ODESSA, Texas — Closure has been a long time coming for the Aguirre family. 27 years ago, Manuel and Merced were murdered by their neighbor, Michael 'Spider' Gonzales. Now, a date has been set for Gonzales' execution
March 8, 2022 is the day the Aguirre family has been waiting for, and it's a weight off the shoulders of the other members of the family, including Manuel and Merced's son, Rick Aguirre.
Even though it occurred almost three decades ago, Rick will never forget what happened.
"I started getting phone calls from people here in Odessa," Aguirre said. "'There's something going on at your parents' house. There's a lot of people there, and the police are there.' I called the police, and they said they didn't have anything to report. Then I tried to call other family members, and finally someone called me and said they found your parents dead."
It was a gruesome scene. Manuel had been stabbed several times, but Merced? There were almost too many wounds to count.
"It was so heartbreaking to walk in there and see the blood on the floor," Aguirre said. "My dad's recliner, he was stabbed seven times in his recliner, and he was recovering from heart bypass surgery at the time. And then my mother was stabbed in the kitchen."
Gonzales broke into the Aguirre's house in an attempt to steal several items. During the robbery, Gonzales killed his neighbors.
While Rick is not yet ready to forgive Gonzales, he is planning on attending the execution.
"I know we will be attending," Aguirre said. "What I would like to see when we attend is if we can take a picture in, a display of our parents so that he sees them. You know, he's never shown any remorse at all."
The news is the hopeful beginning of the end of a very painful chapter for the Aguirre family.
"I'm hoping it will draw this out to an end and be able to start a new chapter, instead of having to dwell on the fact that we have not had an execution date that has been carried out," Aguirre said.