FBI offers $30,000 reward in 1996 Yuma child murder case

The FBI has offered up to $30,000 for information in the 1996 killing of 10-year-old Amberly Mendoza, giving Yuma County a fresh chance to break one of its most painful cold cases. Residents with tips can call the Yuma County Sheriff's Office at 928-783-4427, use 78-CRIME to remain anonymous, or submit information through the FBI’s tip portal.

Yuma police responded at about 10:47 a.m. on March 9, 1996, to a disturbance call at a home in the 1700 block of West 24th Lane. Amberly was found unresponsive in her bedroom, and her mother had called 911 after finding her there. Yuma Police Sgt. Lori Franklin later said, “She had been found dead in her bedroom after she had been sexually assaulted.”

Investigators determined Amberly died from asphyxiation, and detectives found the killer’s DNA at the scene. Authorities also ruled out Amberly’s family members, leaving the case focused on an unknown offender who entered the home and was never identified. A later description in the Last Seen Alive podcast said investigators believed the attacker came in through Amberly’s bedroom window.

The FBI Phoenix Field Office reward is tied to information that leads to an arrest and conviction, not just a name. That detail matters because the case already has forensic evidence, and the value of that DNA may rise as testing improves. If evidence preserved from the scene can be reanalyzed, or if older witness statements are revisited with new context, investigators could still find the link they need.

More than 30 years later, no suspect has been identified. Yuma Police Department materials still list Amberly Mendoza as a cold case, and the new federal reward puts the case back in front of a public that may hold the missing piece. Cold-case breakthroughs often come from someone who finally decides to speak up about a person, a vehicle or a comment that did not seem important in 1996.

For Amberly’s family, the renewed appeal reaches back to a morning that changed a Yuma home forever. For Yuma residents, it is a clear call to help close a case that has never left the city’s memory.