[audience cheering and clapping]
[audience clapping]
I remember that day like it was yesterday.
[audience cheering and clapping]
She was real outgoing and bubbly.
She made friends everywhere she went.
She had all these things in line and everything was looking really bright for her.
It was important for us to capture that moment
because you never know.
You know, here today, gone tomorrow.
[phone ringing]
[Krystle Limon] I would have never have guessed that something
so terrible would happen.
[Benny Gomez speaking]
- [Ramona Gomez speaking] - [Benny speaking]
[Ramona speaking]
- I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. - [siren wailing]
That day was probably the longest day of my life.
[narrator] It's September 12th, 1992.
The Lira family arrives
at the Evelyn Rubenstein Community Center
in Houston, Texas.
[audience clapping]
They're here to support their six-year-old daughter, Michelle, as she competes
in the annual Little Miss Fiesta Patrias pageant.
[hostess speaking]
A lot of our family members attended...
Attended the pageant.
We have a really loving, supportive family,
that no matter what it is, we're all there.
And there she is.
[hostess speaking]
[audience cheering]
It's like a little doll.
She had the cute shoes, we had the hair all fixed up,
with the little bow on her head.
Yeah, she, uh, she was really excited
and loved to... Dress up.
[audience clapping]
She was very confident, that's for sure.
You know, in everything that she did.
[hostess speaking]
[Larry Lira] Michelle was very smart.
I was always working on something and she was always there
eager to see what I was doing, asking me all these questions.
"Well, what is this?" "What is that?"
[hostess speaking]
At the time, she was going to Roosevelt Elementary in Houston
and, uh, it was a school for accelerated learners
because she was very smart.
Anything I taught her, she would, you know, catch on real quick.
You told her one time and that was it.
[audience cheering and clapping]
[Larry] The pageant had many parts and, uh, one of the parts
was the dancing part
and that was the actual talent.
She's gonna do a Mexican folkloric dance called baile folklorico.
[mexican music playing]
It's a folkloric dance, Mexican dance.
And, uh, she decided she wanted to do that
and just represent her culture.
It's a lot of footwork. [laughs]
She could really tap her shoes.
She really could dance.
[mexican music playing]
She definitely had her moves down, for sure.
[audience clapping]
You know, when I would see her perform, I was,
I mean I had this thing in my heart that was like,
"Wow, that's my little shining star."
And I was so proud of her.
[woman] Stand right here.
[Ramona] Everybody was, like, ready with their cameras,
video recorders.
Just sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, grandparents, both sides.
[narrator] Michelle's dad, Larry, is a Houston firefighter.
Ramona is a stay-at-home mom.
At the pageant, Ramona was seven months pregnant.
[Ramona] I was due at any moment.
I was ready to have the baby.
Ready at home. Michelle was ready to have
her little sister at home.
She was always saying, "Is it almost time?"
And "Is she almost here, Mom?"
[Larry] Yeah, I was very excited.
Very excited to be a father again.
I think we were trying to have a son.
I think that was the conversation,
we wanted to have a boy.
Unfortunately, I make girls. I don't make boys.
[narrator] Baby Nicole arrives on November 24th, 1992.
Michelle was very excited to see that her special Christmas gift came true
which was her little sister and she was so excited because she said,
that's all she talked about, wanted to have a little sister.
[Michelle Lira speaking]
[laughing]
[Michelle on tablet] Well, Mama, don't tell...
[Nicole Gomez] Right here, you can see all the stockings
and mine was the very small,
little ones since I was a little baby.
That was Michelle's first Christmas with her little sister.
And then as they get older, the bond got even stronger, yeah.
[laughing]
[Nicole] When we were younger, we were really close.
Michelle was like a mother to me.
She was like my second mom.
Oh!
Oops.
[Nicole] Michelle was very outgoing and bubbly.
Like, everywhere she went, she would just sparked up the room.
[all singing]
- [woman] Yee-haw! - [all clapping]
All right, come on, Michelle!
[narrator] Michelle celebrates her eighth birthday
in January, 1994.
Larry and Ramona's smiles mask that their relationship is crumbling.
Our marriage was just starting to split apart.
It was hard on the whole family.
