Johnny Avalos

Johnny Joe Avalos (born December 1, 1986) is an American serial killer who raped and fatally strangled four women and a teenage girl in San Antonio, Texas, between 2012 and 2015. He strangled each victim with his hands, and also used plastic bags in three instances. He was connected to the murders through DNA and subsequently arrested in April 2015. Three years later, he pleaded guilty to the crimes and received two concurrent life sentences without the possibility of parole. He is now imprisoned at a maximum security penitentiary.

Personal life Avalos was born on December 1, 1986. An intellectually disabled man, At night, Avalos often stalked women, mostly sex workers, after finishing his shift as a dishwasher for a restaurant near downtown.

In early October 2012, Avalos murdered his first known victim, 25-year-old Vanessa Lopez, by strangling her. A few days later, her body was found floating down the San Antonio River in a portion of Mission Reach. Lopez happened to be one of six women found dead under suspicious circumstances in Bexar County over a six-month period. Rumors circulated of a serial killer being responsible for the deaths, but the Police Chief said there was no evidence to support that possibility. The Bexar County Medical Examiner ruled nearly all the women's causes of death, including Lopez's, as undetermined.

On December 18, 2014, Avalos raped and fatally strangled Natalie Chavez, a 15-year-old runaway. He then dumped her naked body under the Vera Cruz Street bridge over Apache Creek on San Antonio's West Side. At about 10:00 a.m. the following morning, a man called the police after discovering her body. Upon arrival, investigators noticed her body showed signs of a struggle, and her death was quickly ruled a homicide. Although DNA was found at the crime scene, it was not matched to Avalos until the following April. On April 4, 2015, he beat and strangled 46-year-old Genevieve Ramirez. Ramirez was found unconscious in a grassy alley along the 100 block of Avondale. She was naked from the waist down, and had bruising but no overt signs of trauma. Paramedics rushed her to a hospital, where she died from her injuries two months later.

Arrest and prosecution On April 12, 2015, Avalos was arrested for sexually assaulting a minor in connection to Natalie Chavez's murder. Although they believed he was also responsible for her killing, they did not yet have enough evidence to charge him with it. During questioning, he claimed that he paid to have sex with Chavez but did not know how old she was. However, his sex-for-money claim is unsubstantiated, and he later admitted to knowing her real age.