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How Violent Assault Helped Solve The Murder of Missing Mother of Three · Murder Files Unsealed

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Speaker 1: Welcome back to the deep Dive. Today, we're looking into
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a case that really it forced investigators to think differently,
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to look beyond just one crime scene and connect docs
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that spanned four years and two while two completely separate
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and horrifying incidents.
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Speaker 2: That's right.
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Speaker 1: We are exploring the disappearance and murder of Rita Gutiras
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Garcia in Longmont.
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Speaker 2: Colorado, and more importantly, the critical role that another victim,
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a survivor, played in finally delivering justice.
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Speaker 1: So, for you the listener, this isn't just a summary
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of a true crime story.
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Speaker 2: No, not at all. This deep dive is really an
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examination of forensic resilience. We're going to track how investigators,
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specifically from the Longmont Police Department or LPD, how they
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used all these different data streams.
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Speaker 1: You mean, things like cell phone pings, surveillance video.
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Speaker 2: Exactly, sell pings, grainy footage, DNA of course, but most critically,
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how the really detailed documentation of a non fatal assault
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gave them the behavioral and physical blueprint they needed to
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solve a homicide that had gone completely cold.
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Speaker 1: All right, so let's set the scene here. We're in Lunmont, Colorado.
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It's a town known for its historic district, kind of
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a quiet community near Boulder. The date is March eighteenth,
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twenty eighteen. And this is the moment when the life
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of a thirty four year old woman, Rita Gutiras Garcia,
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just abruptly ends. It leaves this immediate, massive void.
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Speaker 2: And she was a single mother of three young boys.
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The eldest was around ten, I believe, the youngest only five,
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and by all accounts, she was the absolute anchor for
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her family, a very close knit Hispanic family.
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Speaker 1: She was really striving, wasn't she.
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Speaker 2: Oh constantly she was holding down multiple jobs, waitressing, working
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in retail, and at the same time she was pursuing
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an associate's.
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Speaker 1: Degree in paralegal study.
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Speaker 2: In parallegal studies. Yeah, yeah, And her motivation for that
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was so clear. Her family, her sister Jessica, and her
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mother Diane, they always called her the glue and they
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said she and this is a quote, she wanted to
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help people who couldn't help themselves. She's trying to build
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this whole new, secure life for herself and for her sons.
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Speaker 1: And that desire for a fresh start really frames The
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night she disappeared, she was getting over a recent breakup.
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Sources described it as a toxic relationship, a lot.
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Speaker 2: Of arguments, instability, that sort of thing.
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Speaker 1: Exactly. So, this Saint Patrick's Day weekend outing, it was
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supposed to be a release for her, a moment to
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just breathe, and.
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Speaker 2: She promised her family she would be home early. She
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was dressed for a night out, jeaned a green top,
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her favorite heels.
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Speaker 1: A promise that was tragically broken. But the path to justice,
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and this is the core of our story today, it
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was paved by a parallel horror, something that had already
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happened months earlier. Let's focus on Rita for a moment,
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because understanding who she was, this dedicated mother and student,
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it really establishes the just the sheer magnitude of the
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loss when she vanished.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely, she was born on April seven, nineteen eighty three,
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and she was this pillar of strength, you know, balancing
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the heavy load of supporting a young family while also
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trying to move her own life forward profess.
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Speaker 1: So that night out, March seventeenth, it was a pretty
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rare thing for her, very.
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Speaker 2: Rare, a departure from her usual demanding routine. She got
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to the downtown Longmont bar district. Around nine pm, she
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went to a few places like Three's Bar and the
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Oscar Blues Brewery nearby.
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Speaker 1: And witnesses said she was in good spirits, yeah.
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Speaker 2: Light, flirtatious, having a good time, but she was also
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being cautious. She was nursing her drinks, not overdoing it,
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and she was on.
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Speaker 1: Her phone a lot, texting her family.
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Speaker 2: Right texting updates, reassuring them that she was okay, that
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she'd be heading home soon. She was being responsible, okay.
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Speaker 1: So around one point thirty in the morning, surveillance footage
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gives us the last clear visual of Rita. She's inside
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Three's Bar.
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Speaker 2: You can see her just briefly chatting near the bar,
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looking down at her phone. The place is starting to
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wind down, but she's clearly still very much in control,
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totally conscious.
