Transcription
On this episode of Black Girl Gone, I tell the story of Latoya Figueroa, a 24-year-old woman who vanished from Philadelphia in July 2005. At the time of her disappearance, Latoya was 5 months pregnant and already a devoted mother to a 7-year-old little girl. Tragically, a month after she went missing, Latoya's body was discovered in a vacant lot just outside the city. Despite the heartbreaking circumstances, her case received little public attention. This is the story of Latoya Figueroa, a young woman whose life mattered, even if the world wasn't watching. This is Latoya's story.
For those who don't already know, I'm from Philly. And in 2005, I was getting ready to graduate from high school. I was old enough to understand that the world was cruel, but still naive enough to think that there was good in everybody. I was living a world apart from Latoya, the mom and the waitress.
Latoya grew up in West Philadelphia. Now, many of my listeners are not from Philadelphia, so you might not know what West Philly is like, or should I say was like, because like most of the city, gentrification is quickly changing the landscape of the neighborhood. But West Philly in the '90s, was pre-gentrification. And this area, like many others in Philly, struggled with crime and poverty. And so, the Philly Latoya grew up in was that Philly. But beyond the neighborhood that she lived in, the odds were stacked against her from the beginning. And it started with the murder of her mother when she was just 4 years old. In 1985, Anne Taylor, Latoya's mom, was found dead in the street in the northeast section of the city. She had been stabbed in the neck. I couldn't find any information about Anne Taylor or her murder other than how she was killed. But her mother's death haunted Latoya, and she always feared that she might meet the same fate.
After her mother died, she was raised by her maternal grandmother and other members of her mother's family. People who were close to Latoya said that she struggled growing up without her mother, like most people would, losing their mother so tragically and at such a young age. Her father, Melvin Figueroa, also lived in the city, but in the southwest section of the city. Now, there's not a lot of information about their relationship, but Latoya's friends said that they were not close when she was younger.
Latoya went to West Philadelphia High School, which, speaking of gentrification, is now an apartment building that has $2,500 a month lofts. But in high school, Latoya participated in a few activities. She loved music and had joined the choir. But in high school, Latoya also lost another person close to her, her grandmother. Her mother Anne's mother died, and Latoya began living with her uncle. It was another devastating loss for such a young life. Both her mother and her maternal grandmother were now gone.
But life for Latoya would change dramatically in a different way in high school. When she was 17, she got pregnant. While in choir, she met a boy named Anthony Williams, and the young couple started dating. The high school sweethearts fell for each other quickly, and before they knew it, Latoya was pregnant. She gave birth to a little girl, and for a new mother whose mother died when she was so young, being a mom was the most important thing in the world to her. After high school, like a lot of young couples, Latoya and Anthony's relationship fizzled out, and they went their separate ways. But despite ending their romantic relationship, the young parents maintained a cordial co-parenting relationship.
Latoya never got the chance to go to college. It wasn't in the cards for her. In high school, she had dreamed of being a nurse, but working to take care of her daughter took priority over going to school. Around 2003, Latoya started working at a TGI Fridays in Center City, which is what we call downtown here in Philly. The Friday's location Latoya worked at is no longer there. But at the time, it was a popular location right on the Parkway, not far from the Philadelphia Art Museum. In 2003, that same year that Latoya began working there, I had dinner there on my 16th birthday. I wonder now that I know she worked there at that location if we ever crossed paths. But by 2005, Latoya had been working at Friday's for 2 years, and her daughter was seven.
Latoya was only 24, and she had been dating a few guys when she eventually met Steven Poaches. It's not exactly clear how Latoya met Steven, but my assumption, based on reporting and people close to Latoya, is that their relationship was rocky from the start. Latoya would eventually get pregnant again, and this time it was Steven's. Despite the issues in their relationship, her family and friends said that she was excited about her pregnancy and was really happy that she was going to be having another girl. But in July 2005, all of Latoya's worst fears came true when she disappeared because she never got a chance to meet her baby or finish raising her 7-year-old daughter.
On July 18th, 2005, Latoya had a prenatal appointment at Pennsylvania Hospital, which is located in downtown Philadelphia. She had asked Steven to go with her to that appointment, and so she met him at his home in Southwest Philly, and they drove downtown to check on the health of their unborn child. Now, according to reports, when the pair got to the doctor's, they were unable to pay the $35 copay and therefore left without seeing the doctor. Now, I don't know, but for some reason, I don't really believe that they couldn't pay the copay. I think it was something else. I don't know why, but it's just odd because it seems that most likely Latoya would have known that the copay was $35 before going to the doctor. But according to the initial reports, after Latoya and Steven left the doctor's office, they went to get something to eat from a local takeout restaurant, and then they went back to Steven's house for a little while. And according to Steven, Latoya stayed at his house until around 3:00 p.m., and then she left. But that was the last time that anyone saw or spoke to Latoya.
