Editor’s Note: This is the second article in a two-part series about the life and career of famed El Paso private investigator Jay J. Armes.
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The office of private investigator Jay J. Armes can be seen on Montana Street in Central El Paso. Inside are pictures of investigations past.
Armes lives in the Lower Valley but has traveled around the world solving crimes. He told KTSM 9 News that he’s done too many investigations to count, but some he will never forget.
During an interview with KTSM 9 News, he pulled out pictures of himself and Marlon Brando, an actor who hired Armes back in the ’70s.
“When the most famous actor in the world called me from Paris,” said Armes, “he says, ‘my son has been kidnapped.’ And he says, ‘I’ve got the FBI on it, they have not found him.'”
Brando hired Armes to find his son, Christian, who was kidnapped from Beverly Hills, California. Armes found the boy in San Felipe, Mexico, and flew him back to America.
“I’ve got Christian with me and he’s very sick and he can barely breathe,” said Armes. “Found out that she was the one who staged the kidnapping.”
After solving the Brando case, Armes returned to El Paso. Years later he traveled 8,000 miles to Chiang Mai, Thailand, to solve another one of his most memorable cases. Armes went to find Donald Weber, who was accused of killing a Northwestern University medical student in the ’90s.
“I said, ‘We’re from the United States and we’re private investigators,’ and showed him my credentials. And he said, ‘what do you want? And I said, ‘I want to know where you buried Lynda,'” said Armes.
Armes still remembers every detail of when he found Weber in Thailand and convinced him to return to the U.S. and show Armes where he buried the body.
“He had gone to Flagstaff, Arizona, in his mother’s car and he had buried her over there, just on top of the soil,” said Armes.
Armes showed KTSM 9 News pictures from when he went to Arizona to find the body, yet another case solved.
In a closet at his Lower Valley estate, he still has the cross pin that he was seen wearing in Thailand.
Despite traveling around the world for investigations, Armes always comes home to El Paso.
“The Lord Jesus Christ has given the ability to be able to solve cases that nobody else can solve and I’m just here in El Paso and I’m still an El Paso boy,” said Armes.
This is the second article in a two-part series, about Jay J. Armes. Read the first article, “Jay J. Armes still solving cases at 88, says it keeps him young,” which first appeared on KTSM.com on Feb. 16, 2021.
