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Woman’s Phone Records Revealed About the Days Before She Was Found in Suitcase · Murder Files Unsealed

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome to the deep dive. Today we're heading into well,
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a place you don't often associate with this kind of story, Greenwich, Connecticut.
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It's February twenty nineteen. Think quiet, affluent, sprawling estates, and
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then imagine that tranquility just shattered absolutely.
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Speaker 2: Greenwich is known for white collar crime, complex financial dealings,
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not typically brutal homicide. So when this happened, it sent
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shockwaves through the community.
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Speaker 1: And it started with a pretty grim discovery, didn't it.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, really grim. A dog walker out of the woods
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off Lake Avenue, which is a fairly remote area, especially
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in winter. The grounds frozen, solid snow everywhere.
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Speaker 1: Not a place you expect to find anything unusual.
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Speaker 2: Exactly, and under some ice and leaves he spots this,
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this suitcase, a hard sided black one, just lying there,
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sort of half buried, clearly dumped. And it wasn't just
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any suitcase. It was deliberately generic, the kind you could
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buy anywhere, totally.
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Speaker 1: Unremarkable, designed and not to be traced.
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Speaker 2: Decisely, and inside, well, inside was the frozen body of
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a young woman. It was immediately clear she'd been forced
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into it. Her head and face were partly covered with
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duct tape.
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Speaker 1: Horrifying and the way it was done, the location, the
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generic suitcase. It screamed premeditation, didn't it someone trying very
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hard to cover their tracks.
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Speaker 2: Definitely. The initial assessment was this killer was meticulous, trying
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to make this an instant cold case, no obvious clues
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left behind.
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Speaker 1: But the victim was quickly identified.
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Speaker 2: Yes, Valerie Rays. She was only twenty four, grew up
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in the Bronx, her family originally from the Dominican Republic.
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She was chasing that classic New York dream, you know, modeling, acting.
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Speaker 1: Full of life. By all accounts, friends described her laugh
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her optimism, but that pursuit of her dreams, it sounds
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like it led her down a dangerous path.
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Speaker 2: It did. And that initial challenge for Greenwich PD, this
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meticulous crime scene with almost no physical leads at well,
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that's where the story takes a very modern.
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Speaker 1: Turn away from fingerprints and fibers towards something else exactly.
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Speaker 2: Detective Sergeant Piangeula Cordicelli and his team we realized pretty
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fast that traditional forensics weren't going to crack this alone.
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They needed to pivot hard towards the digital evidence.
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Speaker 1: The digital breadcrumbs as you called them.
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Speaker 2: Right, valerie cell phone. Even though the phone itself was missing,
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the data it generated that became the key texts, call logs, crucially,
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the cell tower pings. It all painted this devastating picture
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of her last days, deception, control, and ultimately doom.
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Speaker 1: So that's our mission for you today. We're going to
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use those very records, piece by piece to conduct what
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we're calling a digital autopsy. We'll walk you through the
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specific messages, the pings, the calls, especially the failed ones
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that took this case from seemingly impossible to solved.
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Speaker 2: We're going to see how, even in silence, technology can
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give a victim a final, undeniable voice, a technically precise one.
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Speaker 1: Okay, So to really understand what happened, we need to
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understand Valerie Reye is, herself, her background, her life. It's
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all context for those final months.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely. She was born in ninety four, rais in the Bronx.
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Her mother, Marie Reyes, worked incredibly hard, multiple cleaning jobs
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just to keep things afloat. Valerie was described as the family.
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Speaker 1: Glue, keeping everyone connected.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, organizing things, always in touch with relatives back in
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San Domingo. She sounds like she was the heart of
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the family in many.
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Speaker 1: Ways, but NYC is tough, especially trying to break into
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acting or modeling.
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Speaker 2: It really is. The sources show she was doing the grind,
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you know, background, extra work, small promotional gigs here and there.
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It's a hustle and that pressure, the need for quick
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cash to survive in the city while chasing that dream.
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It led her into what investigators later called a shadowy.
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Speaker 1: Orbit, and that orbit included Javier Morales.
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Speaker 2: That's the connection. She needed money, maybe connections, and he
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seemed to offer both.
