Retired FBI Special Agent shares firsthand account of 1999 murder case

“The Scottsbluff Police Department coordinated and directed the investigation. They put together a good team. In no way do I want to say that I solved this. All I did was help,” he said.

Rawalt participated in evidence gathering and investigation in the case.

He reviewed the background of individuals involved, their relationships to one another, their gang involvement, and the neighborhood where the crime was committed. He also provided a timeline leading up to the murder and dismemberment of Gomez.

Raymond Mata Jr., boyfriend of the child's mother, Patricia Gomez, became a suspect in the case when the child went missing and Mata's stories about his whereabouts were found to be false.

Mata and Gomez were seen in Torrington, Wyoming, a couple days after the boy’s disappearance in March 1999.

When Torrington law enforcement officials denied a request by Scottsbluff law enforcement officials to send body recovery divers to a small lake near where the pair had been spotted, Scottsbluff contacted Rawalt seeking assistance.

Rawalt pointed out that being able to call on his friends and co-workers from decades of experience, with the FBI helped him bring resources to the situation and make the most of what he called “some lucky breaks” in the collection of evidence.

Before he arrived in Scottsbluff from his home in North Platte, he asked an officer on the phone if the trash in the area of Gomez’s home had been searched. The officer and his colleagues were focused on looking for a body and, in their sleep deprived state, had not thought of searching dumpsters. They quickly found that trash had not been collected in the neighborhood. At Rawalt’s urging, sanitation crews stopped the collection process which would have resulted in the loss of key evidence within an hour.

“I was fresh and could offer secondary opinions. They were tired. I told them to get some sleep. It’s easy to miss evidence in that condition,” he said.

One of the interesting dynamics Rawalt noted among his colleagues during the Gomez case was the opinion of prosecuting attorney Doug Warner, who had opposed the death penalty previously, but sought it for Mata.

He showed slides of the child’s bone fragments and flesh found in a refrigerator, a skillet, a dog’s food dish and sewer lines.

“I’ve never seen anything like it. It is one of the worst crime scenes in my career,” he said.

Rawalt’s friend and the nation’s leading pathologist, Richard Rodriguez, was also able to respond to Rawalt’s request for help. Rodriquez conducted a supplemental forensic exam of Gomez’s skull at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology concluding that a blow to the head killed the child. He was deposed in D.C. and audio recordings and transcripts of his testimony were used in the trial.

“For some reason, I had his home phone number in my wallet. I can’t tell you why I had it, but I did,” Rawalt said.

Mata was found guilty of murder in 2000 and sentenced to death. As of press time, he is still on Death Row.

—Tena L. Cook, Marketing Coordinator