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The La Madera Spree Killer | Killers Caught On Camera

June 12, 2025 / 46:55

This episode of "Killers Caught on Camera" covers two tragic cases of murder in New Mexico and Colorado, featuring guests Jessie Whittaker, Skye Wells, and Julia Shaw. The first case involves a mass shooting in La Madera, New Mexico, where three family members, including Brenda, Max, and Brendan, were killed by Brenda's son, Damian Herrera. The second case focuses on the murder of Ana Rascon in Colorado, where she was brutally killed by Jorge Solis.

In La Madera, after a 911 call reporting gunshots, deputies found Brenda alive but critically injured, while her husband Max and son Brendan were deceased. Brenda's daughter, Carissa Sagraves, recounts the horrifying moment she witnessed the shooting and how she escaped to seek help. The investigation reveals that Damian Herrera fled the scene, leading to a manhunt.

Meanwhile, in Colorado, Ana Rascon's body was discovered with severe injuries, indicating a violent struggle. Investigators linked her murder to Jorge Solis, who was seen with Ana shortly before her death. Evidence from surveillance footage and a search of Solis's belongings led to his arrest.

Both cases highlight the devastating impact of violence on families and communities. Carissa expresses her ongoing grief over the loss of her loved ones, while Ana's family reflects on her struggles as a mother and the tragedy of her untimely death.

The episode concludes with insights from experts about the psychological factors that can lead to such violent acts, emphasizing the importance of mental health awareness and intervention.

TLDR

Two tragic murder cases in New Mexico and Colorado reveal the devastating impact of violence on families and communities.