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Speaker 1: Okay, so let's untack Javier and Morales. Who was this guy?
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What was the appeal?
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Speaker 2: Well, he was twenty eight from Queens. He presented himself
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as a talent scout, you know the type, flashy social
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media talking about high end modeling gigs, maybe name dropping
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European contacts.
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Speaker 1: Selling the dream exactly. Yea.
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Speaker 2: He looked like the key, the access point Valerie might
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have felt she needed, but it was all a facade.
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Sources confirmed pretty quickly that behind the flashy Instagram there
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was a really volatile temper and money problems, big time
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mounting debts from failed business ventures. He was sinking financially
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and he started seeing Valerie maybe her network as a
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potential resource to exploit.
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Speaker 1: So this wasn't just a professional thing that went sour.
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It became possessive very quickly.
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Speaker 2: By late twenty eighteen, it has shifted from professional or
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even friendly into something deeply controlling intimate partner violence, territory.
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And the signs were there digitally and behaviorally?
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Speaker 1: What kind of signs? What were friends noticing?
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Speaker 2: Well, the classic red flag started appearing. Valerie began withdrawing
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less active at group chats, skipping social events. She'd send
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these kind of cryptic texts, sometimes saying she needed space,
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needed to figure things.
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Speaker 1: Out, but she couldn't quite break free.
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Speaker 2: It seems like she felt trapped and Morales actively manufactured
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that dependency that I.
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Speaker 1: And he used technology to do it. That's crucial here, right,
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The digital.
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Speaker 2: Control absolutely central to the pattern of abuse. The sources
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detail how he'd, for example, smash her phone during.
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Speaker 1: Arguments, cutting off her communication exactly.
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Speaker 2: It isolates her, makes it financially dependent on him if
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she needs a replacement. And even when she had her phone,
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that pink cased iPhone that becomes so important. He insisted
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on using shared location.
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Speaker 1: Apps like Find My Friends.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, things like that he'd frame it as, oh, it's
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for safety, or it shows we trust each other, but
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in reality he was using it for constant, real time tracking.
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It turned a communication tool into basically a digital leash.
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Speaker 1: That constant surveillance must create incredible psychological pressure.
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Speaker 2: It's terrifying, and Valerie actually articulated this herself in a
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text message to her friend. She was trying to explain
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why leaving was so hard.
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Speaker 1: What did she say?
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Speaker 2: She wrote, this is chilling. He said he loved me
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too much to let me go. That phrase it sounds
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almost romantic out of context, but in this dynamic, it's
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the language of ownership, of entrapment.
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Speaker 1: And things escalated beyond digital control. There was a physical incident.
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Wasn't there an intervention that failed?
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Speaker 2: Yes, and it's heartbreaking. January fifteenth, twenty nineteen, just weeks
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before she disappeared, police were called to her apartment for
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a domestic disturbance.
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Speaker 1: Morales had assaulted her.
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Speaker 2: Allegedly, yes, but when the officers arrived Valerie she had
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inclined to press charges, according to the reports. In later testimony,
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she explicitly said she was afraid, afraid of retaliation from them. Immediate,
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dangerous retaliation. It's a terrible choice to have to make
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under that kind of duress.
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Speaker 1: And it highlights just how difficult it is to escape
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that cycle of control and fear.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely, it's a systemic problem. And all this time, her
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iPhone is just documenting everything, every text, every call attempt,
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every location change, every flicker of fear.
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Speaker 1: So when her mother reports were missing on February first,
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the physical phone is gone, but the data isn't.
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Speaker 2: Exactly the investigators knew those records existed in the cloud
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with Verizon. The phone itself was missing, but its digital
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ghost that became their most powerful witness.
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Speaker 1: It had recorded everything, the please, the unanswered calls.
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Speaker 2: And crucially, those location pings that would eventually trace her
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final journey. Investigators weren't just looking for a body anymore.
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They were rebuilding a life and death from metadata.
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Speaker 1: So February fifth, twenty nineteen, Valor's body is found in Greenwich.
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That discovery instantly kicks off a major homicide investigation.
