EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — A 52-year-old man is accused of killing his mother back in 2023 after allegedly choking and strangling her, then placing her head under a tire and running her over, according to court documents obtained by KTSM 9 News.
Richard Praytor was arrested for murder and is still jailed at the El Paso County Detention Facility with a $1 million bond, according to jail records.
A large police presence was seen on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2023, on the 4500 block of Sky Hawk Avenue in Northeast El Paso. It was later revealed by the El Paso Police Department that the scene was being investigated due to a death.
Police investigate death in Northeast El Paso neighborhood
On that day, officers were dispatched to the neighborhood in reference to an unknown 911 call. When they arrived, officers met with Praytor, who told them his mother, 86-year-old Maria Enoe Praytor, was dead under a sedan in the garage.
Officers spoke with Praytor, and he told them he woke up around 4 a.m. to get ready to head out to Colorado Springs for a child custody hearing, scheduled at 1:30 p.m. Colorado Springs is over 500 miles north of El Paso and would be a nearly 9-hour drive.
Once he was ready, he walked into the garage and saw his mother’s leg underneath the sedan.
According to court records, Praytor said he walked closer and saw his mother’s head underneath the front driver’s tire, “squished.” Praytor stated he panicked, put the sedan in neutral and allegedly pushed the vehicle off his mother’s head. He allegedly rolled her body over and saw that she had “no signs of life and blood everywhere.”
Praytor said he called 911, and the operator advised him to start compressions, but advised he couldn’t due to “(Maria Praytor) showed no signs of life,” according to the affidavit.
Praytor was placed in the patrol unit and officers placed a brown paper bag on his hands, “due to him having suspected blood on him” from his mother.
An autopsy was performed on Maria Praytor and revealed that the cause of death was multiple blunt force injuries. Her manner of death was ruled an accident, according to court records.
On Aug. 27, 2026, officers were informed that a woman in Long Island, New York, walked into the Suffolk Police Department Precinct 2 and spoke with an officer. She said she met with Praytor on Facebook. She allegedly told a New York police officer that Praytor confessed that he killed his mother back in 2023 and provided specific details that had not been released to the public and would not have been known to the general public, read the affidavit.
EPPD investigators obtained body camera footage of the woman’s interview, in which investigators noted specific incident details. Investigators flew to Long Island to get a statement from her.
On Sept. 2, EPPD officers met with the woman and provided a sworn statement, including details Praytor had told her about how he killed his mother.
On Sept. 9, the woman called an investigator and stated she got off the phone with Praytor. She said he allegedly confessed to her again and she was able to record the phone conversation. The investigator instructed the woman on how to turn over the audio recording, according to court documents.
The woman also told police that he wrote his own book about the incident and that he saved the file on his computer.
On Sept. 11, officers received the recorded conversation and heard Praytor provide the following details to the woman.
Praytor stated he had “to do the best acting of his life” when officers arrived. He allegedly said he was “in shock and very emotional” because of what he did, read the affidavit.
Praytor stated that he knew of cameras in the back of the police unit and began to say, “What the f**k is going on,” and “How did you end up underneath the car?”
According to court records, Praytor said that he messed with the blood at the scene and put blood on his hands, “on purpose,” to mess up the crime scene. He also told the woman that he took off his and his mother’s clothes — that were full of blood — in a trash bag and threw them away in a nearby dumpster.
Praytor stated that he made it seem like the car had run over his mother’s head so “police could not tell that he had previously choked her until he was no longer alive,” read the affidavit.
In the phone conversation, Praytor claimed that he told one other person about his mother’s death and tried to tell a priest. He further stated that he did not want to confess to police because “nothing would be done since (Maria Praytor’s) death was already considered an accident,” court documents said.
On Sept. 14, EPPD officers, with assistance of the Colorado Springs Police Department, obtained a search warrant for a hotel room, where detectives found Praytor and placed him under arrest after he agreed to voluntarily speak to police.
Praytor was transported to the Falcon Police Station and spoke with detectives about the murder.
Praytor said he murdered his mother at around 6 p.m. on June 19, 2023. He claimed that he killed her because “she was sick” and he needed to get back to his kids in Colorado Springs, read court documents.
Praytor said his mother was in the kitchen when he approached her from behind and placed her in a chokehold until she passed out.
Then, Praytor said he dragged her to the garage, where he saw that Maria Praytor was still alive. He then pinched her nose, covered her mouth, got on top of her and counted to 100, according to the affidavit.
He then told police that he changed his and her clothing and took it to a nearby dumpster and threw them away. Praytor then put new clothing on his mother and placed her head under the front left tire of the sedan.
According to court documents, Praytor turned on the vehicle and put the sedan in neutral to “let the vehicle roll back” on his mother’s head.
He stated that on his personal computer, he has a file named “June 19th” where he wrote specific details on how he murdered his mother, read the affidavit.
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