SAN ANTONIO – Last week would have been Christi Kaufman’s 48th birthday. Instead, her brother Patrick is still doing what he’s been doing for more than three decades — pushing for answers in a case that has never been solved.
Kaufman was 15 years old when she was shot and killed inside a home on San Antonio’s East Side on Feb. 21, 1994. Her cousin, Debbie Perkins, 23, was killed the same night. Debbie was six months pregnant at the time of her death.
According to the San Antonio Police Department’s cold case records, the two women were inside a home in the 100 block of Fredonia Street when someone entered the house just after 1 a.m. Investigators believe the intruder was looking for Perkins’ boyfriend, who was not home at the time.
A witness in the back room reported hearing an argument, followed by multiple gunshots. Both Perkins and Kaufman were shot and later died from their wounds.
The case is listed under SAPD cold case number 94-097522.
Police describe the suspect as a man with a slender build, wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans, and driving a blue Oldsmobile Cutlass. No arrest has ever been made.
Patrick Kaufman was 16 years old when he got the phone call that changed his family’s life forever.
“I was 16 years old. My sister was 15,” he told KSAT. “My sister went over there that night to babysit. About midnight, we received a phone call saying that my cousin had got shot and my sister was all right. And when we got to the scene, they were both gone. We went to the hospital, and that’s when we found out that both my sister and my cousin were deceased.”
In the years since, Patrick Kaufman says he has shown up at SAPD’s homicide division repeatedly looking for updates — and has filed Freedom of Information Act requests trying to get answers on his own.
“I believe the homicide detective on the case came and spoke to my mother one time — the following day,” he said. “And that was the only time that I can say they took a step to find out what was going on.”
He says he believes someone in San Antonio knows what happened that night.
“San Antonio is small, to a certain extent,” Patrick Kaufman said. “Somebody has been spoken to. They have told someone. There’s a cousin that knows, there’s an auntie that knows, there’s a friend that knows somewhere — there is somebody.”
His message to whoever that person might be is simple.
“It’s been 35 years,” he said. “Have some type of empathy, have some type of compassion.”
In a statement to KSAT, SAPD confirmed there is an active investigation into the 1994 deaths.
“Currently, there is an active investigation into the deaths of Debbie Perkins and Christi Kaufman,” the department said. “Debbie was pregnant at the time of her death. If the public has any information, they’re asked to call the Cold Case Tip line at 210-207-7401.”
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