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Speaker 2: Right, A full task course gets mobilized, led by Detective
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Sergeant Corticelli. They're operating in an environment, like we said,
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more used to complex financial cases than this kind of
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brutal violence.
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Speaker 1: What did the initial physical autopsy reveal? I imagine the
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fact that the body was frozen presented challenges.
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Speaker 2: It did, but they were able to determine some key things.
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Cause of death was asphyxiation, likely manual strangulation. The duct
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tape they determined, was applied after death.
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Speaker 1: Why would some and do that?
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Speaker 2: A couple of theories were floated, Maybe to prevent any
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noise during transport, though unlikely if she was already deceased.
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More likely. Some experts suggested it was an act of
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dehumanization or just part of the panic attempt to conceal
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the body. They also estimated time of death was at
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least forty eight hours before she was found.
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Speaker 1: We talked about the lack of obvious physical evidence at
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the dump site. Generic suitcase, no weapon, but there was
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one small physical clue, right that partial print.
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Speaker 2: Yes on the suitcase handle, A smudged partial print. It
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wasn't much to go on initially, heavily smudged, not a
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clean hit. In the databases. It needed a lot of work.
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Speaker 1: So the physical side is slow going, but the digital
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side gets a massive boost almost immediately.
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Speaker 2: This is the absolute turning point. Marie Rais Valerie's mother.
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Her cooperation was crucial.
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Speaker 1: She just handed everything over.
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Speaker 2: Everything social media logins, email passwords, and the most critical piece,
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the log in information for Valerie's Verizon account. She essentially
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gave them the keys to Valorie's entire digital life. Her
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quote was powerful, take it all, just find who did this.
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Speaker 1: That must have saved the investigator. Is a huge amount
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of time in legal hurdles months potentially.
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Speaker 2: Normally police need warrants, subpoenis. It could be a long,
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sometimes adversarial process to get that data from a telecom company.
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Maria's consent bypassed a lot of that initial legal wrangling.
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Speaker 1: They still needed official processes I saw.
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Speaker 2: Oh yes, They immediately subpoenaed the records from Verizon for
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the relevant timeframe, call logs, text message logs, initially metadata
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like who texted whom and when? Maybe not the content
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right away, and critically the cell tower location data.
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Speaker 1: Okay, let's clarify cell tower pings again, What exactly are
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investigators looking at. It's not like precise GPS, is it?
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Speaker 2: No, not usually like the GPS on your phone's map app.
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It's based on call detail records or CDRs. Basically, whenever
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Valerie's phone interacted with the network, made a call, sent
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a text, checked email, even just periodically updated its location
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with the network. It talked to the nearest cell.
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Speaker 1: Tower, and Verizon logs that interaction exactly.
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Speaker 2: They logged the unique idea of the tower, often the
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specific sector of the tower antenna it connected to, which
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gives a rough direction and the exact time. It provides
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a geographical area the cell sector footprint, and.
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Speaker 1: The size of that footprint varies greatly.
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Speaker 2: In dense urban areas like the Bronx, towers are close together,
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so the footprint might only be a few city blocks,
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but out in more suburban or rural areas like parts
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of Greenwich, a single tower covers a much larger area,
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maybe miles wide.
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Speaker 1: So it's not pinpoint accuracy, but it shows movement and
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location within a certain zone precisely.
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Speaker 2: And when you string those pings together over time, you
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get a path. As the sources said, it wasn't an
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instant smoking gun, but a slow burning fuse. It started
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building a narrative, a.
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Speaker 1: Narrative of isolation, coercion, and movement exactly, and.
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Speaker 2: That narrative really ignites on January twenty eighth, twenty nineteen.
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This is where we get into the minute by minute
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digital breakdown of her final forty eight hours.
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Speaker 1: All right, digging into these phone records for Valerie's last
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two days, it's intense. This really forms the bedrock of
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the entire case against Morales.
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Speaker 2: It absolutely does so. January twenty eighth, that Monday, it
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starts seemingly normally. At two point one point seven in
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the afternoon, Valerie has a fourteen minute call with her mother, Maria.
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Speaker 1: The last normal conversation, the last.
