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hi crime junkies I'm your host Ashley flowers and I'm Brit and the story I have for you it is about the baffling
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murder of a young woman it is the kind of case where like Everything feels like it's going to fall into place at first
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with all of the pieces that they have they literally have the murder on film so investigators are super confident
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that they're going to catch their killer within hours but six years have gone by
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and it is still unsolved and but like this is one where truly when I say I have no idea what
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happened I have no idea what happened because there is no theory that makes complete sense and nah and I she's the
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reporter that worked on this we were in my office I mean going round and round and round for literally like an hour
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talking about theories and feelings and we're just losing our minds because we're trying to get the pieces to add up
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but This Woman's family is hoping that someone maybe somebody listening or watching right now can help bring the
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justice that they've been seeking so desperately this is the story of Elizabeth barza
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[Music] it's around 7:20 on the morning of Friday January 25th 2019 when Bob and
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rosemary Nelly wake up to their phones buzzing and it's a notification from the alarm system on their daughter's home
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home now they know Elizabeth Liz as everyone calls her is holding a garage sale that day so at first they think
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that she might have just accidentally set it off while she's like going in and out of the house or whatever but when
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they call her to check she doesn't answer the phone and things get even more unsettling when the alarm company
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contacts them directly because they tried calling Liz and they can't get a hold of her either so Rosemary gives
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them the go ahead to notify police and she and Bob throw on some clothes jump in the car and head straight to lizz's
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home in Tomball Texas which is like 15 minutes away Bob told our reporter nah that a lot of that morning is just a
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blur for him at this point but he does remember speaking to their daughter's husband Sergio barazza on the drive over
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now Sergio is not home as a crew chief for his father's flooring company he'd already left for the day but he tells
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them that he also got the alarm alert and when he checked their nest doorbell camera like the live feed for it he saw
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police tape and and cops like in the background and he even this is wild he like used the speaker on the doorbell
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camera to try and talk to them but like what is going on he did get someone's attention but they wouldn't tell him
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what was happening they just said that he needed to get home immediately so when Bob and rosemary pull into Liz's
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neighborhood it is like every parents worst nightmare unfolding Before Their Eyes their daughter's usually quiet
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street is swarming with emergency vehicles First Responders tell them that a young woman has just been airlifted to
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the hospital and as they get closer they realize that all the commotion and activity is centered around their
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daughter's house and there is this trail of Blood on the driveway mixed in near items that she had set out for the
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garage sale now initially officers are tight lipped but they tell Bob and rosemary the most critical detail and
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that is that it was Liz their daughter who's been shot how do they set off her alarm if she was shot out by the
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driveway so the police were actually the ones who set it off they were responding
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to 911 calls of gunshots in the neighborhood and when they arrived she was laying on the driveway near the
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garage still breathing but barely she had like a faint pulse that's where she was shot and the alarm only went off
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when officers went through the unlocked door between the garage and the house to
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like secure the scene so Bob and rosemary are like reeling Liz is the most positive person they know she's
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creative she's kind always helping others she's a Harry Potter fanatic who spends her free time reading and
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dressing as Star Wars characters to visit sick kids so like in the immediate moment they're like who on Earth would
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do this to our daughter and this isn't a high crime area either we're talking about it is this nice middleclass
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neighborhood driveby shootings are not something that they deal with so before her parents can even begin to wrap their
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heads around this Sergio pulls up and police ask him to stay nearby for questioning so while he waits there
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along with his mom who shows up to be with him the Nellies rush to the trauma center to be with their daughter they
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are clinging to hope the whole 40-minute drive over praying that she's going to pull through but when they get to the
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hospital the same one where Liz spent so many hours volunteering doctors tell them that she's not going to make it
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she's been shot Point Blank four times once through the side of her neck twice in the chess and finally once in the
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head so while Liz is still technically alive police know that it's going to be a homicide case now and while her
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parents grieve the Harris County Sheriff's Office jumps in with Deputy Michael Richie at the helm and as he and
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other investigators question Sergio it quickly becomes clear to them that it actually hadn't been a typical morning
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for the couple even before the shooting so normally Liz leaves for work by 6:30 6:45 but she had taken the day off for
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that garage sale she was doing which she had prioritized to make some extra spending money for her and Sergio's trip
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to Disney and Universal Studios they were supposed to leave for Florida that Sunday to celebrate their upcoming fifth
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wedding anniversary so between what Sergio tells investigators and what they're able to pull from the doorbell
