Waiting on Justice: A KION Special Report

Disclaimer: This article contains graphic details regarding the death of a woman.

A COLD CASE CRACKED: The brutal murder of Salinas mother, Loretta Paluszynski

SALINAS, Calif. (KION-TV) -- In the wee hours on the morning of August 8, 2002, the mother of three young children and beloved Salinas waitress, 25-year-old Loretta “Lori Rose” Paluszynski, was brutally murdered by her ex-boyfriend, Juan Gabriel Nunez.

“We went inside [her apartment]. We found that she had been killed; brutally stabbed multiple times and actually her throat had been slashed,” said retired Salinas detective, Gerry Davis, who was originally assigned to the case nearly 20 years ago. “She was laying on the floor of her bedroom.”

“As we approached the door, we started observing blood on the doorknob and blood on the floor,” said Davis’ partner at the time, retired Salinas detective Richard Soratos. “Miss Paluszynski was murdered in just an awful way. We start trying to piece things together based on where the majority of the blood was; blood on the walls, in the bathroom, in the kitchen…”

The heinous crime took place at Paluszynski’s home in the Capri North Apartments on 349 Iris Drive after neighbors said they heard a domestic dispute earlier that morning. A press release issued by the district attorney’s office last May confirmed a bloody knife was found near her body.

“The brutality in this case obviously left a lasting impression in the minds of everybody who worked it,” said acting Salinas Police Chief, John Murray, who at the time of the murder, was a young officer new to the force. “It was done in the presence of one of her children.”

Murray said that he was surprised to hear that the victim was Loretta Paluszynski because she was a well-known waitress at a Denny’s in North Salinas and knew some of the Salinas police officers. “Many officers used to go there for a coffee break, and I used to go there myself as well,” he said.

Murray, Soratos and Davis all agree that Paluszynski’s murder was one of the most gruesome they’d come across in their time serving the public as law enforcement. “It was the most brutal homicide investigation scene that I had ever worked,” said Davis, who was with the Salinas Police Department for 25 years.

“In all my almost 29 years of working at the police department, this was probably the most horrific crime scene,” added Soratos. “No one should suffer the way that Loretta Paluszynski suffered.”

Davis and Soratos say that they were called in for a homicide after police conducted a welfare check for Paluszynski. “Gerry and I were on call for the week,” said Soratos. “I believe I was home maybe 30, 45 minutes and the phone rang.”

After the call, Davis and Soratos went to the police department where they prepared for the investigation with details filled in from the watch commander. They had no idea the scene they were about to walk into...

“Her car was gone and there was nobody else in the apartment at the time,” said Davis. “That started the investigation. We knew that she had a child and that they had a child together. One of the main concerns was; where were those children?”

According to the former police partners, immediately following the murder, Nunez fled to his mother’s house, where later, detectives found his and Paluszynski’s baby daughter, Abigal Nunez.

“When he dropped the baby off, he admitted that he had killed [Loretta],” said Davis, which prompted a family member to go over to her apartment later that evening. Nunez’s family told police that he had showed up at his family’s home in Salinas “covered in blood and told them, ‘I did it, I did it,’” wrote the DA’s press release last May.

“He maybe was there 20, 30 minutes,” said Soratos. “Their son, their brother had children with this girl, yet they didn’t like her that much?” Emphasized Soratos when he talked about approaching Nunez’s family for questioning later that day. “They had that much hate for her that they couldn’t call us?”

According to Soratos and Davis, Nunez’s family withholding this information led to his approximate 12-hour head start fleeing to Southern California and inevitably into Mexico, where he would hide-out for over 20 years.

When they had gotten to the murder scene, on the heels of now fugitive Nunez, Soratos and Davis questioned the neighbors about what they had heard leading up to Paluszynski’s death. “They said that they had heard arguing and yelling and so on,” said Soratos. “All pretty much late into the night and into the morning hours.”

Soratos added that when the neighbors left for work, they didn’t see Paluszynski’s car in the driveway, so they thought that she had just left. This was also probably the reason, he said, why they also didn’t hear arguing after a certain point early into the morning. “I know that the neighbors felt horrible afterwards by not calling,” said Soratos.

Following the trail of investigation details, Soratos and Davis ended up at Nunez’s mother’s house. This is where they learned that not only had Nunez been there nearly 12 hours before, but that the home was filled with family members (one sister, brother and Nunez’s mother) who helped him escape to Southern California in Paluszynski’s car.

