A murder in a bar, a crowd that disappeared and a case still unsolved

Yahoo

26-05-2025

Editor's Note: In the video above, Susan Rogers of Odessa Crime Stoppers explains how local law enforcement actively reviews cold cases. She addresses the challenges of decades-old investigations and the time involved in processing evidence and DNA with today's technology.
ODESSA, Texas (KMID/KPEJ)- It was a Friday night, May 1, 1981, when officers were called to El Casino Club, a bar located at 500 South Grant Avenue in Odessa. The dispatch came in for a stabbing.
Beneath one of the pool tables inside the club lay 24-year-old Reymundo A. Hernandez. He had suffered a single stab wound to the chest. Paramedics transported him to Medical Center Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
That was 44 years ago. Since then, no one has ever been arrested.
At the time of Reymundo's murder, Odessa was already showing signs of a deeper problem. The oil industry was beginning to collapse, and violent crime was rising in its wake. Bars and clubs, once rowdy but routine, were becoming dangerous.
By the following year, Odessa would make national headlines as the murder capital of the United States, with 29.8 homicides per 100,000 residents, a rate higher than Miami at the height of cartel violence.
Oil boom & bloodshed: The 1982 murders that turned Odessa into 'Murder Town, USA'
'There's a general feeling of nervousness, if not growing fear, floating around our community…' Odessa American reporter Ken Brodnax wrote in March 1982, in an article titled Fear Intensifies as Area Murder Rate Climbs.
Another Odessa officer later told The New York Times,
'When the oilfield went dry, a lot of people started leaving. A lot stayed, and got mad.'
Law enforcement was overwhelmed. Odessa Police Chief Alan Stewart was blunt about it:'If you want me to say we're inefficient,' he told The Odessa American, 'the answer is yes.'
There were no surveillance cameras in 1981. Forensic science was still decades away from the breakthroughs that make cold case investigations possible today. Back then, everything relied on witnesses, on someone being brave enough to speak up.
'Cases from that era are hard,' Rogers said. 'There were no cell phones, no security footage. You depended entirely on human memory, on handwritten notes, and on whoever stayed behind when the lights came on.'
In Reymundo's case, few did.
According to police, the El Casino Club was crowded that night, but no one came forward with usable information. The investigation stalled early, and over the years, leads dried up.
'It's heartbreaking,' Rogers said. 'He was 24. Somebody's son. Possibly someone's brother. A friend. And now, all these years later, we don't even have a photograph in the file.'
Rogers says the absence of even a single photo makes the case feel even colder.
'When we put these stories out to the public, we want people to remember that the victim was a real person,' she said. 'It's difficult when we don't even have a face to show. It makes it that much easier for a case to be forgotten.'
She's asking for help, not just from potential witnesses but from family, friends, former classmates, coworkers, and anyone who might still have a photo or memory of Reymundo.
'Even if you don't know anything about what happened that night, even if it's just a photo, that could be the difference between a cold case and a person whose story we can actually tell,' Rogers said.
The case is currently assigned to cold case investigators. Rogers says both the Odessa Police Department and the Ector County Sheriff's Office have dedicated investigators who routinely go through these old files.
'They don't get to work on just cold cases,' Rogers explained. 'These investigators also have to manage current assaults, homicides, missing persons, and more. So they work through cold cases as best they can, when time and evidence allows.'
Cold cases are labor-intensive. It can take weeks, sometimes months, just to read through a single file. Many are stored in boxes full of handwritten notes, old photographs, and fading paperwork. DNA testing, when possible, must be sent off to labs with long backlogs. Results can take months or even a year to come back.
'And if they get a DNA result,' Rogers said, 'that opens the door to a whole new round of interviews, background checks, and comparison testing. It's not like it is on TV. It is not a fast process by any means.'
Still, despite limited resources and time, the work is ongoing.
'These investigators haven't given up,' Rogers said. 'Their sole job is to look at cold cases. they take them personally, they look at each one of them, and they look at them personally and how they would feel and put themselves in those families' places, and they want to get those cases solved. It's a big deal to them to get those cases solved. '
Reymundo Hernandez never got justice. He never got to grow old. Today, his name is still on a list of unsolved homicides in Ector County. But beyond the paperwork and the police reports, there's still a chance to give him back his humanity.
'Even if you think what you know isn't important, it might be,' Rogers said. 'Or maybe you don't know anything at all, but you have a photo. That's just as powerful. Help us give him more than a name in a file.'
If you have any information about the 1981 murder of Reymundo A. Hernandez, or if you have a photo or memory you're willing to share, please contact Odessa Crime Stoppers at 432-333-TIPS or submit a tip anonymously through the P3 Tips app.
Tips that lead to an arrest or meaningful development in the case may be eligible for a cash reward.
Gabriella Meza is a journalist and digital reporter for ABC Big 2 News. This article is part of her ongoing series, produced in partnership with Odessa Crime Stoppers.If you or someone you know has information related to this case or would like to contribute a photo or memory for future coverage, email her at [e-mail].(For case tips or anonymous reports, contact Odessa Crime Stoppers directly.)
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