Jimmie Retha Brown and a Suspect Who "Allegedly" Got Away With Murder

In the summer of 1977, sixteen-year-old Jimmie Retha Brown got into a van with a man her friend said she could trust. She was never seen alive again.

Found bound and strangled in the New Mexico desert days later, Jimmie's murder set off a chain of events that would claim a second life — an eighteen-year-old who named her killer to anyone who would listen, then died before justice could catch up.

Nearly fifty years later, the case remains unsolved. But the name has never gone away.

The Last Ride investigates the 1977 murder of Jimmie Retha Brown — the suspect who was hiding in plain sight among teenagers, the coat found on her body that belonged to the last man to see her alive, and the young man who paid the ultimate price for knowing too much.

Some cases go cold. Some just go quiet.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Okay, Michelle. So we're talking about Jimmy Ratha Brown. She was sixteen years old and August ninth, nineteen seventy seven in El Paso, Texas, um, she was taken away and was found um not alive August fifteenth. Um some of the things I read about this case is that the Ronald Palpio, is that right?

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Papillo.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Yeah. Um his um he apparently gave her a coat according to his own account. And I was just wondering, did did they ever find the coat?

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Yeah, it was with her name.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Oh wow. Okay, so that opens up a whole thing. Now tell me about tell me about Jimmy Retha Brown and your own words, like what what happened and everything. I want to hear what your own words are.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Well, she's my mother's uh younger sister, um, and she was 16, and my grandmother was born and raised in El Paso, and she raised all uh her children there, and when Jeannie was 16, she remarried and moved to San Diego. And my Aunt Jeannie had braces on, and she needed to go back and have them tightened in El Paso, and my grandmother uh allowed her some time to stay there because I had another aunt that lived there that was older, and so she could spend the summer with her friends uh from Andreas High School. And so I guess she went back and she didn't like my other aunts um uh obviously, but she uh didn't like my aunt's herfee rules, and so she just kind of started staying with her friend and uh they hung out at the McDonald's on Dyer Street. That was the I guess the big thing to do back then. And so it's running at a certain time they couldn't get in. Well, this particular day she got erases tightened and her friend said that she was uh hurting from her mouth was hurting, and she wanted to lay down that night, and apparently from what I get from the people that I've talked to, Ronald Papillo uh at the time was going by Ronald Allen. For whatever reason he was given that name, I've learned that that was his stepdad's name. That was never even a legal name for him. Um he was hanging out with this crowd of 16 and 18 year olds, and they didn't even know really his true age, but he was actually uh older than him. He was in his twenties and he was married and he had a pregnant wife. And so he hung out in a van around the same places like uh McDonald's and Kmart and Taco Bell, I think it is, and the Jack in the Box on Dyer Street. Well, that's where my aunt was at. That's at the particular time that night was uh at the Jack in the Box, and they knew Ronald from the crowd, uh, but they didn't really know him outside the crowd. So when he heard my aunt saying that she needed to lay down, she was hurting, um, he offered her a ride, and he told her that she could go stay all night in his trailer, his mobile home, because his wife was in the hospital giving birth to his child, and he would be at the hospital with his wife. So my aunt decided to take that ride with him, and a couple of other friends in the crowd told her, you know, it's okay, he's a good guy. And so uh she was supposed to be going to his trailer staying the night, and he told her best friend he would have her return back to the McDonald's at eight o'clock the next morning. Well, my aunt went with him and she was never seen alive again, and he disappeared um for days. I I don't know exactly how many days, but he didn't even go to the hospital to see his daughter when she was born. And um when he did come back, her friends started going up to him and asking him, where is Jeannie? You know, they had done went to the El Paso police department on August uh 11th and reported her missing. And um he said, Oh, well she, you know, become belligerent and demanded to be let out of the van. So I stopped at the intersection of Dyer and Fred Wilson and I let her out. But hey, I gave her my coat because the rainstorm was coming. And they're like, Well, that don't make no sense. Nobody's seen or heard from her. And then on the 15th, a uh gentleman that rode a piece of equipment, like road uh crew worker, is my understanding, he set a tie on the equipment. He spotted my aunt's body, thrown out on the O'Hara 404, uh, the desert road. And it's like um about almost at Anthony, New Mexico, but where she was found was actually Donna Anna County in Moscow. So that put her missing in El Paso, and that put her found murdered in New Mexico, so they crossed jurisdiction.

