The Los Angeles man arrested in the brutal beatings of three homeless men, two of whom have died, is now wanted in connection with the disappearance of some of his relatives in Texas.
According to ABC 7, police arrested Ramon Escobar on Monday after they say he attacked three homeless men with a baseball bat as they slept on the streets of downtown L.A. Escobar was arrested by Santa Monica police after a similar attack on a fourth victim in that city.
Relatives say Ramon Escobar stopped taking his medication around the time his aunt and uncle disappeared. (ABC 7 / video screenshot)
The Los Angeles victims, described as African-American men, ages 23, 24 and 59, were repeatedly struck “around the head and shoulders,” LAPD Capt. Williams Hayes told reporters last week. Police believed the motive possibly was robbery.
Fast forward to this week and Escobar is now a suspect in the disappearance of his aunt and uncle. Authorities say Rogelio and Dina Escobar, who lived in the Houston area, went missing within days of each other last month and haven’t been seen or heard from since.
Rogelio, 65, disappeared first, then Dina, 60, went missing a few days later when she hopped into her 2007 Chevy Uplander van and went looking for her brother, The Los Angeles Times reported. It wasn’t long before investigators found a burned-out vehicle belonging to Dina on a beach in Galveston.
“We’re trying to hang in there. We just have a really bad feeling,” Dina’s daughter, Ligia Salamanca, told Houston’s KTRK shortly after her mother vanished. “This isn’t something normal. They wouldn’t be gone this long. They wouldn’t not contact us.”
Relatives said they haven’t heard from Ramon since the disappearances but noted he did stop taking medication for his mental illness around that same time. He was arrested by Santa Monica police early Monday shortly after he allegedly beat another homeless man.
The 47-year-old has since been booked on murder charges and is currently being held without bond.
Watch more in the video below.