Dori Amaya

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
On Halloween Night two thousand nine, a woman known as
the Salsa Queen had her last dance. She walked into
her apartment building after a night out and was never
seen alive again. Her murder was brutal and baffling, leaving
behind just one tiny clue and a question that has
haunted a city for over a decade. Who killed Nori Amaya? Hello,

(00:27):
and welcome to One Crime at a Time. I am
your host, Shannon, and this week we are discussing the
unsolved murder of Dori Amaya. But before we dive in,
I want to remind you that you can gain early
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(00:48):
You can receive all of this for just one dollar
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your support. If you wish to join, the link will
be in the description of this episode. Now, now that
we are done with business, on with our story. Before
Nori Amaya was the center of a chilling mystery. She
was a force of nature. Her energy was so bright,

(01:09):
so magnetic, that people just wanted to be around her.
To really get the tragedy of this crime, you first
have to understand the light she brought into the world.
Everyone who knew Norri said she was special. She was
born in the El Salvador on September ninth, nineteen seventy one,
and came to the United States with her younger brother, Carlos,
when they were young. Their mom worked multiple jobs to

(01:32):
support them, and because of that, Nori and Carlos formed
an incredibly tight, protective bond. For most of their childhood,
it was the two of them against the world. Carlos
later described his sister as having huge eyes, red hair,
a freckled face, and an energy you just couldn't resist.
She was only five four, but her presence was big

(01:53):
enough to fill any room, and that presence was never
more electric than on the dance floor in the heart
of Washington, d c. Eas night life. Nori Amaya was
basically royalty. Her sharp moves and a fiery, unique style
of salsa earned her the nickname the Salsa Queen. For Norrie,
dancing wasn't just a hobby, it was how she expressed herself,

(02:14):
a language she spoke fluently. The d C Salsa clubs
were her kingdom, and when she danced, everybody watched. But
her passion didn't stop with dancing. Norri and her brother
Carlos spored their hearts into another big project, an Italian
restaurant called Copies. Carlos had bought the restaurant and Norri,
who was working in hotel management at the time, jumped

(02:36):
in to help him run it. Together, they made it
a hit. Norri's creativity was off the charts. She started
salsa knights and even hired belly dancers, bringing the same
life to the restaurant that she brought to the dance floor.
She and Carlos weren't just siblings and business partners. They
were best friends. They'd often share a glass of wine

(02:56):
after a long night at work, their bond just as
strong as it was when they were kids. Life wasn't
always a party for Norri though. About ten years before
her death, she'd gone through serious brain surgeries. The operations
were a success, but they left her with moments of forgetfulness.
It wasn't strange for her to leave her phone, keys,
or wallet behind. It was just a small quirk something

(03:20):
her friends and family were used to dot. In two
thousand nine, Norri was thirty eight and her life was
a whirlwind. She was running a popular restaurant and was
a star in the d c's also world. She was
also in a relationship with a man who seemed to
get her busy lifestyle, the owner of another club she loved,
the Rumba Cafe. We'll call him Gus, since he's been

(03:41):
mostly quiet since the investigation. Gus later said he and
Norri were a lot alike, sharing the same business, same problems,
and a ton of passion. For a while, things seemed great,
but relationships are complicated, and by the fall of two
thousand and nine, it was clear that Norri and Guss
wanted different things. That quiet tension was about to become

(04:02):
a major part of the events that unfolded on one
of the wildest nights of the year, a night when
costumes and masks would give the perfect cover to a
killer and a queen would be violently dethroned. Saturday, October
thirty first, two thousand nine. It was a rainy Halloween
night in Washington, d C. But the gloomy weather didn't
stop the party. For Nori Amaya. It was a night

(04:24):
she had been excited about After working an early shift,
She and Carlos shared a glass of wine at Copies
before she got ready to go out. Rain or not,
the Salsa Queen was ready to dance. Her night was
a tour of the city's best clubs. She hit up
the Russia House and Bravo Bravo, but spent a good
chunk of her night at the Rumba Cafe, the club

(04:45):
owned by her on and off boyfriend Gus. He was
working that night. Friends who were with Nori said she
started the night in great spirits, dancing up a storm,
but at some point she started to feel like Gus
was ignoring her. She to him and asked him to
sit with her, but he told her he was too busy.
Whatever was said in that conversation we'll never know, but

