Naman Shrestha
When a 25-year-old mother named Cynthia Gonzalez disappeared in September 1991, her loved ones searched for her alongside the authorities. Unfortunately, their worst nightmare came true when she was found dead in a secluded area outside of Dallas-Fort Worth. ABC’s ‘Nightline: Never See You Again’ chronicles the entire case and how the investigation lasted for more than three decades before a group of students at the University of Texas at Arlington identified a potential suspect. The documentary features interviews with Cynthia’s daughter, officials linked to the case, and the students who played a major role in the investigation.
Cynthia Gonzalez Was Found Dead Five Days After She Went Missing
Born on March 26, 1966, to Linda Fay Judd Gandy and Michael Dalton Gandy, Cynthia Renee Gandy Gonzalez grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, alongside her sister Lisa and a brother named Michael Jr. She attended Carter Riverside High School after graduating from Castleberry Elementary and Irma Marsh Junior High. At her Junior High School, she was a member of Future Homemakers of America. In 1983, Cynthia also became the high school queen. Besides being academically sound, she also had a passion for sports as she enjoyed playing softball and volleyball. Moreover, being a devout Christian, she was a member of the Christian Center in Fort Worth.
Described as free-spirited and adventurous, Cynthia also loved attending concerts with her friends. In her late teenage years, she tied the knot with Donald Gonzalez, and at the age of 19, she gave birth to a daughter named Jessica. On the professional front, she was an exotic dancer and the owner of Beauty and the Beast Entertainment, through which she provided birthday entertainment, bachelor parties, bachelorette parties, and more. By 1991, she had separated from her husband, Donald, and began dating a man named Rocky Ortiz. Everything was going fine in her life until she suddenly disappeared on September 17, 1991.
The previous evening, Cynthia had met with a client but never returned home. When the 25-year-old woman couldn’t be reached or found, her ex-husband reported her missing to the police on September 17. As the police got involved, they located her abandoned vehicle in the 900 block of Cedar Springs Terrace. Five days later, on September 22, the police discovered the remains of a female near a private property in Johnson County off County Road 313. They later confirmed that the remains belonged to Cynthia, who had died of multiple gunshot wounds to the chest. Thus, the missing persons case turned into a homicide investigation.
Cynthia Gonzalez Was Allegedly Killed by Someone Close to Her Boyfriend
As part of the investigation, the detectives interviewed Cynthia Gonzalez’s family members, friends, and people whom she met in the weeks prior to the murder. They considered several individuals, including her ex-husband, Donald, and her then-boyfriend, Rocky, as persons of interest. However, nothing tied them to the crime. Through the following years, the detectives pursued many leads but without any success. After more than three decades of the case being unsolved, Cynthia’s daughter, Jessica Roberts, pushed the authorities to continue the search for her mother’s killer and get her justice in 2024.
The case began unraveling when the Arlington Police Department collaborated with the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Texas at Arlington, allowing students to review the case and try to crack it. As the students began working on the case, they asked questions about Janie Perkins, Rocky’s ex-girlfriend. The detectives then dug deeper into Janie’s life and learned that she was also a friend of Cynthia, for whom Rocky had broken up with her in the first place. In the 1990s, when she was questioned by the authorities, she couldn’t provide an alibi and claimed that she was off work and at home alone on the night Cynthia went missing. Furthermore, she reportedly failed two polygraph tests to the highest degree possible.
Janie Perkins’ Indictment Remains Pending
As per reports, although she denied having any involvement in Cynthia’s killing, Janie Perkins told the detectives that she was glad that she was dead. She also reportedly admitted to thinking about killing herself or hiring someone else to do it for her. At the time, the authorities didn’t have enough evidence against her, so they couldn’t charge her with anything. Decades later, the authorities went through the case files and noticed that several witnesses, including Rocky, had alleged that Janie had admitted to killing the 25-year-old woman, but later recanted her confession.
Upon comparing those statements to other evidence linked to her, the police finally obtained an arrest warrant for the suspect more than three decades later. After obtaining an arrest warrant on one count of capital murder, the detectives located 63-year-old Janie Perkins in Azle, Texas, and arrested her in early November 2025, without any incident. Not long after getting locked up in the Tarrant County Jail, she was released on a $150,000 bond. As of today, she remains free while awaiting indictment.
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