while this was all happening,
00:25:00
that Juan had gone
into a Walmart. I liked Walmart because
Walmart has video everywhere.
00:25:05
And you-- anytime you
get somebody's DNA, you want to be able-- juries want to see it
on video, whether it's
00:25:10
a trash pull or however. So I was like, great. You know, if you can find a
way to get his DNA in Walmart,
00:25:18
we'll have it on video. There won't be any question
about how it was done. We contacted the lab
in this case and said,
00:25:24
this guy's wearing a hat. It looks very old. He's probably worn
it for a long time.
00:25:28
And the lab said if he's worn
it for a significant amount of time, there's gonna
be a significant amount
00:25:33
of DNA in the brim of that cap. And so we decided that the
hat would be the best option.
00:25:38
So the task force officer
approached the brother in Walmart. I just struck up a
conversation with him.
00:25:44
I offered him a sum
of money for his cap. He decided that he'd rather
have the money than the hat,
00:25:49
and he handed me the hat. Everything worked out. We don't believe he
suspected a thing.
00:25:54
Probably wondering why this
guy just overpaid for what wasn't probably the
greatest hat in the world.
00:25:59
But we had the hat. The hat's in the
Dallas County Crime Lab at SWIFS within 24 hours.
00:26:05
I think it was a pretty quick
period of time, it's back here. Plea to the crime lab,
this is an emergency.
00:26:13
We need you to run this
as fast as you can. And as they always do, SWIFS did
an amazing job getting it done.
00:26:20
But we get the profile back, and
it's not our suspect profile. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Investigators
00:26:26
now look at the remaining
brother, Liborio Canales, who lives in Mexico. Arresting a Mexican
citizen in Mexico
00:26:35
can be tremendously complex. But we can't even do that
until we get the DNA match.
00:26:42
So this is where kinship
analysis comes into play because we knew that he
had two daughters who
00:26:48
lived in New Mexico. And so we were
thinking, you know, how would we be able to tie
their paternal relationship
00:26:56
to our suspect? And could we even do that? Fortunately for us, there
was a big break in another case
00:27:02
in another part of the country. They had used a paternity
test to prove their subject
00:27:06
was responsible for the murder. So we contacted the prosecutor,
Leighton D'Antoni, who we worked
00:27:12
very closely with,
and said, hey, did you see this on the
news, this other case?
00:27:15
This is significant for us. Can we do this here in Dallas? Agent White and I went
and met with the directors
00:27:23
over at SWIFS of the DNA
and biology department and asked them if they were
familiar with kinship analysis.
00:27:30
We showed them how it had
been done in this other case. And they said, we could do that.
00:27:36
It was the first
time that we had done kinship analysis in Dallas. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
February 2023.
00:27:42
Investigators
organize a secret DNA collection from
Liborio Canales's daughters in New Mexico.
00:27:49
When people bring their trash
to the curb, it's abandoned. And law enforcement is allowed
to collect abandoned DNA when
00:27:56
people leave it in
restaurants or anywhere they go that they leave a
cigarette butt or anything,
00:28:00
anyone can collect that. And so in this case, we
collected some trash. And in that trash
was a water bottle.
00:28:07
That water bottle was tested. And the DNA came
back from the lab that it was very
statistically likely
00:28:14
to be the child of
the same suspect who left behind DNA at the crime
scene where Barbara was found.
00:28:21
Additionally, we had found
that this particular brother had briefly lived in
the United States.
00:28:27
So we felt like it
was possible that he could be the one who was
responsible for Barbara's death.
00:28:33
That brother's name
was Liborio Canales. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Bloodline Detectives
00:28:37
are now almost certain Domingo
Canales' brother, Liborio, is Barbara Carr's killer.
00:28:45
But to be 100% sure, they need
to bring him in for questioning and to secure his DNA.
00:28:54
[TENSE MUSIC] Initially, we start
thinking right away, OK, how are we gonna get him?
00:28:59
So we know from looking
at border crossings, even before this,
we talked about he
00:29:04
had a resident alien status
in the United States. To keep that resident
alien status,
00:29:09
he had to cross into
the country periodically or that status gets revoked. So he had to come to the US.
00:29:16
We're watching his
border crossings. June comes, he doesn't cross. So now we're like, I don't
know if he's coming back.
00:29:23
On July 17, 2023, Detective
Shupe was notified-- I think it was
right after lunch--
00:29:31
that he had crossed
the border from Mexico into the United States. I go by Detective
Lambert's desk.
