EL PASO--- Most days John Guerrero sits at his kitchen table reading the paper.
But whenever David Leonard Wood's name is splashed across the front page, he's reminded of the brutal murders he investigated 22 years ago.
"You go out to the desert and you see a foot sticking out of the dirt and it's been gnawed on by wild animals. And you realize what you're looking at is somebody's daughter," said Guerrero.
In the fall of 1987 the bodies of six young El Paso girls were unearthed. Guerrero was one of the detectives who helped uncover one of El Paso's most notorious serial murder cases.
"You see those little girls, that's where their life ended. When their pictures were taken, it was a month, two months before they died," said Guerrero reflectively.
One face still comes to him in his dreams; that of 15-year-old Desiree Wheatley.
"It's like I was back there, right at the scene again and can see myself and we're bringing her out and she just kind of stands up and goes, 'You better find out who killed me!' And then oo! I wake up," said Guerrero. "So you know, it's not just something you can put away."
Not being able to put those horrible memories aside affected his personal life, he said.
"We were all affected. Some of us, we got divorced. Some had to go get counseling for some alcohol problems afterwards," he said.
Guerrero now works as an investigator for the Public Defender's office.
Some might say that's working for the 'other' side, but Guerrero says he does the same he's always done; look for evidence, right or wrong.
If anything, his experience with the brutal murders taught him one valuable life lesson.
"Just like David Wood was a predator back then, there are predators now. Whether they're on the internet or out looking around... there's predators out there that are willing to do something to your kids," he said.
It's a lesson he's reminded of every day, reading the paper or not.
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