The Murder of Alyssa Otremba
Warning, this case talks about sexual assault and crimes against children.
For this case I watched an episode of On the Case with Paula Zahn. It’s season 16 episode 10, titled ‘In the Shadows of Home.’
A 15 year old girl is brutally murdered just steps away from her home.
Background
Alyssa Otremba was a 15 year old girl who lived in Las Vegas, Nevada. She had been homeschooled the previous year for 8th grade, but just started at a new high school, the week before she died.
Alyssa was the oldest of three children, and her sister Megan, said she looked up to Alyssa. Megan also said Alyssa was the “sunshine of the family,” and she was always happy.
Alyssa Otremba
Alyssa
The Murder
On September 2, 2011, the Friday of Labor Day weekend, Alyssa asked her mom if she could walk to a friend’s house to borrow a textbook. Alyssa’s mom Jennifer, was hesitant, but Alyssa said she really needed it to do her homework. Jennifer said yes, and Alyssa texted her at 6:38pm and told her she’d be home by 7pm.
A half in hour passed and Alyssa still wasn’t home. Jennifer had been at work and wasn’t home yet, so she called Megan and asked her if Alyssa was home. Megan said she wasn’t, and they became very worried.
Jennifer started calling everyone they knew, asking if they heard from Alyssa. Jennifer even called Cody, the friend Alyssa was going to get the textbook from. Cody said he had told Alyssa he couldn’t meet that night, and she never came by. Megan tried tracking her sister’s phone, but Alyssa’s phone was turned off at this point.
Jennifer called the police around 10pm that night, and Alyssa’s family made missing persons flyers and began their own search.
A Horrific Discovery
The search continued into the night and the next day. A friend of Jennifer’s called her and said that the police had found a body in the vacant lot near their home. Jennifer said she knew it was Alyssa, and she went over to the lot. The police had already taped off the scene at this point, and wouldn’t let Jennifer into the area.
The body of a young girl was found, and she had been badly burned. The police asked Jennifer she could provide Alyssa’s dental records because it was the only way they would be able to identify her. They were a match.
Alyssa was laying on her back in a ditch. The police said she wouldn’t have been seen from the road. She was naked from the waist down. The police suspected she had been sexually assaulted, and it was soon confirmed when they found biological fluids.
Alyssa’s face, chest and hands were badly burned, but she had also been stabbed over 80 times. The stab wounds were her cause of death. One of the wounds had punctured her long, and part of the knife was lodged in her skull. The evidence showed that Alyssa had been set on fire after she was already dead.
Alyssa’s white tank top and jeans were missing, as well as her cell phone. Her green sneaker was found a few steps away from her body. The police also discovered that Alyssa was just 260 feet away from her house when she was killed.
This was a brutal crime, and the police believed this killer would strike again, if he hadn’t already.
The abandoned lot where Alyssa was found- in Las Vegas, Nevada
Investigation
The police wanted to trace Alyssa’s movements from the day she died. Megan told the police that she saw Alyssa right before she left to borrow the textbook. Megan said she told Alyssa she loved her and she said it back. Megan said that they didn’t say that a lot, but she’s really happy she did because it was the last time she saw her sister.
The police also interviewed Cody, Alyssa’s friend. He told the police he didn’t see Alyssa that night because he told her she couldn’t come over. This was confirmed, and he was ruled out as a suspect.
The police went back to the crime scene and expanded their search. They walked the sidewalk from Alyssa’s neighborhood to the lot where she was found, and they found a blood trail. There was blood on the gate, and the police realized Alyssa had made it closer to home than they thought. The police’s theory is that she was grabbed by someone and held at knifepoint and taken to the lot.
The police used the DNA that they found at the scene to create a DNA profile and put it into CODIS, but there were no hits. The police had no answers and no suspects, so they decided to release some information about the case to the media, and set up a tip line.
The police said they received many tips, but one tip would eventually lead them to their killer.
A Tip
An 18 year old girl named Elizabeth Morales called the police. She told them she knew who killed Alyssa. The police went to meet Elizabeth at a gas station, to ask her a few questions.
Elizabeth told the police that on the night Alyssa was killed, she went on a date with her boyfriend Danny. She said Danny’s best friend, Javier, called him about 50 times that night. When Danny finally answered, Javier said he needed help, and Danny left their date to meet Javier. Before he left, he told Elizabeth that he thought Javier killed someone.
