Truck Driver Charged in Cold Case Murder of Calif. Woman Found Dead on Desert Highway Ramp in 1993 

Douglas Thomas, 67, is facing a murder charge in connection with the killing of 30-year-old Sherri Herrera, whose body was fond in the California desert nearly 30 decades ago

Sherri Herrera
Sherri Herrera. Photo: Riverside County District Attorney's Office

A retired truck driver is facing a murder charge in connection with the 1993 slaying of a woman whose body was dumped along a California desert highway.

Douglas Thomas, 67, is accused in the killing of 30-year-old Sherri Herrera, the Riverside County District Attorney's Office said in a statement released this week.

Herrera was allegedly killed "during the commission of a rape," prosecutors said.

The body of Herrera, a mother of four from Tulare, Calif., was discovered March 30, 1993, on the eastbound Hayfield Road on-ramp to 1-10 in Desert Center, between Palm Springs and the Arizona state line. She was last seen alive a few days earlier.

"I don't know if I really believed it, because it's like, man, this has been so long," Herrera's son Adrian said, according to ABC30. "I remember coming home from school, and my stepmom told us the news what had happened. Me and my sister were there. Obviously, we started bawling our eyes out."

Douglas Thomas - Truck Driver
Douglas Thomas. Riverside County District Attorney's Office

Authorities said Thomas, who lives in Waco, Texas, drove all over the U.S. during his more than 40-year career as a long-haul truck driver.

In May, Thomas was arrested for the cold case murder of a woman found in Titus County, Texas, in 1992.

According to prosecutors, potential DNA from the killer discovered at Herrera's crime scene matched DNA found at the Titus County murder scene, ABC30 reported.

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Authorities said Thomas will be prosecuted in Texas first and then Riverside prosecutors will request that he be extradited back to California to faces charges in Herrera's murder.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact the Riverside County Regional Cold Case Homicide Team at 951-955-2777.

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