00:29:39
I said, hey, Liborio's crossed. He's in the United States. We're going to New Mexico.
00:29:45
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Their prime suspect is back on American soil. Investigators head to New
Mexico to confront him.
00:29:53
We're in communication
with Agent White, and we're talking with him. And we learned that
within four to six hours
00:30:02
of crossing the
border, he can probably be back in the New Mexico area. We contacted that residence
and talked to family members,
00:30:11
and they gave us a location that
he was gonna be at a restaurant. And working with them
and local law enforcement
00:30:18
and the FBI and
the task force, he was arrested and taken
back to the police station,
00:30:25
where he was interviewed. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): This
is the moment investigators
00:30:30
have been waiting on. Will Liborio Canales admit to
murdering his own sister-in-law,
00:30:37
Barbara Carr, back in 1986? We find out next on
"Bloodline Detectives." [TENSE MUSIC]
00:30:55
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Garland, Texas, 2023. Detectives are desperately
trying to close the 1986
00:31:01
murder of Barbara Carr. For decades, suspicion centered
on her husband, Jesus Canales.
00:31:10
But now detectives
questioning a new suspect, thanks to investigative
genetic genealogy.
00:31:18
That suspect, Jesus Canales's
brother, Liborio Canales. [TENSE MUSIC] We had an officer from
Lovington PD sit in with us
00:31:33
as well who could
help translate for us. He had not participated in our
investigation up to that point,
00:31:39
but he knew the details
surrounding the murder and why we believed
it was Liborio.
00:31:44
And so he was very well prepared
to conduct the interview. He started asking him
specific things related
00:31:50
to what we were investigating. She didn't want to have
anything to do with him. She didn't want
him in her house.
00:32:02
And, you know, he said that-- that made him angry. He had asked his brother if
he could come stay with Jesse,
00:32:18
or Jesus, and Barbara. And they had told him no, that
they wouldn't let him do that.
00:32:22
And he believed that they had
turned their backs on him, and it was really
upsetting to him.
00:32:26
So he asked his
mother where they were staying, where they lived. He traveled to the Dallas area.
00:32:38
And then he went
into the home, and he violently
murdered Barbara. We asked him if his brother,
Jesus, was involved in any way.
00:33:03
He said no. He goes, I don't know
what my brother told y'all. My brother wasn't there,
and if he was there,
00:33:10
I would have killed him, too. I absolutely feel like Domingo
had something to do with it.
00:33:17
Too many lies. He couldn't divorce her because
he would lose everything. I think they discussed
it and talked about it
00:33:24
and had a plan on how
they were gonna do it. I believe he had-- in
his eyes, I'm sure,
00:33:29
it was no other
option but to kill her so he could keep everything. His brother, Liborio Canales,
did the stabbing and killed her.
00:33:39
He's admitted his involvement. He's told us his account
of what happened. It matches up to the
evidence we had at the scene.
00:33:47
Matter of fact, he actually
makes a stabbing motion with his right hand. [TENSE MUSIC]
00:33:55
And then he talks
about being cut. And he even pulls
his hand up, and he's talking about his finger.
00:34:08
So then we-- of
course, we talked to him about the gloves
we found and whatnot, and he admits to that.
00:34:19
I think his motive
was white-hot rage. I think he was just incensed
that someone would disrespect
00:34:25
him, so incensed that he drove
many, many hours to Dallas, Texas, to commit a murder.
00:34:31
It's kind of unfathomable to
think that you could maintain that anger for that long
for something so petty,
00:34:36
not being allowed to
stay at someone's home. But to Liborio, it was just
a very upsetting thing.
00:34:42
He was 49 years old at the
time he committed the murder. I think that's
pretty significant.
00:34:46
When we were looking at the
three brother options we had, Liborio was the oldest
one, and honestly, we
00:34:52
considered him the least likely
suspect just based on his age. You know, typically, you would
think someone almost 50 years
00:34:58
old would be more level-headed. A brother who might have
been in his 20s might be
00:35:02
more prone to violence,
but in this case, it just didn't matter. Like, Liborio was violent, and
he wanted revenge for the insult
00:35:10
that he thought he had
taken from his brother. [TENSE MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
After 37 long years,
00:35:17
Bloodline Detectives
have a confession. But now they want a DNA
sample to lock the case up
00:35:26
and finally close it. That's next. [TENSE MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
2023, Garland,
00:35:41
Texas detectives finally
have a confession in the 1986 murder of Barbara Carr. That confession from her own
brother-in-law, Liborio Canales.