Episode

46:55
00:00:03
[AUDIO LOGO] NARRATOR: This time on "Killers Caught on Camera." A terrifying day amid the heat and dust of New Mexico.
00:00:18
JESSIE WHITTAKER: When we're dealing with a person who just committed a mass shooting, we don't know what the mentality
00:00:23
of this person is. NARRATOR: And in snowbound Colorado, a shocking discovery. SKYE WELLS: The scene itself looked
00:00:32
like some sort of altercation had taken place that was quite violent. [THEME MUSIC]
00:00:42
MAN 1: It just sounds like something bad is happening to her. WOMAN 1: We know what happened because the video
00:00:47
tells us what happened. MAN 2: I heard some gunshots. OFFICER 1: Drop it. Whatever it is, drop it.
00:00:52
MAN 3: That does not prove that I killed my wife. MAN 4: The camera doesn't lie.
00:01:03
NARRATOR: In Northern New Mexico, in Rio Arriba County is La Madera. TONY LONG: La Madera, New Mexico,
00:01:12
is a very small community, a very rural area. There are a lot of families that live there.
00:01:19
Everyone virtually knows everyone else. [PHONE RINGING] A 911 call comes in. It is clearly panic.
00:01:45
There's a lot of yelling. There's a lot of screaming. Then essentially the call goes dead.
00:02:02
NARRATOR: Deputies arriving on the scene were met by distressed neighbors. TONY LONG: The first law enforcement agency that arrives
00:02:16
is the Rio Arriba Sheriff's Office. They discover three victims. NARRATOR: The victims were identified
00:02:27
as Max Trujillo, his stepson Brendan Herrera, and Brendan's mother, Maria, known to friends and family
00:02:38
as Brenda. JESSIE WHITTAKER: One individual, the mother, Brenda, was still alive at the time, so they were trying to get
00:02:52
medical attention for her. The other two individuals, Brendan and Max, were deceased at the time that law enforcement got there.
00:03:10
NARRATOR: The deputies on scene urgently needed to locate the shooter. JESSIE WHITTAKER: Officers are thinking
00:03:20
about if there's a suspect still inside of the residence. Are they at risk right now as well?
00:03:42
NARRATOR: More residents appeared on scene. This was Brenda's teenage daughter, Carissa.
00:04:02
CARISSA SAGRAVES: My mom was such a selfless person. She was very inspirational.
00:04:11
She was my best friend. I wouldn't go anywhere without my mom. She was very caring.
00:04:21
She wore her heart on her sleeve. NARRATOR: Max was a steelworker, and got together with Brenda just before Carissa was born.
00:04:31
CARISSA SAGRAVES: My dad's personality was so goofy. I mean, this man would light up a room
00:04:36
anytime he would come in. He would just joke and he would laugh and make us laugh.
00:04:41
And I loved his personality so much. He was a good man. They were best friends. They would support each other no matter what.
00:04:53
You could tell they had true love. NARRATOR: Also living at the property were two of Carissa's brothers, Damian
00:05:04
and the third victim, Brendan. CARISSA SAGRAVES: Brendan and I, there was a couple years apart.
00:05:12
He was just the best, most genuine soul you'd ever meet. NARRATOR: At the crime scene, Carissa
00:05:20
had troubling information for the deputies. CARISSA SAGRAVES: The day of the incident I remember
00:05:48
just hanging out at home. Brendan had his day off, so he was in his room watching movies.
00:05:56
Damian was not working. He had just dropped out of college. He quit his job. So he was struggling.
00:06:05
I remember just looking out the front door, and, I mean, I see my dad walking to the door to come inside.
00:06:16
And all of a sudden, I mean, I saw him point the gun and you just hear the shots go off.
00:06:21
And my dad just fell. My brother Brendan had heard it, and he ran out at the same time my mom did it.
00:06:31
My mom was just on the ground with my dad and told me to call 911. She was trying to talk, and he went and grabbed
00:06:38
the phone from my mom and threw it across the roof of the house. So we had no phone to finish calling.
00:06:48
Damian started just fighting with Brendan. He just overpowered Brendan, and he just had the gun by his neck--
00:06:56
between his neck and his shoulder, and-- and he just-- he just pulled that trigger.
00:07:10
My mom heard the gunshot and she was just pleading, just don't do it, just don't do it.
00:07:16
And he just looked at her and pointed the gun straight at her. And she said, please, don't do it
00:07:23
and he just let that one go too. I just knew if I didn't get out of there, I was going to be next and I needed to get help.
00:07:39
I just ran. I ran to whatever house I could find first. TONY LONG: Max Trujillo Sr was shot in the back.
00:07:50
Brendan Herrera was shot almost execution style in the back of the head. And Brenda was shot on the side of her head,
00:07:58
basically on the right temple. All of those wounds were clearly from someone that
00:08:05
intended to kill his victims. NARRATOR: By the time first responders arrived, Damian
00:08:15
had already fled the scene. JESSIE WHITTAKER: The suspect had stolen a pickup truck from that property, as
00:08:23
well as some other firearms. When we're dealing with a person who just committed
00:08:29