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Speaker 2: Record one Yes, she apparently just said I'm okay, Mammy,
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just tired. Looking back, sounds incredibly.
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Speaker 1: Ominous because almost immediately after that call, the digital record
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changes drastically instantly.
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Speaker 2: Morales's control mechanism just kicks into high gear. In the
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twenty minutes right after she hangs up with her mom,
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her call log shows seven incoming calls from Morales. Seven.
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Speaker 1: He's trying to re establish contact or control immediately, and.
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Speaker 2: The texts escalate just as fast, they go from whatever
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was normal between them to pure accusation and demand. The
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evidence log includes a text from him at two four
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five pm, where you answer me now all gaps?
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Speaker 1: Did she respond?
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Speaker 2: Briefly? She tried to placate him, texted something like at
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home why, but it didn't work. By three twelve PM,
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all responses from her phone stop completely silent.
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Speaker 1: That's the moment her digital voice goes dark.
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Speaker 2: It is, but critically her phone isn't stationary. The silence
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corresponds with movement. At four zero five PM, the phone
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pings a tower that's closer to the edge of Manhattan,
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indicating it's moving away from her apartment in.
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Speaker 1: The Bronx, which immediately contradicts any story about her just
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leaving on her own right.
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Speaker 2: The digital silence plus the physical movement is key. And
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then just minutes later, at four to eleven PM, they
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find corroborating visual evidence surveillance footage yeah, pieced together from
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traffic cans and a local bodega camera. It's grainy, not perfect,
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but it captures Valerie getting into a silver Honda.
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Speaker 1: Civic Moralesis car registered to him.
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Speaker 2: Yes, and the description from the footage notes she looks tense,
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her head is down, she's clutching her phone. So you
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have the texts, the unanswered calls, the digital silence, the
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phone moving, and now visual confirmation of her getting into
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his car under direct Yes. It strongly suggests the abduction,
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or at least the point of no return, happened right there.
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Speaker 1: Okay, so that brings us to the next day, January
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twenty ninth. The digital trail shows a significant shift in location, a.
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Speaker 2: Huge leap north. This is where the cross state line
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element comes in. The day starts oddly quiet. Then there's
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a brief three minute call logged between Valerie's phone and
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Morales's phone at nine two to two am.
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Speaker 1: What was that about?
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Speaker 2: Prosecutors argued it was likely Morales making a call from
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her phone to his phone, trying to create a digital footprint,
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suggesting she was still alive and communicating willingly. Then more
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silence until just afternoon.
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Speaker 1: And then the pings start showing movement out of NYC.
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Speaker 2: Exactly at twelve forty seven pm, her device connects to
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a cell tower in Stanford, Connecticut that's thirty miles north
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of the Bronx Way, outside her usual pattern. The phone
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is now clearly moving north along the I ninety five corridor.
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Speaker 1: Those pings along the highway must have been pretty continuous.
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Speaker 2: Yes. The towers along a major interstate like I ninety
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five provide a fear early consistent track. They could literally
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map the phone's progress north into Connecticut.
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Speaker 1: Could they tell speed or anything like that.
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Speaker 2: Not precise speed, but they can see the rate at
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which the phone hands off from one tower to the next,
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giving a general sense of movement. More importantly, they saw
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when the phone slowed down and deviated off the main highway.
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Speaker 1: Route towards a dump site.
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Speaker 2: Precisely by three point fifty pm, the phone becomes stationary.
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It stops pinging different towers and stays connected to the
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ones covering a specific dense residential area near Lake Avenue
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in Greenwich, the exact area where her body would later be.
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Speaker 1: Found, And while ats stationary there, all outgoing activity stops again.
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Speaker 2: Complete silence from her device, no outgoing calls, and no
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texts sent, no social media updates logged. The phone is
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effectively inert, likely in the possession of the killer or
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perhaps lying near Valerie if she was incapacitated.
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Speaker 1: But then amidst that silence, there's a sudden desperate signal.
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Speaker 2: This is maybe the most shilling part of the digital evidence.
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The data timeline shows two attempts, two distinct actions to
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dial nine to one one from her phone when at
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four to twelve PM and again just two minutes later,
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at four to fourteen pm.