So, uh, I try to block that year out of my mind. [laughs]
[indistinct chatter]
[all clapping and cheering]
[Ramona] I just think Larry and I just fell out of love.
There was no problem,
no, um, violence, nothing like that.
Larry and I were divorced a few months
after Michelle's eighth birthday.
You can't make somebody love you.
And they understood, well, Michelle did, you know,
she was like, "It's okay, Mom. We're okay."
I said, "Daddy's still gonna come and see you.
Daddy still loves you,
but we just can't live together anymore."
And she understood perfectly.
[man] Which one's the mother?
- Huh? - Mom.
After our divorce was final,
uh, Michelle and I grew even closer.
We were already close, but a lot closer.
I could actually confide in her like a grown girl,
you know, even though she was nine.
Uh, she would give me advice or she would say,
"Mama, don't cry. We're gonna be okay."
At times, I think she thought she was the mom instead of me.
[laughs]
[narrator] Michelle also steps up
to look after sister Nicole.
When I started working, she was more like
a mother figure to Nicole.
[Ramona speaking]
[laughs]
She was a lot of help. She helped me feed her.
You know, and, uh, carry her.
She did really well carrying her.
Uh, I trusted her.
After the divorce, uh, we moved into another house
where it's just me and my girls.
Michelle, uh, had to start a new school.
Lantrip, third grade.
She enjoyed it. She made friends everywhere she went.
She was, like, the new girl and she stood out
because she was...
She was just cool. [laughs]
She was different and she was just more mature than us.
I was really shy and she wasn't.
And, for whatever reason, she wanted to be my friend.
She was just funny. She was very quick-witted.
She definitely gave me more confidence
to come out of my shell.
I felt like our friendship was solid.
And I knew that we had formed a bond, definitely.
[Ramona speaking]
[narrator] December 1995,
Ramona Lira and her daughters Michelle and Nicole,
select a Christmas tree.
[Ramona speaking]
[narrator] Ramona's new boyfriend, 24-year-old Benny Gomez,
helps the family choose.
[Ramona speaking]
[Ramona gasps]
I met Benny a year after I got divorced.
He's a friend of the family's.
He started coming around, taking us out.
And he was really, really good with my girls and that's what
I think attracted me to him.
And as long as you're good to my kids, then you got a way to my heart.
That's what's always my motto.
[Ramona speaking]
[Ramona whistles]
[Ramona speaking]
[organ playing softly]
[Nicole] Myself and Benny, we were really close.
I used to call him Dad.
All of us would come around the tree and just decorate it.
And, then, after we were done, we would just turn the lights off
so we can see all the lights on the Christmas tree
and it just looked so pretty in there.
[Ramona] My girls, they took on really well with Benny
and, you know, he gave 'em all the love and attention.
He took us places. He bought 'em things.
And he'd help 'em with homework and all that.
[Ramona speaking]
See you Christmas eve.
[narrator] The support that Michelle receives at home
allows her to thrive at school.
You could tell she was, she was very, very smart.
She was a talented writer and she read a lot.
She was really gifted in science and in math.
[narrator] Her good grades won her a place
at one of Houston's most prestigious schools.
In, uh, 2001, Michelle went to, um, high school
for law enforcement and criminal justice in Houston.
You had to take a placement test for you to even get in that school.
But, uh, she placed it and she got in.
She was more medical since she was little.
She always wanted to be a nurse.
And I said, "Okay, we can do that.
And if you really, really like the medical field, you can proceed
to be a nurse practitioner and, eventually, a physician."
[narrator] But in 2001,
fifteen-year-old Michelle
starts to focus her attention elsewhere.
One day, I went to pick up Michelle from school
and I noticed her walking toward my car with this young man.
And, uh, she asked me if I could take him home, give him a ride.
And we did.
[narrator] The young man is 15-year-old Selestino Torres.
When they got in the car, uh,
she introduced me to Selestino.
And, uh, he said, "Hello, nice to meet you," and, uh,
I was kind of sizing him up.
Trying to see what kind of new boy she was bringing home toward me.
Uh, he was nice and, uh, short hair, very well dressed,
very well mannered.
He, he looked like he was a sweet boy.
