Latest / NO FILTER / The Most Disturbing Case You Will Ever Hear _ True Crime Documentary(M4A_128K)

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The Most Disturbing Case You Will Ever Hear _ True Crime Documentary(M4A_128K) · NO FILTER

• 0:13
  Speaker 1: It starts like any ordinary day. You wake up, you
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: check your phone, you move through routines so familiar you
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: barely notice them. Maybe you tell someone you'll see them later,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: maybe you don't. For twenty year old Sadie Alvarado, that
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: later never came, and by the time anyone realized something
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: was wrong, she had already disappeared into a silence that
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: would take days to break, a silence that hid something
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: far more disturbing than anyone expected. Because this wasn't just
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: a disappearance. It was something much closer, much quieter, and
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: much harder to understand. On August fifth, twenty eighteen, Sadie
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: was with someone she knew, her boyfriend. They were driving
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: through a rural stretch of Lee County, the kind of
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: place where there are long stretches of nothing between one
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: points and the next. At some point during that drive,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: an argument began. What exactly was said, it escalated, what
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: shifted in tone has never been fully documented in public detail,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: but investigators would later confirm that the two had been
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: arguing inside the vehicle and then something happened, something sudden,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: something irreversible. According to statements later given to investigators, Sadie
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: exited the moving vehicle during that argument. Moments like that
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: are difficult to fully reconstruct. They exist in fragments, in
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: decisions that.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Don't come with time to reconsider.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: But what is known is this, Sadie was no longer
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: in the car, and instead of immediately stopping and staying
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: at the scene, he drove away, returning home before eventually
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: going back to search for her. By the time anyone
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: else became aware that something was wrong, it was already
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: too late. In the end, the timeline would be reconstructed,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: the road mapped out, the statements, reviewed, the final moment's place,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: piece by piece into something that resembled an explanation. But
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: explanations don't always bring clarity. Sometimes they leave behind something heavier.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Because before the argument, before the road, before the moment,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: everything changed. There was a life that existed outside of it,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: a life that didn't begin in conflict, a life that
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: wasn't defined by how it ended. And if you want
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: to understand what was lost, you have to start there
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: with who Sadie Alvarado was before any of this ever happened.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Sadie Elies Alvarado was born on September twenty fifth, nineteen
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: ninety seven, in Muscatine, Iowa, a small river city of
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: about twenty two thousand people perched on the banks of
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: the Mississippi. It is a working class community, the kind
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: of place where people know their neighbors, where kids grow
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: up playing on the same streets their parents did. Sadie
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: was born into that world, the daughter of Brandy Martinez
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: and Reuben Alvarado. From the start, those who knew her
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: said Sadie had a present that was hard to ignore.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Her mother, Brandy Martinez, described her daughter as someone with
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: a heart of gold, a phrase that coming from a
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: grieving parent might sound like the kind of thing everyone
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: says she had. As Brandy put it, a laugh and
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: a smile to brighten up a room. Friends remembered her energy,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: her warmth, the way she could walk into a space
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: and make it feel lighter. She attended Muscatine High School,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: which and proved herself to be, by her mother's description,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: a very smart, funny, and beautiful young lady. But Sadie
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: was more than personality. She had direction, She had a plan.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Sadie loved the outdoors, the back roads of Iowa, softball
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: games in the summer heat, kayaking on the water, tubing,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: going to the races on warm evenings with friends. She
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: was the kind of young woman who didn't sit still.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: She moved through the world with purpose, and that purpose
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: had a name, pediatric nursing. After finishing at Muscatine High School,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Sadie enrolled at Muscatine Community College, where she earned her
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: associate's degree. She didn't stop there. By the summer of
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, she was enrolled in a nursing program at
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Southeastern Iowa Community College, actively working toward becoming a pediatric nurse,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: someone who would care for sick children, who would be
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: the calm presence in a room full of fear. She
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: was also working as a certified nursing assistant at the
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Wapello Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and separately as a teller
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: at CBI Bank and Trust. She was twenty years old
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: and running at full speed toward the life she wanted.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: She would have turned twenty one on September twenty fifth,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, seven weeks away. She had plans that reached
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: beyond where she was. She was working toward a future
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: in healthcare with the goal of becoming a pediatric nurse.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: It's the kind of goal that says something quiet but important.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: It suggests patience and empathy. Sadie had a boyfriend named
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Damian Hayman. Damien Hayman was twenty eight years old and
