Olga Vasquez-Collazos

A beloved father and husband is found brutally murdered in his home. There were stab wounds and blunt force trauma to the back of his head. Somebody wanted him dead and he wanted to make sure that he was dead. A year's long investigation reveals an international love affair with a master manipulator. Her response was, "You don't think my husband's having an affair, do you?" We had to figure out if there was something that she was hiding. But before the killers can be brought to justice, detectives will have to track them halfway across the world. We found out that she and her new friend had gone to Peru. We had multiple undercover officers and detectives out watching her. They were very careful about what they were saying. The more I pressed her, the angrier she got. She snapped because she wanted to be with the person she loved. She was a puppet, a man who was in love, who grew up in what he said, manipulative, he gave me a lot of sadness. May 22, 2014. It's a little after 10 a.m. when police in the quiet bedroom community of Westminster, California receive a disturbing 911 call. An individual by the name of James Luna was on the call and a female could be heard in the background. She was frantic. We have an emergency. James explains that the crying woman is his neighbor, 37-year-old Olga Vascas. James told us that he heard Olga frantically yelling for help, so he calls 911 and helps translate. He says Olga told him she came home to find her bedroom drenched with blood. She believes her husband, 58-year-old Adrian Zapata, has been murdered. He just got back, but she just got back taking the kid to school. Westminster sent patrol officers to the apartment. They made contact initially with Olga Vascas, where she directed them to Adrian Zapata, deceased in his bedroom. Adrian had several injuries on his neck that seemed to resemble stab wounds with an unknown object. He also had blunt force trauma to the back of his head. He was laying face down with his head on a pillow. He had a sheet over his lower half of his body. When you enter the master bedroom, it was in disarray. There were drawers pulled out, turned upside down. It appeared that there might have been a robbery. Detectives turned to Adrian's wife, hoping she can shed some light on what happened. She was absolutely hysterical, very upset, crying, and continued to be very emotional and upset for many hours. In her heightened emotional state, Olga can't offer more details there at the scene. While an officer takes her back to the station to give a full statement, detectives focus on the crime scene and their victim. Adrian Zapata was born near Lima, Peru on June 27, 1955. The first few years of his life were a struggle. Adrian's parents had him when they were both very young. They weren't ready to settle down or be parents at the time. So it was his paternal grandparents that stepped into that role of guardianship. From that struggle came ambition. Adrian went to college to become a business accountant. He then secured a teaching position at a technical institute where he met his first wife, Annie Villegas. And after that, he told me that I wanted to be my boyfriend. Less than two years later, Adrian and Annie were married in 1978. We married and was practically immediately divorced. Adrian continued to work at the Academy of Brao. I dedicated myself to create my son. Time after the situation in Peru felt a bit worse. As the Peruvian economy fell into crisis in the 1980s, violence in their hometowns skyrocketed. In 1986, Adrian left for California, determined to create a better life for his wife and eight-year-old son, Renzo. Although he was a professor in Peru, Adrian was forced to start over at the bottom when he moved to America. He worked many odd jobs before he saved enough for his entire family to join him. He actually ended up getting his license to become a nurse and that's how he makes a big leap financially. It definitely seemed like they had reached that American dream. Unfortunately, the years Adrian and Annie spent a part took a toll on their marriage. They loved me so much that they would rather stay together as friends at the house and provide me a stable home. And while I finished college. Once their son Renzo graduated from college in 2007, Annie and Adrian decided to get a divorce. After a lifetime focused on family, Adrian was now a 53-year-old bachelor. We were all grown up, we were all well-established. He was done with helping everybody. He began making regular trips to Peru to reconnect with old friends and invested in a penthouse in Lima. It was a tall bachelor's pad with an elevator straight to the house. It was a place where he could have his parties with his premium friends. On one of his visits, Adrian met a captivating younger woman named Olga Vasquez. Despite their 20-year-age difference, the two quickly fell in love. He was over the moon, she was living in his penthouse and everybody was happy. He was like, I'm going to marry her and I'm going to bring her to America. She has two kids and we're going to be happy. In 2010, Adrian and Olga married. And in 2013, he brought his new bride and her two sons to the U.S. to live with him. The ultimate goal for him was to retire to Peru and to live a good life after we're having worked so hard for so many years. After just 11 months in America with his new wife, Adrian's dreams of returning home have been shattered. At first glance, Adrian's apartment appears to have been burglarized. But upon closer inspection, Westminster police noticed the crime scene tells a different story. The officers determined