a mass shooting, we don't know what the mentality of this person is. Are they going out and are going to continue
00:08:35
a spree of murders afterwards? [PHONE RINGING] While we were en route to La Madera,
00:08:57
there was another 911 call that came out advising that a woman, she had just came home and found her husband laying
00:09:04
shot in their front yard. NARRATOR: This incident had taken place 35 miles away in the equally small
00:09:12
community of Tres Piedras. JESSIE WHITTAKER: When I arrived on scene, I observed an elderly male laying down on the ground
00:09:20
with apparent gunshot wounds. He was deceased. The individual who shot him had also stolen his pickup truck.
00:09:29
NARRATOR: The victim was Michael Kyte, a retired archeologist who had only recently moved to New Mexico.
00:09:38
TONY LONG: This is a very remote area. It would be unusual, highly unusual, to have that number of fatalities
00:09:46
in that short of a time period, that close together. So I think at that point they probably had a good idea
00:09:52
that they were all related. NARRATOR: Shortly after, those suspicions were confirmed when Herrera's truck from La Madera
00:10:00
was found abandoned not far away. It had run out of gas. JULIA SHAW: I think it would be easy to think, well,
00:10:10
he's just a ruthless murderer at this point on a spree. He's killing people, he's killed his own family members,
00:10:16
now he's killing strangers on the road. But probably what's going on in his mind is he was desperate.
00:10:22
He is still trying to escape, and he needs to put distance between himself and the crime scene.
00:10:28
And the only way he's going to do that is if he has another vehicle or gas. And I think in that moment you are
00:10:34
not thinking about this individual as a human being. So I think it's more of a practical,
00:10:40
an instrumental-- as we call it-- murder. NARRATOR: By now, Carissa's mom, Brenda, had been
00:10:47
airlifted to the hospital. She was on life support. CARISSA SAGRAVES: I held her hand.
00:10:53
I didn't want to leave her side. They did inform us that she was brain dead. There was no way of her coming out of it.
00:11:01
Seeing her in that bed was the hardest thing. She didn't look like my mom anymore.
00:11:08
I just knew that she couldn't suffer. I just knew that we had to do something about it.
00:11:14
And, I mean, she was just in pain. And so it was about a day, and we took her off life support.
00:11:34
NARRATOR: Just a few hours after they received the first call, the Rio Arriba Sheriff's Office
00:11:40
got yet another 911 call. JESSIE WHITTAKER: It was reported to us that over in the community of Abiquiu,
00:11:59
a individual was shot at the Bodes' gas station. NARRATOR: The victim was identified as a local man.
00:12:08
JESSIE WHITTAKER: Manuel Serrano was a family man who lived in that community. He worked as a security guard at the
00:12:15
local Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. He was actually headed to work at the time that he was shot and killed.
00:12:23
NARRATOR: Investigators were able to access the store's CCTV. JESSIE WHITTAKER: Here we see a black Chevy pickup truck
00:12:36
pulling up to pump number six. This is the truck that was identified as being stolen from Michael Kyte.
00:12:48
At this point, there's an individual that walks outside with a straw cowboy hat,
00:12:53
and appears that he is going to be getting gas for his truck. So here you see a white Jeep pulling up to pump number four.
00:13:12
And we see Manuel Serrano exiting his vehicle. And the individual begins to take notice.
00:13:24
There doesn't appear to be any sort of communication between the two of them, but he's watching him.
00:13:29
He's observing everything that he's doing. Manuel Serrano was still going about his business.
00:13:40
He's actually cleaning his windshield. And you see the black truck, the lights come on
00:13:45
and the driver's side window goes down. An arm comes out, and the individual in that truck
00:13:54
discharges his firearm in the direction of Manuel Serrano. From the ricochets off the pavement,
00:14:04
we know that the gunshots are coming from him. Manuel Serrano is seen actually trying to escape the person
00:14:12
who's shooting at him. As he's running away, that Black truck is seen pulling out.
00:14:21
This was a targeted attack. No altercation happened. NARRATOR: Manuel Serrano died of his wounds shortly after.
00:14:33
For investigators, there could be no doubt what they had witnessed. JESSIE WHITTAKER: Manuel Serrano
00:14:39
was an innocent victim who was shot in the back as a cold blooded murderer by this individual in the black truck.
00:14:49
We were able to identify the individual as Damian Herrera. JULIA SHAW: This doesn't feel like a situation
00:14:59
where he's got nothing else to lose because the bigger question is, what does he have to gain from shooting this guy?
00:15:03
This is so random. And so I think there must be something going on in his own mind that we don't see where this makes sense,
00:15:13
that shooting this man is a good outcome because it either protects his escape, it protects his identity
00:15:20
or maybe he thinks, what if this is a cop who's after me? Or what if this guy is out to get me?
00:15:25
