A 54-year-old California woman who already served a decade behind bars for stabbing her first husband to death has now admitted to murdering her second spouse, a decorated Cal Fire captain found with stab wounds to her neck, chest, and back at the couple’s home in Ramona, California.
Yolanda Olejniczak Marodi pleaded guilty on Tuesday to second-degree murder in the February 2025 killing of Rebecca “Becky” Marodi, 49, a veteran firefighter with more than 30 years of service. When the judge asked how she pleaded to count one, Marodi offered a single word: “Guilty.”
The plea came months after Yolanda Marodi fled to Mexico following the killing, hid for more than a month in a Mexicali hotel near the U.S. border, and was finally arrested and returned to American custody. She faces sentencing on Sept. 2. And the case raises a question that no official has yet answered publicly: how a woman convicted of stabbing one spouse to death was free to do it again.
Rebecca Marodi spent more than three decades with Cal Fire, beginning as a volunteer firefighter in Moreno Valley and rising to the rank of captain. She served primarily in Riverside County. Most recently, she helped battle the Eaton Fire, one of the devastating blazes that tore through Southern California.
On Feb. 17, 2025, she was found fatally stabbed at the couple’s home in Ramona, a rural community northeast of San Diego. The San Diego Sheriff’s Office identified Yolanda Marodi as the suspect. Fox News Digital reported that surveillance footage captured Rebecca fleeing the home as Yolanda pursued her. Rebecca suffered multiple stab wounds to her neck, chest, and back.
CAL Fire Riverside honored its fallen captain in a statement posted to its Facebook page:
“Her legacy of mentorship, service, and dedication will be felt for years to come. Her passing is a profound loss to her family, friends, and all who had the privilege of working alongside her.”
A woman who gave three decades to protecting Californians from wildfires did not survive her own home.
After the killing, Yolanda Marodi allegedly fled across the border into Mexico. She remained at large for more than a month before authorities located her at a hotel in Mexicali, just south of the California border. An image of her arrest was credited to the Baja California Citizen Security Secretariat.
U.S. Marshals took custody of Marodi at the Calexico West U.S. Port of Entry and returned her to the United States. She initially pleaded not guilty. That changed Tuesday when she reversed course and admitted to second-degree murder.
The case is one of several recent high-profile guilty pleas in violent crime cases. In Georgia, Colt Gray pleaded guilty to all 55 counts in the Apalachee High School shooting, facing life behind bars.
What makes this case impossible to dismiss as a one-time domestic tragedy is the history. As part of her plea, Yolanda Marodi admitted to having a prior serious felony conviction: the 2000 stabbing death of her then-husband, James Joseph Olejniczak.
In 2003, she pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in that case. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation confirmed she was released in 2013, roughly a decade after her conviction. She went on to marry Rebecca Marodi.
The New York Post noted that the pattern, two spouses, two stabbings, two deaths, made the case particularly alarming. The voluntary manslaughter plea in the first killing meant Marodi served far less time than a murder conviction would have required. She was free by 2013. Twelve years later, another spouse was dead from stab wounds.
No motive has been publicly stated for the February 2025 attack. Prosecutors have not disclosed whether the plea agreement included a sentencing recommendation. The court where the plea was entered and the case number have not been identified in public reporting.
The case leaves serious gaps. What evidence beyond the surveillance footage and the victim’s injuries did prosecutors present? What legal process led to Marodi’s arrest in Mexicali, and did Mexican authorities cooperate under a formal extradition or a less formal arrangement? What specific role did Rebecca Marodi play in fighting the Eaton Fire?
Perhaps most pressing: did anyone in the system flag Yolanda Marodi’s prior conviction as a risk factor after her release in 2013? Voluntary manslaughter in a spousal stabbing is not a shoplifting charge. It is the kind of violent history that ought to follow a person through every interaction with the justice system.
Domestic violence cases continue to produce headlines that defy easy explanation. In Michigan, a father killed his wife and six children before setting the family home on fire. In Virginia, the son of a Chiefs coordinator was arrested after allegedly shooting his mother. Each case is distinct, but the common thread is a criminal justice system that too often fails to protect victims before it is too late.
Yolanda Marodi is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 2. Second-degree murder in California carries a sentence of 15 years to life in state prison, though her admitted prior serious felony conviction could affect the final term. The specifics of any plea deal remain undisclosed.
Rebecca Marodi’s colleagues remember a woman who started as a volunteer and built a career protecting others from fire. She fought blazes across Riverside County for more than 30 years. She earned the rank of captain. She deserved better than to die in her own home at the hands of someone the state had already caught, and released, for the same kind of killing.
When a convicted killer walks free and kills again, the failure belongs to every official who signed off on the first release and never looked back.
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