Family hopes new DNA tech will help solve mother’s 2004 murder in Miramar
The family of Yvonne McCalla has been praying for justice since police officers found her dead on June 14, 2004, in her apartment in Miramar.
More than 18 years later, McCalla’s family is hoping that new DNA technology will help detectives solve the cold case.
“The forensic side always provides us the last piece of the puzzle that we need,” said Miramar Detective Mark Moretti, who is now assigned to the case.
Moretti said the evidence shows the 37-year-old single mother of a 12-year-old girl was the victim of premeditated murder and the crime lab technicians who are retesting the evidence will provide answers.
McCalla’s older sisters Olive Smith and Beverly Woolery said they are still hoping someone will reveal anything they know about her brutal and unexpected murder.
Woolery said her niece called her to report she hadn’t been able to get a hold of her mother, so Woolery said she too started to call McCalla. She had gone silent after attending a Jehovah’s Witnesses service.
“I just had a bad feeling in my heart that something was wrong,” Woolery said as she retold the story in 2013.
Woolery asked her brother to go check up on McCallan. Woolery said he found McCallan’s fifth-floor apartment door open at 8550 Sherman Circle North.
Woolery said he was in tears and couldn’t tell her McCallan had been brutally murdered.
Detectives believe the killer had pent-up anger and went into “overkill.” McCallan’s blood was on the floor and the walls,
“To think someone would do that was beyond our imagination,” Smith said. “Who would do that to her?”
Woolery’s plea in 2022 remains the same.
“I’m hoping somebody out there knows something and is willing to come forward.”
Detectives and McCalla’s family are asking anyone with information about the case to call Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477 or the Miramar Police Department at 954-602-4000.
