Search for justice continues decades after disappearance of Nadine Mendonca
by TAMARA SACHARCZYK, NBC 10 NEWS
Monday, November 21st 2022
FALL RIVER, Mass. (WJAR) — The date is July 12, 1991, a warm summer night in Fall River.
Nadine Mendonca, 25, is seen getting into her car and driving to one of her favorite hangouts on Pleasant Street, a bar called Jake’s Saloon.
“She just left a wake, and she went to go shoot some darts at Jake’s,” Nadine’s brother, Shawn Mendonca, said.
Nadine Mendonca, 25, was last seen on July 12, 1991 getting into her car and driving to one of her favorite hangouts on Pleasant Street, a bar called Jake’s Saloon in Fall River. (WJAR)
It's a bar she frequented often, but what started as an ordinary night out for her suddenly took a dark turn.
“She met a gentleman, and I can only assume about closing time they left Jake’s and she was never found again after that,” Shawn said.
That night was the last time Shawn spoke to his sister, a memory that has haunted him for the past 31 years.
“It’s hard to explain because it just gnaws you right inside your stomach, right in your heart,” he said. “You got something taken away from you and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Shawn Mendoca tells the NBC 10 I-Team he is still haunted by the memory of the last time he spoke to his sister, Nadine Mendonca, before she disappeared in 1991. (WJAR)
Nadine was extremely close to her family, particularly her parents.
When they didn't hear from her after the wake, they feared the worst.
“She would call every night, talk to my mother, talk to my father,” Shawn said. “She hadn’t called Friday night, Saturday she didn’t call, Sunday she didn’t call, I even drove by the house, her car wasn’t there at all.”
Shawn immediately knew something was wrong.
Nadine had plans to move in with her sister and niece in Texas the following week, a new life she was eager to start living.
Nadine’s family wasted no time.
She was reported missing to Fall River police 24 hours after she was last seen.
From July 30, 1991: NBC 10's Bob Ward reports on the disappearance of Nadine Mendonca of Fall River. (WJAR)
News articles from the early 90s show police interviewed the man Nadine left with that night but ruled him out as a suspect.
While that person’s name has never publicly been released, detectives said there were able to corroborate his alibi that Nadine drove him home to Fall River from the bar that night, but they didn’t have any contact after that.
A major piece of evidence was discovered two weeks later, when Nadine’s vehicle was found in Weld Square in New Bedford.
The driver's window of the 1980 Monte Carlo was smashed in and blood was found in the trunk.
Police took a sample of the blood, which DNA testing later confirmed belonged to Nadine.
The discovery sent shockwaves through Nadine's parents, who NBC 10 interviewed back in 1991.
“I'm afraid I have to accept whatever is to come,” Nadine’s mother, Rita Mendonca said. “I’m preparing myself for the inevitable.”
Nadine Mendoca's vehicle was found in Weld Square in New Bedford two weeks after her disappearance in 1991. The driver's window of the 1980 Monte Carlo was smashed in and blood was found in the trunk. (WJAR)
Weld Square was in the headlines for all the wrong reasons at the time.
“I think the Weld Square aspect is concerning because it was connected to the highway killings, which remain unsolved at this this point,” Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn said.
In the early 90s, police ruled out a connection between those murders and Nadine’s disappearance, but to this day, Shawn is convinced his sister was the victim of a crime.
“She was murdered,” he said.
While police have never been able to prove that, DNA was in its infancy when Nadine vanished.
Now, new advancements are giving investigators renewed hope.
“That’s another case that we are focusing on, again potentially to bring closure, at least an identification and determine potentially if a criminal activity was involved,” Quinn said.
Bristol County District Attorney speaks with the NBC 10 I-Team on the disappearance of Nadine Mendonca. (WJAR)
Investigators in the Bristol County DA’s Cold Case Unit are uploading all the evidence into a database, in hopes it’ll someday give them the answers they’ve been searching for.
Nadine's parents, Rita and Fernando, passed away years after her disappearance without ever knowing what happened to their daughter.
“I told my dad just before he died in 2017, ‘I’m going to get to the bottom of this,’” Shawn said. “We are going to find out who killed my sister and bring him to justice.”
For Shawn, finding out what happened to Nadine is about honoring that death bed promise he made to his father.
“That would bring peace to me and my family,” he said.
Nadine would be 56 years old today.
She was five feet tall and 95 pounds, with brown hair, frosted tips, brown eyes, and a flower tattoo on her right shoulder when she was last seen.
She had been living on the 200 block of Locust Street in Fall River.
If you have any information on Nadine’s case, you can reach out to Massachusetts State Police Lt. Ann Marie Robertson at 508-961-1918.
You can submit an anonymous tip online or by texting “Bristol” to 274-637.
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