The killing of a man shot more than a dozen times in Elmendorf has stumped his friends and baffled Bexar County detectives.
Investigators still have no motive in the Sunday slaying.
Mark Ortega, 42, was shot to death in the shower of a hangar next to a home he rented in the 14800 block of Cassiano Road. His wife Edna, returning home after a day of work and a trip to the grocery store, found him dead in a pool of blood around 7:30 p.m., said Sgt. Ray Pollard of the Bexar County Sheriff's Office.
Pollard said Ortega was shot multiple times with a small-caliber handgun or rifle, and had gunshot wounds “from the top of his head down his torso, and into his legs.”
No arrests have been made. Evidence was being sent to the Bexar County Criminal Investigation Laboratory, Pollard said.
“We've interviewed several people, and we're looking into some of his associates,” he said, “But we don't have a motive at this time.”
Those who knew Ortega, who moved into the home about three years ago, are perplexed. Jayme Power, the musical director at Sheltering Arms Full Gospel Church, said he sang nearly every Sunday at the church and was known as a friendly, devout man. A San Antonio native, Ortega sang Tejano, Christian and country and western music, Powers said.
“I've been wracking my brain for anything, but I just don't know what could have made someone do that,” she said. “It was completely unexpected. We're just heartbroken; it's a big loss.”
Ortega didn't go to church the Sunday he died because the couple shared a vehicle and his wife needed to go to work, Power said. They lived alone on a piece of property that also contains two other residences, the hangar Ortega rented and an airstrip he used to fly experimental aircraft, Pollard said.
Dorthie Hunt, 82, moved onto the property in the 1950s and still lives in a trailer near Cassiano Road, although she's since sold the land in two parcels to her sons. Hunt's late husband, a pilot, built the airstrip and ran a skydiving business at the property. She said she saw a fire truck there Sunday evening but suspected a grass fire may have sparked in the 30-plus acres behind the houses.
“I didn't pay any more attention, and I didn't know anything until Monday,” Hunt said. “They were just a lovely couple. This is just a real shock to me.”
The Ortegas were known to rescue stray dogs at the rural home, Hunt said, and were good tenants. Power said Ortega didn't have any children but was good with them, and had recently lost his mother.
“He was always willing to help out if you needed something,” Power said, adding that she and Ortega had sung a duet of “God Bless America” at church on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
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