WARNING: PHOTO GRAPHICS
Ramón Sosa was stunned to find himself in a shallow grave with a gunshot wound to his right temple. Except it was all an act to deceive his wife, who planned to kill the former professional boxer by hiring a hit man.
“When the investigators told me the plan, my first thought was, ‘You’ve got to be kidding, man,'” Sosa told Fox News Digital. “I thought they had enough evidence to arrest her. They told me, ‘Yes, we have enough evidence, but she’s a beautiful lady. She’s a mother of two, a member of the community. We don’t want to take a chance to go to trial and one of the members from the jury feeling sorry for her. We want to show her a picture of you dead, get a reaction and use it as evidence. And that’s how it all went.”
Sosa is telling her story on Investigation Discovery’s (ID) popular true crime series “Who (Bleep) Did I Marry?” The show, which premiered in 2010, explores the stories of people who say “I do” to their “soul mates,” only to discover that their spouses have a shocking secret.
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Ramón Sosa, author of “I Walked Over My Own Grave,” shares his story on ID’s true crime series “Who (Bleep) Did I Marry?”
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“I don’t want other couples in difficult situations to go through what I went through,” Sosa explained. “And to this day, people still say to me, ‘Wow, I can’t believe that happened to you.’ It happened to me. It could happen to you. It could happen to anyone.”
Sosa, the son of a professional wrestler, began a successful boxing career in his native Puerto Rico. As a teenager, he moved to Texas, where he turned professional at age 17. But after a mismanagement, he no longer wanted to be in the ring. So, he started training boxers in Houston.
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After having bad luck in love, Sosa met a woman whose beauty was shocking. It was in 2007 that Sosa, then 40, pulled off a knockout at a local Latino nightclub.
“I wasn’t dating anyone at the time,” said Sosa, whose first marriage ended in 2000. “But she immediately caught my eye. The way she carried herself, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She just captivated me. Not only was she very beautiful but she could also dance. Then she walked in front of me and all of a sudden she stepped on my toe. And she’s wearing these 6 inch heels. I crouched down and she apologized. All I could say was, ‘ Will you dance with me?’ And we danced all night.”
Ramón Sosa was a professional boxer before becoming a trainer. Nothing could prepare him for María de Lourdes Dorantes, the woman he thought was his soul mate.
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The mysterious woman was María de Lourdes Dorantes, also known as “Lulú”. The busty brunette, originally from Mexico, entered the United States on a visitor visa with her son and her daughter. She was eager to start a new life in Houston and happily adored the father of three. The romance was quick and Sosa found himself on his knees once more. This time, to propose. She became Lulu Sosa in 2009. The couple opened a gym together in 2010.
But, within the third year of their marriage, Sosa said she “started to see the cracks.”
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“Once he got his U.S. citizenship, the way he talked to me and behaved began to change,” Sosa explained. “I remember her saying to me, ‘Now I’m an American. I have all the benefits that you have in this country.’ I just thought to myself, ‘What does that mean?’ It was difficult. She was still trying to make our marriage work. She was trying to be a father figure to her son as he became more rebellious towards me. But it was hard.”
A client who called himself “Mundo” began training at the couple’s gym. He had grown up on the harsh streets of East Houston and wanted to change his life. Sosa became a mentor. Mundo was also friends with Lulu, who started complaining about her husband to him. She finally filed for divorce.
Ramón Sosa thought that Lulú was the love of his life. However, a friend told him that his estranged wife wanted him dead.
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One night, Mundo overheard a conversation he was having with his teenage daughter. It was about a “big shot” that “cuts bodies” in Mexico. It was then that Mundo heard Sosa’s name. The next day, he confronted Lulu, who claimed that Sosa was physically abusing him. She then said: “I hope she disappears”, referring to her husband separated from her. Fearing for the life of his friend, Mundo told Lulu that he believed her accusations and volunteered to help hire a hit man.
Mundo hurried to warn Sosa. He was determined to be in her corner.
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“He already knew that we were going through a difficult divorce,” Sosa explained. “But when she told me what she heard, I just couldn’t believe it. She was hurt. She was angry. She was in shock. We still lived under the same roof. She had a big two-story house. She lived upstairs with her children and her mother. I lived downstairs. I had to go home and see this lady who wanted to kill me. I had to look her in the face.”
Sosa said that he knew why Lulu wanted him dead.
Ramón Sosa said he knew why Lulu wanted him dead before their divorce was finalized.
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“It was all about the money,” he said. “She knew how much money I was worth dead. Business had started to go downhill. She took over the business and many of our members canceled their memberships. No money was coming in. She was very frustrated that the divorce wasn’t going her way. So she was trying to ruin my life by making these false accusations that I was abusive to her, that I was drunk. I guess she felt like she had no choice.”
Sosa contacted the police but was told they needed more evidence. He and Mundo teamed up to do their own amateur detective work, collecting texts and recording daily conversations with Lulu under the pretense that she was hiring a hit man. Evidence of the murder-for-hire plot was presented to investigators.
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“The police got involved when they realized that this was very serious and they wanted me dead as soon as possible,” Sosa said. “The divorce was about to be finalized and she wanted me dead early because she knew how much money I was going to get. If I died after the divorce, my kids would get everything. So she wanted me to leave quickly. Then they brought in their undercover investigator.” .
But to keep the sting going, the police needed a photo of Sosa dead as proof that it had been committed.
With the help of investigators, Ramón Sosa staged his death.
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“They showed me all these photos of dead men with gunshot wounds to the head,” Sosa recalled. “It was horrible. But I thought, ‘Let’s do it, come on.'”
Sosa posed as if his hands were tied. The researchers even threw dirt on her head to get a realistic shot. An undercover agent posing as the hit man showed the photo to Lulu during an arranged meeting in a parking lot. She laughed and talked about paying him $3,000 in cash, even offering jewelry and Sosa’s white truck. Everything was secretly caught on camera.
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Lulu was arrested in 2015.
“The first thing I remembered when he walked into the packed courtroom was hearing the sound of the chains,” Sosa said. “I could hear the sound of those shackles on her wrists and ankles. I remembered looking at her feet and seeing those $1 state shoes they give to prisoners. This lady ended up in this country because she wanted a better life. She was living well. I bought her “Expensive shoes. She wore fine clothes. And now she’s wearing overalls and chains. It didn’t have to be this way.”
Ramón Sosa said that life today is “wonderful.”
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Sosa said that after she pleaded guilty to second-degree capital murder petition, he forgave her. She is now serving 20 years in prison.
“He had a lot of anger towards his family,” she said. “I was a time bomb. I slept with a loaded gun. I had loaded guns in my house, in my car at all times. I was constantly looking over my shoulder. When I decided to forgive her, it was like all the air went out of me. a balloon. I was holding on to so much hate. It was bottled up inside me. And then it came loose. And if it felt so good to not be angry anymore. never look at me. The last thing I remember was the sound of those chains being taken away .
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Life for Sosa today is “wonderful.” He has even found love again and is engaged to a woman “who brought me back to life.” He also wrote a book published in 2019, “Walk on my own grave.”
“Yes [Lulu] If I had just gone through the divorce, I would have gotten half of everything we had together,” Sosa said. “But no, she was very greedy and she wanted more. But today I am here. And I hope my story encourages others to walk away from a difficult situation and get their lives back on track.”
“Who The (Bleep) Did I Marry” airs on Saturdays at 10 pm ET.
