00:00The remains of a suspected serial killer were recently dug up and removed from a U.S. military
00:05cemetery thanks to a new law aimed at this specific case that closed a loophole allowing
00:10them to stay there for decades. I know there was a lot going on there in that sentence.
00:15The body of Fernando Cota found its eternal resting place at Fort Houston National Cemetery
00:20in San Antonio. He was drafted into the army in the 60s and served in Vietnam. Since he was a
00:25veteran, when he died by suicide in 1984, he was able to be buried in a military cemetery.
00:31Only he really should not have been. Despite his time in military service, this guy was a hardened
00:36criminal and possibly even a serial killer. In 1975, Cota was convicted of the attack and rape of a
00:43nurse. Now, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison but got out on parole. In 84, police in California
00:48pulled him over. Instead of going back to prison, Cota took his own life. Now, one typically doesn't
00:53end up in jail with a routine traffic stop, but that one was anything but routine. Inside of Cota's
00:59van, cops discovered the body of a missing 21-year-old, and he was later linked to multiple
01:04sexual assaults as well as the murders of six women in San Jose. But despite all of that, he was
01:10still
01:10allowed to be buried at Fort Houston thanks to a legal technicality which has finally been rectified
01:16with a new law. It was introduced by Texas Senator John Cornyn and co-sponsored by fellow Lone Star
01:21state lawmaker Ted Cruz. The law, which is focused solely on Cota, gave the Department of Veterans
01:26Affairs the directive to remove his remains.
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