RAYMONDVILLE — Nora Conde Villalobos’ family has found bitter closure.
RAYMONDVILLE — Nora Conde Villalobos’ family has found bitter closure.
Yesterday, authorities officially confirmed remains pulled from Delta Lake belong to the 49-year-old restaurant manager who went missing April 19.
“We got closure, but that’s not the way we wanted,” her sister Anita Conde said. “I didn’t get my sister back.”
At a press conference yesterday afternoon, Police Chief Uvaldo Zamora told family members Conde Villalobos’ remains were found in a canal Tuesday.
Zamora said her boyfriend, Juan Manuel Tobias Jr., 35, was facing charges of first-degree murder in the Willacy County Jail, where he is being held on $1 million bail.
“We have a lot of unanswered questions — why he took her, why he didn’t let her go,” Anita Conde said after the press conference. “(Police) say they can’t share any information they have so they don’t jeopardize the case.”
Conde said she believes her sister’s plans to leave Tobias led him to kill her.
“She told me she was tired of him being jealous, getting mad, getting into fights,” she said. “He was very jealous. She couldn’t even look at anyone. He stole things from her — her phone, her lap-top.”
Violence marred the year-long relationship, she said.
“It wasn’t the first time,” Conde said, referring to Tobias’ history of domestic violence. “The police had been called there a few times.”
On Tuesday, Municipal Judge Felicita Gutierrez said she set Tobias’ bail at $1 million based on District Attorney Annette Hinojosa’s recommendation.
Hinojosa warned Tobias, with a history of domestic violence, had ties to family in Mexico that made him a flight risk.
At yesterday’s press conference, family members held back tears as Zamora recounted events leading to Tobias’ arrest.
At about 3 a.m. April 19, Tobias reported Conde Villalobos missing, Zamora said as family members filled the city’s small Community Center.
In the weeks that followed, residents joined authorities to search for the former Army veteran, holding out hope she was safe somewhere.
But at about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, the Monte Alto Fire Department helped pull a body from a canal south of FM 1015 in Hidalgo County, Zamora said.
That afternoon, he said, police arrested Tobias, an air-conditioner mechanic.
