Sylvia Salinas

Warning, this episode contains graphic crime scene detail and maybe sensitive for some listeners. All witnesses, pursas of interest and suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Welcome to Primetime Crime. I'm your host, Kylie. Let's talk right now in true crime, and then together we are going to work on warming up some cold cases. Let's go. Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of Primetime Crime. It's Kylie. We are going to go ahead and get started with right now and true crime. We have a few things I want to talk about. So first thing is first, I want to talk about the day Bill property. I had previously touched on how it was acquired by this nonprofit and they wanted to turn it into a like little sanctuary kind of area. And they had stated that they had contacted some of the family, and the family had come out and said, no, they haven't. So this is from East Idaho News and Nate Eaton SJ. Healing Crossroads is the nonprofit that took ownership of the property. And this was a nonprofit that was created in plans to purchase this property and turn it into a healing environment versus what it is known for now. This nonprofit was created by a local couple in Idaho that followed the case, and they want to remain anonymous, but the Internet is the Internet, and on all of the Lori Valo Chad Dabil Facebook groups that I follow, their names are plastered everywhere, which I do believe that if they want to be anonymous, that they should be able to be anonymous. But unfortunately the Internet has a way of finding these things out. So they have been quoted as saying, such a horrible tragedy happened here and we wanted to be sure the right thing was done with the property. This is all about respecting JJ Tyley and Tammy and the victims. They do plan on tearing down the home and all the other buildings that are on the land, and then they are going to consult with the family members. That have been affected by this tragedy and. They want to do something there to help memorialize and remember the victims. They said, we want to transform the site from one of sorrow and tragedy into a place of peace, healing, and hope for the community. This won't be a playground with swings and a slide, but a respectful place so I will continue to keep you guys updated on that and we will see what ends up transpiring with it. So Donna Adelson is set to begin her trial on September thirtieth. There was a hearing recently because they wanted to move the trial location and the defense, of course, also wanted to throw out the case. This hearing happened last Friday. So the motion to dismiss the case was based on Daniel Roschbaum saying that this case and this trial is going to be identical to that of Charlie Aedelson and some of the other suspects and convicted folks that went along with this murder. For a higher plot. So he basically said, Donna was indicted ten years after this crime was committed, and the States case is going to be nearly identical to the ones that were built against the four others that are currently serving time for Dan Markel's murder. They also talked about how they want to bring up her going to Vietnam and booking a one way ticket is essentially a hint that she was running from something because she knew that Charlie was just convicted and sentenced and that was probably going to be happening to her in the near future, so she booked this one way ticket for her and her husband to Vietnam. So interesting. Let me tell you, this whole case is so interesting. And of course Donna is arguing she was just going on vacation, okay, But regardless of that, her trial starts September thirtieth. And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out my summer series of twenty twenty four, because I did the summer series on all of this stuff that I'm going to be talking about with Donna Adelson's trial. We talk about the trial. Of Sigfredo Garcia, Luis Severa, Catherine meg Banawa, Katie Megmaniba, whatever we're calling our Charlie Adelson, and then we talk eventually about Donna being arrested at the airport on her way out of the country on a one way ticket to Vietnam. So check it out. Prepare yourselves September thirtieth. It's gonna get real. Another trial that we need to talk about that's coming up in October is that of Richard Allen. He is the accused Delphi killer. He allegedly murdered Libby jerm And Abby Williams in Indiana in twenty seventeen, a judge has officially ruled that the jurors that are in the trial will be allowed to hear evidence about his own admissions to different people in prison. He's allegedly admitted to the murders two different people since he has been incarcerated, So the judge has officially decided to let this evidence come forward and let the jury hear what evidence they have that he allegedly admitted to the double homicide. So this one is going to be one that we are going to be watching so so so carefully. It has been a long time since Abby and Libby were tragically taken from this world, and it took a heck of a long time to arrest the man allegedly responsible. So we will continue to stay on top of this one, and if there's any up and coming updates, I will be sure to let you know. And then once trial starts, I am going to be doing updates as often as I can. Moving on to. The last case update, Brian Coberger, who is the alleged Idaho for murder, is set to stand trial in June of twenty twenty five for the quadruple homicide that he allegedly