POLICE SEARCH FOR SUSPECTS IN BORDER KILLINGS

EDINBURG - There was no signature to the bullet-ridden slaughter that
left six men dead, Chief Quirino Munoz said Monday as police groped
for clues to one of the most horrific crimes in local memory.

"You generally associate a hit with one shot, one person," he
said.

Sunday's victims were shot multiple times, some beyond recognition,
much in the style of the yet unsolved September ambush of four Mexican
women coming home from a bar in nearby Donna.

Munoz said he was mystified as to why the assailants would leave a
witness -- the mother of two of the victims.

The woman, Rose Ramos, was told to face a wall while one of her sons
was shot in the larger of two ramshackle houses sharing a semirural
lot of this Texas-Mexico border city. Her other son was among the five
other victims found dead in and near the smaller house.

Though left tied up with electrical cord, she broke free minutes after
the approximately 1 a.m. Sunday attack and called police.

She told them one of the men was wearing a ski mask and a jacket with
"police" written on it and that they demanded drugs, weapons and money.

Judging from the noise and voices Ramos reported hearing, police
believe there were as many as five assailants.

Munoz said police have no leads. Hopes that a missing pickup truck
could help lead to the assailants evaporated after the vehicle was
accounted for.

Three cars were removed from the premises, including a rental car that
showed signs of entry. All were being searched for fingerprints or
other evidence.

Munoz said possible motives included drugs, revenge or a premeditated
hit.

Munoz identified the victims as Jerry Hidalgo, 24, and Ray Hidalgo,
30, brothers who lived at the larger of the two houses where their
mother had been tied with the cord. Also killed were brothers Juan
Delgado Jr., 32, and Juan Delgado III, 20.

The fifth and sixth victims were identified as Ruben Rolando Castillo,
32, and Jimmy Armendariz, 22.

Munoz shared few details about the victims, other than that most had
been friends for some time and that the Hidalgo brothers were known to
police from prior investigations. He would not elaborate.

A public records search by the Associated Press turned up criminal
record matches for two of the victims.

The elder Delgado pleaded guilty to a burglary in 1990 and was given a
five-year county jail term after his probation was revoked in 1992. He
was also convicted of misdemeanor marijuana possession.

Castillo was convicted of driving while intoxicated in 1994. He too
was convicted of misdemeanor marijuana possession.

For Hidalgo County, it is the second multiple murder to make national
headlines in only a few months.

The county's southern boundary is the Rio Grande and beyond the narrow
river, Mexico. As such, the region is prone to drug smuggling from
Mexico and to drug-related gangs and violence. The assailants could
have been across the border within minutes of the attack.

Munoz said Edinburg had begun reaching out to other police agencies,
including authorities in Mexico, but didn't have so much as a license
plate number or good description of an assailant to help.

The county's highest elected official, County Judge Ramon Garcia, did
not return a call for comment.

As of late Monday, the case appeared as obscure as the Donna murders.