An arrest affidavit says investigators found signs of cleanup, a bullet-damaged vehicle and purchases made with the victim’s debit card.
SAN ANTONIO, Texas — A 31-year-old San Antonio man was jailed after police found his 54-year-old father dead inside a blood-leaking trash bag at a West Side home, authorities said, as homicide detectives tried Sunday to determine who killed the man and whether more charges will follow.
The case has moved quickly from a family welfare check to a homicide investigation with questions that are still unresolved. Daniel Sebastian Ordonez has been charged with tampering with or fabricating physical evidence and failing to report human remains in the death of his father, Daniel Antonio Ordonez. Investigators say the elder Ordonez died from a gunshot wound to the head, but his son has not been charged with murder. That gap has made the case stand out: police say they have evidence of concealment and cleanup, yet key parts of the killing itself remain publicly unexplained.
According to the arrest affidavit, the investigation began when a relative who lived out of town asked police to check on Daniel Antonio Ordonez after noticing unusual activity tied to his phone and smart watch. Officers first went to a rental property the father owned and used location data from the phone to focus their search. There, investigators found the device and the victim’s keys hidden in a plant pot under what the affidavit described as fresh soil. They also found one of the victim’s vehicles parked behind the property with an apparent bullet hole in the rear driver-side window. From there, police searched the victim’s primary home in the 3100 block of Vera Cruz on the city’s West Side. At that property, officers saw a large black trash bag with what appeared to be blood leaking from it. After cutting a small opening in the bag, they found a dead man inside, later identified as Daniel Antonio Ordonez.
The affidavit says the scene showed more than a body left behind. Investigators reported apparent drag marks in blood near the bag, suggesting the remains had been moved. Crime scene officers then used a latent bloodstain reagent and said it revealed evidence that blood had been cleaned up both inside and outside the home. The Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office later determined that Daniel Antonio Ordonez died from a gunshot wound to the head and ruled the death a homicide. Police also said surveillance video and store receipts showed Daniel Sebastian Ordonez using his father’s debit card to buy items at Walmart and Home Depot after the killing. The listed purchases included cleaning supplies, duct tape, gloves, a shovel, concrete and what the affidavit called a “mummy” style sleeping bag. Investigators said those items fit their theory that someone tried to hide the killing and destroy evidence. During questioning, the son denied involvement and said he did not know what happened to his father, according to the affidavit.
The evidence described so far sketches a case built around two locations, digital tracking and behavior after the death rather than a public explanation of the shooting itself. Police traced the father’s phone to one property, found his keys buried in soil and then shifted to the Vera Cruz home, where they say the body and blood evidence were waiting. The reported purchases with the victim’s debit card added another layer because they gave detectives a timeline they could compare against surveillance footage, receipts and forensic work at the scene. What authorities have not said, at least publicly, is when exactly Daniel Antonio Ordonez was shot, who was in the house at that moment, or whether they believe one person alone carried out every step described in the affidavit. They also have not publicly laid out a motive. Those unknowns are central to the case because they separate what police say they can already prove — concealment, failure to report, a homicide ruling — from the larger question of who actually committed the killing.
That legal distinction is likely to shape the next stage of the case. Daniel Sebastian Ordonez was booked into the Bexar County jail on April 9, according to county booking records, and local reporting said he remained there Sunday with no bond set. As of April 12, prosecutors had not publicly filed a murder charge. That does not mean the case is ending with the current counts. In homicide investigations, police and prosecutors often file initial charges tied to evidence handling or concealment while detectives continue interviews, lab testing and a fuller reconstruction of the death. Here, investigators still have room to develop ballistics evidence, examine the bullet-damaged vehicle, test items recovered from the home and compare purchase records with the physical evidence collected at the scene. Detectives may also try to pin down the exact window of death using medical findings, device data and witness accounts. Whether the present charges stay as they are or expand into a murder case will likely depend on what that additional work shows in the coming days.
Neighbors were left with grief and disbelief after the arrest. Diana Escobedo, who lives next door, told local television reporters that she was saddened to hear Daniel Sebastian Ordonez might be involved because Daniel Antonio Ordonez often spoke warmly about his children. “His kids,” Escobedo said, “he always talked about them.” Her reaction reflected a tension at the center of the case: the public record now describes a brutal death and a suspected cover-up, while people who lived nearby say the family they thought they knew does not match the violence detectives are investigating. Escobedo also said she wants to know who killed the older man and why. In another brief comment, she said she hopes whoever was responsible shows remorse. For now, that human uncertainty sits beside the forensic one. The body has been identified, the death has been ruled a homicide and the son is in jail, but the clearest answer in the case — who pulled the trigger — had not been publicly given by Sunday.
As of Sunday, Daniel Sebastian Ordonez remained jailed in Bexar County on evidence-tampering and failure-to-report charges, while homicide detectives continued to work through the shooting, the cleanup evidence and the timeline of the father’s death. The next major step is whether prosecutors add a murder charge once the investigation is further developed.
Author note: Last updated April 12, 2026.