The Elizabeth Ennen Case: A Babysitting Nightmare

[Lubbock, Texas]

Elizabeth Ennen (15) planned to babysit for her family friend, Humberto Maldanado Salinas Jr. She agreed to do so because she needed money to buy her brother a nice birthday present.

The plan was to go to a hotel where Bert and his family were temporarily staying at until they found a permanent home.

She was due home around 12am, but never showed up. Instead, Bert knocked on Elizabeth’s mother, Elizabeth’s, door give back a purse Elizabeth had supposedly left while babysitting. According to Bert, he already dropped the teen girl off at home around 15 minutes earlier. His last sight of her was when she opened up the front door to her home, The panic within Virginia began to amplify knowing that her daughter never walked through the door.

Virginia called the police as Bert sat there supporting her. Authorities initially assumed that she had run away from home like many other teenagers. However, her aunt said, “She wouldn’t leave without her cell phone. If a young person runs away, they don’t just leave with nothing.” Bert helped Virginia hand out flyers and ask neighbors if they had seen her.

Police retrieved hotel surveillance footage from that night. At around 10:45pm, the camera captured Bert walking back toward the room where Elizabeth was babysitting. At 11:47pm, Elizabeth was seen rushing out of the hotel room holding her purse. Her body language appeared to be panicked and scared. Bert followed behind her only wearing a white tank top and pants.

The next clip cut to Bert escorting Elizabeth back to the room while holding onto her arm tightly. 8 minutes later, Bert and Elizabeth exited the room once again and walked down the hallway. Suddenly, Elizabeth tried to turn a different direction to escape from his grip, but Bert easily overpowered her and forced her to walk to the parking lot.

Bert confessed that he strangled Elizabeth to death. Bert led investigators to her body which was dumped behind a shed in a deserted area. Detectives believe that Bert came back to the hotel room at 10:45pm while under the influence and tried to sexually assault Elizabeth. When Elizabeth tried to run, Bert knew he was going to have to kill her to cover his actions.

In 2012, Bert pled guilty to capital murder.

Ennen’s mother, Virginia, was heartbroken when she found out Bert was behind her daughter’s murder. He had been a dear family friend for years. In fact, she gave him a place to stay at for a while when he was homeless. “This is how you repay us?” Virginia asked him in court.