Questions unanswered in crime spree

McALLEN - Investigators spent two days tracking Moises Gonzalez's destructive path across the Rio Grande Valley.

They plotted his movements hour by hour from the moment he kidnapped ex-girlfriend Maura Marroquin in McAllen to the second he fatally shot her at an H-E-B supermarket in Harlingen.

They interviewed dozens of people who witnessed her public slaying Wednesday night and combed over the Weslaco Wal-Mart where Gonzalez took his own life hours later.

McAllen police Chief Victor Rodriguez, who monitored every development in the case since the initial kidnapping, said there were several indicators Gonzalez's behavior would become exceedingly violent Wednesday.

Most violent domestic disputes of the sort play out with the criminals hiding out with their victims for a few days before taking them home in the hope that they will "work it out and live happily ever after," Rodriguez said.

But Gonzalez's largely unrestrained actions showed little confidence in their relationship. The chief said it was also very unusual the man didn't flee to San Antonio, where the couple was living.

"He didn't just come here to take her and make up," Rodriguez said. "Criminality has some typical behaviors we're used to. ... His behavior reached the abnormal point."

Rodriguez said the nature of New Year's Eve festivities may also have triggered a desire to kill.

"I figured he's got to be thinking: ‘It's the end of the year. I've got to end it all,'" the chief said. "The blatancy of his actions ... raised some red flags."

But as much as police have learned about the 28-year-old San Antonio man's violent last days, one question remains for which no one has found an answer: Why?

With both Gonzalez and Marroquin dead, authorities said they may never learn exactly what prompted the New Year's Eve murder-suicide or what went on between the couple in the days that led up to it.

That uncertainty lingered Friday for Marroquin's family and friends as they prepared to bury the 23-year-old mother.

Her father, Mario Ruiz, said little when contacted at his San Juan home.

Friends said the family was confused over what motivated the violent rampage.

"It's so hard for them," said Efrain Salinas, who met Ruiz when they lived in Los Herreras, N.L., Mexico, more than 45 years ago.

"It's tragic," added Salinas' wife, Amparo. "Young people need to listen to their parents."

"(The family has) no idea why he kidnapped her," said Gloria Mireles, a friend of Marroquin's brother Mario Ruiz Jr. "We just want to help the family keep going."

Marroquin's estranged husband - Osbaldo Marroquin - was equally dumbfounded, having only met Gonzalez a few times since his wife moved to San Antonio with the man earlier this year. He could only surmise Friday what may have led him to kill her.

"From what she told me, he was a very jealous person," he said.

Osbaldo Marroquin last saw his wife Monday. The couple had met to discuss plans for their impending divorce and custody of their nearly 4-
year-old son, but Maura Marroquin also announced she had left Gonzalez.

"She didn't seem scared or anything," Osbaldo Marroquin said. "She just said she was through with him."

One day later, authorities said Gonzalez abducted the woman at gunpoint and stole multiple vehicles in his attempts to flee police. The chase led investigators to Brownsville, Edinburg and Harlingen before he fatally shot himself Wednesday night. What happened in between could take months to figure out, Harlingen police Capt. Hector Leal said.

"Each agency is handling the investigation in their jurisdiction," he said. "We're working on piecing it together, and that's going to take some time."

Meanwhile, Osbaldo Marroquin wonders how he will explain his wife's death to his son.

"She was a good person," he said. "A good mother."