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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 alleged to have murdered his girlfriend and later shot another individual while attempting to dispose of her car, initiating a series of crimes throughout the Pacific Northwest.
The suspect, 30-year-old Aurelio Escobar, is facing several charges, including first-degree murder for the death of 24-year-old Jennifer Caridad. Additional charges against him include first-degree assault, first-degree robbery, first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm, and two counts of attempted first-degree robbery, as reported by the Yakima Herald-Republic reported.
According to local reports, Caridad was last seen on August 8, 2021. Her brother mentioned that she had been dating Escobar for eight months at that point. The day after her disappearance, her family’s SUV was discovered at Berglund Lake in Yakima, Washington.
The vehicle was reportedly stained with blood, and authorities uncovered clothing and a tarp nearby. Some of Caridad’s remains were later found near Satus Longhouse Road in Granger, approximately 35 miles southeast. The King County Medical Examiner’s Office determined she had died from a gunshot wound to the head.
Investigators believe Escobar’s actions that fateful August day marked the beginning of his crime spree. After allegedly abandoning the SUV near the lake, he is said to have confronted a man who was fishing with his daughter nearby.
Investigators believe the suspect demanded the man’s truck, threatening him with a gun, and then shot him three times. He then headed further south, allegedly attempting to carjack other vehicles along the way.
“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.