In 2017, Ernesto Gonzales vanished from his office in Harlingen, Texas. His truck was there; he was not. Three years later, after finally discovering Gonzales’s remains, the Texas Rangers and local police arrested his nephew, but the case (and the ensuing media-circus trial) fell apart in spectactular fashion. As it turns out, that wasn’t the only Harlingen-area investigation that crumbled under its own weight. Now, Lisa Olsen combs through relatives, officers, and the public record to find out what really happened to “El Gallito”—and why.
Garza worked on only a handful of murder cases during his seven years as a Ranger, a tenure that ended when he retired in 2023. That wasn’t atypical. DPS data obtained by the Observer through a records request shows that Texas Rangers opened 148 murder cases in 2024 and 2025—an average of one every two years per Ranger, based on the number of positions authorized by the Legislature.
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Garza had neither Holland’s expertise in homicides nor his reputation as a “serial killer whisperer.” On a personal level, he thought Rangers were required to do too much. “If you want to do a good job, you can’t have too many cases on your plate,” Garza told the Observer in a March phone interview.
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