Episode 11: Yolanda Moya
Hello,
This one is another murder by a gunshot that I found around the same area where Michael Flores was found while doing the Texas Murder Rabbithole.
Yolanda Moya was just 33 years old. She has worked as a bookkeeper at a Barbee Neuhaus Implement Co., which was a local farm supply store where she had worked for 12 years. She was always on time for work and when she didn’t show or call on January 22nd of 1993 it raised concern. Her boss was worried and called her mother, who then called her brother. The boss and the brother then decided to meet at her house. She was heard from at 10 pm the night before when she talked to her brother Robert. They had plans to watch a late movie but she was tired.
Here is a list of things about the murder scene.
it’s was 8:30 am when they arrived at her house
There was a contained fire burning in her living room, but they weren’t sure how and when it was started. It was also the only room that had been set on fire in the house.
Her brother stated that the front door was hot to touch and the door was unlocked.
Due to the amount of smoke in the house her brother didn’t initially see her as he was running in and out of the house looking for her. Once he notice her he called the fire department.
The neighbors were unaware of the fire until the fire department and police showed up. Also, they didn’t hear or see anything strange before this except for her dogs barking. You couldn’t see any smoke coming out of the house until the front door was open.
She was found face-up on the couch semi-clothed. Her head and torse had badly burned.
While researching I came across 2 versions of how she was found when they arrived, 1. that she was actively on fire and the other that she was not.
There was a puncture near her neck under her chin and they were initially not sure if it was from stabbing or a gunshot. It was later determined to be a gunshot wound. She was shot 1 time before the fire was started and had some bruising.
There didn’t appear to be anything stolen from the house and there were no signs of forces entry.
The Police were able to determine that Moya was covered with gasoline and then lit on fire. They did find a small shell casing at the scene from the gunshot wound. .
Here are some facts about Yolanda.
She was in the prime of her life.
Her brother stated that everyone loved her.
She had a route where she would go to work then come home and watch the videotapes of the soap opera from that day.
She has saved money for 12 years to buy the lot and had just built the dream house and moved in 2 months prior to this. Several of Her neighbors stated they hadn’t even met her.
I’m assuming she lived alone since every account said she was single. Her family stated that they and their friends would visit quite often.
The house was located at the end of South Louisiana Avenue in Weslaco, which if you look it up on Google Earth there is an open space around it so someone could have gotten away without being noticed.
There was no witness to this one. They do have DNA and as of 2013 the son of the original detective was going to test since DNA technology had improved since 1993. Pemelton has been going through everything that they did have and reaching out to the public to see if they can finally resolve this case.