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: he was born in Morning Sun, Iowa. The two were
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: in a relationship one that from the outside did not
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: initially draw public attention or concern. No documented history in
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: the public domain that suggested the relationship would become central
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: to a fatal incident because in many cases people look
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: backward searching for obvious warning signs. But here the available
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: reporting doesn't present a detailed portrait of escalating danger beforehand. Instead,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: what places Damien Hayman at the center of this case
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: is not a long documented history, its proximity. He was
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: the last known person with Sadie. He was there on
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: August fifth, twenty eighteen. To understand what happened, you have
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: to go to the night of August fourth. On the
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: evening of Saturday, August fourth, twenty eighteen, Sadie Alvarado was
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: in a car with her boyfriend. The two had been
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: out in the Donelson area of Lee County that evening
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: and were now heading back toward Morning Sun. Exactly what
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: happened inside that car during the drive is known only
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: through the account Hayman later gave to investigators. According to
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: the criminal complaint filed by the Lee County Sheriff's Office,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Hammond told authorities that as they traveled along two hundred
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: and thirty fifth Avenue, that quiet gravel back road south
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: of West Point, the two of them got into an argument.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: He said that during that argument, Sadie jumped out of
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: the moving car, and then Damien Hayman kept driving. He
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: did not stop, He did not call for help. According
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: to what he told investigators, he drove approximately forty five
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: miles back to his home in morning sun, went inside,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: and stayed there.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: The sun set. The night passed.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: Sadie Alvarado was somewhere out there on a gravel road
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: in Lee County, and the man who had been driving
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: did nothing. It was not until the following day, Sunday,
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: around noon, that Hayman said he returned to the area
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: of two hundred thirty fifth Avenue to look for her.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: By then, it was too late. A passerby had already
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: found found her. A young woman alone in the dark,
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: A driver who kept going an hour's passing with no
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: one coming back. By the time anyone else arrived, the
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: outcome had already been decided. At ten forty five on
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Sunday morning, August fifth, twenty eighteen, the Lee County Sheriff's
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Office received a report of a body discovered in a
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: ditch along two hundred and thirty fifth Avenue in West
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: Point Township. Authorities responded and confirmed that a young woman
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: was dead. By Monday, August sixth, the Lee County Sheriff's
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: Office had confirmed the victim's identity, Sadie Alvarado, twenty years old,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: of Muscatine, Iowa. Later that same evening, the Lee County
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: Attorney's Office was briefed on the facts and circumstances surrounding
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: her death. Charges were filed. Damien Hayman, who had turned
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: himself into the Lee County Sheriff's Office that Sunday, was
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: taken into custody and charged with leaving the scene of
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: an accident resulting in a death, a Class D felony
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: under Iowa law. The charge carried a maximum sentence of
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: five years in prison. A body had been found, an
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: identity confirmed, and a man had turned himself in, but
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: as investigators began to piece together what happened, the story
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: didn't settle, it started to unravel. The investigation that followed
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: was a joint effort involving the Iowa Department of Public
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Safeties Division of Criminal Investigation, the Lee County Sheriff's Office,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: the Lee County Attorney's Office, and.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: The Lee County Medical Examiner.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Special Agent in charge Rick Ron confirmed that the Division
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: of Criminal Investigation was leading the probe and that it
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: would remain open until the charges against Hayman had worked
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: their way through the court system. An autopsy was scheduled
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: there While investigators waited for those results, Sadie's family waited too,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: and they had questions that would not be answered quickly
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: or cleanly. Her father, Reuben Alvarado, spoke publicly about the
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: confusion and grief consuming him. He confirmed the basic out
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: of what Hayman had told police, that the two had
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: been driving from Donelson toward morning sun when the argument
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: broke out and Sadie exited the vehicle. He spoke the
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: language of a man trying to make sense of something
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: that refused to make sense. What really happened, he said,
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: and still to this day, still wondering what happened. Investigators
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: did not publicly address this discrepancy at the time, Special
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Agent Ron indicated only that additional information could not be
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: released while the investigation remained open. Meanwhile, Hayman was released
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: from custody pending his preliminary hearing scheduled for August twenty fourth,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, and placed under supervision by Probation and parole.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: The evidence raised questions, the answers raised more, and for
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Sadie's family, the official version of events never fully explained