based on their experience that it appeared that it was a staged, ransacking. Nothing appears to have been missing. It seems that the suspect might have just gone in there to make it seem that things are not what they were supposed to be. Adrian Zapatos, injuries, did show that there was both blunt fourths trauma to the back of the head as well as stabbing. The level of violence would not be indicative of an individual who had woken up and was confronting a robber. The fact that it was so brutal seemed to suggest that it was more than just a robbery on that. The suspect entered that location with the intentions of killing him. So we wanted to find a motive. Coming up, investigators discover a bad investment from Adrian's past made him several enemies. They felt that he owed them $30,000. And new evidence points to infidelity, but by whom? Right next to a booster seat and a taekwondo bag was a lingerie nighty with a box of condoms. Authorities in Westminster, California are combing through the crime scene where 58-year-old Adrian Zapata was murdered. Adrian's body was transported to the Orange County Corners office where a nautopsie was conducted. Olga was ultimately transported to the police department for an additional interview. While she was being transferred there, we continued to process the scene. We didn't locate any blood in the sinks to indicate that the suspect washed up after the murder. They did not find any evidence of any forced entry which led them to believe that the individual might have had a key or might have otherwise been let in by the victim. An unexpected discovery in Adrian's car provides a possible lead. When the officer opened the trunk right next to a booster seat and a taekwondo bag was lingerie nighty with a box of condoms sitting there right in the open. There was an extra large nighty right so initially we're like okay there's no way this is hers because Olga was pretty small, you know, small female. We had a suspicion that maybe Adrian may have been having an affair. We sent it to the Orange County Crime Lab to be processed for any potential DNA. Investigators head to the station where Adrian's wife Olga is finally ready to tell her full version of the morning's events. When we talked to Olga about what happened, she told us that at about 8 a.m., she left the apartment with her two sons with the intentions of taking them to school and wearing some errands. Adrian was asleep in bed. He worked late night so she was allowing him to sleep. When she got home she entered the bedroom and discovered Adrian. We asked Olga does Adrian have a life insurance policy or any major accounts that someone would financially gain from his death. She said no, he doesn't. When they ask her if she knows of any other women in Adrian's life, Olga also says no. Olga told us that her and her husband loved each other. There was no suspicion of infidelity on either part. I showed her pictures of the nighties and box of columns that we had located in Adrian's trunk. She had no idea whose they were or where they came from. Her response was wide-eyed, surprised, shocked, and she said something along the lines of, "You don't think my husband's having an affair, do you?" Olga says it would explain some of Adrian's past behavior. She does mention that she had heard Adrian on the phone with a female that seemed somewhat secretive. He had gotten text messages from a woman a time in the past and he was possibly being unfaithful. Unfortunately, Olga never looked into the text further and has no more details to share, so detectives turned to Adrian's friends and family. My wife and I were on a trip to Arizona and we get the call from my mom telling me that my dad has passed away. So, we turn around and hit back to California. None of it may sense. Adrian's loved ones say they don't believe he would cheat on Olga, but he did have enemies. We learned that Adrian had a business thing go bad. Adrian had decided with two of his friends to open a Peruvian restaurant. Adrian and his partners took out a sizeable loan to get the business off the ground. For a while, it was doing well, but then the restaurant started going sideways. I think at some point not everybody was pulling their weight in that business and they split up. The partners, I think at some point, blamed Adrian. They felt that he owed them $30,000 because of this. It was positive that perhaps one of the individuals who had bad blood from this bad restaurant deal might have had a motive to kill Adrian Zapata. Detectives get in touch with Adrian's former business partners. Both men are adamant they would never commit murder over $30,000. They weren't at the crime scene. They had alibis where they were quite honestly during those interviews. It didn't appear they really had a motive to kill Adrian. They had no benefit to want him dead. They weren't happy about the business, but they didn't hate him or anything like that. The businesses didn't work out. With his former business partners now in the clear, investigators must focus on the potential of an affair gone wrong. They turned to Adrian's co-workers for insight into his personal life. Adrian Zapata worked as a tech at a local hospital. The officers went and spoke with a number of Adrian Zapata's colleagues. We never found any evidence to support the allegation that Mr. Zapata had been unfaithful to his wife. Actually, we found out just the opposite. He's actually confided in some of his friends that he suspected Olga is having an affair. Before detectives look into the rumors, autopsy results provide insight on the brutal attack that took