My case takes place in Rockdale, Texas, which is way south of Dallas sort of in between Temple and College Station. Our victim is Sonya Wallace, a 15 year old girl at Rockdale High School.
via Williamson County Sheriff’s Office
This all happened in 1999, so unfortunately there's not really anything about Sonya that I could tell you about her. But in all honesty, it seemed like she was just an average kid, and this tragic thing just so happened to happen to her.
On February 19th, 1999, Sonya left her house that afternoon, telling her family she was going to walk to the post office to deliver a letter. They all expected her back after a while, the house was just four blocks away after all, but she never came home.
Her family reported her missing the next day. And I think that they waited so long because at the time, Sonya’s mother wasn’t home, in my head I’m assuming it just her dad and some siblings running around, and it’d be such an easy thing to just nod off as “Oh well, she must have gone to a friend’s house after.”
Her mother (Linda Gonzalez) is quoted in Dateline saying,
I will regret this till the day I die – that was supposed to be my day off. But they called me in to work, and so I went to work...I didn’t find out until I got back that night at 10:00 p.m
So assuming she did leave right at noon, that's 10 hours gone for a trip that's maybe 20 minutes all together? I know its the 90s, but you’d still call your parents as SOON as you got to a friend’s house and let them know where you are.
The following day the Rockdale Police Department began investigations where she was last seen. They interviewed friends, family, students at the school she went to but as far as I can tell nothing came from it at all and slowly the case just fizzled out.
A week goes by, then two, and finally on March 14th 1999, a man driving near the area by Structure and Coupland, TX (about a 35-45 minute drive) saw vultures circling. Now this area is very rural, mostly a farming and ranching kinda place, and its mentioned that the man is a rancher and had cattle in the area. He gets to where they’re at and its by this bridge, and when he does he discovers the body of Sonya Wallace.
She's severely decomposed and from what they gather she had also been bludgeoned to death.
“It was obvious that foul play was involved,” Det. Miller told Dateline. “We have no evidence of where the actual murder occurred. My belief is that she was killed elsewhere and brought under the bridge.”
At that point the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office took hold of the investigation because it was in their jurisdiction to do so. According to Sergeant John Pokorny the team gathered evidence that included Sonya’s clothes and some soda bottles.
via Williamson County Sheriff’s Office
Sgt. Pokorny believes that her friends might have some valuable information.
"At the time they might have been 16,17,18 but now they're well into their life they have kids of their own their lifestyle has changed their mentality has changed and somebody out there they know something,"
Sonya’s mother believes that it was somebody who knew her that did this, but the unfortunate reality is that, right in front of the post office is a farmed market road that heads right in the direction of where her body was found. ( There's a few turns, but the point stands.)
The Cold Case Unit had said they there have been over 100 people interviewed and that they are in the process of extracting DNA as of September 17th, 2018. There hasn’t been any updates to the case since then, but DNA depending on the amount provided can take quite a long time to process and then match.
If you have any information on the circumstances surrounding Sonya Wallace’s disappearance and murder, please call the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit at 512-943-5204 or email coldcasetips@wilco.org. Tips may remain anonymous.
You can also contact the Milam County Crime Stoppers at 1-888-697-TIPS, or from their website.
Sources: NBC, Fox7 Austin, Milam County Crime Stoppers.