The February 9th Killer

Brief Case History
The February 9th Killer first became active when 29-year-old Taylorsville, Utah woman Sonia Mejia, who was five to six months pregnant, was found murdered in her bedroom by her husband on February 9, 2006; the unborn baby was also dead. An autopsy revealed that she was fatally strangled and also sexually assaulted. According to an investigation, Mejia did not know her attacker, who possibly stalked her for an unknown amount of time before the attack. An eyewitness account stated that a Hispanic man wearing shorts and a white T-shirt spoke to Mejia, and that the discussion turned violent, to which the man forced his way into her house. Some of Mejia's jewelry and her car were found to be missing, but the car was later found abandoned outside of a Murray, Utah hotel. The jewelry was never recovered, and despite assistance from federal agents, the case went cold. Exactly two years later, on February 9, 2008, 57-year-old Damiana Castillo was found dead in her West Valley City, Utah home by her son. Leads quickly dried up in the investigation and the case briefly went inactive. The two cases weren't connected until in 2009, when a crime lab performed tests on DNA samples recovered from both crime scenes and found a positive match between them. As a result, an investigation was opened, headed by an eight-man task force. Police released a physical description of a suspect, a Hispanic male in his late teens or early 20s (since the found DNA didn't receive a positive match in any of the databases) with short black hair and medium height and weight. On February 9, 2009, Utah cities came on high alert due to a possible resurfacing of the killer, but no murders similar to the killer's nature seemed to have occurred on that day. As of 2011, the February 9th Killer case was classified as a cold case.

Modus Operandi
Known details about the February 9th Killer state that the killer targets Hispanic women, whose deaths occurred on the same day, February 9. The killer would gain entry into the homes of his victims by getting them to open their front doors and talk with them in some way. Once he got into their homes, he would sexually assault his victims and then kill them by strangling them to death. In the case of Sonia Mejia, the killer took some of her jewelry and her car after killing her.

Known Victims

 * February 9, 2006, Taylorsville, Utah: Sonia Mejia, 29
 * February 9, 2008, West Valley City, Utah: Damiana Castillo, 57

On Criminal Minds
While not mentioned or referenced in Criminal Minds, the February 9th Killer may have inspired Johnny Ray Covey, who targeted women and dumped their bodies on the same day, May 11. The fact that both of the killer's victims were Hispanic may have also been a nod to Johnny's background with a Hispanic nanny.