MURDERED: Nori Amaya

Ashley Flowers (0:00)

Hi, Crime Junkies, I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Brit. And the story I have for you today about the 2009 murder of a Washington, DC salsa queen is one that haunts me. At first, investigators thought this might be an easy case to close. They have surveillance footage, a clear recounting of the victim's final steps. But there is one huge problem.

It was Halloween. The clubs were packed and the streets were full of people in masks and costumes. So even on camera, police can't always tell who they're looking at. Was that a coincidence? Or was it part of a careful plan to hide in plain sight? It seems like this killer knew what he was doing. He took things from the crime scene that might have led back to him. But in doing so, he actually might have left the biggest clue. This is something that has never been reported before. And me and our reporting team went deep on this one and what this clue might mean. And we think we could be just one tip away from solving this one. So Crime Junkies, listen close and make sure you share this episode with a friend, especially any friends that you have in the DC area.

This is the story of Nori Amaya.

Our story begins first thing Monday morning, November 2nd, 2009 Carlos Amaya is getting to work to begin a week that is already off to a rough start. So Carlos is the chef and co-owner of a popular Italian restaurant in Washington DC, which he runs with his sister. And even though he just hosted this big private party the night before, he is at the restaurant bright and early on just a couple of hours of sleep to fire up the wood-burning oven and get started on a massive catering order for something like 170 people. But when he calls the client to let them know that he's going to be there with the order around 10 a.m., the client is like, no, no, no, your sister never confirmed the order. So we tried to call her and tell her that it was canceled.

Brit Prawat (2:33)

Oh, I'd be so pissed at my sister.

SPEAKER_3 (2:35)

Carlos was.

Ashley Flowers (2:37)

His 38-year-old sister, Nori Amaya, is the other half to the business. He's the chef. She works front of house on the customer side of things. It's a good arrangement because she's the people person of the two siblings. So normally, it works out. But something has been up with her the last couple of days. The day before, Nori didn't show up to help with the private party like she was supposed to. Carlos blew that one off because he knows that she had been going through a breakup, and he was trying to cut her a little bit of slack. But now they're losing business and he is over it.

He wants to call her and read her the riot act. But the problem is he can't because her phone is with him. You see, two nights ago, what would have been Saturday, that was Halloween and Nori had apparently left her phone in a cab that she took home that night or technically it would have been like early Sunday morning.

The cabbie found the phone and at some point called Nori's mom, who sent Carlos to go meet the cabbie and pick it up.

Brit Prawat (3:36)

Okay, so why is Carlos still holding on to it though?

Ashley Flowers (3:38)

Well, because he thought he was going to be seeing her at work that same day. He's just going to like give it to her then, but she didn't show. And remember, it's like 2009 We actually at that time all knew how to live without our phones for a day back then, especially Nori because apparently she was prone to losing her phone maybe more than most. So unable to call her, Carlos decides to go by Nori's apartment because he's got the time now that he doesn't have to do this big 170% catering order. So when he gets to her complex, like 10 minutes away, he signs in at the front desk before going to her unit on the 11th floor.

He knocks, he checks the door, but it's locked. So he crouches down and even looks through the mail slot. And he can see inside, but the lights are off. So the apartment is completely dark. And so Carlos is thinking like, okay, you know what? Nori is clearly going through it with this breakup. She's probably still asleep. Or maybe she just doesn't want to talk to anyone right now. So he decides to give her a little bit more space. If she's not at the restaurant by the dinner shift, then he'll take more drastic measures to like shake her out of it.