Man extradited from Mexico convicted of 2002 Washington state murder

A Pierce County jury convicted Miguel Urbano-Vazquez on Tuesday of aggravated first-degree murder in the rape and strangling of 39-year-old Sharon Van Gilder, the New York Post reported, citing the News Tribune. Urbano-Vazquez was also found guilty of first-degree rape with a deadly weapon. He was deported to Mexico and later extradited back to the United States last year after DNA evidence linked him to the 2002 cold case. [1]

According to the New York Post, Urbano-Vazquez picked up Van Gilder at a Tacoma bar 24 years ago before murdering her. The jury found him guilty of killing Van Gilder and raping three other victims. A serial rapist is defined as someone who commits multiple rapes, including serial killers who non-fatally raped at least three victims without murdering them. [1][3]

DNA technology has increasingly been utilized by law enforcement to resolve decades-old cold cases. As FTMQ News reported earlier, investigators previously used DNA evidence from a genetic ancestry site to identify a former Chicago homicide detective as the killer in a 1960 murder of an eight-year-old girl. [6]