On December 4, 2021, deputies in Imperial Beach, California, responded to a 911 call at a home on Fern Avenue and found 55-year-old Raquel Pitsenberger dead at the scene and 35-year-old Marco Tony Valadez Jr. wounded. Valadez was taken to a hospital and later died of his injuries. Investigators identified Tony’s half-brother, 47-year-old Marco Marky Antonio Valadez Jr., as the primary suspect and said the killings were linked to an alleged sexual assault against an 18-year-old family member two days earlier.

Authorities say the suspect fled to Mexico after the shootings and was located and taken into custody there through a joint effort by Mexican officials and the San Diego Regional Fugitive Task Force; he was returned to the United States and charged in the deaths. The case remains a grave reminder of family violence and its wider consequences. Did anyone in Imperial Beach at the time know the victims or have information about the events around early December 2021?