Police Built Mounting Case Against Pierce County Slaying Suspect

On Dec. 12, three Pierce County men carpooled to their jobs at a Seattle florist and left in the afternoon, a couple of hours after closing.

That rainy Sunday would be the last time friends or family would see Christian Rangel, 19, of University Place, Jesus Avila-Bejar, 25, of Lakewood, and Yazmani Quezada-Ortiz, 26, of Tacoma, alive.

Their bodies were discovered three months later outside a nursery in Kent. All three had been shot in the head.

For five months, the identity of the person or people suspected in the killings was a mystery to the public, as was the suspected motive.

But that changed Thursday, when King County authorities charged Alberto Avila-Cardenas, 36, of Lakewood, with three counts of first-degree murder. He has also been indicted on unrelated federal weapons charges and, according to police, has a history of gun use and violence.

He reportedly is a Mexican national who is living here illegally.

According to charging documents that detail a five-month investigation led by Lakewood Police, authorities discovered a semi-automatic gun at the suspect’s home that allegedly had traces of blood on the barrel, which DNA testing later matched with Rangel’s.

Avila-Cardenas is being held on $10 million bail at the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac. He’s scheduled to be arraigned May 26 at King County’s Regional Justice Center in Kent. He faces 75 to 95 years in prison if convicted.

“Berto’s here”

Charging documents detail how authorities built their case against Avila-Cardenas.

The three Pierce County men drove together to work at Lake Union Wholesale Florist in Seattle on Dec. 12 and left that afternoon. Two days later, Lakewood Police asked a wireless cellular phone company to locate Bejar-Avila’s phone, which it tracked to Kent. That same day, authorities found Quezada-Ortiz’s Chevrolet pickup truck at a Kent apartment complex.

They “found no signs of violence or struggle,” according to court papers.

On Dec. 16, Lakewood detectives got a call from one of the victim’s family members, who received a disturbing phone call from an unidentified caller.

The caller said two words, then hung up:

“Berto’s here.”

Berto, the family said, was the nickname for Avila-Cardenas, who worked with the three men at the florist. Not only that, but detectives learned that there was a boiling tension between Quezada-Ortiz and Avila-Cardenas.

“This is not random,” King County Sheriff’s Sgt. John Urquhart later told Patch. “He definitely knew them.”

On Dec. 17, Lakewood Police detectives found out that Avila-Cardenas traveled to California sometime in October but returned to his Lakewood home by Dec. 7, although he would later tell authorities he returned to Washington state more than a week later.

Detectives also found out that Avila-Cardenas allegedly left his home Dec. 12--the day the three men disappeared--and returned the next day.

“He was picked up on Dec. 12, 2010, in a beige or tan Yukon-style SUV, possibly bearing Oregon license plates,” court documents said.

As authorities began to learn more about Avila-Cardenas, detectives received another unexpected call Dec. 17.

This time, it was from Avila-Cardenas himself.

“This apparently was prompted by Avila-Cardenas’ employer, who told him that the police were looking for him and that he needed to call them,” according to court documents.

Lakewood detectives scheduled an interview with Avila-Cardenas at the police station at 3 p.m.

Conflicting stories

During the interview, Avila-Cardenas denied any knowledge of or involvement with the three men’s disappearance, according to court papers.

He told detectives he was in California when the three disappeared and that he hadn’t returned to Washington until Dec. 15.

But Lakewood Police quickly found evidence that didn’t corroborate Avila-Cardenas’ story, most notably his claim that he hadn’t returned to the Northwest until mid-December.

“They learned that Avila-Cardenas received a traffic citation on Dec. 7, 2010, while traveling northbound on I-5, near Medford, OR, and that he returned home (to Lakewood, WA) that same day,” according to court papers.

“Detectives also learned that Avila-Cardenas had stayed on Dec. 7-8, 2010, at a motel in King County. Detectives were able to find the motel and recovered a copy of Avila-Cardenas’ identification that was used at registration.”

A woman later told police that she was with Avila-Cardenas at the motel during the same period.

Detectives discovered more about Avila-Cardenas that would make him their No. 1 suspect, including how he allegedly was the suspect in a killing-and-dismemberment case in Mexico, according to court papers.

Even more importantly, they found out that he might have been shot in the foot during a prior altercation in Lakewood in which two people died.

“It is believed that missing person Yazmani Quezada-Ortiz’s cousin may have been the shooter in that incident,” court papers state.

Authorities later interviewed a family member of Avila-Bejar, who claimed Avila-Cardenas allegedly threatened to “get her and her family” because of Quezada-Ortiz’s perceived involvement in the shooting.

Blood trace matches that of UP man

On Dec. 23--almost two weeks after the three men went missing--Lakewood Police detectives obtained a warrant to search Avila-Cardenas’ home and his vehicle.

That same day, he was stopped and arrested in the same car described in the warrant.

