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hi crime junkies I'm Ashley flowers and I'm Brit and today's Story the one I have for you is a powerful tragic
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reminder that the most dangerous time in an abusive relationship often comes when
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a victim is trying to break free and that sometimes the person closest to you can become your worst enemy this is the
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story of Elizabeth Alman pooka [Music] it's Wednesday July 1st 2020 and yth alman's phone rings with a call that
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she's not expecting on the other end is her sister's longtime boyfriend Jonathan
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now in all the years that she's known him Jonathan has only ever called her for one thing like two arrang child care
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for their daughter Yen's 7-year-old niece but this isn't one of those calls I mean right off the bat Jonathan asked
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her if she knows where her sister Elizabeth is cuz he says she's fully just like Mia and she's left their
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daughter astred at their East Haven Connecticut apartment alone and again she's seven in fact it was astred who
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alerted him to Elizabeth's absence in the first place I guess when she woke up she realized that Mom wasn't there and
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she called him that was at like like 9:15 in the morning just as he was kind of wrapping up his shift at UPS and he
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said he really didn't think much of it at first like he thought maybe Elizabeth just stepped out for a minute so he kind
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of was just you know assuaged her concerns you know finished his shift headed home as usual but when he got
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there at around 10: there was still no sign of Elizabeth and her car a 2007 white Lexus was gone too when's the last
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time anyone saw her so well Yan had talked to her sister the night before via Instagram and Jonathan says that he
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was with her in bed like and then he left for work so that was at like 3:15 in the morning he works at like kind of
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overnight shift so it hasn't been that long that they've gone without talking to her but jeneth knows her sister's
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world revolves around ASD like there isn't a world where she would just leave her alone especially since jeneth is
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always available to babysit again that's what she was kind of expecting the call
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to be so Jonathan also says that ASD isn't the only thing that she left behind her phone is still there so he's
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like I can't even try and call her but even though her phone is there along with her car some other things are gone
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like her purse her passport some clothes and apparently $10,000 from their safe oh that kind of sounds like she left on
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purpose yeah or at least there's like some clear signs of that right yeah those like important things yeah so
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jeneth wonders if her sister maybe just needed some space and so she asked Jonathan like the obvious question did
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you guys have a fight and he admits like yeah we did have this like little argument the night before but it wasn't
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serious we kissed we made up before bed the thing is that yth is pretty sure that's not the full story because
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Elizabeth and Jonathan have been together for over a decade since they were in high school and though she was
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Private Elizabeth had confided in her sister about some issues that they had and honestly some issues is an
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understatement their relationship was straight up toxic like she caught Jonathan cheating multiple times they
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had broken up reconciled more than once like over and over again she stayed for their daughter even though he wasn't
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exactly a doting father and things had only gone from bad to worse recently so back in May this is just a couple of
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months before jeneth had planned this cookout and her sister was supposed to come with astd but they didn't end up
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going and Elizabeth said that she didn't feel well but the next time yth saw her her
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arm was in a sling and her shoulder was really swollen and three fingers on her left hand were bruised like almost
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purple and Elizabeth said that she and Jonathan had gotten into a fight but yth told our reporter nah that sometime
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after that she noticed this shift in Elizabeth like Elizabeth seemed done this time like done for real she was
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looking for a job she was reconnecting with her love of art by designing stickers and decals hoping to turn that
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creative Outlet into a business and gain some Independence and just a couple of days before all of this on June 29th
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Elizabeth even put in a rental application for an apartment in Yan's complex planning to move there as soon
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as possible without Jonathan now as far as yth could tell Elizabeth was ready to
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end things for good this time and had J realized that yeah she made it clear to him but whether he understood how
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serious she was I don't know right like they got done this like back in four thing before right so as Yan's talking
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to him she has all of this like history running through her mind but she's still
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not panicking not yet the leaving her daughter behind does not make any sense like any way you cut it but other signs
