Latest / Gone Cold - Texas True Crime / Cynthia Gonzalez Part One: Six Days

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Cynthia Gonzalez Part One: Six Days · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

0:01
Speaker 1: Gone Cold Podcast may contain violent or graphic subject matter.
0:05
Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised. Arlington, Texas is situated between Dallas
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Speaker 1: and Fort Worth. The city spent much of the four
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Speaker 1: decades preceding the 1990s growing from a relatively small community
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Speaker 1: into one of the largest cities in North Texas. In 1950,
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Speaker 1: Arlington had fewer than 8,000 residents. By 1980, its population
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Speaker 1: exceeded 160,000, and the 1990 census recorded 261,721 people. The
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Speaker 1: city had become the seventh largest in Texas, having added
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Speaker 1: more than 100,000 residents in just 10 years. The expansion
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Speaker 1: was supported by a combination of manufacturing, education, commerce, and entertainment.
1:00
Speaker 1: General Motors, the University of Texas at Arlington, and a
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Speaker 1: growing network of commercial businesses helped support the city's economy.
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Speaker 1: National Semiconductor, Hughes Corporation, and the Arlington Independent School District
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Speaker 1: were among the area's major employers, while Six Flags over
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Speaker 1: Texas and the Texas Rangers had given Arlington an identity
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Speaker 1: extending well beyond its borders. In February 1988, the parks
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Speaker 1: at Arlington Mall opened near South Cooper Street and Interstate 20,
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Speaker 1: adding another major shopping destination to the growing city. And
1:40
Speaker 1: at the same time, the local workforce was changing. In 1990,
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Speaker 1: approximately one-quarter of Arlington's workers were employed in retail or
1:51
Speaker 1: service occupations. reflecting the increasing importance of businesses serving the
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Speaker 1: city's expanding population. Not every part of Arlington, however, was
2:03
Speaker 1: undergoing the same kind of development. Away from the amusement parks, stadium,
2:09
Speaker 1: and newer shopping centers were established neighborhoods and commercial corridors
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Speaker 1: that had been part of the city long before that
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Speaker 1: period of growth. Pioneer Parkway was a main route to
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Speaker 1: many of those areas. Designated State Spur 303, the roadway
2:27
Speaker 1: extended eastward from Fort Worth. It passed alongside the Arlington suburbs, Pantigo,
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Speaker 1: and Dow Worthington Gardens, and cut across the city itself.
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Speaker 1: It was an important east-west connection through southern Tarrant County,
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Speaker 1: intersecting many of the principal roads that carried traffic north
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Speaker 1: and south through Arlington. By the early 1990s, the surrounding
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Speaker 1: area was part of a much larger metropolitan landscape, with
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Speaker 1: residential neighborhoods, apartment developments, and businesses spread across what had
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Speaker 1: once been more distinct communities. The roadway connected the residents
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Speaker 1: to shopping, employment, and the wider network of streets and
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Speaker 1: highways linking Arlington with Dallas and Fort Worth. It was
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Speaker 1: in an apartment off West Pioneer Parkway that 25-year-old Cynthia
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Speaker 1: Gonzalez was living in September 1991. Cynthia had been navigating
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Speaker 1: a difficult period in her personal life, but she was
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Speaker 1: also pursuing a business of her own. One evening that month,
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Speaker 1: she was scheduled to meet a customer near South Cooper
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Speaker 1: Street and Grand Avenue in Central Arlington, but she never returned,
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Speaker 1: and eventually... The search for a missing person became a
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Speaker 1: homicide case. The End Cynthia Renee Gandy, whom many called Cindy,
4:21
Speaker 1: was born in Fort Worth on March 26, 1966, to
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Speaker 1: Linda and Michael Gandy. She grew up in River Oaks,
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Speaker 1: on the northwest side of Fort Worth. River Oaks was
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Speaker 1: a small, tightly packed community that had grown rapidly during
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Speaker 1: and after World War II. because of nearby Carswell Air
4:42
Speaker 1: Force Base and a massive aircraft plant that would later
4:46
Speaker 1: become part of General Dynamics. For decades, many families in
4:51
Speaker 1: the area made their living through the base, aircraft manufacturing,
4:56
Speaker 1: and other defense-related work, giving River Oaks a distinctly blue-collar character.
