Lubbock Detectives Arrest Murder Suspect for 2003 Cold Case

A man currently in custody at the McLennan County Jail may be responsible for the murder of two women in Lubbock County.

According to local reports, the Lubbock Police Department has identified the primary suspect as 57-year-old Andy Castillo.

According to police records, 21-year-old Cynthia Palacio was found dead on a remote county road just west of Slaton in 2003. Her autopsy later revealed that she had died from strangulation. Almost a year later, the body of 21-year-old Linda Carbajal was found in the same area.

It’s unclear if the two murder cases are directly connected, but detectives have long believed the same person is responsible for both murders. For more than 17 years, the murders remained a mystery until a major breakthrough back in January 2020.

According to KAMC News, a man named Andy Castillo was arrested by the Lubbock Police Department and transferred to the McLennan County Jail near Waco, where court records show he was charged with one count of stalking and two counts of solicitation to commit aggravated sexual assault of a child.

According to the McLennan County Sheriff’s Department (MCSD), Castillo was harassing several Waco-area real estate agents and threatening to sexually assault their children. The MCSD’s human trafficking team was able to gather evidence and utilize technology to track down Castillo in Lubbock, where he was arrested in January.

McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara told KCBD News that Castillo is likely responsible for harassing dozens of real estate agents in similar fashion across the country.

After Castillo was arrested by Lubbock police in January and before he was transferred to the McLennan County Jail, detectives collected a DNA sample from him and compared it to DNA collected at the crime scene where Palacio’s body was found 17 years ago in Lubbock County. It was a match.

Now, with evidence that directly links Castillo to Palacio’s death, he’s been charged with murder and remains in the McLennan County Jail on bonds totally more than $1.5 million dollars.