Texas Cold Case Gets Major Break Thanks To DNA Testing Initiative

When we see crime investigation television shows, we believe that every case, every time, is investigated with a crack team of the best experts in the world—and tens of thousands of dollars in innovative and cutting-edge forensic science.

However, the truth is a bit less dramatic. Murders are taken very seriously and investigated thoroughly; however, it can take a tremendous amount of time before officials can get all the tools they need in place to make an arrest.

Luckily, one such tool presented itself and led to Texas Rangers identifying a suspect in a horrific cold case nearly 10 years old.

Justice for Loredo, Texas woman Janette Escamilla Jaramillo

Janette was the mother of nine children and worked to support her family. According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, late on the night of May 18, 2016, Janette was walking home from her job.

Surveillance footage saw her walking alongside a tall, thin man who was wearing a trash bag- possibly because it was raining that night.

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The next morning, Janette's body was found under a skate ramp at Seven Flags Park, which was fairly close to where she lived. A sexual assault had been attempted, and she had been brutally strangled to death.

According to a now archived document from the Office of Justice Programs, it is difficult to know just how many violent crime cases are waiting on the backlog of DNA analysis before retirive that highly critical information.

It is an expensive process, and it was not until 2021 that Janette's case qualified for the DPS's Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI), which:

"provides investigative funding for agencies across the United States to further unsolved sexual assaults and sexually related homicides with the hope of bringing justice to the victims and their families."

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Based on the DNA evidence, an arrest was made. Sergio Mendez was already in prison serving a 10-year sentence for another crime, so he was not difficult to apprehend. According to Fox News, a grand jury felt the evidence was sufficient to indict him for the crime.

Here is hoping that the funding and the manpower to test more kits from violent sex-based crimes can be processed quickly because the victims of these crimes deserve swift justice.