Murder of Kendra Hatcher

Dr. Kendra Hatcher was a Dallas-area dentist who grew up in Pleasant Plains, Illinois, and attended DePauw University before earning her dental degree at the University of Kentucky College of Dentistry. In 2015 she worked at Smile Zone, a dental practice serving disadvantaged children. That same year she met Dr. Ricardo "Ricky" Paniagua, a dermatology resident, through Tinder, and the two quickly grew close, planning a trip to Cancún and discussing marriage.

Paniagua had previously been in a nearly three-year relationship with Brenda Delgado, which ended in February 2015 when he broke things off. Although the relationship ended, the two remained in contact, and Delgado believed reconciliation was possible. By June 2015, Paniagua had begun a new relationship with Hatcher and told Delgado by email that it was going well. Unknown to Paniagua, Delgado had continued monitoring his activities after their breakup, retaining access to his email and iCloud accounts, a key to his apartment, and a cellphone-tracking app. She documented his new relationship by taking screenshots of his messages and travel plans.

On September 2, 2015, the day before Hatcher was scheduled to fly to Cancún with Paniagua, she was shot and killed in the parking garage of her apartment complex in what initially appeared to be a robbery. Dallas Police detectives determined within about a week that the killing was staged and traced it to a murder-for-hire plot. Investigators found that Delgado had recruited Kristopher Love, described as a small-time marijuana dealer, and Crystal Cortes, a single mother, to carry out the killing. Delgado reportedly offered Love around $3,000 in money and drugs, invoking supposed cartel connections, while Cortes was offered $500 to drive the getaway car.

After her accomplices were arrested, Delgado fled to Mexico. On April 6, 2016, the FBI named her the 506th fugitive placed on its Ten Most Wanted list, and the ninth woman to appear on that list, offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to her arrest. On April 8, 2016, Mexican authorities, with support from the FBI, arrested Delgado in Torreón, Coahuila. She was extradited to the United States on October 6, 2016, to face capital murder charges; because of Mexico's stance on the death penalty, prosecutors were barred from seeking execution against her as a condition of extradition.

Cortes pleaded guilty in October 2018 and was sentenced to 35 years in prison in exchange for cooperating as a witness against Delgado and Love. On October 31, 2018, Love was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death; he is held at the Allan B. Polunsky Unit in Texas. On June 7, 2019, a jury took 20 minutes to convict Delgado of capital murder, and she was sentenced to life in prison, which she is serving at the William P. Hobby Unit near Marlin, Texas.