committed against the four University of Idaho students. So he and his team are very much trying to get the trial relocated elsewhere, and the judge still has yet to make a decision. He said that he is definitely going to review everything and go through the law again, and he said that it's going to take time and he will do his best and that it's a challenge. So we still don't know if the trial is going to be held locally or if they're going to move it to another county. But again, I will keep you guys updated on that as we know more, and I know that the families are anxiously awaiting this trial to begin. He waved his right to a speedy trial, which is why we're looking at a June twenty twenty five court day trial date, because if you remember correctly, the trial was originally going to be in October of last year. So here we are still waiting to get justice for these four and their families. But I do know justice is coming. I know the prosecution is going to be building their case, the defense is going to be building whatever case they think that they might have, and It's going to be really interesting to see it all presented. So I'll continue to keep you guys updated on what the judge decides about the location of the trial, because I do feel that he'll hopefully make a decision here in the next few coming weeks. But like I said, I will keep you guys updated. So that is it for right now. In True Crime, we are going to go ahead and get started with today's episode. Okay, guys, today we are jumping in to a brand new case today and this one takes place in Galveston, Texas on Halloween in nineteen eighty nine, So we are going to be discussing the murder of a thirty year old woman named Sylvia Salinas. Sylvia was born on January seventh of nineteen fifty nine in Galveston, Texas, to her parents, darylus Selinas Senior and Maria Selinas. She was one of four children and the youngest of her siblings. Her parents were born in Mexico, however, came to the US and raised their four children in Galveston, Texas. Sylvia is described as. A fun and loving person who always wanted to believe and see the best in people. She was raised Catholic and would always attend Mass. Her friends would call her Auntie Sill or Tea silv. She was very well known in the community and she was well loved by everybody that surrounded her. Darrelus Selinus Junior, one of Sylvia's brothers, brought a grocery store in Galveston in the nineteen seventies. Now, this grocery store was located at three oh two eight Avenue Q, and he would own and work this grocery store for about seventeen years. Eventually, his parents ended up taking it over and it kind of became a family business. But then in nineteen eighty eight, Sylvia made the decision to purchase it. At the time, she was twenty nine years old, and they decided that they were going to keep it as a family business. So this store was in the same area as the neighborhood that Sylvia was born and raised in. She was very well known in the community and due to her having worked at the store when her parents were in charge of it, everybody pretty much knew her. She would always welcome new customers to her store, but wouldn't take any crap from anyone. If you were messing with her store or any of the products inside. She would take matters into her own hands. There was one time that this man had come in and he had stolen a bottle of wine, and Sylvia took it upon herself to chase him down and tell him you were never allowed back in my store, and she basically took back her. Bottle of wine. So this was not a girl who was afraid to defend her herself and stand her ground and protect her store. As much as she loved having the store, the lease was said to be up in nineteen ninety, so the family was officially going to sell the store, and Sylvia had dreams of moving away from Galveston to move to Hawaii with her brother Daryls, who had relocated there in nineteen eighty eight. So Sylvia was just a few short months away from leaving Galveston, selling the store, and starting her life over in Hawaii. Okay, the day is Halloween nineteen eighty nine. It is Tuesday, October thirty. First, Sylvia's parents had gone to the store to visit with their daughter, and around noon, Sylvia's parents left to go home to have lunch, which was about two blocks away. Sylvia was at the store and restocking the shelves at this point. So at one twenty three pm, the security firm that handled the store security got an alert that the alarm at the store was triggered. The Galliston Police Department went to the store around one twenty seven pm, and right away they realized that something was wrong. They entered the store and approached the. Counter and that's when they saw a lot of blood and they found Sylvia Salinas, thirty years old, to cease behind the counter. Sylvia's family at this point had been told that the alarm by the alarm company that the alarm had went off. When they arrived to the store, they were. Basically told what was going on, and Sylvia's dad was obviously distraught, her mom as well. They were both distraught. The police went ahead and secured the scene and they started to process the scene. So the crime scene was preserved on video that day, and there was a lot of bloody boot or shoeprints, an open cash register that was emptied, a knocked over stool that Sylvia was likely sitting on at the time of her murder, and the murder weapon was also present at the scene. Now, the murder weapon it was a