unknown 5:04

No.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

So I have the police reports. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

Oh no, you go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

I have the police reports, uh I requested them and it was supposed to be from 77 the current, but they only sent me 06 to the current and they just kind of throw stuff in there. But I actually have the first sheets that was filled out by um I'm not certain on that. He was either a sheriff or something, Henry Diaz. He was the first one that investigated my aunt's case. And he brought Ronald Papillo in and uh questioned him and done a I have all this on paper. Polygraph, they give him a polygraph, and the analyst that did the polygraph said he was deceptive in every one of his answers on the questions on pertaining to my aunt's murder. Um, the jacket that he says he gave her was found with her remains. She had twine wrapped around her neck four times. Uh she was strangled so bad that it uh crushed her larynx, and then she had that same twine wrapped around her ankles. Well, a piece of that swine to my understanding, and I've not confirmed that fully, but it isn't the only piece of evidence they have left in her case. Uh, a five-inch piece of twine was found on his workstation, is what I'm getting at his job at I think it was um Beaumont or something, lumber company there in El Paso. And uh, you know, and then they let him go. But Henry Diaz, I also have that sheet where he brought him in to charge him with first degree murder. And uh he presented all that polygraph and stuff to the district attorney at that time, and they said no, they would not authorize it.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Well, here's the thing is that wrong guy still alive?

SPEAKER_01 6:50

Yes, he's in uh St. Hill, North Carolina.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

First of all, the coat was on her, and he was the last person to see her. So and then the twine thing is another another thing that adds to evidence, and this seems like a case where they should have just charged him and they didn't for some reason.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Well, what I'm told by the sheriff, uh, that's the sheriff down Donna Anna, uh, Kenny Stewart, she told me over a phone conversation that back in the 70s, uh, that just because they were a district attorney didn't mean that they had any experience in it. Uh that a lot of times they were just put in there by family members or because someone recommended them. Uh, that could have been the case. I don't know, but they, yeah, they had their evidence there. They had several witnesses that was with her that night that seen her get in the van with him, knew that he was the last person. Um I I don't understand it neither. And now this this is what I'm so angry about because I'm looking into this, and the last time it was looked at was 2020 from my documentation I got from them. But uh the FBI picked our case up in 77 and took it and reviewed it and returned the evidence back to Donna Ana on uh January 3, 78. And uh Donna Anna says, Oh, well we can't, you know, told the investigators we can we don't have any evidence. So when I I guess the one investigator dug into it, uh he got an answer back from them, oh well it got mixed up with another homicide evidence and it was destroyed.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

Wow. Oh man, they just totally messed this case up.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

They sir, I'm just gonna say I I even went and talked to or wouldn't go. I called and talked to the governor uh's office and they that's the only reason why the sheriff called me back because the governor got it under her tell in and I guess she felt she uh needed to or had to, but um it it it's just horrible because they act like that, you know, it it it's uh matter of fact, she's labeled under a dump. That's what they label these people that die and get dumped out there on that road on the horror, they're under a dump when they're unfogged.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

That's totally inhumane the way they characterize it.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

Yeah, it is. And and you know, this Ronald guy, he's uh and I'm just only telling you what I know. I won't I won't say anything I don't know. Um he is listed as the only person of interest in her case. He is listed as a suspect, and he was never officially charged, but never cleared neither. And uh he has bounced around. I I've uh found where he has lived, uh just from the police report and what I've looked into. He's lived in North Carolina, Florida, uh Virginia Beach, Washington. He's just moved around, and uh one of the investigators even says in one of the reports that he knows he's doing that dodging law enforcement.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

Yeah. And uh some of the research I was doing, there's a guy named Ricardo Gonzalez who claimed that he knew who killed her. Do you do have you ever heard of him?

