Katie Sepich
Real Name: Kathryn Jaye Sepich
Nicknames: Katie, Kait.
Location: Las Cruces, New Mexico
Date: August 31, 2003
Case[]
Details: On August 31, 2003, New Mexico University student Katie Sepich left a party at a friend's house to go home at 3am. She had apparently forgotten her keys and was trying to get into her house through the bedroom window when she was abducted. The next day, two hunters found her body in the desert; she had been raped, strangled to death, and then set on fire. Despite an intense investigation, no suspects were identified.
Gabriel Avila
Suspects: None known
Extra Notes:
- This case was not featured on Unsolved Mysteries.
- It was profiled on America’s Most Wanted and Haunting Evidence during the investigation and documented on Dateline and Dead of Night after it was resolved.
Results: Solved. In December of 2006, DNA evidence found on Katie's body was linked to a suspect named Gabriel Avila. Avila confessed to Katie's murder, pled guilty, and was sentenced to sixty-nine years in prison.
Links:
- Jayann Sepich on the Surviving Parents Coalition
- Suspect confesses to Sepich Murder from his prison cell - December 22, 2006
- Who was Katie Sepich? Family and friends remember murdered woman in 'Dateline' video - February 25, 2020
- Losing Keys led Her to Lose Her Life - January 20, 2022
- Katie's Law on Wikipedia
- Katie Sepich on Find a Grave