5:03
Speaker 1: Cynthia attended Castleberry Elementary, Irma Marsh Junior High, and Castleberry
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Speaker 1: High School before the family moved across town to the
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Speaker 1: Riverside area on Fort Worth's northeast side. There, she transferred
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Speaker 1: to Carter Riverside High, a larger school serving the surrounding
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Speaker 1: several east and northeast neighborhoods. Riverside was one of Fort
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Speaker 1: Worth's older, long-established communities, with modest homes, churches, schools, and
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Speaker 1: local businesses near the Trinity River and only a few
5:38
Speaker 1: miles from downtown. By the early 1980s, the largely working-class
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Speaker 1: area was a different setting from the smaller River Oaks
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Speaker 1: community where Cynthia Gandy had spent much of her childhood.
5:52
Speaker 1: In school, Cynthia was active, outgoing, athletic, and popular. She
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Speaker 1: participated in Future Homemakers of America and played both softball
6:03
Speaker 1: and volleyball. During her junior year, she was chosen as
6:07
Speaker 1: a school queen. Away from class, Cynthia loved music and
6:12
Speaker 1: going to concerts and was involved with the Christian Center
6:16
Speaker 1: in Fort Worth. Cynthia had an adventurous, free-spirited personality. and
6:21
Speaker 1: was remembered as someone who was incredibly easy to like,
6:26
Speaker 1: someone who seemed to make friends wherever she went. In 1984,
6:32
Speaker 1: around the time of her 18th birthday, Cynthia learned she
6:36
Speaker 1: was pregnant by a man named Donald Gonzalez, or Don,
6:40
Speaker 1: who was nearly seven years older. The two married that June,
6:44
Speaker 1: and she began her senior year at Carter Riverside that fall.
6:49
Speaker 1: Their daughter, Jessica, or Jessie, was born in December, and
6:54
Speaker 1: Cynthia did not return to school to complete her senior year.
6:58
Speaker 1: For more than six years, she and Don built a
7:01
Speaker 1: life together in Azle, a little town several miles northwest
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Speaker 1: of Fort Worth. Jessie remembers a mother who doted on her.
7:11
Speaker 1: Cynthia enrolled her in cheerleading and dance, always fixed her
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Speaker 1: hair and dressed her carefully, and treated her, Jessie later said,
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Speaker 1: almost like a little doll. Cynthia was deeply involved in
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Speaker 1: her daughter's life and devoted to her. But by early 1991,
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Speaker 1: she and Don's marriage had begun to break down and
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Speaker 1: the couple separated. She moved into a modest apartment on
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Speaker 1: West Pioneer Parkway in Arlington while he remained in Azle.
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Speaker 1: At first, they were still trying to work through their
7:46
Speaker 1: problems and didn't intend to divorce. but as the relationship
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Speaker 1: deteriorated further, they became involved in an increasingly contentious dispute
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Speaker 1: over Jessie, who primarily lived with her father but continued
8:00
Speaker 1: spending time with her mother. Cynthia supported herself in part
8:05
Speaker 1: by dancing at night at Playmates, a semi-nude club located
8:10
Speaker 1: in an industrial park along Great Southwest Parkway in Arlington. Professionally,
8:16
Speaker 1: she used her middle name, Renee, She loved taking the
8:21
Speaker 1: stage in a Stevie Nicks-inspired look, wearing black lace gloves
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Speaker 1: that extended beyond her elbows, and performing to Fleetwood Mac's Rhiannon.
8:32
Speaker 1: Her unusual belly dancing style drew attention around the club,
8:36
Speaker 1: and on a good night, Cynthia could make around $ 150
8:38
Speaker 1: in tips, roughly $ 370 today. At the same time, she
8:40
Speaker 1: was trying to build something of her own. Shortly before
8:50
Speaker 1: her separation from Don, Cynthia formed Beauty and the Beast Entertainment,
8:56
Speaker 1: and by September she was running the company from the
8:58
Speaker 1: dining room table of her Arlington apartment. The small business
9:03
Speaker 1: provided everything from clowns for children's parties to strippograms for birthdays,
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Speaker 1: bachelor and bachelorette parties, and whatever other occasion a client
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Speaker 1: had in mind. About five performers worked for Cynthia, and
9:19
Speaker 1: the bookings were designed as playful surprises, with costumes and
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Speaker 1: disguises often incorporated into the act. Cynthia herself sometimes arrived
9:29
Speaker 1: pretending to be a delivery driver or police officer before
9:33
Speaker 1: revealing the real reason she was there. She also used
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Speaker 1: her car to advertise the business. Her white 1984 Pontiac Fiero,
9:44
Speaker 1: a compact two-seat sports car with retractable headlights, featured a
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Speaker 1: Beauty and the Beast decal with the company's telephone number,
9:52
Speaker 1: turning it into a rolling advertisement. Friends believed the burgeoning
9:57
Speaker 1: business represented more to Cynthia. than simply another source of income.