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camera footage that he gives them police know that Liz was up super early she went to Starbucks at 6:08 and then the
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couple started setting up the sale in the driveway when she got back and then Sergio left for work at exactly
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6:48 now Sergio says that he drove to a Lowe's about 5 miles away to meet his flooring crew everything was fine until
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he got that security alert on his phone and he explains that on his way home he like actually actively was like
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rewinding the doorbell footage trying to find out what happen and while he couldn't see the shooting itself he
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could hear it and he shares the footage with investigators too now the sound quality isn't great but what is Audible
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is Liz greeting someone and she's cheerful she says good morning and there's this like muffled
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brief exchange of words followed by four deafening gunshots and then Liz screams and there has been endless
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speculation about what was said in that quick conversation but even after after detectives enhance the audio all they
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can hear for sure is just Liz's good morning the shots and the scream so there's no visual of the shooter
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themselves well not on the bar's camera but a neighbor security camera caught the entire thing this is what is so wild
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and why I said this case is so frustrating so as Deputy Richie reviews all of the footage that he can get his
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hands on he cannot believe how Brazen it was so what he sees is there's this dark
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colored pickup that pulls up at around 6:52 a.m. this is 4 minutes after Sergio left the truck first passes Liz's house
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then it like makes a uturn parks at the curb and then the driver who appeared to
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be alone in the vehicle leaves the vehicle running walks over to where Liz was setting up and it's so weird they're
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wearing what looks like a disguise what it's like this um you can't really see cuz it's a it's still dark outside so
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like the footage is like almost like night vision kind of but it's like a flowy coat or robe paired with what
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detectives call Gog go style boots like I can't really see the boots and then maybe really this person has a really
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long hair or it might be a wig and I'm saying like they because like police can't even determine if this shooter is
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a man or a woman the video quality like I said is super poor everything's cast in this like bluish Gray tint but this
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shooter approaches Liz you can see them like have this exchange it looks like they might even have shown her something
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like there's this moment where it looks like like kind of a transaction yeah but
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police don't find anything like a note at the scene or pamplet or anything and this person pulls out a gun and they
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shoot her three times she collapsed and then they stood over her and that's when
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they like fired that final shot to her head and then as as that final shot is fired they run back to their truck and
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leave the entire encounter is over in less than a minute which is a super short amount of time but I'm thinking
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like people are leaving for work taking like their dogs on walks did anyone see this happen no like I said it was still
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kind of dark out multiple people heard the gunshots they were the ones who contacted 911 the first call actually
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came from a man who lived across the street he had a clear view of the shooter's truck which he's able to tell
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them is a Nissan Frontier that is almost certainly black but this is what's really puzzling to investigators is that
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in less than 2 minutes after the neighbor called while he was still on the phone with dispatch there's this
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Eerie moment where the truck drives back past the bar's house again and like everything about this crime looks so
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professional and planned and deliberate but this doubling back past the scene this is the part that seems sloppy like
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an amateur move that like almost certainly would have gotten them caught like given the right circumstances were
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they coming back to get something like did they stop or was it just a driveby no like they didn't stop they didn't get
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out like I don't know what the reason was and unfortunately again this should have been the sloppy move but for
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whatever reason luck was on this shooter side because no one gets a good look at
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their license plate number and none of the surveillance footage that they do get is clear enough to ID it but still
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in those Early Times Deputy Richie is optimist they've got this video footage plus
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constables were on the scene within minutes and they quickly put out a bolo for a black Nissan Frontier so whoever
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did this didn't get a big head start no like minutes top from the time police arrived but the real reason that Richie
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is so confident is that this seems way too methodical to be random like this had to have been targeted feels pointed
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right like take how the shooter approached when they pulled up the bar's house was to their left so the driver's
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side door was already facing the driveway the easiest move would have been to just stop right next to it quick
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and quick out instead they make that U-turn they turn around and park like farther down the street that meant
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getting out walking around the front of the truck to reach the driveway then running back after the shooting but the
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maneuvering kept them mostly hidden from the bazza's nest camera so Deputy Richie
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thinks that they knew where that camera was and what that camera could see and maybe they parked further away because
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they had spotted that camera maybe but whoever did this the real feeling they're getting is that they must know a
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lot about the bares I mean on any other day Liz would not have even have been home let alone Outside Alone Now
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investigators figure that Sergio is going to give them a name like who is the person that has a grudge against Liz
