Authorities, including U.S. Marshals and Texas law enforcement, have apprehended an undocumented immigrant suspected of being a serial killer. This individual is linked to two strangulation murders from 2024 and 2018, as well as two recent shooting incidents where the female victims survived.
The suspect, 26-year-old Luis Fernando Benitez-Gonzalez, is charged with the murders of Alyssa Ann Rivera, aged 34, in Austin, and Alba Jenisse Aviles-Marti, aged 28, in Bastrop County.
“We have substantial reason to believe Benitez is behind additional violent acts,” stated Austin Police Detective Chris Anderson during a press conference.
His arrest took place on April 27 in the Dallas region, executed by the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force, according to Anderson.
Authorities report that Luis Benitez-Gonzalez, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who was deported voluntarily in 2020, faces accusations of murdering two women and shooting two others who survived. The Austin police department suspects there could be more victims. (Austin Police Department)
The detective alleged that the evidence and Benitez-Gonzalez’s own statements show “a repeated pattern of violence conducted against vulnerable female victims.”
He said Benitez-Gonzalez may have interacted with more potential victims in Austin, Dallas, Houston and Hidalgo County.
“He has a 2018 case, and he has a 2024 case,” Anderson said. “People who commit crimes of this nature, with the very distinct MO, they usually don’t take a break. Not for six years.”
During the briefing, Deputy U.S. Marshal Brandon Filla revealed that Benitez-Gonzalez is a Mexican national who had previously been voluntarily deported in 2020. It was not immediately clear when he returned to the U.S.
Austin police found Rivera dead on June 21, 2024, after a resident called 911 to report seeing a body in a vacant home on Metcalfe Road. She had been beaten and strangled, police said.
In 2018, Aviles-Marti had been sexually assaulted and strangled with a seatbelt in her car, according to authorities. Bastrop County deputies responded to the scene after a driver reported seeing her car on the shoulder of San Antonio Road — just three miles from where Rivera’s remains were found six years later.
Alyssa Ann Rivera was killed in Austin on June 22, 2024. (Austin Police Department)
Austin police announced in 2024 they had linked the two cases after investigators sent DNA evidence from each of them to the FBI’s CODIS database. Benitez-Gonzalez, however, was not in the database, and it took another two years before he was charged.
Then in November and December 2025, two women survived shooting incidents, Anderson said.
Alba Jenisse Aviles Marti was killed on April 14, 2018 in Bastrop County, Texas. (Austin Police Department)
One of them fought back and managed to wrestle her attacker’s phone away, he added. Ballistic evidence linked her shooting to the other victim, and ultimately to Benitez-Gonzalez in Dallas.
Anderson and another detective interrogated him.
“During that interview, he made admissions related to both aggravated assaults and the 2024 homicide of Alyssa Rivera and the 2018 homicide of Alba Jenisse Aviles-Marti,” he said. “Although Benitez-Gonzalez attempted to characterize his actions as self-defense, the totality of the evidence developed in this investigation does not support that claim.”
Benitez-Gonzalez is being held without bail at the Travis County Jail on charges including first-degree murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has also filed a detainer request.
Anyone with information that may be of value to investigators is asked to call the Austin Police Homicide unit at 512-974-8477 or Capital Area Crime Stoppers at 512-472-8477.
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