Vanessa Villa, an 11-year-old Hispanic girl from Fort Worth, Texas, was tragically murdered on August 4, 1986. At the time of her death, she lived with her mother and two siblings. Vanessa was known for her dedication to school, despite facing challenges with the English language, and was well liked by her teachers. She had expressed fear about the high crime rate in her neighborhood, once writing a note asking her mother to 'take me from this place,' which was later discovered hidden in a
dictionary after her death.
On the day of the crime, Vanessa had returned home from working at a flea market in Dallas. That evening, while her mother and siblings were out running errands, a man named Juan Ramon Segundo broke into their home. Reports vary on how long the family was away—some say 20 minutes, others about an hour—but during that window, Segundo entered the house and attacked the young girl. When her family returned, they found 11-year-old Vanessa Villa unconscious in her bedroom. She had been raped and strangled.
The case remained unsolved for nearly 19 years. In 2005, a DNA match linked Juan Segundo to the crime scene, leading to his arrest. Segundo, who had a history of criminal behavior, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in 2006. He was later connected by DNA evidence to at least three other unsolved murders in the Fort Worth area from the 1990s.
Segundo's execution was scheduled for 2018, but it was stayed due to legal challenges regarding his intellectual capacity. His attorneys argued that he was intellectually disabled, citing an IQ in the 60s or 70s. In 2022, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals resentenced him to life in prison with the possibility of parole, based on updated standards for determining intellectual disability. The decision left Vanessa Villa's family frustrated, as they had long awaited closure and justice for the loss of the 11-year-old Hispanic girl.