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who drives a black Nissan Frontier like case closed but that's not what happens Sergio mentions there is one woman who
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Liz had a disagreement with she is a member of a Star Wars fan group that they belong to it's called the 51st
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Legion but he insists that like whatever disagreement they had like it was petty
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drama nothing that would ever lead to murder actually the first thing Sergio suggests is maybe this was some kind of
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robbery gone wrong I think this was just for $100 well at this point but police know that doesn't track
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like nothing had been taken Liz had 100 bucks in a lock boox for making change for the garage sale that's still there
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untouched so obvious question but what about Sergio you're right it is obvious and Deputy Richie isn't taking anything
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Sergio says at face value he knows they have to start at square one and square one is always the person closest to the
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victim two branches of the same tree two pieces of a soul where one sister goes the other will be for she is but
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half of the whole the missing half pre-order your copy at Ashley flowers.com the investigators ask about the couple's
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marriage which according to Sergio is perfect they've been together for years just like living their best lives with
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their docks and Diesel no Affairs no serious issues he tells them that he would never harm Liz and detectives are
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confident that he didn't pull the trigger I mean even if they hadn't checked with the people that like he met
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up with at Lowe's he doesn't even match the shooter scene on camera like he's way more heavy set than the person on
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the footage like to be fair they know that doesn't rule out his involvement now in the moment he's like
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Cooperative he's respectful even when Deputy Richie tells him like Hey nothing personal but like as the husband you're
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probably the prime suspect but he gives them access to everything the house their Electronics his phone lizz's phone
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which she had with her and according to an episode of on the case with paulaz on
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he even tells them about a life insurance policy that she had through her employer which he would be the
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beneficiary of although he says that he doesn't even think it's worth that that much but from the start investigators
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think even if he is so Cooperative like there is something off about him like Sergio keeps saying how worried he was
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about Liz holding that garage sale alone that he encouraged her to have someone with her but she said she'd be fine and
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that's actually why the alarm was set on the house to begin with even though she
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was outside he says that he had her set it on the door from the garage at the house that way if anything went wrong
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all she was have to do was run to the door and open it and then help would be on the
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way okay I guess I'm trying to decide where the line is between like crime junky paranoid and laying out all this
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groundwork to cover Your Tracks it's strange yeah again they're in a pretty nice neighborhood too which is like I
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keep taking into account I don't think there was like a history of garage sale robberies or anything even remotely
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close but Sergio like just tells police that they're just super cautious people but that isn't the only thing that's
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raising red flags his overall demeanor is odd to them like sitting in a police car listening to the doorbell camera
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audio with Deputy richy he almost seems calm like the deputy is expecting some kind of reaction as they hear those like
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booming gunshots and they hear Liz scream but Sergio's face is just blank now some early police reports claim that
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Sergio never asked about lizz's condition but that is actually not entirely accurate so he was talking to
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investigators from at least two different agencies and while he might not have asked everyone at some point he
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definitely inquired about her status and whether he could go to the hospital but
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when detectives finish questioning him and tell him he can leave he doesn't Deputy Richie watches as he kind of just
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lingers around he's like talking to neighbors he's checking out what the media is doing is he aware that Liz
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isn't going to make it I don't I'm not sure what investigators have told him or like what updates he's getting from her
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family but obviously he knows that she's shot and has been airlifted to the hospital right like it's clearly a
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pretty serious injury yeah and his lack of urgency isn't what detectives expect in that
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situation now meanwhile the Nellies are at the hospital trying to process what feels like a nightmare Liz is registered
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under an I in case the shooter is still after her which is like such a weird like reality for them to be in they have
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no idea what is going to happen next or what they're supposed to do next are they wondering where Sergio their
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son-in-law is not really no like everyone I think everyone is just so focused on Liz and they know police
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needed to question him plus Bob and rosemary trust him they have never doubted that he loves their daughter so
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when Sergio and his mom do finally get to the hospital which is sometime that afternoon he and Bob arrange one final
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Act of generosity on lizz's behalf they are going to donate her organs and even in this devastating moment they're
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thinking about how she can help others so Liz is declared dead on Saturday January 26th at 1:40 p.m but she is kept
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on life support for the next few days to preserve her organs her loved ones barely leave her side during that time I
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mean they're hardly sleeping or showering let alone thinking about the investigation now Deputy Richie does
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show them a censored version of the shooting footage hoping that they'll recognize the killer or maybe the truck
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which they don't but after listening to the audio they are convinced that Liz didn't know the shooter cuz they said if
