'Heinous act': Investigators find Washington woman's remains 4 years after she disappeared

Investigators in Pasco, Washington had suspected that the fate of Estela Torres-Rodriguez was likely grim when she was first reported missing more than four years ago.

Evidence at the scene of her home about 6 miles north of the town suggested foul play, leading detectives with the Franklin County Sheriff's Office to suspect that both her son and her estranged husband had something to do with her disappearance.

Still, her family had for years clung to hope, said Commander Marcus Conner during a Tuesday news conference. Hope that she was still alive; hope that she had decided to flee an abusive relationship and find a new life.

But on Tuesday, those hopes were dashed when the sheriff's office announced that a tip lead detectives to discover the remains of a body that they believe to be the 54-year-old woman.

"I know that Estela's daughters and others have been hoping we were wrong, like many families would," Conner said before media in a news conference streamed on Facebook. "They wanted so badly to believe their mom was still alive and had simply left the area to start a new life, but in the back of their minds, they knew that the evidence clearly pointed to a different outcome."

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Torres-Rodriguez went missing in March 2019

Torres-Rodriguez disappeared in March 2019. Deputies with the sheriff's office were dispatched to her home on March 29 that year after receiving a missing persons report.

However, patrol deputies became suspicious that foul play was involved in her disappearance and called detectives to the scene to begin investigating, Conner said. Washington State Patrol also assisted.

It soon became clear that Torres-Rodriguez's estranged husband Tiburcio Larios Rodriguez and her son Clemente Torres-Rodriguez, 37 were the last people to see her alive, Conner said. However, both men had themselves disappeared, leading authorities to determine they likely fled to Mexico, Conner said.

Cell phone data and other evidence at scene suggested that Torres-Rodriguez was likely killed inside her home, after which Conner said her vehicle was taken to another location. The sheriff's office charged both the woman's husband and her son with her murder, and warrants were issued for their arrests, Conner said.

Five days after Torres-Rodriguez went missing, investigators found her car on April 3 at a rest area on U.S. Route 26 and U.S. Route 395. And on Sept. 19, her son Clemente Torres-Rodriguez turned himself in to U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the Mexico border.

He was eventually extradited to a Franklin County jail, where Conner said he is awaiting the resolution of his case in court.

A break in the case

As the years went by, Conner said that the search for Torres-Rodriguez never ceased.

"Deputies have driven hundreds of miles of rural roads, numerous volunteers and agency partners assisted in searching on foot and by horseback," Conner said. "Detectives have searched at least 10 separate possible locations with shovels and cadaver dogs."

It wouldn't be until the first week of July in 2023 that detectives with the sheriff's office finally received a break in the case. That's when Conner said the sheriff's office received credible information about location of Torres-Rodriguez's remains, though he declined to specify the details any further.

Detectives responded to the site, located about 6 miles southeast of Connell, Washington, where Conner said they found Torres-Rodriguez's remains buried in the ground.

The location was on "arid and dry" land that investigators had combed many times over the years. But without much to go on, Conner said the search amounted to looking for a needle in a haystack.

Conner said the tip allowed detectives to pinpoint the precise location of her remains.

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'Heinous act of domestic violence'

"This discovery confirms that Estela was killed by a heinous act of domestic violence," Conner said. "Not only did the perpetrators take a life, they also took a mother and grandmother from her family and they intentionally took steps to deny the rest of her family closure."

Her husband Tiburcio Larios Rodriguez remains at large and is believed to be in Mexico. At the news conference, the sheriff's office provided photos of him, including what he may look like with a beard.

Conner asked that anyone with information on his whereabouts call the sheriff's office.

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @EricLagatta.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Washington woman's remains uncovered 4 years after disappearance