Angelica Sandoval (3 of Hearts, Colorado)

Our card this week is on Helica Sandival, the Three of Hearts from Colorado. When police arrived at the scene of on Helica Sandival's disappearance on February 24, 2011, what they came across seemed eerily frozen in time. Her 1995 four-door green Oldsmobile Sedan was parked in front of her two bedroom duplex. Her keys were still in the driver's side lock, but the back driver's side door of the car was hanging open, revealing a basket of laundry and her purse still inside the car. The eariness of that scene, the way that on Helica had seemingly just been plucked away in the middle of such a routine task, it left a heaviness that has hung over Alamosa Colorado since that 27-degree night. I grew up in Alamosa, Colorado, born and raised here, it's a case that if you grew up here you kind of heard about, you knew about, you were always aware of on Helica Sandival's case. That's Captain Brandon Birch. He clearly knew about on Helica's case when he joined the Alamosa Police Department in 2017, but he had no idea then that almost 10 years later, it would be his job to solve this 15-year-old cold case. I'm Ashley Flowers and this is The Deck. Three years after joining the Alamosa Police Department, a black binder in the investigations unit caught the attention of now Captain Brandon Birch. I was a detective in 2020 around that time frame and as the years progressed I had a case file that was sitting inside of my detective cubicle that was sitting in there for years and I never really looked at it and one day I remember I just opened my dresser drawer and I started looking at it and I said, "Hey, Cap, what is this?" Oh, that's on Helica Sandival's case file, that's a cold case, a missing person case and of course it registers with me because I grew up here, right? I started kind of just looking at the case and the way the file was set up, just the way it was there and it just it bothered me for years and bothered me for years that it was just sitting there. I understood that there were no leads coming in at the time that was kind of what I was told, "Hey, you know, if there's leads coming in, we'll follow up on them." There's leads coming in there, we'll follow up on them and we're a busy agency but I don't think we should make the excuse that we're so busy that we can't show some type of due diligence to look at these cases. By January of 2026, Birch was the one overseeing the agency's Investigations Division and now that he was calling the shots, he made it a priority for the department to take a hard look at the case of on Helica Sandival. It meant going back through 15 years of notes, evidence and documents that had been passed through several hands. I put aside about a week and a half of just uninterrupted time between me and my detectives, the District Attorney's Office, the 12th Judicial District Attorney's Office Investigators, where we just went into an empty room, completely empty whiteboards, brought on Helica's entire case file, everything about Angelica, including her evidence into this room and just rehashed the entire case from start to finish. The first thing they found were gaps, missing notes in complete records, leads and evidence that were never fully followed up on or reviewed as the file passed from one investigator to another over the years. But there were clear records about how the investigation started. On Helica's grandfather, Ernest, had been the one to report her missing to the Alamosa Police Department on February 24th, 2011. Ernest told the Responding Officer that he had been at on Helica's home watching her one-year-old daughter while on Helica was at a nearby laundromat. He said that when she returned home, she had parked on the street and brought some laundry inside, and then she went back for another load, but then she just never returned. Now her grandfather knew that something wasn't right and he called the police because nothing about the scene that wintery night made him believe she had just walked away. I mean, forget how her car was left open and all her things left behind. The one thing he knew she would never leave behind was her daughter. But police held just a beat. Maybe she forgot something or just went to a neighbors. But when there was still no sign of on Helica by the afternoon, police returned and began a coordinated search of the area. From what he's learned about on Helica through interviews and her case file, Captain Birch doesn't think she would have abandoned her daughter either. And he doesn't think that she would have gone with someone willingly. Her reporter spoke with six of on Helica's friends and family members, and a picture emerged of someone who was petite in size, but not in spirit. She was 4.11 and 105 pounds with dark hair, brown eyes, and distinctive tattoos. Sad girl across her knuckles, the name of her daughter on her shoulder, and paw prints along her left ribcage. By all accounts on Helica was the kind of person who could handle herself, the kind of person who wouldn't go quietly. Just from what I've been able to figure out throughout the case file on Helica was kind of a spunky in your face girl. She's a tough, tough girl, her family's tough, she's tough, and street smart is the best term I could use, right? She's a street smart girl. And yet, as police canvassed the neighborhood around the duplex working their way down 13th street and nearby roads, interviewing more than a dozen people, no one in the area reported anything unusual that night, not