Accident or crime scene cordon tape, police line do not cross. It is nighttime, emergency lights of police cars flashing blue, red and white in the background
New details have emerged in a grisly South Texas murder where two bodies were discovered burned beyond recognition in a rural stretch of the Rio Grande Valley last week.
The Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office has released the preliminary identification of the two victims and has announced they’ve charged two men in connection with the capital murder case. Here’s everything we know so far.
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The double homicide investigation began on Tuesday, February 3, as a response to a brush fire north of Peñitas, a border town about 15 miles west of McAllen. The Peñitas Fire Department responded to the conflagration on a stretch of undeveloped pastureland on “4 Mile Line between Tom Gil & Circle 6 Rd.,” Hidalgo County Sheriff J.E. “Eddie” Guerra said in an X post last Tuesday afternoon.
At the scene, firefighters discovered a burned vehicle with the bodies of a man and a woman inside. Investigators with the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Division quickly tied the vehicle to a woman who had been reported missing in the rural Starr County city of La Grulla, about 18 miles west of the fire scene. But at the time, they declined to say if the missing woman was the woman discovered in the vehicle.
On Monday, February 9, the sheriff’s office tentatively identified the two murder victims as Mario Morales and Maria Socorro Farias but are still awaiting DNA confirmation. Further, they confirmed that the vehicle was registered to Farias. 
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Both victims had been shot prior to the vehicle being set on fire and “spent firearm casings” were found around the burned vehicle, according to information the sheriff’s office released on Monday. However, they have not revealed the kind of gun that was used.
“Autopsies were conducted, and the cause (of) death for both individuals was determined to be homicidal violence with gunshot wounds and the manner of death ruled a homicide,” a sheriff’s office spokesperson said.
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Investigators quickly identified witnesses who had seen Morales and Farias shortly before their deaths. Amanda Solis and Triana Marie Gonzalez told investigators that the victims had been involved in an altercation with two men the same day as the fire.
“Both stated that on February 3, 2026, Mario Morales was severely beaten and bloodied by Ricardo Gonzalez and Pedro Ismael Garcia at Ricardo’s apartment in Rio Grande City. They also stated that Maria Farias was present during the assault,” officials said. Triana Gonzalez and Ricardo Gonzalez are not related.
Triana Gonzalez told investigators that the killers told her and Solis to “burn evidence related to the assault of Mario Morales.” And Solis said that Garcia, 23, had used her white 2007 Chevy Impala the day of the assault and murders. A different witness reported seeing a white vehicle parked along the rural highway where the fire occurred, while another allegedly saw Garcia driving a white Impala near the crime scene, officials said.
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When investigators executed search warrants at 38-year-old Ricardo Gonzalez’s apartment and inside the Impala, they discovered evidence tied to the murders. That included “firearm ammunition matching the brand and caliber recovered at the burned vehicle scene” inside the apartment and a gas can inside the trunk of the Impala.
Law enforcement later arrested Garcia on a fugitive warrant out of Starr County. At the time of his arrest, he was allegedly found in possession of a firearm and ammunition that investigators say is “consistent with evidence recovered” at the fire scene. Both Garcia and Ricardo Gonzalez have been charged with capital murder and are being held without bond at the Hidalgo County Adult Detention Center.
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Hidalgo County jail records show that Solis and Triana Gonzalez both had outstanding warrants out of Starr County. Hidalgo County officials told MySA that both women have been charged with tampering with evidence and failure to report a felony that resulted in death and remain in Starr County custody.
Dina Arévalo has been a journalist in the Rio Grande Valley since 2004 and is a graduate from Baylor University. She was previously with The Monitor in McAllen covering Hidalgo County governments and KRGV as a weekend technical director and associate producer.
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