Background: Medford police officers respond to an alleged carjacking on August 11, 2021 (Medford Police Department). Inset left: Jennifer Caridad (Sunnyside Police Department). Inset right: Aurelio Escobar (Medford Police Department).
A man is accused of embarking on a violent crime spree across the Pacific Northwest, allegedly killing his girlfriend and shooting a man while attempting to dispose of her vehicle.
Aurelio Escobar, 30, has been charged with a series of serious offenses, including first-degree murder in connection with the death of 24-year-old Jennifer Caridad. Additional charges against him include first-degree assault, first-degree robbery, unlawful possession of a firearm, and two counts of attempted first-degree robbery, as reported by the Yakima Herald-Republic.
Caridad was last seen on August 8, 2021. According to the regional news outlet, her brother mentioned that Caridad had been in a relationship with Escobar for about eight months. The next day, her family’s SUV was discovered at Berglund Lake in Yakima, Washington.
Authorities reportedly found bloodstains inside the vehicle, along with clothing and a tarp near the lake. Caridad’s partial remains were later discovered near Satus Longhouse Road in Granger, approximately 35 miles southeast of Yakima. The King County Medical Examiner’s Office determined that she had died from a gunshot wound to the head.
However, investigators suggest that the events surrounding his girlfriend’s murder and the abandonment of the vehicle were merely the beginning of Escobar’s alleged crime spree. Following the disposal of the SUV in August 2021, Escobar is said to have targeted a man who was fishing with his daughter nearby.
Authorities believe that Escobar demanded the man’s truck at gunpoint and proceeded to shoot him three times. He then allegedly attempted to carjack additional vehicles as he continued traveling southward.
“He’s basically moving from city to city, and it looks like he’s heading south, and he’s just committing crime in every city he goes to, and he’s forcefully carjacking people at gunpoint and he’s willing to shoot people, obviously for their vehicles,” then-Yakima Police Captain Jay Seely said, per local CBS affiliate KIMA.
Escobar crossed the Washington state border into Oregon, where officers from several law enforcement agencies were looking for him. “A traffic stop was attempted on the vehicle and the suspect began driving at a high rate of speed in attempts to elude the officers,” the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office and Medford Police Department said in a joint press release.
Officers were able to stop the vehicle, but a shootout ensued — causing Escobar to be shot and brought to an area hospital. A revolver was recovered at the scene.
Escobar was later listed in stable condition. No officers were struck by gunfire.
The man who was shot while fishing with his daughter survived, Eugene-based ABC affiliate KEZI reported.
The defendant, who prosecutors said was a member of the Nortenos gang, appeared in court in Yakima County on Monday, after being transferred from an Oregon prison. According to the Yakima Herald-Republic, he was already found guilty of unlawfully possessing and using a weapon in the Oregon shooting as well as smuggling drugs into prison in Oregon.
