In 1969, thirty-year-old Reyna Marroquín marked three years living in the United States. An immigrant from El Salvador, Reyna moved to the U.S. in search of a promising future after her marriage ended. But one day in January 1969, Reyna — then pregnant — suddenly disappeared.
Her disappearance wouldn’t be solved for another 30 years, when her body was found in a sealed barrel in the crawlspace of a home in Jericho, New York. The autopsy revealed the body in the barrel was Reyna’s, and she’d died as a result of blunt-force trauma.
Detectives interviewed Reyna’s former best friend, Katy Andrade, who told them that months before her disappearance Reyna admitted she was pregnant by a married man, but never gave Katy a name.
As it later became clear, the father had no plans to leave his wife, so Reyna called the wife and confessed everything. The man got so upset that Reyna told Katy she feared for her life. When Reyna never returned home, Katy tried to file a police report. But since Katy wasn’t related to Reyna or knew the identity of the father, the police didn’t allow her to file.
The investigation revealed that a man named Howard Elkins was the father. They located Howard, then 70-years-old, in Florida. A day after being questioned by police, Howard died by suicide.
