An unrequited love from a best friend drives a woman to become the mastermind behind a murder. Rosa Medina’s plot to murder her friend Ines Santa Cruz has been at the center of the latest case. snappedBroadcast on 6/5 Sunday at Oxygen.
Ines Santa Cruz, 27, is naked and with a bag over her head in the middle of a hunting ground in Edwards County, Texas, about 160 miles from San Antonio, on Labor Day weekend in 2012. Found shot dead.
“We are beginning to see the full picture of how this crime unfolded,” said prosecutor Dorian Kotler. snapped. “It was a premeditated execution.”
Body of Ines Santa Cruz found
Hunter Mark Bauer called 911 to report the body found. He was with two other hunters at the time, Tommy Darity and Troy Ryder.
Ms Bauer told police she was with Darity the night before Ryder came from a neighboring camp and they all spent the night partying. The next morning, Ryder left to head back to camp, and about an hour later Darity drove up to see him back safely. Later, Darity spots Ryder watching something on the side of the road.
RELATED: ‘Money-hungry’ mother suspected of ‘greed’ murder of two children dies before court conviction
“As we approached on the ATV, we realized it was a dead body,” Darity said. snapped. “And I saw him looking down right outside the car. I panicked a little.”
Darity said Ryder refused to leave with him, so when he returned to camp he called Bauer, who called 911. Ryder eventually returned to the camp once law enforcement arrived.
R.Idar denied knowing the victim, although the victim’s ID was found near the body.
“He was probably the most nervous of the group,” former Texas Ranger Roger Dixon said. snapped. “At one point he had to go buy a beer to calm his nerves.”
An autopsy determined that Santa Cruz died from two gunshot wounds to the back of the head. She also had benzodiazepines, anti-anxiety medications such as Valium and Xanax, in her system.
Relationship between Ines Santa Cruz and Rosa Medina, explained
When police broke the news to Santa Cruz’s family in Arizona, her sister, Erica, believed she was in San Antonio with her childhood friend, Rosa Medina. I was so confused. Erica herself was driving her sister to the airport on Saturday, September 1, 2012, the day before she was found murdered.
RELATED: ‘There’s a serial killer here’ Atlanta stripper robbery kills 3 men in serial crime
Medina was one of Ines Santa Cruz’s basketball teammates in high school and stayed with Santa Cruz and his family when Medina was having trouble at home. She also lived with the Santa Cruz family for a while. According to her family, what started as a friendship between the girls turned into romance.
“Rosa fell in love with Inés when she was in high school,” said Inés’ mother, Letty Padilla-Santa Cruz. snapped. “I said bluntly, ‘Rosa, do you like Ines?’ And she said, ‘Of course I like her. ‘ I love her.” ‘”
According to the family, the girls tried romance but it didn’t work out and by the end of high school they were just friends again. After graduating, Santa Cruz enlisted in the Navy and got a job as a hospital surgical technician. Medina moved to San Antonio, Texas to live with her grandmother.
“Rosa Medina had a child, but she didn’t want Ines to be with anyone else, even when Rosa was in other relationships,” Kotoral said.
The family said Medina still had feelings for Santa Cruz despite the distance.
“I think Rosa always wanted something more,” said Inez’s sister Erica Santa Cruz. snapped. “But my sister wasn’t the kind of person who was like, ‘Oh my gosh, you like me, I’m going to have to end this relationship.'” You can become. “
Medina has a job as a photographer, and in late August 2012, Santa Cruz offered to watch over Medina’s children as they photographed their wedding over Labor Day weekend.
Santa Cruz’s family was baffled as to how he died four hours away from where he was supposed to be.
Rosa Medina leads police to Troy Ryder
The Texas Rangers tracked down Rosa Medina to fill the hole.
RELATED: Woman murdered caring grandfather, hid body in trash can
“There was talk that Ines would visit Rosa over Labor Day weekend, but she said she lost her debit card and couldn’t pay for the plane ticket,” Kotler said. Told. “Rosa said that Ines told her she couldn’t come anymore.”
Medina told Rangers that she had been to a concert with her children at the time of the killing and provided photographic evidence of the outing. She also admitted that she knew Troy Ryder, one of the hunters who found Santa Cruz’s body. Medina admitted to dating Ryder for about three months.
She handed over her mobile phone to the police for investigation.
