Jurors spent just over an hour in deliberations before returning to the courtroom and finding Candace Craig, 46, guilty of first and second-degree murder in the death of her 71-year-old mother for whom she was supposed to be the caregiver.
Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy left the courthouse shortly after the verdict was read and told reporters it was a critical step toward justice in a case that rocked the region.
“Words cannot express how devastated I was when I heard about this case, how angry I was, how committed my office was to getting justice,” Braveboy said. “And as with any case, it is not easy. There was a tremendous amount of evidence in this case. It took a lot to put everything together.”
Braveboy said one of the reasons the case was so hard to compile was its unique nature. It was, in her words, more than just a homicide for the department, given the killing, dismembering and burning of Margaret Craig’s body by her own daughter.
“It was insulting for this 71-year-old woman who was a hardworking woman collecting Social Security, collecting a pension,” Braveboy said.
She told reporters that the process was heart-wrenching for all those involved, as prosecutors brought forth deeply troubling images — graphic photos of grilled body parts — arguing her death was fueled by financial misconduct and fraud.
Among her deepest concerns were the children of Candace Craig and the family members who witnessed the violence.
“You have to live with this. You have three young girls who knew — who now know — that their mother killed their grandmother, dismembered her body, tried to set her on fire and then tried to blame them,” Braveboy said. “I can’t even imagine the therapy, the support, everything that they’re going to need to grow into strong young women. This — it’s almost unbelievable, but it happened. It happened.”
When a reporter said that it seemed like Candace Craig needed help, Braveboy said the now-convicted Craig was far too malicious and intentional to make an insanity case.
“How do you reconcile that with the fact that she took very deliberate, specific steps and — in deciding how she wanted to go about grilling her mother — (used) seasoning to mask the smell?” Braveboy said. “These are very deliberate steps that she took. So, if she has some insanity, it certainly isn’t something that impacts all of her other thinking.”
Moments before the verdict
During closing arguments, prosecutors pointed to evidence, including bins and body parts belonging to Margaret Craig which were found in a bag.
The jurors reached a sweeping verdict, which also included finding Candace Craig guilty of tampering with evidence and improperly disposing of her mother’s body.
The decision followed roughly three hours of closing arguments from prosecutors and defense attorneys on Friday afternoon.
Prosecutors said that Margaret Craig was found with a trash bag over her head. Medical examiner testimony found that she died “at the hands of someone.”
Her death was no accident, prosecutors argued, given that Candace Craig sought her daughter Salia Hardy’s help in the covering up Margaret Craig’s death.
Hardy is accused of helping cover up Margaret Craig’s murder but has testified and cooperated with prosecutors during the trial.
Defense attorneys representing Candace Craig took issue with the evidence discussed in the trial, arguing that some detectives and lab workers didn’t do enough DNA tests — only 10 items were tested, which didn’t include the car in the home’s driveway. They also argued that DNA evidence from the crime scene belonged to an unidentified man who may have killed Margaret Craig.
Given the information the jury had, lawyers for Candace Craig admitted that she lied to police during their investigation.
Defense attorneys concluded by saying the jury should find the accused Maryland woman not guilty of the murder charges levied against her. The defense team chose not to dispute charges of evidence tampering and improperly disposing of a body during their closing arguments.
Trial begins for a gruesome homicide
The trial began on Thursday, Oct. 24, with gruesome details and opening statements from prosecutors and defense attorneys inside the Prince George’s County courtroom.
During the first few moments of the trial, officials went back through the claims that Candace Craig, who was a caregiver to her mother, dismembered her with a chain saw and attempted to burn body parts in the backyard of a Landover-area home.
Assistant State’s Attorney Julia Hall argued that Candace Craig spent her time taking advantage of Margaret Craig and that Candace Craig seemed indifferent about her mother’s disappearance during the investigation. Authorities also pointed to early claims that Margaret Craig was asking her daughter about fraudulent credit card charges in the moments before her murder, as an example of Candace Craig’s abusive behavior.
One family member, Jillian Philbert, said she made it into the basement of the home after growing worried that Margaret Craig had fallen down the stairs.
When Philbert made her way down, she said there was a terrible odor and several trash bags. However, Philbert said she left the basement after noticing Candace Craig and Hardy were closely monitoring her in the basement.
WTOP’s Scott Gelman and John Domen contributed to this report.
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On Thanksgiving afternoon in 2021, emergency medical technician Dennis Hobson was summoned to a house in the tiny village of Farmersville, Illinois. It was the house where his friend Chris Smith lived with his dog Tiki.
What he encountered is the subject of “Fatal First Date,” an all-new “48 Hours” reported by correspondent Erin Moriarty, airing Saturday, Nov. 2 at 1/9c on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
A 911 call had been placed to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office by someone checking on Smith, and Hobson walked into a bloody scene.
Leslie Reeves and Chris Smith
Bethany Smith Stephan/Sharon Costanza
The side door of Smith’s house had been broken, and Hobson found his friend — barely alive — lying on the floor of the blood-soaked kitchen. Smith had a gunshot wound to the head and a woman, later identified as Leslie Reeves from nearby Troy, Illinois, was lying dead on the living room floor with a single bullet wound to her head, according to a sheriff’s report.
Friends later told sheriff’s deputies that the couple had gone on their first date the previous night after meeting online. In the first hours of the investigation, no one knew what happened, but investigators believed a third person was involved because no gun was found at the scene.
Smith survived the shooting but doesn’t remember anything from that Thanksgiving Day. Hobson later told him some details. “He said I had no pulse,” Smith told Moriarty. “He screamed my name three times, and I took a gasp and I said, ‘Denny, I’m f***ing freezing.’”
Chris Smith and Tiki
CBS News
Hobson later told Smith that Tiki likely helped to save his life. The temperature inside the house on that Thanksgiving Day was much colder than normal because the suspect had broken the glass on the side door.
“But somebody was keeping you warm,” Moriarty said. “I had Tiki there,” Smith replied. “My little girl, my little four-legged daughter.”
Smith had owned Tiki, a beagle-terrier mix, for three years. He says he found her in a Craigslist ad and adopted her when she was a pup. Tiki apparently was Smith’s lifesaver when she huddled with him, and provided much needed warmth, in the 12 hours before he was rescued.
“Tell me about [Tiki],” Moriarty asked Smith.
“Well … she apparently — when Denny walked in and saw her laying by me … I was … in the fetal position … and she was cuddled up next to me,” he replied.
The dramatic story of Smith and Reeves’ “Fatal First Date” and Smith’s remarkable recovery is being told for the first time on “48 Hours.” The broadcast will include an exclusive interview with Reeves’ convicted killer, a former boyfriend of hers named Robert Tarr, who denies that he was the shooter.
A Montgomery County Sheriff’s report later pieced together what happened that night. Smith and Reeves, after a night of barhopping and getting to know one another, had returned to his rented house in Farmersville.
Sometime around 1 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning 2021, authorities believe an assailant broke into a side door while Smith and Reeves were in the ground floor kitchen warming up a late-night frozen pizza.
A deputy sheriff told a friend of Reeves’ that she died immediately and “did not suffer.”
Investigators later concluded that the assailant that night was Robert (Bobby) Tarr, an ex-boyfriend of Reeves who had secretly followed her to Smith’s house, according to Andrew Affrunti, the prosecutor in the case.
Tarr was convicted of murder and attempted murder in April 2024 and was sentenced to 85 years in prison.
Smith, who had three strokes in the hospital and was put into a medically induced coma, has been recovering since the shooting and making progress. He still uses a wheelchair and a cane but has returned to singing in his rock and roll band and is looking for work.
He has been unable to care for Tiki himself as he recovers, but she lives nearby, and they see each other often. Smith also has started a business as a motivational speaker and has created a website: ChrisSmithmotivatingyou.com. He also bought a new house and just proposed to his girlfriend, now fiancée, Michelle Albrecht.
The U.N. human rights office in Mexico said Wednesday journalists in Mexico need more protection, after gunmen killed a journalist whose Facebook news page covered the violent western Mexico state of Michoacan. Then less than 24 hours later an entertainment reporter in the western city of Colima was killed inside a restaurant she owned.
Journalist Mauricio Solís of the news page Minuto por Minuto was shot to death late Tuesday just moments after he conducted a sidewalk interview with the mayor of the city of Uruapan. State prosecutors said a second person was wounded in the shooting.
Solís had just finished an interview on the street outside city hall with Mayor Carlos Manzo. Manzo told local media he had walked away and “two minutes later, I think, and just a matter of meters away, we heard gunshots, four or five gunshots.”
“We sought cover because we thought the attack was aimed at us,” Manzo said. “After a few minutes we found out that Mauricio was the one they attacked.”
Manzo said he could not rule out a connection between the interview and the killing.
Relative and friends of slain journalist Mauricio Solis carry his coffin during his wake in Uruapan, Mexico, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024.
“Mauricio was more than a colleague, he was an unconditional friend, a source of inspiration and a tireless voice in the service of our community,” the station said.
The U.N. rights office said Solís was at least the fifth journalist killed in Mexico this year. It said he had previously reported security problems related to his work. His Facebook page reported on community events and the drug cartel violence that has wracked the city.
“His killing is a wake-up call to defend the right to information and freedom of expression in Mexico,” the office wrote.
An increasing number of the journalists killed in Mexico have been self-employed and reported for local Facebook and online news sites.
Uruapan is the nearest large city to Michoacan’s avocado-growing region, and it has been the scene of drug cartel extortions and turf battles between gangs. The cartels demand protection money from local avocado and lime orchards, cattle ranches and almost any other business.
Solís was reporting on a suspicious fire at a local market just before the shooting. Gangs have sometimes burned businesses that refuse to pay extortion demands.
Then on Wednesday afternoon, entertainment reporter Patricia Ramírez González was found with serious injuries inside her Colima restaurant and died at the scene, according to the Colima state prosecutor’s office.
Local media said Ramírez, who was better known as Paty Bunbury, published a blog on local entertainment and was a contributor to a Colima newspaper.
The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists condemned both killings and called for transparent investigations.
Reporters Without Borders says more than 150 newspeople have been killed in Mexico since 1994 — and 2022 was one of the deadliest years ever for journalists in Mexico, with at least 15 killed.
Media workers are regularly targeted in Mexico, often in direct reprisal for their work covering topics like corruption and the country’s notoriously violent drug traffickers.
In August, a Mexican journalist who covered one of the country’s most dangerous crime beats was killed by gunmen, and two of his government-assigned bodyguards were wounded.
In April, Roberto Figueroa, who covered local politics and gained a social media following through satirical videos, was found dead inside a car in his hometown of Huitzilac in Morelos, a state south of Mexico City where drug-fueled violence runs rampant.
All but a handful of the killings and abductions remain unsolved.
Authorities say they have arrested the mystery man who allegedly teamed up with an accomplice to fatally stab famed hairstylist Fabio Sementilli seven years ago at a Woodland Hills mansion.
Prosecutors allege Christopher Austin was the second man involved in the killing, along with the lover of Sementilli’s wife.
Austin was recently arrested in connection with the killing and extradited from Washington state. On Oct. 18, after being sent back to Los Angeles, Austin pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder with the special allegations of the use of a deadly weapon, and pleaded not guilty Wednesday to an additional charge of conspiracy to commit murder.
The 38-year-old Austin, prosecutors allege, conspired with Monica Sementilli, the hairstylist’s wife, and her lover Robert Louis Baker in January 2017 to kill her husband as part of a scheme to pocket his $1.6 million in life insurance. Austin’s alleged conspirators have been behind bars for more than five years, but until recently Austin’s identity and whereabouts had been unknown.
Sementilli was the father of three and an executive at the hair-care giant Wella.
Baker, 62, last year admitted that he killed the celebrity hairdresser on Jan. 23, 2017, leaving him in a pool of blood on a back patio in what was initially thought to be a home-invasion robbery gone wrong. Baker is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Six months after the killing, Los Angeles police detectives arrested Baker and Monica Sementilli, revealing that they had been in a relationship for 18 months. Baker, a convicted sex offender, met her at LA Fitness, where he was a racquetball instructor.
Baker, after admitting to the crime, has said that Monica Sementilli did not know about the murder plot. Prosecutors and LAPD investigators contend that extensive evidence shows she was tied to the killing.
Monica Sementilli’s trial is pending, and she and Baker have been held in the Los Angeles County jail system for more than five years. She had pleaded not guilty, and her attorney, Leonard Levine, said that she was falsely accused and that Baker will testify to that.
Her trial has been postponed a few times, and the arrest of Austin could change the dynamics. Prosecutors allege that Baker stabbed the hairstylist several times with a knife and that Austin stabbed the victim in the neck with a knife.
Baker is alleged to have told Austin that the victim’s wife wanted to get her husband’s life insurance money. As part of the conspiracy alleged by prosecutors, Baker gave Austin money to buy a ticket to fly from Anchorage to Los Angeles and a roll of gold coins after the slaying, according to the complaint.
Austin was arrested in Washington state and extradited to L.A. County, where he is being held on more than $2 million bail pending a Dec. 2 court appearance.
But though the home’s master bedroom was ransacked, the assailants never took the hair mogul’s valuable watch on his wrist, piquing the interest of detectives, said then-Robbery Homicide Division Capt. Billy Hayes. Security surveillance video showed two hooded men jogging up to the home before the slaying. Afterward, the men drove away in Sementilli’s Porsche and were recorded on another surveillance camera as they abandoned the vehicle five miles away.
In an apparent attempt to cover up their actions, the two men took a video recording system hidden in the garage of Sementilli’s home that captured video from six cameras around the house, prosecutors said.
Detectives closed in on Baker after discovering blood in the abandoned Porsche. His DNA had previously been captured after he was convicted of a lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor in 1993 and forced to register as a sex offender, Hayes said at the time.
Prosecutors alleged Monica Sementilli told Baker how to remove the home’s video recording system. They presented evidence that she watched a live feed of the area shortly before the killing to ensure Baker had a clear path to her husband. Prosecutors alleged that she also let her 16-year-old daughter come home first and discover the crime scene.
“Monica fully intended for Fabio to be murdered,” Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Beth Silverman told a grand jury in 2017. “She wanted him out of the way because she wants to be with Robert Baker. She’s unhappy in her marriage, even though at the same time she’s acting like the loving, adoring wife.”
Baker pleaded no contest in July 2023 to one count each of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. He also admitted the special circumstance allegations of murder for financial gain and murder while lying in wait.
One of Monica Sementilli’s attorneys, Leonard Levine, told reporters after Baker’s plea that the defense was confident that his plea and his “truthful testimony will finally establish once and for all that Monica Sementilli had nothing to do with the planning or the murder of Fabio Sementilli, her husband. And we’re looking forward to the trial, which we believe will establish that fact.’’
A Hayward man who is accused of killing his father and placing his body in a dumpster has been charged with murder and appeared in court Tuesday, prosecutors said.
According to Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price’s office, 25-year-old David Sanchez was arraigned on a charge of murder with enhancements for use of a firearm and for great bodily injury in the death of 58-year-old Hector Sanchez.
“This tragic taking of a life mirrors research that shows the presence of a gun significantly increases the risk of death or serious injury in cases of domestic violence,” Price said in a statement. “In this case, a father is dead allegedly at the hands of his own son.”
The criminal complaint alleges David Sanchez used a gun to kill Hector Sanchez in their Hayward home.
Police were called to the home on the 2000 block of American Avenue to perform a welfare check on Oct. 23, after the father did not show up for work and did not answer phone calls. When officers went inside the home, they did not find anyone but found evidence of a shooting believed to be fatal.
David Sanchez was arrested the following day in Oakland in connection with an unrelated crime.
Hayward police said he told officers that his father was on the 3300 block of Central Avenue in Union City. Officers went to the location and found the body of Hector Sanchez in a dumpster.
The death is the Hayward’s 13th homicide of the year.
According to Price’s office, David Sanchez faces up to 35-years-to-life in state prison if convicted.
Anyone with additional information about the case is asked to contact Detective Navas of the Hayward Police Department at 510-296-7176.
Tim Fang is a digital producer at CBS Bay Area. A Bay Area native, Tim has been a part of the CBS Bay Area newsroom for two decades and joined the digital staff in 2006.
A nurse is found dead in her apartment. Surveillance video captures her coming home for the last time. Can investigators piece together what happened next? “48 Hours” contributor Natalie Morales reports.
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CHICAGO (CBS) — Grammy-winningChicago rapper Lil Durk has been charged in a murder-for-hire plot and is now in custody.
The FBI said the Englewood neighborhood native was arrested Thursday night in South Florida as he attempted to flee the country.
Lil Durk — the stage name of Durk Devontay Banks of Chicago — was arrested in Broward County, Florida. Investigators believe he targeted rapper Quando Rondo.
Rondo was the intended target of a 2022 shooting in which gunfire missed him, but killed his cousin, 24-year-old Saviay’a Robinson.
The arrest came hours after five people associated with Lil Durk’s music business were also accused in the case. Those other members of Durk’s Chicago-based rap collective, “Only the Family” or “OTF,” have also been arrested and at least two more arrests may be forthcoming, according to court documents that have been filed.
Investigators believe it was retaliation for the earlier murder of Chicago OTF rapper King Von, who was killed during an early morning exchange of gunfire outside the Monaco Hookah Lounge in Atlanta, authorities said.
FBI Agent Sarah Corcoran said in her affidavit that OTF members engage “in violence, including murder and assault, at the direction of Banks and to maintain their status in OTF.”
According to Corcoran’s affidavit and other federal court records, the shooting stems from the Nov. 6, 2020, slaying of Von, 26, outside the Atlanta hookah lounge after Von and Rondo got into a fight. Records say a friend of Rondo’s pulled a gun and shot Von several times, killing him. Von, whose real name was Dayvon Bennett, had two hit singles, ″Crazy Story″ and “Took Her to the O.”
Charges against Rondo’s friend in the King Von case were later dropped due to the stand-your-ground law in Georgia.
Authorities say Durk made it known that he would “pay a bounty” to anyone who killed Rondo, whose real name is Tyquian Bowman.
Almost two years later, a murder plot quickly came together, Corcoran wrote.
Durk received the 2024 Grammy Award for best melodic rap performance for his single “All My Life” featuring J. Cole, which triumphed over such musical celebrities as Drake, SZA and Doja Cat. Durk has also been nominated for a Grammy three other times.
Durk had recently been honored by two villages in Chicago’s western suburbs as they announced their collaboration with his charity, Neighborhood Heroes Foundation.
