Man Convicted in Slayings of 2 Teens in 1980s Dies in Prison

A man who was serving a life sentence for the slayings of two teenage girls in the 1980s has died.

Officials from the state Department of Correction said 61-year-old Pedro Miranda died Wednesday in the hospice unit at MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield. 

Miranda had been convicted in the May 29, 1998, sexual assault of a 24-year-old woman in West Hartford and was required to register on the State of Connecticut Sex Offender Registry.

Ten and a half years later, in December 2008, an Innocence Project investigation and DNA evidence led to him being arrested and charged in the deaths of Rosa Valentin, 16, Mayra Cruz, 13, and 17-year-old Carmen Lopez.

Valentin, 16, was last seen alive in Miranda’s car on July 26, 1986. Her body has never been found and she is presumed dead, according to the state Division of Criminal Justice.

Cruz, 13, was reported missing when she did not return home from school in Hartford on Oct. 8, 1987. Her body was found in a wooded area in East Windsor on Nov. 8, 1987.

Lopez was found strangled in an apartment on Nelton Court in Hartford on Jan. 5, 1988.

Miguel Roman, who was wrongly convicted for the slaying of Lopez, spent 20 years in prison until the Cold Case Unit investigation that led to Miranda’s arrest. Roman was released from prison in 2008 and the state awarded him $6 million.

Miranda was serving a life sentence for the murder of Lopez when he was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Cruz.

Valentin’s case was nollied because there was not enough evidence to prove Miranda guilty.

Contact Us