Naman Shrestha
In an episode titled ‘Murder at the Beach’ of Netflix’s ‘Homicide: Los Angeles,’ the viewers get a detailed account of the crimes of Robert Yniguez in the 1980s. But alas, it was the murder of Teresa Broudreaux that helped investigators close on him for good, albeit nearly four decades later. Not only does the episode cover the intricate details of his crimes, but it also features interviews with the officials, including detectives and prosecutors connected to the case that eventually led to the arraignment and conviction of Robert Yniguez.
Robert Yniguez Became a Registered Sex Offender After Serving Time for Sexual Assault
Born on May 12, 1951, Robert Allan Yniguez had quite a few run-ins with the law, with the first one coming in February 1981 when he was arrested and charged with sexual assault. However, when the alleged victim could not be found near his trial, the case was dropped due to a lack of cooperation from them. About a year later, in 1982, he was found guilty of raping a minor under 14 years of age in the South Bay area of Los Angeles. He received a 12-year imprisonment sentence, out of which he served about eight years before getting released from prison.
After that, Robert was employed as a construction worker and started a family of his own by getting married. Several decades later, in the 2010s, his involvement in another crime of 1980 surfaced. In the early morning hours of March 4, 1980, a surfer had found the body of 20-year-old Teresa Broudreaux, whose head had been bleeding, on the shoreline of Malaga Cove Beach in Palos Verdes Estates. The recently married woman was the mother of a four-year-old daughter named Linda and was five months pregnant at the time of her death. She was practically nude and had died of a massive blow to the head. The previous night, the victim had an argument with her husband, Ronnie Fematt, and stormed off to her sister’s house, where she spent some time before leaving, never to return.
Robert Was Connected to the Murder of Teresa Broudreaux
When the police found nothing but dead ends, the case went cold and caught dust on the shelf for several years. More than three decades later, in 2013, thanks to the DNA evidence found at the crime scene/on the victim’s body and the new DNA technology, the police got an unexpected break in the case. They believed that the 1981 sexual assault attack in which Robert Yniguez was involved had a “very similar modus of operandi as to what we believe happened” to Teresa Broudreaux in 1980. The DNA was also linked to Robert Yniguez, but they didn’t believe it was enough for them to charge the suspect. So, in the following years, the investigators held several additional interviews with their prime suspect and reviewed the criminal record of Robert to make a strong case against him.
Finally, in late September 2017, the 65-year-old registered sex offender was arrested and charged with one count of murder with the special circumstance allegation of murder during the commission of a rape near his home in San Pedro. Teresa’s husband, Ronnie Fematt, was relieved about the arrest and stated that he had been waiting for this day to come. He thanked his family for having faith in him and the investigators who cracked the case after decades. Speaking of the anguish with how his wife died, he opened up: “There was nobody to hear her cry, nobody that heard her screams, nobody that would help her, and when she bled out, the baby died.”
Robert Yniguez is Serving His Sentence at a California Prison Facility
Initially, Robert pleaded not guilty to murdering Teresa, only to later change it to no-contest for the lesser charge of second-degree charge in September 2019. Just a month later, in October, the court handed him a 15-year-to-life term for killing the pregnant 20-year-old woman in 1980. While receiving the sentence, the convict displayed no emotion on his face. The victim’s husband, Ronnie Fematt, had already stated, “[This entire ordeal] basically ruined my life, because they didn’t have a suspect. They focused on me the whole time.” Revealing that his unborn child’s name would be Sofia, he added, “I never got a chance to be a father to that little girl.” Currently, Robert Yniguez is incarcerated at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility at 480 Alta Road in San Diego, California, while he awaits his parole suitability hearing that is tentatively scheduled in July 2026.
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