So it points to paranoid delusions for me, or some sort of perception that we don't have just watching this footage
00:15:31
that's only in his own mind. TONY LONG: At this point we've got multiple law enforcement
00:15:40
agencies, Espanola Police Department, Rio Arriba County Sheriff's Department, New Mexico State Police that are
00:15:45
all involved in essentially this manhunt to find Damian Herrera. [POLICE SIREN] Herrera is speeding down the highway pretty quickly
00:16:04
after killing Mr Serrano. You've got two law enforcement officers that are chasing him there.
00:16:17
They're pretty close behind. JESSIE WHITTAKER: Damian Herrera ends up pulling too far off onto the shoulder.
00:16:26
He goes off the road, hits a rock and it causes his truck to flip, and it rolls over.
00:16:35
TONY LONG: At that point it's a very active situation. There's dust all over the place, it's very hard to see.
00:16:44
They're looking around, looking for the driver of the vehicle. They're actually looking at the truck,
00:16:49
and it isn't until just a few seconds later that they realize that the driver is
00:16:54
actually already out of the vehicle and begins to charge at them. He is wild. He's trying to get guns.
00:17:09
He is just fighting with everything that he has. Damian Herrera, he's not a large man,
00:17:27
but it took three large and very healthy, very strong police officers and a taser a couple
00:17:34
times to get him into compliance and to get him into handcuffs. That's how wild and crazy he was acting.
00:17:49
JULIA SHAW: He's in this fight or flight mode. And he is full of adrenaline. It seems like a situation that spiraled from that first shot
00:17:59
and then he just kept shooting, and he kept running and he kept attacking. And he still in that mode when he encounters the police,
00:18:05
and he doesn't know how to shut it off. NARRATOR: Herrera was put in the back of the police car.
00:18:11
Once he'd calmed down, he was able to answer the officer's questions. TONY LONG: The police officer then asked him about what
00:18:57
happened with Mr Kyte. And then the police officer very artfully asked him, was there anything else that happened?
00:19:16
He said, no, no, no. That's it, that's it. And then the police officer asked him about Manuel Serrano.
00:19:36
He had essentially blamed the killings on everyone else. And it's a story that is absolutely
00:19:42
wild and unbelievable and just not supported by any evidence. He was actually even telling the police officer,
00:19:48
I'm not a violent person. Ask anybody. It was just an alarming statement to hear out of his mouth, considering that he
00:19:55
had just killed five people. NARRATOR: Damian Herrera was charged with five counts of first degree murder.
00:20:07
Further charges arose from his time in custody. TONY LONG: While he was incarcerated
00:20:22
at the jail in Tierra Amarilla, he attacked one of the guards. JULIA SHAW: This just feels like someone
00:20:37
who isn't of sound mind, who's making incredibly bad decisions. Maybe he's just a violent person,
00:20:43
but there's nothing to suggest from his criminal record or from his own past that he was a violent, really,
00:20:49
before any of this happened. And so you've got that first incredibly violent act
00:20:55
of shooting his stepfather and then a cascade of violence that follows from there.
00:21:03
NARRATOR: Damian Herrera had, in fact, been struggling with his mental health for some time.
00:21:10
CARISSA SAGRAVES: We all just kind of knew that something was wrong. I mean, we could see the signs, but we never
00:21:17
thought it would get this far. Damian had told me it would be cool to just see somebody hurt and in pain, and just to see
00:21:27
them go through something. And I think at that time I didn't really think of it as a way of him hurting us, but at the time
00:21:37
I knew it was weird. It was scary. Just, where is this coming from? And I remember my mom just reaching out
00:21:45
to my siblings, my older ones, to just let them know we need to help him in way-- in a way,
00:21:51
we need to get him to talk. JULIA SHAW: This is a 21-year-old man, a young man who is in a pretty dark place.
00:22:01
Fantasies of violence are not totally uncommon, but it is uncommon to voice to somebody else
00:22:08
that you think that this is acceptable behavior. And it borders on something that's
00:22:12
called criminal thinking. So criminal thinking is a set of beliefs that predisposes people to engage in crimes,
00:22:20
including violent crimes. And they include things like rationalization that make it seem like it's OK to be violent or
00:22:26
aggressive, that say, if I do bad things or break the law it's because other people had it coming
00:22:32
or that other people are out to get me. And so it's the set of beliefs that put you as the victim
00:22:38
often in these situations and that make it easier for you to justify lashing out against others.
00:22:46
NARRATOR: Herrera was found guilty of the four murders in Rio Arriba County and sentenced
00:22:51
to four consecutive life sentences, a minimum of 120 years. The legal process in Taos County
00:23:01
for the killing of Michael Kyte is ongoing, because the charge for the stolen truck
