Texas priest dead; caretaker arrested
<http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6361582.html>http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6361582.html By MICHELLE ROBERTS Associated Press Writer © 2009 The Associated Press April 6, 2009, 5:35PM SAN ANTONIO The caretaker of a Texas priest's home in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, was arrested in the 69-year-old's death after calling the priest's family and demanding payment for information on the whereabouts of his body, authorities said Monday. The Rev. Jesse Euresti vanished a week ago after going to the Nuevo Laredo house he bought in September to do some repair work. A neighbor called police after finding blood in the garage and his bedroom, said Euresti's niece, Beatrice Rios. His mattress and an area rug were missing. Euresti's body was found off a highway in Nuevo Laredo over the weekend after Manuel Martin Torres allegedly called Euresti's family to demand 3,000 pesos, about $220, for information on the whereabouts. The family paid less than the demanded amount, said police Commander Guillermo Bermudez Davila, but Torres was arrested when he tried to collect the money at a bank in the southern state of Chiapas. Family members confirmed the identity of the decomposed body. "They did find my uncle's body," Rios said Monday. "My mom confirmed it." Christian Gonzalez, spokesman for the Diocese of Austin, said Euresti, the pastor of Cristo Rey Catholic Church in south Austin, had been making weekly trips to work on the house before his scheduled retirement in July. He planned to retire in Nuevo Laredo. The priest, ordained in 1965, had worked as an Air Force chaplain and in bilingual parishes all over Texas before returning to Cristo Rey, his childhood parish, in the final years of his career. Drug cartel-fueled violence along the border began alarming some Laredo and Nuevo Laredo residents several years ago, but Rios said her uncle insisted he would be safe and had never had trouble with anyone there before. "He loved Mexico and he loved Laredo. He would vacation there a lot," she said. "We tried to convince him not to buy a house down there. He would say, 'It'll be OK. You don't mess with them, they won't mess with you.'" Gonzalez said funeral arrangements depended largely how soon relatives would be allowed to bring the body back from Mexico. An associate pastor at Cristo Rey has been named the new pastor and will celebrate Mass on Easter, he said. <*}}}>< <http://www.holypostage.com/>Custom Faith-based U.S. Postage <*}}}>< + <*}}}>< <http://astore.amazon.com/halthekin-20>Catholic on Amazon <*}}}>< <*}}}>< <http://www.halfthekingdom.org/on+allposters+today.html>on AllPosters today <*}}}>< + <*}}}>< <http://www.holypostage.com/>Holy Postage <*}}}>< <*}}}><<http://www.halfthekingdom.org/>Half the <http://www.halfthekingdom.org/>Kingdom!<*}}}>< + "A person is a person, no matter how small." Dr. Seuss --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Please note that I do not send or open attachments sent to this list. You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Catholics on Fire" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Catholics-on-Fire May the blessing of Jesus and our Blessed Mother be with you -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
