Wanda Cook Crawford, a 38-year-old Caucasian woman, was found deceased on November 25, 1994, in the parking lot of an apartment complex near the Tamiami Trail in Miami-Dade County, Florida. She had been asphyxiated, marking a deviation from the previous strangulation deaths attributed to the same perpetrator. This led investigators to initially consider the possibility that her murder was unrelated to the others.
Crawford was the fourth victim in a series of murders committed by Rory Enrique Conde, known as the 'Tamiami Trail Strangler.' Conde targeted sex workers along the Tamiami Trail, a 250-mile highway stretching from Miami to Tampa. His killing spree began on September 17, 1994, with the murder of 27-year-old Lazaro Comesana, a transgender sex worker. This was followed by the deaths of 44-year-old Elisa Martinez on October 8, and 23-year-old Charity Fay Nava on November 20. After Crawford's murder, Conde killed two more women: 28-year-old Necole Schneider on December 17, 1994, and 21-year-old Rhonda Dunn on January 12, 1995.
The breakthrough in the case occurred on June 19, 1995, when neighbors heard a woman screaming and banging on the walls inside Conde's apartment. Police responded and discovered Gloria Maestre, a sex worker who had been bound and repeatedly assaulted by Conde. Maestre identified Conde as her attacker, leading to his arrest on June 24, 1995, at his grandmother's house in Hialeah.
During interrogation, Conde confessed to the six murders, attributing his actions to the emotional turmoil following his separation from his wife, Carla. He revealed that he killed Comesana after discovering the sex worker's male gender during a sexual encounter, which triggered memories of childhood sexual abuse. In each case, Conde strangled his victims at his home, engaged in post-mortem sexual acts, and then dumped their bodies along the Tamiami Trail.
Conde was charged with six counts of first-degree murder. In October 1999, he was convicted of the murder of Rhonda Dunn and subsequently sentenced to death. In April 2001, as part of a plea agreement, Conde pleaded guilty to the remaining five murders, including that of Wanda Crawford, and received five consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.
