Johnny Perez

• Missing Since 07/02/1993
• Missing From Bexar County, Texas
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Male
• Race Hispanic
• Age 23 years old
• Height and Weight Unknown
• Associated Vehicle(s) Silver car
• Distinguishing Characteristics Hispanic male. Dark brown hair, brown eyes.

Details of Disappearance

Perez was last seen in Bexar County, Texas on July 2, 1993. He left to go to a barbecue with a friend, Jack Lee King, that evening. King later told Perez's cousin that they'd stopped at an Exxon gas station at Interstate 35 south and Southcross Boulevard, and Perez left with some girls driving a silver car.

The party King and Perez attended lasted until the early morning hours of July 3. According to witnesses, Perez got drunk and became disruptive. King left the gathering for about fifteen minutes, and while he was gone, Perez got into the passenger side of King's car.

When King returned, he shot Perez at close range, got into the car and drove away with Perez still inside the vehicle. Many people present witnessed the shooting, but no one called the police. It wasn't until 1996 that anyone told the police about the shooting.

King was indicted for Perez's murder in 2008. At the time, he was already awaiting trial for the double murder of Ray Wechsler and Rosendo "Chubby" Torres Jr. in 1995. In a letter to the state district judge, King referred to Perez as a "hardcore gang member" and a "Mexican Mafia drug dealer."

Perez's girlfriend, however, says that although he used drugs, he didn't sell them. When he was intoxicated, Perez had occasionally bragged about his gang membership, but investigators could find no evidence that he was affiliated with the Mexican Mafia.

At his 2009 trial in Perez's case, King testified in his own defense and said Perez was alive when they left the barbecue together and he last saw him at the Exxon station, and Perez left there with a woman driving a brown or maroon Oldsmobile Cutlass. Witnesses who'd attended the barbecue testified about the shooting.

King was convicted in Perez's death in November 2009 and sentenced to 60 years in prison. He will have to serve a quarter of his sentence, or 15 years, before becoming eligible for parole. In 2010, due to a lack of evidence, the prosecution dropped the charges against him in connection with Wechsler and Torres's murders.

Perez's body has never been located.