Los Banos police seeking public’s help in homicide investigation

Los Banos police detectives Wednesday knocked on doors, stopped people on streets and passed out information in an effort to breathe new life into a nearly year-old unsolved murder investigation.

Edward Soriano Ortez, 43, was shot to death April 24, 2015, in the 800 block of E Street in Los Banos. No arrests have been made.

“You never know when you might find someone that has that missing piece of the puzzle you’re looking for,” acting police Chief Ray Reyna Jr. told the Sun-Star. “It may even seem like a small detail to them, but it could be exactly what we need.”

Detectives, citing a need to protect the investigation, have released few details and have declined to comment on any suspected motives in the slaying.

They have declined to say what type of firearm was used in the attack, whether they suspect any street-gang connections and whether Ortez’s criminal history, which involves numerous drug-related arrests and convictions, may have played any role in his death.

Ortez’s body was found around 8 a.m. on that Friday morning in a vacant lot at the corner of E and Eighth streets. He’d been shot twice in the chest. Investigators said he’d been dead for about four hours before his body was discovered.

Merced Area Crime Stoppers has posted a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to the arrest of the persons responsible for this crime.

Ortez’s death was one of two homicides reported in 2015 in Los Banos. The city had no homicides between 1999 and 2007. Since 2008, the city has averaged about one homicide per year.

This story was originally published February 17, 2016 at 2:20 PM with the headline "Los Banos police seeking public’s help in homicide investigation."