Crystal Rohre, a 28-year-old White woman, had moved to Seattle, Washington, from Texas with her boyfriend, Joseph Gongora. The couple, who had been dating on and off since 2013, were building a life together in the city. Crystal worked as a behavioral analyst and was remembered by loved ones as a caring, adventurous, and fun-loving person who was full of empathy. Her father said that she made him a better person.
Her life was cut short on September 24, 2020, inside the South Lake Union apartment she shared with Gongora. In the time leading up to the tragedy, Gongora’s mental health had been deteriorating. He began suffering from paranoid delusions, believing he was being tormented and electronically tapped by unseen forces. During one of these episodes, he grabbed a handgun the couple kept in their home and fatally shot Crystal twice.
Shortly after the shooting, Gongora walked into the King County Jail and told an officer on duty that he wanted to turn himself in.
He was taken into custody, and Seattle Police officers were sent to his apartment. There, they discovered Crystal’s body. Investigators obtained a search warrant and found a handgun, ammunition, and two spent shell casings that corroborated the events.
Gongora, who had no prior criminal history, was arrested and charged in Crystal’s death. Prosecutors stated that the evidence suggested there had been no verbal argument or physical struggle before the shooting. Crystal's death was one of 30 domestic violence homicides in King County in 2020, a record-setting year that officials noted coincided with the heightened stress and isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic. Gongora was later diagnosed with Unspecified Schizophrenia. The case concluded when he was convicted of murder and a judge sentenced him to 216 months in prison, or roughly 18 years, which was near the maximum allowable sentence.