“This partnership and collaboration will bring resources and mentoring opportunities to the youth in our community,” Andre Harvey, mayor of Bellwood, 14 miles west of Chicago, said on the village’s Facebook page last week.
While acknowledging that Durk and other suspects are presumed innocent, village residents have “even higher moral and ethical standards of behavior. And our public partners must also reflect the same uncompromising standards,” Thompson wrote on the village’s Facebook page. “As mayor, protecting Broadview’s interests and upholding the values of residents is job number one.”
Bellwood Mayor Andre Harvey said he was surprised to hear of Lil Durk’s arrest, but is not ready to take away the key. He said, “We live in the United States of America where the accused is innocent until proven guilty.”
Durk’s representatives did not immediately respond to emails Friday seeking comment.
Lil Durk performs during Lollapalooza at Grant Park on July 30, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois.
Josh Brasted/FilmMagic
Charges lay out investigators’ case against Lil Durk
Prosecutors said multiple members of OTF and their associates used two cars to “track, stalk, and attempt to murder” Quando Rando at a gas station in Los Angeles.
On Aug. 18, 2022, Durk’s associates learned that Rondo was staying at a Los Angeles hotel. That day, Deandre Wilson, Keith Jones, David Lindsey, Asa Houston and a fifth unnamed suspect flew from Chicago to San Diego and then drove to Los Angeles using funds provided by Durk, Corcoran said.
That day, Durk allegedly texted an associate arranging the flights, “Don’t book no flights under no names involved wit me.” Corcoran said there is video evidence that Durk was staying at a house in the San Fernando Valley that day.
Once arriving in Los Angeles, the OTF members met Kayon Grant, who had flown there on a private jet. Grant, a top OTF associate, got the men hotel rooms, purchased them four ski masks and obtained two luxury sedans, court records say. Grant allegedly gave Jones, Lindsey and a third unnamed suspect guns, including one that had been converted into a fully automatic machine gun.
The next day, the group allegedly followed Rondo and Robinson as they drove a Cadillac Escalade to a Los Angeles marijuana dispensary, a West Hollywood clothing store and then a gas station across the street from the Beverly Center.
There, Houston allegedly parked his car behind the station so Jones, Lindsey and the unnamed defendant could ambush Rondo. They got out and opened fire, killing Robinson, who was standing outside the Escalade, but missing Rondo, the indictment and news stories about the shooting say.
The indictment said 18 shots were fired during the gas station shooting.
The suspects then went to an In-N-Out hamburger stand where they discussed payment with Grant and then flew home to Chicago from San Diego, Corcoran and other documents say. Wilson allegedly later paid Jones and Lindsey an undisclosed amount.
Grant, Jones, Lindsey, Wilson and Houston were arrested Thursday in Chicago on conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire charges. No attorney information was immediately available for those men in court records.
After their arrests, Corcoran wrote, Durk booked two flights from South Florida airports — one to Dubai and one to Switzerland. He then booked a private flight to Italy, but was arrested in Miami before he could board that flight.
Durk is officially charged with conspiracy to use interstate facilities to commit murder for hire resulting in death. His pre-detention hearing will be held in California—but no date has been set.
Durk and the other defendants are being held pending their transfer to Los Angeles. At a hearing in federal court in Miami Friday, a federal prosecutor asked that Banks be held in pre-trial detention because he is a flight risk.
Durk and his attorney, Alex Ubieta, agreed to have his next hearing on his pre-trial detention to be held in the Central District of California because the original crime happened in Los Angeles.
No date was set for that hearing.
Banks’ father and other supporters were at the hearing. Outside the federal courthouse, they declined to say anything about the charges or the upcoming hearing.
Ubieta said they wanted privacy.
Chicago reacts to Lil Durk’s arrest
Chicago radio personality Seandale, of Raw TV Radio on Power 92.3 FM, called the charges against Lil Durk “devastating.” Seandale knew Lil Durk well before stardom, and was the first to play Durk on Chicago airwaves more than a decade ago.
“He was very cool down-to-earth, humble, appreciative of the opportunity to just be on radio,” Seandale said.
Seandale added that it’s tough to see Durk go from selling out the United Center this past Sunday to getting booked on a murder-for-hire plot.
“It’s definitely a leap off the Willis Tower,” Seandale said. “It’s a real fall. It’s a real blow.”
Chicago embraced Durk for his community service and charitable donations. He even contributed $150,000 to Mayor Brandon Johnson’s 2023 campaign.
The mayor withheld judgment when asked if he would return the money.
“Right now, we have allegations,” Mayor Johnson said Friday. “He has not been tried.”
Yet Durk is named in a civil lawsuit on behalf of the estate of rapper FBG Duck, who was murdered on Oak Street in the Gold Coast while shopping on Aug. 4, 2020. The lawsuit accuses the same OTF crew Durk led as being the mastermind of the FBG Duck murder.
In January of this year, a jury found six label mates and friends of Durk’s guilty of multiple counts in the slaying of FBG Duck, including murder in furtherance of a racketeering scheme – including Charles Liggins, 32; Kenneth Roberson, 30; Christopher Thomas, 24; Marcus Smart, 25; Tacarlos Offerd, 32; and Ralph Turpin, 34.
A man who authorities say is a known MS-13 gang member was arrested and charged in connection with an August double homicide that occurred in Sterling, Virginia.
A man who authorities say is a known MS-13 gang member was arrested and charged in connection with an August double homicide that occurred in Sterling, Virginia.
Marlyn Medrano-Ortiz, 18, was arrested Wednesday evening in Alexandria after officers there recognized him from a bulletin that Loudoun County deputies shared with other law enforcement agencies, Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman said during a news conference Friday.
“When you commit a crime like this in Loudoun County, we’re not going to stop. We’re going to do whatever it takes to get these people behind bars, and we just want to make sure we’re doing everything in our power to keep our citizens safe,” Chapman said.
Medrano-Ortiz, who Chapman said was in the country illegally, is charged with one count of second-degree murder and one count of use of a firearm in commission of a felony.
The charges stem from the Aug. 28 killing of two 22-year-olds: Mijal Conejero-Romera, of Sterling, and Diego Alexander Woollett, of Arlington. Deputies found the two, who were friends, shot alongside a wooden fence at an office park on Ridgetop Circle.
Investigators said the shooting happened following an argument inside a nearby apartment complex in the 21000 block of Huntington Square.
Currently, Medrano-Ortiz faces one count of murder, but additional charges may be coming, and authorities said they are still looking into the possibility that others were involved in the friends’ killings.
Medrano-Ortiz will appear in court for a preliminary hearing on Wednesday, Dec. 5 at 1 p.m.
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In the early morning hours of Dec. 16, 2022, St. Paul, Minnesota, homicide detectives Abby DeSanto and Jennifer O’Donnell were called to a downtown apartment building to investigate a reported suicide. A 32-year-old woman named Alexandra Pennig had been found dead in her bathroom with a single gunshot wound to the head.
For the detectives, what really happened to Pennig is something that still haunts them to this day. And it’s the question at the center of “The Strange Shooting of Alex Pennig,” reported by “48 Hours” contributor Natalie Morales airing Saturday, Oct. 26 at 10/9c on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
Matthew Ecker, left, and Alex Pennig
Terri Randall/Mary Jo Pennig
When detectives DeSanto and O’Donnell arrived at the apartment, they found out Pennig had not been alone at the time of her death. A man named Matthew Ecker was also there. Ecker and Pennig were both nurses and had met two years earlier when they worked at the same clinic. Ecker told first responders the gun was his, and that Pennig had grabbed it, locked herself in the bathroom, and then fired the shot. “I thought everything was fine,” he said. “And then she just grabbed the gun.” Ecker told first responders that after he heard the shot he immediately broke open the bathroom door: “I tried to do what I could. And then I washed my hands … That’s why I don’t have anything on my hands.” Ecker said he then called 911. But it was too late. He said he didn’t know why Pennig would do this.
In Pennig’s apartment, there was alcohol and six bottles of prescription medication, including antidepressants, all prescribed to Pennig. For the detectives, it suggested Alex might have been depressed, and they wondered if Ecker’s story that she took her own life was true.
But they also noticed something that seemed to contradict Ecker’s story. He had said he washed his hands in the bathroom sink before calling 911, but DeSanto recalled the first responders told her the sink was dry. “The sink was dry. If he had said, you know, he called the police right away, that sink probably would’ve been still wet,” DeSanto explained, “but it was very dry in there.”
When O’Donnell looked into Pennig’s background, she learned from Alex’s parents that Alex had struggled in the past with depression and addiction. “I had asked, um, if she had been suicidal in the past, um, and dad said, she had, um, tried, uh, to overdose before,” said O’Donnell. According to Alex’s father, Jim Pennig, several years prior, Alex had taken a handful of pills “and then had told her mom that she was attempting suicide.” After that, Alex’s parents told the detectives they sent her to rehab, and she eventually got clean. Despite her past struggles, Alex’s parents told O’Donnell they had just seen her at Thanksgiving. And her mom, Mary Jo Pennig, had just talked to her that evening. “She was doing well,” she said. For them, the idea that their daughter had died by suicide did not make sense. “Knowing your kid, it didn’t fit,” Mary Jo Pennig said.
Since Ecker was the last person to see Alex Pennig alive, the detectives zeroed in on him. “He’s the only one that can tell us what happened. He was the only one that was there,” said O’Donnell. They questioned Ecker about what had happened that night. He said he and Alex Pennig had gone out to several local bars, and when they arrived back at her place, everything was fine: “We were laughing on the way home,” said Ecker. DeSanto asked him if, once they got into the apartment, they had gotten into a fight. Ecker said they did not.
DET. ABBY DESANTO: You guys weren’t arguing or anything?
MATTHEW ECKER: No.
DET. ABBY DESANTO: There’s no fight with you two?
MATTHEW ECKER: Not between us.
For hours, Ecker continued to say Pennig had locked herself in the bathroom, fired the shot and then he broke open the door to try and help her: “That gun went off behind a closed door … I did not shoot her.“
This small piece of metal from a bathroom door lock was found under Alex Pennig’s body.
Ramsey County District Court
But the detectives had their doubts. Then they got a call from the forensic unit that was still processing the scene. And according to O’Donnell, what they found changed everything. “Once Alex was moved, they found underneath where Alex had been laying was a round metal piece,“ she said. It was the shape of a ring, and about the size of a quarter. O’Donnell said it was part of the lock from the bathroom door, and the fact that it had been discovered under Pennig was key. “For us, it meant that the door was forced open before she was shot.”
The detectives felt the discovery of the metal ring proved Ecker had lied and had not broken the door open after he heard the shot. The detectives suspected Pennig and Ecker had argued and that she had locked the bathroom door to get away from him. Then Ecker broke open the door, the metal part broke off and fell to the ground, and then he shot Pennig and she landed on top of it.
Ecker was charged with second-degree murder. In February 2024 he was convicted and later sentenced to 30 years. He is appealing his conviction.
A 15-year-old boy was charged Thursday with murder in the shooting deaths of his parents and three of his siblings at a home in Fall City, Washington, according to court documents obtained by CBS News.
The teen, whose name is being withheld because he is a juvenile, was charged with five counts of aggravated murder in the slayings of his parents, Mark and Sarah Humiston, two brothers, ages 9 and 13, and his 7-year-old sister, per King County court records.
He was also charged with one count of attempted murder for shooting and wounding his 11-year-old sister, the documents read.
That girl was in “satisfactory condition” at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, hospital spokesperson Susan Gregg told the Associated Press Tuesday.
Autopsies performed by the King County Medical Examiner’s Office determined that all five victims died of gunshot wounds. The handgun used in the shooting was believed to belong to the victim’s father, the court records state.
According to the charging documents, just before 5 a.m. Monday, the suspect called 911 with a false story in which he claimed that his 13-year-old brother “just shot my whole family and committed suicide too” at the family’s home in Fall City, which is a community located near Seattle.
However, at about the same time as that call, 911 dispatchers received a second call from a neighbor who lives about a quarter-mile away. That neighbor said the suspect’s 11-year-old sister had ran to his house and was bleeding from what appeared to be a gunshot wound, the documents said.
The girl said her entire family had been fatally shot and identified her 15-year-old brother as the shooter. The girl told dispatchers she was also shot by her brother and “then described holding her breath and playing dead,” the documents read. The girl later told detectives that she had escaped through a bedroom window.
Deputies responded to the Humiston home, where they found the suspect in the driveway and took him into custody, court records show. The five victims were found dead inside the home.
In a hospital interview with detectives later that day, the suspect’s surviving sister said that she identified the firearm used in the shooting as “her father’s silver Glock handgun,” court documents state.
She said that her father kept the pistol in a small lockbox that “he would sometimes put by the front door so he could bring it to work,” the documents read. She told detectives that the suspect was “the only one who knew the combination to the Glock lockbox.”
Investigators determined that the suspect “systematically murdered” his parents and siblings and “then staged the scene prior to the arrival of first responders to make it appear” that the murders had been committed by his 11-year-old brother, documents read.
The court documents did not speculate on a motive.
The suspect is scheduled to be arraigned Friday afternoon. The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said in a news release Thursday that the suspect is in custody at the Clark Child and Family Justice Center, which is a juvenile facility.
The teen is currently being charged as a juvenile, and prosecutors said a judge will determine whether his case “will be moved to adult court.” Prosecutors, however, noted that moving the case to adult court does not necessarily mean the suspect would be tried as an adult because, under Washington state law, sentencing guidelines are different for juveniles even if they are tried in adult court.
In a statement Tuesday, public defenders representing the suspect said that “our client is a 15-year-old boy who enjoys mountain biking and fishing and has no criminal history.”
Faris Tanyos is a news editor for CBSNews.com, where he writes and edits stories and tracks breaking news. He previously worked as a digital news producer at several local news stations up and down the West Coast.
Fifty years after a man from San Francisco, California was killed during a trip to Florida, authorities are asking for the public’s help in solving the cold case murder.
“We’re working for the family of Mr. Norris so they can find out what happened to their loved one,” FDLE Special Agent Supervisor Mike Kennedy said in a statement. “Even though it’s been 50 years, we do have persons of interest and they should be held accountable for their actions even if it is 50 years later.”
James Norris (aka Richard Gunning) of San Francisco, who was killed during a trip to Florida in 1974.
Florida Department of Law Enforcement
Norris, who was traveling under the alias Richard Gunning, flew into Miami on Oct. 4, 1974. Investigators said Norris traveled to Florida with a large amount of cash with the intention of buying Colombian-grade cannabis that was not available in California.
On that day, Norris and an associate traveled more than 300 miles north to the community of Crystal River in Citrus County to purchase cannabis from an organization operating in the area.
During the trip, Norris mailed a postcard from his family from the town of Inglis, which was the last time he contacted them.
Kennedy said Norris was reported missing soon after.
Do you have the puzzle piece to solve the 1974 James Norris cold case? We need your help! If you have info about the murder of James Norris, please contact FDLE Tallahassee at (800) 342-0820.https://t.co/YyvxFZ4mJJpic.twitter.com/q4w239Nr48
On April 16, 1976, a bulldozer operator located skeletal remains in a wooded area off U.S. Highway 19 in Dixie County in Northern Florida. The remains were unidentified for more than 30 years until DNA testing confirmed the remains were Norris.
His family claimed his remains in April 2011.
Investigators believe people living in Miami, Panama City, Steinhatchee and Citrus County may have information about the case. Norris had associates in the San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego, Nashville, Memphis and Des Moines, Iowa who may also have information.
The investigaton has uncovered names of members of the organization Norris was believed to be purchasing cannabis from.
“Over the years that we’ve investigated this we’ve gotten a lot of the pieces of the puzzle. Someone could be holding a piece of the puzzle that they may not realize fits into the big picture,” Kennedy said.
Anyone with information about Norris’ murder is asked to contact FDLE Tallahassee at (800) 342-0820.
Tim Fang is a digital producer at CBS Bay Area. A Bay Area native, Tim has been a part of the CBS Bay Area newsroom for two decades and joined the digital staff in 2006.
Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón will ask a judge to resentence Erik and Lyle Menendez, two brothers serving life sentences for killing their parents, a move that could pave the way for their release.
Gascón will request the brothers be sentenced for murder and be eligible for parole immediately, he said during a news conference Thursday.
“I came to a place where I believe that under the law resentencing is appropriate, and I am going to recommend that,” Gascón said. “What that means in this particular case is that we’re going to recommend to the court that the life without the possibility of parole be removed and that they will be sentenced for murder.”
The two brothers were sentenced to life without parole after a jury found them guilty of killing their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills home with a pair of shotguns. The 1989 killings, and the televised trial that followed, has sparked documentaries, movies and television series that have made the brothers two of the most publicly recognizable convicts.
The brothers have pursued appeals for years without success, but now they could have a path to freedom. A judge will ultimately decide if the brothers will be released.
In 1989, Erik and Lyle Menendez bought a pair of shotguns with cash, walked into their Beverly Hills home and shot their parents while they watched a movie in the family living room. Prosecutors said Jose Menendez was struck five times, including in the back of the head, and Kitty Menendez crawled on the floor wounded before the brothers reloaded and fired a final fatal blast.
Initially, the killings were rumored to be mob hits.
Prosecutors would argue the slayings were driven by greed and the brothers’ desire to get their parent’s multimillion-dollar estate.
But during the trials, Erik and Lyle Menendez and their attorneys detailed what they said were years of violent sexual abuse the brothers experienced at the hands of their father.
Earlier this month, more than 20 relatives of the brothers pleaded at a news conference for the pair to be released.
“If Erik and Lyle’s case were heard today, with the understanding we now have of abuse and [post-traumatic stress disorder], there is no doubt in my mind that their sentencing would have been very different,” said Anamaria Baralt, a cousin of the siblings.
During Gascón’s tenure as top prosecutor, he’s obtained new sentences for more than 300 people, including 28 who were convicted of murder, but the Menendez brothers are the highest-profile convicts to have their sentences reduced at the district attorney’s request.
Attorneys for the brothers last year filed a habeas motion, arguing that new evidence backed their claim that they were sexually abused by their father for years before the slayings.
The filing included a letter Erik Menendez sent to his cousin in December 1988 — eight months before the killings — that appeared to corroborate the claims of abuse. It also included a declaration from Roy Rosselló, a member of the boy band Menudo, who alleged that Jose Menendez raped him in 1984 when he was 13 or 14 years old.
Gascón’s office has been reviewing the motion and the case for more than a year.
Earlier this month, he said his office had a “moral and ethical obligation to review what is being presented to us and make a determination.”
There is no question that the brothers killed their parents, but Gascón has said the issue is whether the jury heard evidence that their father molested them, and if that evidence might have affected the outcome of the trial.
Evidence of sexual abuse, including testimony from friends and relatives of the family, was included when the siblings were first tried which ended in hung juries.
But when they were tried again, together, the jury did not hear much of the testimony supporting their allegations of sexual abuse. The two were convicted of first-degree murder in March 1996.
The case has faced renewed public attention sparked by television series and documentaries that focused on the notorious killings. A Peacock docuseries, “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed,” raised allegations that Jose Menendez, an RCA Records executive, had sexually assaulted Rosselló.
Gascón’s decision has been criticized by those who say the move is a political ploy to bolster his reelection campaign.
Kitty Menendez’s 90-year-old brother, Milton Andersen, released a statement on Thursday criticizing the decision to seek new sentences for the brothers. He said Gascón has refused to meet with him to discuss his decision before announcing it to the press.
Andersen’s attorney, Kathy Cady, said the district attorney “manipulate[d] the facts for a fleeting chance to salvage his political career.”
On Tuesday, Cady filed an application for an amicus curiae brief to oppose the possible resentencing of the brothers.
Gascon’s election challenger, Nathan Hochman, has also questioned the timing of the D.A.’s action in the case, suggesting he’s making headlines to try and save his flagging reelection bid. Polls show Gascon trailing Hochman by as much as 30 percentage points, and a Times analysis of campaign finances shows the challenger has raised significantly more funds than the district attorney.
Dmitry Gorin, a criminal defense attorney, said the evidence was clear in the initial trial that the killings were premeditated, but the case seemed to have a chance to be revisited given the liberal policies of the district attorney’s office under Gascón.
A judge is likely to approve the prosecutor’s request, given that it’s also supported by the brothers’ defense attorneys.
“I give the defense credit for timely filing,” he said. “If this was filed in December with likely a new D.A., they aren’t getting out. Most of the [district attorneys] in California wouldn’t let them out.”
A 38-year-old woman was found dead in a backyard trash can in Costa Mesa on Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.
A man was arrested in Glendale on suspicion of murder. Police said he was a friend of the woman.
The victim, whose identity was not released pending notification of her family, was found around 2:27 p.m. at a home in the 1900 block of Maple Avenue, according to a news release.
As Costa Mesa police conducted an investigation Tuesday, the home was cordoned off with crime scene tape. In interviews, neighbors described the area as safe and the incident as shocking.
“Never a problem, never had any type of violence or anything like that, any disturbance,” said a neighbor who gave only her first name, Sherri.
No further details were available.
Anyone who may have additional information is asked to call Det. K. Moore at (714) 754-4986.
A man was arrested after he allegedly shot and killed his wife Monday afternoon at a shopping center, according to the Orlando Police Department. The shooting occurred around 1:15 p.m. in the parking lot at the shopping plaza on the corner of South Semoran Boulevard and Lake Underhill Road. Police have identified the deceased woman as 44-year-old Yuniesy Labrada Rodriguez. According to police, the victim’s husband, Armando Carralero, 54, fled the scene in a vehicle after the shooting but was later arrested in Indian River County. He’s facing a first-degree murder charge.Lina Reyes, who works nearby, expressed her shock at the incident.”Now that we know a woman was shot, I don’t know why she was shot or what was the reason,” Reyes said.Firefighters were seen cleaning the area after police towed a truck from the scene. Several employees from a nearby medical clinic were observed consoling one another as they left the building, and one person was heard crying near investigators.Sharon Dinero, who had come to the plaza to pick up an Uber Eats order, said she was surprised to learn about the fatal shooting that had just taken place.Police say they are not looking for any additional suspects at this time.The shooting comes days after an Orange County deputy was shot and killed by who police said was her estranged husband.
ORLANDO, Fla. —
A man was arrested after he allegedly shot and killed his wife Monday afternoon at a shopping center, according to the Orlando Police Department.
The shooting occurred around 1:15 p.m. in the parking lot at the shopping plaza on the corner of South Semoran Boulevard and Lake Underhill Road.
Police have identified the deceased woman as 44-year-old Yuniesy Labrada Rodriguez.
According to police, the victim’s husband, Armando Carralero, 54, fled the scene in a vehicle after the shooting but was later arrested in Indian River County.
He’s facing a first-degree murder charge.
Lina Reyes, who works nearby, expressed her shock at the incident.
“Now that we know a woman was shot, I don’t know why she was shot or what was the reason,” Reyes said.
Firefighters were seen cleaning the area after police towed a truck from the scene. Several employees from a nearby medical clinic were observed consoling one another as they left the building, and one person was heard crying near investigators.
Sharon Dinero, who had come to the plaza to pick up an Uber Eats order, said she was surprised to learn about the fatal shooting that had just taken place.
Police say they are not looking for any additional suspects at this time.
A young mother is killed in her bed, her toddler unharmed. Unsolved for 40 years, how the unusual crime scene helped close the case. “48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty reports.
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In April 2018, in the sleepy Florida Gulf Coast town of Eastpoint, it appeared a killer had struck.
“I received a call that a body was located .. off of Highway 98,” Lt. Ronnie Jones, from the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, told “48 Hours” correspondent Peter Van Sant.
Badly beaten and with no identification, the woman became a Jane Doe. Her killer’s identity was also a mystery.
“What you worry about then is, are they loose in our community?” said Jones. “What type of individual am I dealing with or individuals?”
Less than 24 hours later, Jones received a call about another crime scene at the nearby Sportsman’s Lodge Motel.
As investigators worked to see if the two were connected, they learned that the woman’s unconventional relationship held the answers.
For Franklin County assistant prosecutor, Jarred Patterson, the sleepy, Gulf Coast town of Apalachicola and surrounding countryside are among the last remnants of a bygone era.
Jarred Patterson: Apalachicola, Florida is a wonderful small place … It’s certainly still harkens back to a time before there was condos on every inch of the beach and before there were high-rises. … We’re referred to here, the counties along this area of the coast, as the Forgotten Coast.
But when a couple heading to a nearby fishing pond discovered Aileen Seiden’s battered body on April 23, 2018, Patterson wondered what had brought a killer to Florida’s Forgotten Coast?
Jarred Patterson: The horror that it really was … It absolutely shocked people.
Ronnie Jones: It looked like … someone was in a hurry. Whoever it was dumped the body and took off.
Lead investigator Lt. Ronnie Jones, then with the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, says documenting Aileen’s unsettling dump site was the first of twoominous events over the next 24 hours. He was soon dispatched to the second crime scene at the Sportsman’s Lodge Motel and a bloody spectacle inside room 15.
Peter Van Sant (inside the motel room): So, what’s it like for you to be back in here?
Ronnie Jones: Uh, brings back some pretty bad memories.
Jones’ memories live in stark contrast to the tree shaded grounds of the otherwise peaceful motel.
THE HORROR INSIDE ROOM 15
Ronnie Jones: As soon as I came in, I noticed the bed. I mean, it’s — you couldn’t miss it. … I mean, this whole area was covered and had blood stains on it.
Peter Van Sant: And when you saw that kind of blood loss, what did that tell you?
Ronnie Jones: I just put two and two together and I automatically put that back to the, um, body that was found the day before.
Peter Van Sant: You did that quickly, like (snaps fingers) that?
Ronnie Jones: Had to have. … It wasn’t just somebody cut theirself and bled a little bit on the bed. I mean the amount of blood that was on this bed tells me that whoever was here was probably deceased.
Jones recalled there was a smell of vinegar in the room.
Peter Van Sant: And what did that tell you?
Ronnie Jones: That someone attempted to clean the crime scene.
A luminol test in the bathroom of room 15 of the Sportsman’s Lodge Motel revealed a bloody spectacle.
Franklin County Clerk of Court
A luminol test for traces of human blood revealed what an apparently hasty clean up couldn’t hide.
Ronnie Jones: The whole entire bathroom lit up.
Peter Van Sant: So, that was the scene of perhaps some of her most vicious attacks — was inside that bathroom.
Ronnie Jones: Yes.
And Jones says the shower curtain rod was a possible weapon.
Ronnie Jones: On the rod was located a palm print and also, uh, blood.
Peter Van Sant: And that’s significant evidence, right?
Ronnie Jones: That’s right.
Testing would soon confirm that it was Aileen’s blood in the motel room. Now came the gut-wrenching duty to notify Aileen’s sister, Franceasca Seiden.
Franceasca Seiden: He said my sister was murdered. … I don’t know, like, what do you do? You look for support. That’s all I could do. …I didn’t understand why, like, it was given to me, again, like to handle another loss.
While growing up in Miami, then-16-year-old Franceasca and 9-year-old Aileen faced their first tragedy when their beloved mother, Murtha, passed away from cancer.
Peter Van Sant: How did the two of you deal with this?
Franceasca Seiden: We didn’t talk about it. … because it was so fast.
Six years later, their father Frank—a successful furniture manufacturer who Franceasca says shared a special bond with Aileen —suddenly died from a heart attack. It left Aileen, then 14, an orphan, and 22-year-old Franceasca with a decision to make.
Franceasca Seiden: I signed the papers, and I became her legal guardian.
Peter Van Sant: And what did that mean? What were your responsibilities?
Franceasca Seiden: I became a parent. … I had to take her to school. I had to pick her up from school. … I had to finish my own school. I was working. … I didn’t have time to grieve. And I don’t think that she did either.
