A 2-Year-Old Is Dead in Louisa County. The Man Charged Was Never Supposed to Be in This Country.
On the afternoon of July 4, 2026, a mother carried her unconscious 2-year-old daughter into the Goochland County Sheriff’s Office in rural Virginia, saying the girl needed emergency help. Deputies and fire-rescue crews tried to revive the child at the scene; she was rushed to St. Mary’s Hospital in Henrico County, where she died of her injuries.
The Louisa County Sheriff’s Office has charged Raul Ortiz Moran, 29 — the mother’s boyfriend, a Mexican national living in the home — with second-degree murder and aggravated sexual battery. According to the Department of Homeland Security, Ortiz Moran is in the country illegally. He was taken into ICE custody before the state charges were even filed and is now held without bond.
Ortiz Moran is charged, not convicted, and is presumed innocent of the underlying conduct unless and until a Virginia court says otherwise. What is not in dispute is his immigration status, and the state policy fight his case immediately became part of.
- 2years oldthe girl killed on Owens Creek Road in Louisa County, allegedly by her mother's boyfriend — Louisa County Sheriff's Office, DHS
- 29years oldRaul Ortiz Moran, the Mexican national and illegal alien now charged with second-degree murder and aggravated sexual battery — DHS, Washington Times
- 0prior ICE encountersdocumented for Ortiz Moran before this case — no source reviewed for this story found a prior removal order or criminal record
- Jan. 17, 2026day oneGov. Abigail Spanberger (D) rescinded Virginia's 287(g) agreements with ICE hours after taking office
- 8thDHS statementthis is at least the eighth 2026 DHS release tying a specific Virginia crime to Spanberger's sanctuary policies, per DHS's own press releases
Louisa County sits in rural central Virginia, roughly halfway between Richmond and Charlottesville. Just after 3:10 p.m. on Saturday, July 4, the child’s mother arrived at the Goochland County Sheriff’s Office — in the neighboring county — after traveling from a home in the 1500 block of Owens Creek Road, saying she needed emergency help for her daughter. The girl was not conscious. Goochland deputies and fire-rescue personnel began life-saving measures immediately; she was transported to St. Mary’s Hospital in Henrico County, where she was pronounced dead.
Louisa County investigators, who took over the case since the underlying incident happened in their jurisdiction, said deputies noted numerous injuries to the child’s head and body that were inconsistent with an accident. Detectives’ initial request for an arrest warrant was turned back by a magistrate pending additional evidence — a normal, if unusually visible, part of how Virginia warrants work — and investigators returned with the evidence needed to secure charges. Louisa County Sheriff Donald “Donnie” Lowe did not soften the tone of the case once charges were filed: “I’m going to do everything in my power, in my ability, pull every resource I can, to put this man in jail for the rest of his life.”
Ortiz Moran is a Mexican national who, according to DHS, is in the United States illegally. He was living in the Owens Creek Road home with the child’s mother as her boyfriend. Once Louisa County investigators identified him as a suspect and moved toward charges, local authorities contacted ICE directly; ICE took him into federal custody based on his immigration status before the state murder and sexual-battery charges were formally lodged. He remains in ICE custody without bond as the Louisa County case proceeds.
No source reviewed for this story — not DHS’s own release, not local Virginia outlets, not wire coverage — documents a prior ICE encounter, removal order, or criminal record for Ortiz Moran before this case. DHS Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis framed the case as a matter of his presence in the country at all, not a missed prior warning.
“This monster sexually assaulted and murdered a 2-year-old girl in Virginia. Thanks to the cooperation of our local law enforcement partners, this killer is off the streets and will face justice for his crimes. This horrific tragedy was completely avoidable because this illegal alien should have never been in our country.”
Lauren Bis, DHS Assistant Secretary — July 22, 2026
Hours after being sworn in on January 17, 2026, Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) signed an executive order rescinding her predecessor Glenn Youngkin’s directive that four state agencies — the Virginia State Police, Department of Corrections, Conservation Police, and Marine Police — maintain 287(g) agreements authorizing their officers to help ICE identify and hold deportable immigrants. Bis invoked that order directly: “Governor Spanberger’s sanctuary policies have made Virginia a hotbed for illegal alien crime.”
That framing needs a correction DHS’s statement does not make: Spanberger’s order binds state agencies, not county sheriffs. Louisa County Sheriff Lowe and Goochland County Sheriff Steven Creasey made their own call to bring ICE in on this case — exactly the local cooperation that produced Ortiz Moran’s swift transfer to federal custody. This is at least the eighth DHS release in 2026 pairing a specific Virginia crime with Spanberger’s sanctuary stance, following cases in Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William, and Franklin counties since February. A spokesperson for Spanberger pushed back on the blanket label: the governor “strongly believes violent criminals who are in the United States illegally should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and deported,” and “the Virginia Department of Corrections continues the long-standing practice of notifying ICE” when foreign-born individuals are in state custody.
The Louisa County Sheriff's Office said it charged Raul Ortiz Moran, 29, with second-degree murder and aggravated sexual assault in the July 4 killing of the toddler.
The prosecution now falls to Louisa County Commonwealth’s Attorney R.E. “Rusty” McGuire (R), who has held the office since 2011 and has run unopposed in every re-election since. His office, not any state agency, will try the murder and sexual-battery charges against Ortiz Moran in Louisa County Circuit Court.
Donald “Donnie” Lowe (R) — Louisa County Sheriff; his office filed the charges and coordinated with ICE.
Steven Creasey (Independent) — Goochland County Sheriff, whose deputies responded first and whose office cooperated with ICE on the transfer.
R.E. “Rusty” McGuire (R) — Louisa County Commonwealth’s Attorney; will prosecute the state charges.
Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) — whose day-one executive order ended state-level 287(g) cooperation with ICE; her spokesperson says she supports prosecuting and deporting violent illegal immigrants.
Lauren Bis — DHS Assistant Secretary; issued the department’s public statement on the case.
Ortiz Moran remains in ICE custody without bond while Louisa County’s case against him moves through Circuit Court. He is charged, not convicted, and the presumption of innocence applies to the murder and sexual-battery allegations themselves — a jury, not a press release, will decide what happened inside that Owens Creek Road home. What is already established is the immigration paper trail: a man DHS says had no legal right to be in the country was living with a toddler who is now dead, and no record surfaced in this reporting of any earlier encounter that might have flagged him first.
A 2-year-old girl is dead in Louisa County, and the man charged with killing and sexually assaulting her is an illegal alien with no documented prior encounter with federal immigration authorities. He is charged, not convicted. Local sheriffs in Louisa and Goochland Counties cooperated directly with ICE to secure his transfer to federal custody — cooperation that happened despite, not because of, Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s (D) day-one order ending state-agency 287(g) agreements with ICE. DHS says this is at least the eighth time in 2026 it has tied a specific Virginia crime to that sanctuary policy.