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point to her getting away just for a minute so Jonathan and Y make arrangements for her to watch astred so
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he can go looking for Elizabeth and of course the second there alone yth starts doing what we would do she's like asking
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astred questions I mean asid's seven she's old enough to know kind of what's going on so like did you hear your
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parents fighting do you have any idea where your mom went and astred says that her mom took her to bed in her room
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lizabeth's room the night before and she was there when astred fell asleep but then astred said when she wakes up her
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mom is just gone and her side of the bed was already already made but Astra doesn't remember any arguments she
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doesn't remember any strange noises like nothing woke her up in the night and while she doesn't seem frightened she is
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acting sort of odd like she's looking around yanet's apartment with almost this intense focus and then she tells
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her aunt that she's going to be living here now wait that AST is going to be living there with her aunt yeah and
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she's like taking a back like she doesn't know what it means but she doesn't even really dwell on it at first
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M so a few hours pass and it's weird because there's just no word even from Jonathan So jth eventually calls him to
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check in and he says he's talked to a couple of Elizabeth's friends no one knows anything and then he's like well
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I'm going to go do some laundry now okay I mean unless he's like out of underwear what's the rush like even if
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you are like it's it's strange because to Yan like he doesn't seem all worried so ASD ends up staying the night with
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Janette almost like the first sign of this self-fulfilling prophecy and the next day is an even harder one because
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the next day actually is Elizabeth's birthday now this is when Jonathan finally shows back up but he's not there
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to pick up his daughter he's dropping off groceries like a lot of groceries as if he is planning on astred staying with
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yth for a while so Yan sits him down and presses him for information and that's when Jonathan
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starts painting a troubling picture of Elizabeth he says that she just hasn't been herself lately that she's been
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severely depressed she's been drinking a lot smoking weed even seeing other men specifically a guy named Jose that they
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knew from high school and in fact Jonathan says that he's trying to track down where Jose lives to see if maybe
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she's there with him because as far as he's concerned you know the reason he's like I'm not worried is he thinks
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Elizabeth isn't in danger she must have just run off with some guy and yth knows
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Elizabeth has been struggling but everything else he's saying doesn't line up with the sister that she knows
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Jonathan's making himself out to be almost like the victim here saying that he doesn't know what he did to deserve
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this and he's wondering about how he's going to care for astred well it doesn't seem like he's planning on taking care
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of Astra like it seems like he's going to leave her there with Yan yeah and the more he talks the more uneasy jeneth
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feels and that's when she realizes it's time to tell their dad albino what's going on now Elizabeth and albino aren't
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super close you see Elizabeth and Yan grew up in Guerrero Mexico and when their parents moved to the US in 2001
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the girls actually stayed behind with their grandparents but their parents split their mom basically kind of bowed
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out of their lives and they didn't join albino in Connecticut until around 2010 so that's when Elizabeth was 16 so there
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was like a lot of formative bonding years that were missed and rebuilding that relationship had been tough but at
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the end of the day Elizabeth is still his daughter so he comes over while Yan and Jonathan are still there still
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talking this out and when he hears what's going on and he hears Jonathan's version of events albino can't shake the
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same feeling yth has like none of this makes sense there's a new detail now that Jonathan adds he insists now that
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Elizabeth actually did take her phone with her he says not her regular cell phone but one of those like phones that
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only works on Wi-Fi so albino's like okay I need to see this for myself that night he makes Jonathan take him back to
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their apartment and he checks all over inside but there's like nothing weird no sign of a struggle no damage no strange
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smell no clues at all even about where Elizabeth might have gone so the next morning this is now Friday July 3rd
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albino drives by their place again just to see if anything has changed there's still no sign of Elizabeth or her car
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and that's when he decides it's time to bring in law enforcement so he calls Jonathan who agrees to meet them at yth
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so they can all go to the East Haven Police Department together but this is when things get
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really strange So within minutes of that call to Jonathan at 10:40 a.m. Jan's phone buzzes with messages that stop her
