West Richland killings: Drone search inside suspect’s home uncovered a grisly scene
When Tri-Cities officers forced their way into a former policeman’s home for the second time in two months, their drone made a gruesome discovery in the living room.
The bloodied body of Elias Huizar’s 17-year-old girlfriend was lying on a plastic drop cloth, her head pillowed by a folded quilt.
Angelica Santos’ body was shrouded by a red blanket, and her 1-year-old son with Huizar was missing.
Investigators later found she’d been repeatedly stabbed, and Huizar had kidnapped the boy and fled the Tri-Cities.
Court documents and new public records released to the Tri-City Herald reveal more about the search for the double-murder suspect in the hours after his deadly rampage.
Huizar, 39, fled to Oregon with his youngest son and then killed himself during a chase with state police. The kidnapped toddler was unhurt.
Oregon officials recently released video and reports about their pursuit of Huizar and their exchange of gunfire. Prosecutors concluded that their use of force during the chase was justified.
In Washington state, officials have yet to finish their final report on the West Richland murders of Santos and Huizar’s ex-wife Amber Rodriguez.
But three search warrant applications released to the Herald reveal more about what happened on April 22 after Huizar killed Rodriguez at a West Richland elementary school where she worked as a paraeducator.
The surprise discovery of Santos’ body raised several unanswered questions, including when he killed her and why she was at the home after a judge issued a no contact order following accusations that Huizar raped her friend in February.
It’s also unclear where he got a .40 caliber handgun to shoot Rodriguez.
Months earlier, West Richland police had seized his .40 caliber gun and a rifle from his home, and a court order barred him from having any weapons.
Sex assault charges
Huizar worked for nearly a decade as a Yakima police officer and about 1 1/2 years as an emergency substitute teacher in the Richland School District.
He met Santos when she in the sixth-grade in Yakima and he was a school resource officer. Santos got pregnant when she was 15, though it’s not clear when their sexual relationship began.
When he was arrested earlier this year for raping one of Santos’ teen friends, he was also charged for his sexual relationship with Santos when she was underage.
However, officials have not said if she’d gone back to living with him after he was released on bail.
Investigators discovered later that Santos and Huizar had gone to a party together in the Yakima Valley the night before the shooting. Officials haven’t said if she was killed that night.
“According to Angelica’s family she was last seen with her baby (Sunday, April 21) prior to her leaving to the Tri-Cities,” according to the affidavit for the search warrant the next day.
Pasco police Detective Trever Sweeney filed the initial request, which was reviewed by West Richland Detective Isaiah Suarez.
The next afternoon, Huizar went to the West Richland elementary school near his home and gunned down his ex-wife in front of their 9-year-old son.
About 3 1/2 hours later, Superior Court Judge David Petersen signed off on a warrant to search Huizar’s home shortly before 7 p.m.
In their application for the search warrants, detectives said they were looking for Huizar and his 1-year-old son with Santos and for any evidence linking him to the school shooting.
A Tri-Cities Regional SWAT team forced their way inside, not knowing if Huizar was there or not. They initially flew a drone through the house to see if anyone was there.
That’s when they saw Santos’ body.
Blood was splattered on kitchen cabinet doors and on the threshold between the kitchen and the laundry room. There also was blood seen on a baby bassinet, according to the court documents.
Officers then needed to expand their search request to broaden the scope of what they could seize.
Superior Court Judge Diana Ruff approved a second warrant a little after midnight, April 23.
A third request, approved later that morning by Judge Petersen, added a request to seize all computers, tablets or cellphones.
Detectives ended up seizing various items including an empty box for a Glock, an assortment of bullets, a loaded 9mm gun magazine, a SD memory card with about 400 photos, and a 4-page typed note, according to the search warrant return filed with the court.
Information about who wrote the note or its contents has not been made public yet.
When police searched the same home in February during the rape investigation, they seized more than $15,000 in cash, a police-issued Colt rifle owned by the Yakima Sheriff’s Department and a .40-caliber pistol under Huizar’s pillow.
West Richland police have not said if the department still has the weapons.
Before the murders
After Huizar was charged in February with third-degree rape of a child for his sexual relationship with Santos, he was ordered to stay away from her. But her family has told the media that he didn’t.
And her mother Tiffany Penaloza told NBC News that Huizar’s mental state appeared shaky after his arrest.
He became controlling and made her wear Apple AirPods with him on the phone with the call open so he could hear all of her conversations throughout the day, she said.
Huizar reportedly was mad at Santos two days before she was killed because she wouldn’t let him listen to a conversation she was having with her grandmother, Penaloza told the station.
The search warrants after the shooting confirm that the last time anyone saw Santos alive was when the 17-year-old and her baby left a party with Huizar.
