Deundra Ford went missing early Sept. 22, 2023. Police say Yoland Washington murdered her. (Image of Ford: Black and Missing Foundation. Mug shot of Washington: Dallas County Jail)
Police in Texas say that a missing woman — the key witness in a murder — died in an apparently unrelated homicide at the hands of a man who had a history of violence against sex workers.
The defendant, Yoland Washington, 51, was already locked up at the Dallas County Jail for allegedly choking and sexually assaulting a woman in Dallas, but now he’s accused of killing Deundrea Ford, who disappeared the early morning of Sept. 22, 2023, in Houston.
As previously reported, authorities said she entered a van with an unknown male customer at Diva’s Bikini Bar and Grill on East Freeway. They remained in the vehicle for about an hour before the van drove away — and no one had exited it, according to the Black and Missing Foundation, an organization that raises awareness of missing people of color.
Ford was the key witness in a murder in which then-jail guard Jarrell Wheeler and three other people were charged with capital murder for allegedly killing Otis Parker in a robbery. Ford was the alleged victim of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to local ABC affiliate KTRK.
“First, you have a witness in a capital murder case that has gone missing, and to me that always sends red flags up,” Andy Kahan, director of Crime Stoppers, told local NBC affiliate KPRC in a Nov. 3, 2023, report. “The way she did go up missing, again red flags go up. So, it is disturbing to me that nothing has been either reported on her whereabouts or what happened. Right now, from looking at it objectively and from the reports that I have seen, I would easily make the speculation that she went missing as a result of criminal conduct.”
Now, police are saying that the male customer was Washington. According to Harris County court documents viewed by Law&Crime, investigators are not sure how he killed Ford, but they claim there’s evidence showing her blood on his shirt, her blood possibly in his van, and also a van matching his vehicle in the area where the victim’s phone was found. As a delivery driver who drove across the country, he allegedly claimed he purchased 48-gallon trash bags for use in going to the restroom in a five-gallon bucket, but police were incredulous as to why he would buy such larges bags. They suggested he used the 48-gallon bags to discard Ford’s body, possibly in dumpsters.
“The defendant’s data from the Walmart where he went immediately after the complainant’s disappearance indicate that he may have approached several large dumpsters at that location, so it is possible that he placed the body of Deundrea Ford in one of those dumpsters or dumpsters at another location, which would explain why her body has not yet been found,” documents state.
Cops said that when they managed to track down Washington, he admitted paying Ford $200 via Cash App for sex. Police later confirmed a payment that happened after midnight on Sept. 22, 2023.
“Yoland stated that they had sex, and he could not finish, so, after an hour of trying, he ultimately dropped her off at either a gas station or another night club one or two exits west of Diva’s,” documents stated.
In a follow up interview on Oct. 26, 2023, Washington allegedly told cops he was in Houston after dropping off a delivery from Minneapolis.
“He advised that he wanted to kill some time, so he ended up at Diva’s Bikini Bar, where he met Deundrea Ford,” they wrote.
They claim his story did not hold up to scrutiny. For example, according to cops, Washington denied being at the street where Ford’s phone was found even though surveillance footage placed his vehicle there.
Officers said they executed a search warrant, finding signs of blood on Washington’s T-shirt and in his van. As of Dec. 28, 2023, they were able to confirm Ford’s blood on the shirt, they said.
He ended up locked up at the Dallas County Jail for a sexual assault charge on Oct. 25, 2023, for the aforementioned choking claim, in which he allegedly attacked a sex worker on July 23, 2023.
“The defendant (Yoland Washington) has an extensive history of violent offenses against women, especially female prostitution/sex workers,” documents stated.
“The victim survived to report that a client, later identified by DNA from her sexual assault exam as Yoland Washington, had physically and sexually assaulted her prior to robbing her,” the documents also said.
According to documents, investigators made the DNA match in this Dallas case after Ford disappeared.
Washington, a resident of New Jersey, has a related criminal history dating back to 2001, as indicated in the Harris County documents. He was arrested on Dec. 24, 2001, for loitering for prostitution in the city of Newark, officers said.
He was also arrested for aggravated sexual assault, robbery, and soliciting prostitution on Nov. 23, 2006, they said. The victim in that case was a sex worker he sexually assaulted at gunpoint, according to cops.
On May 4, 2007, he was arrested in Elizabeth, New Jersey, for robbing and choking a woman, officers said.
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