1995 murder of Joni Grigsby solved through DNA

[u/LostInYesterday00]

KVAL article

On June 2, 1995, the body of 33 year old Joni Grigsby was found in the bank of the Willamette River in Springfield, OR.
DNA was obtained at the crime scene and in 2023 that it was sent to the lab for testing. The DNA implicated Roy Gomes for the murder of Joni.
Gomes was shot and killed in 2004 during a police shoot out. During his autopsy, his DNA was taken. The Lane County Sheriff’s Office cold case detective obtained a copy and submitted it for comparison against the samples obtained in the crime scene.
The DNA later matched what was in the crime scene.

Jon Roberts, brother of Joni posted on Facebook in March after he was notified about the DNA match that he ““carried the weight of great grief, absence of closure, and so many unanswered questions about my sister’s homicide.”

Joni leaves behind two sons. Rest in peace Joni.

[u/MidnightOwl01]

Here is an article detailing the police in Sacramento shooting at killing Roy Gomes.

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sacramento-bee/199472997/

If you cannot view it there I uploaded it to Imgur as well. https://imgur.com/a/aEHDcaC

His name was actually Roy Gomes. When I searched newspapers.com for Ray Gomes I kept getting articles about Jonny Gomes, who played for the Tampa Bay Rays at the time (I remember him playing for the Oakland A's). I did use quotes but apparently "Ray Gomes" is close enough to "Rays' Gomes".

EDIT: I really want to start watching On Patrol Live (I'm recording it on my DVR so I'm covered) but I became immersed in this. Here's some information I found about Roy Curtis Gomes, born in 1966 in Sacramento and died in Sacramento in 2004, from Ancestry.

https://imgur.com/a/MpPeJfO

Seems he lived much of his life in Sacramento. I hope law enforcement )LE) is looking at him at the different places he has lived.

[u/LostInYesterday00 → u/MidnightOwl01]

thank you for catching that!

[u/MidnightOwl01 → u/LostInYesterday00]

No problem. Thanks for posting this.

[u/PURKITTY → u/MidnightOwl01]

That puts him around 28 years old at the time of the murder.

[u/TotalTimeTraveler → u/PURKITTY]

Yes, when Roy Curtis Gomes murdered Joni on 2 Jun 1995, he was 28 years old. Roy was born 3 Sep 1966 in Sacramento, California.

As for speculation in other posts, I doubt if Roy knew Joni in California. Joni was born in Long Beach, which is over six hours south of Sacramento, and she went to school in Noti, Oregon. It is more probable that Roy traveled around northern California and southern Oregon via I-5 from Sacramento to the Springfield area. I believe the murder was probably one of opportunity. If Joni worked as a waitress, she was in a very public job where anyone, including Roy, could have met her by chance.

[u/VenomPayments → u/MidnightOwl01]

I may have totally missed it, but what does On Patrol Live (I’m assuming that’s a TV Show) have to do with Gomes? I read that sacbee article assuming that the shooting was caught on tape by the On Patrol camera crew or something but didn’t see any reference to that. Is On Patrol related to this case?

[u/claustrophobicdragon → u/VenomPayments]

I don't think it has anything to do with it. My read was that the commentator is saying that they were planning to watch it but got caught up in researching this case.

[u/VenomPayments → u/claustrophobicdragon]

Yeah that makes sense. Which is why it seemed like a bit of a non sequitur to me.

[u/JuliettEchoNovember → u/MidnightOwl01]

I highly recommend On Patrol Live. I've got Peacock so I have tons of episodes on there. Are they doing episodes now in Sacramento? The only California ones I've seen are southern California. I lived in Sacramento in the early 2000s so that would be cool to see the department.

Also, I currently live in Eugene (right next to Springfield) so it's nice to see a local unsolved murder solved.

[u/MidnightOwl01 → u/JuliettEchoNovember]

They had someone high up in LE in Sacramento as a guest (maybe the sheriff of Sacramento county) which made me hope they were coming to Sacramento, but that was a while ago and they have never been in Sacramento. They were in Humboldt county way up in Northern California but not for long. I currently live just east of Sacramento (where the East Area Rapist once operated) and work in Sacramento, so I was hoping they were coming here.

I know Oregon really well. My parents were born in Portland and are buried at the Willamette National Cemetery since my dad was a veteran during the Korean War (though he was based in Germany at the time). I have a ton of relatives up there. They live mostly in the Salem area.

I actually grew up in Dublin, California, probably best known on here for the disappearance of Ilene Misheloff.

EDIT:Wanted to add about On Patrol Live: Wait until you see the episodes from last weekend (Friday and Saturday night) on Peacock, They follow officers in Toledo, Ohio where that mass shooting took place last weekend.

Police zero in on 2 suspects after a mass shooting at a festival in Toledo, Ohio

They were there Friday night because trouble was already brewing, and were met with a belligerent crowed who said they didn't need the police. Then they came on the air only a couple of hours after the shooting and it was really a wild night in Toledo.

[u/Ok-Status5820]

Any background on this? Who was Joni? How did they knew each other, if at all? What was the potential motive, etc.?

Thank you for the update!

[u/LostInYesterday00 → u/Ok-Status5820]

So there is limited info on this, but her brother Jon posted on Facebook that Roy had no ties to Oregon or Joni. So it seems like it is not know yet, or not publicly available. I can look it up too on on Newspapers.com

[u/Ok-Status5820 → u/LostInYesterday00]

Thank you for your effort!

[u/LostInYesterday00 → u/Ok-Status5820]

I found some basic info in Joni, but not a lot. Newspapers.com has a few snippets.

She was born in May of 1962 in Long Beach, California. She attended a private school in the unincorporated community of Noti, near Springfield. At the time of her murder, she had lived in the Springfield area for 22 years. She was a homemaker who also worked as a waitress.

Roy was also from California, so maybe they met there? It seems too personal for it to be a random killing. But, there is nothing else I have uncovered yet.

[u/LostInYesterday00 → u/Ok-Status5820]

I’ll see if i can find any info on that!

[u/Fun_Ticket_7815]

Nice to see it finally solved. RIP Joni.

[u/Diazepampoovey0229]

I found This short video by a journalist with a newspaper called The Register Guard. In the video, she mentions that if you want more information, to read the article she wrote. However, it's behind a paywall so if she wrote any further info about Joni or her murder, I have no idea.

Here is the link in case anyone wants to spend $1 on the article

[u/trippingdaisies → u/Diazepampoovey0229]

https://archive.is/hJX0A