Dana Sanchez

Dana Sanchez, a 16-year-old Hispanic girl, was navigating the complexities of teenage life in Houston, Texas, during the summer of 1995. On July 6, she was trying to get to her boyfriend's house and was last seen using a payphone. Her disappearance marked the beginning of a mystery that would haunt her family and investigators for years.

On that Thursday, while hitchhiking, Dana accepted a ride from a man who appeared to be helpful. That man was Anthony Allen Shore, a former tow truck driver and part-time musician who harbored a dark, secret life. When Dana rejected his sexual advances inside his vehicle, a violent struggle ensued, and Shore strangled her to death. For days, her whereabouts remained unknown. The case took a chilling turn when an anonymous caller contacted a Houston television station, KPRC 2, providing directions to a body in a field in Harris County. Police followed the tip and discovered Dana’s nude, partially decomposed remains. The caller, police later determined, was Shore himself.

The investigation into Dana’s murder went cold for nearly a decade. She became one of several young Hispanic women and girls in the Houston area whose unsolved killings instilled fear in the community. The Houston Police Department and other agencies formed a task force to investigate the string of slayings, noting similarities in the way the victims were left. The killer often used a ligature twisted tightly with a stick, a method that earned him the moniker the "Tourniquet Killer."

The break in the case came years later from an unrelated crime. In 1998, Anthony Allen Shore was convicted of sexually molesting two of his daughters and was required to submit a DNA sample to a state database. In 2003, that sample was matched to DNA evidence found under the fingernails of Maria del Carmen Estrada, a 21-year-old woman who was murdered in 1992. Following his arrest, Shore confessed to the murders of four young women and girls.

Shore admitted to killing 15-year-old Laurie Tremblay in 1986, Maria del Carmen Estrada in 1992, 9-year-old Diana Rebollar in 1994, and Dana Sanchez in 1995. He also confessed to the rape of a 14-year-old girl who managed to escape. He told investigators he had offered Dana a ride and killed her when she resisted his advances.

Prosecutors chose to try Shore for the capital murder of Maria Estrada, the case with the strongest forensic evidence. During the punishment phase of his 2004 trial, jurors heard extensive testimony about the other murders he confessed to, including Dana's. Shore's own lawyers stated that their client wanted the death penalty. The jury agreed, and he was sentenced to death.

After more than 13 years on death row, Anthony Allen Shore was executed by lethal injection on January 18, 2018. Before his execution, he issued an apology to his victims' families. His death marked the final chapter in a series of crimes that terrorized Houston for years. As of January 2018, the case of Dana Sanchez is considered closed, with her killer having faced the state's ultimate punishment.