Adrian's life. It appeared Adrian had two major head injuries to the top of his head, which were caused by blunt force objects. In addition to those injuries, he had seven stab wounds in his neck. There was no indication whatsoever that Adrian fought back or even knew that he was being attacked. It was as if these injuries were done while he was sleeping. Based on the coroner's findings, as well as what I saw at the crime scene, somebody wanted him dead and he wanted to make sure that he was dead. Unfortunately, the medical examiner's findings don't help narrow down any suspects or motives. The crime lab is also unable to make a match on the DNA found on the 90. They had found an unidentified male DNA profile on it. So on June 5, detectives meet with one of Adrian's co-workers Ruth Sevilla to get the details on Olga's alleged affair. Working with Adrian, we build a relationship like, you know, we would talk a lot about our lives. He wouldn't stop talking about Olga. Ruth tells detectives the problems between Adrian and Olga began soon after she arrived from Peru. It was a month after he brought her to the US. He told me we don't slip together no more. She told us that the marriage started going sideways when Adrian found out through phone records. You know, that she was on the phone daily talking to somebody. Adrian was thinking that she was already cheating on him with someone, but he wanted it to prove it. So that's why he called the number. There was a man that answered, and when he said hello, he hang out. A week into their investigation, Westminster Police have discovered Olga Vasquez might have been the one stepping out on her marriage. And according to Ruth Sevilla, Adrian confronted Olga as soon as he suspected. that she was cheating on him. He told Olga, like, who is this person? You know, I called this number, and there was a man that answered the phone, and she said, oh, it was my sister's boyfriend. Ruth says Adrian didn't believe Olga, so he continued digging. He was reaching out to people in Peru to find out if Olga was faithful to him while she was there. Adrian found out that she, in fact, was messing around with somebody while he was in the United States trying to get her to come here with him. Ruth had no idea who this person was. Adrian never told her her name. Armed with this new information, investigators bring Olga in to question her again. She denied having an affair. She denied the fact that Adrian ever confronted her or even accused her about having an affair. The only thing that she continued to ask us is whether or not we were accusing her of having something to do with her husband's murder. At this point in the investigation, I feel that Olga is lying to us. We had some more digging to do. Detectives take a closer look at Olga's alibi. She had indicated that she had taken both of her sons to school, and then after that, she had gone to a gas station. Then she had gone by the UCI Medical Center to get a note for her employer for a recent surgery she had had. She then went to the restaurant where she worked as a server to drop off that note. We followed up and we saw her on surveillance cameras, credit card information, interviewed people. She went to the location she told us she went to day of the murder. But this time detectives knew that we had to do something else. We had put a tracker on Olga's vehicle. Additionally, we did physical surveillance meaning we had multiple undercover officers and detectives out watching her. Almost immediately, the tracking device leads investigators to a hotel. The police are able to get the surveillance videos and it shows Miss Vasquez and her children checking into that hotel. And we saw that she had met up with a male Hispanic and he seemed to be very friendly with her and her kids as if they all knew each other very well. It was obvious that she was being romantic with this person. At one point, Olga came out of her room during the nighttime hours and meet with this male. And appeared to go back with this male into his room. Within two or three hours later, she exited the second room that she had entered and went back to her original room. You don't just leave a room in the middle of the night and leave your children behind for several hours unless there's some sort of a fair going on. They were able to determine his identification by going to the front desk of the hotel. According to the registry, Olga's lover is Roberto Savedra. Detectives learned that Roberto had just arrived to the United States from Peru. On March 4th, 2014, Mr. Savedra lawfully entered the United States. He was on a 32-day vacation travel visa. He did not board his returning flight. Almost three months after his arrival, Adrian was murdered. And detectives want to know if Roberto was involved. One of the officers wanted to be able to obtain the DNA of Mr. Savedra in a lawful but seroptitious manner. And so he actually took the water bottle that had been used by Mr. Savedra. Olga was having a affair. And not only does she's lying to us about it, she's trying to make it look like Adrian was the one having a affair. Basically, get us to not look into her. There's a point at which if you find that a person is repeatedly lying to you, then it makes you reconsider everything that they've said. So at this point, it kind of gives us a motive. Maybe Olga doesn't want Adrian in the picture no longer. Coming out, a murder plot unfolds. The two cell phones had communicated in a way where they were almost timing things. And detectives catch the co-conspirators on tape. Recent evidence suggests to police that Olga Vasquez