Seven years later, Franceasca moved to Los Angeles on her own. That’s when she says Aileen, by then in her 20s, began grieving their parents.
Franceasca Seiden: She started to think a lot. … She became more sensitive.
Allie: Something like losing her parents … has … long-lasting effects throughout your life. And it’s obvious that it did.
Aileen Seiden, 31, of Miami, had been visiting Franklin County, Florida, and shared a motel room with two other people — Zach Abell, an old friend, and Christina Araujo.
Aileen Seiden/Facebook
Aileen’s best friend, not wanting her name associated with this case, has asked “48 Hours” to refer to her as “Allie.” She remembers a strong and determined Aileen making it on her own in Miami.
Allie: She worked as a property manager … She lived in a great apartment, you know, she paid her own rent, she made her bills. She was very independent.
Franceasca saw that independence firsthand when Aileen made an extended visit to L.A. in 2016.
Peter Van Sant: Looking back, do you wish she had stayed with you?
Franceasca Seiden: 100% percent. … Because whatever happened when she went back to Miami is when she reconnected with Zach.
Zach was Zachary Abell, who Aileen had known since they were teenagers.
Allie: I’m not sure if he had the best reputation in high school. … At first, she wasn’t really sure about him.
But years later, she and Abell started dating.
Allie: I think in the beginning Aileen found Zach fun, but I think it changed pretty quickly.
Investigators in Franklin County would soon learn all about Zach Abell. They discovered that Zach, Aileen and another woman named Christina Araujo had all been seen in the Apalachicola area. Detectives also learned the three shared a room at the Sportsman’s Lodge Motel: room 15.
Jarred Patterson: We needed to know what happened inside that hotel room outside of three people entered and two came out carrying a body.
AN UNCONVENTIONAL PROPOSAL
Off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Captain Mike Picavet sets sail on his 50-foot boat.
Mike Picavet (on his boat): It’s kind of weird, uh, trying to remember any good times. There just weren’t. There was always some issue.
Back in 2018, Picavet would play a central role in Aileen Seiden’s murder investigation. He knew Aileen and her boyfriend Zach Abell well.
Mike Picavet: Zach is just, um, very entertaining. … He’s very extroverted.
Picavet had met Abell by chance at a bar about seven years earlier.
Mike Picavet: He came up to me at Duffy’s and said, “Hey, I like your shirt.” And I’m like, “OK …”
Mike Picavet: And then, uh, Christina came up.
Zach Abell and Christina Araujo
Franklin County Clerk of Court
Christina Araujo — Abell’s girlfriend at the time. The two had been dating for about four years. Picavet says Araujo immediately started boasting about her powerful father.
Mike Picavet: Right outta the gate, she said, “Oh, yeah, my dad’s a major with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Department, and if we ever get into any trouble with the law, he can take care of it.” And I was like, “What?” Who says that?
Despite their odd first meeting, Picavet says he began hanging out with the couple. What followed were years of wild nights, wild parties, and lots of heavy drinking.
Mike Picavet: That was their go-to thing: “OK, we’ve gotta do shots of this, shots of this.”
But Picavet says there was an interesting power dynamic in the couple’s relationship with Araujo, who is eight years older than Abell, calling the shots.
Mike Picavet: She was very controlling and very directing. … He would follow her lead with stuff.
One day in 2016, Abell stopped by Picavet’s boat — but not with Araujo. Instead, Abell introduced Picavet to Aileen Seiden. Picavet could tell Abell now had two women in his life.
Mike Picavet: It was the weirdest thing. … If your relationship’s not working, just end it and move on.
However, Picavet says that Abell couldn’t make a clean break from Araujo, who was also his business partner.
Mike Picavet: He tried so many times. He just didn’t know how to … and then also, uh, all the threats all the time that she could make him disappear. … Every time she got drunk, she’d say some weird things.
Aileen’s best friend, Allie, says Abell and Aileen began to secretly date.
Allie: She seemed to love him so much that she was still hoping that he would, you know, decide to be with her. … He would lead her on to think, he was trying to end it with Christina.
In 2017, Aileen unexpectedly lost her job as a property manager.
Allie: She was really starting to lose control of her own life.
Allie says that may explain why Aileen eventually started working at Abell and Araujo’s used car dealership.
Allie: It wasn’t the independent life that she had always lived.
Allie says Aileen continued to pressure Abell to break up with Araujo for good. But when Abell finally tried to end things with Araujo, she countered with an unconventional proposal.
Allie: It was not the answer that anyone expected. … Christina came back and said, “Well, why don’t we try and all be in a relationship then?” … It now became this opportunity for this “throuple”, three-way kind of relationship.
A throuple is a romantic relationship among three people. Allie says Aileen was against the idea.
Allie: Aileen said, “Absolutely not. There’s no way. It’s never going to work.” And there was kind of crickets for a few weeks.
But Allie says Aileen later changed her mind. The trio was now a throuple.
Allie: I was in shock really. … But also a little bit happy for them that maybe this could work.
But it didn’t work. Before long, there was trouble.
Allie: This whole dynamic started to change where one of them always seemed to be the odd man out or was jealous. … And at that point it just started to spiral out of control.
According to Picavet, things escalated, leading to irrational behavior and fights fueled by alcohol. He says Aileen and Araujo traded punches often — usually resulting in black eyes — on one or both of the women; that they’d sometimes hide behind big sunglasses.
Mike Picavet: It was an everyday thing — every second day thing, I could say.
Allie remembers things differently. She says Abell was the main aggressor in the relationship.
Allie: Aileen would call me … and would say, “You have to come over here, like he hurt me again.” And I’d rush over there and photograph her and beg her to go to the police.
But Allie says Aileen refused, fearing Araujo’s law enforcement connections would work against her.
Aileen’s sister Franceasca was furious when she learned of the abuse.
Franceasca Seiden: I wanted my sister out of the situation … I wanted her out.
Peter Van Sant: It’s hard to leave.
Franceasca Seiden: It’s hard to leave. … And … I had this feeling that Christina was more … violent of the two.
Allie: It was really difficult to see her going through a time like this. It was just so hard. … And she was scared to death.
Once, Allie says the abuse got so bad, she took Aileen to the emergency room.
Allie: I took her to the hospital because … they have to report things. But she wouldn’t say where the bruises came from.
Aileen’s best friend had to deliver a hard truth.
Allie: “Aileen, you have to break up with this guy. Someone’s gonna end up dead.”
“I THINK THEY’RE GONNA KILL ME”
Allie: When Aileen was in real trouble, it was hard to get anyone to come rescue her.
The path that led to Aileen Seiden’s murder may have begun weeks earlier. In 2018, Allie was surprised that despite the physical violence in their relationship, Aileen had decided to move in with Zach Abell and Christina Araujo. The throuple was now working together, sleeping together, and living together.
From left, Zach Abell, Aileen Seiden and Christina Araujo were involved in a romantic relationship known as a “throuple.” Seiden’s best friend said that when Seiden began dating both Abell and Araujo in 2017, it didn’t take long for trouble to start.
Franklin County Clerk of Court/Franceasca Seiden
Allie: Aileen was trapped in the relationship because she was trapped financially. … But she felt that that was one last chance to make it work. … It was like a one month or two-month trial.
But within a few weeks, Allie says Aileen had had enough.
Allie: Aileen … was going to move out. … She was really done with the relationship.
But Aileen’s plans to leave were halted on April 7, 2018, after Abell and Araujo had gotten into a violent fight. Allie says she got a call from Aileen on Abell’s phone.
Allie: She was going to leave and get Zach out of the house. But like to go to a coffee shop. … The next call I got was from Christina. … She was angry and furious.
Allie says Araujo threatened to report the car Aileen and Abell were driving in as stolen in an apparent attempt to keep them from leaving her behind. Allie immediately warned Aileen and Abell.
Allie: Instead of coming around and coming back, like I thought they would, they hit the gas and went to Georgia. … I said, “What are you doing, Aileen? You don’t have your phone. You don’t have a wallet. This is crazy.” … She said, “We’re going on a road trip. … This is a good thing.”
But the road trip wasn’t a good thingto Christina Araujo. She began harassing Abell and Aileen, sending a storm of angry texts: “U 2 deserve each other.” Araujo sent more than 150 texts in roughly 24 hours. All went unanswered, including this one: “My dad will be calling u.” Later, Araujo issued this threat: “you f***** me over and now I’m f****** u over“
Allie: I was just trying to tell her, “Christina …why don’t you worry about … your own life?”
About 48 hours into the road trip, Abell and Aileen were heading to Texas and Araujo seemed to have a change of heart, texting: “… if you want to come back home come back. You never have to question my love …”
For reasons that are unknown, instead of coming home, Abell invited Araujo to join them, and she flew to Dallas.
But with the throuple united, the old problems returned.
Allie: Aileen started to call me from Zach’s phone at night saying, you know, “This is getting bad. And I don’t know what to do.” … It wasn’t until Christina arrived, that that started to happen. … I was really worried someone would get hurt.
By day 10 of the road trip, Aileen’s older sister, Franceasca was also worried. She hadn’t heard from Aileen in a while. When the trio stopped in New Orleans, Aileen finally called Franceasca and shared an alarming suspicion.
Franceasca Seiden: She’s like … “I think they’re gonna kill me.” No joke. … So I was like, “Aileen, run to the nearest gas station.” … “Go tell the person —”
Peter Van Sant: Call 911.
