Sexual predator deported to Mexico hauled back to US for assault and murder of American mom

Miguel Angel Urbano-Vazquez, a serial rapist from Mexico who murdered an American woman more than two decades ago and terrorized other women in the United States, has finally been brought to justice. The 50-year-old was found guilty earlier this month of aggravated first-degree murder in the March 2002 rape and strangulation of 39-year-old Sharon Van Gilder in Washington state.

Van Gilder's body was discovered along a rural road in Pierce County, Washington. She was a mother of two who was last seen leaving a bar in Tacoma with Urbano-Vazquez and another man in March 2002. Hours later, her naked and badly beaten body was found on the side of a road in Spanaway, southeast of Tacoma. Investigators determined she had been strangled.

Family Relief

Van Gilder's cousin, Brenda Doty, told Fox News Digital the fact that her killer was finally convicted nearly 25 years later is an overwhelming relief. The family had maintained a close bond with Van Gilder, who Doty remembered as a wonderful friend and hero who once saved Doty's daughter from drowning during a family outing.

Cold Case Breakthrough

Prosecutors said Van Gilder was the first victim in a series of violent sexual assaults that unfolded between March and October 2002 in the Tacoma area. Urbano-Vazquez was deported to Mexico sometime after Van Gilder's killing, but the case remained open. In 2012, DNA tests linked the 2002 rape and murder of Sharon Van Gilder to three other nearby rapes.

The suspect was captured abroad in 2023 and extradited back to the United States in 2025, when a DNA sample could be taken and compared to the 2002 samples. A jury found Urbano-Vazquez guilty on Nov. 3. He will be sentenced on Dec. 11 and faces life in prison without the possibility of parole for the aggravated murder charge.

Potential More Victims

Doty praised the courage of the three survivors of Urbano-Vazquez's other attacks who testified against him. She also expressed her belief that there may be more victims, particularly from when Urbano-Vazquez was in Mexico after being deported from the US.

For Doty, the verdict represents not just justice for her family but hope for others waiting for answers in cold cases. "If there anybody out there with a cold case, don't give up," she said.