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in her tracks hi crime junkie I'm your host Ashley flowers and I'm Brit and every
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week we cover all kinds of True Crime cases from the most infamous to mysterious deaths and disappearances
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even cases you've never heard anywhere else if you can't get enough of all things True Crime well you found your
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people and if you're like us and want to make a real impact in these cases you're
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definitely a crime junkie so join us every Monday for new episodes you can find crime junkie wherever you get your
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podcasts okay so the incoming texts are from a number that yth doesn't recognize
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with a Florida area code again they're in Connecticut so the area code 727 and the person who's sending these
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texts are claiming to be elizeth but they're written in Spanish now roughly translated I'm going to have I wrote out
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what the rough translations are that I'm going to have you read hey girl how are you sorry for what
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I did with astd I'm not going to be able to help Jonathan by myself please I'm good don't
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worry about me please I'll call Jonathan now to tell him how things are I don't want to talk to anyone for
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the moment give me my space I just want to put down my thoughts and what I want to do so she gets these and does the
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immediate thing that I would do she hits the the call button and tries to get this person on the phone who's claiming
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to be Elizabeth she waits she waits the phone rings and it rings and it rings that timing it it feels
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so coincidental way too coincidental yeah no one is picking up on the other end and when Jonathan arrives he's like
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oh guess what I just got I got these texts from Elizabeth too and he says that she basically told him she wasn't
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happy with him that she wanted a fresh start and that someday after she gets her life together she's going to come
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back for astred and while the text might have set off all the like sister Spidey
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senses Jonathan is just like well now we know what happened like nothing more we
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can do here let's just keep like living Our Lives certainly no reason that we need to like get the cops involved like
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right folks um no absolutely wrong WR yeah so her dad and her sister are more convinced than ever that they need to go
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to the police and they do get Jonathan back on board with that plan just wants to do one thing first like can I real
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quick sign over custody of astd to albino and jeneth I guess he's worried that going to the police will trigger a
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report to the Department of Children and Families and he doesn't want them to take as away so to him signing over
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custody seems like the safer option which like this is I say you have experienced and stuff like this yeah
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like can he even do that without the other parent there like he's the he's only one of two people custody of the
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short answer is no something like that requires a court order he says he wants to basically just get like a notorized
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letter or something which again like not how it works but they do they go they do
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that and it feels weird to everyone but they have bigger concerns on their minds
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that afternoon and so they they do this then they go to the police and then they
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sit down with an East Haven officer who asked Jonathan to walk him through everything and he gives them the same
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story and while there are no new details there are a couple of interesting takeaways even though him and Elizabeth
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aren't married he keeps referring to her as his wife and he just completely leaves out everything about the text
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that he supposedly had gotten from her wait the ones that made him like feel so much better nothing's WR nothing's wrong
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right now luckily Yan's there too and she's like oh by the way like show him the messages that she supposedly sent
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you I'll show you the messages she supposedly sent me so he shows the officer the messages and the officer
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tries calling the number himself just like yth did he doesn't get an answer but he leaves a message asking lisabeth
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to contact East Haven Police Department when she gets the message I'm going to be honest I don't think lizabeth's going
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to get the message I don't either so while the officer waits for that call back he ticks the basic like missing
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person boxes like checks the hospitals enters her information into their system enters her car information into their
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system into like their state database but during the next couple of days it doesn't sound like much else happens on
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law enforcement's end although I know that a cop does go by Jonathan's to speak with him at least once maybe they
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were thinking that Elizabeth would come back on her own I don't know but her family isn't going to just sit around
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and wait they along with Jonathan start driving around looking every place they can think of for her or her car they