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Speaker 1: Two attempts. What does the data actually show? Does it
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show the call connected?
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Speaker 2: No, the logs showed the calls were initiated but failed
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to connect. The Verizon forensic expert testified that the system
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recorded the key presses the intent to dial nine to
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one one. She tried to call for help.
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Speaker 1: Why would they fail? Bad signal?
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Speaker 2: That's what the defense suggested. Maybe poor reception in that
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wooded area of Greenwich, and it's possible. But Detective Cordiicchelli's interpretation,
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presented powerfully at trial, was different. He said, the phone
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doesn't lie. It showed her fighting to reach out, but
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something or someone silenced.
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Speaker 1: Her, meaning Morales might have stopped her.
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Speaker 2: That was the strong inference. Given the timing just before
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or potentially during the fatal assault, It's believed he likely
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realized she was trying to call for help and physically
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stopped her or disabled the phone right after the attempt.
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The data proves the use intent to seek help at
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that critical moment.
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Speaker 1: And terrifyingly, right around this time, the motive shifts from
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control to something else money.
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Speaker 2: Yes, this detail completely undermines any crime of passion defense.
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The records showed that just minutes before those failed nine
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one one calls at three five five PM, someone accessed
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Valerie's Leble banking app from her phone.
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Speaker 1: To check her balance exactly.
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Speaker 2: The balance was two hundred and forty seven dollars and
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thirty eight cents, not a huge amount but perhaps enough
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for someone desperate.
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Speaker 1: And then immediately after the timeframe of the nine one
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one calls and presume Burder, the withdrawals start almost immediately.
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Speaker 2: Financial subpoenas confirmed it. Three separate ATM withdrawals hit her
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account totally one hundred and eighty dollars. They came from
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a Chase bank ATM, just two miles away from where
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a phone was stationary near Lake Avenue, and they had
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video they did. Bank surveillance video showed a figure hooded
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making the withdrawals at specific times five zero two PM,
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five four to one ten pm, and five to three
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one pm. The build, the timing location, it all point
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out directly at Morales. His first act after silencing her
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was apparently to drain her bank account.
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Speaker 1: It's just incredibly cold and calculated utterly.
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Speaker 2: It paints a picture not just of violence, but of
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methodical financial exploitation right up to and immediately following her death.
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Speaker 1: This carries into the next day too, right January thirtieth,
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the cleanup in cashing.
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Speaker 2: In that seems to be the focus. Valor's phone continues
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to ping occasionally around the Greenwich area until about one
17:26
fourteen am on the thirtieth. That could be the killer
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driving around, maybe disposing of items, before the phone finally
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dies or is shut off.
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Speaker 1: But Morales's phone activity picks up.
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Speaker 2: Yes, his phone becomes active in ways that suggest clean
17:39
up and trying to get cash. He starts making calls
17:42
to burner numbers disposable untraceable phones, which often indicates trying
17:47
to arrange something discreetly, maybe selling something or contacting accomplices.
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Speaker 1: And then there's that very specific call right.
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Speaker 2: At eleven forty five am on the thirtieth, his phone
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records show a twenty minute conversation with a pawn chop
17:59
in Norwalkane.
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Speaker 1: And that pawn shop is significant because.
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Speaker 2: Because the very next day Valerie's gold necklace went engraved
18:06
with their initials, something identifiable was pawned at that exact
18:08
shop for just fifty dollars.
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Speaker 1: He killed her, took her money, and then pawned her necklace.
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Speaker 2: It seems so, but the financial trail didn't stop there.
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That one hundred eighty dollars from the eight PM plus
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maybe the necklace money appears to have funded his next move,
18:24
which was gambling. Casino record sealed the financial motive. Valerie's
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debit card, the one link to the account he drained,
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was used later on January thirtieth to buy two hundred
18:34
dollars worth of chips at the Mohegan Sun Casino and.
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Speaker 1: Could they place him or at least her phone, which
18:39
he presumably had near the casino.
