Man Told Texas Cops the Reason He Killed His Wife Was So He Could Start a ‘New Life’ With His Girlfriend

Joel Uriegas Izaguirre was looking for a second chance at love, according to Texas authorities. The only thing that was standing in his way, cops said, was his wife.

Police allege Izaguirre, 48, told them he plotted his wife Norma Alicia Garza Espinoza‘s murder because he’d met someone new at work and wanted to start a new life with his girlfriend.

The 48-year-old woman’s killing happened on the morning of December 14 in a home in Brownsville. But a probable cause affidavit obtained by Us Weekly alleges Izaguirre also killed his wife’s aunt, Idalia Carrizales, who was 58.

According to court documents, he allegedly tried to throw off authorities by planting his border crossing card on his wife’s remains.

Police allege Izaguirre called his wife’s son, asking if he had heard from her. The son asked a friend to check on his mother, who did, finding Garza dead outside the home and calling 911.

Carrizales was later found dead in her bedroom. Police confirmed Carrizales and Garza had their own business, making tamales. All of the ingredients for the tamales were found outside the home, ready to be cooked.

Later, while talking to cops, the son asked if he could have Izaguirre’s boarding crossing card, saying that it was with his mother and that Izaguirre would need it to cross over from Mexico, where he lives.

Officers agreed to meet with Izaguirre at a specified border crossing and instead of giving him his card, took him in for questioning. Izaguirre claimed that the last time he saw his wife was on December 13, when he dropped her off on the Mexico side so she could cross a bridge back to Texas, according to the affidavit.

But cops said they recovered security footage showing Izaguirre crossing into Texas in his green 1999 Chevrolet Malibu on December 14 and then returning to Mexico not long after.

They also asked him for a DNA sample. In time, Izaguirre allegedly admitted to carrying out the double homicide before talking to police about his new girlfriend.

He allegedly used a hidden key to enter the home and then killed his wife with a large wooden spoon called a barrote. Izaguirre told police that he then hid the barrote behind a refrigerator and placed his border crossing card inside of Garza’s wallet, trying to rule himself out as a suspect in the double murder.

Cameron County Sheriff Manuel Treviño said during a press conference Monday, December 29, Izaguirre had no intention of killing the aunt and did not expect her to be there.

Treviño said Izaguirre crossed into Brownsville at approximately 5 a.m. and left back to Matamoros at around 7:15 a.m. that morning.

The sheriff said investigators believe the murders happened within this time frame and called the killings “brutal.”

“You could say [the barrote] was a weapon of opportunity, which is what he found immediately there when he got into the home,” Treviño told reporters.

Izaguirre is being held without bond on capital murder charges.