knife, and it was also used to pry open the cash register, where less than one thousand dollars was taken, So Sylvia lost her life for less than one thousand dollars. If robbery was the motive at. This point, they weren't really sure, but it looked like they were there. They took money, Sylvia ended up dead in the process, so that was definitely an angle they had to go about kind of trying to eliminate as a reason for why Sylvia was attacked. So police ended. Up trying to come up with theories of what they think happened. They believed that Sylvia was sitting on her stool behind the counter when she was attacked. She didn't have any defensive wounds on her arms or hands, so they didn't believe that she really had time to react because, as I previously talked about, Sylvia was mighty. She would protect herself and her store at all costs. She also didn't have time to trigger the silent alarm that the store had, and Sylvia also kept a machete and a revolver behind the counter to use in case of an incident like this, but they were never touched during this encounter. That she had with this person who took her life. So it is very obvious that they attacked her quickly. She did not have a chance to react, did not have a chance to defend herself, because I fully believe that if she did have a chance, she would have fought for her life, and she would have fought. For her store. As investigators are processing the crime scene, members of the community started to gather around the store in disbelief as to what had happened. Sylvia's death was later confirmed on the evening news. At this point, investigators started to ask the community to come forward with any information that they had to see if they had seen anyone suspicious hanging around the name that day, but leads were very limited. They did have a couple of people that came forward with information. Around the time when the silent alarm was triggered, there was a witness that saw a man, a white man with sandy blondehair, running through the alley near the Selena's Food store, and about ten minutes before the alarm went off, there was a witness that said that they saw a black mail using a payphone at the store, and investigators very much thought that this man could have potentially witnessed the suspect going into the Selena's food store if he was on the phone, But unfortunately, the investigation was cold pretty much as soon as it happened. There was no new information or leads into what could have happened to Sylvia, And the bigger question is who would want to harm Sylvia and why. They didn't know if this was targeted random, someone in the community, someone passing through town, or if it was motivated by robbery, although it did kind of appear that way given the fact that the register was pried open and money was taken. Sylvia's funeral happened that same week on a Thursday, and it was so crowded it was standing room only. Because Sylvia was so beloved in this community. Everyone was in shock that this could happen to someone so beloved in the community, and members of the community of Galveston wondered if a murderer was still amongst them. Galveston homicide detectives attempted to try and put the pieces together. They did have some fingerprints that were at the scene that they attempted to process and used to eliminate suspects. However, it was a grocery store, so there was a ton of fingerprints and it was so heavily trafficked, so nothing really came of anything in regards to that. And again it was nineteen eighty eight, so the technology is a lot different back then than it is today. In twenty twenty. Four, they patiently waited for the two men that were released as a people that they wanted to speak to in regards to Sylvia's death to come forward, and neither one of them ever came forward and they were never identified. So the knife that was left at the crime scene was a knife that the family didn't think was from the store, so they did believe that the knife was brought to the crime scene by the suspect. They identified the knife as a filay knife and thought maybe whoever committed the crime had worked at some point at a fish market because it was the kind of knife that you would use to fulley fish and debone fish and. All of that. Police did believe that Sylvia knew and trusted the person, and whoever this person was, she might have even possibly let them behind the counter before she was attacked. Her family said that she would never let anyone behind the counter unless she knew and totally trusted them. So who was this person that attacked Sylvia and why. Why did they do it? Everyone said that Sylvia was very aware and alert when it came to protecting herself and her store, So if she had sensed trouble, she would have gone out of her way to prevent anything bad from happening. But she was also one of those people that if she knew you and she trusted you, she would let her guard down. And that's understandable because she knew a lot of people in the community and they knew her. So if it was somebody she knew and trusted, I could see her not being on edge and not being leery of this person. And it was the perfect time for this person to attack because she did have her guardlet down, if that's what happened. Also, we have to think about the fact that this happened on a Tuesday, in the middle of the day, around one pm. The food store was also surrounded by homes, and it's just pretty unimaginable that this happened. This whole thing