SAN ANTONIO - Zeferina Castillo walked into a trap the day she starting dating one of her funeral home employees. Manuel Perez Rodriguez lured the mother and business owner into a sequence of events that ended in tragedy.
Castillo was fatally wounded inside Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Helotes on Jan 11, 2012. Rodriguez killed himself after the shocking murder. The two were near the altar in the main sanctuary of the church.
"I got people down inside the church. I have people down inside the church," a police officer said over the scanner just after 3 p.m. that day.
Helotes police officer Robert Treviño responded with other law enforcement officers to 13715 Riggs Road to investigate the shooting call. He wore a camera on his glasses. The device documented what happened as officers spread out across the church's grounds looking for an active shooter. The video hadn't been seen publicly until obtained by KENS 5 for this report.
"No shooter," Treviño shouted. "I ain't see no shooter."
Investigators can been seen on the video with assault rifles going into the office of a priest, into a silent chapel and, finally, into the main sanctuary. The two bodies they saw through the windows are in clear view. A woman is seen lying face down. There is a man not far from her. A .40 caliber gun and blood separate the two on sacred ground. It's a murder-suicide.
When Fina met Manuel
Helotes Police records show Cuban-born Rodriguez started working at Castillo Mission Funeral Home in December 2009. He was on the job for less than three months before quitting Castillo's funeral business because he couldn't get along with co-workers. He did get along with his boss. The two started to date.
The 54-year-old widow confided her relationship to her daughter, Mayra Castillo. In an interview with Helotes Police, Mayra said her mother and Rodriguez didn't know each other prior to his employment. No one was rooting for them as a couple.
"Nobody liked him at all," Marya said. "Everybody talked about him and said that he was not a good person for her, that she could do better."
Rodriguez said he loved his girlfriend Fina, as she was called. She was his little doll.
Manuel the ladies man
Castillo wasn't the only woman who shared the 51-year-old's company. Police interviewed Maria Moore. She dated Rodriguez during the time he was with Castillo. Moore described him as argumentative, lying, selfish and manipulative. He was also possessive. The woman said after having sex, he would threaten her.
"If I catch you with another man, I will kill you!" Rodriguez reportedly said.
His ex-wife, Iliana Rodriguez, and two children lived in San Antonio, too.
Bexar County court records reveal he also was married to Amalia Peña during the time of his relationship with Castillo. Their marriage license shows they wed on July 6, 2010. She remained his wife until January 2011.
"It was a revenge wedding," he reportedly told Castillo, who found out about the marriage. It was a revenge wedding because he was mad at Castillo.
Mayra said he would apologize to her mother on his knees, bring her flowers and hire Mariachi to swoon the businesswoman.
She rewarded his affectionate display with expensive gifts. Investigators found out she was even paying for his apartment on Vance Jackson Road.
His love, however, came with a bigger price.
A dark side rises
"He didn't trust her," Mayra told police. "He'd always be checking her phone and seeing who it was."
In fact, it was not uncommon for Rodriguez to answer Castillo's phone and fend off any caller -- business or otherwise. The murderer's dark side started to rise in July 2011 following the death of Castillo's brother.
Police records show he accused her of being with another man. She had been to church, but the explanation fell on deaf ears. Investigators said he started to choke her. He left Castillo alone after Mayra called.
"Every time I would try to call the police, she would hang up and say, 'No, please, because he has two children and I don't want him to be in jail or something,'" Mayra said.
Mayra said they found disturbing signs of obsession inside Rodriguez's apartment. His mattress reportedly had the letters "MF" drawn inside of a heart. It stood for Manuel and Fina. He had pictures of the funeral home owner all over his wall. They also found a journal where Rodriguez wrote about his experiences with Castillo.
Records don't show that he documented his abuse. Castillo never made a police matter of it either.
On Dec 2, 2011, the two argued in Van Horn, Texas, as they traveled together in a vehicle. He crashed into a tree and told investigators he had drifted off to sleep. Castillo backed the story up. She later confessed a frightening secret to her daughter. Mayra told police she saw injuries that were not accident-related.
"My mom later told me that he got mad and crashed into a tree on purpose to try to kill them both," Mayra said.
The incident happened one month before the couple's final moments at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church.
Trying to break clean
Police records showed the couple had a trip planned for Hawaii. But Castillo was trying to break clean of the abuse and no longer wanted to go on the excursion. Her cancellation didn't sit well with Rodriguez. Investigators said he put a gun to her head, demanding that she go on the trip or she'd die. They made the New Year's trip.
During the trip, Castillo told Rodriguez she just wanted to be friends until he got counseling. The two argued. He threatened to kill Mayra and Castillo's son Luis. She called the police.
Honolulu Police responded to the argument, and Castillo explained the threats and her previous abuse. But it was violence she hadn't previously documented with the authorities as she had tried to cover up for Rodriguez.
Investigators talked to the man Castillo called her husband, but Rodriguez was not arrested. He was given a 24-hour "stay away" citation. It was 10 days before she was killed.
Back in San Antonio, Castillo had given her daughter a letter. It said, "If anything happens to me in Hawaii or anything happens to my children, please blame Manuel Rodriguez."
Deadly trap
When the couple returned to the Alamo City, Rodriguez claimed he had gone to a psychic and wanted to make things better. He wanted to apologize to Castillo in front of her children on his knees. Her church was to be the site of the apology.
"Mom, it doesn't sound right," Mayra warned. "You should just stay away and don't see him."
The 54-year-old agreed to give Rodriguez another chance, but not at her church in the 1300 block of El Paso. She wanted to meet at a Catholic church of the same name in Helotes. Castillo wouldn't allow her children to come. That decision saved their lives.
"She started crying that day," Mayra said. "'This is the first time I really feel him being sincere,' she told me before she went to see him."
Twenty-one seconds of church surveillance video obtained by KENS 5 shows Rodriguez and Castillo walking into Our Lady of Guadalupe Church's sanctuary. There are no signs of a weapon or panic. The video stops. As it starts again, the couple is dead.
Castillo was shot 13 times, according to an autopsy report. Ten of those fatal wounds were to her head, two to her chest and one in her hand.
Police said Castillo had a kitchen knife stuffed in his sock. Inside his jacket pocket, he had the 24-hour "stay away" notice from Honolulu Police.
Eluding police
The killer avoided Hawaiian police just as he did charges in San Antonio. SAPD records show he was not arrested on complaints from 2005 to 2010. He escaped charges of terroristic threat on three occasions. He was not arrested on an marriage assault charge in 2010.
Rodriguez eluded police again. He committed suicide before police could arrest him on a charge of murder for the death of Zerefina Castillo.
Housekeepers in Castillo's neighborhood reported seeing him on the day of the murder sitting in his SUV near her home.
#Take5Steps
Castillo never got a chance to see her grandchild. Mayra was pregnant at the time of her murder. Like so many others, the cycle of domestic violence claimed Castillo as a casualty.
Domestic violence experts have compiled a path to safety. Victims can #Take5Steps to break the cycle of violence.