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she did she wouldn't have said like good morning she would have said like good morning so and so like their name and
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and they're they're sure about that I think so yes they are I guess I'm trying to like think of how I greet my friends
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or my neighbors I don't yeah I don't say people's I'm not like good morning Brad
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I'm just like hey you like you know what I mean yeah like I would say like good morning to anyone walking down the
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street I think whether I knew them or not yeah I kind of went back and forth this is actually something I had nah
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like like push on and but she said she talked to them and they are like adamant that whoever the shooter was Liz did not
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know the shooter so by this point the shooting video is circulating in the media as well and while it hasn't given
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police the big break that they thought it would it is still a huge help they might not be able to ID the killer but
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they can start ruling people out like Liz was 52 and all things considered detectives estimate that the killer was
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somewhere between 5'4 and 5'8 and they think they have an athletic build maybe they're like 140 to 175 PBS do they have
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a better sense of the shooter's gender no it's not clear enough on the video for them to say there's a lot of early
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speculation that it's a woman Deputy Richie specifically thinks they're mannerisms and gate appear kind of
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feminine but he knows that doesn't necessarily mean anything but while they're grappling
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with the uncertainty they are getting Clarity on other areas too so like piecing together a timeline of the
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killer movements from the area surveillance cameras now it turns out that the frontier was in the bar's
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neighborhood hours before the shooting at around like 2:00 in the morning the investigator Richie says that it didn't
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pass by their house at that time it was just in the neighborhood and they can't see who's driving because the footage is
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too grainy and without a plate number they can't be 100% sure that it's the same Frontier but like everything else
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matches they're like pretty sure it was in the neighborhood at 2: a.m. which makes even less sense if we're working
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off the theory that they knew she'd be outside and timed it to when like Sergio might be leaving then why why even get
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there that early why would you be waiting around at 2: a.m. like if they're already there why not attack
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when she goes out to get Starbucks at like 6:00 it's not I don't think they think that the person was sitting there
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from like 2: to 7:00 or at least that's like or at least maybe not in the same spot the camera only catches them from
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what I understand briefly at a round two but then after that we don't know where
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the truck goes or what they're doing like if it's even there in the neighborhood at all were they lying in
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weight off camera maybe did they leave and then come back what we do know for sure is that they're back at around 64
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8:00 a.m. literally right as Sergio was leaving for work so there's a chance that they came by at 2 to scope the area
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out maybe but even that doesn't totally make sense because like they didn't actually
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apparently they weren't by the house at two they were just like in the neighborhood right cuz they didn't drive
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they they the bar's camera doesn't pick them up so if they're scoping out the house they're scoping the house out
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outside of where the house actually is the camera view which which to me would mean that
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you already know about the house or that there's a camera yeah I don't know it feels like pre- scoped right but maybe
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they were just getting a feel for the neighborhood or like how they're going to like Escape rout situation anyways
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when they returned later that morning the driver briefly rolled into the parking lot of a preschool near the
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entrance of the brz's subdivision then they pulled out and headed toward their street but instead of turning right
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toward their house they make that left hit a U-turn stop the truck and then cut the lights now from where they parked
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they could see lizz's house but it seems like they knew Sergio's van would pass them almost like about 4 minutes after
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he left that's when the killer makes their move and I know this is a lot to visualize so we are going to have maps
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and stuff on the blog post along with links to the videos that I've been talking about which various news sites
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have already shared the whole thing seen carefully planned even the murder weapon
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which they haven't found points to that so there were no shell casings at the scene suggesting that the killer used a
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revolver likely a 38 caliber based on the bullets that they recovered and revolvers keep their shell casings
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inside which would be a smart choice for anyone who wants to avoid like leaving evidence behind or having to take the
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time to clean up evidence they left behind so someone went to a lot of trouble to kill Liz and to get away with
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it but now police need to figure out why because the why should lead them to The
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Who and as detectives delve into lizz's World there is one major focus and that's the 501st legion that Star Wars
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group this isn't some casual fan club it requires a serious commitment from members who dress as Star Wars villains
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while doing charity work which makes them think kind of about the strange disguise that the shooter wore M maybe
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that unusual flowy costume in those boots could have been part of a stormtrooper uniform maybe like I
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actually have it's so hard to see but I have like a screenshot and I think it's actually
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better like in Motion in the video yeah yeah because you can see I've heard Princess Leia somewhere as well but you
