Antsy BPD Sacks Murder Detective...Chili Perez Handed The Case...

By HANDS VELA
The Paz Files

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - Public outcry against the soulful sobbings of a city police detective investigating the killing of a 23-year-old college student has led the police chief to assign a new man to the job. Chief Charlotte Garcia has named rising department sleuth Chili Perez (see photo above) as the man to replace Det. Alfred Alpaca in the sensational case.

Alpaca was the first detective at the scene of what many already say was the vicious murder of young Louise Herrera. Alpaca's weepy appearance before a press conference at the police station drew thousands of telephone calls to Chief Garcia's office - all of them demanding that Alpaca be taken off the case.

"The citizens wanted someone else," Garcia said late in the day. "Many of them said Alfred was being too emotional. They wanted a hard-ass on the case. Chili Perez is that man."

Ms. Herrera's body was discovered by a jogger cutting through thick wild brush and mesquite trees in an area known as a favorite haunt for coyotes. The jogger, who told police he was a mediocre welterweight boxer from Olmito, said he spotted the woman's body and at first believed it was a large doll. Cops declined to give the boxer's name, saying he remains part of the investigation.

Victim Louise Herrera had been in the news of late following her accusation that Paz Files writer Rudolf Von Bulow had tanked her up with booze and then repeatedly raped her at his condo on South Padre Island. The case was working its way through the courts when Ms. Herrera's body was recovered by the coroner's office. According to Det. Alpaca, she had been stabbed in the back multiple times. Chief Garcia said Det. Chili Perez would not be availed to the press. Perez is known within the department as a no-nonsense officer with a photographic memory and a penchant for solving New York Times crossword puzzles.

"Chili's sharp," said another BPD officer who requested anonymity. "He's the detective who worked the Judge Lupe Limas bribery case behind the scenes. Chili doesn't get publicity 'cause that's the way he wants it. I'd say he's got the sort of personality that may make you think he's just another lazy Mexican, but there, underneath his shitty hats, sits the brain of a chess grandmaster. He'll work all angles and he'll solve the case."

According to Chief Garcia, there is no one suspect on the radar screen. She, however, poo-poohed any talk about anyone the public may have in mind, including Marquita Washington - the woman who expressed anger at being told her ex-boyfriend, LaCandrelle Jefferson, had been enticed by Ms. Herrera onto her bed. Jefferson, himself, was found shot to death inside his Mini Cooper recently. No arrest has been made in that case, either.

Marquita Washington, meanwhile, is said to be somewhere in Mexico with her current flame, DaQuan Monroe, and their child. At last report, they were holed-up in a second-story flat in Acapulco, but a call to the apartment went unanswered today.

Rudolf Von Bulow arrived in Harlingen aboard a Southwest Airlines flight shortly after noon, but dashed off to his island residence ahead of a trailing pack of reporters, who then camped outside the condo building awaiting comment. Von Bulow, who had been in France since the allegations surfaced earlier this month, had denied raping the junior college beauty, insisting that the deviant sex they enjoyed had been consensual. He nonetheless had offered the Herrera family $1 million to drop all charges, but, as with everything in the Land of Tomorrow, nothing had come of it.

There was no comment from the Herrera family today. Efforts to reach them at their humble Cameron Park house were unsuccessful and a neighbor came out to say the family was incommunicado and in mourning.

Det. Chili Perez was seen leaving the police station in a battered 1980 Volvo sedan...

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