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Joseph Andrew Jacquez, 61 when charged in 2025, faces a first-degree murder charge in the death of his former neighbor Mary Ann Daniels in Everett, Washington, after DNA testing produced a lead in a case that had gone cold for more than three decades.

Daniels, 33, was a woman with a disability whose caseworker had placed her in transitional living at a home in the 2100 block of Hoyt Avenue. Her landlord found her dead there on February 1, 1989. The death was ruled a homicide; according to the autopsy, she was strangled with a piece of clothing and an extension cord. No suspect could be identified in 1989. Jacquez was questioned as a neighbor at the time and was not charged. He later lived in Clark County, Nevada, in the Las Vegas area.

In 2020, Everett police sent DNA evidence from Daniels's body to Othram, a forensic laboratory. The laboratory developed a DNA profile and, with a forensic genetic genealogist, produced investigative leads pointing to a suspect in Clark County, Nevada. Police said they then identified DNA from the instrument of Daniels's death as allegedly belonging to Jacquez. A Las Vegas investigator also obtained a sample from a beer bottle he had drunk from, confirming the earlier finding.

Everett Police Detective Susan Logothetti, working with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, arrested Jacquez on Saturday, January 25, 2025. He was booked into the Clark County jail in Nevada. The recorded questioning ends with his arrest in Las Vegas and instructions about extradition to Washington, placing it in January 2025, not 1989. Early in the interview, Jacquez describes a long career in aviation work and says he moved to the area about three years earlier.

Asked whether he could have done something like this to a person, Jacquez answers no and says he is not a violent person. Near the end, a detective refers to the instrument used to kill Daniels, says Jacquez had the opportunity because he lived there, and tells him the investigation has run for a couple of years. The detective then tells him he is under arrest for first-degree murder, will be placed in custody that day in Las Vegas and will be extradited to Washington State. Asked whether he has any questions, Jacquez says no.

After extradition, Jacquez made his first appearance in Snohomish County Superior Court on March 27, 2025. Judge Richard T. Okrent found probable cause to hold him on first-degree murder and set bail at $2 million. Jacquez pleaded not guilty.

A pretrial hearing was set for April 16, 2025, and trial for May 9, 2025. The charge remains an accusation, and he is presumed innocent. As of November 1, 2026, no trial, verdict, plea change or sentence has been reported in the case.

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Part 2 of 2 of the recording described above.