Thanks to advances in DNA tech, 85-year-old man arrested for 1986 cold case murder of Texas woman
On July 18, officers with the Lovington Police Department (LPD) working in tandem with the FBI and officers of the Garland, Texas, Police Department, arrested a man in connection with a 1986 homicide which had gone cold – but recently heated way up. LPD detectives were also working with the FBI on this case, since the suspect had moved to Lovington, New Mexico, in the years since the murder.
Officials arrested an 85-year-old man identified as Liborio Canales and charged him with that 1986 murder of a woman.
Background: On November 7, 1986, police in Garland, Texas, responded to a disturbance in the 3600 block of Colbath Street in Garland. Once on the scene, officers located Barbara Villarreal at the residence, but she was already dead. Villarreal had suffered numerous stab wounds and a large kitchen knife was found nearby.
Police initially interviewed her husband, who was eventually cleared in the murder. DNA evidence was recovered at the crime scene which the suspect had left behind – and that DNA was entered into the CODIS DNA database. FBI investigators and Garland detectives made progress in the case in subsequent years by continuing to track down leads both in Mexico and in the United States.
Fast forward to present times, and through surveillance and DNA technology, investigators learned that their suspect, 85-year-old Liborio Canales, would sometimes stay at a residence in Lovington, New Mexico. After being in Mexico for most of this year, Canales had crossed the border to enter New Mexico on July 17 to celebrate his upcoming July 22 birthday with family.
Instead of having a birthday party though, Canales was arrested on July 18 by Lovington Police and Garland Police officers. The 85-year-old was booked into the Lea County Detention Center on a federal warrant, charged with Murder, and was detained on a $1,000,000 bond.
Canales is expected to be extradited to Texas in the coming days.
(Source: Lovington Police Department)
Posted by Richard Webster, Ace News Today / Follow Richard on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram