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check beaches train stations motels everywhere and anywhere they can think of and all the while they can't help but
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notice that Jonathan still doesn't seem very worried and that only ramps up yth and albino's suspicions he was the last
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person to see her if he doesn't know where she is then who does every possible scenario is running through
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their heads each one worse than the last at this point and were they close with Jonathan before this like is this kind
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of I guess I'm trying to figure out like is this in line with what they know about him like do they have a like any
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sort of context I don't know I don't know if you could call them close I mean they they weren't all best friends but I
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mean in the beginning everyone liked him he and yth hung out because of Elizabeth
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like he seemed respectful responsible he was working two jobs I mean he had the one at UPS he had another one at a local
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Italian eery but yth has seen or at least she's had exposure to his manipulative side over the years so I
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think they like perception of him changed a little bit like he would barely help with astred but the minute
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Elizabeth tried to pull away he would use her astred as like a ploy to reel her back in and even during the like
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Good Times yanette noticed Elizabeth never seemed truly happy with Jonathan there was always like a missing spark
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but even with everything she knew including their recent physical fight yth said that she never imagined that
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her sister might be in real d around him but now that is all changed so by Sunday
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July 5th albino and yth decide to conduct their own search so while Jonathan is at work they head to St
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Andrew Avenue where he and Elizabeth lit their duplex is at the end of this Dead
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End Road right next to an elementary school now Elizabeth and Jonathan are on the bottom floor and their landlord
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lives upstairs so that's actually where they start and the landlord tells them that he didn't hear anything unusual
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that night that she disappeared or in the early morning hours no commotion no loud noises but he does remember
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something strange he says that Elizabeth's white Lexus was parked in the driveway for a while on the morning
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of July 1st in fact his wife had to ask Jonathan to move the car just after 11:00 a.m. because it was blocking her
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in and this was so odd because Jonathan and Elizabeth always parked on the street they never parked in the driveway
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well and I thought thought he said her car was gone when he got home Bingo he did say her car was gone when he got
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home which is just more confirmation that they're on the right track but they need proof solid proof like video
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footage now the landlord doesn't have any and as they visit neighbors they are told again and again that cameras they
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have don't work or they won't let strangers just look through their video so just as they're ready to give up yth
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tries one last house down the street from Elizabeth apartment and this resident agrees to let her check her
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camera that was working and that is when they see it Elizabeth's so-called missing Lexus going up and down the
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street twice on July 1st once at 5:51 p.m. and once again at 8:22 p.m. and none other than Jonathan is behind the
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wheel so the moment yith sees that video I mean her blood runs cold and in that moment just then guess who drives by
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Jonathan is pulling up onto the street which is like perfect timing and they're not going to play koi like they have
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proof now that he is lying to them so they walk right over and confront him and at first it's like more of the same
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like oh she must have run off with some guy he has no idea where she is and then
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he switches it up and he's like okay listen I know she's okay but I can't tell you what she's doing she has to be
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the one to share that it's not mine to share and then he changes it again and he's like okay fine fine fine I'll tell
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you the truth the truth now he claims that Lizabeth went to Mexico now since she's undocumented he says that her plan
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was to marry someone to quote unquote fix her papers but thanks to the missing person's report that they filed now
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she's stuck at the border and the only way he says that they can help her is by retracting that missing person's report
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and telling police that she's not actually missing hold up she went to Mexico to marry someone to get her US
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immigration papers in order it doesn't make sense and now she's supposedly stuck in wait Mexico or the US I truly
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have no like I don't know what he's saying I don't know if she if he's saying she's in America I don't know if
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she's saying that she's in Mexico I don't know but he's lying to everyone about this
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because because he says that he didn't know how to break the news to albino that his daughter ran off to Mexico like
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he was just so worried about albino's feelings okay none of this BS even explains the car though like if you're