even her grandfather who told police that he'd been right inside the house when on Helica disappeared. To Captain Birch, part of that isn't weird, but not seeing anything part. So assuming that the south side was set up the way it was when I was growing up here, there wouldn't have been all these street lights. This is going to be a really dark street, especially at, you know, this is February, so it's the middle of winter for us. I remember being on night ship patrol driving down here and it's still dark. You can barely see the front doors of these properties. It's the not hearing anything part that he finds hard to believe, because the properties out there on 13th street sit very close to one another. If on Helica would have screamed or yelled or done anything like that, which again, from what I see of her and what I think she is as an individual and I may be completely wrong, but I could see her screaming, kicking, fighting to get back inside the house in there where her baby's at. This isn't that far of a distance to hear that type of commotion by any means, but for any of these, even though one's across the street, I mean, we're still looking at 50 yards if that, just so that one straight across the street. In 2011, Detective spent the first few days following on Helica's disappearance at this location, her home and the surrounding area. They interviewed her neighbors. They issued a search warrant for the duplex, the yard, and an alley next to the house. Her name was entered into the Colorado and National Crime Information Centers. Reports show that her car was towed to the police station and processed for evidence, but despite records that these searches were performed, Captain Bert said there weren't any lab reports or similar items in the case file he inherited that show if anything, like DNA, hair, fibers or prints, were processed much less what the results were. What he does have to work with are the phone records that police pulled from her cell, which on Helica had left behind in the house after bringing in that first load of laundry. They did an emergency pull of the records, which only gave them the last 48 hours of activity, showing date and time stamp messages, along with cell tower locations. It narrowed down when her communications stopped and helped investigators identify who she'd been in contact with, which gave them an idea of whom to interview. And all those interviews led to a big reveal. This wasn't the first investigation that on Helica was at the center of. On November 19, 2010, three months before on Helica's sandable disappeared, she called 911 to report a terrifying incident that had happened while she was sleeping in her bed. It was a short time after midnight. She told police that she had been woken up by a man holding a gun to her back and pressing her face into a pillow. She had proceeded to duct tape another pillow around her head before taking $200. from her wallet and threatening to assault her in front of her baby who was sleeping nearby. Before leaving, he warned her not to move for five minutes or he would return and kill her. Then he shouted out on his way out the door. This is East Side Gang. On Helika had briefly seen her attacker through a gap in the pillows. He was about 5-5 with neck tattoos, but more than that, she'd recognized his voice. She said it belonged to a man who went by demon that she had met through a boyfriend. She had even dropped him off once at his mother and laws home and remembered the name of his wife. So all of these details had quickly led investigators to a 29-year-old local man named Jose Luis Moraz. And while Moraz had tattoos associated with Serenio's 13, a gang tied to the Mexican Mafia, it's unclear which East Side Gang was being referenced during the robbery because he had never been charged or convicted with any crime related to gang activity. Now, on Helika later identified Moraz in a photo lineup. He was then charged with nine counts related to the home invasion, including burglary, robbery, burst-degree kidnapping, and child abuse for endangering her daughter. And on Helika was set to testify against him in court, and that hearing was set for a week after she went missing. So the case direction 100% from the start, it was from the moment it was taken till you know it started going cold later on several years later. Was 100% directed towards Jose Moraz. The home invasion, everything was there for the motive. What wasn't there though was opportunity. During this time frame though, he was incarcerated. He was in a facility or in a jail. I think it was in New Mexico during this time when she went missing. On February 3rd, 2011, 20 days before on Helika's disappearance. Moraz was arrested and jailed in Espanola, New Mexico on multiple warrants for other crimes, including second-degree assault. It meant that he couldn't physically have been anywhere near on Helika on the night that she went missing, but believes couldn't discount that he may have orchestrated a hit from behind bars. All of his records and everything as far as Moraz goes was reviewed by the FBI. He did a lot of his stuff, his communication from the jail, from via phone calls, letters were all in Spanish, so they had to get individuals to reference and go through all of that fine tooth and coma and see what kind of communication there was about on Helika specifically. The answer was none of it. They even reviewed his prison visitor logs, which showed no visits from known criminal associates. There is no denying