SPEAKER_01 10:16

Uh yes, I've got the push report on his the night he died, too. He um was a friend of my aunt's and he was from the crowd, and he's one of them that told my aunt that it was okay, that it was safe to ride with uh Ronald. And from my understanding from the other friends from then, uh he was eat up with guilt and he blames himself for her death of her kiss. He did say that he knew who'd done it, and uh to my understanding, Ronald is the name that he gave. He only gave the first name at the time, and he told the police that name, and they said, Oh, well, we looked into it and it didn't go anywhere. Well, how can you say that when you already had that man in there and he failed a polygraph?

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Wow. Oh my gosh, wow, this is a case that w we know uh I allegedly, we know allegedly, I have to say that for reasons. We know allegedly who did it and they just didn't do anything.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

Yeah, I don't understand it.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

Wow. That's that's quite a story, and you know, when we're done with this when we're done talking, I I I want you to send this to the investigators. So Okay. Send this article.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Well here's the thing about when I talked to the sheriff out there at Donna Ana, she never said that it was open, she never said it was closed, but all she would tell me is, I'm sorry, it's unfortunate, uh, these unsolved, these detectives don't want to take these cases unless they can solve it in 48 hours, uh, this, that, and other. But now when I contacted the district attorney's office and the governor, uh the district attorney messaged me or emailed me back and asked me who I spoke with, and I told him the sheriff, and he said, Well, they uh informed me that the they're working the case, so why are you asking me to look into it? Um, no, I don't think they are.

SPEAKER_00 12:21

Right. Right. They well, they threw away the evidence, they they totally didn't do anything with this case of substance, and so they just want you to go away.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

Yeah, and I've uh I've requested from them also the rest of her files whenever they didn't send all of them to me. I turned right back around and submitted a request for her files from 77 to 05 that they didn't send me. And I also requested to see a consent form that consented them to destroy her evidence. And I guarantee you they're not gonna be able to produce that.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

Right, right. Well, I'm gonna write this article up and we're gonna have a story for you so um you can share it with uh the police and everybody so that they know what was done in this case.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Well, sir, I the only thing I ask is, you know, I just want anybody that uh knows about Jenny's case or knows anything about her or interested in it, you know, the Ana Ana Sheriff's Department, Las Cruz, New Mexico, failed my aunt as a murdered victim, and they mishandled her case and they neglected it.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

They definitely did, and you have every reason to be mad at them over that.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

And she deserves justice. My grandmother's 94 years old, her mother, and she's still alive, and she still calls the police department and asks them if they've gotten any leaves, and they have just done my grandmother not right. They've neglected her too as her mother. They've not kept her informed. Uh, you know, it it's it's sad because what are you doing? Just writing her off as a dump, and it's it just doesn't matter because she's not your daughter.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

Yeah, meanwhile, meanwhile, somebody is just running around around the United States acting like nothing happened.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Yeah, and sir, let me uh add this too because I confirmed this and I've got uh documentation of this also. When he left from El Paso, whenever he left, he bounced back and forth. He had a daughter there that was born the same night my aunt was murdered, and then he went on later on to have two sons in uh Riley, I think, or Fettville, North Carolina. One of them uh I I guess had a trouble past with you know, while and stuff, and he ended up uh dead. He's he's he he got killed, it's my understanding. And then he has a younger son. And you know, wouldn't you know that uh the youngest one uh a few years back was charged with assault by strangulation. Wow. Uh Apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. Exact my exact words when I read that.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

Well, I'm sorry for everything that happened in this case and um I'm gonna get this article out and we're gonna we're gonna do everything we can to get this some attention.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

Yes, sir. I appreciate it so much.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

Well, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

Yes, and thank you, sir.