Man, 44, ‘slit 16-year-old stepdaughter’s throat after she refused his inappropriate sexual advances’
A FLORIDA man has been arrested for slitting his stepdaughter’s throat when she allegedly refused his sexual advances 16 years after her death, cops said on Monday.
Raul Mata, 44, was busted by cops in California after DNA evidence from the body of Dilcia Mejia matched to him – finally ending the cold case investigation.
Raul Mata has been arrested for the 2004 murder of his stepdaughter[/caption] Dilcia Mejia died after her throat was allegedly slit by her stepfather when she refused his sexual advances[/caption]Officers with the Miami-Dade Police Department responded to the mobile home Mata shared with Mejia and her mother Delcia Oliva after a 911 call reported an unresponsive female on September 17, 2004, cops said in a news release.
Cops were directed by Mata to the teen’s lifeless body where investigators also observed that the teen had scratches and bruising on her forearms and biceps.
No arrests were made at the time and the DNA testing used to match samples found underneath Mejia’s fingernails were not available at the time of the 16-year-old’s grizzly murder.
Mejia’s death rocked the Miami community and WFOR-TV quoted a detective in 2015 who alleged that Mata was a suspect but was questioned extensively and denied he caused her death.
However, cops suggested in a new arrest affidavit obtained by WFOR-TV that a school counselor had learned Mata had made inappropriate sexual advances to the teen and was on the verge of telling her mother at the time of her death.
“I don’t know why, she was just innocent, you know, why would he do that,” said Meija’s cousin Trinidad Gonzalez at a news conference.
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Mata was arrested by the Watsonville Police Department in Watsonville, California and his extradition to Florida is pending, cops said.
He has been charged with first-degree murder.
“An unsolved murder leaves a surviving family with an unending pain and fear that their loved ones will be forgotten,” Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a news release.
“The charging of Raul Mata for the alleged 2004 murder of 16-year-old Dilcia Mejia should offer hope, not just for her family but for the families of all crime victims still yearning for justice.”