On Aug. 12, 2010, 27-year-old Lydia Naomi Gutierrez was suffocated and stabbed to death in her Gallatin. Tennessee apartment while her two of her sons, ages 1 and 2, were nearby.
Her 8-year-old son found her body lying face down in a pool of blood in the living room when he returned after school.
Lydia, who worked at Buffalo Wild Wings at 310 Indian Lake Blvd in Henderson, was found by her son with multiple stab wounds in her neck, head, and upper torso and a plastic bag over her head. Two knives were still in her neck when police arrived at the scene.
Police were unsure how long she had been dead when she was found, but hypothesized she was likely killed in the morning.
Gallatin Police collected physical evidence, including DNA, from the scene and interviewed the one witness, Lydia's 8-year-old son. He told Gallatin Police investigators that Lydia's boyfriend cleaned boats. When they found a man who worked on boats who knew Lydia, they thought they had their man. But the physical evidence wouldn't agree.
Within a few hours of finding Lydia, Joshua Singletary was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Singletary was a boat repairman and had been in a relationship with Lydia.
When police located Singletary on Aug. 12, 2010, he was at Hendersonville Medical Center being treated for cuts to his hand and leg, according to news reports.
He had given a false name and denied knowing Lydia.
Another witness told Gallatin Police that he had dropped off Singletary near Lydia's apartment that day.
During questioning, Singletary told police he used his brother's name at the emergency room because he had an outstanding warrant for violation of probation. He thought the hospital would turn him over to police.
Then he admitted that not only did he know Lydia, but he also dated her, and they had a sexual relationship.
According to detectives, Singletary's friend told police he dropped him off near the home the same day, and he later showed up with cuts to his left hand, as well as deep cuts to his left leg and left foot.
On Friday, Oct. 1, 2010, the charges against Singletary were dropped for insufficient evidence. DNA evidence found at the scene eliminated him as a suspect, according to news reports.
When the case went cold, investigators reached out to the FBI and other agencies for help. They thought they'd gotten it when producers from TNT's "Cold Justice" came calling.
In January 2014, Kelly Siegler, a former prosecutor in Texas and Yolanda McClary, a former crime scene investigator with the Las Vegas Police Department, spent two weeks in Gallatin with Shockley and investigator Daniel Soto going through the case file, looking for clues.
Their findings first aired in February 2014.
The first conclusion they came to was that the murder might have happened in the afternoon, instead of the morning, as previously thought. That aligned with reports of a green van speeding through the neighborhood.
They also found that Singletary's sister owned a green van at the time. But she, and the van had an alibi; they were both visiting Singletary's grandmother in New Jersey at the time of the murder.
The episode framed Singletary as the only viable suspect and "either involved or the unluckiest man in the world." It also claimed he had a violent past and had stalked Lydia.
Anyone with additional information is asked to call Sgt. Chris Shockley or investigator Daniel Soto with the Gallatin Police Department at 615-452-1313.
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