Once we dropped him off, I said, "Well, Michelle, who's this little boy?"
And she goes, "Oh, I kinda like him, Mom."
And I said, "Okay." I said, "Long as he's good to you
and he can be respectable, that's okay with me."
When Michelle introduced me to Selestino, it was more of--
It just, in a, somebody that she knew,
kind of like a friendship guy on the bus,
"person I see in school" type of thing.
And, after a while, I could see
she was developing a crush on him.
And that's when she invited him to the party
and they took it to the next level.
[kids chattering]
Michelle, not being shy,
she went ahead and made first move and invited him over.
It was there that, I guess, that they were talking to each other more than,
as more than just friends.
And it was there that I saw them kiss.
From that day on, I just saw them as basically inseparable.
I always just saw them together and he was always with the group.
[Ramona] Anytime that we went somewhere,
Michelle would invite him or he'd show up
or, uh, he'd say, "Hey, you don't mind if I go?"
And, then, we started inviting him more often, you know, like, to birthday parties.
Christmas, he was always there.
He did appear at all of, most of our events.
Uh, you would see him there for Thanksgiving, Christmas, you name it.
He'd be there mostly, almost every day.
After a while, I mean, I considered him, pretty much, like a brother to me.
Like a big brother.
[Ramona] He became part of the family.
He treated my daughter very well.
Lots of love and respect.
So, as long as I saw her happy,
I knew he was being good to her.
I think, in high school,
they were really planning on marrying each other because,
one day, I did run into a list.
It said, "Our wedding list" and I said, "Oh, okay, yeah,
I think they'll end up getting married one day."
I said, "But after high school, I want you get your degree in something.
Not right now." [laughs]
In 2002, things started going,
going south a little bit.
So, Michelle suspected that he was into other girls
and possibly talking to them.
So, it would cause a lot of tension
and just arguments between them that we could all see.
Michelle just wanted to be with him and just be happy with him,
but I guess, he had, like, a wandering eye
or he was talking to other people.
Or wanted to, at least.
In 2003, Michelle found a note
in his vehicle from another girl.
[Larry] I got a phone call from Michelle's school
and they said, "Can you come to the school immediately.
There's been a problem between Michelle and Selestino."
So, I, I got there.
And as I walked into the principal's office,
Michelle was crying and she said that, uh, they got into a fight.
And, then, the principal came in and talked to me and said,
"Yes, they got into a real ugly, brutal fight
and we had to separate them."
[Ramona] He hit her. She hit him right back.
And I said, "Whoa!" I was really angry.
I said, "He better stay away from me
because I'll handle him myself."
I said, "I don't want him nowhere by my daughter, nowhere by my house.
So you stay away."
[Krystle] After the physical altercation,
they separated for a while.
It was just needed and I think that their families
made them as well. Especially Michelle's family.
But they would always find a way to reconcile.
[Ramona] They both sat me down and said,
"You know what? I promise this will never happen again."
I really didn't even want to hear what he had to say,
but I did it for Michelle.
"You should just listen to him, Mom, you know, we're both sorry.
I hit him. He hit me. We were both mad."
And I said, "Doesn't matter.
Two wrongs don't make it a, don't make it right."
They promised it would never happen again.
And, and, no, it didn't.
Michelle and Selestino worked their problems out
and, uh, they stayed together.
[Nicole] It was around 2004
when Michelle graduated high school.
She started working, um, with my mother at the health clinic.
[Ramona] Michelle ran the front desk at the clinic.
She started getting more into it and more into it.
She goes, "You know, Mom? I do really wanna be a nurse."
She goes, "I, I wanna follow in your footsteps."
Michelle was going to Houston Community College.
She'd do all her, uh, perquisitions.
Uh, it's at least two years of required courses
before you can get into the nursing program.
In 2007, Selestino had got a really good job
on the oil field as an apprentice electrician.
It was a refinery where he was working at.
And he would travel, like, nine hours up north.
So, he would go back-and-forth on the weekend to come back and see her,
go back by Sunday evening to work.
Sometimes it was late at night or early in the morning,
she kind of feared that something could happen to him on the road
so Michelle bought him a .45 pistol.
