Police say Yanira Cedillos was murdered in her apartment by the very man she was reportedly last seen with a week ago. This new development in the search for the missing Washington woman comes with the arrest of Juan Gastelum, but her body still hasn’t been located.
Yanira is still missing
Media reports aren’t clarifying every single detail in this case, but they have shared that authorities believe Juan Gastelum raped and murdered the missing woman before moving her body somewhere else. They say he was cooperative in the beginning of the search for Yanira Cedillos, but has not cooperated any further with them.
When Yanira disappeared a week ago, she vanished from her own birthday party at Papa’s in Moses Lake, Washington. Details surrounding what led to her disappearance have never been fully clear, but friends claimed that they’d seen her with the man who has now been arrested on suspicion of murder.
Even though a warrant wasn’t issued until the later end of the week, authorities had reportedly been trailing Gastelum. They knew that he’d been in Yanira’s apartment and was there from Thursday night until the early morning hours of Friday. He drove around Moses Lake for a period of time before he cleaned out his vehicle, allegedly disposing of evidence associated with the disappearance of Yanira. Police were able to collect that evidence at a gas station shortly after he disposed of it. The nature of the evidence hasn’t been revealed by authorities at this time.
The body of Yanira Cedillos still hasn’t been located, and detectives haven’t shared much regarding what they think happened to her. Nonetheless, it seems like they have very strong evidence to support their suspicions against Juan Gastelum.
What happens next?
This is a horrifying development in the search for the missing woman, whose family has consistently warned that she was in danger in the company of Gastelum. From the first day her disappearance was reported, Yanira’s sister and other family members have very openly spoken out about Gastelum being an abuser and someone dangerous. They revealed from the beginning that Yanira had sought a restraining order against the former boyfriend, and that he wouldn’t leave her alone. So what happens next? Hopefully at some point Juan Gastelum grows some kind of conscience and tells police where he put the missing woman’s body. In the meantime, the search for Yanira Cedellos continues.
Chelsea Hoffman is a true crime writer with over a decade of professional writing experience. She is best known for her coverage of missing people including the tragic disappearance of Madeleine McCann as well as the heartbreaking cases of Dylan Redwine, Heather Elvis and many others.
