Rosemary Perez, a 28-year-old Hispanic woman, was found dead on January 10, 2015. Her body was discovered wrapped in a sheet along a sidewalk in the 2100 block of San Fernando Street in San Antonio, Texas. The cause of her death was determined to be strangulation. Perez was one of the victims of Johnny Joe Avalos, a serial killer who targeted women in San Antonio between 2012 and 2015.
Avalos, who was 29 years old at the time of his arrest, was indicted on capital murder charges for the deaths of four women, including Perez.
Avalos's modus operandi involved raping, sometimes robbing, and strangling his victims with his hands and plastic bags. He was connected to the murders through DNA evidence and was subsequently arrested in April 2015. In addition to Perez, Avalos was charged with the murders of Natalie Chavez, a 15-year-old runaway, Celia Lopez, 29, and Genevieve Ramirez, 46. Chavez's body was found under a bridge in December 2014, while Lopez and Ramirez were killed in April 2015.
The investigation into Perez's death revealed that Avalos had a history of stalking women, mostly sex workers, after finishing his shift as a dishwasher for a restaurant near downtown San Antonio. He was known to have made terroristic threats, committed criminal mischief, and possessed controlled substances. Avalos's arrest and subsequent indictment brought some closure to the families of the victims, who had been seeking justice for their loved ones.
In 2019, Avalos pleaded guilty to the murders and received two concurrent life sentences without the possibility of parole. He is currently incarcerated at a maximum-security penitentiary. The case of Rosemary Perez and the other victims highlights the dangers faced by vulnerable women and the importance of thorough investigations and DNA evidence in solving such crimes.