10:03
Speaker 1: She hoped that, if it became successful enough, Beauty and
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Speaker 1: the Beast Entertainment would eventually allow her to leave dancing
10:10
Speaker 1: at Playmates behind. And it wasn't the only thing about
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Speaker 1: Cynthia's life that was changing. Sometime in January 1991, Cynthia
10:32
Speaker 1: Gonzalez met Rocky Ortiz, an Army veteran and divorced father
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Speaker 1: who was working full-time while attending college. Rocky walked into
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Speaker 1: Playmates one night and noticed Cynthia from across the room.
10:46
Speaker 1: He later said that the moment he saw her, something
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Speaker 1: just clicked. Rocky got her telephone number that night, and
10:54
Speaker 1: the two met again a couple days later before Cynthia's shift.
10:59
Speaker 1: According to him, she later said she'd been struck by
11:02
Speaker 1: him the first time she saw him as well. Their
11:06
Speaker 1: relationship developed gradually. Cynthia and Rocky knew each other for
11:11
Speaker 1: about two months before they officially became a couple. But
11:15
Speaker 1: by then, he said, they had already grown close. He
11:19
Speaker 1: also became involved with Beauty and the Beast Entertainment as
11:23
Speaker 1: one of Cynthia's handful of performers. sometimes doing strippograms dressed
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Speaker 1: as the Lone Ranger, complete with a mask and holstered six-shooters.
11:34
Speaker 1: There was, however, another woman in Rocky's life. Her name
11:39
Speaker 1: was Janie Hatley. And when Rocky first met Cynthia, Janie
11:44
Speaker 1: was living with him. Exactly how those relationships overlapped depended
11:50
Speaker 1: on who you asked. According to a later police affidavit,
11:54
Speaker 1: Rocky was sexually involved with both Cynthia and Janie. He
12:00
Speaker 1: disputed that account, maintaining that his relationship with Janie had
12:05
Speaker 1: ended around three weeks before he and Cynthia officially became
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Speaker 1: a couple. And Rocky said the breakup with Janie was
12:13
Speaker 1: anything but peaceful. When he told her he wanted to
12:16
Speaker 1: end things to be solely with Cynthia, Janie struck him
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Speaker 1: from behind and caused him to fall. Rocky said he
12:23
Speaker 1: responded by kneeing her in the stomach. As a result,
12:28
Speaker 1: she had difficulty breathing and he called 911. The man's
12:33
Speaker 1: admissions certainly suggested toxicity and perhaps even mutual abuse. Rocky
12:40
Speaker 1: eventually moved in with Cynthia, but Janie didn't disappear from
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Speaker 1: their lives. Struggling with a breakup, She eventually confronted Cynthia
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Speaker 1: about Rocky at her apartment. Rather than respond with anger,
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Speaker 1: Cynthia felt sorry for her and invited her inside to
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Speaker 1: talk through what had happened among the three of them.
13:03
Speaker 1: Rocky later remembered Cynthia as unusually compassionate. She understood that
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Speaker 1: Janie was hurting and wanted to keep the situation from
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Speaker 1: becoming even more contentious. Her empathetic approach seemed to work.
