Suspect Jailed in 12-Year-Old Murder Case

VENTURA —  Although he was gone without a trace for 12 years, nobody really missed Mario Torres.

Now prosecutors say Torres is buried in a shallow, unmarked grave somewhere near Fillmore, the apparent victim of a husband’s jealous rage.

His alleged killer, 39-year-old Ruben Rodriguez of Lindsey, Calif., is behind bars in Ventura County Jail, set to be arraigned on a murder charge Jan. 14. His bail is set at $1 million.

Torres, 26 when he disappeared in March 1984, was a migrant farm worker from Mexico who sometimes made Santa Paula his home, said Maeve Fox, a deputy district attorney prosecuting the case.

Because he would often come and go, his sister did not report him missing when he disappeared, Fox said. Then after several years, she decided that it was too late to say anything.

“Isn’t it awful that he disappeared and no one knew?” Fox said.

Ventura County officials first learned of the alleged murder only three months ago, when a suspect in another crime came forward with information on the slaying in hope of leniency in his case.

“Frankly, when we heard about it, I didn’t believe it,” said Fox. “But everything he said proved to be true.”

She said that although investigators are still looking for witnesses--specifically a Guatemalan man known as Walter Medrano--at least two people corroborated the story with specific dates, times and locations.

Authorities said witnesses told them that Rodriguez shot Torres in the head and stomach and then buried his body near Grimes Canyon just outside Fillmore. These witnesses are either close friends of Rodriguez or family members, prosecutors said.

Although authorities have not established a solid motive for the crime, one witness told investigators that Torres was killed after he made “untoward advances on Rodriguez’s wife,” Fox said.

Investigators said they are confident that they will soon find his body. A specially trained dog that sniffs out human remains is being brought in to help the search.

“They know the general area and have it pretty well narrowed down where the body should be,” Fox said.

But Fox emphasized that investigators do not have to recover Torres’ body to prosecute Rodriguez.

Criminal defense attorney Victor Salas said Rodriguez is an upstanding citizen who runs a Mexican restaurant with his wife. The couple have several small children.

“I don’t think he has so much as a traffic ticket,” Salas said.

Salas has not yet had an opportunity to review the case, so he declined to comment on any specifics of the alleged crime.

“I can say that I think it’s an unusual case,” he said. “It’s 12 years old. There’s no body, and probably no weapon. All we have is pure circumstantial evidence at this point.”