Kriti Mehrotra
The case of Teresa “Terri” Ann Broudreaux’s March 1980 murder was one that admittedly initially baffled the entire state of California considering how there were no concrete leads for decades. In fact, as explored in Netflix’s ‘Homicide: Los Angeles: Murder at the Beach,’ it wasn’t until 2013 that authorities were able to positively zero in a suspect thanks to new DNA technologies. However, it still took four more years for Robert Allen Yniguez to be arrested for good, which is when the cloud of public suspicion over Teresa’s husband, Ronnie Fematt, finally went away.
Ronnie Fematt Changed Himself for Teresa Broudreaux
Since Ronnie reportedly hails from a predominantly Hispanic area where there was a culture of gangs as well as lowriding, he had begun dabbling in drug use by the time he’d turned 20 too. Nevertheless, once he met then-18/19-year-old independent, strong-willed single mother Teresa through a mutual friend, he chode to make some necessary lifestyle changes to be with her. “When I saw her, I just went ‘Whoa,'” he candidly conceded in the original. “… She gave me an ultimatum… It was a no-brainer… I wanted her. I wanted to have a family. I wanted to settle down.”
Therefore, following 2½ years of dating, Ronnie and Teresa tied the knot in a beautifully cozy ceremony before starting anew as a blended family — she soon found out she was also expecting. The truth is this Wilmington native was over the moon because he had his love, her then 4-year-old Linda Broudreaux whom he already genuinely considered his own, plus another girl on the way. But alas, everything turned upside down starting from the evening of March 3, 1980, as the couple got into an argument about him wanting to hang out with friends while she wished to stay home.
That’s when Ronnie went one way to his friend’s house, whereas his wife went the other to spend some time at her sister’s down the block before deciding to return, never to actually make it back. It was in the early hours of the following day that five months pregnant Teresa’s nude body was found along Malaga Cove Beach miles away, with her having died from blunt force trauma to the head. So, with there being no eyewitnesses and no evidence, officials immediately zeroed in on none other than her husband owing to their recent tumultuousness — they thought he could have snapped.
Ronnie Fematt Lost Everything With Teresa Broudreaux’s Death
As per Ronnie’s own accounts, despite him being cooperative with detectives plus them ultimately corroborating his alibi, the local community still believed he had a hand in Teresa’s brutal demise. After all, his alibi was his friends, and there was no other suspect they could blame — thus, he lost his wife, his unborn child, a few close loved ones, as well as 4-year-old Linda, since her paternal family ensured to get custody. “They made their choice that I wasn’t a suspect, the sheriffs did,” he asserted in the Netflix original episode. “But they had nobody else, so everybody thought I did it.”
Ronnie then added, “Couldn’t explain how many times I got shot at ’cause people thought I did it… Nobody ever shot at me before until after her death. I was so traumatized, I didn’t want to live.” The fact Theresa’s case then grew cold didn’t help matters either, especially as the finger-pointing and talking behind his back continued to such an extent that he felt like an outcast in his own city. This, unfortunately, drove him back to substances — admittedly, the only reason he worked in the ensuing years was to get high and go numb, that is, until he realized he could have much more to live for.
Ronnie Fematt Now Has Some Peace
By the time officials figured out Teresa’s perpetrator was Robert Allen Yniguez in the 2010s, Ronnie had been sober for many years and had also seemingly done his best to move on in life. Nevertheless, he greatly appreciated that they gave him an opportunity to be there when they announced their arrest at a national press conference to show he had indeed always been innocent. Hence came Robert’s court proceedings, conviction, as well as 15 years to life in prison sentencing, along with him being able to reconnect with Linda, plus them commemorating Teresa the way she deserves.
“There was nobody to hear [Teresa] cry, nobody to hear her screams, nobody to help her,” Ronnie had said after Robert’s arrest while choking back tears. “When she bled out, the baby died. I think of that all time.” He then gave a statement during the sentencing too, expressing that this ordeal “basically ruined my life, because they didn’t have a suspect. They focused on me the whole time” and because he never “got a chance to be a father to” the unborn girl they would have name Sofia. So, from what we can tell, it appears as if this Wilmington resident is now keeping the family he lost alive in his heart while also focusing on the family he has since managed to build.
Read More: Robert Yniguez: Where is the Sex Offender and Killer Now?
