AUSTIN, Texas — Oct. 26, 2014, was a day that started like any other for Richard Escalante. He was working security at El Agazajo, a club in southeast Austin, off U.S. 183 near the airport.
"He was still alive when we showed up, but was unable to speak. And EMS realized quickly that they had to get him to the hospital right away," said a detective assigned to the case who wished to remain anonymous.
The detective said just after midnight, someone stabbed Escalante multiple times. The 28-year-old died shortly after.
The stabbing happened in the back parking lot, behind the club. Moments before, Escalante was seen standing in between two cars, talking to some customers.
No arrests have been made, and there are no suspects. However, police have leads.
"We had a lot of evidence. But because of time and resources and money, we can only get so much tested at a time. So throughout the years, we've gotten more and more of the pieces tested," the detective said.
Police were able to detect multiple DNA profiles – but there is one issue.
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"The problem with some of the evidence we have is that there is a saturation of the victim's DNA on a lot of the things we have, which makes it difficult to find strong DNA profiles of the suspect," the detective said. "It's just harder to get a really strong profile when we have so much of the victim's DNA."
Police said the parking lot where the murder happened was shared by several buildings, including the club, a food trailer and a restaurant. At the time the crime happened, the club and the food trailer were both open, so there were a lot of possible witnesses in the parking lot.
Some people told police they spotted cars speeding away from the club, and police have received multiple vehicle descriptions. But detectives would like to see if anyone out there has their own description they would like to share.
If you know what happened to Escalante, police want to hear from you. Call Crime Stoppers at 512-472-8477 (TIPS).
KVUE Daybreak's Yvonne Nava is shining a spotlight on several Central Texas cold cases as part of a monthly series called KVUE Crime Files.