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Speaker 1: Janie continued coming around afterward, and sometimes spent time with
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Speaker 1: Cynthia and Rocky together. Her name appeared several times in
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Speaker 1: Cynthia's diary, in fact, showing that Janie remained a presence
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Speaker 1: in her life. Rocky was later adamant, however, that the
13:38
Speaker 1: two were not friends. To him, Cynthia was simply showing
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Speaker 1: kindness to someone struggling with a breakup. while Janie used
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Speaker 1: that sympathy in a way to remain close to both
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Speaker 1: of them. Rocky Ortiz, anyway, described Cynthia as the great
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Speaker 1: love of his life, and there's evidence she felt at
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Speaker 1: least somewhat strongly about him. In a notebook on her
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Speaker 1: coffee table, she doodled the name Cynthia Renee Ortiz and
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Speaker 1: surrounded it with hearts, as though trying out what it
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Speaker 1: might look like if they were to marry. Their children
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Speaker 1: were close enough in age that Cynthia and Jesse sometimes
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Speaker 1: spent time with Rocky and his son as a family.
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Speaker 1: Vera Woodring, the manager of Cynthia's apartment complex, remembered the
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Speaker 1: couple as quiet, pleasant tenants who had few visitors and
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Speaker 1: appeared quite attached to one another. Woodring recalled one argument
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Speaker 1: the couple had in July 1991. Cynthia came to her
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Speaker 1: in tears, she said. asking what she was going to
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Speaker 1: do without Rocky. Woodring reassured her that he would come back,
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Speaker 1: and he did. But not terribly long after Rocky became
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Speaker 1: a part of Cynthia's life, the worst thing imaginable happened.
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Speaker 1: On Monday, September 16, 1991, Cynthia was spending the day
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Speaker 1: with six-year-old Jesse when a problem came up with Beauty
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Speaker 1: and the Beast Entertainment. One of her dancers had a
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Speaker 1: last-minute conflict and could not perform a scheduled strippogram that evening,
15:17
Speaker 1: and none of the other performers were available on such
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Speaker 1: short notice. She decided she'd take the job herself. Cynthia
15:26
Speaker 1: called her estranged husband, Don, who was working as a
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Speaker 1: vending machine technician, and asked him to leave work and
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Speaker 1: pick up their daughter. The sudden end to the visit
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Speaker 1: upset Jessie. She'd been enjoying the time with her mother
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Speaker 1: and didn't want to leave. Jessie later remembered crying as
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Speaker 1: Cynthia tried to comfort her before Don drove her back
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Speaker 1: to Azel. She later said she had an unusually bad feeling,
15:53
Speaker 1: as though she might never see her mother again. That afternoon,
15:59
Speaker 1: even before Jessie had gone with her father, Cynthia began
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Speaker 1: preparing for the gig. For the strippogram, she chose a
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Speaker 1: Pizza Hut delivery driver uniform and carried a prop pizza
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Speaker 1: box to complete the disguise. According to Rocky, the performance
16:16
Speaker 1: was scheduled for about 6.30 p.m. at a private residence.
16:21
Speaker 1: Her strippograms usually lasted only 15 or 20 minutes, and
16:25
Speaker 1: she generally took an escort with her for safety when
16:29
Speaker 1: going to private calls. This time, however, the person requesting
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Speaker 1: the performance wanted her to come alone. It was odd,
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Speaker 1: but Cynthia went anyway. Rocky left her apartment at about
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Speaker 1: three that afternoon to attend an aviation class at a
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Speaker 1: nearby airport. When he returned later that night, Cynthia wasn't there.
16:52
Speaker 1: The television and stereo were still on. Two unopened packs
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Speaker 1: of cigarettes remained inside. Rocky knew her habits, and those
17:02
Speaker 1: details suggested she hadn't expected to be gone long. This
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Speaker 1: was the era of pagers, long before cell phones were
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Speaker 1: even close to common, and Rocky paged Cynthia several times.
17:16
Speaker 1: She never called him back. He didn't immediately assume something
17:20
Speaker 1: was wrong, he later said. He thought she might have
17:24
Speaker 1: gone out after the performance and was just partying. But
17:28
Speaker 1: as the hours passed without any word from her, Cynthia's
17:32
Speaker 1: absence became increasingly unusual. By the following morning, the people
17:37
Speaker 1: closest to her knew something was wrong. Rocky had already
17:43
Speaker 1: contacted Don Gonzalez after Cynthia failed to come home. He
17:48
Speaker 1: hadn't heard from her either. At around noon on Tuesday,
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Speaker 1: September 17th, Don reported his estranged wife missing to the
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Speaker 1: Arlington Police Department. Whatever differences existed between him and Rocky
18:03
Speaker 1: were set aside for the time being. That afternoon, both
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Speaker 1: men began searching Arlington for Cynthia. Friends joined them, driving
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Speaker 1: streets and checking places where they thought she might have gone.