During the search, detectives found a loaded, 9 mm, semi-automatic handgun hidden in the rafters of his garage. Human blood was on the gun’s barrel.

“A DNA profile was developed from the blood and compared against a known DNA sample found for Christian Alberto Rangel,” court papers state. “The DNA sample found on the handgun matched the DNA sample for Rangel.”

Avila-Cardenas was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm in Pierce County Superior Court--charges that were dropped Feb. 15 when a federal grand jury indicted him on weapons charges unrelated to the three missing Pierce County men. Court papers do not describe the allegations surrounding the unrelated weapons charges. He was transported to the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac.

In the interim, Lakewood Police again interviewed Avila-Cardenas, who claimed that he bought the handgun, which police found, on Dec. 17--five days after the three men disappeared.

And the fact that Rangel’s blood and DNA were found on the same gun?

“Bad luck,” Avila-Cardenas told police.

A gruesome discovery

On March 10, the King County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call from an employee at Rainier Nursery near Kent in an unincorporated part of the county.

Someone had discovered two bodies on the nursery property.

Deputies arrived and found “two partially decomposed bodies lying in the mud among trees,” according to court papers.

Detectives examined the bodies, one of which had an apparent gunshot to the skull, but they couldn’t determine the race or sex.

The second body, which was less decomposed, appeared to be a Hispanic or Asian male in his 20s. Again, this victim had also suffered a gunshot wound to the head.

“Apparent human bones were located in the area of both bodies,” court papers state.

King County Sheriff’s detectives contacted Lakewood Police, who arrived and observed that “the body with the mostly intact face bore a very similar appearance” to Rangel.

Investigators at the scene later found a third body buried a few feet from Rangel’s body. This time, the buried body bore a resemblance to a photograph of Quezada-Ortiz.

The buried body had his hands bound in front of him with a heavy, plastic cable.

Authorities discovered other evidence at the scene, including a cartridge casing identical to that of the gun police recovered from Avila-Cardenas’ home.

The next day, the King County Medical Examiner conducted autopsies on the three bodies, all of which suffered gunshots to the head. One had a wallet with a Washington identification card belonging to Rangel.

They also found a tattoo below his knee that read “KC,” the same type that Rangel’s wife had described to detectives.

Police collect more evidence

As the medical examiner performed the autopsies, detectives learned more about Avila-Cardenas’ potentially violent history, according to court papers.

Two years earlier, he had been involved in a domestic violence incident with the mother of his two children. The two were arguing in the yard of his Lakewood home, and he allegedly fired a bullet into the ground. Detectives learned that it was the same gun recovered in his home two years later.

They searched his home again and found the same type of 9 mm shell casing found at the homicide scene.

As for the alleged SUV in which Avila-Cardenas was picked up the day the men disappeared, policed learned that two other men might have been involved.

“One man was attempting to hide in the truck,” according to court papers. “The other man was identified as ‘Alfredo,’ who is believed to be married to Avila-Cardenas’ niece.”

“’Alfredo’ also had recently appeared at Avila-Cardenas’ home approximately three weeks prior, while Avila-Cardenas was in custody on the UPFA charges, and inquired about the missing men and any related police contacts.”

Police then interviewed owners and employees of Lake Union Wholesale Florist on March 14, who said the three men likely would have stayed after closing Dec. 12 because Quezada-Ortiz was supervisor, and it was his duty to close up.

The three men had clocked out between 3:20 p.m. and 3:25 p.m. that day.

Authorities also examined Quezada-Ortiz’s truck, which was found in Kent.

They found shoe prints from the three Pierce County men, as well as a “shoe print on back of the front seat consistent with Avila-Cardenas’ shoes, and shoe prints on the gas and brake pedal consistent with Avila-Cardenas’ shoes.”

In mid-April, detectives received cell tower information regarding the location of Avila-Cardenas’ phone from Dec. 12. Although he had told police he was in California during the time, he had made and received numerous calls in the South Lake Union neighborhood, where the florist was located, between 12:31 p.m. and 2:27 p.m. that day.

Cell tower records also showed that his phone was used between 4:33 p.m. and 5:46 p.m. in the area of Rainier Nursery, where the bodies were found.

Then, at 6:33 p.m., the phone was used from the same area where authorities discovered Quezada-Ortiz’s truck near Kent.

“Dogged police work”

In a statement released Thursday, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said the charging decision was the result of the hard work and persistence by detectives with the Lakewood Police Department and the King County Sheriff's Office.

"The Lakewood Police Department put extraordinary effort into this case when it was just a missing persons report," Satterberg said, "and the Sheriff's Office was able to use that work to swiftly build a case against the defendant once the victims' bodies were found." 

"This level of violence cannot be tolerated in any community," Satterberg said, "and the dogged police work by both agencies reflects a commitment to that principle."

The investigation is ongoing and additional charges are possible, Urquhart said.