I looked at her and I was like,
"Oh, my God. Why would you buy a young man
a gun like that, Michelle?"
And she goes, "Mom, because he travels
and I want him to be protected.
For him to have something, you know?"
And I said, "I don't like it, Michelle."
I said to myself, please, God, don't ever let anything happen
and I just waked away.
By the end of 2007,
he spent less time at home...
I could see her upset. I would go to her room
and ask, "Michelle, are you okay?
How come you're not out and about?"
You know, she's a young person
and she's like, "No, Mom, I'm okay. I'm okay."
Michelle and Selestino's relationship was just very,
kind of up and down.
They were just known for being the makeup-breakup couple.
And so it got to a point where we were out of high school
and it was just-- We just couldn't fake it anymore.
There were times where they were in a good spot
and it was okay to be around them
but sometimes they were not
and if you were around them you could feel the tension.
[Nicole] Whenever she would get a little bit sad or upset
she would start eating a little bit more.
I think she found comfort in food.
Selestino would tell her that she was a big girl
that nobody else would want to be with her
and that he was-- He was pretty much it for her.
[cell phone beeping]
My sister had got a message one day on her social media
and it really upset her.
Some girl had wrote to her
saying that he was sleeping with another woman.
Michelle kept seeing text messages,
receiving phone calls from other girls...
on his phone.
Michelle came to realize that
Selestino was never gonna change,
his infidelity with other women
and that's why she decided that was the final breakup.
After that she put her foot down.
She goes, "I'm done. I can't do it anymore."
And I think that's what she needed.
[indistinct chatter]
[Krystle] In 2009, Michelle invited me over
for the Fourth of July
just to eat and have some drinks and pop some fireworks.
She was doing good. She was losing weight
and she was happy about that.
She was looking good,
she had got some new clothes...
She let me know that--
I guess basically Selestino was out of the picture
and she kind of just explained a little bit more
how she just wanted to start fresh without him.
She didn't need any of this cat and mouse game anymore.
[cell phone ringing]
Her phone kept going off.
It just kept going off and off and off.
[cell phone beeping]
Like, he just wouldn't leave her alone.
He knew that she was there having fun without him
and I felt like it was driving him crazy.
[cell phone ringing]
He was obviously trying to let her know "I see you."
She said, "I think he's around.
I think he's circling around." Like, he was stalking her.
[phone ringing]
[911 responder speaking]
[Benny speaking]
- [911 responder speaking] - [Benny speaking]
- [Ramona speaking] - [Benny speaking]
[Ramona speaking]
[911 responder speaking]
[Benny speaking]
- [911 responder speaking] - [Benny speaking]
Responding units arrived and discovered
a white Hummer H2 parked on the roadway.
It was very apparent to the deputies
as they approached the vehicle that these two female victims
had been shot several times.
[Det. Juan Viramontes] The caller of the 911 call was a Benny Gomez.
Mr. Gomez identified the two injured females
as his wife Ramona Gomez
and his step-daughter Michelle Lira.
Ramona Gomez, she had sustained
multiple gunshot wounds throughout her body.
She was treated and transported
via ambulance to hospital.
Although the paramedics arrived within minutes,
it was clear that Michelle Lira was beyond any help.
[Larry] There were tons of police cars at Ben Taub hospital.
Tons of them.
And I walked in there
and the first person that I saw was Mona's mom Ms. Pena.
And, uh, I said, "Where-- Where's Michelle?
Where are they?"
And I mean, she just told me Michelle's dead.
[sniffles]
When I spoke with Benny Gomez
he told me that he had been sleeping that morning.
When he woke up, he woke up hearing several gunshots
coming from outside.
[gunshots]
[Det. James Dousay] According to Benny, Michelle and Ramona Gomez
would always ride together to work
in the Hummer each morning.
That was their routine.
Benny Gomez approached the white Hummer that morning.
He could hear his wife, Ramona Gomez,
screaming to get them help and that they had been shot.
And she called out to him
and told him that Selestino had shot both of them.
Based on the, uh, impacts on the vehicle
we could estimate at least
fourteen-15 shots were fired.
He had unloaded the full magazine.
It was imperative that we obtained an arrest warrant
for Selestino Torres and get him off the streets.