00:23:06
is currently under appeal. CARISSA SAGRAVES: Why, why would he do this? Why would anyone think like this?
00:23:15
To this day I still ask why. It was never really answered. Never a question that he answered on his own.
00:23:22
It's gut wrenching, is what it is. There's not a day that goes by I don't think of my parents and Brendan.
00:23:31
I mean, there's times where I'm doing something and I'm thinking they would have enjoyed to see this.
00:23:37
It's the hardest thing to come back to reality when I'm thinking and know that I can't pick up that phone
00:23:43
and I can't give them a call, I can't give my mom a hug. There's never a day that goes by.
00:23:51
I mean, they were my everything, really. NARRATOR: Damian Herrera believed he could fight his way out of the scenario
00:24:13
he'd created in his own mind. JULIA SHAW: Delusions can take many forms. So they can be very simple delusion
00:24:24
that you can fight and flee your way out of a situation that is actually already impossible,
00:24:30
or it can be a situation where you see reality through distorted eyes. And so that borders more on what we consider psychosis
00:24:40
where you have someone reacting to cues that aren't really there, but they're perceiving as such.
00:24:49
And so you can have a delusion that ends up fueling a crime in itself, which is when you think that it's me or the other person.
00:24:57
That if I don't kill them, they will kill me, even if it is completely implausible.
00:25:04
NARRATOR: And it was another delusion that led to a brutal murder in the cold mountains of Colorado.
00:25:19
In the West of Colorado is Gunnison County. SKYE WELLS: Gunnison are a very rural community
00:25:29
located in between two mountain ranges, 7,000 feet above sea level. So there is a lot of areas that are
00:25:36
inaccessible at certain times of the year without special equipment, and don't necessarily have cell
00:25:41
phone or even radio coverage. And so the job can get quite difficult at times. NARRATOR: On March 7, 2021, police
00:25:52
received a report from a remote corner of the county. SKYE WELLS: The Sheriff's Office received a call
00:25:58
about an abandoned vehicle on Alpine Plateau Road, which is the road that would lead
00:26:02
to the Arrowhead subdivision. NARRATOR: Deputies made their way up the snowy trail
00:26:10
to locate the vehicle. SKYE WELLS: It was a small four door sedan, and it appeared it had just gotten stuck
00:26:21
in the snow going up the road. Where was the driver of the vehicle? And why aren't they the ones calling for help?
00:26:31
NARRATOR: While the deputies were on the scene, the dispatch center received another call
00:26:37
from a nearby cabin. [PHONE RINGING] Officers were confronted with a distressing scene.
00:27:09
SKYE WELLS: Looking at the body, it was really hard to tell what the injuries were because there was a large amount of blood around it.
00:27:15
But the body had some severe injuries to the head. The scene itself looked like some sort of altercation
00:27:23
had taken place that was quite violent. The whole living room was in disarray. There was a bottle of lighter fluid on the counter
00:27:40
and the coffee table was smoldering. It appeared that some kind of a fire had either started
00:27:48
or somebody intended to start. NARRATOR: In all the chaos, investigators found a promising lead.
00:27:58
SKYE WELLS: We were able to find a set of car keys. On those keys was a tag that had
00:28:05
linked it to the abandoned vehicle that was called in earlier. NARRATOR: The car was registered
00:28:12
to 22-year-old Ana Rascon. EMMA VALDEZ: Ana was the type of person that people tended to gravitate towards.
00:28:27
She had this smile on her. She had like this light heart and she was so kind. She did have a temper.
00:28:34
I'm not going to lie, she did have a temper and she was stubborn, but she was an amazing person.
00:28:46
NARRATOR: Ana was born in Grand Junction, Colorado, but she moved back and forth between the city and
00:28:52
her mother's home of Agua Prieta in Sonora, Mexico. LUPITA LOPEZ: When she first came from Mexico,
00:29:01
I remember she hardly knew any English. She learned it. She picked it up so quick, so fast.
00:29:08
GIL RASCON AVALOS: She was really smart. LAURA ADAN: Always posing, and she always looked cute in pink.
00:29:13
- Really really confident. - A lot of people found it easy to talk to her. She, for sure, was the person that you would
00:29:20
feel comfortable going to. LUPITA LOPEZ: She always had that mother instinct. Like, she was really nourishing.
00:29:31
NARRATOR: Ana was a devoted mother who had her first child at the age of 17. EMMA VALDEZ: I knew Ana was going to be a great mom.
00:29:40
One of her biggest ambitions was to have that white picket fence life. Having that normal life where she just kind of took
00:29:49
care of her kids, everything was good, everything was stable, that's what she dreamed of.
00:29:57
NARRATOR: Ana later moved to Rifle, Colorado, to be with a new boyfriend. EMMA VALDEZ: She originally had moved out there to be
00:30:06
with her daughter's father. She kind of stayed out there after they split and ended up
00:30:12