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Speaker 1: It didn't take long to find her car. Dawn and
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Speaker 1: friends located the Pontiac Fiero on the 900 block of
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Speaker 1: Cedar Springs Terrace, a quiet, small residential loop in Arlington
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Speaker 1: tucked behind South Collins Street, which is a main thoroughfare.
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Speaker 1: Cynthia wasn't inside the car. Friends feared she might be
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Speaker 1: in the trunk, but they also understood they should not
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Speaker 1: begin handling the vehicle and risk disturbing possible evidence. Police
18:47
Speaker 1: were called. and the group was told to leave the area.
18:51
Speaker 1: Officers confirmed that Cynthia was not in the trunk, but
18:55
Speaker 1: the things she'd taken to work were in the car.
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Speaker 1: Her Pizza Hut delivery driver uniform was inside, neatly folded.
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Speaker 1: A prop pizza box was there, too. There were no
19:08
Speaker 1: signs of a struggle. After knocking on some doors, detectives
19:13
Speaker 1: learned the residents of Cedar Springs Terrace didn't know Cynthia.
19:18
Speaker 1: and they found no indication that anyone there had hosted
19:21
Speaker 1: a party that might explain why her car was parked
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Speaker 1: on the street. Rather than impound the missing woman's Fiero
19:29
Speaker 1: and process it immediately for fingerprints and other potential evidence,
19:34
Speaker 1: police released it to Dawn and allowed it to be
19:36
Speaker 1: towed home. By the time investigators later examined it, so
19:41
Speaker 1: many people had already been through the vehicle that whatever
19:45
Speaker 1: useful evidence it might have contained was likely gone at
19:49
Speaker 1: the time. however, the immediate priority had been finding Cynthia Gonzalez.
19:56
Speaker 1: Her mother, Linda Gandy, later remembered having a powerful sense
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Speaker 1: that something was wrong before she even knew Cynthia was missing.
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Speaker 1: Late Monday night, she suddenly felt overwhelmed by an intense
20:08
Speaker 1: sense of loss and called her daughter, but got the
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Speaker 1: answering machine. The next day, Don told her that Cynthia
20:17
Speaker 1: had disappeared. She went to Cynthia's apartment and sat at
20:21
Speaker 1: the dining room table her daughter used as the office
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Speaker 1: for Beauty and the Beast Entertainment. Surrounded by papers, files,
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Speaker 1: the telephone, and the answering machine she used for the business,
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Speaker 1: Linda repeatedly went through the records looking for anything that
20:38
Speaker 1: might identify the client Cynthia had gone to see Monday night.
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Speaker 1: The files contained names, telephone numbers, dates, and other booking information,
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Speaker 1: and she believed something among them might help explain where
20:51
Speaker 1: Cynthia had gone. The phone continued ringing throughout the day.
20:56
Speaker 1: Some customers called to confirm parties and appointments, while others
21:01
Speaker 1: wanted to book performances. Linda answered the calls herself and
21:06
Speaker 1: had to explain that Cynthia was missing and that the
21:09
Speaker 1: company's bookings were on hold. When she let the answering
21:13
Speaker 1: machine take the calls, hearing her daughter's recorded voice made
21:17
Speaker 1: the situation even more difficult. But what especially troubled Linda
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Speaker 1: was that Cynthia's records showed appointments scheduled through September 25th,
21:28
Speaker 1: yet there was no entry for the job she had
21:31
Speaker 1: reportedly taken on September 16th. Cynthia Gonzalez's family and friends
21:47
Speaker 1: continued searching Arlington themselves, checking places where they thought she
21:52
Speaker 1: might have gone, and far worse, where someone might have
21:56
Speaker 1: left her, places like parks, creeks, fields, and sewer drains.