though that on Helika going missing played in his favor. Without her to testify, the home invasion charges were ultimately dropped. Moraz would eventually serve 18 months in prison for an unrelated assault charge, but they never had anything connecting him to on Helika's disappearance. And therefore, he has never been charged in relation to this case, and we were unable to reach him for comment through phone or email. While Jose Moraz seems like the best first person to look at, he was far from the only one. Beginning as they often do with those closest to on Helika, those who had last spoken to her, last seen her, and in unraveling her last movement that night, the narrative itself began unraveling, because it turns out that Ernest wasn't the last one to see on Helika before she went out to her car. He hadn't even been at her house at the time. When caught in the lie, he swore that the story he originally told police was true. He had just put himself in place of the person who was really there that night. On Helika's 19-year-old brother, Alejandro. On Helika was the oldest of six siblings, and the heart of her large close-knit multi-generational family. Relatives describe her as nurturing, a caretaker, someone who often stepped into a maternal role for her younger brothers and sisters. It wasn't unusual for one of them to be staying with On Helika and her daughter at their home. One family member told us that On Helika had been afraid to be at her house alone after the home invasion, so she had actually begged Alejandro to come down from Colorado Springs to stay with her, and he did. So why have a family member lie about this? Well, the answer isn't all that sinister, because Alejandro had a warrant out for bond violations from a 2009 arrest that included Second-degree burglary. Ernest told police that he had made the call so that his grandson wouldn't have to face the police and risk getting arrested. Interestingly though, there was one more part of the story that police poked a hole in. No one, not Ernest, not Alejandro, was babysitting while she was at the laundromat. On Helika had her baby with her the whole time at Southside Suds, just a few blocks away from the house. I learned that there was two witnesses, two female parties that were doing laundry there as well. There were two college girls from Adamstake College, and they can remember while they were inside the laundromat that On Helika's just seemed kind of frazzled and worked up, and one of them actually tells me about hearing On Helika on the cell phone talking to somebody, referencing, yes, I know, I know I got to get him out of my house, I'm working on it. I don't know if she's talking about her house, I don't know if she's talking about grandparents house, I don't know exactly which house she's talking about. I know at times at any given time she had, you know, her brothers live in with her, she had acquaintances sometimes stay at the house, but it's a little unclear on who exactly she was talking about. What we do know now is that Alejandro was at home when On Helika arrived around 9.30 pm, and her phone records stop after this time, and this is what investigators have pieced together about the events that followed when On Helika arrived home shortly after this. Walks in, she takes a load of laundry, she takes her cell phone, and she takes her baby girl inside, and drops them off inside the residence with her brother, Alejandro. From there, she then goes back outside to get more stuff out of her vehicle, and 15 minutes or so go by, and then that's when Alejandro realizes that she hasn't come back into the house, she goes outside, and then starts looking for her. Alejandro had used on Helika's cell phone to call their mother, Michelle, a story she later mentioned in a television interview. She recalled rushing to the duplex and looking for her daughter in a panic, even calling through outside dumpsters and a nearby ditch. Relatives soon came over, including Ernest, who eventually made that call to police. Captain Birch police, Alejandro was interviewed by law enforcement, but there is no transcript or detailed record of that interview. And in 2026, at the time of our reporting, he is currently incarcerated after being convicted in a 2022 kidnapping case. Our reporter wrote to him through the Department of Corrections hoping to speak with him and learn more about the night of Angelica's disappearance, but as of this recording, we have not received a response. Alejandro was just one part of a much bigger picture investigators were trying to sort through. Police looked into Angelica's ex-boyfriend, her baby's father, as well as a different man that she was dating at the time, but both were in prison during this period. And more than that, Captain Birch says that nothing of substance tied either of them to her disappearance. They were also sorting through endless amounts of information coming in. Alamosa is a town of roughly 15,000 people living together in the middle of an 8,000 square mile alpine valley. It's a close-knit community where everyone knows everyone and generations of families grow up with generations of other families. In a place like this, news travels fast and everyone seemed to have something to say or share about Angelica's story. Some people said that they saw her alive and well. Others claimed have information about where her body could be, places around Alamosa and far beyond. One of the biggest problems that I've always noticed is that we have a mountain range within