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Speaker 1: And this is where the timeline gets so critical for detectives.
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The next half hour.
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Speaker 2: That's the whole case right there, the bar is emptying out.
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Around two fifteen am, witnesses put her in the alley
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behind Three's Bar on the Kaufman Street side. She's saying her.
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Speaker 1: Goodbyes, waving, saying see you tomorrow, words.
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Speaker 2: That would just taunt her family. Forever.
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Speaker 1: So now we enter this window, it's what twenty three
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minutes where everything, everything just changes. Her phone pings become
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the only evidence.
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Speaker 2: Between two point four and three point zero three am,
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her phone is hitting cell towers in the six hundred
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block of Main Street, so she's still very close to
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the bars, but she might be moving and moving quickly.
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Speaker 1: And then silence.
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Speaker 2: And then at three point of three am, you see
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the digital signature of the crime. Her phone goes completely silent. Yeah,
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it doesn't die, the battery doesn't run out, it just
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drops off the grid.
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Speaker 1: It's forced offline exactly.
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Speaker 2: And that sudden, forced stop in communication that told the
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LPD detectives Cody Clark and Todd Chambers that this was
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not someone who left on their own. This was not
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a voluntary disappearance.
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Speaker 1: But even before her phone went silent, there was something else,
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something even more chilling.
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Speaker 2: The nine one one autodial.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, at two twenty eight am, so about fifteen minutes
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before that final ping, her phone makes a nine to
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one one call. It only lasts for twelve seconds. It
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was silent, just twelve seconds of silent audio, which is.
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Speaker 2: I mean, that's an investigator's nightmare. It's so ambiguous. Dispatchers,
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you know, they often get these and write them off
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as a pocket dial or just an error.
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Speaker 1: But these detectives, they analyzed it. They had to use
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some pretty sophisticated forensic audio tech to what isolate and
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amplify any sounds they could find.
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Speaker 2: It's incredibly difficult. You're not just listening with headphones. You're
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running the audio through spectral analysis, noise reduction software. You're
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looking for anything, any sound that's inconsistent with a phone
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just rubbing against fabric in.
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Speaker 1: A pocket, And they found something.
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Speaker 2: They did. Their final analysis suggested they could make out
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heavy breathing, maybe some muffled sounds not words, and possibly
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the noise of a scuffle where things being dropped.
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Speaker 1: This is not a conversation, not a.
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Speaker 2: Conversation, a desperate signal and accidental recording of her being
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in distress, just minutes after she'd wave goodbye to her friends.
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Speaker 1: The family reports are missing the very next evening on
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March eighteenth, and her mother, Diane Romero, she knew right
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away something was terribly wrong.
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Speaker 2: She told the police flat out. Rita never goes off grid.
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She would never ever abandon her three sons.
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Speaker 1: So the Longmont Police Department's response, led by detectives Clarke
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and Chambers, it was swift and.
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Speaker 2: That initial phase was all about canvassing, getting every single
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piece of surveillance they could, and they found a key
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visual clue right.
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Speaker 1: Away from the passing trucks.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, from traffic cams on passing trucks, they caught an
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image of Rito getting into what looked like a white
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Ford F one fifty around two thirty am.
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Speaker 1: And crucially, her own car, a blue Sedan, was found
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parked blocks away, untouched, which means.
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Speaker 2: Her departure was either forced or at the very least
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under some kind of serious duress.
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Speaker 1: And the fact that none of her personal effects were
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ever found that was a huge red flag, a massive one.
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Speaker 2: Her posts, id, cash all gone. It suggests that whoever
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took her was focused on complet completely obliterating her identity,
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getting rid of any immediate trail.
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Speaker 1: So by April fourth, twenty eighteen, less than three weeks
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after she disappeared, the LPD officially changed the case status.
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Speaker 2: From a missing person investigation to a suspicious homicide. Detective
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Clark said it plainly, we knew she didn't leave willingly, and.
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Speaker 1: The impact on the community was just immediate. Longmont is
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a tight knit.
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Speaker 2: Place, immense They organized huge searches, they hung through landfills,
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even drained ponds, but there was just no sign of Rita.
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The case went cold so fast.
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Speaker 1: It became this haunting public mystery. You'd see green ribbons
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tied to lampposts all over town for her.