transpired, and nobody saw anything. None of that makes any sense to Sylvia's family and her close friends. Twenty different men were interviewed and questioned and ended up being eliminated as suspects. During the investigation, Galveston Crime Stoppers offered up a one thousand dollars reward for info leading to an arrest and conviction of the person responsible for Sylvia's murder. Her family and friends tried to take it upon themselves to raise some money as well to donate to part of the reward money, and by November twelveth so just a few days after Sylvia was taken, they had collected two thousand more dollars to be added to the reward money, which in nineteen eighty nine is a heck of a lot of money. Just putting that out there, they raised a lot of money, so at this point the reward money is now at three thousand dollars. But despite this, they had no new leads and nobody knew coming forward. Law enforcement kept a lot of the evidence to themselves, and a lot isn't public knowledge or even was available to Sylvia's family because it is an active, ongoing investigation. One piece of evidence that has been made available to the family is that video that they took that day at the Salina's food store and bits and pieces of this video have also been released to the public, and they. Are out there. It is out there on If you. Google the case, you will likely find a video that has little bits and pieces of it. So they have watched this video day in and day out, trying to analyze every part of the video that they can, and they believe that the bloody footprints from the video is from a type of Converse shoe. That is as much as they've been able to figure out just from watching the video. They've scoured different. Prints online and they think that whoever was in there that day was wearing some type of Converse. And I do really commend the family for going through this evidence, taking it upon themselves to try to figure out what kind of shoe prints were left in the store, because you look at this case and there is. Quite a bit of evidence. We have a whole video that is showing. Us the crime scene, showing us everything that happened, everything that was left behind, and seemingly this person was able to go into the Salina's food store. Take Sylvia's life, and slip out. Into the midday hustle and bustle of a Tuesday in Galveston and seemingly get away with murder and has gotten away with murder for all. Of this time. It's just seeing it just seems to me so unimaginable that something like this could happen. So we are going to fast forward to September of two thousand and eight. Galveston and the surrounding. Areas were hit by a Category four storm, Hurricane Ike. So with this, the Galveston Police Station was damaged by flooding and several of the files and evidence from multiple cases were destroyed in this which is horrible because you literally have these cold cases and people livelihood stored in your facility and then they're damaged by this horrific storm. So some of the evidence from the Selina's case was destroyed and. Damaged and not able to be salvaged. However, the VHS tape was saved and was okay, along with some of the bloody prints that were found at the scene. They were also salvaged and safe. So that is a huge part of keeping this story and this case alive is having these two pieces of key evidence. So in March of twenty twenty, the Galveston Police Department told Channel ABC thirteen that Sylvia's case was being reviewed again by detectives after it being a cold case for such a long time. Now, like I said, they did find some bloody fingerprints and footprints at the scene and they were resubmitting these to the crime lab for testing, because you have to hope that with all the advances that we've had in our different technologies, that there is going to be a hit on these prints. But still to this day, there has. Been no new leads or evidence or word on anything related to Sylvia Sealinus's murder, and her case remains unsolved. After everything was destroyed during Hurricane Ike, the Galveston Police Department said that they were going to work on upgrading their system a little bit so they would have a safe way to keep all of these cold case files and keep them safe in the event of a horrific storm or hurricane or natural disaster. So if there's anything good that came out of this, it's that they have upped the way that they store and keep the files. And all I can say is that VHS's will literally withstand anything. So we do have to be grateful that videotape still exists, and hopefully there's something in that video that one day investigators will watch it again and they will realize that they have the smoking gun, or somebody will just eventually come forward and say that they either have information or that they were personally involved. This happened a long time ago, so whoever this person is, they are probably getting older, obviously getting older every single. Day, and maybe it weighs on them on a daily. Basis that they took away a young woman, so beloved, so treasured in her community. Maybe that weighs on them. Maybe they have said something to somebody in passing about killing a girl back in nineteen eighty nine. Maybe this episode will happen upon the right set of eyes and the right set of ears, and somebody will come forward with what they know. Sylvia's dad unfortunately passed away in April of twenty ten, and her mom passed to weigh in April of twenty twenty one without