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can like see how it flows out definitely you described it as like a robe or I thought it look like a house robe yeah
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like a long coat that's like kind of billowing out or could billow out and there's definitely like again go go
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boots or now that you mention it Stormtrooper boots would that's what they think make sense I don't know and
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listen like even though like most of what this group is about is Charity anytime you have a large passionate
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group of people drama feels a little inevitable and lizz's local Squadron was no exception investigators hear about
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personality clashes rivalries arguments and what about the women that Sergio had
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mentioned earlier especially since there's a chance the shooter might be female they check her out but after
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interviewing her they're convinced that she's not involved and actually after looking at all of them in this group
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they don't think Liz's killer was on the group's roster and by the way none of them drive a
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frontier so at that point the investigators turn their attention to another big part of Liz's life her job
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now she's a data reporter at the Rosen Group which is this company that inspects oil and gas pipelines so she
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worked at the Houston Branch with a small close-knit team and it doesn't take investigators long to clear all of
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them too Liz was the only one who was out of office that Friday and when they map out her colleagues addresses and
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times that they showed up for work it is clear that none of them could have killed her and again no Frontiers in the
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mix so what about her actual work like could she have found out about something she wasn't supposed to Deputy Richie
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considers that but he says that her job duties were like really straightforward she literally just like took data from
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robots that inspect pipelines and then turned in reports so like there is nothing he can see that would make her a
00:26:08
Target the thing that seemed to maybe make her a Target or I should say like an easy target on that particular day
00:26:16
was the garage sale and I have to believe like so many people I've seen like talk about this on the internet
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like that that is the key to everything because it turns out that almost no one knew she was having it that
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day the only people in Liz and Sergio's life that they told about the garage sale were some family members and her
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co-workers they didn't post anything online Sergio says that they only put up two signs neither of which even listed
00:26:52
the address but this it wasn't a last minute thing either I should say so it was lizz's idea and her mom rosemary
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told us that she had been talking about it for at least a month although it's not clear when she finalized the date or
00:27:04
like requested the time off from work I mean it's not like a garage sale is a secret though that's kind of the whole
00:27:10
point I mean surely someone mentioned it or heard about it in passing in the past
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month but it's still like a pretty small group of people like even more so now that they've ruled out her co-workers
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you know what I mean like at least when you post on Facebook Marketplace or something like your suspect pool becomes
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like it's the whole internet right but that didn't happen here so we're working with a very small very specific group of
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people and why were they holding it on a Friday wouldn't a Saturday make more sense apparently that's like how it's
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done around there her dad Bob says that Friday is like when the serious garage yeah and Liz planned to like run the
00:27:48
sale through Saturday before they left they were going to leave on Sunday so like that's just how it works down there
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and there's not some like garage sale spree killer out there at the time right I don't think I've heard of any similar
00:28:00
cases to this no and again and again police keep coming back to one thing based on everything they know Liz was
00:28:08
the target it what this doesn't feel random it wasn't like it was going to be her or someone else that day it was
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about her and only her so they go again and they look back at the person closest
00:28:21
to her Sergio now they learned that he and Liz were College sweethearts who bonded over shared interest just like
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traveling and dressing up for Star Wars events and Renaissance Fairs they married in February of 2014 bought their
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house a couple of years later and truly detectives comb through their stuff their phones their bank records they are
00:28:44
looking for anything that might connect Sergio to the crime a strange call or text around the time of the shooting
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unexplained Financial transactions but there is nothing yeah but everyone knows that police check phone records like
00:28:59
what if he used a burner I mean did they use like one of those cell tower dumps that they do where they just get
00:29:05
everything they wanted to but investigator Richie says that the DA's office wouldn't authorize it when you're
00:29:10
talking about I think you're what you're talking about is a cell phone dumb so those are actually pretty controversial
00:29:15
because phone companies are basically turning over data on every single device that pinged a specific Tower during a
00:29:21
set of time so it becomes like a privacy thing yeah a wide area even phones that
00:29:26
like weren't being used news and they've become the subject of a lot of legal battles so long story short is if Sergio
00:29:35
did have a burner phone we might never know right and I do want to add like a little caveat about their finances so
00:29:42
Sergio is an independent contractor for his dad's business so he has to handle his own taxes the brazas have a
00:29:49
financial adviser but Liz managed their shared accounts Sergio just kind of like
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handed over his paycheck each week and the only separate accounts that they had were very like low limit Credit cards
00:29:58
used to buy each other gifts which is all that to say yes the bank records are clean I don't know if that like proves
00:30:06
everything I mean if you're hiring someone to kill your spouse you're probably not paying them from your
00:30:10
checking account I would assume your joint checking account right but it wouldn't necessarily have to be like a
00:30:14
fortune that we're talking about and we've heard stories about Hitman working for pennies practically nothing well
00:30:21
here's what I can tell you so the longer the case drags on without finding the shooter the more convinced everyone is
00:30:28
that it was a professional hit to your point like it doesn't have to be a lot and
00:30:34
they're sure someone was hired to do this and while police can't connect Sergio directly to it he is still the
00:30:40
obvious suspect for this but Sergio keeps cooperating he takes and passes a polygraph like anything police want he
00:30:48