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Speaker 2: And the investigators were just stuck. They had no body,
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no confirmed vehicle registration, no definitive suspect, and all the
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while the person responsible was unknown to them, just walking free,
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at least for a little while.
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Speaker 1: Okay, this is where the story takes a turn. It
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gets really really interesting. While the LPD is struggling with
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Rita's cold case, the key, the absolute key to the
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whole puzzle, had actually already been documented.
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Speaker 2: Months earlier in a completely separate case file.
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Speaker 1: Which leads us to the incredible story of a woman
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named Kayleen.
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Speaker 2: This is the operational pivot point, the moment that turned
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the entire investigation around, and it really it just showcases
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the importance of meticulous documentation, even in non homicide cases.
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Speaker 1: So Kayleen, who was a twenty eight year old local
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and were using a pseudonym to protect her identity. She
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was assaulted four months before Rita disappeared in.
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Speaker 2: November of twenty seventeen, and crucially, she was targeted in
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the exact same downtown Long BoNT Bar district.
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Speaker 1: So right away, that suggests a pattern, a geographical hunting ground, a.
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Speaker 2: Very clear pattern of behavior.
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Speaker 1: Yes, let's talk about the modus operande, the MO, because
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the pattern Killeen described is just terrifyingly consistent with what
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little they knew about Rita's disappearance.
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Speaker 2: It's almost a mere image. Kayleen was approached by a
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man she described as a charming stranger. She accepted an
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invitation from him to go to an afterparty okay, and
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she recalled feeling dizzy almost instantly. Her vision blurred. She
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felt profoundly.
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Speaker 1: Weak, so she was drugged.
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Speaker 2: That rapid physical incapacitation led investigators to strongly suspect her
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drink had been spiked, probably with a fast acting to
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present you know, a so called date rape drug like
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GHB or roe hypnol.
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Speaker 1: So this isn't random violence, it's planned, it's calculated.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely. The predator's goal there is to make sure the
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victim is compliant and disoriented before they can fight back.
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Or call for help.
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Speaker 1: And just like in the blurry footage from Rita's case,
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Kayleen was lured into a vehicle, a white pickup truck.
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Speaker 2: He drove her away from the busy downtown, took her
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to a remote field way east of Longlant.
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Speaker 1: And the assault itself was brutal.
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Speaker 2: It was. It included sexual assault, a severe beating that
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actually caused her eyes to bleed, and critically, strangulation.
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Speaker 1: Strangulation that feels like a key detail.
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Speaker 2: There's a massive piece of the puzzle for Detective Sandy Jones,
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who handled Kayleen's initial case. The sustained violence and that
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specific attempt at strangulation, But what really changed everything was
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Kayleen's resilience, her survival. She escaped, She managed to escape.
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The attacker paused, maybe he thought she was subdued or
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even dead, and she ran. She flagged down a passing
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car and made sure she got to a hospital immediately.
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Speaker 1: And that quick action getting to a hospital that's everything
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for collecting forensic evidence.
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Speaker 2: Everything. Detective Jones's response was flawless. A rape kit was
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collected right away, which yielded viable DNA that could be
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uploaded to CODIS, the national database.
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Speaker 1: But it was more than just the DNA Oh yeah.
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Speaker 2: Jones painstakingly documented all the physical trauma, the severe contusions,
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and most critically, the presence of potechia.
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Speaker 1: Okay, explain patakia for us? Why is that one detail
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so important in a case like this?
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Speaker 2: So? Pateekia are these tiny pinpoint red or purple spots.
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They appear on the skin, often around the eyes or
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on the face. They're caused when capillary's rupture from a
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sudden increase in pressure. Exactly in forensic pathology, when you
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find patakia in the eyes, particularly in the white part
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that conjunctiva, it is a very strong, often definitive indicator
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of strangulation or nearestphyxiation. The fact that this was so
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carefully documented showed that this attacker's mo wasn't just assault.
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He was using lethal force to subdue his victims, and
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that detail was the key that would later link back
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to Rita's silent nine one one call, which suggested a
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struggle difficulty breathing.
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Speaker 1: So the evidence from Kleene's case it led investigators to
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a name, Juan Jose Figaro Junior.
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Speaker 2: He was twenty nine at the time, a Hispanic male, short,
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black hair, but his background adds this really unsettling layer
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to the whole story.