[Det. James] The witness that lived on the street
witnessed individual matching Selestino's description enter
a grey Toyota four-door vehicle
that morning around the time of the incident.
When I spoke with Benny Gomez that morning
he told me that Selestino Torres
owned a pickup truck
and the vehicle that was described by the neighbor witness
did not match that vehicle at all.
We started trying to find out who, uh,
who could've helped Selestino in committing this offense?
Who he might know that would have a vehicle that matched that description?
As EMS officials examined Ramona Gomez
they discovered that she had been shot several times
in the upper torso, neck and the shoulder area.
Surgeons removed approximately five projectiles from her body.
[Ramona] He shot me seven times...
I got shot in the back of my head, my arms and my back.
Not too many people get shot in the head
and live or survive to tell the story.
Ms. Ramona Gomez was able to give an interview
once she was conscious at Ben Taub hospital.
She was bound and determined to do whatever it took
to help get this person that was responsible for this
and for taking her daughter's life.
[Ramona] I was still in a state of disbelief.
Not only because, you know, he killed my daughter
but he also turned a gun on me.
They asked me where could I think he was at
and I said, well, you know, he did have a new girlfriend
named Terri Wallace that he was staying with.
[Det. James] Ms. Gomez gave the information about Terri Wallace and said
that it was her understanding
that she lived south of Houston.
[Det. Juan] Through research it was determined
that Terri Wallace was staying with her mother
and the following morning
a Sergeant went and met with the mom.
The vehicle parked in the driveway
was a grey Toyota Camry
which was the same type of vehicle that
the witness described Selestino Torrez getting into
soon after the shooting.
Terri's mother, Shirley, told the Sergeant
that she didn't know where Terri had went or where she was.
She confirmed that her daughter, Terri,
had been dating Selestino Torres.
She allowed us to look in Terri's vehicle,
gave consent for us to search that vehicle
as well as Terri's room inside the house.
Just a few hours later, Ms. Shirley Wallace told us
that Terri was at the attorney's office
awaiting our phone call.
She told us that Terri had been,
had been advised by another family member
that she needed to get an attorney.
So later on that day Deputy Viramontes and myself,
we met with Terri Wallace at her attorney's office.
[Det. James speaking]
[Terri Wallace speaking]
[Det. James speaking]
[Terri speaking]
[Det. James speaking]
[Terri speaking]
[Det. James speaking]
[Terri speaking]
[Det. James speaking]
[Terri speaking]
[Det. James speaking]
[Terri speaking]
We advised Terri Wallace that we had a witness
that had seen Selestino enter a vehicle
that basically matched her vehicle
that morning after the incident.
The shooting had occurred at approximately 7:00 a.m.
Terri Wallace told us that
Selestino probably borrowed her car that morning
without her knowledge
and that he had brought it back before she woke up.
Terri Wallace insisted that she didn't know anything
about the murder until later on that day.
[narrator] Terri claims that a mutual contact phoned her
and told her about Selestino's involvement in the shooting.
[Terri speaking]
[Det. James speaking]
[Terri speaking]
[melancholy music playing]
[narrator] Four days later, police receive a tip
from an anonymous source.
A witness contacted us
and gave information that
Selestino Torres and Terri Wallace were together
around 8:45 a.m. on the morning of the murder,
and that they came to his residence
asking to use his vehicle,
and that they were together
and they were in Terri Wallace's vehicle at that time.
If that was true,
that shot holes in Terri Wallace's story
about being at home and not waking up until 8:45 a.m.
[melancholy music playing]
Four days after gunning down his ex-girlfriend
and her mother,
Selestino Torres remained on the loose.
He was still out there and nobody seemed to know his whereabouts.
I was afraid because, I mean, he knew where all my relatives lived.
He could've come back home and finished the job.
We had cops patrolling the street just to make sure
we were gonna be okay.
We were... We were scared.
[Det. James] Early on the morning of the 11th of July,
we received an anonymous call
that said that Selestino Torres was hiding out
at his sister's residence in Houston.
I contacted Gulf Coast Task Force
and they sent out a team to perform surveillance
of that address.
7:30 p.m. on the 11th, um,
we had been pulling surveillance for several hours.
