Missing mom of 3 found dead in sleeping bag 2 months after going missing during birthday party
05/18/2022 1:33 pm PDT
WALLA WALLA COUNTY, Wash. (TCD) -- A missing mom of three who has been presumed dead for months was found buried in a sleeping bag under leaves.
Thirty-year-old Yanira Cedillos was reported missing Friday, March 4, to the Moses Lake Police Department. The night prior, she had gone out to celebrate her birthday with some friends when her ex-boyfriend, Juan Gastelum, allegedly started calling and texting her asking what she was doing and who she was with.
As she and her friends left the bar, Cedillos reportedly left on foot and then called her friend to pick her up on the 1000 block of Stratford Road. When the friend arrived, she could not find Cedillos and called her. The friend reportedly heard a male voice in the background yelling and the call disconnected. Cedillos then called the friend back to say she was fine. Cedillos failed to show up to work the next day, and her family reported her missing.
During the investigation, detectives determined Gastelum allegedly picked up Cedillos then took her back to to her apartment. Detectives reportedly found evidence that showed she was killed in her apartment and then moved after her death. Gastelum was taken into custody in Oregon on charges of second-degree murder and second-degree rape.
Though Gastelum was charged in her death, Cedillos' body had not been found until recently.
According to the Moses Lake Police Department, on Thursday, May 12, detectives obtained information from Gastelum’s cellphone that placed him in a remote area of Walla Walla County the day after Cedillos was reported missing. Detectives reportedly "converged on the area” and almost immediately found a "deceased female in a sleeping bag covered with tree limbs and leaves."
At the times, detectives could not conclusively identify her as Cedillos, but she was later positively identified by the Spokane County Medical Examiner.
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