A man arrested in an unrelated federal drug case helped Adre “Psycho” Baroz transport and burn bodies found on a rural San Luis Valley property in November, federal court documents say.
Three sets of human remains were discovered in the Los Sauces community south of Alamosa, two of them on a property that Francisco “Pancho” Ramirez, 38, was renting to own, according to federal court documents.
Ramirez was arrested in Pueblo on Dec. 11. He has been charged in federal court with unlawful gun possession in relation to drug trafficking.
He has not been charged in relation to the bodies found on his property or a neighboring parcel. Two of the bodies were identified by a forensic odontologist as Shalya Jenna Hammel, 34, and Myron Robert Martinez, who would have turned 38 on Nov. 15. The third body has yet to be identified.
Officials with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives investigating missing persons cases in in San Luis Valley in October learned from a confidential informant that Ramirez had driven “mutilated human remains” around in his own vehicle and one belonging to Baroz, “sometimes for days at a time,” according to an arrest warrant affidavit for Ramirez.
Ramirez helped Baroz “conceal the deaths of the murdered victims, by transporting their bodies in vehicles, cleaning murder scenes and helping maintain fires to burn evidence, to include human remains,” the informant told investigators.
The court documents provide details of a case in which investigators have mostly been tight-lipped. Many court documents in the case have been sealed. The Pueblo Chieftain was first to report on the federal court documents.
Baroz was arrested in November and charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and tampering with a body in connection with the death of 19-year-old Selena Esquibel. Esquibel, who was reported missing in August, has not been identified as one of the sets of remains, though authorities indicated in state court documents that she is the third, yet-to-be-identified victim in the case.
Both Ramirez and Baroz are members of local gangs that are connected to the Sureños street gang, according to Ramirez’ arrest affidavit.
Ramirez, a convicted felon who served time in federal prison, told investigators during an interview that he is an active member of the East Side Dukes, which the affidavit says is “known to engage in violence and have been investigated for multiple shootings and other violent crimes” in southern Colorado.
The documents connect Baroz, also a felon, to the Young Crowd, another gang.
Hours before his arrest, authorities searched Ramirez’ white Ford Fusion and found heroin and methamphetamine valued at tens of thousands of dollars, as well as a 9 mm Glock handgun and two loaded magazines.
Both Ramirez’ and Baroz’ vehicles are being examined as evidence by law enforcement, the court documents say.