MURDERED: Nori Amaya
On Halloween night in 2009, 38-year-old D.C. restaurateur and salsa queen Nori Amaya went out dancing, came home alone, and was found strangled in her bed two days later. Police have DNA and hours of surveillance footage, but in a building full of people in Halloween masks, they’ve never been able to identify her killer. Sixteen years later, the key to solving this case could be a secret someone in Nori’s world is still keeping, or something that went missing from her apartment the night she died.
Nori Amaya
Source: Facebook
Nori Amaya
Source: Facebook
Nori Amaya
Source: Facebook
Nori with her brother, Carlos Amaya
Source: Facebook
A childhood photo of Nori and her brother, Carlos.
Source: Facebook
A hallway inside the Woodner, the apartment building where Nori Amaya lived.
Source: PoPville.com
Russia House
Source: Facebook
Rumba Cafe
Source: PoPville.com
A camera similar to the one Nori’s family believes she carried.
Source: David Becker/Getty Images
A poster seeking information about Nori Amaya’s murder.
Source: Metropolitan Police Department of District of Columbia
Timeline:
Around 9:30 p.m.
Nori and her brother Carlos have dinner at the bar of their restaurant.
Around 10:30 p.m.
Nori leaves for the night. Her first stop is Gustavo’s club, Rumba Cafe.
Around midnight
Nori calls Carlos about meeting up, possibly after leaving Rumba Cafe.
Around 1:45 a.m.
After stopping at a lounge, Nori arrives at Bravo Bravo, a downtown club, to meet her dance partner. Within 15 minutes, he puts her in a cab home.
Around 2:30 a.m.
Surveillance footage shows Nori entering her apartment building alone.
Morning
Carlos learns a large catering order was canceled because Nori never confirmed it. He goes to her apartment, finds the door locked and the unit dark, and leaves.
Night
Carlos and their sister Liz have a security guard unlock her door. They find Nori dead in her bed, and the guard calls 911.
9:11 p.m.
DC Metro Police officers arrive at the apartment.
The Woodner, Washington, DC
Where Nori lived and where her siblings found her body.
Rumba Cafe, Washington, DC
Gustavo’s club, where Nori spent the first part of Halloween night.
Russia House, Washington, DC
One of the three places Nori went on Halloween night.
Bravo Bravo, Washington, DC
The downtown club where Nori’s dance partner put her in a cab home.
Tips:
If you have any information about the murder of Nori Amaya, please call the Metropolitan Police Department of District of Columbia at 202-727-9099, or you can reach us by e-mailing [email protected].
We’d love to speak with you and see how we can support.
If you’re a law enforcement agency or family member of one of the people we mentioned in this episode, or if you’re looking for more coverage on a case, please reach out. You can email us at:
Episode Source Material
- Original reporting by Mallika Dhaliwal.
- Mathis, Sommer. “Coppi’s Organic Co-Owner Found Dead.” DCist, November 3, 2009.
- Duggan, Paul. “Co-Owner of U Street Restaurant Found Dead.” Washington Post, November 3, 2009.
- Stabley, Matthew. “U Street Restaurateur Found Dead in Northwest Home.” NBC Washington, November 3, 2009.
- Metropolitan Police Department. “Homicide Victim: Nori Amaya.” Reward poster, November 4, 2009.
- Carman, Tim. “Nori Amaya’s Friends and Fans Express Their Grief on Her Facebook Page.” Washington City Paper, November 4, 2009.
- Wagner, Paul. “No Suspects in Restaurant Owner’s Death.” FOX 5 DC, November 27, 2009.
- Schwartzman, Paul. “A D.C. Killing That Remains in the Darkness.” Washington Post, May 8, 2010.
- Wagner, Paul. “Rewind to the Crime: What Happened to Nori Amaya?” FOX 5 DC, April 19, 2017.
- Gonzalez, Erika, and Perkins Broussard. “Murder Remains a Mystery 9 Years After Restaurateur’s Strangulation.” NBC Washington, December 7, 2018.
- Cavallier, Andrea. “Brother Refuses to Give Up on Finding Sister Nori Amaya’s Killer 10 Years After She Was Found Strangled in Her Washington, D.C., Apartment.” NBC News, November 1, 2019.
- “The ‘Salsa Queen’ Murder.” Unsolved Mysteries (podcast), Cosgrove Meurer Productions and Cadence13, March 3, 2021.
- Sippell, Margeaux. “Unsolved Mysteries Co-Creator Terry Meurer on the Key to Solving the ‘Salsa Queen’ Murder.” MovieMaker, March 3, 2021.
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