DNA leads to arrest of stepfather in 2004 murder of Miami Beach High student, police say

Sixteen years after a Miami Beach High student was stabbed to death inside her bedroom, police detectives have arrested her stepfather on a murder charge, the department announced Thursday.

The key evidence, according to an arrest warrant: the stepfather’s DNA was found underneath her fingernails, suggesting she scratched him during a frenzied fight for her life.

Raul Mata, 45, was arrested this week in Watsonville, Calif., and will be extradited to Miami.

He is accused of murdering 16-year-old Dilcia Mejia, who was found with her throat slit inside the bedroom of her North Miami-Dade trailer home on Sept. 17, 2004.

“As a family, we are always sure Raul Mata was responsible for her death,” her cousin, Trinidad Gonzalez, said at a press conference on Thursday.

Police for years had said Mata was the chief suspect. According to police, Dilcia’s mother left for work at 5:30 a.m. from the unit at the Colonial Acres mobile home park on the 9600 block of NW 10th Avenue. Mata claimed he left shortly before 8 a.m., then returned home just past 9 a.m. and discovered her body.

“We need someone to come here,” he told a 911 dispatcher, according to audio of the call. “My daughter. My daughter. Somebody killed my daughter.”

Police officers were immediately suspicious of Mata. There was no signs of forced entry, the home wasn’t ransacked and nothing was taken from the scene, according to police.

“There was no evidence to suggest the victim had been killed by a stranger who sought to commit a burglary or a robbery,” Miami-Dade Detective Jonathan Grossman wrote in an arrest warrant released Thursday.

Officers noticed a “significant amount of scratches and bruises” on Mata’s left forearm and inner bicep, police said. Also, his right thumb “showed signs of swelling,” the warrant said, suggesting he had been in a physical fight.

Mata claimed he’d fallen on Dilcia’s dresser while calling 911, the warrant said.

During an interview, Mata admitted he and his stepdaughter had a “strained relationship” and the girl had a “dislike for him,” Grossman wrote. Grossman added that Mata never showed any sadness, instead lashing out at the girl, calling her a “liar.”

DNA samples were taken from underneath her fingernails. But at the time of the crime, no matches could be made even though Mata had given a sample of his DNA.

The investigation fizzled. Mata, a nurse, moved to California, where he got married and had a son, police said. Dilcia’s mother moved to Texas.

“For the next 16 years, Mr. Mata went to live his life thinking he’d gotten away with his crime,” Miami-Dade Police Director Alfredo Ramirez said at a press conference on Thursday.

But in early 2020, the case was re-assigned to Miami-Dade’s cold-case squad. And thanks to advancements in DNA technology, new testing was conducted in May 2020 and proved a match to Mata, police said.

Detectives flew to Watsonville, a farming community about 90 miles south of San Francisco. The department declined to say if Mata confessed, but he was told of the evidence against him

“His demeanor changed when we laid out the facts for him,” Miami-Dade Detective David Denmark said.