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going to tell us a story tell us a whole story Jonathan yeah so according to him
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she did take her car at first but then she came back because she'd forgotten something and then she needed to go meet
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this guy so he says that he drove her somewhere and where is her car now dude I don't know like Jan wants to like
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explode like it doesn't make sense and she wants to demand that he like sit down and actually tell them everything
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but by now she's seeing a pattern like if she can stay calm if she can just let Jonathan talk every time he does reveal
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something new even if each detail contradicts the last and even if it all feels like lies like there does feel
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like we're getting somewhere right so she plays along like okay look you're the only one who can help us find the
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car just tell us where it is and he starts naming a dozen different spots it's in a garage it's by a beach it's
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under a tree until finally he levels with them it is actually parked on the street near his relative's house in near
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by New Haven two branches of the same tree two pieces of a soul where one sister
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goes the other will be for she is but half of the whole the missing half pre-order your
00:22:28
copy at Ashley flowers.com as East Haven Captain Joseph MGO told us when investigators pull up to this house
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on Monday July 6th they are stunned because right there a mile from Jonathan and lizabeth's apartment is Elizabeth
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supposedly missing Lexus now they have a lot of questions for Jonathan's relative
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like person whose house this is by but this person says Jonathan never mentioned that he was leaving the car
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there he just dropped it off a few days ago and when this guy his name is Carlos
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when he asked Jonathan why Jonathan claimed that he couldn't fit the Lexus at home because he was already working
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on a few cars and he didn't have room in the yard for it but like hi a li it's a
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lie police know that's a lie because when they'd been by to speak with him before there were no other cars in the
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yard now Carlos may be cooperating but it's not like he's totally on their team because again like this is his cousin
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and guess who Carlos called at some point like while the officers are still on the scene Jonathan rolls up totally
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unannounced to just like help fill in some of the gaps you know make sure they have like the right narrative and
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Jonathan admits he is the one who drove the Lexus there on Thursday July 2nd and
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that he lied about it being missing and he claims that he was embarrassed that Elizabeth had left him to go to Mexico
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to start this new life so yeah he knows that he's lied about the car he knows that it looks bad but he's like it
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doesn't really change anything not really because the bottom line he says is that she left on her own and she's
00:24:06
totally fine Police tow the Lexus to headquarters and the next day they do an emergency ping on that 727 number the
00:24:15
one that was texting them saying Elizabeth which by the way like so weird no one's called them back and oh super
00:24:22
weird it's not a number that is registered to a specific person like a landline or cell phone would be like
00:24:27
something where you go through a provider no this is registered to a pinger which is one of those apps that
00:24:32
lets you basically get a free phone number but like any level of pseudo stealthiness ends here because the
00:24:40
account is registered to Jonathan with the email address Jonathan jera 2020 his full name is Jonathan jera akupa by the
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way so like real brilliant here so they decide it's time to look harder at the last place Elizabeth was known to be
00:24:57
which is the the apartment and Jonathan agrees to let them take a look around he
00:25:01
even hands over his and Elizabeth's phones along with her laptop he also goes to the station for another
00:25:08
interview and this time around he refers to Elizabeth as his ex-wife oh yeah and
00:25:14
he says that he knew she wasn't happy he knew she wanted to leave him she'd been
00:25:18
struggling with depression he says and they've been having problems and he admits that he had been unfaithful but
00:25:25
says that she was also seeing other men and in fact they had discussed the possibility of having an open
00:25:31
relationship at some point and she mentioned he says wanting to visit various guys in Mexico and he says that
00:25:37
their daughter even told him that Elizabeth wanted to marry someone else but he swears he never laid a hand on
00:25:45
Elizabeth despite what her family might think and actually he claims she was the
00:25:51
one who got physical during that fight a few months back that she hit him and that's how she hurt her arm and hand
00:25:58
mhm mhm and what does he have to say about that 727 number I he's like he's shocked he's totally stunned he has no
00:26:07
idea like how it's even possible maybe someone set it up under his name using an old email address that was his which
00:26:13
like I don't know if they were able to subpoena the records before talking to him but like old email my ass it's like
00:26:21
it's the year 2020 in it yeah like you're telling me Jonathan Jara 2020 was not from 20 like okay my guy but it gets
00:26:31
even better or like I mean honestly it gets even worse because over the next few days he keeps denying any connection
00:26:39
to that number even after police discover that it was last used from an IP address that matches his home Wi-Fi
00:26:46
okay so now what she's like texting everyone from the bathroom that she's hiding in he doesn't again he's like I
00:26:52
has no explanation he just insists it is not him the only way to break this guy is basically to catch him dead to rights
