The Texas Rangers are taking a fresh look at the unsolved cold case murder of an El Paso mother found savagely beaten to death in the bathroom of her East Side home more than 30 years ago.
The killing of 30-year-old Celia Loya has remained unresolved since 1995 despite El Paso police homicide detectives following several leads over three decades.
The Texas Ranger Unsolved Crimes Investigation (Cold Case) Program is featuring the Loya homicide and offering a $6,000 reward in hopes of generating information that leads to an arrest, the Texas Department of Public Safety announced on Friday, Oct. 16.
The reward is only being offered if the tip is received before the next Texas
cold case is highlighted in the bimonthly feature, Texas DPS said.
The case is being investigated by the El Paso Police Department and the Texas Rangers as part of a state investigations program intended to assist local law enforcement with unsolved homicides and violent serial crimes.
Celia Loya called work saying she would be late
Loya died from extensive blood loss because of injuries to the head and body on Feb. 7, 1995, at her home in the 2800 block of Lake Champlain Street, according to Texas DPS and El Paso newspaper archives.
The home is in a middle-class East Side neighborhood near Pebble Hills Boulevard and George Dieter Drive.
Loya was a wife and mother who worked as an office manager at American Sling, a business that manufactures and distributes lifting and rigging products.
"That morning, her husband went to work and her daughter left to school. Loya called the office to say she would be late. She didn't give a reason for it," Detective Jesus Pantoja of the EPPD Cold Case Squad told the El Paso Times in 2004.
El Paso mother found slain at home in 1995
The investigation revealed that Loya never made it to work. Her husband became concerned after being unable to reach her and rushed back home to check on her, El Paso police and Texas DPS said. Police did not consider the husband a suspect.
Police said Loya's husband arrived at the home to find the garage door open and the house in disarray, the El Paso Herald-Post reported in 1995.
There were signs of an apparent struggle and traces of blood also found in the living room, according to Texas DPS and El Paso Times archives.
At 12:06 p.m., Loya's husband called 911 to report that his wife was missing. At 12:09 p.m., he called 911 again, saying that he found his wife dead in the back of the home, the Herald-Post reported.
Loya was found dead on the bathroom floor, severely beaten. An autopsy determined she died of extensive blood loss stemming from blunt force trauma injuries to the head and body, Texas DPS stated.
"In the years after Loya's murder, investigators developed and followed several leads, conducted several interviews, and continued to examine evidence collected from the scene to determine who entered the residence and killed her — but no arrests have ever been made," Texas DPS said in a statement announcing the reward.
Texas DPS stated that investigators believe that someone may have "critical information" on the homicide, including details about Loya's activities and if anyone may have seen her or anyone else on the morning of her death.
To be eligible for the $6,000 reward in the Loya homicide, tipsters must call the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-252-8477 (TIPS) or leave a tip online on the Texas DPS website under the featured cold case.
Texas cold case murders
The Texas Ranger Unsolved Crimes Investigation Program, or UCIP, was created in 2001 by the Texas legislature to assist local law enforcement agencies with unsolved murders and possible serial killings. There is no statute of limitations for murder.
The six Texas Ranger Company areas divide the state's investigations. El Paso and West Texas fall under Texas Ranger Company E.
The Texas Rangers Cold Case websitefeatures more than 140 unsolved deaths, with the oldest cases dating as far back as the massacre of the Arellano family in 1968 and the killing of Raul "Pete" Arevalo in 1953.
Arellano family massacre of 1968
The Arellano family — Juan, 29, Monica, 24, Rosa, 21, Eduardo, 1, Leticia, 2, and Manuel Jr., 5 — was traveling from Mexico to San Angelo to meet relatives when their car broke down with a flat tire, Texas DPS stated.
Five family members were found slain in rural Edwards County, south of Sonora, with the only survivor being 5-year-old Manuel. The other victims had been fatally shot, stabbed and beaten and Rosa had been sexually assaulted.
The murder of Raul 'Pete' Arevalo in 1953
Raul "Pete" Arevalo, 17, was working as a gas station attendant at the Lyles Buick Company in Sonora when he left in the company truck with two men who said they ran out of gas east of Sonora, Texas, on Feb. 23, 1953.
Arevalo's body was found more than a week later on March 1, 1953, about 1.4 miles east of Sonora, in what local officials described as "one of the most vicious murders in the area at the time," the Texas Rangers website stated.
Sonora is located along Interstate 10 at the edge of West Texas and the Texas Hill Country.
Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com and @BorundaDaniel on X.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Texas Rangers seek leads in unsolved El Paso mother's cold case murder