(05:07):
the effect was instant and awful. Around one thirty a m.
Noriri bolted from the Rumba Cafe. She didn't even say
goodbye to Gus. Her friends saw her leaving and were worried.
She was visibly upset, crying. One friend later said they
could see tears on her face even under the Venetian
mask she wore with her costume. From there, she headed

(05:28):
to another club Bravo Bravo, getting there around one forty
five a m. To meet her regular Dan's partner, a
man will call EyeSi, but the sadness from the Rumba
cafe came with her. She was still a mess. She
said hi to ey Sigh, but didn't dance. Just fifteen
minutes after she got there, she told him she was
going home. He was confused, asking where are you going?

(05:52):
We just got here. Around two o'clock a m. Security
cameras at Bravo Bravo caught Eyesigh walking Nori to a taxi.
They said their goodbyes, and the cab took off into
the rainy night, carrying Nori home by herself. It would
be her last ride. Around two thirty a m. The
security cameras at her apartment building, The Woodner, at three thousand,

(06:14):
six hundred thirty six Sixteenth Street and W filmed her arrival.
The Woodner is a huge complex with over two thousand
residents and security at the front desk. The footage shows
Nori walking into the lobby. She chats with the security
guards for a few minutes, checks her mail, and then
walks down the hall toward the elevator to her eleventh
floor apartment. This is the last time anyone can say

(06:37):
for sure they saw Nori Amaya alive. She got in
the elevator, went up to her floor, and disappeared from
the world. That night was dangerous in a way no
one realized until later. It was Halloween. The security cameras
at the Woodner filmed a constant stream of people coming
and going all night long, but in a sick twist,
nearly every single one of them was in costume, masks,

(07:00):
face paint, and crazy outfits turned potential witnesses and suspects
into nameless ghosts, the very thing that makes Halloween fun.
The disguises and anonymity became the single biggest roadblock in
the investigation. It was the perfect night to commit a
crime and just fade away, and it seems like someone
knew that someone who either followed Nori or was waiting

(07:23):
for her, used the chaos of Halloween to slip past security,
their real face hidden behind a mask. At first, the
silence after Halloween wasn't a huge red flag. On Sunday,
November first, Carlos Samaya was at copies getting ready for
a big catering gig for about one hundred people that
he and Norri were supposed to work together. When Nori

(07:43):
didn't show up, Carlos felt a little worried, but not panicked.
What eased his mind was a phone call he got
that morning. It was the taxi driver who took Norri home.
He was calling to say that she'd left her cellphone
in his cab. That was classic Nori, forgetting things was
just part of who she was. Carlos thanked the driver
and made a plan to get the phone. He knew

(08:05):
he couldn't call her and figured she was probably just
resting after a long emotional night out. He also knew
things with her boyfriend Gus were rocky, so maybe she
just needed some time to herself. He handled the party
on his own and let the day go by. But
when Monday, November two came and went with still no
word from Norri, that little bit of worry turned into

(08:26):
a heavy, sinking feeling. There were no special events at
Copies that day, and Norri normally would have been there
for the regular five o'clock PM opening. Her being gone
this long was completely out of character. This wasn't just
Norri being forgetful anymore. Something was wrong Carlos went to
her apartment at the Woodner that morning, but when he knocked,

(08:47):
nobody answered. He left, maybe still hoping she was just
sleeping in, But by the afternoon that hope was gone,
replaced by a gut feeling that he had to get
inside that apartment. That evening, he went back to the Woodener,
but this time he wasn't alone. He brought their younger sister, Liz,
and a building security guard. The guards at the front

(09:08):
desk knew Carlos and let them up to the eleventh floor.
When they got to Norri's door, they found it locked.
Liz immediately thought that was strange. Norri was famous for
losing her keys and often left her door unlocked because
of it. A locked door was weird. Carlos speaked through
the mail slot. The apartment was pitch black. He'd later

(09:28):
remember feeling a gush of air on his face as
he looked in. Liz pressed her ear to the door.
The silence on the other side was total. She later
called it the loudest silence of my life. The feeling
was sickening. Something was terribly wrong. The security garden locked
the door, and Carlos stepped inside. What he saw next

