Sandra Guadalupe-Castro, 57, of Reading, was arrested and charged with Murder of the First Degree and Murder of the Third Degree after detectives reopened the decades-old case under the county’s Cold Case Initiative.
The 1993 Death
On Jan. 8, 1993, the toddler was rushed from a home on the 1000 block of Franklin Street in Reading to St. Joseph’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 12:50 p.m. A forensic pathologist determined the boy had suffered multiple blunt impact injuries to the head and bruises in various stages of healing. His death was ruled a homicide.
At the time, the child lived with his father and his father’s partner, Guadalupe-Castro. Reading police conducted numerous interviews in 1993 but were unable to bring charges.
The Breakthrough
In 2025, the Reading Police Department Criminal Investigations Unit and Berks County Detectives reopened the investigation. Detectives re-interviewed witnesses, re-examined medical records, and consulted with forensic pathologist Dr. Neil Hoffman, who confirmed the child’s fatal injuries were inflicted shortly before his death. Authorities determined the boy was in Guadalupe-Castro’s sole care the morning of Jan. 8, 1993.
The Arrest
A criminal complaint was filed on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, and Magisterial District Judge Carissa Johnson issued an arrest warrant. That same day, Berks County Detectives arrested Guadalupe-Castro at her Reading residence. She was processed at the Berks County Central Processing Center and arraigned…