Now, Anthony, the father of Latoya's oldest child, noticed on the 18th that something was off. He had tried to call Latoya, but she didn't answer the phone, which was odd for her because she always had her phone with her. The next day, Anthony went to the home that she had been living at with their daughter and her uncle and cousin. He still hadn't heard from Latoya, but he went to the house to pick up their daughter. And when Anthony got to the house, their 7-year-old daughter told him that her mom hadn't come home the night before. Anthony immediately started to worry. Latoya was already not answering the phone, and now he found out that she never came home. Latoya took nothing in life more seriously than being a mom to her daughter. And so she wouldn't be out all night without anyone knowing where she was.
The first thing Anthony did is call Friday's where Latoya worked to see if she was there. But Friday's tells him that Latoya didn't show up for her shift that morning. Now, there are conflicting reports about whether or not Latoya was scheduled to work on the 18th. The restaurant would not comment about that, but Anthony was able to confirm that she was supposed to work the next day, the 19th, but never showed up. At this point, Anthony is sure that something is wrong. And so he decided to try local hospitals just in case something had happened and she ended up there. A couple months earlier, Latoya had been robbed. And so he really wanted to make sure that she was okay. But there was no sign of Latoya at any of the hospitals in the area. After a few days with no contact from her, on July 21st, Anthony informed Latoya's family and friends that she was missing. And then he called the police to file a missing person's report.
As soon as her family and friends learned that she was missing, they immediately started searching for her. And when police received the report that Latoya was missing, it had been more than 48 hours. And so an investigation was launched. Police began speaking to the people closest to her, but no one had spoken to her since the 18th. Within days of her missing, her family was posting flyers all over the city. They started contacting local news media also in an attempt to bring more attention to her story. Now, it would take several days, but eventually the local media here in Philadelphia started to cover Latoya's case, but it was mostly because Latoya's family and friends became hard to ignore. A distant cousin of Latoya was a city councilman at the time, and that, along with the pressure from her family, helped push Latoya's story into the headlines. And once people learned about Latoya's story, almost everyone was captivated by the case of the beautiful, missing, pregnant woman. In a city hardened by violence, Latoya's disappearance shook people. This wasn't something you could just brush off. Women didn't just go missing, not in the way that she did. And for a moment, it felt like the whole city was watching. But even then, it still wasn't enough. And the truth behind what happened would be more disturbing than anyone imagined.
On July 18th, 2005, Latoya Figueroa was 5 months pregnant when she disappeared. After she was reported missing, an urgent search began to find her and her unborn baby. As police began to investigate Latoya's disappearance, they learned that, as far as anyone knows, the last person to see her was Steven, the father of her unborn child. When police initially spoke to Steven, he told them that when Latoya left his home, she was fine. He said that she left peacefully, but that he didn't know where she had gone after she had left, and also he had not spoken to her since that day. Now, early on, people, including Latoya's family, had suspicions about Steven, but police said that he was being cooperative. Her father, Melvin Figueroa, quickly became the other face of this story. And despite reports that Latoya and her father didn't have the best relationship, when she disappeared, he did what any father would do. Melvin, along with the rest of Latoya's family, held vigils for her and pleaded to the public for any help finding her. The missing person's flyers with her picture were all over the city, but days went by with no sign of Latoya. And while the search for her continued, the public's suspicion of Steven grew. Despite the police telling everybody that he had been cooperative, people knew that in cases like this, the significant other is usually a suspect. Investigators had spoken to Anthony, who was ruled out. Him and Latoya's relationship was fine at the time, and there was no motive for him to harm her. They also spoke to other men that Latoya had previously dated, but none of them were ever considered suspects either.
As the days went by, more information about Steven and Latoya's relationship started to emerge. Latoya and Steven were not together, and apparently Steven had also gotten another woman pregnant a few months before her. Steven wasn't just expecting one new baby. He had been expecting two. So, he had a lot going on, but police didn't know if that made him a murderer. A little over a week after Latoya disappeared, police searched Steven's car and apartment, but didn't find anything suspicious. No blood or DNA. However, when police searched his home, they did find that a woman was also listed as a resident. And that's when they learned that the woman, whose name was Lisa, had just given birth to the couple's baby a few weeks earlier. Latoya's friends said that they had believed that she was his ex-girlfriend, but I'm 100% sure that they were more than just exes. She had just had his baby and was on the lease. So, it doesn't sound very over to me. But investigators also learned that Latoya's cell phone had not been used since the day that she vanished. And there was no activity on her bank account. It was pretty obvious from the beginning that at 5 months pregnant, she did not just leave on her own. A suspicion started to mount on Steven. He was starting to feel the heat.
