EP31 | Coward
When a beloved 75-year-old deli worker suddenly missed a shift, her coworkers knew something was wrong. What police discovered inside her apartment would begin a years-long search for justice filled with stolen cards, unexpected connections, and a case that refused to stay closed.
In October 2015, 75-year-old Paula Mendez Boyd was still showing up for work at an H-E-B deli in San Antonio, Texas. Customers and coworkers knew her as “Paulita.” She knew their names, asked about their families, and had become the kind of familiar face people expected to see.
Then, one morning, Paula didn’t show up for her shift.
Her coworkers knew something was wrong. They called police, who went to Paula’s apartment and found her dead inside. She had been beaten, and someone had taken her bank cards. Whoever did this had left behind more questions than answers.
As detectives followed the stolen cards, the investigation began to move closer to Paula’s own life. But finding a trail and proving who killed her would turn out to be two very different things. Years passed. A trial fell apart. Paula’s family was left waiting to learn whether anyone would be held responsible.
In this episode of Sword and Scale, a missed shift exposes a brutal crime, and the search for Paula Boyd’s killer takes a path no one who loved her could have expected.
Crew
Host - Mike Boudet
Creator & Director - Ash Patiño
Director of Photography - David Patiño
Director of Photography - Zack Placencia
Cinematographer - Caleb Placencia
Producer - Tyann Sells
Sound & Music Credit - Zapsplat
Additional Crew Listed in credits