When 30-year-old Zachary Jackson was found shot to death in his Hayward, California, home on June 17, 1993, it seemed the case might never be solved. For decades, the case was neglected while his family grieved in confusion. But when detectives reopened the case thirty years later, they discovered that Jackson’s children’s mother, Veronica Fonseca, was behind the murder!
She is the same woman who lived with Jackson and had two children with him before his 1993 death in his Alameda County apartment. Investigators discovered that he had been murdered a few days before that, on or around June 14. The case felt easy to solve. Police got their first lead from rumors of a fight with his landlord, but it was a dead end. Although Fonseca was questioned several times, she was never named a suspect. She was, after all, the mother of Jackson’s one-year-old son and four-year-old daughter.
This was the pre-digital era, as Detective Pat Smyth of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office explained, per GMA:
“As you can imagine, in 1993, they did not have (…) electronic footprint like we have these days; they relied heavily on witnesses, fingerprints, that sort of thing. DNA was in its infancy.”
For over twenty years, the murder case remained unsolved. In 2014, a tipster by chance came forward and accused Fonseca and a man named Anthony Fox of being the criminals in question. Fox was Fonseca’s boyfriend at the time of the murder. Smyth agreed that when investigators started their probe, they “hit a roadblock.” Once again, the case froze.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 27, 2025
ALAMEDA COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE REOPENS 1993 MURDER CASE OF ZACHARY JACKSON
Unincorp. Hayward, CA – 10/27/25 – The ACSO has reopened the 1993 murder case of Zachary Jackson following the discovery of new evidence. https://t.co/5ElW4ALcvD pic.twitter.com/8evCcrClrb
— Alameda County Sheriff (@ACSOSheriffs) October 27, 2025
Then, in 2021, another tip came to light, this time from an anonymous note left on the sheriff department’s website. Fonseca and Fox were named once more. The tipster was willing to go on record, so Smyth tracked them. Other witnesses then came forward, and the arrests began on November 6, 2025. U.S. Marshals picked up the 54-year-old Fonseca at her home in Queens, New York. Fox, 56, was taken into custody in Sioux City, Iowa. Both are currently awaiting their transfer to California, where they are accused of first-degree residential burglary, murder, and firearm enhancement. Authorities think Fonseca was fully complicit, but Fox is the one who fired the shot.
Jackson and Fonseca had two little ones in 1993; one was under his mother’s care and the other was under his father’s. Now that they are adults, they have to cope with the potential that the woman who saved their lives may have contributed to the death of their father. Time doesn’t heal all wounds, does it? Detective Smyth described it as a:
“Good example of what happens when good people (…) come forward and tell law enforcement what they know.”
The investigation proves how renewed dedication — and new technology — can change outcomes. To bring this story full circle, agencies in New York, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, and South Dakota worked together with two fearless tipsters.
The truth is much worse than anyone predicted, but it may end in a conviction or another surprise.
