Hey guys, it's been a while since I've put a post up. I apologize for that, things have been very busy with getting ready for the PNW True Crime Fest and running Darkcast Network, but enough of my excuses...Thank you Jerad so much for being the last to buy me a coffee, I just finished it and it was delish!
I keep coming across these damn murder/suicide cases of LGBTQ people! Isn't it bad enough when others kill us, but then we are killing ourselves off too? It really sucks!
This case happened in 2018 in a bathroom in a Houston, Texas residence on Markham Street. The couple were Ben and Rene Ruiz. Ben was 52 and Rene was 62, the gay couple had been together for 20 years. I was in an 18 year relationship that had been unhappy through most of it, just because it was unhealthy. Ben and Rene's relationship was mostly bliss, but then they had fallen out of love with each other. Ben and Rene had decided it was time to call it quits and had filed for divorce.
The couple were pretty wealthy and lived a jet setting type lifestyle. They had a million dollar home, had several homes in Mexico and travelled to many places together. In fact they had just returned to their Houston home after a trip to Buenos Aires. Ben was a creative cosmetics director and through his work, he and Rene would be invited to many swanky events and rub elbows with a bunch celebrities.
Even though their divorce was turning out to be amicable, the medical examiner said on May 3, 2018 Ben shot Rene several times before turning the gun on himself in their bathroom. Not hearing from either man for several days, friends asked for a welfare check on them and that's when the couple was found. No suicide note was left and there is no known motive as to what sparked this incident. There never were any calls for domestic disputes and the couple, in spite of their recent filing for a divorce always seemed to get along. 