gives them but I me when you think about everything that had to line up like just
00:30:55
perfect so perfectly for all of this to happen this way well yes and there were some inconsistencies in his story like
00:31:05
at first he told police that he and Liz put up the garage sale signs the morning
00:31:09
of the shooting then later he changes says it was the night before which had been Thursday January 24th which might
00:31:16
not mean anything but I'm still curious about it because I haven't spotted pictures of these signs in any of the
00:31:23
news coverage and in all of our reporting we haven't actually found anyone one who saw the signs even Deputy
00:31:31
Richie Deputy Richie hasn't even seen them but I also don't know if police looked for them like with everything
00:31:37
going on it probably wasn't a high priority so again maybe it's nothing still if anyone listening has
00:31:45
seen them like our DMS are open yeah but honestly the whole sign thing is pretty
00:31:50
minor compared to what investigators learn about lizz's life insurance so remember how Sergio told detectives that
00:31:57
Liz had a policy was through her work but it wasn't that much money or anything right yeah well it turns out me
00:32:03
and Sergio have different ideas about like what not a whole lot means because that policy is actually worth a quarter
00:32:09
of a million dollars what yeah and since Liz was murdered a double indemnity clause doubles that payout to half a
00:32:17
million dollar and like you said since when is half a million dollars not that much I know which feels like all the red
00:32:25
flags we need but hang on because this is where like I don't know this might not be the Smoking Gun I
00:32:33
think it would be in every like husband did it case right so the weird part is by all accounts Sergio genuinely didn't
00:32:39
seem to know how much the policy was worth Liz got the policy when she started working at Rosen back in 2014
00:32:47
and it was actually her dad not Sergio who encouraged her to get all of the coverage that her company offered Bob
00:32:53
thought it was like too good of a deal to pass up but either way whether knew about it whether he didn't know about it
00:32:59
like all the things Deputy Richie like warned Sergio he's like don't even think about trying to go collect that money
00:33:06
because when the insurance company calls me and like asks me about my investigation I will make it very clear
00:33:12
that I do not want that money released until this case is solved but even just knowing about the policy could be enough
00:33:21
of a motive even if you never actually get the money true and you still haven't mentioned anyone else who knew lizz's
00:33:27
schedule and had something to gain from her death just him just him yeah but here is the big problem with like Sergio
00:33:35
as The Mastermind Theory every single person detectives talk to friends family co-workers everyone tells them that he
00:33:45
and Liz were really happy together like normally when you dig right you got the life insurance policy and the timing is
00:33:52
so weird there's something someone that yeah someone like says like oh I I thought this was weird that they did
00:33:58
they seem to have this in their relationship she mentioned this one time there's nothing there is like Deputy
00:34:04
Richie he digs and digs he doesn't find anything to suggest like anything funky going on in texts in emails he goes
00:34:12
through all of it there is no hint of an affair there is no fights nothing and look like who couldn't use an extra half
00:34:19
a million dollars to make life easier but it's not like the couple was in major debt or anything like that like
00:34:26
normally you'll see okay like the money was the motive that's not the case here they lived within their means he didn't
00:34:32
need that money to get out of a bind or to start over but there was someone else very
00:34:39
close to Sergio who was apparently in a significant financial bind that is Sergio's 57-year-old father Oscar now
00:34:48
you see Sergio's mom had recently discovered that Oscar was cheating with multiple women and that was bad enough
00:34:56
but then they learned that he was also spending a lot of money on these girlfriends like to the point where his
00:35:02
finances were suffering one of Sergio's paychecks that he had gotten bounced recently and while they weren't hurting
00:35:09
for money Liz was like understandably upset by this and according to that paulon episode Oscar blames Sergio's
00:35:17
bounce check on just like an accounting air he tells investigators that his finances are like totally straight
00:35:22
everything's good but County court records show that around this time Oscar was hit with several lawsuits for unpaid
00:35:29
taxes and in divorce filing Sergio's mom said that he gave over $20,000 to three different women and
00:35:38
hang on did Liz confront Oscar about any of this it feels like she's kind of removed from all of this financial stuff
00:35:47
she kind of was so this again this is where like it doesn't totally add up like cuz from what Sergio tells police
00:35:53
she never confronted Oscar about this Sergio says that he and Liz decided basically to stay out of it and after
00:35:59
all I mean he still worked for his dad like well and it's not even like his dad would have gotten the money when Liz
00:36:04
died I don't see how it helps him the only thing that investigators have theorized is like well what if Oscar
00:36:11
knew about lizz's life insurance and then he thought Sergio might invest the payout into the family
00:36:20
business okay but if we're supposed to believe that Sergio didn't even know the amount of the policy he didn't know it
00:36:28
was going to double if she was murdered how the heck would Oscar have known that that's what I'm saying it
00:36:34
doesn't makes sense cuz police can't find any proof that Oscar did know about the life
00:36:40
insurance it's still a possible Theory but it seems so farfetched I know now it's clear to them same thing with
00:36:49
Sergio it's like clear to them that the surveillance footage doesn't show Oscar he isn't the shooter but then they have
00:36:55
the same question right like did Oscar have someone orchestrate this it becomes like Oscar is The Mastermind the right
00:37:04
is Sergio suspicious of his dad at all maybe so on the pazon episode Sergio implies that he was the one who first
00:37:12
suggested his dad's potential connection oh yeah but investigator Richie says that the suspicion started when Oscar
00:37:18
lied to police and tried to downplay the affair so I don't know I don't know where Sergio's suspicions started but at
00:37:25
any rate like his son Oscar is cooperative he passes a polygraph and when detectives go through his phone and
00:37:32
bank records they can't find anything linking him to Liz's murder so while Oscar has made some questionable
00:37:41
decisions with his life like there is no evidence that he plotted to have his daughter-in-law killed and so a couple
00:37:48
of weeks into their investigation and police aren't much further than they were when they started they've ruled
00:37:54
people out but they're not any closer to arresting anyone and that seems impossible in a case that
00:38:01
feels like it should be so straightforward like they need something more they need something solid to go on
00:38:07
so they decide they're going to go ask the public for help and on Wednesday February 6th investigators and
00:38:13
Crimestoppers join Liz's loved ones for this big press conference to announce a $20,000 reward for information and Bob
00:38:22
followed by Sergio make heartbreaking pleas to the public so it's seems like Liz's family is standing by Sergio oh
00:38:31
yeah I mean he's actually been living with the Nellies since the shooting so they're still like presenting as one
00:38:39
unit they're still close and standing next to her family her parents and Sergio Deputy Richie feels the weight of
00:38:47
their pain and the mounting frustration of unanswered questions but what keeps him optimistic is that they already do
00:38:55
have a critical piece of the puzzle information about the shooter's truck a Nissan Frontier is what's considered a
00:39:02
midsize pickup and in Texas where big full siiz pickups dominate he figures that it should stick out like a sore