Franceasca Seiden: Yeah! … “Run to like —” I said “run, get the — get out of there.” … “Go!” …She’s like, “I can’t.”
Franceasca, desperate to help, tried to get more details from Aileen.
Franceasca Seiden: If I had where the address was, I would’ve called the police then and there, but she had to go, she had to get off and she hung up. … I was extremely frustrated but I — and I was scared.
With no way to help her sister, Franceasca hoped Aileen would stay safe.
The road trip continued into its second week. The trio then headed to Panama City, Florida, but a missed exit led them to the Forgotten Coast.
David Adlerstein: The road trip is difficult to understand; partying one day and murdering the next.
David Adlerstein is a reporter for The Apalachicola Times, one of the oldest newspapers in Florida.
David Adlerstein: I’ve been covering the Aileen Seiden case since the week it happened.
On the evening of April 21, the trio — captured on surveillance footage — stumbled into the quiet peace of Franklin County.
David Adlerstein: They went to a popular restaurant, the Red Pirate, played miniature golf, partied.
At the recommendation of a local, the throuple headed to the nearby Sportsman’s Lodge Motel. They reserved the last vacancy of the night: Room 15. The next morning, on April 22, 2018, the throuple made a plan.
David Adlerstein: They decided they’d spend another day there, not get back on the road, and make it a — a party. So they got up in the morning and went to the liquor store.
From left, Aileen Seiden, Zach Abell and Christina Araujo are seen in security camera video at a liquor store in Franklin County, Florida, on April 22, 2018.
Franklin County Clerk of Court
Here they are in a screenshot from the store’s surveillance footage. While there, the trio purchased large bottles of vodka and Fireball whiskey.
David Adlerstein: When I went to investigate … their path that day and went to the liquor store … the clerk, she pointed out that the Fireball that they bought was the largest bottle you could buy, and this is just the three of them.
The throuple then returned to the Sportsman’s Lodge Motel.
Allie: I don’t think Aileen was having fun. I think she was just trying to maybe get by and stay alive.
Allie says she spoke to Aileen that day.
Allie: Aileen said … “I need to leave him. I’m telling you. I’m like a sex slave. He has this really scary look in his eye. It’s very scary. It’s different.” … And she said, “I need your help.”
Allie says the two friends had crafted an escape plan: Aileen would get on a bus from Tampa — the trio’s next destination.
Allie: I bought her a Greyhound ticket because she didn’t have a wallet.
The bus would drop Aileen off near Miami and Allie would take her home. Aileen just needed to get on that bus, and she’d be safe.
Allie: And then, you know, I never heard back. I never heard anything after that …
The next night, hundreds of miles away in Fort Lauderdale, Mike Picavet was home and alone. There was a knock at the door. It was Christina Araujo and Zach Abell.
Mike Picavet: I was like, “OK, where’s Aileen?” And right away, Christina says, “Oh, she ran away.” … And I said, “Bulls***.” I said, “Where is she?” And Zach right away … started to choke up, and he said, “She’s dead.”
The news was shocking enough, but Picavet says once Araujo was out of earshot, Abell told him what happened.
Mike Picavet: He said that Christina killed her. He woke up. … She was dead next to him. And, uh, he tried to give her CPR, then, uh, wanted to call 911. Christina said “No” and told him, “You can’t call 911.” … For some reason, he kept on saying he had to protect Christina. …And I’m like, “What do you gotta protect her for?”
Picavet says he wanted to protect both of his friends. He feared a violent outcome if he called 911.
Mike Picavet: I didn’t want them to get killed … I just wanted to make sure that … they were brought in in a safe, uh, way. … The only thing that I could think about … is to go talk to her father.
Christina’s father, Colonel Tony Araujo. The one, Picavet says, Christina had always bragged could make her problems go away. When Abell and Christina fell asleep on the sofa, Picavet took a photo of Abell and Araujo on his couch, and says he went online to search for Christina’s father — a man he had never met.
Mike Picavet: So, I was panicking, trying to find his phone number.
When Picavet finally got ahold of Colonel Araujo, he didn’t immediately reveal the deadly news.
Mike Picavet: I said, “I gotta talk to you. It’s about Christina. It’s very important.”
Picavet says Araujo’s father directed Mike to meet him at an odd place: a gas station.
Mike Picavet: So I went up there … I said, “Christina killed somebody.” And he says, “You know I’m a cop, right?” And I’m like, “Yes, sir. I do.” … He right away said, “Wait right there.”
Picavet says Araujo’s father then brought him to the sheriff’s office to make a formal statement.
Mike Picavet: He did what was the right thing to do. … He … got two other people to ask me all the questions.
“She had bruises … from head-to-toe, covering her entire body. She had lacerations on her face, stomach, legs,” said Lt. Ronnie Jones of the body found on Highway 98 that was later identified as Aileen Seiden. Zach Abell and Christina Araujo were both charged with first-degree murder. Both claimed they were innocent.
Broward County Sheriff’s Office
Later that day, Picavet was shown a photo, and he was the one to identify the battered body of Aileen Seiden. With that confirmation, police descended on Picavet’s home as Abell and Araujo were about to leave. They were arrested and brought back to Franklin County. The pair was later charged with first-degree murder. It would take almost six years before they would face a jury — and by then, only one of them would stand trial.
WHAT HAPPENED INSIDE ROOM 15?
For almost six years, Franceasca Seiden lived in agonizing limbo as her sister Aileen’s case — complicated by having two defendants — faced delay after frustrating delay.
Franceasca Seiden: (crying) You’re healing, you’re doing the things that you need to heal and then you’re stopped.…And now you’re gonna get ready for this big moment. … and then it stops again.
Finally, in January 2024, at the Franklin County Courthouse in Apalachicola, Florida, Zach Abell was about to face trial. He had pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and would stand before the jury alone. Eight months earlier, Christina Araujo took a plea deal for a lesser charge of second-degree murder.
Peter Van Sant: So, she admitted taking part in this?
Jarred Patterson: Yes. … she implicated herself … in the actual beating of Aileen.
After studying a mountain of evidence, prosecutor Jarred Patterson believes Abell was more responsible in Aileen’s murder. And the state is relying on the jury believing Araujo’s version of what happened inside room 15.
Jarred Patterson: The only one who has told us anything about what happened in that room is Christina Araujo.
David Adlerstein: Once Christina made her plea deal, she would become the prosecution’s star witness.
Print reporter David Adlerstein, camera in hand, was there as Christina Araujo transported the courtroom back to the evening of April 22, 2018. Araujo testified that she, Zach Abell and Aileen were relaxing in the room at the Sportsman’s Lodge Motel after a day of heavy drinking.
Christina Araujo took a plea deal for a lesser charge of second-degree murder and testified against Zach Abell.
David Adlerstein
JARRED PATTERSON (in court): When Zach drinks, does he act differently?
CHRISTINA ARAUJO (in court): Yes … He becomes very aggressive, very mean.
Abell became violently enraged, says Araujo, when Aileen posed a seemingly innocent question.
CHRISTINA ARAUJO (in court): She said, “Christina, guess what?”
Peter Van Sant: And she looks over at Christina and says, hey “Christina, guess what …” How would that sentence be finished?
Jarred Patterson: I have no idea ’cause she never got to finish it.
CHRISTINA ARAUJO (in court): Zachary got up immediately and went over to her, and was in her face, hitting her. … He’s just yelling at her, telling her, “You always start problems.” (crying)
Araujo admits to also hitting Aileen as she demanded to know what she was about to say. She never got an answer.
CHRISTINA ARAUJO (in court): And I got so frustrated, I just went and got — I left the room.
After stepping outside room 15 for a few minutes, Araujo claims she returned to find Abell and Aileen in the bathroom.
CHRISTINA ARAUJO (in court): When I opened the door, he had something white in his hand, like if he was poking at her.
Jarred Patterson: The medical examiner was able to identify small circular bruising to the body of Aileen that … could be consistent with a shower curtain rod.
Like the shower curtain rod investigators recovered that had palm print impressions in Aileen’s blood.
Peter Van Sant: Whose palm was it?
Jarred Patterson: The palm print belonged to Zach Abell.
The assault continued near the beds says Araujo, where she says Abell reached for his wooden walking stick.
CHRISTINA ARAUJO (in court): He hits her several times with it. … When he hit her in the — the back though, the stick broke.
Jarred Patterson: We had actually found pieces of that wooden staff in the hotel room … we didn’t realize the significance of it until we found the other piece in the vehicle that contained our victim’s DNA.
Araujo says she watched in terror as Abell began using that stick to sexually assault Aileen.
David Adlerstein: Christina’s description of the crime was … horrifying to listen to. … Aileen clearly suffered a terrible death.
Adlerstein recalls the medical examiner saying Aileen’s injuries reminded him of those he had seen in motor vehicle crashes.
David Adlerstein: As a reporter, I try very hard to not be emotional. I distinctly remember … fighting back tears.
Araujo claims she eventually put herself between Abell and Aileen, and the attack finally stopped. Aileen was badly beaten but still alive, she says. And the exhausted trio just fell sleep.
CHRISTINA ARAUJO (in court): I didn’t think she was gonna die from it.
Araujo claims it wasn’t until she woke up the next morning that she realized Aileen was dead. She says she only participated in the coverup out of fear of what Abell might do to her.
David Adlerstein: She seemed to me genuinely remorseful … Others had different opinions.
Peter Van Sant: Who is Christina Araujo in your book?
