Maria Apodaca, an 18-year-old Hispanic female from Sacramento, California, was one of several victims in a series of murders that occurred in the mid-1980s. Her remains were discovered on March 19, 1987, buried in the yard of a residence in Sacramento’s Oak Park neighborhood. The property had previously been occupied by a man named Morris Solomon Jr., who worked as a handyman and had stayed at the house until November 1986.
The body of the 18-year-old Hispanic female was found wrapped in bedding, a detail that would later emerge as a common element among several victims linked to the same suspect.
Maria Apodaca was identified as a teenage sex worker, and her death was part of a disturbing pattern that included other young women, many of whom were also involved in sex work and had histories of drug use. The advanced state of decomposition of her body made it difficult for authorities to determine the exact cause of death. However, the circumstances of her burial and the similarities to other cases led investigators to believe she had been murdered by the same individual.
The primary suspect in the case was Morris Solomon Jr., an African-American male born in 1944, who had a documented history of sexual violence and had previously been committed as a mentally disordered sex offender. Solomon was arrested on April 22, 1987, after multiple bodies were discovered at properties where he had lived or worked. In total, he was convicted of six murders, including that of 18-year-old Hispanic female Maria Apodaca. The victims were typically found either buried in shallow graves or hidden within homes, and many shared similar characteristics in terms of how their bodies were treated post-mortem.
Solomon was ultimately sentenced to death on September 16, 1992. He maintained his innocence throughout the trial and subsequent appeals. Despite the severity of the crimes, his case received limited national attention due to the concurrent investigation of another serial killer operating in Sacramento at the time. Solomon remained on death row at San Quentin State Prison until his death in 2024. The murder of 18-year-old Hispanic female Maria Apodaca remains one of the most haunting chapters in Sacramento’s criminal history, emblematic of a broader pattern of violence against vulnerable women during that era.