finding a job working at a hotel doing housekeeping, but she was more focused on raising her kids
00:30:18
and being a mom for her kids. NARRATOR: But life grew increasingly hard. EMMA VALDEZ: Ana really started struggling and feeling
00:30:28
the pressure of being a single mom and doing things on her own. She had overdue bills.
00:30:34
She was in negative, her bank accounts. She did express, like, my life's falling apart at this point.
00:30:41
I need some help. NARRATOR: Ana was prescribed antidepressants and other medication to help her mental health,
00:30:51
but by 2020, she also began to self-medicate. EMMA VALDEZ: There were signs that Ana was using,
00:30:59
but I think as a family, we all found it very hard to accept. We didn't want to believe that.
00:31:08
Ana felt that she was putting herself in a dark place, and she wanted to find a way to get out of it.
00:31:14
She reached out to her mom and she asked, hey, can you take the kids? Just so I can get into a new apartment, find a job,
00:31:23
get back on my feet and then I'll go back for the kids. LARISSA JOHNSON: Ana loved being a mother,
00:31:29
and so to have to send her children away, very likely left her feeling depressed, isolated from her loved ones,
00:31:39
and also probably there was an element of shame there. And so this cocktail of emotions, these really
00:31:46
difficult emotions to carry, they can really set the stage for someone to start engaging in unhealthy and
00:31:52
unhelpful coping strategies. But then that means that we can end up in a cycle of suffering.
00:31:58
So we turn to the drug use and then our emotional and our financial pressures, they mount, they grow.
00:32:06
And then we then turn to the drugs again, and then we fall into this loop that becomes really difficult to find our way out of.
00:32:15
NARRATOR: Eventually, on Friday, March 5, Ana and her mother arranged that Ana would
00:32:21
drive down to Sonora, Mexico, to collect her children that weekend. EMMA VALDEZ: Come Sunday, I get a call from my mom.
00:32:31
And she was like, hey, have you heard from Ana? Nobody's heard from her. Her phone's off.
00:32:38
Nobody can get in touch with her. NARRATOR: In Arrowhead, investigators were taken aback by the severity
00:32:48
of the victim's injuries. She'd been bludgeoned around her face and head. Her arm was badly broken, and she
00:32:57
had several large puncture wounds in the back of her neck. SKYE WELLS: It was a very horrific thing that took place.
00:33:11
We found almost an antique pickaxe of some kind, maybe an ice pickaxe, something like that.
00:33:18
It was pretty clear that that was the murder weapon, and it absolutely came from the residence.
00:33:26
We were able to track down some photographs of the residence from an earlier time, and it was actually hanging
00:33:33
on the wall above the door. Through a law enforcement database, we were able to get a description,
00:33:41
and we were able to confirm that the female that was in the house was, in fact, Ana Rascon.
00:33:51
GIL RASCON AVALOS: I picked up the phone and she's like, OK, are you sitting down?
00:33:57
And I was like, OK, don't scare me. Be prepared because I'm going to say something to you
00:34:03
and it's something bad. My sister just told me that my sister was gone. I started going crazy.
00:34:17
I didn't even listen to her anymore. LAURA ADAN: My first instinct was to go into denial because, no, that wasn't possible.
00:34:28
And I said-- finally I was like, well, what happened? Like, what happened with her?
00:34:33
And he's like, at the moment we're treating this as a homicide, so it's under investigation.
00:34:41
LUPITA LOPEZ: When they called me, I started asking questions like, what the hell.
00:34:46
Where did this happen? How did it all go down? And they did tell me too, there's
00:34:51
not a lot we can tell you but whoever did this to her is a monster. And I can tell you that the way her--
00:35:03
I can tell you that the way her knuckles were, she defended herself to the best of her abilities.
00:35:17
EMMA VALDEZ: After the realization really set in of it was a homicide investigation, it
00:35:25
just made me think, like, who would do that to a person who-- especially her? NARRATOR: Outside the cabin, the snow
00:35:38
revealed further evidence, footprints leading to and from the property. SKYE WELLS: The initial size up was
00:35:48
two people had broken into a house for an unknown reason, and one ended up dead.
00:35:55
We weren't sure how or why they were in the area. NARRATOR: Over in Rifle, investigators
00:36:02
were given the names of people Ana had been known to associate with. One of them was known to the police.
00:36:10
SKYE WELLS: Jorge Solis had a bit of a criminal record, mostly kind of small petty crimes.
00:36:16
A little bit of property crime but primarily he had drug crimes going on in his record.
00:36:21
NARRATOR: Interviews with neighbors on the mountain revealed that a man fitting Solis's description
00:36:26
had been spotted with Ana by the car early on Saturday morning. Later that day, the same neighbors spotted the same man
00:36:49
further down the mountain. But this time he was alone. SKYE WELLS: At that point he became our number one suspect.
00:37:23
