Oregon Group Home to Indiana Ditch: Prosecutors ID 3rd Man in Seattle Torture Case
Nelson Daniel Ramos-Rivas lived in a Medicaid-funded group home before prosecutors say he helped kidnap, torture and try to kill a Seattle-area woman and then being murdered, his body left in a ditch
Nelson Daniel Ramos-Rivas (photo courtesy Lake County, IN Sheriff’s Office)
A King County, WA prosecutor has publicly identified for the first time the previously unnamed third man prosecutors say caravaned from a Medicaid-funded group home in Lake Oswego, Oregon to kidnap, torture and attempt to murder a Seattle-area woman in January 2025.
Newly filed court records identify the man, formerly known publicly only as “Daniel,” as Nelson Daniel Ramos-Rivas, a 23-year-old Venezuelan whose body was found in a roadside ditch in northwest Indiana roughly a month later, after being fatally shot.
The identification appears in a May 2026 prosecution motion seeking DNA samples from Kevin Daniel Sanabria Ojeda and Alexander Moises Arnaez-Guttierrez, both charged in the Washington case. The King County Sheriff’s Office believes Arnaez-Guttierrez has “probable ties to Tren de Aragua,” the Venezuelan gang that specializes in murder, extortion and human trafficking, according to KOMO News.
Oregon Roundup Foundation, which has reported on the Washington attempted murder and its Oregon connections over the past year, recently obtained the filing, which has not been previously reported.
“Hit her, kill her, we’ll just go dump her somewhere far”
King County prosecutors allege on January 21, 2025, Arnaez-Guttierrez, Ojeda and Ramos-Rivas, kidnapped Maria Guadalupe Hernandez Velasquez outside her Burien, WA apartment, stole $20,000 in gold from her purse, drilled her right hand to obtain her bank account information, and shot and left her for dead in the snow alongside a mountain freeway.
At the time, Ojeda and Ramos-Rivas lived in a Lake Oswego, Oregon group home, as did a man identified only by his initials, PA, by law enforcement for his safety.
According to a Certification for Determination of Probable Cause accompanying charging documents against Ojeda and Arnaez-Guttierrez, and amended charging documents against Ojeda, PA told officers Ojeda and Ramos-Rivas left the group home a couple days before the attempted murder of Velasquez. The two men understood there was a woman in the Seattle area with gold, whom they wanted to rob. They invited PA to accompany them, but PA declined.
According to the certification, Ojeda and Ramos-Rivas traveled from Lake Oswego to Burien, WA in separate vehicles, Ramos-Rivas in a blue Chevy Malibu and Ojeda on a motorcycle. Once in the Seattle area, the two men joined up with Arnaez-Guttierrez and waited for their chance to jump Velasquez outside her apartment.
Around 8 p.m., they got their chance. Velasquez returned to her apartment after a day of working as a house cleaner and hanging out with a friend to find two Hispanic men loitering near the entrance of her apartment. Witnesses told police Ojeda and Ramos-Rivas waited to confront Velasquez near the entrance of her apartment, while Arnaez-Guttierrez waited in the parked car.
Police summarized Velasquez’s account of what happened next (police refer to her as “Hernandez”):
[T]he two males near the entrance to her apartment approached her and stated they had been waiting for her. One of the suspects had a gun and said that he knew Hernandez lived alone. He also knew Hernandez would get home around 6:00 to 7:00 PM and that she made them wait three hours. They then forced Hernandez into their vehicle. Hernandez stated she screamed and yelled for help and fought back, but no one helped her. As Hernandez fought , one of the suspects shot at her but missed. The suspects eventually forced Hernandez into the back seat of their vehicle and she was made to lie on the floorboard.
Police believe it was Ojeda who fired at Velasquez in the parking lot.
Velasquez told police two men sat in the back seat, kicking her in the head to keep her on the floorboard as the car left her apartment complex parking lot. The men took her purse, which contained some $20,000 in gold, jewelry and her credit cards and keys. The men then “forced Hernandez to provide the PIN for her credit card/bank cards by drilling into her right hand with a power drill,” according to police. The men threatened to kill her and her family if she reported the incident.
The men eventually obtained her PIN numbers from her cell phone, stopped at a gas station to ensure they worked at an ATM, then headed east on Interstate 90. As they drove, Velasquez told police the men talked among themselves, planning to “hit her, kill her, we’ll just go dump her somewhere far.”
Near the summit of Snoqualmie Pass, the driver pulled the car over. The men took Hernandez Vazquez out of the car, threw her over the jersey barrier alongside the freeway and shot her. She ducked, was struck in the shoulder, screamed and played dead in the snow. Subsequent police interviews of Ojeda and PA suggested the men thought they had killed her. She continued to play dead until the men left before crawling for help, leaving a trail of blood in the snow.
