Raul Camacho (Courtesy Des Moines Register)

Raul Camacho

Homicide

Raul Camacho
18 YOA
1820 E. Army Post Rd.
Des Moines, IA
Polk County
Case # 1996-39840
September 14, 1996
Case summary compiled by Jody Ewing
Polk County in Iowa
Polk County in Iowa
 
Des Moines in Polk CountyDes Moines in Polk County

At approximately 1:15 a.m. on Saturday, September 14, 1996, 18-year-old Raul Camacho of Des Moines was shot outside the El Aragan bar on Des Moines’ south side.

According to Sgt. Bob Ervin, Camacho was shot at least twice by a man who fled the scene.

A Des Moines Register article dated September 15, 1996, said Camacho had been shot in the head with a handgun.

Witnesses said Camacho and the other man had left the bar together.

“There was no apparent reason for this,” Ervin said. “No one saw any arguing.”

Police described the suspect as Hispanic, 20 to 30 years old, 5’8″ to 5’9″ and weighing between 150 and 170 pounds.

Family members told the Register Camacho had moved to Des Moines about three years earlier from Colima in southwestern Mexico.

At the time of his death, Camacho had a 1-1/2-year-old son, and his girlfriend was two months pregnant.

Camacho’s sister, Carmen Camacho, 22, of Des Moines, told the Register the family didn’t know much about the shooting.

“We don’t know what happened,” she said through an interpreter. “He went to dance — and they took him out and killed him.”

Carmen Camacho also said her brother had attended Hoover High School for one year after coming to Des Moines, but then had dropped out of school. He most recently had been working for a local cleaning company, she said.

Three years after Camacho’s murder, two other men were also shot outside the same dance hall. Rodrigo Duran, 59, of Des Moines, died at a Des Moines hospital after being shot in the chest. Roberto Paramo, 19, also of Des Moines, was shot in the arm and chest but survived.

Raul Camacho was the son of Jose and Venicie Camacho of 912 Laurel St. in Des Moines.

Information Needed

If you have any information about Raul Camacho’s unsolved murder, please contact the Des Moines Police Department at (515) 283-4864.

Sources:
  • Des Moines Police Department, correspondence to Iowa Cold Cases, July 10, 2009
  • “Suspect sought in bar shooting,” Estherville Daily News, April 5, 1999
  • “Man Slain Outside D.M. Bar,” AP/Cedar Rapids Gazette, September 15, 1996
  • “No Arrests Yet: Teen shot to death outside bar,” by Jennifer Holland and Jerry Perkins, The Des Moines Register, September 15, 1996
  • Raul Camacho — Find a Grave Memorial

 

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