Deputies believe a mother of 9 is dead. Her daughters are praying they’re wrong
Sheriff’s investigators believe Estela Torres Rodriguez didn’t leave her home alive, but her children are praying that isn’t true — and that their dad and brother didn’t kill her.
Gardenia, Alfa and Blanca Rodriguez just returned to Pasco on Tuesday after driving down the Washington, Oregon and California coastline, plastering posters of their missing mother at gas stations.
“All we want to know is the whereabouts of my mom,” Blanca told the Herald. “If anybody knows anything to go ahead and communicate with authorities or to call us.”
Estela has been missing since March 28 from the Franklin County home she had been sharing with a son and his girlfriend.
Also missing are her estranged husband, Tiburcio Larios Rodriguez, and another son, Clemente Rodriguez Torres.
Franklin County sheriff’s investigators believe the two killed Estela before dumping her 2006 Buick Rendezvous at a Highway 395 rest area. Murder warrants have been issued for their arrests.
Tuesday, investigators searched an 8-square-mile area south of Connell but found no sign of the 54-year-old woman.
Her daughters described their father both as a jealous and stern man, but also as a funny and loving patriarch. But they agree their parents had a troubled 30-year marriage that started when she was 16 and he was 26.
Their mom tried leaving him several times over the years, but each time, their children talked them into working it out.
But then their parents returned from Mexico in February — months earlier than expected — and Estela claimed her husband had attacked her.
“My mom said, ‘I can’t be with him any more,’” Gardenia said. “This time she put her foot down.”
Just before disappearing
At first, Estela moved in a daughter and then later a son and his girlfriend. Tiburcio settled in with Alfa and Blanca in the apartment they shared in Prosser.
He seemed depressed and lost, they said.
“He was so used to being with her, that he didn’t know anything else without her,” Alfa said. “He was very depressed. He didn’t want to get up. My dad would just wake up in the middle of the night and just tell me, ‘Mija, I can’t sleep.’”
But Estela was happy to be free of her controlling husband, spending time with her sister in Grandview and her children and grandchildren, they said.
“My mom was free,” Gardenia said. “She could never spend the night at anybody’s house. (Before) she could never go have a coffee with anybody. ... So the whole month she was going to her sister’s. They would go to the mall in Yakima.”
“When my aunt would drop her off on a Tuesday, she would tell her, ‘Thank you sister. Thank you sister, for letting me spend the best time of my life with you,” she recalled.
The night she disappeared
The last time Gardenia heard from her mom was March 27. They planned to spend time together. The plans were delayed, and she wasn’t able to come over.
The next day she called her mother at 4 p.m., but no one answered. Then she called at 5 p.m.
“I was thinking, ‘She’s not going to be home.’ She has been staying with her sister,’” she said. “I was thinking that this time, she was free.”
But when her brother called to see if Gardenia had heard from her, she checked Facebook.
When it said Estela last logged on 10 hours ago, Gardenia said she freaked out because it wasn’t normal for her mother to be away from Facebook that long.
After driving onto the dark street north of Pasco, she discovered her mom’s car was gone. She banged on the windows and doors of the home, waking up her brother and his girlfriend, who said they hadn’t seen her.
When they couldn’t find her car, they called other family and police. They also discovered blood stains on the carpet that someone had tried to clean up.
When they called their dad to tell him she was missing, he came to the house on Orchard Road and seemed just as shocked by the blood and cooperated with sheriff’s deputies.
The next day he and his son, Clemente, were gone too without a word.
Two weeks of searching
Estela’s two-week disappearance has left family members floundering.
“There was no warning signs that this was going to happen,” Blanca said. “It was just a big hit for all of us. We lost the foundation of our family.”
They’re focusing on searching for Estela and the others, including creating a GoFundMe campaign to help finance the efforts.
“I just feel like these past 14 days have been the hardest of all my life,” Gardenia said. “I really never thought this would happen to me. I really never thought this would happen to all of us.”
Now they are hoping someone will see her father and brother, or her mom will turn up. Gardenia asked everyone to pray for her mother’s return.
“I want for them to regret what they’re doing and just to call anonymously and say, ‘Hey, she’s right there,’” Gardenia said. “That’s all I want.”
Anyone with information on Estela Torres Rodriguez or the suspects’ whereabouts is asked to call the sheriff’s office at 509-545-3501 during business hours or dispatch at 509-628-0333. Call 911 if it is an emergency.
This story was originally published April 10, 2019 at 7:50 PM.