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Speaker 1: He was a former police cadet, a.
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Speaker 2: Former Longmont police cadet. Yes, and that is a huge
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psychological and operational detail. His time there was brief. He
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was fired in twenty fifteen for stealing department property, but
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it means he had an inside familiarity with police procedures.
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You know how they thought he knew their timelines, maybe
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even how to avoid detection. He had a petty criminal
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record for theft and dui, so a pattern of deceit
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was there, but not this level of violence. Not yet.
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Speaker 1: In Kaylene's contribution, it went beyond just identifying him. She
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gave them a stunningly detailed description of his truck.
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Speaker 2: It wasn't just a white pickup. She was specific a
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white Ford F one fifty with distinctive rims.
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Speaker 1: Distinctive rims.
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Speaker 2: That detail was the absolute clincher When detectives Clark and
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Chambers eventually went back and re examined that blurry surveillance
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footage from the alley where Rita was last seen, that
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specific detail allowed them to pinpoint a vehicle type and
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narrow their search down massively.
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Speaker 1: So an arrest warrant was issued for a.
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Speaker 2: Figueroa immediately based on Kaylee's case attempted murder, sexual assault,
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and kidnapping. But Figureoa, maybe he sensed the walls closing in,
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he was gone. He fled to Mexico days after the assault.
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He thought he'd gotten away with it.
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Speaker 1: And this is where the LPD got creative. They knew
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trying to extradite him from Mexico would.
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Speaker 2: Be an long, difficult, expensive battle that could have delayed
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justice for Kayleen for years, maybe forever, so they opted
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for something unconventional.
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Speaker 1: Investigative ruse. They posed as a former employer offering him
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a job back in the States.
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Speaker 2: A lucrative job. That's the key. The ruse works because
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you leverage the target's own weaknesses, their arrogance, or their greed.
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Figueroa had a history of valuing money and clearly thought
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he was clever enough to outsmart the system.
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Speaker 1: So they created a fake job offer that was just
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too good for him to pass up.
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Speaker 2: Exactly, they made the financial incentive irresistible, and it worked.
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He willingly crossed the border back into their jurisdiction.
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Speaker 1: And the timing is just chilling. He crossed back into
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the US on March twenty seven, twenty eighteen, just.
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Speaker 2: Nine days after Ritagutira's garcia vanished. Homeland Security was waiting
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for him in Texas to execute the warrant for what
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he did to Kayleen.
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Speaker 1: And his reaction upon arrest says everything about him.
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Speaker 2: Oh, it's just pure chilling arrogance. Equipped to the arresting offices.
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That's the only Warn't just sex assault, sweet sweet. He
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completely minimized the horrific assault on Kayleen, saw it as
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a minor legal problem. He had absolutely no idea that
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in the time he was hiding in Mexico, his MO
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had escalated and that the LPD was now actively investigating
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him for a homicide.
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Speaker 1: Kleene's testimony, her bravery, and that solid forensic evidence secured
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his conviction. In March twenty nineteen. He got ninety three
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years to.
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Speaker 2: Life ninety three years to life in the Colorado Department
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of Corrections, and that sentence was of course justice for Kayleen,
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but it was also the indispensable tool that allowed investigators
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to finally pivot their full attention to read his case.
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It locked him down precisely. It gave them guaranteed access
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to him, his vehicle, his data, and it gave them
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the legal precedent of his established violent mo As Detective
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Jones said later, the evidence from Kleene's survival was the
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foundation they needed to turn a cold case into a
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solvable one.
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Speaker 1: So Figueroa is in prison. He's convicted for the attack
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on Kayleen. How detectives Clark and Chambers have their prime suspect,
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they have his pattern, and they have the legal authority
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to execute these new, really expansive search warrants.
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Speaker 2: This is the official pivot, the moment the cold case
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investigation into Rita's disappearance heats up again.
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Speaker 1: And their first step was just smart, systematic police work.
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Speaker 2: It was they went back and reinterviewed every single witness
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from the night Rita vanished, But this time they walked
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in armed with Figaro's photo and his profile.
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Speaker 1: And it paid off immediately.
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Speaker 2: A bartender who they'd spoken to before but couldn't recall
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anything specific, now looked at the photo and placed Figaroa
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inside Three's bar chatting with Rita around one thirty am.