It was determined that we could approach the house
and basically do a knock and talk
and try to find out who was there.
We approached the house. We asked the brother-in-law
and the sister of Selestino to step out of the house.
That was for their safety.
Selestino ran inside a bathroom
and closed the door as investigators approached it.
Like he had a gun in his hand.
That door was pushed open
and Selestino was holding what proved to be a curling iron
and he was trying to make it look like he had a gun.
A taser was deployed
and Selestino Torres was taken into custody.
[door opens]
[detective speaking]
[Selestino Torres speaking]
It was about 10:56 p.m. on the 11th.
We had Selestino Torres.
He had been transported to our detective bureau headquarters.
[detective speaking]
[Selestino speaking]
[detective speaking]
[Selestino speaking]
We had enough eyewitnesses on that case where
it wasn't necessary to hear what he had to say.
He was booked on the charges of murder
for the killing of Michelle Lira
and the attempted murder of Ms. Ramona Gomez.
[Ramona] I was at my sister's house.
We get a call from the detective saying, "We caught him."
We cried and we cheered.
We could breathe again.
Talking with Terri Wallace, she had told us that
Selestino had called her on her cell phone.
It was about 6:58 a.m. that morning.
We obtained several search warrants as well as Grand Jury Subpoenas
for various items of evidence.
Terri Wallace's phone records were one of those.
Those records put Terri Wallace's phone
in the area of the crime scene on that morning of the murder.
On July 15th, 2009,
Terri Wallace was charged with murder.
It was our belief that Terri Wallace was a willing
participant in this case.
The fact that it was her vehicle that was used in this crime,
that Selestino was calling her at 6:58 which was
in seconds after the shooting.
We believe she was there, we believe
she was the getaway driver.
But, you know, the DA's office saw that
that it was gonna be hard to prove that she was
a willing participant or that she was even there.
[Det. James] We had no eyewitness that could say
she was driving that vehicle.
We didn't have anybody that could say they put her there at the scene.
And ultimately, the charges against Terri Wallace were dismissed.
[narrator] Investigators focus on the case against Selestino.
They piece together what led him to shoot Michelle.
Michelle's moving forward without him
was affecting him.
In the weeks prior to this incident,
he was begging her to take him back.
Uh, he was concerned about his,
his wellbeing, his future.
It was apparent that Selestino Torres was not gonna stop,
you know, until he got what he wanted
to the point to where if he couldn't have her
there was no one gonna have her.
That morning, I woke up
and I called her and said "Michelle, get up,
time to go to work."
I started my truck
and I opened up the garage door.
And as soon as I opened the garage door,
he came inside real quick and he stood by my door.
That's when he asked me to speak to Michelle
and that's when I told him "No."
As we backed up, he approached Michelle's window,
the passenger window.
So all of a sudden, he just pulled out a gun
and he just put it through the window,
through that little crack, little area.
He just started shooting just randomly inside the truck.
[gunshots]
I could hear Michelle gasping and gasping for air.
I knew she was dying right there,
right in front of my face.
[sniffs] And, Michelle died right there in my arms.
She took her last breath.
I trusted him with my prized possession, my daughter.
If you ask me, if anybody was out to hurt me,
he would have never been on my list right now.
Never.
I loved him like a son.
Selestino knew their routine.
He knew the time that they left.
My belief is that Selestino
was trying to catch them before they backed out of their garage.
What he did was calculated, and planned, and, uh,
I think he carried out exactly what he intended to do.
Selestino Torres, he pled guilty to murder
and attempted murder in this case.
He was sentenced to life in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
[solemn music playing]
[Krystle] When she died,
I felt like a part of me died and I felt like
my childhood went with it.
What I miss about my sister, pretty much is her advice.
Every time I had trouble with something,
I could always count on her to be there for me.
We try to celebrate her birthday,
you know, have pictures of her.
We always celebrate her anniversary, you know,
we get together [sniffs]
and, uh, visit her.
[man speaking]
[Ramona] What I miss about Michelle is her beautiful smile,
her personality,
her kisses and hugs.
I wrote a book about Michelle and our story.
I feel like, if one person can read it
and save one person,
then Michelle didn't die in vain.