D.C. police have made an arrest in connection with the 2009 disappearance of Brightwood resident Pamela Butler, charging Jose Rodriguez Cruz with premeditated first-degree murder.
A death certificate was issued for Butler last July, more than seven years after the 47-year-old woman was reported missing from her home on the 5800 block of 4th Street NW, according to a Metropolitan Police Department release. Police arrested Rodriguez-Cruz, 51, of Fairfax, Va., last weekend.
According to The Washington Post, Rodriguez-Cruz — Butler’s former boyfriend — was a suspect from the start, though he denied any involvement. Veteran homicide detective Michael Fulton gave the cold case a fresh look this year, The Post reported, with a witness also supplying evidence that Rodriguez-Cruz was responsible for the 1989 disappearance of his first wife.
Butler, a computer analyst for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, met Rodriguez-Cruz on a dating website, according to The Post, and her family reported her missing after she failed to show up for a Valentine’s Day event in 2009.
