Mule Creek State Prison is facing heavy scrutiny after the family of a woman who died following a conjugal visit has come forward. The death of Tania Vanessa Corpuz Thomas marks the second one of its kind within the span of just a few months.
The Root previously reported the death of Stephanie Dowells, 62, was ruled a homicide after she went in for a private family visit with her husband but never came out alive. KCRA first reported the tragedy, and as the story continues to touch the hearts of many across the country, one woman said a similar situation at the same San Francisco prison changed her family forever.
Jeanine Rojo spoke to KCRA saying her cousin, Thomas, spent more than half of her life battling Lupus, but it wasn’t the disease that ultimately took her life. “We’ve literally been together since birth,” Rojo said. “For her to be taken away this way, it’s gut-wrenching.”
According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), Thomas “was found unconscious in a family visiting unit by prison staff called to the scene” in July 2024. She was there visiting her husband, 48-year-old Anthony Curry, who is serving a life sentence connected to a gruesome 1999 attempted murder.
Court records state Curry shot his then-girlfriend before driving her nearly lifeless body to a truck stop and fleeing. “He shot a girl in the head and dumped her body. So, he left her body for dead,” Rojo said. The woman survived and is now permanently blind and partially paralyzed, according to KCRA.
“With that history of severe violence, why are they being allowed to have these visits unsupervised?” Rojo asked. As we reported, only inmates on death row, convicted sex offenders, or those under disciplinary restrictions are banned from having conjugal visits, which take place “in private, apartment-like facilities on prison grounds and last approximately 30 to 40 hours,” according to the California Department of Corrections,
Thomas was a single mother of a 25-year-old son now serving in the U.S. Air Force, according to Rojo. It’s unclear how long Thomas and Curry were married for, but Rojo said she was unaware her cousin was ever having conjugal visits with him.
Curry was charged with his wife’s murder in December, but sadly a similar tragedy took place just weeks before the ruling. Dowells’ November death influenced Rojo’s decision to come forward with her cousin’s story. “I was sick to my stomach, and I was in tears,” she said after learning about Dowells’ murder.
Now, she’s demanding the prison take responsibility and put in measures to prevent a third killing from happening. “I’m not against conjugal visits. However, you know, there’s already two murders at Mule Creek. What can be done to prevent this from happening again?” Rojo continued suggesting, “Maybe put more prison guards out to do more safety checks, anything to save another life.”