EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – The arrest of their father’s suspected killer at first brought hope, but as a trial date continues to be delayed, the pain and anger that Ana Donlan and Maria LaNore had learned to accept has rekindled.
“Here we are two years after he’s been incarcerated and still nothing,” LaNore said. “Before we thought, ‘It’s over. We’re sad. We lost our father because we didn’t have any answers.’ But now, in the last two years, it’s been like a dangled string in front of us. Yes, we have the evidence, but nothing is being done in order to get to a final result.”
Donlan and Lenore are two of three children from Francisco Santoni’s first marriage.
Thirty years ago on Aug. 11, 1994, Santoni, 59, his girlfriend Concepcion “Connie” Villa, 28, and their 3-year-old son, Dante Santoni, were stabbed to death in their home in East El Paso.
The infamous triple-murder case remained cold for over a decade as the evidence gathered by police the night of the murder led to no workable leads at the time.
https://www.ktsm.com/local/el-paso-news/suspect-in-1994-cold-case-arraigned/
Due to technological advancements in 2015, the case was reopened when DNA evidence identified Arturo Ortega Garcia as the possible suspect.
Arturo Ortega Garcia Mugshot, Courtesy: EPPD
He was finally brought into custody in November of 2022, after being extradited from Mexico, where he had been jailed for two years.
Garcia remains in custody here in El Paso, but Donlan and LaNore said the judge continues to grant the defense extensions because Garcia has changed lawyers multiple times and they seek more time to review the evidence.
“The hard thing is to see how easy it is for the courts to grant all these extensions to the defense. It’s continually another month, another 45 days,” LaNore said.
Donlan said the prosecution has been ready to go to trial, and that they’re concerned the evidence will become less reliable if the process continues to be delayed.
“We’re frustrated because we’ve been waiting for 30 years and we want closure. The evidence is getting old. The potential witnesses, I don’t know if some of them are alive, dead? If their memory may not be what it was 30 years ago? So all of these things are important, and the more time that passes, the more frustrated we get,” Donlan said.
She said the last hearing was on July 24, when they and the prosecution believed a trial date would be set, but the defense were granted a 45-day extension.
With the triple-murder’s anniversary, Donlan and LaNore want to keep the case alive in the minds of El Pasoans, and remind the community that despite the recent developments, they have yet to receive justice.
“The minority in El Paso probably don’t remember this case because it’s so old, or maybe the ones that do remember think that it’s a closed case because somebody went to jail for it,” Donlan said. “But maybe by this story coming out, the ones that do remember will realize that, ‘These poor families are still waiting to get their justice, their closure.’”
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