resolution about what happened to their daughter. I know that they fought every single day to try to navigate and figure out what could have happened that day and why their daughter was targeted and brutally murdered on her own home turf, in her own store, in her own community. The former Silliness grocery store. Property has been renovated into an apartment and it is the kind of place that you can rent, kind of like an Airbnb situation. It has one bedroom and one bathroom and two living areas, so. This is a pretty large ish property. So when I was first brought this case, I scoured. The Internet trying to find any information I could about the case, and I ended up coming across a Facebook post about the Silliness murder and some people that knew Sylvia had commented on the post and the These are people that knew Sylvia that were from Galveston, lived in Galveston, frequented her store, and they took the time to really explain what type of woman Sylvia was. I'm going to read a few of these posts now to end this episode with the exact kind of woman that Sylvia was. One of the things all of the kids in the neighborhood would look forward to on Halloween, would for her to be standing out in front of the store in costume, handing out candy bars. And little toys. I used to get off of the bus and run across the street to my house, grab my dollar, and run to the store to get my Pickle and Cheeto, pause and then play the video games. My dad and her brother were best friends, well more like brothers. I miss Sylvia and think of her often. The next comment is she was the nicest person we ever met. My granny would call her and tell her what she needed, and Sylvia would gather it all up, and my cousins and I would walk down to the corner store and pick it up and put it on Granny's tab. Next comment, she was, without sounding cliche. The salt of the earth. I would always I was always in her store playing video games when I was a kid. She would always ask me, have you finished your homework. She would threaten to call my mom and make sure I was telling the truth before I could play. She gave us candy when we didn't have enough, and she always gave us life lessons and how to be successful in life. It broke my heart when I got off the bus and saw that crime scene tape at the store. I could remember the tragedy of her passing, but I choose to remember how she lived. Fly high, Sylvia, I'll always love you. Next comment, She was my cousin. My dad and her mom were first cousins. Hope they solved this cold case very soon before her mom leaves the world. This was six years ago. Give her family the closure to this horrible tragedy, praying all will be solved. Next comment, she was very kind to me. I'd go there all the time as a kid, we all would. And the last comment, I had the pleasure of knowing her, a very nice lady who always had a smile. I lived just around the corner on twenty ninth Street. The detective that works on Sylvia Selinus's case is named Michelle Stolenberger, and she reiterates how there is no indication that Sylvia tried to protect herself and that everything kind of points to somebody that she knew, either a regular customer or somebody she knew personally. And Sylvia's brother, Darylus, also feels the same way because he said that she would not let anybody behind that counter unless she knew that person and felt comfortable with that person. Darylus hadn't been back to the store since Sylvia was murdered, and him returning there made him very very emotional. He said that being there the whole thing, it just breaks his heart and that she did not deserve to die this way. And I also think just from some of the interviews I've seen that darylus very much puts a lot of blame on himself for selling that grocery store to Sylvia. But at the end of the day, he cannot blame himself for the actions of some horrific human that was in Galveston on October thirty first of nineteen eighty nine. That is not his fault at the end of the day. That is that person's fault for making that decision. So unfortunately, to this day, Sylvia's case does remain unsolved. Sylvia was killed doing what she enjoyed at the store that she had built and took pride in. Her family deserves answers, as does this community of Galveston, who has been plagued by this cold case for such. A long time. If you know anything about what happened that day, called Galveston Crime Stoppers at four h nine seven six three eight four seven seven. Of course you can remain anonymous, But at the end of the day, Sylvia Selinus deserves justice. Her killer needs to be found and put away for a very very long time and answer for what happened that day, because none of it makes any sense that she did not fight back. More and more, it does seem way more like a personal attack, and that the quote unquote robbery was just to kind of set the scene to make it look like a robbery and not like it was an intentional attack against Sylvia. But it just doesn't make any sense that somebody would go in there and harm her like this on her own territory, in her own store, and seemingly be able to slip out into the day and nobody sees anything. I would be real interested to hear from those two people that were seen near the area. The guy that was using the payphone, I'm sure he had absolutely nothing to do with it, and I'm sure he was probably scared to come forward because he was essentially there when the killer could have been entering the store. But he might have that key