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Jose Rodriguez-Cruz pleaded guilty to the slaying of his girlfriend, Pamela Butler, who went missing from her Washington, D.C., home the day before Valentine's in 2009. He remained a suspect in the case until 2017, when he was arrested, following which he confessed. However, Pamela's remains were never found.
Then, in 2018, Jose was also linked to the 1989 disappearance of his wife, Marta Rodriguez-Cruz. Reports state that Marta's remains were found along Interstate 95 in Stafford County in 1991. Two years later, he pleaded guilty to Marta's murder while serving a 12-year term in federal prison for Pamela's murder and was sentenced to another 40 years.
According to The Cinemaholic, Jose Rodriguez-Cruz is currently serving the sentence for Pamela Butler's murder at the Federal Correctional Institution in Gilmer, West Virginia. He will become eligible for release in 2027 and then serve the 40-year term.
NBC Dateline will chronicle the decades-apart disappearances of Pamela Butler and Marta Rodriguez-Cruz to a common killer in an episode, titled A Haunting STRETCH of Road. The episode will air on the channel this Friday, July 21, 2023.
The official synopsis of the episode states:
"While investigating the disappearance of Pamela Butler in Washington D.C., detectives discover a puzzling connection to a Virginia woman who vanished two decades earlier. Dennis Murphy reports."
The all-new episode airs on the channel this Friday, July 21, at 9 pm ET.
Jose Rodriguez-Cruz pleaded guilty to wife's murder decades after she disappeared
In November 2020, Jose Rodriguez-Cruz of Virginia pleaded guilty to a second-degree murder charge in the 1989 cold case murder of his wife Marta Rodriguez-Cruz. The following April, he was sentenced to 40 years in prison while already serving a 12-year term for a separate murder.
Marta's remains were unearthed in an area along Interstate 95 in Stafford County in 1991. It was successfully identified in 2018 after an Arlington detective re-opened the case and tracked down the couple's son for a DNA sample.
According to People Magazine, 26-year-old Marta disappeared from Arlington, Virginia, in May 1989, shortly after she reported to authorities that Jose had assaulted and kidnapped her. Jose was charged and Marta went missing before she could testify against him in court. As a result of Jose's involvement, her case of disappearance remained unsolved for decades until a similar incident triggered a separate investigation.
Jose Rodriguez-Cruz previously confessed to Pamela Butler's murder, the girlfriend who disappeared in 2009
Prior to pleading guilty to Marta's murder in 2017, Jose Rodriguez-Cruz was arrested in connection with the disappearance of Pamela Butler, his girlfriend who went missing from her home a day before the Valentine's day in 2009.
Jose was the last person to have seen Pamela alive on February 13. Moreover, surveillance outside her house captured the former entering and leaving her house several times on the day she disappeared. The 47-year-old was declared officially dead in July of that year.
Just like Marta's, Pamela Butler's case also remained cold for a couple of years until a witness from Jose's past informed detectives about his violent behavior and the similar disappearance of his wife in 1989.
Jose was finally arrested based on circumstantial evidence in February 2017. That same year, in October, he admitted to murdering Pamela during an argument and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. The accused was given a 12-year prison sentence in exchange for the whereabouts of her remains, which were never found.
Where is Jose Rodriguez-Cruz now?
As previously mentioned, The Cinemaholic and Federal prison records state that Jose Rodriguez-Cruz is currently serving the sentence for Pamela's killing at the Federal Correctional Institution in Gilmer, West Virginia. He will become eligible for release in 2027, following which he will serve the 40-year term for Marta's murder.
The all-new NBC Dateline episode will further delve into the crime of Jose Rodriguez-Cruz this Friday.