NARRATOR: A search of Ana's vehicle revealed promising leads. SKYE WELLS: In the midst of that search,
00:37:35
we had located several receipts from Walmart located in Rifle, Colorado. At that time, CBI had sent agents
00:37:44
to request surveillance around the approximate times that we saw on the receipts.
00:37:51
NARRATOR: CCTV showed Ana with an unknown male. SKYE WELLS: The surveillance footage around the store
00:37:59
picks them up getting out of her car, walking into the store. And right as they walk in the store,
00:38:04
there's a great shot of the two of them where you can see most of their faces. NARRATOR: Ana's companion was wearing the same jacket
00:38:12
and pants described by the witnesses who saw them on the mountain. Other evidence also linked him to the crime scene.
00:38:22
SKYE WELLS: The male seen with Ana Rascon has a very identifiable baseball cap on.
00:38:30
We then locate this ball cap inside the vehicle. NARRATOR: The man was now positively
00:38:40
identified as Jorge Solis. SKYE WELLS: The Walmart surveillance became a crucial piece of evidence
00:38:48
because it linked the two of them together-- which we knew was the last known person she was with--
00:38:54
and to the car. We see him get in the car and drive away. How do we go from a shopping trip
00:39:04
to Walmart to Ana Rascon's death? NARRATOR: Despite the breakthrough, the trail now went cold.
00:39:14
SKYE WELLS: 10 days after the investigation had started, we had no sign, no word of anybody seeing
00:39:23
or hearing from Jorge Solis. And then we kind of catch a break. NARRATOR: In Grand Junction, 95 miles away
00:39:31
from the crime scene, a member of the public called the police about a man acting suspiciously.
00:39:42
SKYE WELLS: Officers with the Grand Junction Police Department were dispatched to the area.
00:40:12
He says his name is Jay Santos. This officer is not convinced that this person is being
00:40:18
completely honest with him. One of the officers remembers reading the bulletin about the warrant we had for a homicide suspect,
00:40:42
and they're like, absolutely, this is the guy we're looking for. JULIA SHAW: There's an unease in this interaction where he's
00:40:57
obviously being a bit cagey. Certainly, psychologically, he's trying to evade the answers to the questions.
00:41:05
And he's probably trying to be strategic about it but in the end, he gets detained anyway.
00:41:12
SKYE WELLS: When Jorge was picked up by Grand Junction police, he had a backpack with him.
00:41:18
And we locate several items that were, without a doubt, inside the cabin. We had contacted the cabin owner
00:41:26
and she had confirmed they were in the basement of the house. NARRATOR: Solis's fingerprint was also found
00:41:35
on a bottle in the cabin. SKYE WELLS: We're positive this is the man who killed Ana Rascon.
00:41:43
NARRATOR: Agents from the Colorado Bureau of investigation now conducted an interrogation.
00:42:14
SKYE WELLS: I think they got spun up on dope. They're somewhat lost or not really sure
00:42:21
where they're going. He now starts getting paranoid that she is a narc. - He has this bizarre story that he was being set up
00:42:57
and that she had to be sacrificed. And that sounds to me like a almost what's called dissociative fugue when you're not really there
00:43:08
and you're taking drugs. And we know that they took drugs and that they took them together.
00:43:14
And you're just somewhere else. You're on a different planet, and you have your own thoughts about what's
00:43:20
going on in the world. And it translates into misperceiving reality in very weird ways.
00:43:56
What's striking is that he seems to accept that he killed her at this point, and he isn't really making an effort
00:44:03
to patch together a plausible story for the cops. SKYE WELLS: Jorge Solis has made a conscious decision
00:44:18
to end Ana Rascon's life. Based on the scene we know she fought, because the house was
00:44:24
torn apart, but he went from such a violent act to, within hours, talking to people
00:44:31
on the street nonchalantly like nothing had happened. That tells you the kind of man he was.
00:44:40
NARRATOR: Investigators had enough evidence to charge Jorge Solis with Ana's murder.
00:44:48
On March 3, 2023, he was sentenced to 42 years in prison following a plea deal. LUPITA LOPEZ: The verdict is not really what we wanted.
00:45:01
He took that chance for her to live life, to be a mother to her babies, and he took that from them.
00:45:12
They need her. And she loved them so much. LARISSA JOHNSON: Ana's story is a particularly tragic one.
00:45:22
She tried to build a life for herself and her kids and just struggled, really, to navigate this world.
00:45:30
She kept falling on hard times, but I think that she would constantly show that she had the passion, the devotion
00:45:38
to be a good mother. She fought right up until the very end. Even in the face of senseless violence,
00:45:46
she tried to fight for her life and the life of her children. GIL RASCON AVALOS: She was the best sister I had.
00:45:57
And I still remember her with her good things, not bad things. Trouble things, I still remember the trouble things
00:46:05
because now they're funny. And I loved her. [AUDIO LOGO] [MUSIC PLAYING]

