YAKIMA — A Mabton woman who was fatally shot on Interstate 82 Saturday was not the victim of a random incident, Yakima County sheriff’s officials say.
Someone drove next to the vehicle in which Maria Elena Luna-Corona was riding in and fired, targeting either her or her husband, who was driving, said sheriff’s spokesman Casey Schilperoort.
Luna-Corona, 35, was shot around 12:30 a.m. while heading west on I-82 near Firing Center Road in the Selah area, according to the sheriff’s office. Her husband pulled into a nearby convenience-store parking lot and she was taken by ambulance to Virginia Mason Memorial hospital, where she was pronounced dead shortly afterward, officials said.
An autopsy Wednesday determined she was killed by a gunshot to the torso, Yakima County coroner Jim Curtice said. He declined to say if she was shot more than once.
Schilperoort said Luna-Corona was living in Mabton at the time of her death. She is the fifth homicide in Yakima County this year.
Anyone with information on the case is asked to call sheriff’s detective Dan Cypher at 509-574-2550 or Yakima County Crime Stoppers at 800-248-9980. Tips can also be submitted online at http://www.crimestoppersyakco.org.