00:27:02
in the lie so they walk away from that interview to go gather information they do another search of his house they get
00:27:10
more cell phone records including from Pinger showing that the account with the 727 number was created at 10:38 a.m. on
00:27:19
Friday July 3rd which is right after yes Alina told Jonathan to meet them so they
00:27:25
could go report her missing I was going to say the text came through at 10:40 I know and exactly 2 minutes before yth
00:27:32
got that first text from Elizabeth so Captain MGO and another investigator sit down with Jonathan that Saturday evening
00:27:41
and they are gravely aware that no one has seen or heard from Elizabeth the real Elizabeth by this point for 10 days
00:27:50
and East Haven PD actually gave us a clip of that interview we are giving you an
00:27:56
opportunity to come clean here and I see how uncomfortable you are because quite
00:28:01
frankly sir you should be these texts were not from your wife from somewhere else these texts originated from within
00:28:13
your house the answer that I need to know is how does your missing wife text you and her sister from the confines of
00:28:22
your home when she allegedly went missing several days before that and if you you can answer that question then I
00:28:29
will let it that go now Jonathan doesn't have an answer to that and as he goes through
00:28:36
everything he remembers about July 1st his story changes again he still claims that her white Lexus was gone when he
00:28:45
got home at around 10:00 a.m. he says that he went inside looked for Elizabeth couldn't find her noticed her passport
00:28:52
and purse were missing and then his daughter pointed out that mommy's phone was still there so he thought that she
00:28:57
might have just gone to the store but now he's saying he went back outside at this point and lo and behold Elizabeth's
00:29:05
cars just like there what what do you think happened I I don't understand I mean you come cars
00:29:13
missing 10 minutes you're out car's there what do you think happened I I thought like I said we already had this
00:29:20
talk with me and her she was like oh you know what I want to find I want to try something new I want to do this new
00:29:27
thing no no and which is fine because couples go through that all the time we just are wondering about the car where
00:29:34
do you think she went she walked down the street she decided to just leave the car and walk down the street I thought
00:29:39
she was out around the house and I didn't thought nothing at that moment so then I went check and she was not there
00:29:46
then I was like what I going to do with the baby that was my first why at this point she' only walked
00:29:54
away from the car yeah know but like I said we already already had this talk before where she like I said you know
00:30:01
she's saying oh I'm leaving you one of these days I just going to leave police actually have another Ace
00:30:08
in the Hole they had pulled surveillance footage from the elementary school right
00:30:13
next to Jonathan in Elizabeth's apartment which gives them a clearer view of their Road and the footage from
00:30:19
July 1st shows that when Jonathan got home that morning he parked on the street right behind Elizabeth's white
00:30:26
Lexus and it was there the entire time the only person moving it around was him and he was doing some more sketchy stuff
00:30:36
he moved it into the driveway for about an hour and then took it over to the school parking lot later that afternoon
00:30:43
and there in full view of the camera he pulled out a can of air freshener and is
00:30:48
like spraying it all around the trunk but even with this video evidence he still won't come clean we believe you're
00:30:58
still lying sir I told you we need you to come clean because this is the only way we're going
00:31:04
to fix this and move forward is if you come clean right now then I can say then I can say to the judge I can say to
00:31:12
court listen to be honest after a nice conversation you were extremely honest with us okay but there's no way out of
00:31:20
this at the moment I'm sorry you need to be honest with us right now s like I said nothing happened
00:31:29
to this then where is she I don't know where she that's why I'm here for that's why you here trying to help me
00:31:37
out after that Jonathan decides that he wants a lawyer interview's over but investigators know that they're on the
00:31:46
right track now everyone they talk to says Elizabeth would never leave her daughter and they confirm that she of
00:31:52
course didn't go to Mexico there has been no activity on her passport so over the next few days they start piecing
00:31:59
together Jonathan's movements through witness interviews phone records cell tower data and surveillance footage from
00:32:06
a dozen locations and they find out that on the night of Tuesday June 30th Elizabeth and Jonathan were in an hour's
00:32:15
long argument via text Elizabeth was home while Jonathan was kind of coming and going from the apartment and what
00:32:22
they learned is that at 9:09 he left to run an erand he's back by 9917 but instead of going inside he like sat
00:32:31
in the car while this like text fight continued and in this Elizabeth told him it was over that if he ever saw her and
00:32:39
their daughter on the street like he should walk the other way she was that done and she told him that the last 10
00:32:45
years had been like a nightmare for her and she just wanted to forget that he existed and on his end he in these text
00:32:53
messages is mostly begging her not to leave saying that he wouldn't walk away if he saw them like astred was their
00:33:00
baby all that time he was still just outside in the car and then at 12:50 in the morning so this is now Wednesday
00:33:09
July 1st he finally gets out and walks to the house now police can't see him go inside the school cameras are set in
00:33:17
like the rear parking lot facing the street with like trees blocking the house itself but cell tower data places
00:33:24
him in that area for over 2 hours until he is seen on video leaving their house for his UPS shift at
00:33:33
3:18 a.m. based on the video can they tell if he put anything in the car no no so because of the camera angle they
00:33:41
can't but they what they're assuming is that he must have gotten Elizabeth in there somehow MH mostly because of that
00:33:49
like air freshener yeah in the trunk now when investigators search the Lexus kaber doogs do alert on that exact spot
00:33:57
in the trunk so they are sure that Jonathan killed her placed her in the trunk disposed of her but the problem is
00:34:05
he's not talking anymore and they're still missing the most crucial piece of evidence of all Elizabeth's body but as
00:34:13
detectives lay out Jonathan's cell tower location points on this map this clear route starts to emerge they see that on
00:34:22
July 1st he spent most of the day at home before dropping astrod off at yth at around 400 p.m. he takes his own car
00:34:30
