CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — New DNA evidence has led to the arrest of a man wanted for the September 2021 beating death of a Corpus Christi woman.
On Feb. 27, Starr County Sheriff's Office captured and arrested 70-year-old Enrique Garza on a murder warrant from Nueces County. He was taken to the Nueces County Jail and booked for murder on March 2, 2026.
Garza is expected to appear before Judge David Klein in the 148th District Court Wednesday afternoon.
Garza's case goes back to September 16, 2021, when Veronica Lopez Navarro, 54, was found dead outside her home in the 2500 block of Viola Avenue in Corpus Christi. Officers arrived just after 2 a.m. and found her unresponsive. The Nueces County Medical Examiner determined she died from multiple blunt force trauma to the head.
According to court documents, Lopez Navarro's grandson woke up around 1:49 a.m. and didn't see her inside the house. Lopez's grandson called his mom, who came to the home and found her mother in the front yard.
Investigators say evidence pointed to Garza early on. The arrest affidavit states, "Mr. Garza shows to drive a white Ford Explorer Trac. At 1:14 a.m., license plate readers picked up the vehicle leaving the Corpus Christi area as it was headed northbound on Texas Highway 77 from IH-37 North."
When police caught up with Garza that same morning in Big Springs, Texas, they noticed he had a bandage on his right forearm. The affidavit states, "when he (Garza) was arrested, he was found in possession of two blue latex gloves, which were in his pants pocket. They were confiscated and tagged as evidence. The latex gloves were sent to TX-DPS for analyzation."
Testing on those gloves came back with DNA from both Garza and Lopez Navarro. GPS data from the night of September 15, 2021, also placed Garza's vehicle at Ms. Lopez's home at 2503 Viola Ave.
A warrant was issued for his arrest.
Starr County investigators found Garza on Feb. 27, 2026, and arrested him. He was then extradited to Nueces County on March 2, 2026.
Enrique "Henry" Garza is now held in the Nueces County Jail on a $750,000 bond.
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