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.

• 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.