> These events happened a long time ago IIRC for some reason they are just reaching the media so the data/surveillance may be difficult to find.

No, they aren't. They were writing about Julio Ramirez quite a while back. The cops are not just finding out about his murder now. The last I'd heard they were waiting for the full autopsy results.

>You need to subpeona these companies and it could take a while to get the data... once you get the data it might not be that useful. Venmo has very loose KYC rules compared to a real bank. Venmo is just really a big money laundering tool IMO.

This is much more likely. Crooks aren't stupid. Stolen credit cards, stolen identities, offshore companies - cops end up with nothing useful.