A Houston man is wanted on a murder charge nearly three years after a fatal shooting inside a gated Alief apartment complex left a 21-year-old dead near the property's bushes. Houston police say 31-year-old Alexander Funes-Vasquez has been charged in the killing of Edward Josue Valladarez-Vargas, but he remains at large as investigators ask the public for help finding him.
The shooting happened on October 22, 2023, at the Summerstone Apartments at 9301 Dairy View Lane, a 242-unit gated townhome complex built in 1984 within the Alief Independent School District, according to Apartment Finder. The complex sits in Houston's Alief neighborhood near the intersection of Bissonnet Street and South Dairy Ashford Road, as reported by FOX 26 Houston. Houston police officers responded to a person-down call at the property and found Valladarez-Vargas unresponsive near bushes at about 11:35 p.m., suffering from at least one gunshot wound; Houston Fire Department paramedics pronounced him deceased at the scene, per the Houston Police news release shared through the department's official X account.
Years-Long Gap Before Charges
When officers first responded to the scene that October night in 2023, investigators reported there were no known witnesses or suspects identified in the immediate aftermath, according to a City of Houston news release from that time. That gap helps explain why murder charges took nearly three years to materialize. HPD's Homicide Division, working with Sergeant J. Brooks and Detective C. Flora, eventually identified Funes-Vasquez as the suspect and, after consulting with the Harris County District Attorney's Office, secured a murder charge filed in the 488th Criminal District Court, per the department's news release.
Law enforcement officials have not disclosed how detectives developed Funes-Vasquez as a suspect or what may have motivated the shooting, FOX 26 Houston notes. Those details, along with whether the suspect and victim knew each other and where Funes-Vasquez might be hiding, remain unanswered questions in the case.
A Complex With a Troubled History
This is not the first fatal incident investigators have logged at 9301 Dairy View Lane. The address has been the site of multiple homicide and death investigations over the years, including a January case where 40-year-old Anthony Breaux was found dead inside a parked vehicle, and a May 2007 case where 48-year-old Babatunde Kolade was fatally shot inside his apartment, according to a City of Houston release. Hoodline previously reported on the Breaux case, which explicitly noted the complex's connection to the unsolved 2023 shooting at the time.
Statutory Penalties and Reward for Tips
Under Texas Penal Code Section 19.02, murder is classified as a first-degree felony punishable by 5 to 99 years or life imprisonment in state prison upon conviction, according to Ramos Law. Texas law allows the charge to be reduced to a second-degree felony only if a defendant proves during sentencing that they acted under sudden passion. Funes-Vasquez has not been taken into custody and remains wanted, per HPD's release shared on the department's X account.
Houston Police is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to his arrest. Tipsters can call HPD Homicide at 713-308-3600, contact Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS, or reach out via the department's X account, though HPD notes that account is not monitored 24/7. To collect a Crime Stoppers reward, tipsters must submit information anonymously and receive a unique code number used to track the case status and payout, according to Crime Stoppers of Houston, which paid out $204,150 across 180 tipsters in 2025. Anyone with non-emergency information can also call 713-884-3131, or 911 in an emergency. The case is tracked under incident number 151747723.
Case Fits Into Broader Crime Trends
The delayed charge comes as HPD's homicide division has dramatically improved its ability to close cold cases. The division boosted its internal case clearance rate to nearly 87% by late 2024, recovering from prior years when detectives solved less than half of reported homicides, according to the Houston Chronicle. Detectives attributed the gains to improved digital forensics, rigorous case tracking, and community cooperation.
Citywide homicides have also fallen sharply. Houston recorded 331 homicides in 2024 and 272 in 2025, a 17% drop, following an earlier 9% decline from 2023 to 2024, the Chronicle reported. That downward trend has continued into 2026: the city recorded 95 homicides through June, a 38.3% decrease compared to 154 homicides logged during the same period in 2025, according to the City of Houston's operational summary. Even amid that broader decline, cases like the Valladarez-Vargas shooting show how a single unsolved killing can linger for years before charges catch up with a suspect who remains, for now, still out of custody.