“He took a shower, changed clothes and threw his bloody clothes out in the dumpster,” said Soratos. “Nobody in the family called us; they didn’t try to keep him there.”

Detectives confirmed that Nunez took his daughter to his mother’s house before fleeing with Paluszynski’s car to Southern California. “We had detectives go over to his mother’s house and actually take custody of the baby,” said Davis. “My partner and I followed [Nunez] into Southern California, served multiple search warrants on family residencies in the Anaheim and Cypris areas where he left the car. We learned that the family didn’t know what had happened; they had given him some money and driven him to a bus station in Los Angeles.”

That 12-hour lead was just enough time for Nunez to flee to Mexico. “While we were on our way down there, we got word that—I believe—in Cyprus [police] recovered [Loretta’s] vehicle parked behind a little strip mall in a parking lot,” said Soratos. “Once we knew that [family] had helped him get across the border, we knew we couldn’t go get him.”

There were still missing pieces to the puzzle that Soratos and Davis needed to find: If none of the neighbors knew that Paluszynski had been murdered before Nunez fled the crime scene, then who called the police for a welfare check? And where was Paluszynski’s toddler son, Albino Avila Jr.?

“What we had found was that after he had killed [Loretta], he left the toddler in the apartment… with his deceased mother,” said Davis.

By the time the detectives had gotten to Paluszynski’s apartment after the welfare check, Avila Jr. (her son from a previous partner) was no longer there, said Davis and Soratos.

A GAP IN TIME: Where was toddler Albino Avila Jr.?

According to retired detectives, Davis and Soratos, the woman who ran the childcare center that watched Paluszynski’s kids, called the police after Paluszynski didn’t come pick her son up late into the evening.

“Around 10 o’clock that night, nobody came to pick the [toddler] up from daycare,” said Davis. “The operator went over to [Loretta’s] apartment, knocked on the door and nobody answered.”

The daycare operator, according to Davis, sat in her car in the apartment complex parking lot waiting for somebody to come home. When that didn’t happen, the daycare operator approached Paluszynski’s neighbors to see if anyone had seen or heard from her.

“We responded to the scene to actually do a welfare check,” said Davis. “By the time [the daycare operator] waited in the parking lot for a while and made contact with the people that lived next door, we were into the next day.”

The daycare operator admitted to police later that never happened; Paluszynski was always there to pick up both of her children. “[The operator] was also concerned because nobody had ever brought her the baby,” said Davis. “She’d been watching the [toddler] for three years and the baby for about a year. The baby never made it over to her place. She was concerned.”

There’s still a mysterious element involving the daycare: Who dropped off Albino Avila Jr.?

“Later in the day, an unidentified male dropped off [the toddler],” said Murray, acting Salinas Police Chief. “[The daycare operator] thought this was unusual, so she started making phone calls and then she reported Loretta missing.”

Davis and Soratos confirmed that after Nunez had admitted he killed Paluszynski to his family, one of Nunez’s sisters who was present in the mother’s home that evening, called the other sister at work and told her what happened.

“One sister called the other sister and told her what had happened,” said Soratos. “She didn’t believe it. So, a couple of hours goes by, she leaves work and goes over to Loretta’s apartment.”

After the sister knocked on the door to Paluszynski’s apartment with no answer, she heard a noise from within. “The family member could hear the [toddler] inside,” said Davis. “They talked him into opening the door because they didn’t have a key.”

Davis confirmed that after Nunez’s sister entered the apartment, she found Paluszynski lying on the floor. “They removed [the child] from the scene,” he said.

According to Soratos, the sister asked Avila Jr. where Loretta was before stepping into the apartment and finding Paluszynski’s body on the floor. “She sees Loretta, grabs the kid, grabs some clothes and leaves,” said Soratos. “She doesn’t call us; just leaves with the child.”

Soratos and Davis said that instead of going straight over to the childcare center, the sister called her boyfriend for some guidance on what to do. “She goes with her boyfriend and tells him what’s going on,” said Soratos. “They said, ‘We’ve got to do something with the little boy.’ So, they take him to El Dorado Park, and they leave him out there to play in the park. His babysitter lived about a half a block away.”