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 90
    Most shocking
  • 85
    Most heartbreaking
  • 85
    Most unpredictable
  • 80
    Most emotional

Episode Highlights

  • A Shocking Discovery in Colorado
    In snowbound Colorado, a violent scene unfolds, revealing a shocking crime.
    “The scene itself looked like some sort of altercation had taken place that was quite violent.”
    @ 00m 31s
    June 12, 2025
  • A Family's Tragic Loss
    Three victims are discovered in a small New Mexico community, leaving a family shattered.
    “My mom was such a selfless person.”
    @ 04m 02s
    June 12, 2025
  • The Descent into Violence
    Damian Herrera's actions spiral into chaos, leading to multiple murders.
    “He just pulled that trigger.”
    @ 07m 00s
    June 12, 2025
  • A Mother's Heartbreaking Decision
    Carissa faces the unimaginable choice of taking her mother off life support.
    “Seeing her in that bed was the hardest thing.”
    @ 11m 01s
    June 12, 2025
  • The Manhunt for Damian Herrera
    Law enforcement launches a manhunt after a series of brutal killings.
    “At this point we've got multiple law enforcement agencies involved in essentially this manhunt.”
    @ 15m 40s
    June 12, 2025
  • Ana's Struggles as a Single Mom
    Ana faces overwhelming pressure as a single mother, leading to her mental health decline.
    “My life's falling apart at this point.”
    @ 30m 37s
    June 12, 2025
  • The Discovery of Ana's Body
    Investigators uncover the horrific details surrounding Ana's murder, shocking the community.
    “It was a very horrific thing that took place.”
    @ 33m 11s
    June 12, 2025
  • The Arrest of Jorge Solis
    Jorge Solis, a known associate of Ana, becomes the prime suspect in her murder.
    “At that point he became our number one suspect.”
    @ 37m 18s
    June 12, 2025
  • The Sentencing of Jorge Solis
    Jorge Solis is sentenced to 42 years in prison for Ana's murder, leaving her family devastated.
    “He took that chance for her to live life.”
    @ 44m 48s
    June 12, 2025
  • Remembering Ana
    Ana's family reflects on her life and the love she had for her children.
    “She fought right up until the very end.”
    @ 45m 39s
    June 12, 2025

Episode Quotes

  • The camera doesn't lie.
    The La Madera Spree Killer | Killers Caught On Camera
  • It's gut wrenching, is what it is.
    The La Madera Spree Killer | Killers Caught On Camera
  • My life's falling apart at this point.
    The La Madera Spree Killer | Killers Caught On Camera
  • He took that chance for her to live life.
    The La Madera Spree Killer | Killers Caught On Camera
  • She fought right up until the very end.
    The La Madera Spree Killer | Killers Caught On Camera

Key Moments

  • Panic Call01:41
  • Urgent Search03:13
  • Desperate Escape07:34
  • Struggling Single Mom30:25
  • Mental Health Decline30:45
  • Discovery of Evidence37:33
  • Arrest Made41:14
  • Sentencing44:48

Tension Over Time

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown