IN LOVING MEMORY OF ALYSSA VASQUEZ (DIED: JUNE 30, 1999)

            We, the VFFDP, offer our sincere condolences to the family members of 7-year-old Alyssa Vasquez, who was murdered by Guadalupe Esparza on June 30, 1999. Justice was served when the killer was put to death by lethal injection in Texas on November 16, 2011. We will post quotes from the victim’s family. 

Summary: On June 30, 1999, Guadalupe Esparza abducted Alyssa Vasquez from her home while her mother was out and the babysitter was next door. He raped and strangled her, and abandoned her body in a nearby field. On the night of the murder, before Alyssa Vasquez was discovered missing, Esparza telephoned her residence several times and came by looking for her mother and asking when she was going to return home. The babysitter discovered that Alyssa was missing at around 2:30 a.m. and later observed Esparza running down the street away from the residence. Police found Esparza at his residence, which was one and one-half to two miles from Alyssa Vasquez’s apartment, at approximately 4:00 a.m., and found Esparza’s blood-spotted shirt and boxer shorts in a trash can outside the residence. The evidence also showed that Esparza admitted his involvement in the offense to a detention guard and to a fellow inmate at the Bexar County Jail, and implied his involvement to another inmate; the only contrary evidence was Esparza’s own testimony, in which he denied making these statements. Scientific testing revealed that Esparza’s DNA was consistent with the DNA extracted from spermatozoa on Alyssa’s oral swab.  UPDATE: Esparza asked for forgiveness from the victim's family members shortly before he was executed: "To the family of Alyssa Vasquez, I hope you will find peace in your heart. My sympathy goes out to you. I hope you find it in your heart to forgive me. I don't know why all this happened."

QUOTE 1: "The day he gets his death, I'll be smiling," Berlanga said earlier this year, according to the San Antonio Express-News. "I cannot forgive. I'll tell God, 'Forgive me for not forgiving him.'"

QUOTE 2: Before Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials injected the lethal dose, Vasquez’s mother, Diane Berlanga, let her feelings be known about what was about to happen.

“He is going to get what he deserved,” she said.

QUOTE 3: "He can never hurt anybody no more," said Roland Sanchez a cousin of the victim. "He's gone. He's with the devil now."

QUOTE 4: Danny Mujica, an uncle, was relieved the sentence had finally been carried out.

"We feel it should have taken place sooner, but I guess better late than never," Mujica said.