A local radio show host invited Melvin, Latoya's father, to come on her show to talk about his daughter and the search for her. Now, the radio show was Power 99.9, a local hip hop and R&B station in Philadelphia. And he was interviewed during a show that used to come on late at night, hosted by a DJ named Golden Girl. If you're from Philly and you're old enough, you remember Golden Girl on her show. Now, Golden Girl's show played slow jams and usually talked about sex, but that night Melvin called in because the callers had been discussing Latoya's case. And that just also shows you how big a story this became, especially amongst the black and Hispanic people in the city. Now, I tried to find the actual audio from the interview, but it wasn't publicly available. And I assume that's because after the interview, it was handed over to police and used as evidence. But when Melvin is interviewed, he tells Golden Girl that Steven had not been helpful in the search for his daughter. But after Steven heard Melvin's interview, he was angry. And so he decided to call into the show himself in an attempt to defend his actions.
When he calls into the show, he said that the reason why he wasn't assisting in the searches for Latoya was because her family already thought that he had something to do with her disappearance. And his defense was that he couldn't trust them because of their suspicions of him. He also said that police were making it seem as if he was ducking them when in fact he had just come from the police station before calling into the show. He told Golden Girl that he wished that Latoya would pop up so that people wouldn't leave him alone. But throughout the interview, Steven kept referring to Latoya as "a female." And you know what men mean when they use "female" that way. He probably really wanted to say "[expletive]," but knew that it wouldn't go over well. I mean, even when Golden Girl asked him to at least refer to her as his baby mama, he wouldn't. He also addressed the rumors about the other woman who had just given birth to his child, saying that he never hid the two women from each other and that he told Latoya not to worry about the other woman because she wasn't worried about her, which was a lie. The two women did know about each other, but according to Latoya's friends, they were not getting along. Her friends said that Latoya wasn't a fighter and up until recently had avoided confrontation most of her life.
But remember when I said that Latoya had been robbed a couple of months before she disappeared? Well, her friends say that Latoya's purse was snatched, and that they thought the circumstances were suspicious at the time. Latoya was 2 months pregnant and had been arguing with Lisa, the other woman that Steven got pregnant. They had suspicion that that woman was involved in the purse snatching. But in that interview, Steven denies that Lisa had anything to do with Latoya being robbed. Throughout his interview, Steven came across as cold and unconcerned. If he thought that calling into the show was going to help him, he was very wrong. He showed no concern for Latoya at all and was far more interested in defending himself. He kept calling her "a female" instead of Latoya or the mother of his child. It was almost as if he was mad at her. He said that when he saw her again, he was going to make sure she was okay, and then he didn't want to see her anymore. But what did Latoya do? Steven told police that when she left his home that day, everything was fine. And now that she's missing, he seems angry at her. So, like I said, the interview didn't help, and Steven shortly after was named as a person of interest.
As the days went by, with no sign of Latoya, her case began to gain more and more attention. A reward for information grew to $100,000, which, if you know anything about rewards in these cases, that's a huge amount of money, especially in such a short period of time. But the reward was fueled by donations from Friday's, where Latoya worked, and rapper Beanie Sigel, who's from South Philadelphia. Now, eventually, bloggers and online communities began to call out the lack of media coverage surrounding Latoya's disappearance. Just weeks earlier, Natalie Holloway had gone missing while on vacation in Aruba, and her case dominated national headlines. In contrast, Latoya's story was barely mentioned. It wasn't until public pressure mounted that some mainstream outlets began to cover her case. Her story even made it onto America's Most Wanted. But despite those efforts, it never received the kind of widespread attention it likely would have had she been a white woman.
After almost a month of searching, police were hitting a dead end. They were unable to find any sign of Latoya. And although the walls had begun to close in on Steven, they didn't have any actual evidence that he had anything to do with her disappearance. But that all changed when a tip came in to police from a friend of Steven's, Javon Al. He called police to tell them that Latoya was dead and that Steven had killed her. Javon knew this because he had helped Steven dump Latoya's body in Chester, right outside of Philadelphia. According to him, on the night of July 19th, Steven picked him up from his home in Chester. Javon said that he had a gun in his hand and told him that he needed to help him dump a body that was in the trunk of his car. Javon told police that he was afraid of Steven, who had a gun in his hand. And so he went with him to a wooded area that was about 50 yards from where Javon lived with his mother. And once they arrived at this lot, he said that Steven told him to pop the trunk and help him get the body out. He said once the trunk was open, he could see a body inside of a large trash bag. He said that he could not see the victim's face, but he said that she was naked and her hands had been tied behind her back, and he could tell that she was pregnant. Javon says that Steven then told him to take the body out of the trunk, or he was going to put a hole in his head. He told police that he tried to grab Latoya's arm, but he couldn't do it. He said that's when Steven pulled Latoya's body out of the trunk, and that it fell to the ground. Then Steven dragged her by her feet into the wooded lot and left her. Javon said that he got back in the car with Steven because he was afraid of him, but once they drove off, he said that he jumped out of the car and ran away. Later that day, Javon said Steven called him and asked what was up with him, and he told Steven that he needed to talk to God and repent. Steven then allegedly threatened him and said, "You know what happens to snitches, right?" Fear, according to Javon, kept him from saying something to police about what he knew. But some suspect that he only came forward because of the large reward being offered.