piece of information that could lead investigators to who did this. And the white man with the sandy blonde hair, what does he why was he running in the alley after the crime. There are questions that need to be answered in this case, and there's only a couple of people probably that know the answers, and one of them is the killer and the other one might be somebody that the killer has confided in over the years or ragged about the crime for whatever reason. But Sylvia and her family, they all deserve justice. We all deserve answers to what happened to this crime, So please share this episode. I'm going to be sharing some photos of some of the crime scene stills. I'll try to get as much of the video as I can to post as well, but be warned it is a little bit graphic because it is a crime scene. And I'm also going to be sharing photos of Sylvia. And I'm going to share a few photos of what the grocery store space looks like now, because it is pretty incredible that they took this what was a grocery store and turned it into a little apartment and it's actually really nice. What they did with the space. So I'm glad that they were able to take the space and turn it into something positive that can bring joy to people and give them a nice place to stay while they are away on vacation in Galveston. So I'll be sharing some pictures of that as well as photos of Sylvia. Like I said, so be sure that you are following me on social media. At Primetime Crime Pod on Instagram and Primetime Crime on Facebook. I really appreciate your support on my social media platforms and another way to easily support the podcast wherever you're listening. If you're enjoying it, please give my podcast a five star review. It takes nothing to hit. The little five stars if you want to type something up and say that you're enjoying the podcast, whatever it may be, or if you just want to do the rating. It really helps my podcast grow and it helps it push it out to more people that are interested in true crime, so we can get these cold cases out there to hopefully the person that needs to hear it to solve the case. And I really appreciate you guys sticking with me for the last year and a half. I officially surpassed one hundred and twenty five thousand downloads, which when I first started this podcast, I never thought it was possible. I remember in the first thirty days that I was trying to pass a thousand downloads and that seemed so impossible, but I was able to do it. And now I'm at one hundred and twenty five thousand, and it's just so humbling and overwhelming and I am so appreciative of each and every one of you who has taken time to listen to an episode and to share my episodes to support the podcast. The true crime podcasting community is truly amazing and so supportive, and I never imagined finding the people that I have found in doing this. I honestly, when I first started the podcast, I just wanted to seemingly put out an episode and just kind of lay dormant and not really engage on social media or anything like that. But these stories are so important to be heard that they have to be put out there so that way they reach hoefully the right set of ears to solve these cases. At the end of the day, that is what it is all about. It is about exposure and getting these cases out there. I know a lot of people don't like unsolved stories because they want that resolution and they want that ending, and I want that too. I understand. I grew up on unsolved mysteries and it used to make me so mad at the end when they would tell me that it wasn't solved still, even though that's what it was called unsolved mysteries. But these cases have such an important place in the true crime community. Because as a community and as a true crime consumer, we have the power to help move these cases forward, to give these families hope, and to get these cases out there. That is our role in this whole thing. So if you're a listener of true crime and Unsolved podcasts, you have a role and a responsibility to share these episodes and get the word out. Essentially, that is what we do. So I thank you guys very much for sticking with me and for being here, and thank you for listening. To Sylvia's story. I think it's a really important one to tell, and hopefully for the community of Galveston and Sylvia's family, we can finally bring them some closure and we can get justice for Sylvia. I will continue to keep you guys updated on any new information that comes out in regards to her story. They sent those prints off to the crime lab in twenty twenty, and as of right now, I still. Have not heard anything. I can't find any new articles, any updates on the case. But I will continue to keep you guys updated if anything does come forward, because cases are being solved left and right due to the advancements in DNA technology, and I'm hopeful that this case is going to be one of them. So thank you guys so much for listening. I appreciate each and every one of you, and thank you for sticking with me in now my one episode per week era that I'm in, which I'm really enjoying because it's giving me a lot more time to thoroughly research the cases that I'm doing. I'm also working on another project with a group of true crime podcasters in a collaborative forum that is going to be coming out in a couple of months, so stay tuned for that. And I hope you guys have. A great weekend ahead and I will see you next week for a brand new Unsolved case. Have a great weekend, Bye, guys.