Teresa Broudreaux Murder: DNA Evidence Convicts Robert Yniguez

The Teresa Broudreaux murder, a 1980 cold case out of Palos Verdes Estates, California, was solved in 2017 when DNA evidence identified Robert Yniguez, a registered sex offender and stranger to the victim, as her killer. Broudreaux, a 20-year-old newlywed who was pregnant at the time, was found beaten to death on Malaga Cove Beach on the morning of March 4, 1980. Yniguez pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and was sentenced in October 2019 to 15 years to life in state prison.¹

What Happened on Malaga Cove Beach

On the night of March 3, 1980, Teresa Broudreaux argued with her husband of five months, Ronnie Fematt, and left their home to walk to her sister’s house. She never arrived. The next morning, a surfer found her body on the rocky shoreline at Malaga Cove Beach in Palos Verdes Estates. She was naked except for a pair of socks, and her face had been so disfigured that Fematt later identified her at the mortuary by a rose tattoo on her finger.²

The cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. Broudreaux was pregnant, and she left behind a four-year-old daughter, Linda. Investigators later concluded the likely motive was sexual assault, though Detective Ralph Hernandez of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said they could not definitively confirm one occurred.³ Broudreaux and her killer did not know each other.

Why the Case Went Cold

Suspicion initially fell on Ronnie Fematt because of the couple’s argument the night before. Police eventually cleared him after eyewitnesses confirmed his alibi, but the stigma stuck. “It basically ruined my life, because they didn’t have a suspect. They focused on me the whole time,” Fematt later said.²

Linda was removed from his custody and spent years in foster care, growing up believing her stepfather was the killer. “Everyone told me that he was the one who did it,” she said. “My whole life, I thought that he was the one.”⁴ Fematt struggled with substance abuse before eventually getting sober and cooperating with investigators.⁵ After Yniguez’s identification, he and Linda reconnected.

How DNA Solved It

DNA collected from Broudreaux’s body at the original crime scene had been preserved for decades. In 2013, investigators ran it through a database and got a hit.⁶ Building a prosecutable case took another four years. Investigator Harry Lewin of the Sheriff’s Department used what officials described as “new DNA technology” to develop the leads.⁷

The match pointed to Robert Yniguez, by then a 65-year-old construction worker living in San Pedro. He was arrested outside his home on September 28, 2017.

Who Robert Yniguez Was

Yniguez had a documented history of sexual violence that predated his arrest in the Broudreaux case. In February 1981, roughly a year after the murder, he was arrested for a sexual assault that investigators later said bore a “very similar modus of operandi” to the Broudreaux killing. That case was dropped when the victim declined to cooperate.³

In 1982, he was convicted of rape by force and oral copulation with a minor under 14 by force or fear. He served eight years of a 12-year sentence and was required to register as a sex offender upon release.⁸ Despite that record, he was not connected to Broudreaux’s death until the 2013 DNA hit.

The Charges and the Sentence

Yniguez was initially charged in October 2017 with one count of murder with the special circumstance allegation of murder during the commission of a rape, which made him eligible for the death penalty or life without parole.⁹ Deputy District Attorneys Allyson Ostrowski and David Zygielbaum prosecuted.

Prosecutors dismissed the original charge in April 2019 to secure more time for a witness, then refiled in June 2019. In September 2019, Yniguez pleaded no contest to one count of second-degree murder. On October 28, 2019, Judge Edmund Clarke Jr. sentenced him at Torrance Superior Court to 15 years to life in state prison.¹ Yniguez, 67 at sentencing, is incarcerated in a San Diego-area correctional facility.¹⁰

At the hearing, Linda Broudreaux told the court her mother “never got to see my first day of school, she didn’t get to see her first grandchild born. She wasn’t at my wedding and my children will never get to meet their grandmother.” Of the sentence, she said: “No amount of time is ever going to be enough, he got to live his life.” Fematt spoke about the unborn daughter he and Teresa had planned to name Sofia: “I never got a chance to be a father to that little girl.”²

Where to Watch the Case

The Broudreaux case is the subject of “Murder at the Beach,” the third episode of Season 1 of the Netflix docuseries Homicide: Los Angeles, released July 16, 2024. The episode draws on interviews with detectives, prosecutors, and Ronnie Fematt rather than reenactments, following the case from the 1980 investigation through the DNA match and conviction.¹¹

1
LA County District Attorney. Man Sentenced for 1980 Murder of Woman Found on Palos Verdes Estates Beach
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Daily Breeze. Man Sentenced to 15 Years to Life in Prison for Cold Case Murder
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NBC Los Angeles. Teresa Broudreaux Robert Yniguez Murder Conviction
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Daily Breeze. Man Sentenced to 15 Years to Life for Cold Case Murder
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Screen Rant. Homicide Los Angeles What Happened to Ronnie Fematt
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A&E. 5 Big Cold Cases That Had Major Breaks in 2017
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Los Angeles Times. Man Arrested in 1980 Palos Verdes Estates Cold Case
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Fox 13 Seattle. Decades After Pregnant Woman’s Nude Body Found on California Beach, Sex Offender Arrested
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LA County District Attorney. Man Charged With 1980 Capital Murder of Woman Found on Palos Verdes Estates Beach
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Screen Rant. Homicide Los Angeles Teresa Broudreaux Death Explained
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Netflix Tudum. Homicide Los Angeles Release Date Trailer News