Wife pleads guilty in stabbing death of Cal Fire captain after hiding out in Mexico for over a month

Summer Lin, Los Angeles Times on Aug 5, 2026

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LOS ANGELES — For the second time, Yolanda Olejniczak Marodi has been found guilty of killing a spouse — both times with a knife.

On Tuesday in San Diego County Superior Court, Olejniczak Marodi, 54, confessed to killing her wife, 49-year-old Cal Fire Capt. Rebecca Marodi, at their Ramona home on Feb. 17, 2025, according to Tanya Sierra, spokesperson for the San Diego County district attorney's office.

Olejniczak Marodi pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and said she used a knife in the killing, Sierra said. She is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 2 and faces up to 36 years to life in prison.

Olejniczak Marodi has a prior conviction for a violent crime. She was sentenced in 2004 to 11 years in prison after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the fatal stabbing of her then-husband, James Joseph Olejniczak, according to court records. She served time in prison from 2004 until 2013.

Rebecca Marodi was a decorated captain with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and helped battle the Eaton fire. She was found stabbed to death in her home. She and Olejniczak Marodi had been married for just over two years.

On Feb. 17, Rebecca Marodi's mother, Lorena, called 911, saying that her daughter had been stabbed at their home on Rancho Villa Road, according to an arrest warrant obtained by KABC-TV News. Detectives arrived to find Rebecca Marodi suffering stab wounds to her neck, chest and abdomen; they attempted life-saving measures but she was pronounced dead at the scene.

Lorena, who lived with her daughter, told detectives that Rebecca Marodi had told Olejniczak Marodi a week prior that she was ending their marriage, the warrant states. In home security video that detectives reviewed the following day, Rebecca Marodi is seen running from a woman believed to be Olejniczak Marodi, the warrant states.

"Yolanda! Please ... ! I don't want to die!" Rebecca Marodi screamed, before appearing on video with blood on her back, according to the warrant. Olejniczak Marodi is seen with blood on her arms.

"You should have thought of that before," Olejniczak Marodi responded while standing over Rebecca Marodi holding a knife, according to the warrant.

Olejniczak Marodi was captured on the security camera gathering pets and luggage and loading them into a Chevrolet Equinox SUV, according to the warrant. She drove away and her vehicle was logged by the Department of Homeland Security entering Mexico later that night.

Over a month later, Olejniczak Marodi was arrested at a hotel in the Ferrocarril neighborhood of Mexicali, according to the Baja California Citizen Security Secretariat. Mexican state security agents transported Olejniczak Marodi to the U.S. border, where she was released to marshals, according to a news release from the San Diego County Sheriff's Office.

She was booked into custody in San Diego on suspicion of murder, authorities said.

Friends of Rebecca Marodi said that Olejniczak Marodi exhibited "controlling, isolating behavior" prior to the murder. They also said that Rebecca Marodi didn't tell them about Olejniczak Marodi's criminal history or killing of her previous husband.

"Yolanda was very insecure," Andrea Winter, who had been Rebecca's close friend for nearly a decade, told The Times. "Becky has this magnetic personality and everybody liked her. I think Yolanda was very jealous of that and that Becky was this bright light."

Winter said that she noticed Rebecca starting to change in the year before the murder. Winter said that when she would invite the couple over, they would decline or cancel at the last minute. And Rebecca, who used to confide in Winter about problems in her marriage, stopped communicating as much.

"Becky was a kind person and paid the absolute price for that by trusting the wrong person," Winter said.