Case of the Month: Amparo Arias Torres’ son Alex contacted me a few months ago. He told me that his mother’s 1981 murder was still unsolved.
The Miami-Dade Cold Case website describes Amparo’s 1981 homicide case as follows:
“On June 11, 1981 at 11121 S.W. 88 Street, Apartment A-201, the body of Amparo Arias Torres (29) was found after a foul odor was detected coming from the victim’s apartment.
The investigation revealed that the victim kept to herself; however, there were several men seen frequenting the victim’s apartment from time to time.
The victim’s apartment was very well kept and fashionable with no signs of ransacking.
The motive for this homicide remains unknown.
Anyone with information concerning this crime is requested to call Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477, or send an email to Homicide Bureau.”
Alex has searched for information online. On the websleuth forum he posted: “I was only 3 and never had memories of her when she left this world. I would give anything to put this behind me.”
Alex described what he had learned about the crime scene. There was no forced entry and there were two empty cups of coffee inside the apartment. His mom was shot several times in her head with a .22 caliber.
His father, Aguedo Borrego-Estrada, passed a polygraph test. According to Alex, he loved her. But her death may be related to his criminal activities.
I checked the information about his father. In the paper from March 1985, you can find this: “[Aguedo] Borrego-Estrada pleaded guilty to conspiracy and second-degree murder and was sentenced to 16 years in prison.”
All his crime activities were drug related. The case, Florida, Appellant, v. Amilcar Jose RODRIGUEZ-JIMENEZ and Aguedo Borrego-Estrada, Appellees, can be found here.
From this Jan 15, 1982 article on the right (click picture to enlarge) you can see that Borrego had drug meetings at his house.
Several months before her murder, Amparo took Alex (3) to her mother in Canada. She raised him.
Alex is happily married with children and posts on his Twitter account. But if you scroll down his stream, you will also see his cries for help. The grid on the left can be enlarged so you can read some of Alex’ tweets.
If Alex is right that there were two coffee mugs in the house and if those mugs were properly preserved, it could not hurt to test them for DNA.
Amparo hardly has a web presence and deserves to be remembered.
If you have any information that can help the Miami-Dade Police Department, please contact Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477 or email at [email protected]
**
In the series “Case of the Month” I highlight old cold cases. These posts are not an in-depth analysis and of course, sometimes more information can be found online and in newspaper archives. The goal of these posts is to get the cases back in the spotlights, to get people talking again, and if anything to make sure that we do not forget the victims. Just because their cases are cold does not mean that we can forget about them.
If you have any thoughts about this case I encourage you to post them on your own social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, etc. Every time that we mention Amparo’s name online we enhance her digital footprint.
We must make sure that Amparo retains a web presence if we ever wish to find answers in her case. You can help by linking to or sharing this post.
Thank you for remembering Amparo Arias Torres with us.
