Ramon Salcido

Ramon Salcido told authorities in a taped confession that he started a grisly wine country murder rampage by slitting the throat of daughter Sofia, 4, after he had learned she was "not my own," after a night of drugs and drinks. In the tape played at his preliminary hearing Friday, Salcido said he drove his three young daughters to a county dump and one by one took the girls from his truck, slashed their throats and threw them down an embankment. "I was drunk. I was out.

Winery worker Ramon Salcido was convicted Tuesday of a murderous rampage through the Sonoma Valley wine country 18 months ago that left his wife, two young daughters, three of his in-laws and his boss dead. Superior Court Judge Reginald Littrell told jurors to return next Wednesday to begin hearing testimony in the trial's penalty phase in which they will decide whether to recommend the death penalty or life in prison without parole.

The bodies of two young girls found Saturday in a garbage dump in Northern California's wine country were the daughters of Ramon Salcido, a winery worker suspected of killing his wife and four others, authorities said. Another child, Salcido's 3-year-old daughter, Carmina, was found alive--but with her throat slit from ear to ear, Sonoma County sheriff's investigators said. She was in guarded condition after surgery at Petaluma Valley Hospital, where she was also being treated for exposure and dehydration, officials said.

Authorities launched a statewide hunt for a hot-tempered, jealous winery worker with a love for guns Friday after a violent rampage that left his wife and four other people dead in the Sonoma County wine country. Law officers said Ramon Salcido, 27, apparently fled with his three small daughters after the killings. Despite roadblocks and a search aided by helicopters, Salcido was still at large Friday night. Authorities said they were worried that his daughters, believed ages 2, 3 and 4, could be harmed.

Mexican authorities Thursday brought fugitive Ramon Salcido to Mexico City and prepared to "deport" him to stand trial in California in last week's bloody slaying of six family members and his boss. Although the Mexican-born Salcido apparently is still a citizen of Mexico, a spokesman for the attorney general's office said he would be deported for illegal entry into the country. "He is a resident of the United States, and he entered Mexico illegally," said the spokesman, Fernando Arias.

If police accounts of Ramon Salcido's rampage are correct, relatives and colleagues are at greatest risk from the 27-year-old winery worker, according to forensic psychiatrists and a psychologist who compiled a profile of the suspect for the Sonoma County sheriff. Strangers face less danger, but after so many killings, Salcido is "capable of anything--capable of suicide, certainly capable of taking another life. . . . Anybody who has contact with him is in jeopardy," Sonoma County Sheriff Richard Michaelsen told reporters after receiving an assessment of Salcido's likely actions from police psychologist H. Wayne Light.

The U.S. Border Patrol took no special measures to stop Ramon Salcido and did not tell its officers to watch for him until two days after his apparent murder spree, officials said Thursday. Despite a massive manhunt involving scores of law enforcement officers, Salcido was able to slip out of Sonoma County and travel hundreds of miles, in part because of gaps in the system by which law enforcement tracks fugitives. "If the public perception is that you may make a single entry and all agencies receive (an all-points bulletin)

In the hours following Ramon Salcido's arrest in rural Mexico, U.S. authorities launched a difficult dance of diplomacy aimed at extraditing him to stand charges of murdering seven people in California. "We're treading on eggs right now," one U.S. official said of negotiations to obtain the return of Salcido, a Mexican citizen. Historically, Mexico has been reluctant to hand over its citizens for prosecution, despite a 1978 U.S.-Mexico extradition treaty. "It's so difficult to use that treaty that it's kind of up to the good will of the Mexican government as to whether we ever get him back," said the official, who asked not to be identified.

A Sonoma County judge is considering terminating the parental rights of Ramon Salcido, accused of murdering six members of his family and a co-worker, even as Salcido tries to transfer custody of his one surviving daughter to relatives in Mexico, lawyers said Tuesday. Sonoma County Public Defender Marteen Miller, Salcido's attorney, emerged from a closed hearing Tuesday and said Superior Court Judge Arnold Rosenfield had scheduled another hearing for next month to determine "whether the court has taken over the rights of the parents or guardians."

She liked cowboys. He dressed like one. He'd bring her books with pictures of horses and she would make drawings of them. After a passionate courtship, Angela and Ramon Salcido were married, on Dec. 8, 1984, over her parents' objections and her mother's characterization of Salcido as "the Mexican." "Ramon said they (the parents) had hatred for us," said Javier Saldana, who worked as a stableman with Salcido in Sonoma County. Their first child, Sofia, was born less than four months after the wedding.