The aunt of murdered Texas high school cheerleader Lizbeth Medina said the family had never seen or heard of the undocumented immigrant who is accused of stabbing the teen — and are also searching for answers about why he may have committed the slaying.
Rafael Romero, a 23-year-old living in Texas on an expired visa, had no previous encounters with the family before the deadly stabbing, the victim’s aunt Ana Medina told The Post Tuesday.
“We looked at his face, we looked at his family. He has no connection [to Medina],” the aunt said. “We never knew him. Police said it was an isolated crime.”
Romero was apprehended this weekend and charged with one count of capital murder — but police still have not revealed a motive for the attack.
The aunt, nevertheless, applauded Romero’s speedy arrest, saying she was relieved that he will not be able to harm anyone else.
“We had a really evil person apprehended and he’s off the streets,” she said. “We don’t want him to see the light of day… I know that my niece did not die in vain, because this person is a monster.”
Lizbeth Medina was found by her mother stabbed to death in her bathtub. ABC 13On Dec. 5, Lizbeth Medina, a 16-year-old student at Edna High School, was found dead in the bathtub at her family’s apartment by her mother, Jacqueline Medina, who went looking for her after the girl had missed the Christmas parade, where she was supposed to march with the rest of her cheer squad.
“I decided to go look for her. And I kept calling her phone nonstop, and it would take me straight to voicemail,” the anguished mom previously told Fox News Digital.
“It wasn’t until I walked into the restroom that I was on the phone with my friend asking him to come help me look for her — is when I [saw] her foot, and it was in the bathtub. And so I opened the curtains. There she was,” Medina recounted.
Edna Police Chief Rick Boone revealed Monday that the teen had been stabbed to death.
Rafael Medina, 23, was arrested Saturday on a capital murder charge in Schulenburg, Texas.
Ana Medina told The Post that she was the first person her sister called after she made the horrific discovery.
“I heard her screams, I heard her pain,” she recalled.
The aunt said that she is very close with her sister, Lizbeth’s mom, and that her niece was like a daughter to her.
The teen’s violent killing sent shockwaves through Edna — a small city of 5,500 people located about 100 miles southwest of Houston, where her mother Jacqueline Medina had recently moved from Grand Island, Nebraska, for a job in the renewable energy sector.
Security footage released by the police shows a young man who resembles the suspect, Rafael Govea Romero. Edna Texas Police Department/FacebookOn Saturday, local police and Texas Rangers acting on a tip arrested Romero at his family’s home in the town of Schulenburg.
They also seized items from his silver Ford Taurus they said connected him to the murder.
Ana Medina said the news of Romero’s arrest brought her sister “some peace,” but the aunt stressed “she has the same questions everybody else does.”
She urged the public to “be patient” and trust law enforcement to build a case against Romero. She also thanked the authorities for working long hours and “sleepless nights” to make an arrest.
“We are at peace that this person was found,” she said. “He was an evil guy.”
Jacqueline Medina (left) said she became concerned for her daughter Lizbeth (right) after she failed to show up at a Christmas parade. ABC 13Romero has been in the US illegally after overstaying his visa, Chief Boone said.
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has placed a detainer on the suspect because of his undocumented status, police said.
Romero’s bond has been set by a magistrate at $2 million.
A funeral service for Lizbeth Medina will be held Tuesday evening, followed by a burial the next day.
