Deported sexual predator extradited back to US and convicted of 2002 murder of Washington mother

A Mexican national described as a serial rapist has been convicted in Washington state of the aggravated first-degree murder of an American mother more than two decades after the crime, closing a case that spanned nearly 25 years and two deportation-era decades.

Miguel Angel Urbano-Vazquez was found guilty by a jury on Nov. 3 in the March 2002 rape and strangulation of 39-year-old Sharon Van Gilder, whose body was discovered along a rural road in Pierce County. He had previously been deported to Mexico and was later extradited back to the United States to face the charges.

According to the Pierce County Sheriff's Office, Van Gilder 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.

Prosecutors said Van Gilder was the first victim in a series of violent sexual assaults that took place between March and October 2002. In addition to murder, Urbano-Vazquez was convicted of rape charges stemming from attacks on three other women in the Tacoma area during that same year.

The Pierce County Prosecutor's Office said DNA testing in 2012 linked the 2002 rape and murder of Van Gilder to three other nearby rapes. The suspect was captured abroad in 2023 and extradited in 2025, when a DNA sample could finally be taken and compared to the evidence from 2002. The FBI Seattle office said Urbano-Vazquez had been deported to Mexico at some point after Van Gilder's killing.

For Van Gilder's cousin, Brenda Doty, the conviction brought overwhelming relief. "I'd wake up in the middle of the night thinking about it," Doty told Fox News Digital. "She didn't deserve that." Doty remembered Van Gilder, a mother of two who was very close with her family, as both a wonderful friend and a hero. She recalled how Van Gilder once saved her daughter from drowning in a lake during a family outing, jumping in, swimming over and diving underneath to pull the girl up. "She saved my daughter's life," Doty said, noting her daughter was 8 years old at the time and is 40 now.

Knowing the killer's history, Doty said she believes there could be additional victims from his time in Mexico, calling him "such a violent, violent person." She also praised the three survivors who took the stand. "The gals that testified, they were so brave to come. Now this is 24 years ago, their stories were heartbreaking and they came in and put themselves in front of juries," she said. Doty added that when each woman left the courtroom, she and her cousin hugged them, told them they were loved and assured them it was not their fault, thanking them because "their testimonies were key in getting the guilty plea."

Urbano-Vazquez is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 11. In Washington, a conviction for aggravated murder carries a punishment of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

For Doty, the verdict is a victory for her family and a beacon of hope for others still waiting for answers. "So many people had been part of this and it was a win, and it feels good to have a win," she said. "If there anybody out there with a cold case, don't give up."