(09:49):
would be burned into his memory forever. He found his
sister in her bed. She was wrapped in a comforter,
just in her underwear, but she was gone. Nor Amayah,
the Vibrant Energetic's also queen, was dead. It was obvious
she had been murdered Dotta Tea. About nine to eleven
p m. A call went out for an unconscious person

(10:09):
at three thousand, six hundred thirty six sixteenth Street and W.
When homicide investigators got there, they confirmed what Carlos and
Liz already knew. Nor had been murdered. The official cause
of death was strangulation dotta. As detectives started the awful
task of processing the scene, they found something that was
both horrifying and weirdly methodical, something that shocked even the

(10:31):
veteran cops on the case. They found that all of
Norrie's finger nails had been cut off and taken. It
was a cold, deliberate act. The killer likely did it
to get rid of any of their own DNA that
Norri might have scratched under her nails while fighting for
her life. It suggested a level of forensic thinking that
was just terrifying. This wasn't just a crime of rage.

(10:53):
This was a murder done by someone who was thinking,
someone who was trying to cover their tracks. Discovery turned
a tragedy into a cold blooded, calculated execution, and it
gave investigators a chilling picture of a killer who wasn't
just violent, but terrifyingly careful. For the Metropolitan Police Department,

(11:13):
noriy Amaya's murder was one of the most frustrating puzzles
they'd ever faced. The crime scene didn't make sense. There
were no signs of forced entry, which made police pretty
sure that Nory knew her killer and let them into
her apartment. Her brother, Carlos, was certain of it, saying,
whomever killed her knew her, Well, my sister is not
going to let some random guy in. Nothing was stolen, either,

(11:36):
so this wasn't a robbery gone bad. The motive seemed personal.
The killer's attempt to get rid of evidence was meticulous,
but luckily a failure. Cutting off Norri's finger nails was
a horrifying way to try and scrub the scene of DNA.
But even with that creepy foresight, the killer messed up.
Investigators found a tiny trace of unidentified male DNA on

(11:58):
Norri's body. That single microscopic clue became the only piece
of physical evidence in the whole case. A DNA profile
was created and run through the national database CODIS, but
no match came back. It was a dead end, but
also what one report called an iron in the fire,
a piece of evidence that could someday get the hit

(12:18):
that breaks the case wide open. The biggest problem for
the investigation, though, was the timing. Halloween had made the
building's top notched security camera system pretty much useless. The
woodener had cameras on all the doors, but on this
one night, the footage was just a parade of monsters
and masked figures. Investigators watched the tapes over and over,

(12:40):
but identifying anyone was nearly impossible. Who was a resident
coming home from a party and who was a killer?
Using a costume as the perfect cover, the cameras that
should have been their best tool were basically blind. Detectives
cast a wide net looking at everyone in Norri's life.
They interviewed friends, dance partners, and co workers, piecing together

(13:01):
a picture of her final days. Every male friend they found,
including her ex boyfriend, voluntarily gave a DNA sample to
test against the one from the scene one by one.
They were all cleared. No one matched. Of course, suspicion
fell on the men who were around in the last
emotional hours of her life. Gus, the Rumba cafe owner

(13:23):
she'd argued with, was questioned. He gave his alibi. After
Norri left his club, he stayed until closing around a
m then went to his apartment right above the cafe
and went to bed. They took his DNA and it
wasn't a match. Police also looked into a weird phone
call made too copies, where a woman claiming to be
Guss's wife had asked for Norri. It was a strange

(13:45):
lead that suggested jealousy, but it went nowhere. Gus's ex
wife said she didn't make the call and there was
no other evidence to connect it to the crime. The
spotlight also turned to eyesight Norri's dance partner, the last
friend known to have seen her alive. He was the
one who put her in the cab, but when police
interviewed him, he lied about something important. When they asked

(14:07):
if he had a key to Norri's apartment, he said no,
that wasn't true. He and Norri were close and he
did have a key. His lie immediately made him look suspicious.
Why deny it? Was he just scared of being dragged
into a murder investigation or was he hiding something. One
detective believed Eyesigh knew more than he was saying, but

(14:29):
he was never officially named a suspect. His DNA was
also tested and didn't match. The lie. Was suspicious, but
it didn't tie him to the crime scene. Investigators also
had to find the taxi driver who dropped Nori off
and called about her phone. He was another one of
the last people to see her, and police were desperate
to talk to him. They eventually located him, but he

