Bones solve 17-year-old missing person case

Woman went missing after graduation
By David Kassabian (Contact)
Originally published 04:18 a.m., June 26, 2008
Updated 04:18 a.m., June 26, 2008

A farmer's discovery and a DNA swab from a missing woman's grandparents led investigators to a woman killed 17 years ago and the Tuesday arrest of a man connected to the incident.

U.S. Marshals arrested 37-year-old Carlos Zuniga Jr. in connection with the 1991 death of an 18-year-old Victoria woman who vanished two weeks after her high school graduation, said Jim Wells County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Jose S. Martinez III.

The search for April Ann Repka went cold for more than a decade, until a farmer in 2004 found a skull and femur while digging a trench in a field about six miles south of Alice, Martinez said. The remains were sent to a lab in Denton with the hopes DNA could be matched.

The identity of the remains were still a mystery until 2007, when a Victoria County Sheriff's Department investigator asked for help from Jim Wells County authorities with the missing person case. Repka's grandparents submitted a DNA sample that was sent to Denton. Soon after, match test results came back positive.

"Back in 1991, we didn't know we had a homicide or even a crime scene," Martinez said. "In 2004, we thought the remains might have been of an undocumented immigrant passing through the area, which we get a lot of."

After the match, local investigators asked the FBI for help re-examining the field, and a team combing the area found several other items that belonged to Repka, including a class ring and bracelet as well as more bones.

Information obtained when authorities questioned a former Victoria resident three weeks ago led to Zuniga.

He was arrested by authorities in the 2800 block of Niagara Street and brought to the Nueces County jail, where he remained Wednesday evening on a $500,000 bond on a capital murder charge.

Martinez would not release details on how or where Repka died, citing an ongoing investigation, but said that she likely was stabbed.

Contact David Kassabian at 886-3778 or kassabiand@caller.com