Murders of Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Peña
child murders and rapes in 1993
The rape and murder of Jennifer Lee Ertman and Elizabeth Christine Peña, two teenage girls from Houston, Texas, aged 14 and 16, respectively, occurred on June 24, 1993. The murder of the two girls made headlines in Texas newspapers due to the nature of the crime and the new law resulting from the murder that allows families of the victims to view the execution of the murderers. The case was also notable in that the state of Texas rejected attempts by the International Court of Justice to halt the perpetrators' executions.
Background
Elizabeth Christine Peña (June 21, 1977 – June 24, 1993) and Jennifer Lee Ertman (August 15, 1978 – June 24, 1993) were close friends who both attended Waltrip High School.
Although the girls were just over one year in age difference, both sets of parents approved of their friendship, with Peña's father viewing Ertman—a modest girl who had only recently begun experimenting with makeup—as a "positive influence" on his daughter, later recollecting that, shortly after the two became friends at Waltrip High School, Peña "just straightened up her act" following a brief streak of teenage rebellion before her 1992 enrollment at the school.
June 24, 1993
At 4:15 p.m. on June 24, 1993, Ertman's father, Randy, drove his daughter to Peña's home. At approximately 8 p.m., Peña's mother, Melissa, drove the two girls to the home of their friend Gina Escamilla, who lived in the Spring Hill Apartments and who was hosting a pool party for her school friends. As both girls exited the car, Peña assured her mother she and her friend would be home by their agreed 11:30 p.m. curfew.
The public source identifies “Murders of Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Peña” as child murders and rapes in 1993. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Murders, Jennifer and Ertman.
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This entry incorporates text from “Murders of Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Peña” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.