(14:52):
didn't have any new information. It was just another dead
end and a case full of them. The investigation became
along frustrating process of elimination. Dozens of people were questioned,
some more than once. The police focused on the building,
talking to security guards and residents, trying to find any
one who saw or heard something weird on the eleventh

(15:13):
floor that night, but nothing solid came up. Years later,
a former eleventh floor resident reported seeing a strange man
peeking through mail slots multiple times between twenty sixteen and
twenty twenty, but there was no way to know if
it was connected to Nori's case or just some unrelated creep.
The case went cold not because of a lack of effort,

(15:35):
but a lack of leads. The killer was careful, smart,
and lucky. They left no finger prints, no murder weapon,
and only a single anonymous DNA sample. They used the
perfect cover of a Halloween night to commit a vicious
crime and then just disappeared, leaving a family broken and
a city haunted by the question of who could do
something so cold? In Theniarla fitting years since noriy Amaya's death,

(15:59):
theory are all that's left to fill the void with
a case this confusing. The evidence seems to point everywhere
and nowhere at the same time. Based on what we know,
there are a few main ideas. This is the theory
that makes the most sense on the surface. Nori was
killed in her own home and there was no forced entry,
which means she probably knew her killer and let them in.

(16:21):
Strangulation is often a very personal, up close way to
kill someone. When you add in how emotional her last
few hours were, it's easy to imagine a crime fueled
by jealousy or rage that just exploded. The main person
of interest in this theory is often Guss, the club
owner she argued with right before she died. She left

(16:41):
his club in tears, so clearly something serious went down.
Did that fight continue, did he follow her home or
did she let him into talk and things turned violent.
It's a believable story. The big things that work against it, though,
are his alibi he said he was at his club
and then his apartment above it, and the DNA. His
DNA was not a match, but a crime of passion

(17:04):
doesn't have to point only to Gus. That mysterious phone
call from a woman claiming to be his wife opens
up other doors. Was someone else involved a jealous sex
of Norri's or Guss's. Their relationship was complicated. Guss himself
said he had an ex wife and was separated from
a second one. It's possible the fight that night was

(17:25):
just the trigger and the killer was someone else caught
in all the drama. The biggest problem with this theory
is how clean the crime scene was. Removing Norrie's fingernails
seems so cold and planned, which feels off for a sudden,
passionate attack. Someone in a blind rage probably wouldn't have
the clarity to take a step like that to cover
their tracks. That single act suggests the killer wasn't just angry,

(17:50):
but also dangerously methodical. The second big theory is that
Nori was the victim of a random attack. Her apartment building.
The woodener was gigantic, with thousand residents and guests coming
and going on Halloween. That traffic was even crazier and
hidden by costumes. It's possible that a predator used the
holiday to get into the building and find an easy target.

(18:13):
Maybe this person saw Nori, a woman coming home alone
late at night, and followed her. They could have slipped
into the elevator with her, or just been hanging around
on the eleventh floor. That later report from a neighbor
about a man peeking through mail slots, while not confirmed
to be related, does make the idea of a predator
in the building seem a little more plausible. But this

(18:34):
theory has a major roadblock. No forced entry. If the
attacker was a stranger, how did they get in. The
door was found locked, which her sisterless said was unusual
for Nori. Maybe the killer tricked her into opening the door,
pretending to be a neighbor or building staff, or maybe
Nori being so upset that night just wasn't as careful

(18:56):
as she usually would be. The strongest argument again a
random attack, is again how calculated the crime was. The
fact that her finger nails were removed and nothing was
stolen makes it feel less like a random breakin. The
motive wasn't robbery. The crime feels personal. A random attacker
probably wouldn't take the time for such a specific evidence

(19:18):
hiding move. It's not impossible, but the random attack theory
just doesn't quite fit with how personal the crime felt.
This theory is a mix of the first two, and
it's the one Norris family, especially her brother Carlos, has
come to believe. It suggests the killer wasn't a stranger
or a lover in a rage, but someone from her
wider social circle, a friend or acquaintance she trusted enough

(19:41):
to let in, but who was hiding a dark obsession
or grudge. This person could have been anyone, someone from
the salsa community, someone from the restaurant, even a neighbor.
They would have known her schedule and habits. They might
have known she was emotionally vulnerable that night and used
it to their advantage. The Halloween setting wasn't just luck.