According to Paluszynski’s oldest brother and retired army veteran, Joe Paluszynski, the childcare center was the former home of one of his high school classmates. “I went to high school with [the childcare operator’s] son,” said Joe. “The mom and dad of my classmate are who watched Loretta’s children. It was probably Mama Huggins who called the police.”

According to Davis, they left Avila Jr. playing in the park for about an hour. “Fortunately for that little boy, the boyfriend had enough compassion, I guess you could say, to say, ‘No, we can’t just leave him there,’” said Soratos. “So, they went [back] and got him.”

Apparently after that, the couple decided to bring Avila Jr. to the daycare center. However, Nunez’s sister was concerned that the babysitter would recognize her, so she had her boyfriend--the "unidentified male"--drop off Avila Jr.

“The boyfriend took him to the door and told the babysitter that the little boy was in the park playing and he said he lived there,” said Soratos. “The sitter said, ‘He doesn’t live here. I’m his babysitter, but I’ll take him.’”

Soratos said that’s when the daycare operator started trying to reach out to Paluszynski. “She wasn’t answering her phone. [The babysitter] called her work. She wasn’t at work. They said they hadn’t seen her. She didn’t show up,” said Soratos.

Finally, around 10 p.m. that night when nobody came to pick up Avila Jr., according to Davis, the daycare operator drove over to Paluszynski’s apartment and knocked on the door.

“They sat in the parking lot for a while of the apartment complex waiting for someone to come home and nobody came home,” said Davis. “Ultimately, the daycare operator went up to the next-door neighbor’s apartment and asked if anyone had seen or heard anything from Loretta, and nobody had.”

According to Davis and Soratos, this was the point that Paluszynski was called in as a missing person. When investigators went to her apartment for a welfare check well-into the early morning hours of August 9, they saw the tragic scene.

“Unfortunately, [Nunez] had about a 12-hour head start on us,” said Soratos. “If he left at four or five in the morning and we’re not out there until seven o’clock the next evening, that’s a big head start. Had somebody called and did the right thing, we could have gotten him before.”

BRINGING BACK NUNEZ: A 22-year homeward bound project

According to Soratos, at the time of her murder, Paluszynski had a restraining order against Nunez. “She was trying to get her life squared away,” he said. “She was working to take care of the kids and wanted to get rid of that guy.”

Paluszynski’s oldest brother, Joe, confirmed that her and Nunez had an “on again, off again,” type of relationship, and she had three children at the time of her murder. Two of them were from a previous relationship while one of them was with Juan Nunez, baby Abigal Nunez.

In 2002, detectives pursued Nunez to Southern California, but unfortunately missed apprehending him. This head start he had after Paluszynski’s murder in addition to a lack in DNA tracking technology at the time, led to this turning into a cold case.

According to acting Salinas Police Chief John Murray, who was a major component in bringing Nunez to justice, the investigation continued but information “went stale.”

“Over the years, like all our cold cases, we work these cases in the background,” said Murray. “I hope [Loretta’s family] knows that we understood what a grievous crime this was, how awful it was, and we continued to work it throughout the last 22 years.”

When Murray was promoted to investigations commander around 2019, he really leaned back into this case, saying that fresh information started to surface, which helped officials lead to the inevitable arrest of Nunez in 2021 .

Murray brought together the Salinas Police Department, the U.S. Marshals office, Monterey County District Attorney’s Office as well as a plethora of other national and international law enforcement agencies to apprehend Nunez and extradite him from Mexico.

“Thankfully, our current [acting] Chief John Murray was the commander in charge of investigations and he knew about the case,” said retired detective Rick Soratos. “And thank God [he] figured out a way that maybe we could get him. He made a phone call to Mr. Panetta and got the ball rolling.”

After calling in federal assistance, Soratos said Nunez was finally arrested on September 8, 2021, at the San Francisco International Airport. “That was huge. What John Murray did was a huge part of this case to bring him to justice,” said Soratos. “I know what [Nunez] did and he doesn’t deserve to see the light of day or take another breath.”

“I think the court showed [Nunez] a great deal of mercy today, mercy that he did not show Loretta,” said Murray on May 16, 2024, the day of Nunez’s sentencing at the Superior Court of Monterey. “I’m happy to see him being brought to justice. We’re finally able to bring a measure of justice to the victim and the families.”