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Speaker 2: Yes, her phone pined towers near Mohegan's Son just hours
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before that chip purchase was made. The digital trail is
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seamless abduction in the Bronx transport to Greenwich, the likely
18:52
time of death coinciding with nine one one attempts in
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bank app access the ATM withdraws nearby, the pawn shop call,
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and only the casino transaction using her card with her
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phone pinging nearby. It's an incredibly detailed timeline of murder
19:06
and theft.
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Speaker 1: Okay, so after the casino trip, Valerie's phone seems to
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go completely dark for a while, but then there's one
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last crucial.
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Speaker 2: Ping, one final whisper from the device. January thirty first,
19:16
seven point twenty two in the morning, a single ping
19:19
registers near a self storage facility in port Chester, New York, which.
19:22
Speaker 1: Is just across the state line from Greenwich exactly.
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Speaker 2: Investigators immediately suspected this was related to cleanup, dumping evidence,
19:31
maybe cleaning the car, things you wouldn't want to do
19:33
out in the open.
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Speaker 1: So that one ping was enough to get a warrant.
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Speaker 2: It was compelling enough, combined with everything else they knew.
19:40
They rated that specific storage unit linked to Morales on
19:43
February seventh, and.
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Speaker 1: The phone itself wasn't there right, It was never found, never.
19:47
Speaker 2: Recovered, But what they found in the unit was almost
19:50
as good. Bloody rags, cleaning supplies, and critically, rolls of
19:54
duct tape.
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Speaker 1: The same type of ductech used on Valerie.
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Speaker 2: Forensics were able to match it, not just the brand.
20:00
They analyzed the chemical makeup, the tensile strength, even microscopic
20:03
imperfections on the tape's edge. It was a match to
20:06
the tape found on Valerie's face. That storage unit ping
20:10
led directly to physical evidence tying Morales to the materials
20:14
used in the crime.
20:15
Speaker 1: So the cell data really focused the investigations squarely on Morales.
20:20
They had the digital timeline, the pings, the texts, and.
20:23
Speaker 2: They corroborated it with other evidence. Surveillance footage put his
20:28
silver Honda Civic near the Greenwich Woods around the time
20:31
her phone went stationary there on January twenty ninth, and
20:34
easy Pass or toll Plaza records confirmed his car made
20:39
that specific journey up I ninety five from New York into.
20:43
Speaker 1: Connecticut, building an overwhelming case completely.
20:46
Speaker 2: So on February eighth, they move in Morales. Is arrested
20:49
not at home, but at some dive.
20:51
Speaker 1: Bar in Queen's and even his own phone records continued
20:54
to condemn him.
20:55
Speaker 2: Yes, they found that chilling text message sent from his
20:58
phone at six fifteen pm back on January twenty ninth,
21:01
just about two hours after Valeries failed nine to one
21:04
one calls sent to some associate. What did it Saygan,
21:06
She won't be a problem anymore. It's about as close
21:08
to a written confession time stamp by the network as
21:11
you can get.
21:11
Speaker 1: Yet in interrogation he tried to stick to his story.
21:14
Speaker 2: Initially, Yes, he played dumb claim Valerie had just taken off,
21:18
maybe run off with some new guy he didn't know.
21:20
Speaker 1: How did that hold up?
21:20
Speaker 2: It crumbled instantly. Detective Cordicelli laid out the evidence, the
21:25
ATM photos, the exact cell tower pings showing her movement north,
21:30
her phone stationery near the dumb site, the nine to
21:32
one one attempts the withdrawals. Morales had no answer. He
21:35
tried to dismiss the ATM footage that wasn't me. Shadows,
21:40
but you can't argue with that volume of precise time
21:43
stamp data.
21:45
Speaker 1: The digital evidence seems insurmountable. But there was still that
21:48
partial fingerprint from the suitcase. Did that ever get resolved?
21:51
Speaker 2: It did, and it provided a crucial unexpected link. That
21:55
smudged partial print didn't match Hoavia Morales in the standard
21:58
fingerprint database, so.
22:00
Speaker 1: It wasn't him who touched the handle.
