Son admits in emotional hearing to helping hide evidence in his Tri-City mother’s murder

A 37-year-old Tri-Cities man admitted to hiding his mother’s body, throwing away her clothes and helping his father escape to Mexico four years ago.

Clemente Rodriguez-Torres said in court documents he was scared to stop his father from carrying out the brutal murder of his mother, Estela Torres Rodriguez in March 2019.

He pleaded guilty and was sentenced for first-degree rendering criminal assistance during a highly emotional hearing last week. Then, he was released from the Franklin County jail, having already served more time than his official sentence.

He was originally charged with first-degree murder and his sisters argued that he manipulated court officials into giving him a good deal.

Gardenia Rodriguez confronted her brother during the hearing in Pasco.

“Well you went in, knowing that she gave you life, she breastfed you, she did everything for you,” said Gardenia Rodriguez. “... You attacked my mom. You strangled her and you hit her and you hit her and you hit her and you strangled her. ... She was right there crying, needing your help.”

“You’re not telling the real truth right here. ... There are more things that you’re not saying, and I don’t believe you!” she said. “These people, they believe whatever you say but you’re my brother and I’m your sister and I’ve known you all my life. You’re a liar. You’re a liar...”

Plea agreement

The plea agreement was months in the making and requires Rodriguez-Torres to testify against his father, Tiburcio Larios Rodriguez, if he’s ever found.

Police and prosecutors believe Tiburcio Larios Rodriguez remains in Mexico, and it’s not clear whether he is alive or dead. Investigators are continuing to search for him.

It came about after Rodriguez-Torres agreed to help investigators find his mother’s remains about four years after her body was buried in a shallow grave in a Franklin County field, said Prosecutor Shawn Sant.

Rodriguez-Torres was sentenced to a yearlong jail sentence that he has already served. He has been in jail since turning himself in on Sept. 19, 2019.

A protection order is in pace to keep him away from many of his family members.

His attorney, Shelley Ajax, told the judge said Rodriguez-Torres’ mother and father had a difficult relationship that turned especially toxic in the years before she was killed. And he ended up caught in the middle.

She said while he wants his family’s forgiveness, he also understands that they don’t want any contact with him.

Rodriguez Torres cried during the hearing but he didn’t speak.

A long disappearance

About a month before she disappeared in March 2019, Estela Torres Rodriguez had ended her 30-year-long marriage with her estranged husband.

He told relatives he wanted them to get back together, but she repeatedly refused.

Three of their daughters later told the Herald that their mom thought she was finally free.

They daughters described their father as a jealous and stern man, but also as a funny and loving patriarch. Still, they agreed their parents had a troubled marriage that started when she was 16 and he was 26.

Their mom tried leaving him several times over the years, but each time, the couple’s children talked them into working it out.

Then after their parents returned from Mexico in February 2019 — months earlier than expected — Estela claimed her husband had attacked her.

“My mom said, ‘I can’t be with him any more,’” Gardenia Rodriguez would later tell the Herald after Estela disappeared. “This time she put her foot down.”

She moved out and lived with family members. And their dad moved in with relatives in Prosser but seemed depressed and lost, they said.

Then on the morning of March 29, 2019, Estela was last seen cooking in the kitchen of her Orchard Road home. When they returned less than two hours later, she was gone and food was burning on the stove.

Her Buick Rendezvous was also missing.

Investigators found three large blood stains on the living room carpet and her clothes and jewelry in a dumpster. Her estranged husband and son Clemente Rodriguez-Torres also had vanished.

Months later in September 2019, Clemente Rodriguez-Torres surrendered at the Mexican border while entering San Diego in September 2019 and waived extradition to return to the Tri-Cities to face murder charges.

Commander Marcus Conner said deputies drove hundreds of miles and numerous volunteers and agencies helped detectives with searching at least 10 locations with shovels and cadaver dogs.

A tip from Clemente Rodriguez-Torres led police to a field about five miles outside of Connell.

Grieving family

While investigators believe Tiburcio Larios Rodriguez was primarily responsible for killing his wife, four of her daughters believed their brother played a more active role.

Maria Guzman said her brother had opportunities handed to him again and again. She credited her mother working from the afterlife to give him another chance to break free of addiction and be a better father to his children.

“I don’t know how many chances he can get, and he’s being released,” his sister Maria Guzman said. “He knows he does not deserve this. He does not deserve to be out in the world.”

Gardenia Rodriguez also accused her brother of lying to police. She believed he had spent the past four years to think up a good plan that would get him out of jail.

She also was angry that he knew where their mom’s body was hidden but didn’t share that information for four years.

“I think you will see when God will take over, because this is not justice. This is not justice, your honor,” she said.

Judge Sam Swanberg said he recognized the damage that Estela Torres Rodriguez’s murder had caused to the family, but he wasn’t able to judge the role Clemente Rodriguez-Torres played in it.

Swanberg was limited to a range of six months to a year in jail for the man. He said he wouldn’t sentence the man to less than a year, but he didn’t have any ability to sentence him to more than that.

“His actions, as admitted, are very disturbing to the court,” he said. “The participation in the concealment of the brutal murder of one’s own mother is something that is hard to fathom.”

This story was originally published September 25, 2023 at 6:00 AM.