isn't the grieving widow she's been pretending to be. It was obvious at this point that Olga was lying. She was lying about having an affair, for sure. Detectives believe that the next step was to figure out how far back this relationship went. In order to do that, detectives wrote several search warns for both her phone records and his phone records. While they wait for their warns to come through, investigators ask Adrian's family in Peru what they thought of Olga. We interviewed a cousin of Adrian's who still lived in Peru, Mercedes Rojas. She knew Olga prior to Adrian Mariener. Mercedes believed that Olga was an opportunist and that the only reason she wanted to marry Adrian was so that Adrian could bring her and her sons over to the United States. According to Adrian's loved ones, however, life in California didn't satisfy Olga. It was not what she expected. Tell me from a penthouse in Peru to an apartment in Westminster in California. Olga seemed disappointed because she thought he was better off than he actually was. Adrian's loved ones say, in the months before his death, Adrian finally realized he'd never be able to please her. Adrian had confided that they weren't being intimate, that he planned on potentially divorcing her. The divorce between he and Olga would affect her immigration status as well as immigration status of her sons. If you get divorced, you're going back to Peru. And you're not going to be able to stay here in the United States. In the event of Adrian's death, however, Olga would have been able to retain her immigration status and more. Detectives learned that Adrian had a 401(k) with the value of about $62,000 of life insurance of about $78,000 and the beneficiary for both of those policies was Olga. It appeared at this point in the investigation that Olga had lots of motive to have Adrian dead. When detectives receive Olga and Roberto's phone records, they find evidence to back up the theory. It was discovered that the cell phone that Roberto was using was actually registered under Olga's name. The communication between the two seemed to be very personal, almost loving and doiding. We found out that Olga and Roberto, who were communicating pretty frequently, stopped on the other side. Investigators suspect that 11 months before Adrian's murder, they simply got better at covering their tracks. Roberto started communicating with an unknown number. Those phone calls, locations were coming from Olga's apartment in Westminster. We did a search warrant in that phone number and figured out, hey, whoa, this phone is everywhere Olga's at. So it was very obvious that this was a phone that Olga was using that we were unaware of that she didn't tell us about. According to those phone records, their illicit affair wasn't the only thing Olga and Roberto discussed. It appeared that the secret phone and Roberto's phone were communicating on the night of the homicide as well as the night before. His phone shows the night prior to the murder. He comes to Westminster and he's staying just outside the apartment complex until about 8 a.m. Then his phone goes off for a short time. At some point after 8.30 a.m, that communication began back up based off of information from the corner and evidence at the scene. It appeared as though the homicide most likely took place around that 8 a.m. mark when there was no communication. GPS shows that when Roberto's phone was turned back on, it was in the same location as Olga's secret phone. The secret phone no longer follows. Ms. Vaska is his phone from Tower to Tower, but instead goes to Van Ayes, and starts following all the towers of Mr. Zavage's phone. - We think that she gave him the secret phone and he took it to Van Ayes. - It seemed only point to one reasonable conclusion that Ms. Vaska's knew she was coming home to the murdered body of her husband and didn't want to have her secret phone with evidence of that murder in her possession at that time. - It was becoming very obvious to us that Roberto and Olga had something to do with Adrian's dad. - To prove their theory, investigators obtain a warrant to wiretap Olga's phone. - It was very obvious that Olga was very paranoid and communicating with Roberto. Although they were talking on the phone, they were very careful about what they were saying. - They decide to do what's called a ruse. The idea is that they want to stimulate a conversation between Ms. Vaska's and Mr. Zavage, and what they choose to do is the possibility of DNA evidence. - We use a ruse to get them thinking, "Oh, f***." (dramatic music) - After months of investigation, Roberto, Savedra and Olga Vaska's have become the prime suspects in her husband's murder. Since the wiretap on Olga's phone isn't providing detectives with the proof they need, they decide to give the couple a push. - We told her that we found some DNA that we believe was a killer's on Adrian's body, and suspected it might be someone that lived internationally. - This was a lie, just to see if they were talking about it on the wire. - Detectives are hoping one of them will mention the murder next, but Olga quickly changes the subject. - She probably thinks we are listening to the phone call, and that's why she doesn't want to talk about it. And it's very obvious to us that she doesn't want to say anything that we can hear. The next step was to confront her. - On November 25th, 2014, six months after Adrian's murder, investigators bring Olga back in for questioning. When they show her photos of her in Roberto at the hotel, she begins to backtrack on her previous statements. - She stated she was only involved with