Remains Identified as Those of Virginia Woman Who Went Missing Almost 30 Years Ago

Human remains found along I-95 in Virginia nearly 30 years ago have been identified as those of an Arlington County woman whose ex-husband has been accused in her disappearance. The same man told police he killed his girlfriend almost a decade ago and buried her body along the same stretch of highway. 

Marta Haydee Rodriguez, 28, disappeared from Arlington in 1989. Her remains were found two years later in the median of I-95 at the 141 mile marker in Stafford County, but police were not able to identify them until recently. 

Last year, police began investigating Rodriguez's ex-husband, Jose Rodriguez-Cruz, in connection with her disappearance. 

Rodriguez told police her husband assaulted and kidnapped her.

In court documents, he was quoted as saying, "If I can't have her, no one will."

She disappeared before she was able to testify against him in court.

In 2000, police located a woman using Rodriguez's identification in Florida and closed the missing persons case, but that woman was an imposter.

Rodriguez-Cruz is currently serving 12 years in prison for the death of Pamela Butler, the Washington, D.C., federal worker who disappeared before Valentine's Day in 2009.

Rodriguez-Cruz dated Butler for about five months.

Rodriguez-Cruz confessed to killing Butler and told police he buried her in the median strip between the northbound and southbound lanes of I-95 in Stafford County.

Last year, police searched between mile marker 147 and mile marker 140 along I-95, but they eventually determined that Butler's remains were not recoverable. 

One or two search dogs hit on a spot at the mile marker 147 location, Butler's brother, Derrick Butler, said. The spot is about six miles from where Rodriguez's remains were found in 1991. 

Police say charges are pending in Rodriguez's death, but it's not clear whether Rodriguez-Cruz remains a suspect in the case.