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Speaker 1: Which confirms they were interacting just minutes before she disappeared.
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Speaker 2: It puts them in the same space at the same time.
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And then the geographical data, which had been this confusing
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dead end before it all suddenly clicks into place.
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Speaker 1: The cell phone pings, Yeah.
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Speaker 2: The pings that showed Rita's signal dying as she was
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traveling east now correlated perfectly with Figaro's known movements.
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Speaker 1: An analysis of his phone and his true GPS data
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showed his white F one fifty traveling east on I
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twenty five, heading toward Weld County.
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Speaker 2: In those critical hours between two Ford and Ford Air
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in the morning. In a Weld County, which is mostly
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remote farmland, was the exact area where Rida's phone signal
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had just ceased to exist.
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Speaker 1: An ideal place to conceal a crime, a.
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Speaker 2: Perfect place which led them to the most critical action
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of all, executing those specialized search warrants on Figueroa's white
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f one fifty. And this is where the forensic team
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hits the jackpot.
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Speaker 1: The DNA link.
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Speaker 2: But it wasn't just a simple surface sweep. They took
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that truck apart meticulously, and they found Reada's DNA traces
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of her blood and hair follicles.
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Speaker 1: And where they found it tells its own story.
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Speaker 2: It really does. The traces weren't just on the seats.
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They were found deep inside the door panels and pushed
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down under the floor mats. It's consistent with someone being
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violently forced into a vehicle or you know, desperately struggling
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to get out.
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Speaker 1: So the physical DNA evidence now confirms the behavioral profile
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they already had.
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Speaker 2: It's the perfect match Kleene's detailed description of his EMO
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drugging victims, isolating them, using strangulation to subdue them. It
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now perfectly explains Rita's silent nine one one call and
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the violent struggle that the DNA and the truck proved
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had happened.
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Speaker 1: They weren't dealing with two separate crimes anymore.
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Speaker 2: They're dealing with one single pattern predator who had escalated
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his violence from attempted murder to murder.
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Speaker 1: But even with all of this overwhelming evidence, the DNA,
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the mo O, the timeline, they still had a massive
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legal problem.
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Speaker 2: The corpus delicti. They didn't have a body.
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Speaker 1: Which forced the prosecution team, led by District Attorney Michael
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Dohugherty and Katherineabooth, to build a very rare, very complex case.
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Speaker 2: A nobody homicide strategy and prosecuting a murder when you
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can't even present the victim's body in court, is it's
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a high stakes gamble.
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Speaker 1: What are the specific hurdles there? I mean, how do
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you prove murder without a body?
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Speaker 2: Well, historically it's been exceedingly difficult. The defense can always
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argue that the victim is still alive somewhere where, that
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they died by accident or even by suicide. To overcome that,
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you need an absolute mountain of circumstantial evidence.
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Speaker 1: So you have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that
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death occurred and that this defendant was the one responsible exactly.
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Speaker 2: They had to weave it all together. The violent mo
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from Kaline's case, the forced silence of Rita's phone, her
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DNA hidden in the killer's truck, the geographic isolation. The
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theory had to be that only a violent struggle followed
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by a premeditated disposal of body could account for all
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of these facts.
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Speaker 1: But the case still needed one more piece, that final
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undeniable piece of evidence to guarantee they could win at trial,
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and it came, of.
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Speaker 2: All places, from inside a prison cell in twenty twenty.
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Speaker 1: Figaroa's own hubris, his arrogance. It became their greatest asset
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they really did.
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Speaker 2: A cellmate came forward. He said that figaro had confessed
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to the murder over smuggled cigarettes. And the testimony was
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in vague, it was incredibly specific. He was quoting Figaroa directly, and.
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Speaker 1: What did he say.
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Speaker 2: What was the quote which chilling. The quote was I
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punched her out after she called me a wardo, then
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strangled her, buried her where no one will find. Probe
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my brain if you.
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Speaker 1: Want, wow, probe my brain if you want.
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Speaker 2: It not only confirmed the mo the strangulation, but also
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his deliberate, calculated concealment of the body, which perfectly reinforced
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their nobody homicide theory. And that line about his brain,
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it just shows he genuinely believed he'd committed the perfect crime.
