More people identified in explicit photos, videos kept by Aguirre

Investigators continue to identify people featured in the thousands of photos and videos depicting sex acts kept by murder suspect Richard Aguirre, and several women told police that Aguirre choked them during sex, according to court documents.

Some women said the choking was light, while others reported it was violent and they were in fear for their lives, according to court documents filed this week. In some cases, Aguirre allegedly used a ligature.

Aguirre, who was a Pasco police officer for 27 years before resigning earlier this year, is charged in the killing of Ruby Doss in Spokane in January 1986. Doss, who had been working as a prostitute, was strangled.

His DNA was found at the scene, but no match was found at the time. Aguirre was charged with rape in an unrelated case in November, and he gave a sample of his DNA after his arrest. His sample matched the DNA collected in the Doss case, according to police.

Detective Kip Hollenbeck wrote in an affidavit that he spoke to Aguirre while serving a search warrant to collect his cellphones and computers.

Aguirre told Hollenbeck he thought he was stationed in South Korea with the Air Force at the time of the killing, but records show he left Fairchild Air Force Base in April 1986 and returned in March 1987. “Aguirre never denied killing Ruby Doss during my contact with him,” Hollenbeck wrote.

One of the women investigators have identified was featured in two videos showing her having sex with Aguirre. In each case, Aguirre set up the camera while alone in the room and appeared to make efforts to hide the camera, according to court documents.

The woman told police she did not give Aguirre permission to record her. She also said she was not a willing participant in some of the sex acts but was “intimidated by his size and strength and his authority as a police officer.”

His attorney, Scott Johnson, said he recently received an email from the Spokane County Prosecutor’s Office announcing that new information may lead to additional charges. But Johnson said he was not aware of the new court documents in the case and couldn’t comment on them.

“I haven’t seen any of this,” he said.

Several people identified by police have declined to cooperate with the investigation because of embarrassment and fear of public exposure, Hollenbeck wrote in his affidavit.

Police also have been in contact with a woman who had a long-term dating relationship with Aguirre. She told police she once found a bag of digital memory cards that showed Aguirre having sex with multiple partners, according to court documents. Many of the memory cards were downloaded to her computer, which she turned over to police.

Investigators have not yet examined computers seized from Aguirre because of “the substantial amount of data obtained from the iPhones,” according to court documents. They also found evidence the iPhones had been used to access websites depicting violent rapes, court documents say.

Aguirre is in the Spokane County Jail on a $1 million bond for charges of murder and voyeurism.