22:02
Speaker 1: They posted missing person flyers throughout the area, and Linda
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Speaker 1: Gandy offered a $ 2, 000 reward for information that could lead
22:10
Speaker 1: to her daughter's whereabouts. At one point, the family even
22:14
Speaker 1: consulted a psychic, who told them Cynthia would be found
22:18
Speaker 1: near water. As the disappearance began receiving local news coverage,
22:24
Speaker 1: Linda became increasingly frustrated with the way her daughter was
22:28
Speaker 1: being portrayed. She believed too much attention was being placed
22:32
Speaker 1: on Cynthia's work as a dancer and not enough on
22:35
Speaker 1: the fact that she was also a mother, a daughter,
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Speaker 1: and a woman who had disappeared under troubling circumstances. Many
22:43
Speaker 1: of the newspaper headlines didn't hesitate to instead state that
22:48
Speaker 1: a stripper was missing. Linda worried that the way she
22:52
Speaker 1: was being portrayed was affecting how seriously both the public
22:56
Speaker 1: and law enforcement viewed the case. After four days had passed,
23:00
Speaker 1: that frustration extended to the investigation itself. The handling of
23:06
Speaker 1: Cynthia's Fiero and the fact that investigators had not yet
23:10
Speaker 1: come to the apartment to collect and examine the Beauty
23:13
Speaker 1: and the Beast records was appalling. Potentially important information was
23:19
Speaker 1: still sitting on Cynthia's dining room table while valuable time passed.
23:25
Speaker 1: As her family searched, Arlington Police Detective Jim Ford was
23:29
Speaker 1: assigned to investigate the disappearance. and reconstruct Cynthia's last known movements.
23:36
Speaker 1: Ford had been with the Arlington Police Department for almost
23:39
Speaker 1: 15 years by 1991. He began in patrol, later worked narcotics,
23:46
Speaker 1: and eventually moved into homicide. Colleagues compared his persistent interview
23:52
Speaker 1: style to that of the television character Columbo, and a
23:55
Speaker 1: department joke held that Ford could get a confession out
23:59
Speaker 1: of the Pope. One of the first questions for which
24:03
Speaker 1: he sought answers in Cynthia Gonzalez's case was crucial. Had
24:08
Speaker 1: the stripogram appointment been real, or simply a way to
24:12
Speaker 1: lure her somewhere she'd be vulnerable? Cynthia hadn't written the
24:16
Speaker 1: gig in her date book, even though she normally tracked
24:19
Speaker 1: all her appointments. Detective Ford eventually determined that Cynthia did
24:25
Speaker 1: go to a legitimate stripogram appointment that Monday evening. The
24:29
Speaker 1: booking began at around 6.30 p.m. near South Cooper Street
24:33
Speaker 1: and Grand Avenue, just south of the University of Texas
24:37
Speaker 1: at Arlington campus. Cynthia's Fiero was found about a mile
24:42
Speaker 1: and a half from that area. As Ford reconstructed her movements,
24:47
Speaker 1: he located a witness who could place the Fiero near
24:50
Speaker 1: the area for several hours that night. An employee working
24:55
Speaker 1: the drive-thru at the Arby's at the corner of Cooper
24:58
Speaker 1: and Grand remembered seeing the distinctive white Fiero parked at
25:02
Speaker 1: the neighboring car wash. The Arby's backed up directly to
25:06
Speaker 1: the car wash, giving the employee a view toward the
25:10
Speaker 1: rear of the property. Cynthia's car was difficult to mistake
25:14
Speaker 1: because of the Beauty and the Beast entertainment decal and
25:17
Speaker 1: telephone number displayed on it. The Arby's employee remembered the
25:22
Speaker 1: Fiero being there from approximately 9 p.m. until about 11.45 p.m.
25:29
Speaker 1: The information was vital. Cynthia's strippogram had been scheduled for
25:34
Speaker 1: around 6.30, and her performances generally lasted only 15 or
25:39
Speaker 1: 20 minutes. Yet hours later, her car was still in
25:43
Speaker 1: the immediate area. As the days passed with no word
25:49
Speaker 1: from Cynthia, The searches expanded, but the efforts were in vain.
25:54
Speaker 1: Around sunset on Sunday, September 22nd, six days after Cynthia
26:01
Speaker 1: was last seen, a woman walking her dog on rural
26:04
Speaker 1: property 42 miles south of Arlington noticed a foul odor.
