Behind the Badge
A smell. A street corner. A song on the radio.
The mundane can unlock details of memories that Investigator Nasario Solis has tucked away for years and, in some cases, decades.
He’s an expert compartmentalizer.
Solis, 58, has to be with the cases he’s worked over the last 36 years — first as a detective with Tustin PD then as an investigator for the District Attorney’s Office.
He works the tough kind of cases, specializing in those involving terrible things that happen to people.
Over time, his work eventually positioned him as an expert in tough cases involving children.
The details of the most impactful cases he can’t forget.
They lie just below the surface, ready to be called upon when Solis wants and sometimes when he doesn’t.
“I’ll be driving in my car and a song will come on and I’ll just be crying because something will trigger a memory,” he said.
His ability to compartmentalize helped him lead a normal family life with his wife and daughter, but his capability to never forget is what continues to make him an asset in law enforcement.
Solis in September re-joined the Tustin PD as a master reserve officer working in the investigations unit where he serves as a resource for the department’s detectives.
“I’ll do anything they need me to do,” he said. “If the detectives need me to get them coffee, I’ll get them coffee. I am here to help.”
With his experience and background, it’s unlikely Solis will be on the hook for daily Starbucks runs.
Investigative skill
Humble with a genuine smile and calm cadence to his speech, Solis isn’t keen on using titles such as “expert” or “specialist” to describe himself.
“I have a lot of knowledge,” he says. “But that knowledge came from all the detectives, attorneys and doctors I’ve worked with over the years.”
He first started building his law enforcement knowledge in 1980 when he joined Fountain Valley PD as a reserve officer.
After four years there, he transferred to Tustin PD to become a full-time officer.
There Solis spent six years working in the detective unit focusing on crimes against persons..
In the early 1990s crime, particularly violent crime, was high through Orange County, and Tustin was no exception.
While Solis worked and solved many cases in his tenure, there were several left unfinished.
Among them was the 1990 murder of 26-year-old Belinda Carrasquillo, whose body was dumped at a construction site near Edinger Avenue and Jamboree Road.
“That is just a horrendous way to treat a human being,” Solis said. “That one has always stuck with me. Her family never got justice.”
The 1990 murder of Froylan Velasquez who was beaten to death while he waited to be let into his apartment complex near Pasadena Avenue is another case that has nagged at Solis.
“I worked both of those cases hard,” he said. “Sometimes leads just die and, at the time, the technology was so different. There was no DNA or anything like that.”
So he compartmentalized those cases, but never forgot them.
Tustin PD’s new Master Reserve Investigator Nasario Solis.
Photo by Steven Georges/Behind the Badge OC
Justice for the vulnerable
As a detective, Solis also worked a lot of child abuse cases and earned himself a reputation in the law enforcement community as a go-to source in the field.
In 1999, he was approached by the OC District Attorney’s office to join its team as the child abuse investigator in the family protection unit.
He accepted the position.
Over 16 years — 13 full time and three as an extra-help investigator— he worked thousands of serious child and elder abuse cases.
It’s a number he doesn’t celebrate.
“Unfortunately, there are a lot of these kinds of cases in Orange County and I can’t say that I enjoy working them,” he said. “I don’t think you can enjoy those kinds of cases, but it is gratifying and rewarding.”
It’s rare for an investigator to stay in such a position for that long — the subject matter wears hard on the mind.
A strong family life at home (his wife was a nurse for 15 years before becoming a family law attorney and his daughter is now a nurse) and friends outside of law enforcement kept him balanced.
“You can’t be a police officer 24-7,” Solis said.
His ability to handle these tough cases is only a small part of why Solis stayed with the family protection unit, even giving up promotions and transfers to more prestigious assignments.
“It’s a position where you can really make a difference,” Solis said. “You’re protecting those who are vulnerable, and your work with victims can really affect the rest of their lives.”
In his time with the DA’s office, Solis worked with 27 local law enforcement agencies and became a resource for police agencies across the country in child abuse cases.
He worked every case as if trying to prove the suspect innocent (there were several cases he proved a suspect wrongly accused) and treated every victim as if it was his own child.
That’s how he ensures he did his job right, even if the outcome wasn’t what he expected.
The elation of a family realizing justice could quickly be cut by the deep disappointment of an undeserved acquittal.
“Sometimes that is difficult to accept, but that’s the way the system is,” he said. “We have a judicial system in this country that is, in my opinion, the best in the world, but sometimes that system doesn’t work as well as you want it to.
“As long as you put in a 110 percent effort, you turn over every rock you can and you make that case as solid as you can. That’s all you can do.”
When he retired from the DA’s office, Solis planned to continue teaching classes with the Regional Occupation Program (ROP) and spending time with his grandkids.
He only made it about two weeks before he was looking to wear a badge again.
“I think I still have something to give,” he said. “I want to share my experience and see if I can help someone.”
When Solis returned to Tustin, he said it felt like home.
In his first weeks back, he already was working a child abuse case and catching up on the cold cases he left behind.
“I’m hoping that with a new set of eyes and some new knowledge maybe there’s something I missed or something I can follow up on,” he said. “These cases have been followed up by very competent people over the years, but there might be a new opportunity. You never know.”
As he walked through the investigations unit, Solis said he was humbled by how much has changed since he last sat at one of those desks.
“The way they use technology in investigations is amazing,” he said. “They’re teaching me a lot more than I could ever teach them. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in 36 years of law enforcement, it is that you are constantly learning.
“I never take the attitude that I know everything because I don’t — my wife tells me that every day.”
Solis knows a lot, though, and he will lend that knowledge to be a valuable resource for Tustin PD.
He may also, on occasion, grab coffee.
