Shivangi Sinha
In February 2009, when Pamela Butler’s family reported her missing, police questioned her then-boyfriend, Jose Rodriguez-Cruz. He claimed that they had broken up a few days earlier and that he had no knowledge of her whereabouts. At the time, there was no evidence linking him to her disappearance. However, in 2017, a cold case detective revisited the case and closely examined the evidence. This renewed investigation uncovered details about his first wife, Marta Rodriguez, who had also vanished without a trace. Eventually, police were able to connect him to both murders. NBC’s ‘Dateline: A Haunting Stretch of Road’ highlights the police work and years of effort that went into bringing him to justice.
Jose Rodriguez-Cruz Had Been Married Twice Before He Met Pamela Butler
There is limited information available about Jose Rodriguez-Cruz’s childhood, other than the fact that he was raised in Puerto Rico. He met Marta Haydee in the early 1980s, and the two eventually married. They had a son named Hansel, who later joined the Army as a police officer. After moving away from home, Jose married another woman named Guadalupe without informing Marta. When the latter discovered the truth, she filed for divorce, which turned out to be a difficult and contentious process. Upon learning that Marta had been involved with someone else, Jose reportedly became enraged and allegedly threatened her. In March 1989, he was arrested by a police officer and charged with misdemeanor assault and battery, as well as felony abduction. According to reports, he was seen tackling her on the street.
Marta alleged that her husband had been stalking her for several weeks and had abducted and held her captive for two days. She also alleged that he had physically assaulted her. The initial hearing for the case was scheduled for May 18, 1989, but Marta did not appear in court, resulting in the dismissal of all charges. The last confirmed sighting of Marta was on May 25, 1989. Jose later took their son, Hansel, and told him that his mother had voluntarily left after getting involved with the wrong crowd. He then moved in with Guadalupe, whom he had married and with whom he had another child. By 2008, he had relocated to Arlington, Virginia, and had started dating again. In September of that year, he met Pamela Butler through an online dating platform.
Jose Rodriguez-Cruz’s Violent History Helped Prosecutors Build a Case Against Him
They seemed to share a blissful romantic relationship when Pamela Butler suddenly disappeared. CCTV footage from her home showed her entering on February 12, 2009, but she was never seen leaving. In the early days of the investigation, her brother confronted Jose Rodriguez-Cruz alone to ask questions, but Jose denied any involvement. During police interrogation, he maintained that they had broken up that same day and that Pamela had asked him to leave. On February 13, he was seen coming and going from her house and explained that he was merely collecting his belongings. At that time, there was no evidence linking him to her disappearance.
In 2017, a cold case investigator reopened the case and reviewed the CCTV footage once more. He noticed that in one of the frames, Jose was holding Pamela’s keys, which were identifiable by a keychain that didn’t belong to him. This raised suspicions, prompting a deeper look into Jose’s past, which uncovered Marta’s disappearance as well. Authorities also discovered that Marta’s ID and Social Security card had been given to Jose’s sister-in-law, who lived in Florida. Further disturbing incidents emerged from his history. In 2004, a woman accused him of sexual assault. In another case, a woman alleged that he had held her and her daughter hostage and assaulted her. She tried to escape by stabbing him, but Jose claimed she was the attacker when police arrived. She was subsequently charged with malicious wounding, and the case was dropped.
The police also spoke with Jose’s second wife, Guadalupe, who said she had been hiding and alleged that he had abused her as well. Based on the circumstantial evidence gathered by the police in April 2017, he was arrested for first-degree murder. Initially, he denied any knowledge of the events, but when offered a plea deal in exchange for revealing the location of Pamela’s remains, he agreed. In October 2017, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and indicated a site along a highway median in Stafford County, Virginia. However, that area had since been developed, and the remains were never recovered.
Jose Rodriguez-Cruz is in Prison Today
For Pamela’s murder, Jose was sentenced to just 12 years in prison, which her family felt was far too lenient. In his confession, he admitted to strangling Pamela after an argument and then removing her body through a window that was out of the surveillance camera’s view. Her family continued to push for an investigation into the disappearance of his first wife, Marta. This led to the discovery that human remains found in 1991 were at the exact location Jose had mentioned. They were a match for Marta. Initially, Jose denied involvement once again, but later claimed Marta had accompanied him to a hotel, complained of a headache, and was left alone with his medicine bag.
He alleged that upon returning, he found her unconscious from an overdose and panicked. In November 2020, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Marta’s case as well and received a 40-year prison sentence. He is now 60 years old and is being held at the Headquarters (HQ) Detainer Unit of the Virginia Department of Corrections, a specialized facility responsible for managing detainers placed on inmates. The date of his release or potential parole has not been made public.
Read More: Derrick Butler: Where is Pamela Butler’s Brother Now?
