Remains of San Antonio woman murdered in 2019 not found; husband charged with murder
SAN ANTONIO, Texas - A man charged with the 2019 murder of his wife hasn't gone on trial yet. Her remains have yet to be found.
July 7, 2019, was the day 29-year-old Cecilia Huerta Gallegos was last seen alive.
Her sister, Mireya Lopez, who lives in Houston, says their other sister got a call from Cecilia that said if something happened to her, her husband, Reyes Gallegos, killed her.
Cecilia was seen on surveillance video going into her home that evening, but she's never seen coming back out.
The investigation later revealed, "by 8:30 p.m., you see her husband coming out of the room. By that time, Cecilia, I'm thinking, she was already gone, because you could see him grabbing chemicals and bags," Mireya said.
She says he shut the cameras off in the middle of the night, and then turned them back on.
"By around 6 a.m., you see him leaving the home and coming back at 8 in the morning unloading a chainsaw and shovels," she said.
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Cecilia Huerta Gallegos
At first, he originally said she left with someone else.
"We were thinking we had a little bit of faith that she had left because she was scared. But then we spoke with the Homicide Unit, and we found out that she never, you never see her leaving the home. So that's how we knew something was not right," Mireya said.
Mireya says Cecilia mentioned there were issues with the marriage.
"She's like, 'I just want to file for a divorce and leave with my kids, start a new life.' That was her goal," she said. "I think she did file for divorce behind his back, so I think that's what got more got him more angry."
Reyes was charged with her murder in 2021.
His trial was set for August 22, 2024, but it has been reset again. It has already been delayed multiple times.
"[The prosecutors] said that they're probably going to reset it again due to new evidence that came in." Mireya said. "At this point, all they want to know is where the location of her body is. That's what they told me."
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Reyes has been out on bond.
"What does get us angry is that he's out there," Mireya said.
Mireya reflects on what she misses about her sister.
"I miss her calls. I miss the way she is. She was a real happy person. She would make our day. She would make us laugh," she said.
She hopes her remains can be found.
"We've been through a lot already. Five years of just waiting for trial and for him not to speak up. It's too much for us," she said.
She hopes no one else has to go through the same thing.
"I just want to tell people out there if they do know something, for them to please speak up. If they were around him, and they know something to please help us get closure. It's never late to confess where she's at," she said. "If somebody is going through Cecilia's situation, get out of there, your own time, don't let it get to the point where you think that the person's not going to hurt you."