Interstate 90 near Hyak, Washington, where prosecutors say the three alleged assailants left Velasquez for dead. (Photo by Jeff Eager, 1/2/26)
According to the police certification, after leaving Velasquez alongside the freeway, beieving her dead, the three men responsible for her plight brazenly returned to her apartment complex, where they had hours earlier apprehended her to the soundtrack of screams and gunfire. They stole her car for good measure, using the keys from her purse, then scattered.
Arnaez-Guttierrez was dropped off somewhere in Washington. Ojeda drove the Malibu, and Ramos-Rivas drove Velasquez’s gold Hyundai Elantra back to Lake Oswego. Ojeda told police he stopped and bought himself new shoes with Velasquez’s credit card “because he felt bad about what happened.”
Ramos-Rivas ditched the Elantra near a Lake Oswego intersection about a mile from the group home. When Ramos-Rivas and Ojeda returned to the group home, Ojeda told PA about the robbery and gave him some of the jewelry he’d stolen from Velasquez and a phone, PA told police.
Then, Ramos-Rivas, Ojeda and Ramos-Rivas left Lake Oswego, planning to travel first to the Tri Cities, WA, and then to Chicago, where PA told detectives one or more of the men had an immigration appointment. PA said he left the group house with the other two men because he did not want to be left alone in the house.
The three men left Lake Oswego in two cars, a white Toyota Camry and the Malibu. Ramos-Rivas’ wife, cousin and brother-in-law accompanied them. None of the three men ever returned to the group house, or Oregon.
A photo posted June 13, 2024, to the Facebook page of “Daniel Qlqwa” shows the page’s owner in front of the Lake Oswego group home of Ojeda, Ramos-Rivas and PA
Dead in an Indiana ditch
What happened when the caravan reached Illinois and Indiana is less clear.
According to the officer certification, a license plate reader logged the Malibu at a Red Roof Inn in Lansing, IL January 29, eight days after the robbery, kidnapping and attempted murder of Velasquez.
Officers obtained closed circuit footage from the hotel, which showed Ojeda with a male associate, whom officers identified as PA. The certification does not mention any evidence that Ramos-Rivas was still with the men as of January 29.
The FBI detained Ojeda and PA at the hotel the morning of January 30. A King County Sheriff detective placed Ojeda under arrest for the alleged crimes against Velasquez. After determining PA was not involved in the alleged crimes in Washington, he was released with a tracking ankle bracelet.
Media reports say a road crew discovered Ramos-Rivas’ body at 9:28 a.m. February 28, 2025, near the southbound ramp from U.S. Highway 231 and Interstate 65 in Crown Point, Indiana. The coroner determined the cause of death was homicide by gunshot wound to the head. The suspected date and location of Ramos-Rivas’ death have not been reported. Media reports said Ramos-Rivas’ last known address was in Tillamook County, Oregon. ORF was unable to corroborate via online records that Ramos-Rivas lived in Tillamook County.
Later reports say two suspects were arrested in Seattle for Ramos-Rivas’ murder, with charges pending against them in Indiana. No reports identify the arrested men, and ORF was unable despite repeated outreach to Indiana and Washington officials to verify that Indiana charges are pending against Ojeda and Arnaez-Guttierrez arising from the death of Ramos-Rivas.
King County prosecutors’ DNA motion filed May 28, 2026, however, reveals for the first time publicly the “Daniel” prosecutros say helped Ojeda and Arnaez-Guttierrez on their alleged crime spree against Velasquez in and around Seattle on January 21, 2025, was the now-deceased Nelson Daniel Ramos-Rivas.
A portion of King County prosecutors’ motion to obtain DNA samples from Ojeda and Arnaez-Guttierrez
Ojeda and Arnaez-Guttierrez are scheduled to stand trial October 13. They have pleaded not guilty to the Washington crimes. They are innocent until proven guilty.
Group home part of Medicaid fraud probe
Remarkably, the tragic tale featuring people in roadside ditches 2,000 miles apart is not the full story. A year-long investigation by ORF has uncovered evidence Uplifting Journey LLC, which operated the Lake Oswego group home in which Ojeda, Ramos-Rivas and PA lived was part of a network of companies engaged in illegal Medicaid practices.
Uplifting Journey operated the home from approximately February 2024 through March 2025. ORF exclusively reported nearly a year ago the Oregon Health Authority, which administers Oregon’s Medicaid program known as the Oregon Health Plan, paid Uplifting Journey $2.3 million between April 2024 and March 2025 in Medicaid reimbursements for behavioral health services. That timeframe includes the time Ojeda, Ramos-Rivas and PA lived in the home.
Uplifting Journey’s Portland headquarters was locked and appeared abandoned during an ORF visit during business hours August 20, 2025, ORF. OHA told ORF it conducted no background checks on the owners of Uplifting Journey, Julius Maximo and Espoir Ntezeyombi, and performed no site visits of the group home, indicating federal law does not requires such checks.