a 15 to 20-minute drive from all of us. I can go in any of which direction in here and find some type of mountain range and it gives you an eerie feeling for that because there's a accessibility to take somebody and get rid of somebody. That's the scariest part. While police worked on the case, Angelica's loved ones were involved in their own tireless searches for her. In the months that followed Angelica's disappearance, it wasn't just police conducting searches. Angelica's mom, Michelle Sandevol, became her daughter's most relentless advocate. Pouring everything she had into the search for her daughter, Along with help from Angelica's father, Robert Roybal. but we weren't able to speak with either of them about their experiences, because Robert died in 2012. And Michelle passed away in 2022, before she could get answers about what happened to her daughter. But our reporter did speak with several of Angelica's relatives and friends at her grandparents' home in Alamosa. They spent the day sharing photos and stories and recounting the grueling search and devastating aftermath of Angelica's disappearance. Her uncle Farahs was there, and he told us about Michelle's dog-ed determination to find out what happened to her eldest child. She went throughout the valley, asking people, talking to different people, friends, strangers off the street, taking her picture everywhere to anybody really, for months on end. I think she had her certain individual people that she wanted, investigated, and I believe she turned all those names into the Alamosa Police Department. I mean, I have a three-ringed folder, full of stuff, and follow up that she did on her own. And what I mean by that, she was literally keeping newspaper clippings, she was doing articles, and then she would even bring in pictures of Angelica, her friends, her associates, and write notes down of what she knew about these individuals. For Captain Birch, Michelle's position outside of law enforcement gave her an edge. I think she was asking those hard questions, and she was able to connect and ask the questions to people that wouldn't want to talk to law enforcement. So that's where the difference is, is, you know, if you wear a badge and you try to ask the same questions that Michelle was asking at the time, you're not getting the same response. Michelle wasn't alone in this journey. She was joined by friends, family, and anyone who was willing to look for Angelica. At the beginning, my sister and I, we on contact with some bounty hunters out of College Springs in the fountain area, and they came down and helped us, you know, for several weeks, looking to it. And, you know, I'm not too, I can't remember exactly what came out of that, but they did get some leads, and they turned them over to the police department, but then along with the notes of my sister had, every day we went searching her early to late, late evenings. I even, you know, borrowed snowmobiles, and I went up to areas where it was high up. We had to actually write a snowmobile in, and I have cousins who run horseback that, you know, went around to desolate areas and searched for her that we can't get into with, with an oral vehicle or hiking. Her family was still holding out hope that on Helica was alive when one chilling crime stoppers tip came in a couple of months into the investigation. The tip took them to the base of the Sangre Decreisto Mountains near a 30-foot waterfall, where deep in the snow, someone had left a message. It said, "Help! Danger! Call cops!" And with those words was a note about on Helica's love for her daughter, and an arrow was drawn beside the words pointing off into the landscape towards a place that her family feared she might have been held by abductors. Her uncle told us that they hiked through two to three feet of snow searching every inch around there. Law enforcement followed up two, but when it was all said and done, there was nothing, no trace, no evidence, nothing to explain who even wrote that message or why. Now around this same time, another lead surface that led to another mountain range. On Helica's mother, Michelle received an anonymous call, and the voice on the other end delivered a chilling tip. If you want to find your daughter, go to La Manga Pass, an area between the San Juan Mountains. The caller warned that on Helica might not be found until spring, and when she was, she would be in a green bag. On Helica's father, Robert, went there. He camped and searched until he physically couldn't anymore, but again, he found nothing, and it wasn't long after this that Robert passed away. Yeah, I think he hit him hard and I think the alcohol kind of depression and the alcohol took him. That first year, year and a half, the crime software's tips were coming in on a regular basis. And these were being followed up systematically based on how much credibility they had. There was tips that said that she was being human trafficked in Texas or Mexico between the two of those or between the border or in the subsequent area. There were tips that she was in New Mexico. I believe we even had tips out of, I don't know if it was Virginia or somewhere close to that, where somebody assumed that they saw her at a gas station. So we got surveillance footage from gas stations trying to see if this is her. Those were all dead ends as well. Eleven years later is when Birch and his team re-open the case, auditing files, re-examining evidence, and identifying gaps while also taking steps to fill in the gaps that were