Cold case files: Dario Alvarado & Martin Mendoza
By Karina Moreno
On a crisp fall evening in 1997, a month before his 50 th birthday, Dario Alvarado left the Quarter House Bar at Gustavus and Springfield and began the ten-block walk to his house at 2305 Loring.
Alvarado was never again seen alive. He was found November 4, 1997 in an abandoned television repair shop at 1402 Clark, his body covered by boxes and old mattresses.
“We had a call from neighbors reporting a bad odor coming from the building,” said Sgt. Felipe Granada of the Laredo Police Department's Cold Case Unit. “Police officers who went to the shop discovered him. His body was already decomposed, and he had been dead for about four days.”
Alvarado's body was sent to San Antonio for a forensic autopsy, which determined that he had died of multiple stab wounds to the chest.
German and María del Carmen Alvarado identified their brother's body.
“The family has no clue as to why such a thing would happen,” Granada said of the seven-year-old unsolved homicide. “We have a lot of cases in which the reports are very short, with very minimal information.”
According to Granada , evidence from the scene will be resubmitted for DNA testing, including a Coke can, a piece of carpet, a white towel, and a beer can.
Though he is hopeful that the DNA testing will yield significant clues, Granada said that it is very likely someone who was at the Quarter House that evening holds the key to solving the Alvarado case. “We are asking that the individual or individuals come forward to tell us what they recall,” he said.
In the decade between 1993 and 2003, Laredo PD racked up a roster of 40 unsolved homicides.
One of these cases, the Martin Mendoza case, comes with the hopeful note of a primary suspect, possible witnesses, and an automobile used in the crime.
At the time of his murder in July 2000, Martin Mendoza, 34, was an attendant at Classic Car Wash at 2800 San Bernardo Street . Separated from his wife, Diana Gonzalez, Mendoza reportedly wandered the streets.
He was last seen alive on the evening of Wednesday, July 12, 2000 by a group of teenagers walking southbound on San Eduardo Street .
“ Mendoza usually hung around the 2900 block of San Eduardo,” said Granada . The teens reportedly witnessed a fight between the man considered a primary suspect and another man. The teenagers made fun of the men, and, as a result, the primary suspect threatened one of the youngsters with a rifle and then got into a white GEO Tracker with his brother-in-law.
“We were told the suspect dropped his brother-in-law off at his house, and then went back to look for the man he had fought,” said Granada .
“The threatened teenager saw Martin Mendoza walk southbound on San Eduardo, and then eastbound on Alamo Street ,” said Granada . “The white Tracker did the same; it went southbound on San Eduardo, eastbound on Alamo .”
A few moments later and out of the sight of the witness, shots were heard, and the witness saw the white Tracker leave the scene moments after and park outside the suspect's home at 3000 San Eduardo Street .
A call to the Laredo Police Department reported a man down, and Mendoza was discovered shot to death. The primary suspect disappeared, as well as the white Tracker.
“We just received word that DPS found the Tracker. Apparently, it had been hidden for a while and recently was re-sold. We have a good lead and will investigate who sold it and when,” said Granada .
“To solve these cases, we need independent witnesses. People who know anything should come forward and let us know what they know,” said Granada , who can be reached at (956) 795-2812 or (956) 763-5195.