him romantically after Adrian had already died. - Olga started telling the truth about certain things that she figured she had to tell the truth about, but she denied any knowledge of the murder. (dramatic music) - She always denied having a second cell phone and she would often cut off the detectives from communicating about said cell phone. - The more I press her, the angrier she got, I'm thinking why lie about those things if you're not trying to cover up something. Eventually, Olga stops talking all together and asks for a lawyer. If detectives are going to prove that she and Roberto conspired to kill Adrian, they'll have an uphill battle. - There was mountain full of records for us to review. We have to go through every single piece of information. - Detective spend months combing through the paperwork. Most of the communication was in Spanish. So we had the utilize Spanish speaking officers and detectives to decipher what's being said. This takes a lot of time. - Messages showed that they were involved in a sexual and romantic relationship a year before the murder. There was a lot of Skype phone calls that were placed between the two. Some of these Skype messages included them communicating with each other in which they stated that soon they would both be together forever. - It's exactly what police are looking for. And lab tests on the water bottle they took from Roberto provides the last piece of the puzzle. - In May of 2016, the Orange County Crime Lab notified me that the secondary sample of Roberto Surveyor that I collected during the surveillance was a match to the DNA on the white and pink 90 found in Adrian's car. - The DNA was important because it would show that the 90 and condoms were in fact planted in the trunk. It doesn't prove it definitively, but its evidence that seems to suggest that. - After two years and thousands of man hours, investigators believe they finally have enough to make arrests. But when they show up at Roberto's home, they discover their suspect left town weeks ago. - So one of the things I had to do was find him. - Just as Wes Minster homicide detectives prepared to make arrests in the murder of Adrian Zapata, they learned that Roberto Savedra has fled the United States. - I learned that he applied for refugee status in Canada. - Now, Wes Minster police will need to convince Canadian authorities to deport him. - I notified the Canadian government that we were charging him with murder based on that they refused his refugee status and kicked him out. - In October 2017, over three years after Adrian was murdered, Roberto lands in Peru. - Interpol arrested him and we had to start the extradition process from Peru to bring him back to the United States. - Extradition takes another two years. Even though she's the prime suspect in Adrian's murder, Olga's status as a widow has allowed her to stay in the US. - The reason that we waited so long to arrest Olga was because we wanted to wait until we got Savedra in the United States because I wanted to try them together. We could have arrested Olga a lot sooner. Instead, I kept tabs on her. - And as detectives coordinate Roberto's arrest with Olga's, they discover she's moved on to a new boyfriend. - We found out that Olga and her new friend had gone to prove her short vacation. - Mr. Savedra was arriving in March of 2019, which by coincidence was also the same day that Miss Vazquez returned from a flight to Peru. - On March 15, 2019, they are both taken into custody without incident. - My last and final interview with Olga was a short one. During that interview, she finally admits she did have the secret phone. - Prosecutors try to get Roberto to turn on Olga, but he refuses to talk. It will be up to a jury to decide if the evidence is enough to convict them. - Miss Vazquez was the first of the two defendants to go to trial in May of 2021. And my strategy was to try to present as much circumstantial evidence as possible, but to create a timeline to show how all of these pieces and parts all fit together to one conclusion. - The strongest evidence was the cell phone data that showed that Roberto traveled the night prior to the homicide from Van Aes down to Westminster, waited outside Adrian's apartment to Olga left, leaving the door unlocked for him. He does the murder and he takes that secret phone knowing that Olga's gonna go home to find this body. Together, it showed the two of them had planned and committed this murder. Olga snapped because she wanted to be with the person she loved, Roberto. She does the murder because she wants to stay in the United States and she also has a financial gain of his life insurance policy and is for a 1K and the conduit in Peru. Olga's attorney argues there's no physical evidence tying Olga to the crime. But even without it, the state's case is compelling. The jury would deliberate for slightly less than two and a half hours and they would find her guilty of murder in the first degree. She was sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison. To hear that verdict, the jury found her guilty was just such a relief. They kind of gave us our life back. In July 2023, Roberto Savedra is also found guilty. His sentence was life without the possibility of parole in state prison. Roberto was a puppet. Okay, a man who, in love, believed in what Olga told him, manipulated, he gave me a lot of sadness. Adrián should have remembered as a charismatic person as a person who had the desire to live. Cannot get you to say, "Call me." Olga's appeal was rejected in November 2022. She will be 58 years old when she is eligible for parole in 2034.