Suspect being sought for murder of woman discovered in California vineyard

Law enforcement are seeking the public’s help in finding a newly identified person of interest in the October 1993 killing of a Fresno woman.

According to media coverage at the time, Bernice “Vi” Wright was last seen between 3:30 a.m. and 4 a.m. on Belmont Avenue near Third Street in Fresno. A few hours later, her naked body was found by a farmer in a vineyard off Orange and Manning avenues. She had been stabbed and shot to death. Wright was 31.

Family members who spoke with the Fresno Bee shortly after her death said Wright grew up in the area and attended Roosevelt High. She had been married for a brief period and had a 12-year-old daughter who lived with Wright’s mother. Wright occasionally did sex work and also was employed as a housekeeper. She had been planning to return to school to get her GED, but family wasn’t sure where she was living at the time of her death.

“She had a lot of friends who tried to take care of her,” her sister Sandra Wright told the Bee.

Detectives from the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office believed at the time that Bernice Wright may have gotten into the car of a customer and asked for witnesses who may have seen her getting into a vehicle or going into a house. For decades, there were no new leads.

In 2021, the sheriff’s office gave the case a fresh look and submitted a DNA sample for analysis. Last week, they announced they got a hit in CODIS, a national database of DNA profiles from crime scenes, sexual assault kits and convicted offenders. The sheriff’s office said the sample was a match for Manuel Aguilar Mendoza, who is now approximately 49 years old. He is believed to also use the aliases Miguel Mendoza, Miguel Barragan, Aguilar, Manuel Purvandro Acosta, Miguel Costa and Manuel Barragan.