Wife of Slain Cal Fire Captain to Stand Trial for Murder

EL CAJON, Calif. (KESQ) - A woman accused of fatally stabbing her wife, a veteran state firefighter, at their Ramona home and then fleeing to Mexico, was ordered today to stand trial for murder.

Yolanda Marodi, 54, is accused of killing her spouse of two years, Cal Fire Capt. Rebecca ``Becky'' Marodi, at the couple's Rancho Villa Road home on the night of Feb. 17, 2025.

According to testimony from a preliminary hearing held Tuesday in El Cajon Superior Court, the 49-year-old victim sustained 23 stab wounds to her neck, chest and abdomen.

Rebecca Marodi, who had worked for the state firefighting agency for more than 30 years, died at the scene.   

According to an arrest-warrant declaration filed by a detective with the San Diego County District Attorney's Office, Rebecca Marodi had sought to leave the marriage shortly before she was killed.  

The day after the slaying, the court document asserts, the suspect sent someone a text message stating, ``Becky came home and told me she was leaving me, she met someone else, all the messages were lies. We had a big fight and I hurt her ... I'm sorry.''

The victim's mother, Lorena Marodi, who lived at the home with her daughter and daughter-in-law, testified that on the day of the killing, Yolanda Marodi spoke to her about her marriage, something Lorena said had ``never'' happened before.

During that conversation, Yolanda said, ``She and Becky had some things to work out, but there wouldn't be any fighting'' when Rebecca returned home.

Lorena went out with friends that evening. At the end of the night, as she was dropping her friends off, she drove past her home and noticed Yolanda's car was gone, she testified.

When she returned home, she found a trail of blood leading inside the house, found her daughter's motionless body, and called 911.   

Sheriff's deputy Angela Peratis, who was one of the first deputies to respond to the home, said she and her partner found the victim face down in a hallway.

The deputies attempted life-saving measures until firefighters arrived and took over, at which point Peratis testified that she overheard one of the firefighters say, ``Is that Becky?''

The warrant declaration states that footage from a Ring camera captured images of Rebecca Marodi fleeing their home as her wife chased her.   

The video footage was not played in court, but sheriff's Homicide Det. Jessica Ricca testified that in her review of the video, the victim can be heard calling out for her mother, to which Yolanda Marodi responds, ``She's not here.''

The two go out of frame for some time, and when they appear again, Rebecca Marodi appeared to be ``covered in blood,'' Ricca testified.   

At one point, the bloodied victim was ``yelling out, `Yolanda! Please ... I don't want to die,''' the warrant declaration states. Yolanda Marodi, who appeared to be holding a knife and seemingly had blood on her arms, responded, ``You should have thought about that before,'' according to the document.

The mortally wounded victim repeatedly asked her wife to call 911 before the pair re-entered the home, the declaration states.   

About 10 minutes later, the camera recorded video of Yolanda Marodi loading items into a Chevrolet Equinox and then driving off, the declaration states.

Yolanda Marodi allegedly crossed the U.S.-Mexico border about an hour after the killing. Mexican authorities arrested her just over a month later near a hotel in the Ferrocarril neighborhood of Mexicali, according to the San Diego County District Attorney's Office. She remains in custody without bail.

Along with the current homicide case, Yolanda Marodi was previously convicted for the stabbing death of another spouse in San Bernardino County and served nearly a decade in prison after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter.

Marodi is due back in court in April and a trial date has been tentatively set for June.