Elizabeth didn’t think too much of it, until she read something the following day, that a girl had been murdered. Elizabeth said she only knew Javier by his first name, but she knew he had hurt other people before. Another 15 year old girl that Elizabeth’s younger brother was friends with was attacked in the same tunnels near the vacant lot, a few months before. The girl survived when her friends found her and saw the suspect running away.
A composite sketch was created that day. The suspect was described as a 17-19 year old, Hispanic male, wearing a baseball cap.
The police told Elizabeth that they needed to talk to Danny, but that they wouldn’t reveal her as their source. Elizabeth told the police she wanted Danny to know that she told them. The police said Elizabeth was very brave for coming forward.
Danny’s Story
When the police first interviewed Danny he denied knowing anything, until the police told him he could be charged if he lied to them. Danny backed up Elizabeth’s story, and said that Javier called him and told him he needed help. He left his date, drove to Javier’s, and Javier said he might have just killed a little girl.
Javier asked Danny to drive him to a gas station. Javier got out of the car, and asked if he could borrow money to fill up a gas can. Danny gave him the money, and they left after Javier filled his can.
Danny then drove Javier to the vacant lot, and Javier got out. He asked Danny to help him, but Danny said he needed to leave and he drove off. The police now knew that Javier went back to the crime scene to light Alyssa on fire. Danny hadn’t seen her body because she was in a ditch, but he hadn’t called the police. Danny said he didn’t call them because Javier was his best friend, and he hadn’t 100% believed he could kill someone.
Danny was not charged with any crimes.
Javier’s Confession
The police now had their killer. They drove to Javier’s house, and while they were doing surveillance on his home, they received a call that Alyssa’s phone had been tossed near Javier’s house.
A SWAT team and detectives went in to arrest Javier. They surrounded his house because they didn’t know how he’d react. Javier Righetti walked out his house, and the police described him as being an exact match to the composite sketch.
At the police station, Javier made a full confession. The police believe he confessed because he wanted to brag about what he did. He was very detached and only showed “emotion” because he was afraid to go to jail.
Javier told the police that he saw Alyssa walking home, using her iPhone. He decided to follow her and attacked her as she reached her neighborhood. He also admitted to sexually assaulting, killing her and taking her phone.
The police asked Javier how many times he stabbed her, and Javier said “probably 10.” The police asked if it could have been more, and he replied “probably a little bit more.” He said that’s why the knife bent.
Javier admitted that he had fantasies about torturing people, and sexually assaulted someone when he was 12 years old. He also confessed to other crimes, including the attack of the 15 year old a few months before Alyssa was killed.
Javier also told the police where he hid the evidence. It was in a duffel bag in the ceiling of his home. Inside the bag was Alyssa’s tank top and jeans, and a bloody knife.
The final piece of evidence was the surveillance tape from the gas station. The police said it was chilling to see Javier go inside, pay and fill up his gas can just minutes after murdering Alyssa. He was also on his way back to the crime to scene to cover up his crime.
Javier Righetti
Trial and Conviction
Javier Righetti’s trial began in March 2017. The jury deliberated for less than 3 hours and Javier was found guilty of murder.
At his sentencing, several of Javier’s other victims testified. The evidence showed that Javier had escalated after every crime. Javier addressed the court and said:
“I look around and see how many people I’ve hurt and failed, I am not here to beg for mercy or for anyone to have pity on me. I am here to ask everyone [to forgive] what my mistakes have caused, which is pain and a lot of suffering. Alyssa should still be here, but she’s not because of me. … I truly am sorry for this entire tragedy.”
He was sentenced to death, and is the youngest prisoner on Nevada’s death row.
Javier’s mom and Javier speaking at his sentencing
FINAL THOUGHTS
What a piece of shit. He is a predator, he waited for a young innocent victim to walk through that tunnel. My heart breaks for Alyssa and her family, and for the other victims. Alyssa was almost home that night, but crossed paths with someone who should not have been out on the streets.
Javier deserves to rot in prison. I think giving him the death penalty is giving him the easiest way out, but no prisoner has been executed in Nevada since 2006, so he will probably be rotting for a long time.
I also applaud Elizabeth, but not her piece of shit boyfriend. He should have been as brave as Elizabeth, because people like Javier shouldn’t be out in society.
Sources
https://people.com/crime/nevada-man-death-sentence-for-teenage-girl-rape-murder/
