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“Night Stalker” Richard Ramirez’s Niece Told Family He Molested Her, but They Didn’t Believe Her
Rosie Juarez, the eldest niece of serial killer Richard Ramirez, says her uncle started abusing her when she was just 6. It continued for years, she said.
Serial killer Richard Ramirez became known in the mid-1980s as the “Night Stalker" because of the time of day he hunted his victims. But to Rosie Juarez, he was Uncle Richie.
Ramirez — infamous for more than a dozen grisly slayings and other crimes in California — was the same man who began molesting Juarez, his eldest niece, when she was 6 years old, she says in a new two-part docuseries, Richard Ramirez: The Night Stalker Tapes, now streaming on Peacock.
He later moved in with her family and continued abusing her for five years, according to Juarez. During that time, she suffered in silence as she grew up.
“You blame yourself as a child,” Juarez said in the docuseries.
The pain of Ramirez’s sexual abuse was compounded by her family’s reaction after they'd learned about it from a letter she’d written to her best friend that was returned to sender.
Her mom opened the letter and showed it to Juarez's grandmother, who was Ramirez’s mother.
Richard Ramirez's mom refused to believe he molested his niece
“My grandmother confronted me,” said Juarez, who was 11 years younger than her uncle. “‘You wrote that Richie had molested you.' And I told grandma, 'Grandma, it's true.' Then she said, 'No, no, no, no, I don’t believe you. I don't believe you.' And I told her, ‘Okay, Grandma,’ and that was it. I didn’t say anything.”
Juarez now teaches in a Texas prison program. She speaks candidly and courageously about her experiences in the Peacock docuseries. “I’m doing good,” she said on Richard Ramirez: The Night Stalker Tapes. “I’m doing really good."
Who was “Night Stalker” Richard Ramirez?
Born in 1960 in El Paso, Texas, Ramirez became a devil-worshiping mass murderer who terrorized areas in and around Los Angeles and San Francisco before being taken into custody at age 25. He used everything from guns, knives, hammers and his bare hands in his attacks.
Ramirez was arrested at the end of August in 1985. He was eventually convicted of a total of 13 murders and sentenced to death. In 2009, DNA evidence tied Ramirez to the 1984 rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl in San Francisco. Before that, he was only known to have killed adults.
Juarez's memories of her uncle are vivid. "My very first memory of my uncle Richard, we were watching the parade at Disneyland," she said. "And he lifts me up to his shoulders because I couldn't see. And I remember wrapping my hands around his face and his chin."
She also recalled, "He read a lot. I remember him looking at the newspaper and saying, 'One day I'm going to be here, famous.' I never asked him how."
Rosie Juarez’s history of abuse
“When I heard about the little girl that had been molested and killed in San Francisco and how his DNA was connected to that murder... I was surprised,” Juarez said in the Peacock docuseries.
“Then I started looking at the dates,” she said. “This little girl was killed on April the 10th, 1984, exactly three months and 18 days after the last time he molested me.”
The alleged abuse began when Juarez was 6. Ramirez later moved in with Juarez’s family.
The molestation “lasted as long as he lived with us, five years,” she said. “A lot of times, it happened during the night. He slept in the same room with us, and I just continued to pretend to be asleep. But I never said anything.”
"Pretending is something you learn to do very early on,” Juarez said. “At that age, you think it’s your fault that these things are happening to you... so because it’s my fault, I better keep it secret.”
In 2009, when Juarez heard that Ramirez’s DNA was connected to the 9-year-old San Francisco girl’s murder, she thought her family would no longer doubt her agonizing revelation of abuse.
“Now they have DNA,” Juarez said on Richard Ramirez: The Night Stalker Tapes. “Now my grandma has to believe me, and my mom has to believe me. But whether they believe me or not, that’s their choice. I don’t have anything else to prove.”
Richard Ramirez apologizes to niece for molesting her
While Ramirez was incarcerated, Juarez continued to write to her uncle. She eventually confronted him in these communications about his alleged abuse.
“In my letters, I started talking to him about those times that I was pretending to be asleep,” she said, “and then he apologized to me.”
“He says, ‘Yes, sweetie, I know you were pretending to be asleep. I don't know what to say. Anyway, sorry about those times,'"Juarez shared of the letter she received back. “‘Even though we had bad times, I loved you then, and I love you now.’ That’s what he said.”
For a complicated mix of reasons, having documented evidence “meant a lot” to Juarez, she said. “You have it in black and white.”
But, what Juarez went through as a child continued to affect her life. “It’s a hard thing to love those that don’t deserve to be loved,” Juarez said in the docuseries.
She added of her uncle's many crimes, "What he did was heinous, it was wrong. But he was my family, and I have to still love. But it doesn't mean to condone."
Rosie Juarez now works with inmates
Now in her 50s, Juarez teaches inmates in Texas.
Trauma inflicted by Ramirez, who died from cancer in prison in 2013, has brought forth pain and valuable lessons for Juarez. Despite dark experiences in her past, she's found a way forward.
“Every single day, I get to walk into a prison where I teach men that are getting ready to be released into society,” she said in the Peacock special.
“I get to show these men that there is a way out,” she said. “I get to step into the devil’s pit and pull them out.”
Richard Ramirez: The Night Stalker Tapes is streaming now on Peacock.