“You might expect a lot of phone calls and text messages between Rosa and Ines, but there weren’t that many,” Cotral said. “This showed law enforcement that Rosa had removed some items.”
Police obtained surveillance footage from a border patrol checkpoint that showed Ryder loading a truck with a woman who looked like Santa Cruz, but Ryder told law enforcement that the woman in the truck was He claimed he was a hitchhiker.
A subpoena for Southwest Airlines records showed that Ms. Santa Cruz was indeed on the plane, as her sister said. A law enforcement investigation into security footage from San Antonio International Airport also confirmed this.
“The video showed Innes and Troy,” former Attorney General Marty Baker said. snapped. “It shows they were together before she was killed. She felt something was wrong.”
Ryder was arrested and charged with murder. But the police had no evidence implicating Medina in the murder.
“The only link between Inez and Troy Ryder in this tragic and senseless murder is Rosa Medina,” Cotral said. “And she continued to insist on her innocence.”
In a plea bargain to avoid the death penalty, Ryder agreed to give a full confession to police.
RELATED: Woman who cared for best friend with cancer hires hitman to kill her in home fire
He said that in the weeks leading up to the killing, Santa Cruz had threatened to coerce Medina into a relationship and threatened to tell Medina’s family that he worked in a gentlemen’s club. He said Medina fears losing her children if her truth comes out and she doesn’t want a romantic relationship with Santa Cruz. There Ryder agreed to kill Santa Cruz for Medina.
“Rosa gave me life,” Ryder told police in a taped interview. “I mean my wife and my kids, my family.”
Ryder also told police that Medina gave him a benzo for use in Santa Cruz.
“She actually said, ‘I don’t want you to recover in any room,’ and she didn’t care how,” Ryder said in a taped interview with police.
When Ryder picked up Santa Cruz at the airport, he pretended to be Medina’s film assistant, claiming to drive her to where Medina was filming. He also recommended Santa Cruz her iced tea with crushed benzos, her favorite drink. He told the police he hoped Santa Cruz would be dead by the time they got to the hunting grounds, but Santa Cruz was still awake, so he put him to rest in a trailer at the scene and then took him with Marty Bauer. Going to the campsite, Tommy Darity spent the night with them to prove his alibi.
Arriving at the trailer the next morning, Ryder told police that Santa Cruz was still alive. He promised to drive her to another part of her property to pick up her phone signal. The man instructed the police officer to “go outside and stand on a rock to get her service” before grabbing her gun and shooting her in the head from behind. said. He confessed to her police that he shot her a second time after she fell to the ground.
“They wanted it to look like the cartel had caught her and killed her, so the cartel took her clothes off,” Dixon said. “He also put a garbage bag over her head.”
When Darity approaches Ryder in his car that morning, Ryder is busy disposing of Santa Cruz’s body and is nearly caught in the act. Despite this full confession, it was not enough for the police to arrest Rosa Medina. I needed more proof.
Rosa Medina arrested in connection with Ines Santa Cruz’s death
Ryder was convicted of first-degree murder and will be eligible for parole in 2042 as part of his defense. Still, Santa Cruz’s family was upset that Medina wasn’t arrested, and she wasn’t convinced that Santa Cruz was blackmailing her.
RELATED: ‘Time to go to crocodile country’: Woman kills ex-husband, dumps body in swamp
In June 2019, seven years after the murder, police were able to search Medina’s mobile phone using new technology. A technician was able to reconstruct her web page she was browsing and restore the deleted text her messages. They discovered that a week before the murders, Medina had been investigating date rape drug searches and methods of making untraceable phone calls.
Deputy Attorney General’s Office Erin Mitchell said, “The last thing we found was a message that said, ‘I’m getting on the plane tomorrow, see you later.'” snapped. “This was very important in showing that Rosa knew Ines was coming in.”
Rosa Medina was arrested on 29 June 2020 for the murder of Ines Santa Cruz. Her family was reluctant to face Medina in court, so prosecutors offered Medina a plea bargain for manslaughter.
Medina did not confess to the crime, but eventually pleaded guilty in April 2022.
“I wrote to her and she never responded,” said Inez’s mother, Letty Padilla-Santa Cruz. “That’s all I can say, why? And I think I’ll go to the grave and say why.”
Medina is scheduled to be liberated in 2038. she will be 51 years old.
watch a new episode of snapped Sunday 6/5°C, Oxygenor with the Oxygen app.
