Yolanda Evette Panek (June 24, 1974 – c. July 13, 1995)[1] was an American woman who vanished from the Capri Motel in Portland, Oregon.
[5] After graduating high school, Panek ran a program tutoring local female students in mathematics and science at the YWCA in Portland.
[5] Panek married Abdur Rashid Al-Wadud (also known as Darryl Deveraux) in an unsanctioned Muslim marriage ceremony in 1993, and the two gave birth to a son, Sayid, in 1993.
[5] In her restraining order, Panek wrote: "He has told me that as a Muslim he has consulted with others who advised him to follow the 'law of the land', but if that were not the case, he would slit my throat, and that would be justified.
The following morning, a maid at the motel found the room in disarray, with the sheets stripped from both beds, the towels missing, and the mattress soaked through with blood.
[1][9] At approximately 7:00 a.m. on July 14, Panek's 1994 Dodge Spirit was discovered abandoned near a Greyhound bus station, locked, with her son inside, alive.
[5] The prosecution contested that Al-Wadud murdered Panek over her unwillingness to raise their son in the Muslim faith, as well as a fear that she had aborted another pregnancy without his knowledge.
[5] The prosecution theorized that Al-Wadud murdered Panek by slashing her throat in the motel room before throwing her body out the window, and subsequently placing it in the trunk of her car before disposing of it.