The weather was so nice on March 29, 2004, that Doris Lopez Ojeda and her husband, Raymon, decided to go for a walk before dinner, near their home at Forest and Midway.
At 7:29 p.m., a light-colored SUV pulled up alongside them and shot 41-year-old Doris Ojeda, a former model who was born and raised in Oak Cliff, several times. She died on the way to the hospital. Raymon Ojeda, a founder of Ojeda’s restaurants, was taken in for police questioning. He said he thought there were three people in the shooter’s vehicle, who possibly were Latino. Raymon Ojeda, whose children with Doris were 14 and 16 at the time of the killing, never has been identified as an official suspect.
The Ojeda case is one of the murder cold cases featured on the Dallas Police Department’s website; the department disbanded its cold case squad about three years ago, and detectives now work them alongside active cases. Since Ojeda was killed 11 years ago, there have been no leads to the perpetrator.
Even though there were other people out and about in the neighborhood near Gooch Elementary School that night, no one could offer a license plate number or a better description of the vehicle or suspects.
That the killers seemed to target Doris Ojeda specifically and executed her on a public street in the manner of a revenge killing gave investigators a few ideas.
Police ran down suspicions that a relative might have been involved in the illegal drug trade, perhaps working inside one of the Ojeda’s restaurants as a drug dealer or money launderer, but investigations down that road found nothing. Police thought the killing might’ve been related to the death of Raymon’s brother in a Louisiana casino hotel room earlier that year, but autopsy reports later found he died of natural causes.
Investigators were unable to find a scorned lover, disgruntled former employee or dangerous criminal history that might lead them somewhere, and the trail went cold.
Anyone with information about this case is asked to contact Detective Ermatinger at 214.671.3664. The case number for the murder is filed on 227823-N.