for that a blue Chevrolet Cruise but when he gets back home he took Elizabeth's Lexus out for some errands
00:34:39
including a stop at a local Home Depot where he bought a shovel and a hoe so part of a murder kit got it or a
00:34:48
disposal kit at least yeah so later that night after 10: he drove the Lexus a few
00:34:54
miles to the restaurant where he works and surveillance footage from surrounding businesses shows him pulling
00:35:00
up to the dumpsters in the back corner of the parking lot now the restaurant this is interesting was actually closed
00:35:07
because the owner was on vacation so it was like nice and quiet not a whole lot of traffic and of course Jonathan would
00:35:15
know thats he works there exactly now once he's in the parking lot you can't see what he's doing but he was there for
00:35:21
nearly an hour and a half and he's on camera visiting that exact same spot again a week later so the problem is by
00:35:31
the time police get a search warrant for that area it's July 15 we are 2 weeks to
00:35:37
the day out from Elizabeth's disappearance now the parking lot is partially fenced in but in the back of
00:35:45
it where Jonathan was like skullking around it butts up against this densely wooded area so investigators like brace
00:35:52
themselves for a full scale search but they don't actually have to go very far far so right behind the dumpsters
00:36:01
something that catches their eye is this door laying flat on the ground and when
00:36:06
they lift it they see Disturbed dirt beneath and almost immediately the kadab dogs start picking up the scent of
00:36:13
decomp and as they carefully dig the smell just intensifies and soon they uncover this bundle wrapped tightly in a
00:36:23
blue fleece blanket held together with clear tape and it has long black hair sticking out from one end and they know
00:36:32
that they have finally found elizeth when you think of New England you don't think of this I'm Kylie low
00:36:41
I'm an investigative journalist and Storyteller each week I share homicides in missing persons cases from across the
00:36:48
state of Maine and greater New England this is my home these stories are my passion and this podcast is my platform
00:36:55
to help friends and families keep the memories of their loved ones alive long after the attention Fades this is dark
00:37:03
down east before police even reach Elizabeth's family to notify them of the discovery yth starts hearing rumors
00:37:13
through the media that a body has been found but she doesn't necessarily know the details and she is still just like
00:37:19
clinging to this hope that it isn't her sister and even after her father and stepmom show up later that day with Det
00:37:27
detectives and a priest like warning her to brace herself for what will likely be
00:37:32
bad news she's still holding on but the next day investigators show her photos of the victim's tattoos to help with
00:37:41
identification and that awful realization just like hits her she is never going to see her sister again and
00:37:49
the only thing her family can hope for now is some sort of Justice now when she is taken for autopsy the medical
00:37:58
examiner determines that Elizabeth died from homicidal asphyxia and he also finds nonfatal blunt force injuries from
00:38:07
what was likely a struggle she's got a bruise on her upper arm and another on her lower back and Jonathan is the only
00:38:14
suspect right now right well uh so investigators did consider others like like Jose um who really was her old high
00:38:22
school friend that she was supposedly dating at some point but with everything pointing to Jonathan like come on yeah
00:38:29
now yth expects him to be arrested at any moment like again come on but days pass and then weeks and it doesn't
00:38:38
happen he is still a free man and despite that notorized letter which you know you pointed out like doesn't do
00:38:45
much so he still has rights as asid's father so he's able to have supervised visits with her visits that take place
00:38:53
at albino's house so her family has to regularly interact with the person that they're pretty sure killed their sister
00:39:01
and their daughter well not even interact but like in their own home I me it's got to be like absolute hell for
00:39:06
them it I I feel like it would almost be like you're living in an alternate reality like this can't be real yes and
00:39:15
the only real Solace for yth is the overwhelming local support that she receives like she starts working with
00:39:23
Advocates to raise awareness about her sister's story and about domestic violence as a whole now Jonathan doesn't
00:39:30
have any record for abuse against Elizabeth the fight that they had in May wasn't reported he does have a felony
00:39:37
conviction for assaulting a police officer which like details are sparse on but according to a Hartford current
00:39:42
article that thing happened when he was 18 after crashing into a cop on a motorcycle we don't know of any other
00:39:49
incidents but this is the thing just because there aren't things on record doesn't mean that they didn't happen
00:39:54
like domestic violence is one ofly law enforcement's biggest blind spots because many of these incidents never
00:40:01
even reach police and when they do they rarely get the attention that they deserve there was actually this study
00:40:08
done by the National Library of Medicine that found that black women and Latino women like Elizabeth are more likely to
00:40:15
encounter neglectful or even hostile responses when they seek help and for Hispanic victims there are often extra
00:40:22
hurdles like language barriers or fear of deportation if they're undocumented yeah like Elizabeth and the longer her
00:40:31
homicide investigation drags on without an arrest the more speculation there is that her case isn't a priority because
00:40:40
of her nationality but Captain MGO told us that there was a lot happening behind
00:40:45
the scenes that investigators can't share publicly like at the time they were working with multiple agencies
00:40:52
Gathering warrants for more Digital Data things like phone records surveillance footage and Google sear sech es evidence
00:40:58
even from the Lexus goes to the FBI lab for testing including a single blue fiber found in the trunk that ultimately
00:41:06
matches the blanket that Elizabeth was wrapped in and they did an analysis of the air freshener can and they found
00:41:12
that Jonathan could not be eliminated from being a source of the DNA on it and they also learned that on the afternoon
00:41:20
of July 1st less than 12 hours after he says he last Saw Elizabeth in bed Jonathan was on Facebook Marketplace
00:41:27
trying to trade her car for a pickup truck yeah and in August they get a new chilling detail from astred herself she
00:41:38
tells her family and later an FBI agent that when she woke up that morning and her mom wasn't in bed she was searching
00:41:46
like in the apartment but for some reason she couldn't get into her own room because the door was locked and
00:41:53