Alex Morris: Manipulative, cunning, a chameleon. … I think that there’s evil in her.
Alex Morris is Zach Abell’s attorney. He says Christina Araujo acted alone.
Alex Morris: I believe that she is the murderer.
The photo taken of Zach Abell and Christina Araujo by Mike Picavet at Picavet’s home in Fort Lauderdale on April 23, 2018.
Franklin County Clerk of Court
Morris says, it was Christina Araujo who beat Aileen, and that photo taken by Mike Picavet at his home after the murder shows she had injuries to her hands and feet.
Peter Van Sant: Which tells you, Christina must have been the attacker.
Alex Morris: That’s right.
Araujo was the one with homicidal intent, says Morris, triggered when Abell and Aileen took off with her in the rearview mirror. And he says those threatening texts that she sent to Abell’s phone before joining them on the road trip read like a confession.
Alex Morris: There are threats of bodily harm to both Aileen and Zach in the messages.
Peter Van Sant (reading Araujo’s text): “You come near me hoe, I will kill you.”
Alex Morris: I think it speaks for itself. And that’s exactly what happened.
After Aileen’s murder, Morris says Araujo wiped down the motel room—using the vinegar that Ronnie Jones would later smell. He says Abell’s palm prints on the curtain rod got there when he moved it during the cleanup.
Alex Morris: He was instructed to pick the curtain rod up over there and put it over there.
Peter Van Sant: By?
Alex Morris: Christina.
A toll booth surveillance photo from after the murder shows that Christina Araujo, and not Zach Abell, was the one driving the car. And therefore, Morris says, she was the one in control.
A toll booth surveillance photo from after the murder shows Christina Araujo, and not Zach Abell, driving the car. And therefore, Abell’s attorney Alex Morris says, she was the one in control.
Franklin County Clerk of Court
Alex Morris: The evidence indicates Christina to be … the one giving the directions … and had everything to be able to manipulate the situation.
Manipulating Zach Abell, says Morris, because of those threats she had been making for years about her father’s influence in solving her problems.
Alex Morris: Bottom line is Zach was fearful of Christina’s father.
Abell chose not to testify. When Morris made his final arguments to the jury, he concluded the evidence showed there was only one person who wanted Aileen Seiden dead.
ALEX MORRIS (in court): They haven’t proven any motive as to why Mr. Abell would be interested in murdering Ms. Seiden, but I’ll tell you where motive lies and it’s clear as day, and that’s with Ms. Araujo.
Alex Morris: The motive being: I want rid of the person who’s taken my man.
Peter Van Sant: So jealousy?
Alex Morris: Yes.
In his closing, Patterson said Christina Araujo already accepted her role in this crime. He asked the jury to hold Zach Abell accountable for his part by finding him guilty of murder.
JARRED PATTERSON (in court): They lived together. …They worked together. They own a business together. … They went to the Sportsman’s Lodge together. … They emptied out the room together. … They ran away together. … They got arrested together. The only thing they didn’t do together was kill Aileen Seiden? No way.
But who would the jury believe?
A QUESTION UNANSWERED
Ronnie Jones: She wasn’t born here. … And she didn’t live here. But she was left here. And she’ll always be remembered by Franklin County.
Aileen Seiden
Aileen Seiden/Instagram
Residents of Florida’s Forgotten Coast will now long remember Aileen Seiden, says Ronnie Jones. Almost six years after her death, the community waited for justice for the stranger they now had come to embrace as one of their own.
Peter Van Sant: What was going through your mind as the jury begins its deliberation?
Ronnie Jones: Make it quick.
David Adlerstein: I was told by the jury foreman that when they first went in … there was 10 in favor of first-degree premeditated murder with two holdouts.
After about five hours of deliberations, the jury reached a consensus.
JUDGE ALLMAN (in court): In the case of the State of Florida vs. Zachary Ray Abell … the defendant is guilty of the lesser included offense of second-degree murder.
Zach Abell was found guilty of second-degree murder.
CBS News
Second-degree murder just like Christina Araujo. Adlerstein says the jury foreman told him they just couldn’t decide if Abell had actually intended to kill Aileen.
David Adlerstein: They knew that, uh, Christina had pled guilty to second, and I think they eventually said … we’re going to give him the same.
Mike Picavet: It doesn’t tell me that they’re equally responsible.
Mike Picavet says even with the verdict, he is convinced his friend played no part in Aileen’s death.
Mike Picavet: To me, there’s an innocent man sitting in jail.
Ronnie Jones: I think they’re both just as guilty as the other.
Now retired from law enforcement, Ronnie Jones spends his days tending his bar in Apalachicola. He says he’s still left wondering what really happened inside room 15.
Peter Van Sant: Is this case a mystery to you?
Ronnie Jones: It’s not a mystery on exactly what happened, but exactly why it happened … That is what still bothers me to this day. Why?
Like what Aileen might have been about to say that sparked the attack.
Ronnie Jones: It was my understanding in the rumors … that she was fixing to disclose the fact that she was pregnant.
Peter Van Sant: Pregnant. And was she pregnant? Did you learn that at the autopsy?
Ronnie Jones: I was at the autopsy, and she was not pregnant. … I don’t know if she thought she was or not.
When it was time for sentencing, Abell finally spoke and told the courtroom another twist in this tortured story.
ZACH ABELL (at sentencing): I had stopped, and I had grabbed a Ring Pop. And I proposed to her with a Ring Pop and asked her to marry me. And she said, “Yes.” … And me and Aileen were gonna go our way and leave Christina out of it.
Peter Van Sant: Zach spoke at his sentencing and said that he’d actually proposed to Aileen during this trip.
Franceasca Seiden: Uh, I think that is just … BS. … Uh, it’s a great story, but no.
JUDGE ALLMAN (at sentencing): I have been in the justice system in one form or another, for 40 years, rarely have I seen the sort of injuries … that I saw on Aileen Seiden.
The judge told Abell he wished he could impose a harsher punishment before sentencing him to the maximum: life in prison.
Jarred Patterson: In the state of Florida, life means life, we don’t have parole.
At her sentencing, Araujo’s father Colonel Tony Araujo set the record straight. He said he never used his influence to benefit his daughter, and he recalled the conversation he had with her after the murder.
COL. TONY ARAUJO (at sentencing): “You will own up to the truth. You will accept responsibility. You will be the voice of the victim, and you will testify under oath in a court of law. … And then whatever is sentenced to you, that’s fine.”
Jarred Patterson: There was no agreement with her as to the length of sentence … She gave her statement with the knowledge that she could still receive life in prison.
CHRISTINA ARAUJO (at sentencing): I think about that day every day of my life. … The details haunt me, and the memories keep me up.
The judge acknowledged her cooperation, and sentenced Araujo to 25 years.
Ronnie Jones: Justice has been served. He won’t beat up anymore females; neither will she.
Allie: I think that every woman kind of thinks, “I would leave if I was in that situation. I would just get up and leave. I would never tolerate that.”
Aileen’s best friend Allie hopes there will be more compassion for those trapped in abusive relationships.
Allie: It’s always that, “I’m sorry. It’s never going to happen again.” … and you believe it, because you’re in love and things are good 95% of the time. But the 5% that are bad are so bad.
“She was such a sweetheart. Her soul was so kind,” Franceasca Seiden, left, said of her younger sister, Aileen.
Franceasca Seiden
Peter Van Sant: With your sister gone, how do you want her to be remembered?
Franceasca Seiden: I want her to be remembered as a sweet, loving human being whom … unfortunately had … lost her parents at such a young age, but she was still so sweet. Like she was such a sweetheart. Her soul was so kind.
Christina Araujo is scheduled to be released in 2043. She will be 63 years old.
Produced by Lauren A. White and Richard Fetzer. Marlon Disla and Phil Tangel are the editors. Ryan Smith and Tamara Weitzman are the development producers. Chelsea Narvaez is the associate producer and Cameron Rubner is the broadcast associate. Anthony Batson is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.
Peter Van Sant is an award-winning correspondent for “48 Hours, where his true-crime and justice reporting is featured across multiple CBS News broadcasts and platforms. During a career that spans nearly five decades, Van Sant has covered many of the most significant events of our lifetime.Additionally, Van Sant hosts the top-ranking podcast “Blood is Thicker.”
The trial of the man accused of murdering two girls in Delphi, Indiana, continued for its second day on Saturday with testimony from a former local police chief and two people who searched for Abby Williams and Libby German in 2017.
Saturday’s testimony dug deeper into the initial reports that the two teenage girls were missing and the immediate response to try to find them.
Richard Allen, the pharmacy technician accused of killing the girls, stands charged with murder.
In 2017, the girls went for a hike and never returned. Their bodies were found the next day.
Two members of the search party for the girls testified.
Jake Johns remembered someone seeing footprints down the hill to the riverbank. A description that fits the prosecutor’s theory that the person who killed forced them to walk down the hill to the side of the creek.
Later, the same witness saw what ended up being German’s tie-dye shirt floating in the water.
Pat Brown, another witness, told the jury he was the one who found the girls’ bodies. He remembered calling out “We found ’em!” and added “I thought they were mannequins.” He voice cracked as he testified.
Disturbing new details and heart-wrenching testimony were given during the first day of the Delphi murders trial. Prosecutors revealed how Abby Williams, 13, and Libby German, 14, were killed on a hiking trail more than seven years ago. Here’s what to know about the case.
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