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Speaker 1: And investigators didn't just rely on a jailhouse informant, which
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can be shaky in court. They had wire taps, Yes.
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Speaker 2: They had wire taps capturing Figaroa basically mocking the investigation.
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He was recorded saying things like they'll never get me
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for that one.
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Speaker 1: So he was bragging about it.
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Speaker 2: He was, and that proved the cell mate wasn't just
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making things up. So he put it all together the DNA,
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the MO, the cell data, and his own recorded admissions.
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The momentum was unstoppable.
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Speaker 1: So by April of twenty twenty one, a grand jury
19:55
sees this whole file and they indict Figueroa.
19:59
Speaker 2: On first degree murder after deliberation, felony murder, and second
20:02
degree kidnapping. It was the first nobody indictment in Boulder
20:05
County in years, a huge legal.
20:07
Speaker 1: Step, but the family. The family still didn't have Rita,
20:11
the pain of not knowing where she was, which continued
20:14
for her mother and her three sons. So the trial
20:17
is now said for early twenty twenty two. Figueroa is
20:20
already facing ninety three years for what he did to Kayleen,
20:23
so he's never getting out right.
20:24
Speaker 2: And the prosecution is this rock solid murder case, but
20:27
they understood that what the family needed most wasn't necessarily
20:31
more prison time for him.
20:33
Speaker 1: It was closure, the emotional closure that can only come
20:36
with finding her remains, and.
20:38
Speaker 2: That became the strategical leverage point for the prosecution. They
20:41
made a very calculated offer, a plea.
20:43
Speaker 1: Deal, reduced murder charges in exchange for a full confession.
20:46
Speaker 2: And it was critically the exact location of Rita's remains.
20:50
For the legal team, you know, securing her body, it
20:52
would validate four years of incredibly hard work. But more
20:56
than that, it would bring a kind of peace to
20:58
the family that no prison sentenced ever could.
21:00
Speaker 1: And on April twenty eight, twenty twenty two, facing the
21:03
almost certain conviction for murder, Figuaroa finally broke.
21:07
Speaker 2: He admitted it. He provided a taped admission and gave
21:09
them the coordinates of the grave.
21:11
Speaker 1: Search teams were deployed immediately. They followed his directions to
21:15
this shallow grave in a remote part of Wells County farmland.
21:18
Speaker 2: And the wait for confirmation it must have been just
21:21
excruciating for her family, but it came a few weeks later.
21:25
May nineteenth, twenty twenty two. Forensic analysis positively identified the
21:30
remains as Rita Gutier's Garcia.
21:32
Speaker 1: The medical examiner also confirmed the cause.
21:34
Speaker 2: Of death blood force trauma, consistent with skull fractures and
21:38
ligature marks, which confirmed the strangulation mo that had been
21:42
documented all the way back in Kayleen's case. It all
21:45
tied together.
21:45
Speaker 1: Rita's mother, Diane Romero. She described the news as bittersweet,
21:49
finally having her daughter home, but knowing the loss was absolutely.
21:52
Speaker 2: Final, and on June three, twenty twenty two, Figuaroa formalized
21:56
his plea guilty to second degree murder and first degree kidnaps.
22:00
Speaker 1: He was sentenced to forty eight years to.
22:02
Speaker 2: Run concurrently with his existing ninety three year term. It
22:05
didn't add any time, but the legal record was now clear.
22:08
He was officially convicted for Rita's murder.
22:10
Speaker 1: And what stood out to everyone in that courtroom was
22:12
his demeanor.
22:13
Speaker 2: A total lack of any human decency, no remorse. It
22:17
just confirmed what Diane Romero had called him, a murderous coward.
22:22
Her sons, who were teenagers by then, were in court
22:25
to see it, to witness the final legal accounting for
22:28
their mother's death.
22:29
Speaker 1: We have to come back to Kayleen because her impact
22:32
on this case, it just cannot be overstated. Detective Clark
22:36
himself said. The investigation into Rita's murder was basically handed
22:39
to them because of Kaylene's courage.
22:41
Speaker 2: Her willingness to testify despite the unimaginable trauma was the
22:45
engine that drove this whole process. Her detailed account provided
22:49
the initial DNA, the specific vehicle description, and the behavioral
22:53
profile that led investigators zero in on Figueroa and pressure him.
