TRUE-LIFE
A horror attack in broad daylight left a young mum dead
Marty Castro pleaded with his daughter, Karina, to end her relationship with her violent boyfriend.
‘Every time I saw her, I would beg her. Don’t talk to him. Leave him,’ said Marty.
‘It seemed like the more I did that, the more she would see him.’
Karina’s family knew Jose Rafael Solano Landaeta – known as Rafa Solano – was bad news.
Despite taking medication for schizophrenia, they claimed he drank excessively. The toxic mix made his behaviour wild.
Unpredictable and violent. Yet he had Karina, 27, well and truly in his clutches.
Even after she got a restraining order against him in April 2022, she continued to interact with him and didn’t call the police when Solano violated the order.
Explosive row
The couple shared a daughter, then 1, and Karina had an older girl, then 7, too.
She was dedicated to her girls, and worked as a takeaway delivery driver to support them.
But Solano, a wannabe rapper, continued to cause her trouble.
In Autumn 2022, Karina escaped to a hotel for two weeks in a bid to avoid him.
She’d only been home for a few days when a row exploded between them over Snapchat one morning.
They exchanged explicit and increasingly vicious Snapchat messages.
Karina threatened to expose Solano on social media for a statutory rape conviction that he’d got 10 years earlier.
She called him a rapist and a paedophile.
In reply, Solano called her a ‘snitch’.
F*** around and find out, he wrote.
Hours later, just before midday on 8 September 2022, Solano turned up outside Karina’s flat in San Carlos, just south of San Francisco, California.
They had a confrontation in the street.
Thankfully, Karina’s daughters were both safely inside.
Because neighbours were stunned by the sheer horror of the scene they witnessed next.
EDITOR’S WARNING
Solano went to his car, grabbed a samurai sword, and attacked Karina, hacking her to death.
When officers arrived they found her body. There was blood everywhere.
Neighbour Chapel Thorborne saw the gruesome aftermath.
‘The head was underneath the car and she was laying in back of the car, just severed, and then they covered her up.’
Twenty minutes later, Solano returned to the scene, breathing heavily and sweating.
‘She was trying to kill me, I’m sorry,’ he said. He was arrested.
Then, hearing about the killing through media reports, Marty rushed to the scene.
Arrived to witness the fire department spraying down his daughter’s blood off the street.
Vicious crime
Solano admitted committing the brutal act.