(20:01):
It was part of the plan. This killer knew the
masks and chaos would give them the perfect cover to
get in and out of the woodener without anyone noticing.
This theory explains all the weird contradictions, no forced entry
nor knew them personal crime. The killer had a pre existing,
probably obsessive interest in her. The cold, calculated removal of

(20:24):
the fingernails. It was premeditated. This wasn't a spontaneous act.
It was a planned murder. I say the dance partner
who lied about having a key could fit into this theory.
His DNA didn't match, but the lie shows he was scared.
It's possible he knew something about Nori's social life, maybe
about someone who had an unhealthy fixation on her, that

(20:47):
he was too afraid to say. That lie is still
a frustrating loose end. This theory is the most terrifying
because it means the killer was probably someone who mourned
with her friends, someone who might have even said I'm
so sorry to her family. They could have been interviewed
by police, and, being smart enough too clean up after themselves,
slipped right through the investigation. They are a ghost hiding

(21:10):
in the background of Norri's life. Maybe even in the
group photos of her smiling with her friends. They are
the person no one suspected, and that's why, fifteen years later,
they've gotten away with murder. Over a decade has gone
by since noriy Amaya was killed in her apartment on
that rainy Halloween night. The case is officially cold. One
of Washington dce's most haunting and unsolved murders. That single

(21:34):
piece of male DNA found at the scene is still
the best piece of evidence, a silent witness waiting for
a new technology or a tip to finally give it
a name. It's been used to clear person after person,
but it hasn't pointed to a killer yet. The file
is still open, but the leads ran out a long
time ago. For Norri's family, the years haven't made the

(21:55):
pain any easier or quieted their need for answers. Her brother, Carlos,
was so crushed by grief that he closed their restaurant
and moved away, trying to escape the memories, but the
fight for justice for his sister pulled him back. He
returned to d C, reopened copies, and has never stopped
pushing for answers in her case. Every year. On her birthday,

(22:16):
September ninth, he and his sister lives invite friends to
the restaurant to celebrate her life, making sure she's remembered
for the bright person she was, not the dark way
she died. Their younger sister, Liz, who saw Norri as
a mother figure, is left with the haunting memory of
that silent locked door and the gut wrenching feeling that
something was wrong. The salsa Queen's murder sent a shockwave

(22:38):
through the d C salsa community, a world where Norri
had been a star. Her absence created a hole that's
never really been filled. She was more than just a
great dancer. She was a friend, a mentor, and a
vibrant soul who was the heartbeat of the scene. Her
story is a terrifying reminder that even in a city
full of life, in a building with locked doors and

(23:00):
security cameras, evil can find a way in. Who killed
Nori Amaya. Was it a jealous lover with a cold,
calculating mind, a random predator who took advantage of a
holiday of disguise, or was it someone she knew and trusted,
A person hiding a monster behind a friendly face. These
questions have haunted her family and investigators for years. Sometimes,

(23:25):
with time, new technologies emerge, or someone's conscience finally gets
the best of them. Someone somewhere knows what happened on
that eleventh floor. They might have heard something, seen something,
or been told something they were sworn to keep secret.
The person who did this may have confessed to someone.
It's for that person that the police and Nori's family

(23:45):
are still waiting. Nori Amaya's murder is still unsolved, but
it doesn't have to stay that way. A reward of
up to twenty five thousand dollars is still being offered
for information that leads to an arrest and conviction. If
you have any information about this case, no matter how
small you think it is, please come forward. You can

(24:05):
contact the Metropolitan Police Department's Homicide Branch at two hundred
two seven two seven nine zero ninety nine. If you
want to stay anonymous, you can call the Command Information
Center or text the department step line at fifty thousand,
four hundred eleven. Nori Amaya's story isn't over. She deserves
justice and her family deserves peace. Sharing her story keeps

(24:27):
her memory alive and keeps the pressure on to finally
solve this case. Don't let her final dance be the end.
Thank you for joining us for another episode of One
Crime at a Time. What theory do you think is
the most likely? Let us know by reaching out to
us at One Crime at a Time at gmail dot com,
or you gain access to our community on Patreon for

(24:48):
just one dollar and ninety nine cents per month. I
want to thank you all for your continued support. Once again,
I am Shannon and I will see you in the
next episode.

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