Uplifting Journey had vacated the Lake Oswego group home by September 2025, shortly after ORF broke the story of Oregon payments to the company, according to a new resident of the house and neighbors. However, the company operated another group home in Gresham, Oregon, another Portland suburb.
Uplifting Journey began renting the Gresham group home in November 2024, ORF reported last December. Its lease was co-signed by Theodore Mucuranyana. Mucuranyana is the pastor of Hope of Life International Church in Phoenix, Arizona.
In April 2025, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) charged Mucuranyana with multiple counts of money laundering for allegedly receiving payments via the church in amounts up to $5 million from Medicaid provider Happy House Behavioral Health LLC. In the same indictment, Mayes charged Happy House Behavioral Health and its owners, Desire Rusingizwa and Fabrice Mvuyekure of defrauding Arizona’s Medicaid agency of $60 million by obtaining reimbursements for deceased clients, incarcerated clients and on other fraudulent bases.
Portion of the lease for the Gresham group house, featuring signatures from Julius Maximo and Theodore Mucuranyana.
Mucuranyana’s attorney denied his client committed any crimes, and the Arizona charges remain pending. Uplifting Journey’s Gresham landlord eventually evicted the company for non-payment of rent.
Mucuranyana’s co-signing its Gresham lease is not the only connection between Uplifting Journey and the high-profile Arizona fraud case. A LinkedIn profile of someone with the name Espoir Ntezeyombi, the same name as the Uplifting Journey co-owner, shows he was employed as a “Behavioral Health Technician” for an Uplifting Care LLC in Arizona.
Arizona business records show Uplifting Care LLC’s statutory agent - the person designated by the company to receive service of process - is Desire Rusingizwa, the same name as the indicted co-owner of alleged fraudulent Happy House Behavioral Health. The Glendale, Arizona address for the members of Uplifting Care matches an address provided to the Gresham landlord for Mucuranyana.
One such member, Fred Ndungutse, was the point of contact for the Gresham landlord’s communications regarding Mucuranyana’s co-signing the Uplifting Journey lease, according to an email obtained by ORF.
Another Oregon company associated with Uplifting Journey co-owner Maximo, Versa Force LLC, operates to this day a group home near the border of Portland and Tigard, Oregon. According to two former residents of the house, they and other residents were solicited to move into the group house from Portland homeless service providers. The two former residents of the house interviewed by ORF said they were forced to apply for Washington Medicaid benefits, even though they were Oregon residents and already Oregon Health Plan recipients. It is illegal under federal law for providers to require a resident to apply for and receive Medicaid benefits from another state.
Residents of the Tigard group home described a chaotic environment in the house, with the Versa Force employee acting as the house manager providing alcohol to residents and provided scant supervision. Dishes went undone and the house was without toilet paper for weeks, the residents told ORF.
Versa Force’s sole concern, it seemed to the residents, was for the them to attend nightly Zoom sessions with a nurse practitioner based in Texas, so Versa Force could bill Apple Health for care provided to Oregonians, in Oregon.
The former residents provided ORF with photos of documents in the Tigard group house including a photo of Maximo, checks from Uplifting Journey and partially completed U.S. immigration documents in which Maximo, who claims U.S. citizenship in the documents, represents he can support a Sarah Nabbaale of Entebbe, Uganda if she were allowed to emigrate to the U.S.
Photo taken by former Tigard group house resident Damian Fagerlie.
Maximo listed his employers, including Uplifting Journey, on the immigration form. It is unknown what relation Nabbaale is to Maximo, and whether Maximo ever submitted an affidavit of support for her.
Hope of Life International Church, the congregation pastored by Uplifting Journey co-signer Theodore Mucuranyana, aims “to bring hope for lost souls, especially those of East African descent,” according to its website. Attorney General Mayes’ indictment alleges the fraudulent behavioral health company laundered its misbegotten millions via a $5 million and other payments to the church, $2 million of which the church allegedly wired to “an entity in Rwanda” in December 2023. Rwanda is a small, war-torn country, adjacent to Uganda, in central eastern Africa.
In March of this year, the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee sent a letter to the State of Oregon describing evidence of Medicaid fraud in the state, including a description of and link to ORF’s coverage of Uplifting Journey. The Committee sought information from the state regarding its efforts to combat fraud.
The Oregon Health Authority and the Oregon Department of Justice have consistently declined to comment to ORF on whether the agencies are investigating Uplifting Journey, Versa Force or any of the other Julius Maximo-affiliated entities operating in Oregon.
It is unknown how Ramos-Rivas, Ojeda and PA came to live in the Lake Oswego group home. The police certification explains only that the men moved into the home approximatley nine months prior to the alleged crimes against Velasquez.
Oregon Roundup Foundation created this article. ORF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation dedicated to covering Oregon political and government news. Media outlets are welcome to use this article for free with attribution of the author and Oregon Roundup Foundation.