Missing
Rosa Maria Valentin
Rosa, approximately 1986; Mayra Cruz; Carmen Lopez; Miguel Roman; Pedro Miranda in 1987; Miranda in 2008
Date and time person was reported missing : 07/26/1986
Missing location (approx) :
Hartford, Connecticut
Missing classification : Endangered Missing
Gender : Female
Ethnicity :
Hispanic
Age at the time of disappearance: 16 years old
Height / Weight : 5'2, 115 pounds
Description, clothing, jewerly and more : A Battiston's Cleaners smock, a cotton shirt with numbers on it, blue jeans, white shoes and a silver chain necklace with a unicorn charm. Carrying a black pocketbook with long straps.
Distinguishing characteristics, birthmarks, tattoos
: Hispanic female. Black hair, brown eyes. Rosa's nicknames are Rosita and Coco. She has a mole on her right cheek.
Information on the case from local sources, may or may not be correct : Rosa was last seen in Hartford, Connecticut on July 26, 1986. She was walking home from work when accepted a ride from a 29-year-old acquaintance, Pedro Miranda, in his white Ford Mustang Cobra. She has never been heard from again.
Miranda's criminal record dates back to 1977. He was convicted of kidnapping, raping and choking a woman in 1998. In December 2008, he was charged with Rosa's murder and with the murders of 13-year-old Mayra Cruz and 17-year-old Carmen Lopez, who was six months pregnant at the time of her death. Miranda knew all three girls.
Photographs of Mayra, Carmen and Miranda are posted with this case summary. Mayra disappeared from Hartford in 1987 and Carmen in 1988; both were subsequently found strangled.
When questioned about Rosa's disappearance, Miranda claimed he wasn't with her on the day she went missing and had last seen her the day before; he said the eyewitnesses who identified him must have been mistaken.
Carmen's former boyfriend, Miguel Roman, was convicted of her murder and sentenced to 60 years in prison in spite of the fact that the DNA found at the crime scene wasn't his. A photo of him is posted with this case summary. His conviction was overturned and he was released from custody in December 2008. He had served eighteen years in prison for a crime he didn't commit.
In 2011, Miranda was convicted of kidnapping and murdering Carmen Lopez and sentenced to life in prison without parole. The DNA at Carmen's crime scene turned out to be his. At sentencing, the prosecutor referred to Rosa and appealed to Miranda to tell them where her body was.
He was convicted of Mayra Cruz's murder in 2015 and sentenced to life in prison. In May 2015, shortly before his sentencing in Mayra's death, the prosecution dropped the charges against Miranda in Rosa's disappearance, citing problems with the evidence.
She has never been located. Foul play is suspected in her case due to the circumstances involved.
Other information and links : ncy
Connecticut State Attorney's Office
Cold Case Unit
860-548-0606
866-623-8058
September 2021 updates and sources
WTIC News/Talk 1080
WTNH 8
Interactive Missing Person Search Map
