The Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office on Friday identified a man found dead at the Walker Ranch Trailhead — one of at least two recent homicides on San Antonio’s trails.

Pete Hosea Castillo, 39, was found dead from multiple gunshot wounds sitting in an abandoned golf cart covered by a tarp on Oct. 5. His death was ruled a homicide. 

The San Antonio Police Department told the San Antonio Report they don’t have any suspects at this time. 

And in October, the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office enlisted the help of San Antonio Crime Stoppers in soliciting new leads for the murder of 63-year-old Stacey Dramiga, who went missing on Sept. 22. Her body was found the next day in a wooded area of the trails east of Dafoste Park.

Police have also ruled her death a homicide. They believe she was murdered during a daytime walk.

Trail safety has been top of mind recently for San Antonio trailgoers and trail officials, who want to know more about recent homicides along the trails, despite assurances from city and county law enforcement to the public that the trails are safe to visit.

At a Tuesday Linear Creekway Parks and Advisory Board meeting, all but one board member were silent about safety on the trails as park staffers presented future projects to connect creek trails. 

District 2 advisory board member Sue Calberg told the board it should consider requesting a crime statistics report from San Antonio Park Police, a department separate from the San Antonio Police Department that oversees trail security, given recent crime incidents along San Antonio trails.

She said more than 70 people gathered at Comanche Park Oct. 20 for a trail safety and self-defense event following the recent homicides.

“I’m just speaking to the fact that people are scared out there,” she said. “It’s in social media, people are very concerned about safety.”

Calberg, a veteran TV news reporter for KENS5, told the board that previous incidents and these homicides point to the issue of serious crime happening as the city’s trails expand. 

On June 8, 26-year-old Navy veteran Jarvis McIntire was reported missing while visiting San Antonio from St. Louis, Missouri, and was found dead in a wooded area near Holbrook Road on June 14 adjacent to the Salado Creek Hike and Bike Trail. 

Police couldn’t confirm it was McIntire, but in a 9-1-1 call to police on June 9 from Holbrook Road, a caller told the dispatcher he was being chased by a person with a rifle, but the caller didn’t provide specific details about his location.

As of Friday, the cause and manner of McIntire’s death is undetermined.

That same month on June 28, a woman was set on fire while she was sitting in her vehicle along the Salado Creek, near the Rice Road trailhead. She survived, but suffered severe burns on her arms and legs. A suspect has been arrested for arson causing bodily injury.

And 37-year-old Moody Arteaga, who had been missing for weeks, was last seen Aug. 27, when he planned to take a walk at the Leon Creek Trail. He was found floating at a SAWS treatment plant — more than 22 miles away on the South Side — on Sept. 7.

Although the homicides occurred on separate trailways, they all belong to a network of trails across the city.

Officials say the homicides are being investigated as isolated incidents and encourage everyone to be aware of their surroundings and report suspicious activity.

SAPD Spokesman Ricardo Guzman told the San Antonio Report that the crimes Park Police respond to are reported on the community crime map by offense date and time.

But because the BCSO is handling Dramiga’s Oct. 5 homicide, and because Castillo’s time of death is unknown, these two deaths along the trails were not reflected on the SAPD crime map as of Friday.

Crime map data is reported by ZIP code on the map and by street block numbers, the city said, so the map doesn’t show exactly where crime is happening along San Antonio trails.

Overall, violent crime is down in San Antonio, largely attributed to the city’s hot spot policing strategy. But the agency doesn’t release specific areas along its hotspot plan for officer safety, so it’s unknown if areas on the trail are included in the hotspots.

As the trails expand and encompass more of the city, more people will become aware of and use them, said Creek Way Trail Advisory Board Chair John Kent. Kent added that some of those wooded areas include homeless encampments, an issue the city acknowledged in a statement to the San Antonio Report.

After the meeting on Wednesday, he said he believes that the homicides were isolated and random.

The creekway parks advisory board declined a request for a Park Police crime statistics report in its meeting last month, but requested one for its upcoming Dec. 10 meeting. 

“It was just too early. We don’t know any facts,” Kent said. “It’s been a month later now and we still don’t know anything…

Where are the hot spots and what are they doing about it? Do they have a task force to concentrate on these areas? … We don’t know yet.”

The city’s parks department communicated plans to add more emergency call towers along the trails, but those plans are still in the design phase.  

City spokesman Luke Simons said the city has over 100 park police patrolling the parks day and night on ATV vehicles, riding bikes, and walking the trails.

SAPD has already added patrol officers and increased the frequency of patrolling along the trailways, he said.

“Adding more officers is a decision that would have to be presented to and voted on by the City Council,” he said in a statement. “If the community feels the need for more Park Police, that can be expressed to their council members and be brought forth in future city council budget sessions.”

If you believe you have any information on the recent homicides, call the SAPD Homicide Unit at 210-207-7635.