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: what they believed didn't add up, because grief can accept loss,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: but it struggles with uncertainty. While her family tried to
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: make sen sense of what they had lost, the investigation
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: moved towards something clinical, a report that would attempt to
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: define in precise terms how Sadie Alvarado died. While legal
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: proceedings began moving at the pace of the court system,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Sadie's family moved through grief at a pace entirely their own.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: Her mother spoke to local reporters in the days following
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: the discovery. I am very devastated. She described Sadie's dream
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: of becoming a pediatric nurse. She described the girl who
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: had earned her associate's degree and was pressing forward, taking classes,
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: working two jobs. She described someone who was generous, funny,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: and present in the world in a way that left
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: a mark on everyone she encountered. She had a laugh
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: and a smile to brighten up a room. Brandy said.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: Her father, Reuben, took to Facebook the day Sadie's identity
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: was confirmed. I miss you, baby, he wrote, and I'm not.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: The only one.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: There's so many people missing you and wishing you were
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: still here with us. I promise you that you will
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: never be forgotten. A vigil was held for Sadie in
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: the community. A celebration of life service followed on Saturday,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: August eleventh, twenty eighteen, at one pm at the Go M.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Whittich Lewis Home for Funeral Incremation Services in Muscatine. The
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: autopsy was completed and the results were released on November one,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, nearly three months after Sadie's body was found.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: The findings confirmed that Sadie had suffered blunt force injuries
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: consistent with the impact of a moving vehicle exit. The
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: autopsy also revealed that at the time of her death,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: her blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: limit to operate a motor vehicle in Iowa. Brayden announced
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: that the manner of death had been officially ruled accidental.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: He stated that the injuries sustained by Sadie were consistent
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: with Damian Hayman's account that she had jumped from the
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: vehicle during the argument. The ruling meant that no additional
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: charges beyond the original leaving the scene charge would be
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: sued against Damian Hayman. The question of what exactly happened
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: on that gravel road on the night of August fourth
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: the argument the exact moment she left the vehicle, the
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: details Reuben Alvarado had been searching for, would not be
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: answered further in a courtroom. Mersadie's father, that was a
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: hard reality to absorb. The autopsy gave an answer, but
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: not the answer everyone was looking for. Because even when
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: a death is ruled accidental, accountability doesn't disappear, It just
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: changes shape. Damian Hayman pleaded not guilty to the charge
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: of leaving the scene of a fatal accident. His case
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: proceeded through Lee County's court system across the autumn and
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: winter of twenty eighteen. In December twenty eighteen, a jury
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: found Hayman guilty of leaving the scene of a fatal
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: accident on a Friday. In late March twenty nineteen, twenty
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: nine year old Damien Hayman stood in a Lee County
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: courtroom and was sentenced to five years in prison, the
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: maximum allowed under Iowa law for a Class D felony
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: convey He had driven away from Sadie.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: Alvarado on a dark gravel road in August. He had
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: gone home, he had.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Come back the next day, and a jury had decided that,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: regardless of what the autopsy said about survivability, that choice
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: to leave was a crime. A jury and a judge
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: had decided Sadie Alvarado's life, and the choice made in
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: its final moments deserved at least that much accountability. A conviction,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: a sentence, a case legally resolved. But closure doesn't always
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: follow a verdict, And for the people who knew Sadie,
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: the story didn't end in that courtroom, because who Sadie
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: was and what she meant to the people who loved
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: her cannot be contained in reports, rulings, or headlines. Sadie
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Eliza Alvarado was twenty years old. She was born September
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: twenty fifth, nineteen ninety seven, in Muscatine, Iowa. She died
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: on the night of August fourth, twenty eighteen, on a
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: gravel road in Lee County alone. The man who drove
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: away was convicted. He received the maximum sentence the law
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: allowed for the ch charge that fit. Whether that was enough,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: whether any sentence could be enough, is something only her
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: family can answer. What as clear as this, Sadie Alvarado
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: was not a footnote. She was not a girl who
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: mattered only in relation to someone else's story. She was
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: a daughter, a sister, a friend, a student, a young
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: woman with a future that was entirely her own. She
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: deserved to be recognized. She still does. Thank you for
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: watching Murder Ledger. We explore real cases, unanswered questions, and
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: the details.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: That refuse to fade.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: If these stories matter to you, consider subscribing and sharing
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: your thoughts in the comments.