A Mexican serial rapist who murdered an American woman more than two decades ago and terrorized other women in the United States has finally been held accountable.
Miguel Angel Urbano-Vazquez, who was deported to Mexico before being 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 Outlet that the conviction, reached nearly 25 years after the killing, brought an overwhelming sense of relief.
The family of a mother of two murdered in 2002 is finally seeing justice, though her cousin fears the killer’s violent history may conceal even 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 was a mother of two who shared a close bond with her family.
“We just had so much fun together, riding ponies and horses and playing in the barn,” Doty said.
Sharon Van Gilder, 39, was murdered by convicted killer and serial rapist Miguel Urbano-Vazquez, 50. (Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office)
Doty remembers Van Gilder not only as a beloved cousin and friend, but also as a hero. Decades ago, Van Gilder rescued Doty’s daughter after the child fell into a lake during a family outing.
“[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 said.
After more than two decades of terrorizing women and killing a mother of two, a serial rapist has finally been brought to justice. (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, her naked, badly beaten body was found along a road in Spanaway, southeast of Tacoma. Investigators determined that she had been strangled.
More than two decades after terrorizing women and killing a mother of two, a serial rapist has finally been brought to justice. (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 she knows about his history, Doty believes the violence may have continued beyond the United States.
“I’m sure [from the time] when he was in Mexico, there are more [victims],” she said.
She added, “He’s such a violent, violent person.”
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 who murdered a mother of two in 2002 was finally convicted after being deported to Mexico and later extradited to the United States. (Pierce County Sheriff’s Office)
A jury found Urbano-Vazquez guilty on Nov. 3. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 11.
Along with the murder conviction, he was found guilty of rape charges related to attacks on three other women in the Tacoma area that same year. The verdict ended a decades-long effort to bring him to justice.
Doty praised the courage of the three survivors who testified against Urbano-Vazquez.
“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 securing 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 a victory for her family and a source of hope for others 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.
