Texas Rangers Dig Up Woman’s Body as 42-Year-Old Cold Case Reignites

Investigators from the Texas Rangers exhumed the body of Rowena Wilkinson Zapalac from the Sacred Heart Catholic Cemetery in Flatonia.

Zapalac was found dead in her apartment in downtown Flatonia on Sept. 20, 1984. She was 20 years old. Local officials at the time ruled her death an accidental suicide via autoerotic asphyxiation. Rowena’s younger sister, Joleta Wilkinson, was 15 at the time, and she never believed that her sister accidentally killed herself. And there were several alarming clues in Rowena’s apartment: a broken window, a broken acrylic finger nail, and pennies scattered on the floor suggesting a struggle.

Now, 42 years later, and with a sister’s persistence, the Texas Rangers are taking a second look at Rowena’s death.

Flatonia Police Chief Lee Dick told the Record last week that the Ranger in charge of the case informed him back in January of their plans to forensically examine Rowena’s remains. The body was exhumed on Jan. 26. Joleta Wilkinson spoke to the Record last Friday and confirmed that the Rangers did collect evidence from her sister’s grave. She said a forensic anthropologist is involved in the investigation and that the Rangers had shared some of their findings with her. However, she said the Rangers asked her not to share details with the media until all of the testing is complete, which could be as soon as next month, she said.

For almost 40 years Joleta Wilkinson has been trying to get authorities to correct her sister’s death certificate by changing the cause of death from suicide to homicide.

“I started this in 1988, when I was in college,” she said. “I started reading everything I could about the case. Whenever some new way of finding information came out, like computers, I would collect a little more.”

Some years ago when Joleta’s son was in law school, he taught her how to file requests for public information through the Texas Public Information Act. She was able to procure numerous documents from the 1984 investigation. Back then, Flatonia had only very recently formed a police department. The Fayette County Sheriff’s Office and then-Precinct 3 Constable Rick Vandel conducted the investigation. Vandel would later go on to serve as Fayette County Sheriff.

After receiving the documents from the 1984 investigation, Wilkinson said she asked the Sheriff’s Office to re-open the case. Much to her dismay, the Sheriff’s Office declined. However, she said one of the deputies offered her some advice.

“He said my best bet would be to contact one of these true crime shows on TV,” Wilkinson said.

That advice played a huge role re-igniting this cold case investigation. Wilkinson contacted the Crime Junkies podcast. The show’s investigative journalists dove deep into the evidence. They spoke with several people who knew Rowena and were connected to the events of Sept. 19, 1984 - the night before Joleta died. The journalists from the Crime Junkies show came to the conclusion that Rowena did not die by suicide, but rather someone killed her. Watch the episode on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=eQv5hYALZ80.

The opinions of journalists aren’t enough to correct a death certificate or open a criminal investigation. But the attention it brought seems to have shaken things up. Wilkinson believes the Rangers will soon come to the same conclusion - that Rowena Zapalac did not take her own life. And that’s not all.

“I feel like we’ll find out who did it,” Wilkinson said.

The Crime Junkies show on Rowena Zapalac stops just short of directly accusing one local man from a prominent family of killing Zapalac, and that man died in 2023. If they are correct, there will be no earthly justice for Wilkinson’s sister. But that’s not what motivates her.

“People need to know that if you doubt anything, you need to be persistent,” Wilkinson said. “You don’t have to live like this, not knowing.”

Wilkinson said her sister’s remains will not be re-buried in Flatonia. The headstone has been removed. Wilkinson said Rowena’s final resting place will be at a family cemetery outside of Hillsboro.