AUSTIN, Texas — An Austin man has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the 2024 killing of a southeast Austin woman, and according to an affidavit, he confessed to another that occurred in Bastrop County roughly six years before.
Luis Fernando Benitez Gonzalez, 26, was arrested April 27 by members of the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force at an apartment complex in Dallas. He now faces a murder charge in the June 2024 death of Alyssa Ann Rivera, 34, whose body was found in an abandoned home in the 2600 block of Metcalfe Road in southeast Austin.
Investigators say DNA recovered from the Rivera crime scene also links Benitez Gonzalez to the April 2018 killing of Alba Jenisse Aviles Marti in Bastrop County.
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Rivera’s body was discovered June 21, 2024, after Austin Police officers responded to a call about a deceased person. Responding officers found Rivera face down in the entryway of the abandoned home. According to the affidavit, evidence indicated she had been forcibly dragged into the residence and had attempted to escape.
Surveillance footage obtained during the investigation showed Rivera walking southbound on Metcalfe Road with a male subject at approximately 1:46 a.m. on June 19, 2024, roughly two days before her body was discovered.
On April 14, 2018, Aviles Marti was last seen leaving Club Caribe, a bar on Felter Lane in south Austin, with an unidentified Hispanic male. Her body was later found in her vehicle, abandoned on a dirt-road driveway at 378 Old San Antonio Road in Dale, in Bastrop County.
An autopsy determined the cause of death was strangulation and that she had been sexually assaulted.
According to the affidavit, investigators connected Benitez Gonzalez to the homicides through investigations into two aggravated assaults that occurred in Austin’s Burton Drive/East Oltorf Street area in November and December 2025. Both victims were shot in the right thigh. Ballistic evidence from the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network linked both shootings to the same firearm.
During the investigation into the assaults, one victim left behind a cell phone belonging to the suspect. A search warrant executed on the device revealed information pointing to Benitez Gonzalez.
The affidavit says detectives also discovered that metadata embedded in photographs on the phone placed Benitez Gonzalez close to the 378 Old San Antonio Road property in Dale, approximately 700 meters from where Aviles Marti’s vehicle was found in 2018.
After his arrest in Dallas, Benitez Gonzalez was read his Miranda rights in Spanish and agreed to speak with investigators. He initially denied involvement in the Rivera homicide before eventually admitting he had been with a woman matching Rivera’s description in June 2024 near the Riverside/East Oltorf area. He told investigators he had been intoxicated, that an argument over drugs became physical, and that he placed his hands around the woman’s neck from behind. He stated he applied pressure to her neck for approximately seven minutes, and left after she stopped moving.
When confronted with DNA evidence linking the Rivera case to the 2018 Bastrop County homicide, Benitez Gonzalez acknowledged having been in a vehicle with a woman near his mother’s ranch in Lockhart. He claimed a dispute over payment for a ride escalated and that the woman used a seatbelt to choke him first, before he used the same seatbelt against her for approximately four to five minutes until she lost consciousness. He said he did not know if she was still breathing when he left the vehicle.
Regarding both homicides and the aggravated assaults, Benitez Gonzalez repeatedly framed his actions as self-defense, telling investigators it was “either me or her.”
The affidavit states that his self-defense claims are contradicted by evidence.
On May 6, 2026, the Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Laboratory confirmed that Benitez Gonzalez’s DNA was found on multiple items of evidence recovered from the Rivera homicide scene.
Austin police are expected to hold a press conference about the arrest next week.