Case Profiles #69
Jalajhia Finklea
Jalajhia Finklea was a student at Barnstable High School and got great grades, loved any kind of music and had a beautiful singing voice. Her laugh was contagious. Jalajhia was also a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe. On October 20th, 2020, the day before her 18th birthday, 17-year-old Jalajhia was last seen by her mom at their New Bedford, Massachusetts home at about 4:50 p.m. Jalajhia’s mom had left to run to the pharmacy and grab a prescription for her, and when she got back at around 5:30 p.m., Jalajhia was gone. Earlier that day, Jalajhia had undergone the first part of a medical procedure, and when the clinic called the next day to report that she never showed up to her follow up appointment, Jalajhia was reported missing. Jalajhia had texted a friend that she was meeting with a man named Luis Barboza. 37-year-old Luis Zaragoza, who also went by the name Luis Barboza, quickly became the suspect in her disappearance.
Investigators learned that Jalajhia was last seen in New Bedford getting into a rental car, specifically a 2020 Hyundai Elantra, that Luis Zaragoza had recently rented at Logan Airport in Boston. Jalajhia was last seen wearing light clothing and slippers and didn’t have any bags or luggage, so it was clear she was not planning to leave. The rental car was supposed to be returned on October 21st, the next day, but was flagged when it was never brought back. Police worked hard to find any kind of connection between Luis and Jalajhia, and through interviews of family and friends they learned that Luis used to date Jalajhia’s aunt. They also learned that he had a history of being violent to his partners and that he owned several guns.
Through cellphone tracking, the last call placed from Jalajhia’s phone was to Luis just before she was seen getting into his car. The two then sat in the car for about 20 minutes before Luis drove away with Jalajhia at around 5:40 p.m. Her phone was found discarded, as if thrown out of the car, in New Bedford about 5 miles away. Luis’ phone was turned off at about 5:52 p.m. in the same area where Jalajhia’s phone was found, and it wasn’t turned on again until 7:21 p.m. in Hopkinton, Rhode Island. His phone was tracked down I-95 to a rest stop in New Jersey where surveillance footage spotted the car parked there for two hours, but no one got in or out. Luis eventually made his way down to South Carolina before his phone records ended, but police tracked him through his Gmail account to a McDonalds in Jacksonville, Florida. He was seen in the drive-thru line, but there was no one else in the car. Police continued to track Luis until Massachusetts authorities were able to obtain an arrest warrant for charges of kidnapping as well as larceny of a motor vehicle. New Bedford police began traveling down to Florida to locate and arrest Luis, but on November 5th, 2020, Luis entered a stand off with police where he fired a shot at officers and was fatally struck in the return fire, dying from suicide by cop. On his phone was a note with details of how to find Jalajhia’s body, and in the note he had written that he “snapped” and killed her.
On November 25th, US Marshals recovered the body of a young female in a field off of Route 95 in Fellsmere, Florida, almost 500 miles and roughly seven hours away from where Luis had been shot by police during their attempt to arrest him. The skeletal remains were identified as being Jalajhia. Autopsy revealed she had been shot twice in the head on her left side, one at close range, indicating that she had been shot when in the car with Luis. She was also 20 weeks pregnant at the time of her disappearance. Despite police initially not taking her case seriously and classifying her as a runaway, the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe put together a $1,000 reward for information leading to Jalajhia’s safe return and were strong advocates for her throughout the investigation.
Lyndell Moore
On April 20th, 2015, police officers in New Haven, Connecticut received phone calls reporting a “man down” after a car swerved and crashed into a parked car on Townsend Street. When officers arrived, they found the driver unconscious in the driver’s seat. EMT’s arrived and very quickly discovered that this accident was most certainly not the driver’s negligence. Unfortunately, the driver, 29-year-old Lyndell Moore, had been shot several times in the torso. EMT’s attempted to give aid to the wounded man but ended up rushing him to the Yale-New Haven Hospital. Sadly, the gunshot wounds were too severe and Lyndell died shortly after from his multiple injuries. According to some witnesses, there had been three black men, all wearing gray hoodies, leaving the scene and running towards Henry Street. However, another report stated that one witness claimed they saw only one man in a gray hoodie leaving the scene in a hurry. Additionally, Lyndell’s murder came just days after the murder of a 16-year-old, Jericho Scott, also in New Haven. Lyndell was said to be a hard-working father of four children and was employed as a construction worker. Detectives are asking anyone with information about the shooting to please contact them at 203-946-6304. The calls may be made anonymously.
Image sources:
nbcboston.com - “Jalajhia Finklea Was Pregnant When She Went Missing, Police Report Says”
legacy.com - “Lyndell John Moore”