Detectives soon learned that Steven had also told another man named Walter Matt about murdering Latoya and had asked him to help move her body. And he told Walter that someone else knew about the murder and that he was afraid that that person might tell police and take them to her body. But instead, unlike Javon, Walter called the police right away. Police questioned Walter, and when they were satisfied that he didn't have anything to do with Latoya's disappearance, they asked him to set Steven up by agreeing to go with him to move the body. And Walter agreed to help. On the evening of August 20th, 2005, police followed Steven and Walter to Chester, where he led them right to Latoya's body. Latoya and her unborn child were found in that wooded lot where Javon said Steven had dumped her. She had been there the whole time. She was never missing in actuality because she never left Steven Poaches' home alive on July 18th. Steven had led them right to Latoya, and that's where he was arrested, armed and wearing a bulletproof vest.
Steven Poaches was taken into custody and charged with two counts of first-degree murder. Steven was brought back to Philadelphia, where he was questioned by police, and he admitted that he killed Latoya. And the motive? Well, according to him, they got into an argument because he wanted her to have an abortion, and she refused. Steven said that during the argument, things got physical, and he let his anger get the best of him, and he strangled Latoya to death. An autopsy would confirm that she had been strangled. But Javon had already told police that Steven wanted Latoya dead because he had another woman pregnant, and Latoya's pregnancy was costing too much money and conflicting with the other woman. Javon also later testified that Steven had tried to have Latoya killed before by getting somebody to jump her, but that didn't go as planned.
Steven opted for a bench trial, and he and his attorney tried to convince the judge that Latoya's murder was not premeditated and that he had made a split-second decision out of anger. But the judge wasn't buying it. The testimony from Javon was damning, and ultimately the judge found Steven Poaches guilty of both counts of first-degree murder. After waiving his right to appeal his conviction in order to avoid the death penalty, Steven Poaches was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Neither Javon or Lisa ever faced any criminal charges in connection to Latoya's death.
After Steven's conviction, controversy ended up surrounding who was actually entitled to the reward money. Both Javon and Walter felt entitled to the money, but Walter only received $10,000 of the $100,000 reward. Before the trial, Latoya was buried with her unborn child. The baby that she was carrying was the girl that she was going to name Nyla. Nyla's ultrasound picture was displayed at their funeral.
In the years following Latoya's murder, the city moved on, and a lot of people forgot about the story of Latoya and her unborn baby. But her family, especially her father, Melvin, could never forget. Melvin spent years just trying to help families like his whose daughters were victims like Latoya. He even started a nonprofit in her name. But Melvin struggled with his health. And a couple years after Latoya died, he suffered a stroke and had been diagnosed with diabetes. And in 2015, Melvin Figueroa died.
The murder of Latoya Figueroa was tragic and unnecessary. But her death started a more broad conversation about the lack of attention women like her receive from the mainstream media. The media says it's because victims like Latoya aren't sympathetic to the public: women who come from low-income communities, women who never went to college, or women who are unmarried mothers who may have more than one child by different men. And there's a lot of truth in that. The excuse is that they live lifestyles that put them at risk, and so somehow their murder or disappearance makes them vulnerable and their deaths inevitable. But that's complete BS because when black women and women of color are victims of crime, it doesn't matter if they're married like Andrea McDonald and Sharon Davis. It doesn't matter if they were college students like Asia Adams or Phoenix Colden, or college graduates like Maitrice Richardson, or if they didn't have any children at all like Keiante Chavis. The mainstream media does not care, and neither does a large majority of the public. For those of us who do care, we have to continue to share these stories.
Latoya had her whole life in front of her. All she ever wanted to do was be a mom to her children and give them something she never got to really have: a mom. And Steven Poaches stole that from her and her daughters. He would at least spend the rest of his life in prison. Justice was served. But there are other women just like Latoya whose stories have never been told, whose memories have been forgotten. But I'm going to continue to tell as many of these stories as I can using this platform. May Latoya Figueroa rest in peace. Thank you for listening to this week's episode. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and Threads.