Austin, TX
Missing in Texas: A look at unsolved murders in Guadalupe County
GUADALUPE COUNTY, Texas – In this week’s “Missing in Texas,” FOX 7 Austin’s Angela Shen took a look at unsolved murders in Guadalupe County, some of them are decades old.
Sheriff Arnold Zwicke says the office has eight unsolved murders spanning four decades, and they’re continuing to follow all leads.
- On July 3, 1983, 23-year-old Dalia Soto was found on the side of the road at the south end of Seguin, beaten and run over.
- On July 6, 1991, two-year-old Jesse Gonzales was found unresponsive at an apartment on Blanks Street.
- On August 18, 1992, 26-year-old Toni Ackerman was found in a ditch on the side of the road at FM 775 and Partnership Road.
Ackerman had been shot and was still alive when deputies got there, but died before she was able to give any information on who her killer might have been. Witnesses say earlier that night, she was last seen with a man at a grocery store on Kingsbury Street.
“That one remains an active case. We’re still following every lead that we can,” Zwicke said.
- On Sept. 21, 1992, 23-year-old David Diller’s body was found floating in the Guadalupe River.
“This one sat for a long time, and then we were finally able to identify him by rerunning the fingerprints through AFIS [Automated Fingerprint Identification System]. And we were able to identify that he was indeed from Austin, Texas. Followed up on every lead we can on that,” Zwicke said.
Missing in Texas: David Ponce
38-year-old David Ponce was killed in a hit-and-run in Manor. A year and a half later, his family is still calling for justice. Angela Shen has the details.
- On May 12, 1993, 59-year-old Joe Naranjo was found deceased in his home by an employee.
- On April 6, 1998, 35-year-old Ramon Sanchez was found shot on the side of the road just south of New Braunfels.
- On March 24, 2017, Dwight Schraub was found murdered in the parking lot of Big Tex Fireworks stand on Highway 46.
- On July 4, 2017, 57-year-old Joe Rangel was found at home with gunshot wounds on Shady Lane in Seguin.
Zwicke says when the cold case unit started several years ago, they looked over everything for fresh leads. They now have two people on the unit, and they also get help from the Texas Rangers.
“I always say it’s that little piece of thread that you unravel that will pull this case together,” Zwicke said. “It’s just a lot of legwork and re-contacting the witnesses, the victims’ families and anything, looking for any clue that might really lead us in the right direction.”
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Technological advancements help, as well.
“Through the years, with the help of DNA, better and easier access, we have a couple of cases that are now up at the DPS lab awaiting answers on the DNA,” he said.
For all the unsolved cases, the hope is they can solve the puzzle, even if it’s decades later.
“They’re important because there are family members that lost a loved one. Our job is to try to bring it to closure. You know you really never get closure, but there’s that hope that we can at least find out what happened and put the person responsible in jail.”
A reward may be available for information on these cases. For more information, visit Guadalupe County Crime Stoppers.
Austin, TX
Texas Supreme Court overturns ruling that state Attorney General Ken Paxton testify in lawsuit
(AP) – The Texas Supreme Court on Friday overturned a lower court ruling that state Attorney General Ken Paxton testify in a whistleblower lawsuit at the heart of impeachment charges brought against him in 2023.
The court on Friday said Paxton’s office does not dispute any issue in the lawsuit by four former Paxton employees and agreed to any judgment in the case.
“In a major win for the State of Texas, the state Supreme Court has sided with Attorney General Paxton against former OAG employees whose effort to prolong costly, politically-motivated litigation against the agency has wasted public resources for years,” a statement from Paxton’s office said.
An attorney for one of the plaintiffs declined immediate comment, and a second attorney did not immediately return a phone call for comment.
The former employees allege they were improperly fired or forced out for bringing to the FBI allegations that Paxton was misusing his office to protect a friend and campaign donor, who in turn, they said, was helping the attorney general to conceal an extramarital affair.
The Supreme Court ruling noted that the Texas governor and Legislature have expressed a desire to hear testimony from the witnesses prior to agreeing to appropriate funds to settle the lawsuit.
The court said forcing Paxton, First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster, Chief of Staff Lesley French Henneke and senior advisor Michelle Smith to testify earlier could improperly be used for legislative purposes in deciding any appropriation.
Under the preliminary deal, Paxton agreed to apologize to the former employees for calling them “rogue” employees, settle the case for $3.3 million and ask the state to pay for it, prompting the state House to reject the request and begin its own investigation, leading to the vote to impeach him.
Paxton was ultimately acquitted after a Senate trial.
The Supreme Court termed its ruling conditional upon the lower trial court complying with the decision, while saying it is “confident the trial court will comply” with the order.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
See how the Austin skyline changes annually from ACL Fest 2024
It’s another year of Austin City Limits Music Festival, which means we have an updated photo from 2024 to show the change in Austin’s skyline since 2005.
A Texas city has been named among the top ten U.S. cities to live in over the next two years.
Ten Texas cities were included in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2025-2026 Best Places to Live list. For the annual rankings, U.S. News analyzed 150 major cities in the U.S. based on quality of life, job market, value of living and people’s desire to live in the area.
How did your city fare on the list? Here’s a breakdown of the data.
LIST: 10 best US cities to live
Texas’ capital secured a spot in the top 10 places to live, as determined by U.S. News.
- Naples, Florida
- Boise, Idaho
- Colorado Springs, Colorado
- Greenville, South Carolina
- Charlotte, North Carolina
- Raleigh, North Carolina
- Huntsville, Alabama
- Virginia Beach, Virginia
- Austin, Texas
- Boulder, Colorado
Austin offers healthy balance of work and pleasure, US News says
Austin had an overall score of 6.8 out of 10, compared to Naples’ score of 7.1. The Texas capital also scored 6.8 in the quality of life index, with a value index score of 6.3.
“With the slogan ‘Keep Austin Weird,’ this Texas city is laid-back to the point that if you’re dressing up, it must be a life event,” the U.S. News analysis says. “People here enjoy the outdoors, even more so with their dogs. Austin has a contagious vibrancy and enthusiasm.”
U.S. News notes Austin’s strongest assets are a mix of work and pleasure. The number of companies headquartered in Austin makes it attractive to working professionals, especially those in technology, government, education, and health care. But the capital is far from being “all work, no play.” Its claim as the live music capital of the world invites music lovers to take a listen, whether at the airport, along streets downtown, or at one of the approximate 200 venues throughout the area.
Austin also ranked no. 32 on U.S. News’ Best Places to Retire in 2025 list.
LIST: Best Texas cities to live
Here are the rankings and scores U.S. News gave for the ten Texas cities included in the list:
Ranking
City
Overall Score
Quality of Life
Value Index
#9
Austin
6.8
6.8
6.3
#48
McAllen
6.4
6.6
7.6
#62
El Paso
6.3
6.5
7.3
#77
Corpus Christi
6.2
5.8
7.0
#87
Brownsville
6.2
6.2
7.7
#89
San Antonio
6.1
6.1
6.8
#95
Dallas
6.1
6.4
5.6
#97
Houston
6.1
5.9
6.2
#99
Beaumont
6.1
5.5
7.3
#107
Killeen
6.0
5.9
7.3
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