22:02
Speaker 2: Not directly, it seemed, But forensics managed to get a
22:05
workable partial DNA profile from the skin oils left on
22:08
the print, and when they ran that through the forensic
22:10
DNA databasis, it got a hit, not an exact match
22:13
to Javier, but something called a familial match. It flagged
22:15
a high probability that the DNA belonged to a close
22:18
male relative of someone already in the system, and that
22:21
relative was Javier Morales's brother.
22:23
Speaker 1: Wow. So, how does familial DNA searching work legally?
22:26
Speaker 2: It sounds controversial, It is controversial in some circles regarding
22:29
privacy huh. But basically, the system looks for profiles that
22:33
share a statistically significant number of genetic markers, suggesting a parent, child,
22:37
or sibling relationship. The brother had a prior minor conviction,
22:41
so his DNA was on file.
22:43
Speaker 1: And confronting the brother with this, he.
22:44
Speaker 2: Flipped face with DNA evidence, placing him or a close
22:48
relative literally on the handle of the suitcase used to
22:51
dump Vellerie's body. He cooperated, He testified against Xavier.
22:55
Speaker 1: What did he say?
22:57
Speaker 2: He admitted that Hobbier had paid him five hundred dollars
22:59
to help him dispose of the body. He described driving
23:02
with Javier to that spot off Lake Avenue and leaving
23:05
the suitcase there. His testimony plays Javier directly at a
23:08
dumb site, corroborating the digital evidence and Morales's lives.
23:11
Speaker 1: So the combination digital timeline, financial records, surveillance, and now
23:15
accomplsh testimony sealed by familial DNA. That's airtight.
23:19
Speaker 2: Absolutely. It led directly to the trial in September twenty twenty,
23:22
held at Stanford Superior Court, and the trial itself became
23:25
a masterclass in presenting digital evidence. How So, the prosecutor,
23:29
Assistant State's Attorney Tara Bihanovich, built her entire case around
23:33
that digital autopsy concept. Her opening lines set the tone.
23:38
Valerie's phone didn't just record her life, it recorded her death.
23:41
Speaker 1: And they showed the data visually.
23:43
Speaker 2: Yes, that was key. They projected the call logs onto
23:46
huge screens for the jury, maps showing the cell tower
23:49
pings tracking the car's movement, the text messages, including Morales's
23:54
escalating demands and Valerie's last responses. They basically made the
23:58
jury watch the digital timeline unfold.
24:00
Speaker 1: What was the defense strategy against that?
24:02
Speaker 2: They had to attack the technology itself. Their main argument
24:05
was essentially, pings prove proximity, not guilt. They argued cell
24:10
tower data isn't perfectly precise, that the phone could have
24:13
been ditched, that it didn't prove Morales committed the actual murder,
24:16
only that he might have been near where it happened.
24:18
Speaker 1: How did the prosecution counter that very effectively?
24:21
Speaker 2: They brought in the Verizon forransic analyst who explained the technology,
24:24
emphasizing the sheer, frequency and continuity of the pings along
24:28
a ninety five how they perfectly aligned with the APM stocks,
24:31
the casino location. The odds of all that being coincidences
24:35
were astronomical.
24:36
Speaker 1: And they brought in psychological expertise too.
24:39
Speaker 2: Yes, a psychologist testified about the text messages. Analyzing the language,
24:43
they framed it within the context of intimate partner abuse,
24:46
showing the pattern of coercion and control which established the
24:49
motive and the dynamic that led to the violence.
24:52
Speaker 1: Did Morales testify He did.
24:54
Speaker 2: He tried to use that charm, that manipulation one last time.
24:58
He actually claimed he acted out of love, repeating variants
25:01
of I loved her too much.
25:02
Speaker 1: Did the jury buy it for a second.
25:05
Speaker 2: After seeing the cold, hard data timeline, the failed nine
25:08
to one to one calls, the immediate theft, His claims
25:10
of love sounded hollow, perverse even They deliberated for about
25:14
eleven hours and the verdict guilty first degree murder and
25:18
tampering with physical evidence. September twenty five, twenty twenty. He
25:21
received a sentence of life in prison without the possibility.
25:24
Speaker 1: Of parole any reaction from him.
