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Deathbed Confession Closes a 37-year-old Cold Case
Deathbed Confession Closes a 37-year-old Cold Case 11/2/12
Jennifer Samp
jsamp@cbs7.com
CBS 7 News
November 2, 2012
Pecos, TX - It's Chuck Mount's first time to visit his mother’s grave since he heard the news.
His mother’s murderer recently confessed on his deathbed, 37 years later.
“It’s over it's been a long time coming,” he said.
It was March 21, 1975 when then 16-year-old Sebastian Salcido got in a fight with his girlfriend at the Old Texan Drive-in.
According to court records Salcido admitted to walking home from the drive-in and on his way, stopped at Dorothy Johnson's house.
He said in a fit of anger he robbed, raped then stabbed the 62-year-old several times with her own kitchen knife.
Salcido then simply walked away from the murder back to his home three blocks away.
“That sorry sun-of-a-gun,” said Chuck Mount who was in his 40's at the time of the murder. He says he found his mother the next morning and it didn't take long for investigators with the Texas Rangers and Pecos Police Department to name him the prime suspect.
“They wouldn’t listen they really wanted to hang me,” he said. “New investigators would reopen the case every five or six years and it would always start with interrogating me. It was a never ending nightmare.”
He says even his brother went to his grave as a suspect in their mother’s murder.
“There is my brother's grave right there,” Chuck pointed, “He was in boot-camp at the time of the murder and they harassed him.”
The killer, who died at Medical Center Hospital in Odessa, told his nurse everything then asked her to give the information to the law enforcement. The District Attorney of the 143rd District Randy Reynolds ordered investigators to quickly step in and record the confession.
Reynolds says investigators from the DA, Pecos Police Department, The Reeves County Sheriff’s Office and The Texas Rangers devoted several hours and resources to this investigation.
“They were lucky they got him in time,” Chuck said, “Everything that man said was accurate.”
For decades Chuck says he was an outcast.
“They’re talking behind your back and you know they're talking,” he said.
Now he is getting apologies from complete strangers.
“It’s a lot off of my shoulder, it’ll take awhile to heal,” he said, “I never thought it would work.”
The case is now closed.