According to the Monterey County District Attorney’s office, Nunez, now 48 years old, was sentenced to 18 years, four months to life in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation by Honorable Judge Rafael Vasquez for conviction of Loretta’s murder.

Loretta’s older brother Joe, had prepared a victim impact statement that, sadly, went unread during Nunez’s sentencing. “Throughout this time, from August 8, 2002—present time, I’ve had nothing but anger, frustration and nightmares. Wondering, why? Why did Juan take my sister’s life?” Wrote Joe in the statement. “When he took her life, he took a part of my life and my families too. When you, Juan, took my sister’s life, you took a part of my life and my family’s life that will never be able to be replaced.”

Read Joe’s full victim impact statement below:

“I think it was in 2018 or 2019 when I was assigned that case,” said another original detective on the case, now Sergeant Ruben Sanchez, about being handed the cold case two years into the investigation unit. “That’s when I was working with the DA’s office and read the report to see what we can do with the case.”

At this time, Nunez was already identified as the suspect in Paluszynski’s murder as well as speculations on where he was in Mexico, according to Sanchez. “Investigators prior to me had attempted to get him back to the United States,” said Sanchez. “I had the opportunity when I was in the unit to follow-up with that work with the United States Marshals who then were able to locate him and then actually get him from Mexico back into the U.S. That’s kind of the role I played in the investigation.”

“We needed the DNA in order to make our extradition case without the confession. The extradition process was delayed by the need for DNA,” said Chief Assistant District Attorney Berkley Brannon. “Once [the approvals] were done, it really did not take very long [to arrest him].”

Sanchez said that after some of the metaphorical red tape had been pulled back, approval came from Washington D.C. that led to the district attorney’s office confirming that Nunez would be picked up by the US Marshals and flown to San Francisco where he’d await his arrest. According to Brannon, that entire process took at least two years.

“I met him at the terminal and they rolled him out in a wheel chair because he had shackles on and stuff like that,” said Sanchez. “We took custody of him and transported him back to the Salinas Police Department where I then conducted an interview and interrogation. [I] also obtained some DNA based on a search warrant that I had obtained.”

Between Nunez’s arrest in 2021 through his sentencing in 2024, officials entered into plea deals and negotiations that delayed Nunez’s case nearly every month during those three years, according to the Superior Court of Monterey County court documents that KION obtained.

“[Juan] pled guilty to second degree murder. He did that because he preferred not to go to trial and perhaps be convicted of first-degree murder,” said Brannon. “First degree murder means that not only do you have the intent to kill but you consciously weigh for and against the reasons for the killing, so it’s a harder type of murder to prove. It’s called premeditation and deliberation.”

Brannon said that the court system found this to be the most effective way to charge Nunez without loosing or delaying the case further. “We also got a final judgement, which means that he’s agreeing not to appeal, and this case is over,” said Brannon.

Nunez’s court plea documents are below:

KION News Channel 46 requested the original police report several times from the Salinas Police Department’s Records Unit but was met the final time with an email stating: “The following problem was found during review of your submitted request: The report has been found, but we cannot legally release it at this time.”

“We have an exemption to the Public Records Act for the contents of our files,” said Brannon. “If we hand out a police report, which we generally are not going to do, we waive our exemption. That means anyone can go in and get anything they want out of the file. I don’t turn over the content of our files.”

NEXT OF KIN: Paluszynski’s family and legacy

“[Loretta’s murder] affected me in a lot of different ways. That was hell, man, hell…” said her older brother, Frank “Sunray” Paluszynski, who mentioned that “Sunray” was Loretta’s nickname for him as they were growing up.

“Lori was the closest age to me, so she was my best friend,” he said. “To describe Lori is like trying to describe the Tasmanian Devil. She’s all over the place but she had a good heart. She was a very loving and caring person.”

Sunray said that their father happened to die right across the street from where Loretta was killed, and when he went to go retrieve her things from her apartment upon learning of her death, was warned about entering the scene by law officials.

“One of the detectives said, ‘You don’t want to go in there, man. Just don’t, don’t, don’t,’” said Sunray. “And so, I listened to him.”

“She was always very pleasant and, again, when we learned that [Loretta] was the victim of this crime… it’s different when it’s someone you know,” said acting Salinas Police Chief John Murray.