25:26
Speaker 2: Reports say he was stone faced mostly, but as he
25:29
was being led out of the courtroom, he apparently whispered
25:33
something horrifying what she deserved. It just utterly chilling, a final,
25:39
unrepentant confirmation of his guilt, captured even after the digital
25:43
trail had already proven it beyond doubt.
25:46
Speaker 1: So when you step back and look at the whole case,
25:48
Valerie Reis's story meticulously rebuilt from her phone data, it's
25:53
just such a stark illustration of how technology cuts both ways,
25:56
isn't it.
25:56
Speaker 2: It really is. Those digital records became her voice when
25:59
she no longer had one. They were, in effect, her
26:02
unspoken screams, as some commentators put it, the evidence the
26:06
physical world missed, the digital world preserved.
26:09
Speaker 1: And this deep dive really showed us the anatomy of
26:12
digital control exactly.
26:13
Speaker 2: It wasn't just about where she was. The records exposed
26:16
the method of control, text designed to isolate her location,
26:20
tracking disguised as care but used for surveillance, and then
26:23
those final desperate calls for help logged even as they failed.
26:27
The metadata became the most resilient testimony she could offer.
26:30
Speaker 1: Has this case changed anything in terms of how we
26:32
approach domestic violence or digital evidence today in twenty twenty five,
26:37
it definitely has.
26:38
Speaker 2: Advocacy groups have really integrated the lessons from cases like
26:42
Valeries into their work so well. Organizations like the National
26:46
Network to End Domestic Violence and NDV They actually use
26:50
her timeline the digital aspects in training sessions for law enforcement,
26:55
for advocates who work.
26:56
Speaker 1: With victims, training them on what to look for yes.
26:59
Speaker 2: And also on safe planning for victims. They emphasize things
27:02
like being aware of location sharing settings, using safe words
27:05
for discrete communication, or abs like Circle of six that
27:08
can send alerts quietly. There's a much greater awareness now
27:12
that the digital trail is often the primary evidence field
27:15
in these situations. Her vulnerability documented by her phone is
27:19
now part of protocols to protect others.
27:21
Speaker 1: And her mother, Maria Reis, she played such a pivotal
27:24
role by providing that access she did.
27:26
Speaker 2: It must have been incredibly painful handing over her daughter's
27:29
private digital world, but that act was fundamental to getting justice.
27:34
She's become a powerful voice for victims right since then.
27:37
Speaker 1: Her quote about the phone telling the truth.
27:39
Speaker 2: Her phone told the truth when she couldn't. It really
27:42
sums up the unique power of digital evidence. In this case,
27:46
Valerie's physical presence was erased, but her digital shadow, as
27:49
Maria calls it, endures. It ensured the truth came out.
27:53
Speaker 1: It's a striking contrast too, that physical evidence the suitcase.
27:57
I assume it was destroyed after the trials andard procedure.
28:01
Speaker 2: Once appeals are exhausted. Physical evidence like that is often incinerated.
28:05
It's gone.
28:05
Speaker 1: But the digital data that's permanent.
28:08
Speaker 2: The call logs, the text medidata, the location pings, They
28:11
exist indefinitely in carrier databases, in court records and case files.
28:16
It raises a really profound question for all of us now,
28:18
which is, well, we live in an age where everything
28:21
is logged. AI is getting better and better at parsing
28:24
massive data sets, our digital footprint, the trail we leave
28:27
just by living our lives online and with our devices,
28:30
it might actually be the most complete, the most resilient
28:32
form of testimony we have, even when we're silent.
28:36
Speaker 1: So the final thought for you listening to this, what
28:39
does it really mean when your own technology, the device
28:43
in your pocket or on your desk, is meticulously recording everything,
28:48
not just your choices, the websites you visit, the people
28:50
you message, but potentially your moments of fear, your vulnerabilities.
28:54
Speaker 2: How much do we understand about that permanent record, and,
28:58
maybe more unsettlingly, how much alliance should we or will
29:01
future investigators place on that passive stream of data to
29:04
tell our truth if for some reason we can no
29:06
longer speak for ourselves.
29:08
Speaker 1: That's the lingering question. Valerie Ray's story leaves us with
29:11
a question about technology, truth, and the enduring power of
29:14
the digital shadow.