according to her like it that that wasn't a thing that it had never been locked before and then when her dad got
00:41:58
home he didn't even go look for her mom instead he just started cleaning like that was the first thing he did the
00:42:06
theory according to Captain MGO is that after Jonathan killed Elizabeth he likely stashed her body in their
00:42:13
daughter's bedroom locked the door so astd wouldn't go in when she woke up and then later he backed the Lexus into the
00:42:21
driveway to load Elizabeth's body into the trunk and in fact they find out that while it was parked there Jonathan did
00:42:28
nearly three dozen web searches on how to fold down the back seats I mean what more do we need here people I mean
00:42:36
arrest this guy already and listen it isn't the police like they agree with you but I guess the State's Attorney's
00:42:43
Office didn't because as detectives share their findings with them they keep hearing like you're close but like go
00:42:51
back get more chase down more leads verify additional details in the time that they kept getting sent back they
00:42:58
worried that Jonathan was going to skip town so they actually put him under surveillance cuz you see even though he
00:43:04
lived in the US since childhood and can legally work here he was still an Ecuadorian Citizen and at the time
00:43:11
Ecuador had a strict ban on extrating its citizens to the US so if he made it back there he would almost be
00:43:18
Untouchable but when they end up putting eyes on him they were surprised to find
00:43:24
that he wasn't running like far far from it he was just going about his life as if nothing had happened so he thinks
00:43:33
he's in the clear that's what he believed yeah the good news is he is wrong on Sunday December 27th police
00:43:42
have albino set up a meeting with Jonathan at a diner in New Haven and Jonathan thinks that he is going to see
00:43:50
his daughter at this meeting but instead this is when he is finally arrested for
00:43:55
the murder of Elizabeth and for investigators putting the cuffs on Jonathan feels like a win and for
00:44:02
Elizabeth's family it is a huge relief like no more sharing astd with the man who took her mother from astd and all of
00:44:10
them but that relief is shortlived because now they face an entirely new battle which is the legal system so
00:44:20
Jonathan pleads not guilty and he is sent to jail on a $2 million bond to await trial but according to to
00:44:27
community organizer Vanessa Suarez who has been supporting Elizabeth's family prosecutors aren't exactly confident
00:44:34
taking this to a jury still like they even consider at some point reducing the charge to voluntary manslaughter because
00:44:43
they're worried that they might not be able to make that murder charge stick why like what more do they need I don't
00:44:51
know an eyewitness I think I think they want a confession something that isn't circumcised substantial I guess they
00:44:59
have camera footage to me f yeah like to me the camera footage is almost better than an eyewitness like you don't have
00:45:05
to worry about memories like getting misinterpreted from actual footage then you have kadav dogs hitting in the trunk
00:45:14
trunk and your DNA on like the air freshener yeah yeah like you have him lying about her car you have him
00:45:21
pretending to be her over text messages like there's so much that's girl there like what's actually happening I'm with
00:45:29
you like believe me but from the prosecutor's perspective like taking it to try it's always a risk right but this
00:45:37
seems like not as much of a risk so they end up going back and forth with a defense they're like debating possible
00:45:45
deals but through this whole time like Elizabeth's family is firm they're like anything less than a murder charge would
00:45:51
diminish what happened to elizeth and they're not willing to accept that so the long and the short of it is that
00:45:59
with delays from covid and all the negotiations it is not until February of 2024 that both sides reach an agreement
00:46:08
facing 60 years in prison Jonathan pleads guilty to murder and in exchange he is sentenced to 25 years with
00:46:17
immediate deportation once his time is served now for Elizabeth's Family 25 years is grossly inadequate as a
00:46:26
punishment they along with Advocates like Vanessa have been very vocal about the larger issue that her murder brings
00:46:33
to light Vanessa told us like too often when women go missing or are found dead they don't get the urgency or attention
00:46:40
that they deserve and while there's a huge pressure on victims to report abuse Society needs to step up and create
00:46:47
better systems of support for cases of gendered violence we know how widespread this issue is according to the United
00:46:54
Nations office on drugs and crime an estimated 47,000 women and girls worldwide were
00:47:00
killed by an intimate partner or family member in 20120 alone oh my God and that
00:47:06
is an average when you think about it of one every 11 minutes so like to put it in perspective by the time our crime
00:47:15
junkies finish this episode approximately four women and girls will have lost their lives that's almost
00:47:21
impossible to wrap your head around I know I know but there are lessons to be learned from every tragedy and that's
00:47:29
actually why Captain MGO reached out to us hoping that we would share Elizabeth's story he believes that it
00:47:35
shows how real the dangers of intimate partner violence can be and the lengths that abusers will go to manipulate and
00:47:42
to control even after death which is why cases like this have to be taken so seriously from the very beginning from
00:47:50
the beginning exactly I mean it took an all hands approach I mean Elizabeth's family pushing for answers diligent
00:47:56
police police work and Technology like digital forensic evidence and surveillance footage all of it to
00:48:01
finally reveal the truth like piece by piece but not every victim has loved ones that are determined to fight for
00:48:08
justice or have the ability to like not every department is willing or able to go deeper too often these stories end
00:48:16
before they ever begin and no one should have to face abuse alone help is available and we've included resources
00:48:23
in our show notes if you or someone you know needs support and please make sure to take any signs of abuse seriously no
00:48:30
matter how small they might seem I mean it can be so hard to see the full picture especially when you love someone
00:48:37
and you want to believe that things will get better but if you are in an abusive
00:48:41
relationship the focus should be on your safety and your well-being rather than waiting for or like betting on the
00:48:47
abuser to change because sometimes the risk is greater than anyone could have ever imagined you can visit our website
00:48:54
for all of the source material for this episode crime junky podcast.com and you can follow us on Instagram at@
00:49:01
crimejunkiepodcast we'll be back soon with a brand new video episode [Music]