26:10
Speaker 1: The property was in Johnson County, just south of Alvarado,
26:14
Speaker 1: along a private dirt road about a mile west of
26:17
Speaker 1: Interstate 35. just behind the 150-acre Turkey Creek landfill. Homes
26:25
Speaker 1: were scattered through the surrounding countryside, but the property itself
26:29
Speaker 1: was wooded, secluded, and largely hidden from passing traffic. Near
26:35
Speaker 1: a tree-lined creek bed at the edge of the woods,
26:38
Speaker 1: the dog walker found the unclothed body of a woman.
26:43
Speaker 1: The remains had been exposed to the September heat long
26:46
Speaker 1: enough that decomposition was advanced, and the woman was no
26:50
Speaker 1: longer recognizable. Even so, Johnson County authorities quickly considered the
26:56
Speaker 1: possibility they had found Cynthia Gonzalez of Arlington. They contacted
27:01
Speaker 1: the police there almost immediately. Johnson County Sheriff's Office investigator
27:06
Speaker 1: David Cole and Texas Ranger George Turner were among the
27:10
Speaker 1: first on the scene. Both lawmen agreed that whoever had
27:14
Speaker 1: dumped the body there knew the spot in advance. The
27:18
Speaker 1: killer had not simply stumbled upon it, they believed. From
27:23
Speaker 1: the I-35 frontage road, they would have had to turn
27:26
Speaker 1: right on CR-313, then a little more than a mile west,
27:31
Speaker 1: turned right again on CR-401. Both roads were likely unknown
27:37
Speaker 1: to those living outside the area, or to folks who
27:40
Speaker 1: didn't know someone in the direct vicinity. From there, the
27:44
Speaker 1: killer drove up 401 until they reached an unnamed private road,
27:49
Speaker 1: off of which they dragged the body about 50 feet
27:52
Speaker 1: to the creek bed. Perhaps the killer figured the nearby
27:56
Speaker 1: landfill would hide or explain the smell of decomposition. The
28:01
Speaker 1: woman had been shot several times in the chest. Not
28:06
Speaker 1: long after the discovery, the Arlington police contacted people who
28:10
Speaker 1: knew Cynthia. Rocky Ortiz later remembered receiving a call from
28:15
Speaker 1: a detective who asked what color she had painted her fingernails.
28:20
Speaker 1: He knew the answer, hot pink. Rocky knew, he said,
28:24
Speaker 1: because he had painted them himself. That color matched the
28:28
Speaker 1: fingernail polish on the victims. According to Rocky, the detective
28:33
Speaker 1: then told him Cynthia had been found. Official identification was
28:39
Speaker 1: later made through fingerprints at the Wall's regional hospital morgue.
28:44
Speaker 1: Detectives later determined that the weapon used to kill Cynthia
28:48
Speaker 1: was a. 38 special revolver, although the gun itself was
28:52
Speaker 1: never recovered. Her death brought the city's 1991 homicide total
28:56
Speaker 1: to twenty-three. then the highest number recorded in a single year.
29:05
Speaker 1: Aside from the gunshot wounds, no other trauma was identified.
29:10
Speaker 1: There was no evidence conclusively establishing that Cynthia had been raped,
29:14
Speaker 1: although the extent of the decomposition meant investigators could not
29:18
Speaker 1: definitively rule it out. The weather had worked against them
29:23
Speaker 1: as well. Heavy rain had fallen during the days Cynthia
29:27
Speaker 1: was missing, while temperatures climbed into the upper 90s. Her
29:32
Speaker 1: body had remained exposed outdoors near a creek bed for
29:36
Speaker 1: nearly six days, conditions that accelerated decompression. Back at Playmates,
29:30
Speaker 1: the homicide victim's friend Heather was arriving for work when
29:34
Speaker 1: the club's head waitress told her Cynthia had been found dead.
29:57
Speaker 1: That night, the club dedicated the evening to their slain
30:00
Speaker 1: co-worker and played some of her favorite music. Heather still
30:05
Speaker 1: had to go on stage and later remembered moving through
30:08
Speaker 1: the night in a fog, crying as she danced. For
30:13
Speaker 1: six-year-old Jessie, the news came in another way. She was
30:17
Speaker 1: in the bedroom with Cynthia's mom when her father Don
30:21
Speaker 1: entered and told her about her mother. Jessie later remembered
30:25
Speaker 1: there was no gradual explanation, no soft blow. She was
30:30
Speaker 1: told that someone had shot Cynthia, that her mother was dead.
