Wife Held in Husband’s Killing

A 37-year-old mother of five was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of shooting her husband, dismembering his body and setting the remains ablaze, Ventura police said.

Gladis Barreras Soto, 37, is believed to have shot Pedro Alba Barragan, 35, the father of her five young children, once in the head before cutting up his body with an electric saw in the garage of their apartment building, authorities said.

Soto allegedly stuffed Barragan’s head, legs and arms into a trash bag, which she doused with gasoline and set afire near a recreational vehicle park north of Surfers Point, according to police accounts.

Soto was arrested after authorities identified the body through fingerprints and served a search warrant at the couple’s modest West Ramona Street apartment, where they discovered the rest of Barragan’s body. The remains were removed from the rear of the family’s single-car garage.

Police investigators wearing rubber gloves also carted away a red metal gasoline can and a circular saw from the apartment complex in an alley just off Ramona in western Ventura.

“It’s definitely a gruesome crime,” said Ventura Police Lt. Brad Talbot. “And it’s really hard to grasp what may be going through someone’s mind as they do this. I don’t know if we’ll ever know the answer to that.”

Talbot said the couple had argued in the hours before Barragan’s death. He did not say what the argument was about, but one law enforcement source close to the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said alleged infidelity was a source of conflict.

Authorities picked up Soto for questioning at the apartment early Tuesday and said she was cooperative with investigators. She was booked on suspicion of murder later in the day.

Police were led to Barragan’s burned body parts Monday night after employees of the Ventura Beach RV Park called to report that a bag of remains had been dumped just outside the park.

A transient told authorities he saw a woman in a blue hatchback drive to the area about 6:30 p.m. and unload a full garbage bag. The woman doused the bag with some kind of fluid before setting it on fire, according to various accounts, and drove away in the direction of downtown Ventura.

The unidentified transient ran to summon park security guard Edward Long. Long said that as he ran toward the fire with an extinguisher, the transient told him there appeared to be body parts in the bag.

“But I didn’t stop to acknowledge what he said, really,” Long said. “I didn’t really believe him at first.”

It wasn’t until a blast from the extinguisher hit the bag that Long saw what was inside.

“It was very, very gruesome,” Long said. “I didn’t see a torso, just the other parts. But I kept putting out the fire because I didn’t want anyone else to come by and find this.”

Joel Crawley, property manager for the complex where the couple lived in a working-class section of western Ventura, said it had been obvious for several months that Barragan and Soto were having problems.

The couple moved into the apartment Nov. 6, Crawley said. A few weeks later, Barragan, who worked as a welder, came into Crawley’s office and said he could not pay the rent.

“He sat down and said, ‘She left me and took all the rent money,’ ” Crawley said. “He thought he might have to move out because he couldn’t pay the rent, but he was actually able to pay and she did apparently come back.”

Crawley described Barragan as “real easygoing, real polite.”

Residents of the area said Barragan and his family seemed friendly. The couple’s children played with other neighborhood youngsters. Barragan liked his mariachi music loud, the neighbors said.

Ventura County Child Protective Services workers were called to the home Tuesday. Talbot said the children, ages 6 to 11, apparently did not see their father’s violent death. Authorities described the children as deeply distraught.

Although other relatives live in Ventura County, Talbot did not know if the children had been placed in their care.

“It’s certainly a tragedy,” Talbot said. “It’s a tragedy that violence in a domestic situation rose to the level that it did. My initial reaction here is not so much the bizarreness of the crime as much as the sadness.”

Times staff writer Fred Alvarez contributed to this story.