Cesar Ardo Murillo

Cesar Armando Murillo, a 44-year-old Hispanic man and father of two from Yakima, Washington, was killed in late August 2022. He was murdered alongside Maira Sofia Hernandez, a 33-year-old mother of three who was six months pregnant. Federal prosecutors stated the two were targeted and killed to prevent them from testifying in a federal drug trafficking investigation. U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath called the killings "an assault on our justice system, designed to silence witnesses and instill fear."

The case began with an investigation into a criminal enterprise that allegedly used stolen vehicles to smuggle drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border through San Diego ports of entry. By August 2022, the investigation led Homeland Security Investigations agents to a group operating out of Yakima. Agents learned that Murillo and Hernandez had potential links to the group and interviewed them on consecutive days. Within days of those interviews, both disappeared.

Their disappearance prompted an exhaustive, year-long search for their remains. Law enforcement employed a wide range of advanced techniques, including geophysicists, ground-penetrating radar, aircraft, laser imaging, chemical soil testing, and numerous cadaver dogs to search a remote, high-desert area near Yakima. On September 13, 2023, investigators successfully located and recovered the bodies. Autopsy reports concluded that both Murillo and Hernandez had died from multiple gunshot wounds to the head.

In March 2024, a superseding indictment was unsealed in the Southern District of California, charging two Yakima men in connection with the murders. Benjamin Madrigal-Birrueta, 22, was identified as an alleged leader in the drug trafficking organization. He was charged with numerous crimes, including two counts of murder, conspiracy to commit witness tampering, causing the death of a child in utero, and multiple firearms offenses. A second man, 21-year-old Ricardo Orizaba, was charged with being an accessory after the fact to murder.

Following their arrests, Benjamin Madrigal-Birrueta pleaded not guilty to the charges in federal court. As of March 2024, both he and Ricardo Orizaba have been ordered detained as they await trial.