30:35
Speaker 1: At six years old, she had only recently begun trying
30:38
Speaker 1: to understand what it meant for her mother to be missing.
30:42
Speaker 1: Now she had to understand that she was never coming home.
30:47
Speaker 1: During the missing person investigation, The police had made several
30:51
Speaker 1: miscalculations that might have been responsible for the permanent loss
30:55
Speaker 1: of physical evidence. After Cynthia's body was discovered, detectives found
31:01
Speaker 1: themselves working against other serious disadvantages that weren't their fault.
31:07
Speaker 1: Her clothing was unaccounted for. The murder weapon had not
31:10
Speaker 1: been recovered. Because Cynthia had been shot with a. 38
31:14
Speaker 1: Special revolver, which of course retained their spent cartridge casings
31:19
Speaker 1: inside the cylinder, police didn't expect to find shell casings. Anyway,
31:25
Speaker 1: they didn't even know if the location her body was
31:28
Speaker 1: found was where her murder took place. The drag marks
31:32
Speaker 1: suggested it was not. DNA testing existed in 1991, but
31:39
Speaker 1: the technology was far less sensitive than it is today.
31:42
Speaker 1: in 2026, and generally required larger quantities of better preserved
31:48
Speaker 1: biological material. Investigators were trying to solve Cynthia's murder without
31:54
Speaker 1: the weapon, without her clothing, without a confirmed murder scene,
31:58
Speaker 1: and with much of the remaining physical evidence already damaged
32:02
Speaker 1: by weather, decomposition, or the handling of the case when
32:06
Speaker 1: it was a missing person investigation. What they did have
32:10
Speaker 1: were people, the victim's family, her friends, her co-workers, her customers,
32:16
Speaker 1: and the complicated relationships surrounding the final months of her life.
32:22
Speaker 1: With physical evidence offering few answers, Detective Jim Ford had
32:26
Speaker 1: to reconstruct Cynthia's final hours the way homicide detectives had
32:30
Speaker 1: for generations, by building timelines, checking alibis, comparing statements, and
32:37
Speaker 1: getting people to talk. He started with those closest to her.
32:42
Speaker 1: Don Gonzalez was an obvious person to examine. He and
32:46
Speaker 1: Cynthia were separated, their divorce hadn't been finalized, and there
32:51
Speaker 1: was disagreement over custody of six-year-old Jesse. But Don was
32:56
Speaker 1: home with their daughter, and investigators could find nothing connecting
33:00
Speaker 1: him to Cynthia's murder. Ford interviewed Rocky Ortiz on September 23rd,
33:06
Speaker 1: the day after Cynthia's body was found. He was the
33:10
Speaker 1: victim's boyfriend and had been expecting her to return that night.
33:14
Speaker 1: Detectives examined his whereabouts as well. Rocky had been at
33:19
Speaker 1: aviation school, and Ford found no evidence tying him to
33:23
Speaker 1: the killing. But the detective didn't stop with the two
33:26
Speaker 1: men closest to her. He identified and investigated other men
33:31
Speaker 1: who had been part of Cynthia's life or who might
33:34
Speaker 1: conceivably have crossed paths with her. Ford worked through more
33:39
Speaker 1: than a dozen potential suspects, sometimes following individuals for months
33:44
Speaker 1: while he tried to verify their movements and determine whether
33:47
Speaker 1: they could have been responsible. One by one, he eliminated them. Eventually,
33:55
Speaker 1: Detective Ford considered whether Cynthia might have crossed paths with
33:59
Speaker 1: one of the most dangerous killers operating in Texas at
34:02
Speaker 1: the time of her murder, Kenneth Allen McDuff. That's next
34:08
Speaker 1: time on Gone Cold, Texas True Crime. If you have
34:13
Speaker 1: any information about the murder of Cynthia Renee Gonzalez, please
34:18
Speaker 1: contact the Arlington Police Homicide Division at 817-459-5772. If you'd
34:28
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34:31
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34:36
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34:40
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34:46
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34:54
Speaker 1: we appreciate you. Thanks for listening, y'all.