A Mexican national described as a serial rapist has been convicted of murdering an American woman more than two decades ago, bringing a long-running investigation to a close.
Miguel Angel Urbano-Vazquez, who was deported to Mexico and later extradited to the United States, was found guilty earlier this month of aggravated first-degree murder in the March 2002 rape and strangulation of 39-year-old Sharon Van Gilder. Her body was found beside a rural road in Pierce County, Washington.
Brenda Doty, Van Gilder’s cousin, told News Media that the conviction nearly 25 years after the killing brought an overwhelming sense of relief.
Sharon Van Gilder’s family is finally seeing justice for the 2002 murder of the mother of two, though her cousin believes the defendant’s violent history may include more victims. (Pierce County Sheriff’s Office)
“I’d wake up in the middle of the night thinking about it,” Doty said. “She didn’t deserve that.”
Van Gilder, a mother of two, was especially close to her family.
“We just had so much fun together, riding ponies and horses and playing in the barn,” Doty recalled.
Sharon Van Gilder, 39, was killed by Miguel Urbano-Vazquez, a convicted murderer and serial rapist who was 50 at the time of his conviction. (Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office)
Doty also remembers Van Gilder as a hero. Years earlier, during a family outing, Van Gilder rescued Doty’s young daughter from a lake.
“[Sharon] jumped into the water, swam over there, dove underneath and pulled her up. She saved my daughter’s life,” Doty said.
“My daughter was 8 years old, and she’s 40 now,” she added.
After more than 20 years, authorities have secured a conviction against the serial rapist accused of killing a mother of two. (Pierce County Sheriff’s Office)
The Pierce County Sheriff’s Office said Van Gilder was last seen leaving a Tacoma bar with Urbano-Vazquez and another man in March 2002.
Hours later, investigators found her naked, badly beaten body along a road in Spanaway, southeast of Tacoma. The medical examiner determined that she had been strangled.
The serial rapist accused of killing a mother of two in 2002 has been convicted after his deportation to Mexico and subsequent extradition to the United States. (Pierce County Sheriff’s Office)
Prosecutors said Van Gilder was the first known victim in a series of violent sexual assaults committed between March and October 2002.
The FBI’s Seattle office said Urbano-Vazquez was deported to Mexico sometime after Van Gilder’s murder.
Given what investigators later uncovered, Doty believes the defendant may have harmed other women as well.
“I’m sure [from the time] when he was in Mexico, there are more [victims],” she said.
“He’s such a violent, violent person,” Doty added.
The Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office said, “In 2012, DNA tests linked the 2002 rape and murder of Sharon Van Gilder to three other nearby rapes. Suspect Miguel Urbano-Vazquez was captured abroad in 2023 and extradited in 2025, when a DNA sample could be taken and compared to the 2002 samples.”
A serial rapist convicted of killing a mother of two in 2002 was brought to trial after being deported to Mexico and later extradited to the United States. (Pierce County Sheriff’s Office)
A jury convicted Urbano-Vazquez on Nov. 3. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 11.
He was also convicted of raping three other women in the Tacoma area during 2002, ending a decades-long effort to hold him accountable for the attacks and Van Gilder’s death.
Doty credited the three survivors who testified, praising the courage it took to confront Urbano-Vazquez in court years after the attacks.
“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,” Doty said.
She added, “When each one left the courtroom, my cousin and I went out and hugged them and told them that we loved them. It wasn’t their fault. We thanked them because their testimonies were key in getting the guilty verdict.”
In Washington state, aggravated murder carries a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
For Doty, the verdict represents more than justice for her family. She hopes it also encourages other families still waiting for answers in cold cases.
“So many people had been part of this and it was a win, and it feels good to have a win,” Doty said.
“If there’s anybody out there with a cold case, don’t give up,” she said.