00:39:08
thumb so they pour their efforts into tracking this car down hoping that this is going to be the break they so
00:39:16
desperately need when Deputy Richie gets the registration records for Harris County
00:39:27
which includes Houston and the surrounding areas he finds out that there are over
00:39:32
1,000 frontiers of course and guess what the most popular color is of course it's
00:39:37
got to be black yes and ultimately they do narrow it down a bit more thanks to Nissan they have the salesman who
00:39:44
recognizes the specific style so it's a four-door Pro 4X crew cab that was made from like 2013 to 2019 great
00:39:54
unfortunately the registration database only lists the basic so it doesn't specifically say if it like someone has
00:40:01
a pro 4X or whatever like two door four-door or what so they have to check every single one manually not quite so
00:40:11
what they decide to do is they actually go and use a license plate reader system
00:40:14
to sift through the database highlighting potential matches and then using photos to eliminate trucks that
00:40:20
clearly don't fit but they also can't just go knocking on the door of every dark colored but probably black Frontier
00:40:28
owner in Texas so instead they look for trucks caught on the Plate Reader camera
00:40:34
near the crime scene that morning but even that doesn't lead anywhere like for instance there's a
00:40:40
black Frontier that Police Stopped nearby right after the shooting but it didn't have the same decals as the
00:40:45
Killer's truck and then they can't like those aren't things that can just be like removed on a whim plus the driver
00:40:52
was an older Hispanic man whose body type didn't even match the shooter so like they quickly rule that one out
00:40:57
narrow it down by looking at like other connections trying to triangulate people
00:41:02
who like own a frontier or a dark colored Frontier and a 38 revolver well no because it's Texas like there are
00:41:11
there's no state level registration requirements for firearms and honestly like if I had to guess I don't even know
00:41:17
that the killer would use a legally registered gun for this and I was honestly about to say something similar
00:41:22
about the truck I mean maybe it was stolen or borrowed from a friend at least look into that like or at least
00:41:29
the stolen there weren't any reports of stolen Frontiers or even like stolen license plates from Frontiers like
00:41:37
during that whole time but it is still possible or like they used a fake plate or maybe they borrowed a plate and then
00:41:43
put it back before anyone even knew there were just like too many Mayes for detectives to draw any real
00:41:49
conclusions but speaking of the truck so the one thing they hone in on remember the strange doubling back that the
00:41:55
shooter did yeah well surveillance footage shows that after shooting Liz this person drove all the way to the
00:42:01
main entrance of the subdivision nearly a good quarter of a mile away before making a U-turn and then driving back
00:42:08
past the barazas and again initially nobody knew what that was about like cuz they didn't
00:42:13
get out they didn't stop whatever so it gets Deputy Richie wondering if the shooter maybe someone like called the
00:42:22
shooter like the person who's pulling the strings and told them to go back and make sure she was dead so he gets this
00:42:30
idea he's like I'm going to try Geo fencing which is completely different than like the cell tower dump we were
00:42:36
talking about geofencing like you literally get a very specific area for a very specific time and it'll tell you
00:42:41
like what all the activity yeah so he puts a digital perimeter around the brz's house and he gets a warrant for
00:42:48
Google location data from every device in that zone around that time of the shooting hope being that if a device
00:42:54
moved in and out of the Geo fens at the right time that could lead to the shoter
00:42:59
so detectives wait and they wait and finally around May or June of 2020 they get the results but it's another
00:43:07
disappointment because the only device with unusual movement belonged to First Responders so the killer at least
00:43:16
they're thinking probably didn't even bring a phone with them and there could be another simple explanation for why
00:43:23
they came back by the barza house the other thing they start thinking is like what if they turned around because they
00:43:31
were trying to avoid running into police oh yeah a resident security camera caught the truck heading toward a
00:43:37
deadend culdesac right after the shooting and that is the last anyone sees the truck it doesn't turn around it
00:43:44
doesn't come back and so couldn't have just vanished though no they think that maybe it went off-roading like jumped
00:43:51
the curb like at the end of this C tore out through yeah like there like this um
00:43:57
Green Belt area that gets you to the main road and they're thinking that maybe they went far enough away where
00:44:02
law enforcement because if you think about it like I told you law enforcements there within like minutes
00:44:07
so if they're coming in the main entrance which they probably would have used like you can't get out without
00:44:12
passing them yeah they might have seen them they turn around and they like hight tail it out of there and this
00:44:18
feels like a no-brainer but I assume they checked everyone in the neighborhood like especially in that
00:44:25
specific culdesac so uh investigator Richie says that they went house to house by the way I don't think that
00:44:32
theory was part of the initial police investigation though like lizz's parents learned and I'm talking about like the
00:44:38
them jumping the yeah the off-roading yeah lizz's parents learned that through a YouTuber named Aaron Stoner who
00:44:45
analyzes cold cases and so while this might not be the Breakthrough that catches their daughter's killer it at
00:44:52
least matters to Bob and rosemary like in the face of so much uncertainty at any Clarity that that like they can be
00:45:00
brought brings them Comfort but it doesn't bring them answers and life without Liz is a constant struggle
00:45:07
Sergio never goes back to the house that they shared Bob helps him sell it he stays with the Nellies for nearly a year
00:45:15
though eventually he does get a new place he does start dating again and for Bob and rosemary it's like that moment
00:45:21
is Bittersweet like it's hard to see him moving on but they are happy for him I mean they know it's what Liz would have
00:45:26
wanted the public however has like a very different reaction like it's it's always
00:45:33
the people not closest to everyone who has like the strongest feelings um cuz when Sergio posts something online about
00:45:39
being engaged again police are like flooded with tips rumors start swirling that he and his fiance Amber were having
00:45:47
an affair before Liz was murdered that Amber was somehow involved Sergio denies it all he and Amber went to the same
00:45:54
high school but like so did thousand of other students and they insist they didn't know each other at the time he
00:46:01
tells kou1 reporter Grace white that they ended up meeting on a dating app in 2020 which was after her
00:46:09
murder now investigators don't just dismiss the gossip outright by now Michael Richie has been promoted to
00:46:15
Sergeant he's transferred to another division but he is still working in the case he like goes so far as to like dig
00:46:21
through old high school yearbooks after hearing like maybe there's a photo of Sergio and Amber together he comes up
00:46:26
empty Amber even ends up taking a polygraph which she passes so while no one has
00:46:34
been completely cleared Sergeant Richie is confident that Amber had nothing to do with Liz's murder I mean this is just
00:46:41
kind of what happens right like the longer a case stays unsolved the more room there is for speculation and
00:46:49
misinformation and rumors and gossip and it's not even just because of social media like that these stories are
00:46:55
spinning so the con office accidentally released incorrect information early on which just like added to the confusion
00:47:02
of everything and that's why Bob and rosemary created their own website who killed Liz bar.com it gives them a
00:47:09