Joe Paluszynski, Loretta’s eldest brother, also said that when he requested the original police report (which is an approximate thousands of pages long, according to Murray), detectives told him he didn’t want to see it. “It’s a whole different aspect when it’s your family member,” said Joe, who said that despite serving in the military, he wouldn’t have been prepared to review the gruesome account of Loretta’s murder.

“At first I really didn’t want to be bothered with it, I didn’t really want to talk about it,” said Joe. “It takes a lot on your mind and it takes a lot on your heart.”

“She’s dead,” said Sunray, recalling how Joe told him of Paluszynski’s passing. “Ah man, my heart hit the ground. I was in instant shock.”

Loretta Paluszynski was born August 10, 1977, and was killed August 8, 2002. She is survived by her two older brothers as well as her three children, Albino Avila Jr., Emily Avila and Abigal Nunez. According to Joe, Emily currently resides in Texas.

“I did locate Albino (Loretta’s ex-boyfriend) [and] was advised Emily was in Texas,” wrote Joe in an email. He mentioned that the family is estranged, but that it would be wonderful if everyone could reunite.

“If the kids could see [the documentary] that would be nice,” wrote Joe. “If I had an opportunity to see them or say something to them, the only thing that comes to mind is, ‘Hey, I’m your uncle Joe. And if you have any questions about anything, about your mom, let’s get lunch or something and let’s sit down and let’s talk about your mom.

“Uncle Joe is out here and I would love for you guys to be able to reach out to me. If you have questions, I would be happy to answer them,” he continued.

Sunray would also love to get together with the now young adults, Albino Avila Jr. and Abigal Nunez. “I can’t imagine how it’s been for you guys,” he said. “I’d love to see [you] again. It would be nice if [you] were Poluszynskis still, but I don’t think [you] are.”

Sunray expressed interest in trying to pick up the pieces and move forward after this over 20-year span. “It’s been a long time and there’s still plenty of time to go fishing and tinker around on cars,” he said. “They may have a lot of traits that they don’t even know why they do these things. You’re a good cook because Uncle Franky’s a good cook. I can tell them, ‘You’re a goofball because your mom was a goofball.’”

Sunray said that Loretta’s parenting style was strict but loving. “She was a good mom, strict, but that’s how we were raised,” he said. “More than strict, she was very loving and very compassionate.”

“She was always more concerned about helping customers or helping a friend or family member…looking out for them. She was always looking at the big picture about what she could do to help other people rather than help herself,” said Joe. “She always did for everybody else.”

Her brothers both mentioned that Lori loved to spend times outdoors, specifically at the beach. “We always went to the beach in Marina that was right down the street from the roller-skating rink,” said Joe.

“We played all the time. We were like two peas in a pod. On her birthday, we’d always go to—once I got my driver’s license—we’d sneak out, drive down 101 and go to Chuck-E-Cheese. We’d just go out to some field and fly some airplanes,” revealed an emotional Sunray. “I just feel like I’ve been walking around alone out here for the last 20-something years. It’s like a part of me is gone.

“I’m even willing to take the ashes and spread them someplace,” continued Sunray. “Let her go… more than anything else I own, those ashes mean more to me… you can take everything else away from me, just don’t mess with the little sister. I think she would like that.”

“What I’d like to say to the agencies involved in the apprehension—I have a list of who they were, it’s extensive—is thank you very much!” said Joe. “Thank you for the due diligence that you guys had and not giving up on the case or my sister.”

“[Agencies] all worked very hard trying to solve Loretta’s case,” said Sunray, commenting about how he would sell t-shirts to help promote an end to domestic violence. He said that when he got the news that law officials had captured Nunez and he was in San Francisco, “it hit really hard.”

“Something I always say to the people in our community is: If you have information, even on a case that was 20 years ago, give us a call,” said Murray. “A lot of times people dismiss that piece of information they have thinking we probably already have it or that it’s of no value, but the reality is… let us have that. That information may be the one piece that we need.”

“If anybody has issues like this, or a problem like this, make sure that you contact your law enforcement, lean on them and give them the support so that something like this can be finalized and justice can be prevailed,” said Joe.

“Keep hope,” advised Sunray.

If you or anyone you know has any information on the whereabouts of Loretta Poluszynski's children, their family is actively looking to reconnect. Please email KION News Channel 46's managing editor Jeanette Bent at Jeanette.Bent@kion546.com or newstips@kion546.com.

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