Glenda Marisol Coca-Romero was born in El Salvador and immigrated to the United States in search of better opportunities. Like many immigrants who settled in Northern Virginia, she hoped that hard work would provide a more secure future for herself and her family.
At just twenty-one years old, Glenda was already a mother. Her daughter was approaching her first birthday when Glenda was murdered.
She worked at Platanillos Grocery and Jewelry, a small business located at 14342 Jefferson Davis Highway, now known as Richmond Highway, in Woodbridge. The establishment served customers in the surrounding community, selling food, jewelry, and other merchandise. Glenda had worked there for a little more than a year.
According to the store’s owner, Elias Mejia, she was a dependable employee who took her responsibilities seriously. Mejia told The Washington Post that both Glenda and the coworker who was injured in the shooting were Salvadoran immigrants who had come to the United States hoping to support their families. The two women shared an apartment near the business, an arrangement that helped them save money. They were not related, but their shared circumstances had brought them together.
The older woman had worked at Platanillos for approximately five years. She had previously been employed at a bank in El Salvador and was herself the mother of two children.
February 21st, 2014, was a Friday. As the evening progressed, Glenda and her coworkers were approaching the end of their workday at Platanillos Grocery and Jewelry.
Shortly before nine p.m., three men approached the establishment. All three were wearing dark clothing, including hooded sweatshirts, and had their faces concealed.
Surveillance cameras inside the business recorded the men entering the store. The footage would become one of the investigation’s most important pieces of publicly disclosed evidence.
According to subsequent police descriptions, the suspects moved directly toward the counter, where Glenda, her coworker, and a customer were standing.
What happened next unfolded with terrifying speed. Gunshots rang out. Both Glenda and the older employee were struck in their upper bodies. The three men then turned and fled through the same entrance they had used to enter the business. They did not take merchandise, jewelry, or any money from the register.
A third employee, who had been elsewhere in the store, escaped unharmed. Store owner Elias Mejia later said this employee had fled through a rear exit when the shooting began. The customer standing near the counter was also uninjured.
According to police, the suspects were inside the establishment for less than twenty seconds. The attackers disappeared into the surrounding area, possibly fleeing on foot.
At precisely eight fifty-nine p.m., Prince William County police received a report of a shooting at Platanillos Grocery and Jewelry. Officers responding to the business discovered two female employees suffering from gunshot wounds to their upper bodies.
Glenda Coca-Romero had sustained fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene. The other victim, a forty-two-year-old Woodbridge resident whose name was not publicly released, was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries. She would ultimately survive and recover.
Officers immediately began searching the surrounding neighborhood for the three suspects. A police K-9 unit was deployed in an attempt to track their movements, but the search did not result in arrests.
Investigators interviewed witnesses and examined the surveillance footage. Their initial descriptions of the suspects were limited. Police knew they were three males wearing dark clothing and face coverings, but their races and ages could not be established. Authorities also had not determined precisely how many of the men carried firearms or how many had discharged weapons.
Almost immediately, investigators confronted the most puzzling aspect of the shooting. The attackers had entered a business containing money and valuable merchandise. Their faces were concealed, and they had apparently come prepared to use violence. Yet nothing was stolen.
This unusual circumstance raised questions about what the three men had intended to accomplish. Had they entered the store planning to rob it, only for something to go catastrophically wrong? Had the victims been deliberately targeted? Was the shooting intended to intimidate someone connected with the business? Or had some other motive brought the attackers to Platanillos that evening?
The killers had gone directly to the counter and opened fire, remaining inside for only seconds. There was no publicly confirmed account of an extended confrontation or attempt to collect money.
However, the absence of stolen property did not prove that the shooting had been planned specifically to kill Glenda or her coworker. A robbery might have been abandoned after the gunfire began. The attackers might have panicked. They might have entered with an entirely different objective. The available evidence could not conclusively distinguish between those possibilities.
Detectives with the Prince William County Police Department’s Violent Crimes Bureau assumed responsibility for the investigation. They were joined by the FBI’s Washington Field Office, which provided investigative assistance and additional resources.
On March 5th, 2014, the FBI and Prince William County Police Department announced a combined reward of up to $11,000 for information that could lead to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.
As the first anniversary of Glenda’s murder approached, investigators intensified their efforts to generate new leads. By February 2015, the FBI reward had increased to $20,000.
Authorities also began a new public-awareness campaign. In May 2015, the FBI, Prince William County Police Department, and Prince William County Crime Solvers partnered with Clear Channel to display a billboard along Jefferson Davis Highway in Woodbridge. The billboard appeared between Mount Pleasant Drive and Dawson Beach Road, not far from the area where Glenda had been killed. The FBI also arranged for digital advertisements at transit shelters around Washington, D.C.
By February 2018, four years had passed since the shooting. WTOP News revisited the case, reporting that the men responsible remained unidentified. Glenda’s daughter, who had been an infant when her mother died, was approaching her fifth birthday.
On February 21st, 2020, the sixth anniversary of Glenda’s murder, the FBI issued another public appeal, reiterating its $20,000 reward and encouraged anyone who had lived or worked near Platanillos Grocery and Jewelry in February 2014 to reconsider whether they might possess useful information.
More time passed. February 21st, 2024, marked ten years since Glenda’s death. On that anniversary, authorities renewed their appeal for information. However, there was no public announcement identifying any of the suspects or establishing a motive.
As of this writing in October 2026, Glenda Marisol Coca-Romero’s murder remains listed among the active unsolved homicide investigations maintained by Prince William County Police.
