By Steve Neavling
Ticklethewire.com
The man Angela Ochoa was about to marry was unconscious in an El Paso hospital bed, riddled with cuts and bruises.
Her fiancé Rogelio Martinez had been working a late shift as a Border Patrol agent about 120 miles east of their home in El Paso. That’s all she knew because no one at the hospital would talk to her about had happened.
Later that day, Martinez died, and still Ochoa was given no information about on what caused the fatal injuries.
“We were just hoping we would have answers,” Ochoa told the El Paso Times.
The next day, President Trump seemed to have answers that Ochoa didn’t.
“Border Patrol Officer killed at Southern Border, another badly hurt,” Trump tweeted. “We will see out and bring justice to those responsible. We will, and must, build the wall.”
But justice never came, and in the next couple of days, a team of local and federal law enforcement officers cast doubt on Trump’s tweet.
Nearly three months laster, following more than 650 interviews, Ochoa was given an autopsy report last week that indicated there was no evidence of a “scuffle, altercation or attack.”
According to the autopsy, Martinez died of “blunt force trauma” to his head caused by an “undetermined manner of death.”
Now all Ochoa wants are answers. She’s frustrated and angry.
Federal officials said they are still investigating the case and believe Martinez may have been killed in a car crash.
Martinez and his partner Stephen “Michael” Garland were responding to unknown activity on the night of Nov. 18 near Van Horn, a Texas town near the Mexico border and about 110 miles southeast of El Paso. Garland was seriously injured but has no memory of what happened. According to the FBI, Garland told a dispatcher, “We ran into a culvert.”
Garland was seriously injured and has no memory of what happened.
Ochoa said Martinez “had a big heart.”
He really enjoyed spending time with the kids they would catch … kids that lived the hard life outside of this country. He enjoyed getting to know them,” she added.
