The man convicted of killing Genevieve Adaline Moreno in 1974 is immediately eligible for parole and will be released from the California Men’s Colony.
The County of San Luis Obispo District Attorney’s office described Moreno as a “beloved member of the Nipomo community.”
They said she was working at Old Blues Bar on Tefft Street in Nipomo in June 1974.
When her husband, Richard Moreno, went to pick her up after her shift, the bar was empty, his wife was missing and the cash register was open and emptied of its paper currency.
On June 18, 1974, at 5:35 a.m. Moreno’s body was found in a nearby field in a grove of eucalyptus trees.
Later that morning, the district attorney’s office said Alberto Tamez, Jr. was arrested with blood stains on his shirt and hands.
He admitted to hitting Moreno and robbing the bar before dragging her to the eucalyptus grove. Moreno had been robbed, kidnapped, beaten, sexually assaulted and had died by homicidal strangulation.
Tamez was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in state prison with the possibility of parole.
According to the district attorney’s office, in December 2025 Tamez was granted parole by the California Board of Parole Hearings. The DA’s office said the governor’s decision to take no further action was communicated to the board on April 24, 2026, and Tamez is immediately eligible for parole.
In response, District Attorney Dan Dow issued a statement condemning the decision.
“To all who knew and loved Genevieve Adaline Moreno I want you to know that this office has stood by her memory and will continue to do so. What happened to Genevieve was a horrific, senseless act of violence. She was an innocent woman doing her job, and she was robbed of her life, her dignity, and her future by a man who showed her no mercy. No amount of time erases that truth. I am deeply troubled that our criminal and victim justice system has reached a result where the man who brutally murdered Genevieve Moreno over fifty years ago will now walk free. My office fought this outcome at every stage opposing his attempt to vacate his conviction, and making clear to the courts that Alberto Tamez, Jr. was not a peripheral figure or a legal technicality. He was the killer. He admitted it. The evidence was overwhelming. Genevieve Moreno deserved better. She deserved the full protection of justice, and it is my solemn obligation as District Attorney to ensure that her story is not forgotten and that her life is honored. To see her killer released is a painful outcome that this office did not support and did not accept without a fight. As your District Attorney, I will continue to use every lawful tool available to ensure that violent offenders are held fully accountable for the harm they inflict on our community’s most vulnerable. Justice for Genevieve Moreno demanded that Alberto Tamez, Jr. remain incarcerated. We fought for that outcome. We are deeply disappointed that the Board of Parole Hearings granted parole, and that the Governor chose to take no action to reverse that decision. We will remain vigilant in protecting the people of San Luis Obispo County.”