In the early morning hours of Friday, August 24, 2012, Dalia Gutierrez-Sanchez, a 43-year-old Hispanic female, was fatally shot in the parking lot of her apartment complex at 371 Wallace Road in Nashville, Tennessee. Originally from Manati, Puerto Rico, she worked as a correctional officer at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
At approximately 4:30 a.m., after parking her car, Gutierrez-Sanchez was approached by a young Black male.
The assailant shot her before stealing her purse and fleeing the scene on foot. The Metropolitan-Nashville Police Department has indicated that robbery is a possible motive for the attack. At the time of her death, Dalia was a mother to three sons.
In 2012, authorities released a composite sketch of the person believed to be responsible for Gutierrez-Sanchez's murder. He was described as a Black man in his early 20s, standing approximately 5'8' tall and weighing around 150 pounds, with unkempt hair worn over to one side. At the time of the incident, he was reportedly wearing tight-fitting blue jean shorts and a blue-green hooded sweatshirt. As of late 2025, the case remains unsolved and is considered a cold case by the Nashville Police Department's Cold Case Homicide Unit, with no arrests having been made. Anyone with information regarding the shooting is encouraged to contact the Nashville Police Department or Crime Stoppers.