chance to set the record straight keep lizz's story alive but they know a website alone isn't going to get them
00:47:15
Justice someone out there has to know something maybe they just need a little incentive so on the 3rd anniversary of
00:47:23
lizz's murder they announced that the reward is now up to $50,000 thanks in large part to a community fundraiser and
00:47:31
they're not the only ones who refuse to give up when Sergeant Richie transfers back to homicide in early 2023 he takes
00:47:38
over as lead investigator again he's grown close to the Nellies and all this time and he wants to get them answers
00:47:46
but he warns Bob and rosemary that learning the truth about who's behind her murder is going to devastate them
00:47:55
that sounds like something you would say if you knew who did it and knew that that person was close to them that's
00:48:02
what I thought too but he told us it wasn't about a specific suspect it's more like he's been trying to prepare
00:48:09
them from the start that whatever happened whoever did this it was probably someone close to them I mean it
00:48:16
goes back to the original Theory right like someone targeted her someone who knew she'd be out there that day it it
00:48:20
feels very targeted right do her parents have any theories they're really careful
00:48:26
not to point fingers they are confident and police agree that this wasn't the work of just one person they think that
00:48:34
they was a shooter and then there was someone who put the shooter up to it but figuring out who those people are and
00:48:41
why is enough to drive anyone up a wall like I said nah and I sat in my office spiraling when I first decided we were
00:48:51
going to cover this case I had heard about it like I knew the story and I was like this has to be one where
00:48:57
when you talk to detectives when you talk to the family we're just missing a piece of it that's not in the in the
00:49:02
reporting right now right like oh we just can't say this thing out loud let me be the one to assure you as a crime
00:49:08
junkie there is not something that I'm not telling you out loud you turned over every Rock and this is it this is it and
00:49:14
nothing makes sense so in a world where nothing makes sense what her parents have done is they've tried to focus on
00:49:22
things that give them a sense of purpose like the impact of lizz's final gift the
00:49:27
recipients of her organs had spent a combined 22 years on transplant lists before receiving her heart her liver
00:49:35
kidneys and corneas and her best friend started the Liz Library which donates Harry Potter books um like the sets of
00:49:43
them to children's hospitals in her honor and Bob and rosemary are channeling their energy into supporting
00:49:49
other parents of homicide victims as well are they still in touch with Sergio at all they're not as much as they used
00:49:56
to be but I mean he joined them for another press conference on the fifth anniversary of lizz's murder they also
00:50:01
reached out to him on our behalf to see if he would speak with us he told him that he'd think about it but then we
00:50:06
never heard back and I get it like he's got a new life now he's got a new wife he recently became a dad he doesn't work
00:50:13
for his father anymore he still from what I can tell doesn't know if Oscar was involved in Liz's death and that I
00:50:20
would imagine like put a big wedge between them and did he ever end up collecting on that life insurance policy
00:50:28
no he told Grace white that he doesn't need it but the reality also has to be that he knows investigators would like
00:50:35
fight to keep that money from being really still so and they can't just keep it away forever though I mean they can
00:50:44
they can ask the insurance company to deny payment they can't block it indefinitely without a court order and
00:50:51
since Sergio hasn't been charged with anything like he could push for that money if he wanted to I think the
00:50:56
insurance company would probably have to pay up eventually like if he started that fight but he would be have to be
00:51:03
the one to start that process and that won't look good yeah I don't think he will like he knows a lot of people
00:51:08
believe that he's responsible for Liz's death and he I think he thinks trying to
00:51:12
claim that money would like just add fuel to that fire and again like the life insurance is just one piece of a
00:51:18
larger puzzle one that the internet sloes have been trying to solve since the day Liz was murdered and if you go
00:51:25
down these online rabbit holes which believe me I have you will find every scenario Under the Sun but there are a
00:51:33
couple that I've seen pop up like a couple times that just it's worth hitting on one is that the shooter might
00:51:40
have had access to the brz's nest doorbell camera system and like could have been monitoring their movements in
00:51:45
real time like they were hacked maybe or there was speculation maybe that Sergio
00:51:50
and Liz might have had a public URL enabled on their camera meaning that anyone with the link could View the live
00:51:56
stream but like Liz's parents were adamant that's just not something she would do and as for whether Liz or
00:52:02
Sergio gave the login to anyone like I highly doubt it since I mean Bob and rosemary didn't have it and we know how
00:52:07
security conscious they were yeah like if it wasn't them who else would they have given it to right but then if
00:52:14
someone did have it or hacked it or whatever like that would have left a digital footprint and that kind of data
00:52:20
might be able to connect to a specific person or device or location or whatever but it doesn't seem like police access
00:52:26
those records although I don't know why they left that out is there a reason people are saying this is a possibility
00:52:32
like to me I feel like we know this person is waiting specifically for Sergio to leave like they don't need the
00:52:40
camera you don't need the camera cuz this is like part of their routine I think we're all just grasping at straws
00:52:47
grasping at anything because I'm telling you nothing makes sense and the timing is so
00:52:55
precise so another theory is that lizza's murder was a gang initiation like someone had to commit a random act
00:53:02
of violence to prove themselves but I I'm not buying that this this doesn't feel random nothing about this feels
00:53:11
random I know and I I think this this one only started at least in part because I think the um at one point it
00:53:17
was noted that the Texas anti-gang unit got involved with the investigation but specialized units often help with
00:53:24
complex cases like they have resources expertise that local departments don't have so like I don't read much into it
00:53:30
like if anything I don't know what's clear though is that this case has never truly gone cold the sheriff's office has
00:53:38
worked with the Texas Rangers they've worked with the FBI they are following leads across the country even into
00:53:43
Mexico at one point no one has been completely ruled out as a suspect including Sergio and Oscar but
00:53:51
investigators have looked at them from every angle and as of right now they have hit a wall all so Sergeant Richie
00:53:58
is challenging himself to think differently to reconsider every assumption but no matter how he
00:54:05
approaches it he keeps circling back to the same core questions who knew about the garage sale who had motive to kill
00:54:13
Liz and who could fit the description of the shooter lizz's loved ones have spent
00:54:18
six years searching for those answers and they now need crime junkies help so if you know anything about what happened
00:54:28
to Liz barza please call the Houston Crim Stoppers at 713 222 tips the $50,000 reward is still on the table and
00:54:37
it can be collected anonymously you can also contact the Harris County Sheriff's
00:54:42
Office at 713 27491 you can find all the source material for this episode on our website
00:54:53
crime junky podcast.com and you can follow us on Instagram at crime junkie podcast make sure to follow the channel
00:54:59
if you want even more video episodes and don't forget every week in our RSS feed
00:55:05
you can find new crime junkie episodes search for Crime junkie wherever you get your podcasts
00:55:12
[Music]