Oklahoma Woman Arrested In 1993 Cold Case Murder of Popular San Carlos Neighborhood Store Owner

March 24, 2022 at 2:47 pm

SAN CARLOS (CBS SF) — A San Carlos cold case murder nearly three decades old has been solved with the arrest of a woman in Oklahoma, police announced Thursday.

On April 26, 1993, Shu Ming Tang was shot and killed while working at his popular neighborhood store, the Devonshire Little Store on Devonshire Boulevard, in what police believe was a robbery gone wrong. ... On Thursday, the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office identified the suspect as 61-year-old Rayna Hoffman-Ramos. Sheriff’s detectives arrested her last week in Washington County.

At the time of the murder, the suspect was described as a woman in her 20s with brown shoulder-length hair seen leaving the store in a blue 70s station wagon. A lengthy investigation followed and the case gained national recognition, including a feature on the TV show America’s Most Wanted. ... Despite the various leads followed and the national attention gained, the case remained unsolved for nearly 29 years.

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In 2010, the City of San Carlos began contracting police services through the sheriff’s office including the services of the Sheriff’s Investigations Bureau. In 2018, investigators assigned to the sheriff’s Cold Case Unit revisited the murder case and eventually, detectives identified a person of interest in Washington County, Oklahoma. ... On March 16, sheriff’s detectives served warrants in both Sacramento and Washington County, Oklahoma. After obtaining additional supporting evidence, detectives arrested Hoffman-Ramos in the city of Dewey for Tang’s murder.

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