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MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF: Rowena Wilkinson Zapalac

For decades, police said Rowena Wilkinson Zapalac died via suicide by masturbation. But her family always believed there was more to Rowena’s death than met the eye. Could she have been the victim of a serial killer passing through Texas, or could her case be connected to the deaths of two other women in the area?
Duration
58m
Broadcast on
08 Dec 2025
Audio Format
other

For decades, police said Rowena Wilkinson Zapalac died via suicide by masturbation. But her family always believed there was more to Rowena’s death than met the eye. Could she have been the victim of a serial killer passing through Texas, or could her case be connected to the deaths of two other women in the area?

  • If you have any information about the deaths of Rowena Wilkinson Zapalac or Melody Ann Bush, please contact the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office at (979) 968-5856 or email us at [email protected].
  • Click HERE to view and sign Joleta’s petition asking Fayette County to change Rowena’s manner of death on her death certificate to homicide.

 

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Crime Junkie is hosted by Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat. 


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Hi, crime junkies, I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And today's story is one that found me about eight months ago. I was coming through our case suggestions, and one of them just jumped out. It was from a woman down in Texas named Jolita Wilkinson, who wanted help rewriting the false narrative around her sister's death, a death that was ruled such a shameful accident in the 1980s small town Texas place they lived, that her family didn't really even want to speak of it. So she was never able to voice her concerns about a crime scene that she had to help clean up, one that she believes pointed to murder. And part of her submission, I actually want to read it to you. It says, quote, "My parents did not want to stir the pot because her past may embarrass the family and her three-year-old son. So I told them after they passed, I would dig into the truth. They have now passed, and I feel it's time to really investigate her death, being as there are so many coincidences, discrepancies, and I hate that my nephew has lived the past 40 years believing his mom accidentally killed herself masturbating." This woman came to us believing that her sister might have actually been murdered by a known serial killer, but she didn't know where to go from there. So a few months ago, I put one of our reporters on the case, and through our own investigation, we have come to agree with Jolieta. Her sister was murdered, but maybe not by the roaming serial killer, she thought, because our investigation led us to the cases of two other women who died in this same small town, and all of these women link back to one local man. So let me start with the story of Rowena Wilkinson-Zappalac. [Music] When Jolieta was only 14 or 15, her family got a call from the local Sheriff's Office in Fayette County, Texas, that her 20-year-old sister Rowena died in her studio apartment over a saddle shop in Flatonia, Texas. It was unexpected for everyone and only made more shocking by what authorities told them. According to the Sheriff's Office, Rowena had died via suicide by masturbation. The rope around her neck and the dildo on her bed were the clear signs that deputies pointed to when breaking the news to her family. But when Jolieta and her dad went to Rowena's apartment the day after this to clean it out, they saw so much more that too Jolieta painted a completely different picture of what happened. Now Rowena had only just moved to this apartment recently, so there wasn't much in there to begin with which only made the stuff that was there stand out even more, pennies littered the floor. There was a broken acrylic nail with blood on it, water still in the shower a day later, and a literal broken kitchen window with glass on the floor. But because it was ruled a suicide, there was a very short investigation. It was case closed basically that same day. And Rowena's family was just sort of left to accept what the Sheriff said, which Jolieta said was like painful and embarrassing for them. And even though her dad was seeing some of the same stuff that Jolieta did and definitely had some suspicions, they just couldn't bear to push for a deeper investigation. And also like 80s small town texts, like you said, like back when it seems like most people weren't questioning law enforcement like we do now, like you think they must know what they're doing? And even if they don't, like how in the world are we normal people or whatever are supposed

Transcription truncated.

For decades, police said Rowena Wilkinson Zapalac died via suicide by masturbation. But her family always believed there was more to Rowena’s death than met the eye. Could she have been the victim of a serial killer passing through Texas, or could her case be connected to the deaths of two other women in the area?