SAN ANTONIO — Texas authorities have closed a nearly decades-old cold case and have charged a man with capital murder and arson, granting him two life sentences.
José Baldomero Flores III pled guilty on July 25 to the 2005 murder of 21-year-old Heather Willms- supposedly a friend- and the 2011 murder of 30-year-old Esmeralda Herrera.
Texas Department of Public Safety said Willms was a waitress at a Leon Valley restaurant who failed to show up for work in Feb. 2005. Authorities said she was found in her residence sexually assaulted and 'brutally killed,' and that there were signs of a fire ignited to burn her body to destroy evidence.
Investigators initially identified Flores as a suspect since his DNA was discovered on Willms' body, along with the DNA of an unknown suspect, authorities said. The case stalled and Flores was never charged.
In March 2011, authorities said Herrera was found dead in her San Antonio apartment. Her apartment was also set on fire. Police initially arrested Flores for Herrera's murder but was released due to insufficient evidence for a trial, a decision made by the case's prosecutor.
It was not until 2015 that the Unsolved Crimes Investigation Program of the Texas Rangers began work on the Willms' case. The UCIP Rangers identified the unknown DNA found on Willms' body and worked with the Bexar County District's Office and the San Antonio and Leon Valley Police Departments.
Flores III was arrested in November 2016 for the two murders and was sentenced the two life sentences more than half a decade later, on July 25.