left behind. And one of the things Birch noticed that was never done was a check on Helica's social media. So they got search warrants for her communications and data there, but Birch says that it didn't reveal anything significant for the investigation. Detectives have also gone on to re-interview witnesses, trying to see if stories have changed or if time has emboldened anyone to be more candid. A close friend who was with on Helica that day initially reported nothing unusual. But when Birch spoke with her again just this year, she identified one of her own relatives as someone who may have information. Investigators are now trying to locate that person born in interview. Captain Birch says that his team is currently tracking more than 10 persons of interest, including one man who has been at the center of this case from the beginning. Jose Luis Maraz, the man arrested for breaking into on Helica's home just a few months before she went missing. As far as I'm concerned, he's not clear to the suspect. If you'll remember, Maraz originally refused to speak about on Helica's disappearance with Alamosa police. But investigators would still like to hear Maraz's side of the story before he's ruled out. Here we are 15 years later, maybe things have changed. Maybe he's got a different outlook, and maybe he is willing to provide that information. So just because it wasn't done then, and you know, he refused the interview then doesn't mean that maybe the case now. There's another focus in the investigation now. Rebuilding trust with on Helica's loved ones. Some over the past 15 years, communication broke down. Now, investigators are working to repair those relationships and bringing them back into the process to help find answers. Captain Birch says that reconnecting with on Helica's family has been a priority, including with her daughter, who is now 16 years old. She's just a sweetheart. Spent an image of her mom. I've got to make that face-to-face contact with her and just kind of puts into perspective what 15 years looks like, right? You know, she's a baby girl inside of her car seat, and here she is almost in womanhood, right? She's gone all these years without answers. She's gone all these years with muddied rumors. And who knows what else that family's had to deal with with the disappearance of on Helica? When our team spent the day with on Helica's loved ones at her grandparents' home in Alamosa, it was clear how much her absence has shaped their lives. Her uncle, Faras, spoke about how deeply they still feel this loss. There's a big hole. There's a big hole in our heart, it's a big hole in our family. Not only because we don't get to see her anymore, but it's just her personality. I guess, what kept us going, and she was a very upbeat and outgoing person, so it really helped my father. My dad was very close to her. My mom was just grandma. It was very close to her. On Helica's grandmother, Dina, still has photos, posters, and scrapbooks of on Helica on display in the living room. They're not just memories. They're ways of keeping her present. I still feel that she's somewhere out there. She has to be somewhere out there. That's how I feel in my heart. I don't know if it's because I wanted to be that way, but that's how I feel. She needs to be somewhere out there. Dina keeps on Helica's cold case card with her in her wallet, the three of hearts from Colorado, which she showed us while we were at her house. She also spoke of the heavy amount of heartbreaking speculation that she and her family have endured over the years. I just wish that we can find out what happened to her. If anybody knows anything, I wish they would say, it's really been a hard 15 years. It's like it tears the family apart. It's hard. We have to stop listening to everybody because we're going to go crazy. The way people talk instead. and you know, he just, you know, they tell us that they found a writing saying up on the Mt. Blanca, and it said, "Hellica was here." And, you know, they would just say, you know, while they burned her, you know, and they would just say different things. And I told Ray, you know, what we can't listen to them. I just tell him, "Why don't you go to the cops if you know something, go to the cops, don't come to me." What on Helica's grandmother said is exactly what investigators want, for anyone with real information to come forward. Somebody in this valley knows about what happened to on Helica's sandalval. It's just a matter of when do they feel safe and when do they feel comfortable reporting it. Back then, fear tied to gang activity kept people quiet. We're 15 years down the road and some of these people aren't around anymore. Some are deceased, some are in prison for the rest of their life. Some are who knows where they're at. Birch says that law enforcement has new ways to protect people who have information. And he believes that knowledge will be the key to cracking this case. I'm a firm believer and I will say this until they retire. Somebody knows what happened. Somebody knows where she's at. It's just a matter of that one person finally coming forward. If you know anything that could help detectives, call the Alamosa Police Department at 719-589-2548 and ask for the Investigations Division. Or if you want to remain anonymous, you can contact the Crime Stoppers at 719-589-411. The deck is an audio chuck production with theme music by Ryan Lewis. To learn more about the deck in our advocacy work, visit thedeckpodcast.com. I think Chuck would approve.