Unreported history of domestic abuse in San Juan policeman's murder-suicide

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SAN JUAN — A San Juan police officer fatally shot his wife and then turned the gun on himself early Tuesday morning, bringing a heartbreaking culmination to what relatives said were months of domestic abuse.

Officers found policeman Jose “Joe” Hernandez and his wife, Rosa Maria, dead on the floor of his apartment at 3901 N. Raul Longoria Road, No. 4, shortly after 11 a.m. Tuesday.

A neighbor told the property’s landlord that they tried to check on the couple, but no one would answer the door. The landlord called police.

San Juan police requested that the Texas Rangers lead the murder-suicide investigation.

“We are going to continue the investigation,” San Juan Police Chief Juan Gonzalez said. “Nothing will be left unturned.”

More than a dozen relatives gathered outside the apartment while authorities worked the crime scene throughout the afternoon Tuesday.

Rosa Maria’s son-in-law, Jose Estrada, said he found out about the shooting just after noon. When Estrada learned his in-laws were dead, he “knew it was a murder-suicide.”

“He would hit her and he would pull out his issued gun from San Juan Police Department and tell her not to leave,” Estrada said.

Rosa Maria, 46, told her family about the beatings her new husband gave her — the couple married in February — but she refused to report him to police.

“She would say, ‘No, I love him,’” Estrada said. “We would just let her be. She was starting a new life.”

The couple hit it off under unusual circumstances.

They met when the 60-year-old Jose was transporting Rosa Maria to the Hidalgo County Jail after her arrest on a charge of driving while intoxicated in June 2008, Estrada said.

The two kept in touch as the months passed and they fell in love. Rosa Maria divorced her husband. Once the marriage dissolution was finalized in February, she married Jose.

He was a San Juan Municipal Court bailiff, had been an officer in the city for more than eight years and had nearly 23 years of experience as a peace officer at other local law enforcement agencies.

“He served in this department as a role model to mentor to other officers,” said Gonzalez, the San Juan police chief. But “no matter how strong a person is, no matter how much he values his statements, when a person finds himself in a vulnerable state of mind, all he needs is a weapon.”

Investigators said preliminary evidence indicates Jose killed his wife with a single shot and then turned the gun on himself. The weapon they suspect he used was beside him when officers arrived Tuesday morning.

The case illustrates the importance of reporting domestic violence to police, Gonzalez said.

Police had received no formal complaints from Rosa Maria or her loved ones in the months leading up to her slaying.

“Officers themselves are not immune to domestic violence,” Gonzalez said. “We do want to encourage everybody to report abuse that may be happening by our officers or any department.

“It is something that needs to be reported.”

Rosa Maria’s killing is the 31st new homicide case local law enforcement agencies in Hidalgo County have investigated this year and the second one in San Juan this year.

Relatives cried and consoled each other Tuesday afternoon as detectives continued to investigate the scene. An ambulance responded after one relative became faint upon learning what happened.

Memorial Funeral Home in San Juan is handling the arrangements for the couple, relatives said.

Neighbor Jo Maria Garza said she was coming back from work about 1 p.m. Tuesday when she found homicide investigators blocking off the entrance to her home. She lives next-door to where the shooting occurred but didn’t hear any commotion the night before.

Standing outside her landlord’s house, the 67-year-old watched as Rosa Maria’s relatives huddled together in the distance and bawled.

“That's life,” she said in Spanish, shaking her head. “That it is.”

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Jared Taylor covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4439.