Maurice Chamas

After David got out of prison for Christie's rape in 1987, he was on parole.

In his telling, it was a more stable time for him, relatively speaking.

He got a job, moved in with a girlfriend.

Women and girls in El Paso started disappearing just weeks after he got out of prison.

And as their bodies started surfacing in the desert, David became one of the main suspects.

He says the detectives working these murders were constantly harassing him, showing up at random moments to question him.

And he didn't take it very well.

David says over the long course of this case, these interactions got worse and worse.

He tells a story about detectives trying to question him about one of the girls' disappearances early on.

And he responded by telling them to kiss his ass and peeling off on his Harley.

By the time he was arrested, he said he was shouting at a detective about all the terrible things he'd do to his family if he ever got out.

David believes all this personal stuff, combined with his record, is a big part of why the desert murders got laid at his feet.

I see.

You're like a patsy.

I see.

So this is David's explanation, that the might of the El Paso law enforcement apparatus converged to make him a patsy for six murders, largely because they didn't like him.

Maybe that sounds plausible to you, or maybe the whole thing feels a little far-fetched.

It certainly did to Detective Johnny Guerrero, who denies that the El Paso PD targeted David in any way.

But there is one story from this era that makes it a little harder to write David off completely.

In January of 1987, two weeks after David gets out of prison for his rape convictions, a teenager is walking through a park.