22:57
Speaker 1: She was the key witness in a murder case she
22:58
didn't even know existed when she.
22:59
Speaker 2: Was exactly and she didn't just let that trauma define
23:03
her or disappear into history. She channeled it into action.
23:06
Speaker 1: She founded a survivor advocacy group in Longmont. She speaks
23:10
at vigils she.
23:11
Speaker 2: Does, and her own reflection on it really says it all.
23:14
She said, my hell gave voice to Rida silence. She
23:19
took this horrific personal event and turned it into a
23:21
light that illuminated a.
23:23
Speaker 1: Cold case, and that light it sparked a real institutional
23:27
change in the community.
23:28
Speaker 2: It did. The case forced the LPD to see that
23:31
invisible link between these kinds of assaults, and as a
23:34
direct result, Longmont brought in enhanced bar patrols in the
23:38
downtown area and crucially, they started implementing drug testing kits
23:42
for drinks in local bars.
23:44
Speaker 1: That's a huge step for public safety.
23:46
Speaker 2: It's a recognition that these non fatal assaults, especially ones
23:49
involving drugs, they are often precursors. They're early warnings of
23:53
a predator who was escalating toward lethal violence. So by
23:56
intervening and documenting those earlier crimes better in a much
24:00
better position to intercept potential killers.
24:03
Speaker 1: The final legacy, of course, belongs to Rita and her family.
24:06
Speaker 2: Her funeral is held on June tenth, twenty twenty two.
24:09
Over five hundred people came to Saint John the Baptist.
24:11
It was a ceremony of remembrance but also celebration.
24:14
Speaker 1: They released green balloons, which was her favorite color.
24:17
Speaker 2: And a mariachi band played her favorite songs. And her
24:20
dream that desire she had to help others. It's being
24:23
carried on by her sons. Two of them, now young
24:25
men are studying law.
24:26
Speaker 1: In college, inspired by their mother's ambition to become a
24:29
hair illegal.
24:30
Speaker 2: Directly inspired by her and her mother, Diane. She maintains
24:34
a memorial garden in Rita's honor. She says that while
24:36
the whole Rita left will never be filled, it's the
24:39
memory of her fight that they celebrate now. Hashtag tago utiro.
24:43
Speaker 1: When you step back the procedural details that finally unlock
24:47
this four year mystery, they're just stunning. A twelve second
24:50
silent nine one one call that, through forensic audio work,
24:54
becomes evidence of a struggle, the.
24:56
Speaker 2: Distinctive rims on a white Ford F one fifty linking
24:59
two crime that were.
25:00
Speaker 1: Months apart, and that incredible investigative ruse using a fake
25:03
job offer to draw a killer out of hiding.
25:05
Speaker 2: Absolutely, the cynsusis here is just so clear. This case
25:09
demonstrates exactly how the meticulous forensic and behavioral documentation of
25:13
one crime, and it all comes back to the survival
25:15
and detailed testimony of Kleene provided the foundational evidence needed
25:20
to get justice in a completely separate nobody homicide.
25:23
Speaker 1: It's a textbook example of connecting a pattern of violence.
25:26
Speaker 2: It is, and it underscores for us the need to
25:28
pay attention to those details that might seem minor at
25:31
the time. A specific mo a unique vehicle feature, a
25:36
documented injury like protechia from strangulation. These things can transcend
25:40
a single case and reveal a predator signature.
25:44
Speaker 1: And this brings us to our final thought. For you,
25:46
the listener, As you process this story.
25:48
Speaker 2: Reader's case and kleene survival, they highlight this often invisible
25:52
link between non fatal assaults and cold homicides. So if
25:56
you connect this to the bigger picture, e raises a
25:58
really important question, Okay, what structural and procedural changes, and
26:02
I mean beyond specific things like drug testing, kits or
26:05
more patrols. What changes could police departments in our legal
26:09
systems implement to better mandate the sharing and utilization of
26:12
forensic and behavioral data from assaults of fall short of.
26:15
Speaker 1: Homicide because that information might be the key to saving
26:19
future lives.
26:20
Speaker 2: Exactly how do we systematize the knowledge that we gain
26:23
from one survivor's incredible bravery?
26:25
Speaker 1: The profound thought on the operational side of justice. Thank
26:29
you for diving deep with us. We'll see you next time.