Parents react as one of three people who killed their 17-year-old daughter walks out of prison
HOUSTON - "You never want your child's killer out," said Carrie Ruiz.
The text Ruiz got telling her Jay Ferrel was free from prison brought back more than just tears.
"It felt like when the detectives come and tell you your baby's gone, they found your daughter dead or when you go to the cemetery to see the headstone for the first time and reality sits in," she said.
"We'll never get over it,' said Felicia's father Lou Ruiz. "We think about her all the time. She's with us always.'
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In 1999, Ferrel, Lisa Huerta, and Jesus Salazar stabbed Felicia to death after telling her they were all going to a Halloween party.
In a 2008 prison interview, Jay Ferrel said he did nothing more than watch Huerta and Salazar kill Felicia, he didn't even ask them why they would do that. He later admitted that made no sense.
Huerta got a 35-year sentence. She comes up for parole again in 2025.
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What would Lou and Carrie Ruiz say to Jay Ferrel if they passed him on the street?
"I don't think I could do any talking," Lou Ruiz said. "It would. Be something else."
"I hope every time from now until the day he dies, every time he has a happy moment that he laughs or smiles, he sees her face in front of him and remembers how he left her in that field that night," said Carrie Ruiz.
Jesus Salazar fled to Venezuela after the murder and has yet to be apprehended.
The Ruiz's say the U.S. Marshals Office is telling them they are getting close to making an arrest.