“A Haunting Stretch of Road”: Dateline Reports on Pamela Butler & Marta Haydee Rodriguez Homicides August 2 2025
On Saturday, August 2, 2025, Dateline NBC airs a harrowing episode titled A Haunting Stretch of Road, reported by veteran journalist Dennis Murphy. The episode unpacks the dark truth behind the disappearance of Pamela Butler in 2009 and its unexpected link to the decades-old case of another missing woman, Marta Haydee Rodriguez. Spanning nearly three decades and centered around the same stretch of I-95 in Virginia, the investigation reveals the disturbing pattern of a man whose past eventually caught up with him.
With in-depth interviews and careful narrative pacing, Dateline sheds light on the long and painful journey to uncover what happened to these two women, whose fates were tragically intertwined by one man’s violent history.
Contents
Pamela Butler: A Disappearance That Made No Sense
Pamela Butler was a successful, independent woman in her mid-40s, working as a supervising analyst for the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C. She lived in a well-kept home and maintained strong relationships with family and friends. By all accounts, she was cautious and security-minded—her home was equipped with surveillance cameras, and she rarely deviated from routine.
On February 14, 2009, Pamela failed to show up for a planned Valentine’s Day dinner with her mother. Concern quickly grew when she remained unreachable. Her brother, Derrick Butler, went to her home and found disturbing signs—uncollected mail, blinds oddly positioned, and a disheveled interior. Yet, there were no signs of forced entry or struggle. Security footage showed Pamela entering her house on February 12 but never leaving. Her boyfriend, Jose Rodriguez-Cruz, was seen visiting multiple times afterward, carrying bags, yet no clear evidence of wrongdoing was captured.
Jose Rodriguez-Cruz: A Closer Look at the Man in the Middle
Rodriguez-Cruz was initially cooperative with Pamela’s family and even allowed Derrick to inspect his apartment and body for signs of struggle. He claimed that they had broken up and that he had returned to Pamela’s home only to collect his belongings. Police, too, had no immediate evidence tying him to a crime. Despite suspicious surveillance behavior—like him using Pamela’s keys and the apparent tampering of motion lights—Rodriguez-Cruz managed to avoid arrest due to the lack of physical evidence or a body.
The investigation hit multiple roadblocks, and to the family’s dismay, attention shifted to Derrick Butler. Authorities probed into his business ties with Pamela and his status as a beneficiary in her will. While the suspicions caused emotional strain, no evidence supported Derrick’s involvement, and eventually, he was cleared.
Connecting the Past: The Cold Case of Marta Haydee Rodriguez
In 2016, as Pamela’s case transitioned into a cold case, Det. Mike Fulton revisited the evidence and uncovered a critical lead—Jose Rodriguez-Cruz’s first wife, Marta Haydee Rodriguez, had vanished under similarly suspicious circumstances in 1989. Marta had accused her estranged husband of stalking, kidnapping, and abusing her. Weeks after a felony abduction charge was dropped—due to Marta failing to appear in court—she vanished. Partial skeletal remains were found along I-95 in Virginia in 1991 but remained unidentified for years.
Further digging revealed similar patterns of abuse reported by Rodriguez-Cruz’s second wife. With these new insights, Fulton and prosecutors saw Rodriguez-Cruz in a new light, prompting the decision to charge him with Pamela’s murder in 2017.
A Guilty Plea and a Confession Reveal a Horrifying Pattern
Faced with circumstantial but mounting evidence, Rodriguez-Cruz agreed to a plea deal in 2017. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Pamela Butler’s case and received a 12-year sentence in exchange for revealing where he disposed of her body. He confessed to strangling Pamela after an argument, concealing her body in a trash bag, and sneaking it out of her home through a camera-blind window. He buried her in the wooded median along I-95—but the site had been paved over, making recovery of her remains impossible.
This confession reopened interest in the unidentified remains found nearby in 1991. DNA testing confirmed the remains were those of Marta Haydee Rodriguez. Authorities now had the critical connection between two missing women buried along the same interstate years apart.
Justice for Two Women: The Final Legal Outcome
Driven by his commitment to justice, Derrick Butler remained vocal, pressing prosecutors to act swiftly on Marta’s case. His persistence paid off in 2019 when Rodriguez-Cruz was charged with her murder. In 2021, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received a 40-year sentence—the maximum allowable under the plea deal.
For Derrick and the families of both women, the sentencing brought long-awaited closure. Rodriguez-Cruz’s guilty pleas affirmed the families’ suspicions and ensured he would remain behind bars for the rest of his life. Though Pamela’s remains were never recovered, and Marta’s family waited decades for answers, justice was ultimately served through tireless efforts and investigative persistence.
A Long Road to Justice
A Haunting Stretch of Road is not just a story of tragic loss—it’s a study in the power of relentless advocacy, cold case forensics, and the unexpected ways two seemingly separate crimes can intertwine. Through determined family members and committed detectives, the truth about a dangerous predator was finally revealed, giving voice to the silenced and hope to those still seeking justice.
Dateline NBC’s latest episode stands as a reminder that while the road to justice may be long, it is not impassable. The stretch of I-95 in Virginia, once a burial site for secrets, now carries the weight of truth uncovered.