00:35:54
Now they try to match Liborio
Canales' DNA to blood samples found at the crime scene.
00:36:03
We ask him if he'd be willing
to provide a sample of his DNA. So he signed a consent form.
00:36:09
We obtained his DNA. It was delivered
to SWIFS, Southwest Institute of Forensic Science,
for a direct comparison.
00:36:18
It was a match. So the DNA from Liborio
Canales was a match for the blood from
the front porch
00:36:25
of the unknown male subject,
the blood from the gloves that were inside the house.
00:36:31
Then we realized, we
got to call the family. He called my sister,
Kathy, which luckily,
00:36:39
she'd been in the same
job with the same phone number for 30 years. So he was able to
get a hold of her.
00:36:45
And then she set up a family
call to let the rest of us know. We knew it had to be somehow
related to her husband.
00:36:57
If he didn't do it,
somebody he knew did. Liborio Canales pleads
guilty to the murder of his own
00:37:05
sister-in-law, Barbara Carr. I was very pleased to see that
Liborio, for once in his life,
00:37:12
did the right thing
and pled guilty. He had accepted his
fate, so to speak. And, you know, it was
just one of those things
00:37:19
that here we are. They know. And here's what I'm taking. March 12, 2024, we had
the plea and sentencing.
00:37:30
And we had the family. They came in, and
some of her friends that still lived here
in the Dallas area,
00:37:37
they were able to attend. And I think that was important
for them to get closure.
00:37:41
At the sentencing, I attended
it along with Detective Bill Elstrom, and also in attendance
was Barbara's youngest
00:37:49
brother, Mark Gunderman. Mark was very emotional. He was much younger
than his sister,
00:37:55
and so it had affected
his life tremendously. I mean, in a lot of ways, he's
a victim as well of the murder.
00:38:02
Liborio was convicted
of Barbara's murder, and he was sentenced to 20 years
in a Texas state penitentiary.
00:38:07
Liborio has never
expressed any remorse. He didn't express remorse
during his confession.
00:38:11
He didn't seem to express
remorse during the sentencing. When a victim impact
statement was made,
00:38:17
I think his only
dissatisfaction with this is that he's gonna
die in prison. [TENSE MUSIC]
00:38:25
NANCY GRACE
(VOICEOVER): 37 years after Barbara Carr is
murdered, investigators finally
00:38:30
put her killer behind bars. If not for the work of the
people who came before me
00:38:37
and their dedication to
documenting what happened, preserving the evidence, I
wouldn't have been able to get
00:38:45
it closed out the way I did. This wasn't a case
that was forgotten. People cared about this case.
00:38:52
Garland Police Department
cared about this case. It just took the time
of genetic genealogy
00:38:58
to be a viable tool
to solve this case. I believe it would be
closure for the family,
00:39:07
but that's also in how
they take it, you know? It's easy to say closure
from my perspective.
00:39:14
But I'm not the
person that's lost a loved one to a violent crime. I'm not the person that
doesn't have my daughter
00:39:21
or my sister to talk to. I am glad that the DNA
found the guilty person. I'm glad he's in jail.
00:39:30
We were in disbelief
that after that many years, that it could
be solved, but a lot of joy.
00:39:37
I remember even some of the
girls that were at my sleepover that night for my
13th birthday party,
00:39:43
some of them reached out to me
when we had announced that it had happened, that they
remembered very vividly that
00:39:49
night as well and
how much they had thought about it over the years
and praying that it got solved.
00:39:55
I'm just glad it's closed. I thought about her every day. I mean, there's
been very few days
00:39:59
that she hasn't came to
my mind and just think of the happy things about her. She was a fighter,
and she loved to live.
00:40:08
Barbara was fun, happy, quiet. She loved traveling. She really wanted
mostly to be a mother,
00:40:19
and she had not been
able to do that. She will always be in our heart. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Foolish anger and years
00:40:28
of deceit combine to hide
the identity of Barbara Carr's killer for 37 years. But phenomenal forensic
science with determined police
00:40:42
work team up and
finally get justice in this senseless murder. It's the first time genetic
genealogy is ever used in Dallas
00:40:54
County to close a case. I'm Nancy Grace. Thank you for joining us here
on "Bloodline Detectives."
00:41:02
[TENSE MUSIC]