Part 1: She Was Just Minutes From Home - What Happened to Alyssa Otremba?

A frightened mother is driving up and down a quiet residential road. It's early evening, and the sun is setting. The block is peaceful, but she can't relax. Her heart is racing, and her head is spinning, and she cannot find her 15-year-old daughter. With one hand, she steers the car. With the other, she's Googling every hospital in town, one by one, and she's calling them to ask if any teenage girls have checked in to the emergency room. She gives them a physical description of her daughter, but each hospital gives her the same answer, no. At one point, she drives to a park where kids are still playing outside. She pulls over, desperately begging these kids to tell her if they've seen a teen girl, but nobody has any information to share. This woman's daughter, Alyssa, has only been missing for about an hour. That's barely any time at all. She thought she couldn't have gotten very far, but it was like she vanished with that little girl. She was just a little girl, without a trace. It could have been that she stayed out really late or she didn't dress warm enough for the game. But either way, she had clearly caught something and she was too sick to make it to school. So she asked her mother if she could just stay home, which she did. But that meant she was missing class on the very first Friday of her freshman year. And Alyssa was beyond disappointed. She really wanted to go to class. She was also concerned that this one sick day was going to impact beyond one day alone because the following Monday was Labor Day. There was no school. Alyssa assumed a lot of her teachers were going to assign homework on Friday for students to work on over the long weekend. And she was worried that if she missed class that day, she would miss all of those assignments. Then she would have to make them up during the next week, along with all of the new homework that would be assigned when she came back. And it would be a line of dominoes just toppling over and she would fall behind. She may never catch up. I think someone that has been homeschooled the way that she was might feel overwhelmed by something like this. It's the first time that someone else is really making a schedule she must stick to. Alyssa wasn't going to fall behind. So she called and texted a bunch of her new classmates to find out what had been assigned on Friday. Now her hope was to spend her sick day at home doing homework and be done by that evening and enjoy her long weekend. So she could rest, recover and just have some fun and then show up on Tuesday with all of her assignments finished. Perfect. Perfect. Very responsible young woman. The problem came when she realized that she needed a specific book, a geometry book. Because of course she didn't anticipate that she was going to be home that day. So she didn't bring it back with her on Thursday night. So on top of figuring out what homework she had, Alyssa also needed to ask her friends if any of them could loan her that geometry textbook so that she could get help with her assignments. And she figured out that she could probably borrow the book from her classmate, Cody. He lived a few miles away from Alyssa. So he was within walking distance, although it would be a long walk. But Alyssa figured she could just stroll to his place, borrow the book, bring it home with plenty of time to finish her work before she had to go to bed. She wasn't afraid of going on a long walk. She could get out there, get some exercise. And by now it was late afternoon, early evening. School was out. So Alyssa figured Cody would be home by now and they could quickly meet up at maybe a convenience store nearby, make the exchange. And I want to tell you. To a 15 year old, this seemed very logical in her mind. They had the same class. She had just seen him a few days before, knew that he would have the book and knew he was close by. Before Alyssa left on this walk, she texted her mom, Jennifer, at 5:07 p.m. The text read, "I have to go meet a friend for the geometry book, so I don't know when I'll be back." Jennifer had been at a local college campus registering for classes at the time when she got the text, but she called Alyssa right away because that message said Alyssa didn't know when she would be home after getting the book. And that concerned her mother. She needed to understand exactly what her daughter's plans were. And at first she said, absolutely not because Jennifer really didn't think this was a good idea, even though it wasn't that far. Maybe, like I said, a couple of miles each way, but Alyssa would be alone. And Jennifer was especially reluctant to allow it because it was already getting late. The sun was going to be setting soon. And as much as she already disliked it. The idea of her daughter walking so far alone, she hated the idea that Alyssa could be on unfamiliar streets after dark. She had also never met Cody. She didn't know anything about him and the whole situation felt a little uncomfortable to Jennifer. So instead she told Alyssa that she was going to be home probably about seven o'clock. And when she got back, she would just give Alyssa a ride to Cody's. She would save her from needing to take that walk. Except Alyssa was persistent. She felt like she was old enough. To just walk to a friend's house, especially because she was confident she would make it back before the sun went down. Alyssa promised she wouldn't procrastinate. She wouldn't linger out there too long. She even argued that it would be beneficial for her to get moving, get some exercise. And after a little back and forth, Jennifer finally gave in. After all the truth was Alyssa wasn't a little girl anymore. I'm a parent. I know how that is. I have a teenager around the same age. You want them to feel independent. You don't want them to be babied. But at the same time, it really is hard to let them go. And she really felt like Alyssa didn't need constant adult supervision. She was responsible. So Jennifer knew she didn't have to worry that she was going to get into any trouble when she was gone. She just told Alyssa to go there and come straight back. And she agreed to those terms. And then she left to meet Cody. Before she walked out the door, though, she told her sister, Megan, where she was going. And Megan felt this sudden impulse to tell Alyssa that she loved her. Now, Alyssa and Megan, they were very close, but they didn't have that kind of relationship where they were always declaring their love for one another. They just knew they loved each other. It didn't have to be said. But still, Alyssa replied that she loved Megan, too. And then she left for her walk. And she did keep her mother updated on how the trip was going, where she was and what she was doing. And at 6:30. 8:00 p.m., Alyssa sent a text. It said, my phone is about to die. I should be home in the next half hour. Her mom responded with, OK. And Jennifer wasn't alarmed. Grand Teton Drive was not the street that Alyssa lived on, but it was pretty close to her neighborhood. It was also a major road that ran near a freeway. And it appeared as though Alyssa was going to be home by sunset or within a few minutes at the absolute latest. So Jennifer trusted Alyssa would be fine. She was close to home on a street that she loved. She knew she waited another half hour, just like Alyssa had told her to. She figured she would get a text from Megan's phone around seven o'clock as soon as Alyssa got home and convinced her little sister to let her borrow it until her phone was charged. But she didn't get that message when she was expecting it. Jennifer was concerned enough to text Alyssa at exactly 7:08 p.m. and ask if she was back yet. She never got a response. So she called Megan asking if Alyssa was home and had. She told her that she had maybe forgotten to check in, but Megan told her she hadn't seen or heard from Alyssa. Now, Jennifer didn't want to overreact, but she did have a gut feeling that something could be wrong. But she told herself there were all sorts of simple explanations. I'm not giving up. I am selling the building. The final season of FX is the Bear. The restaurant is flooded. Everything's either going to be okay. No, stop! Or not. We are outgunned and we are outmanned, but we have each other. FX is the Bear. The final season. All episodes now streaming on Disney+. Tammy regularly hauls stuff to her kids at college. That's why she shops at BJ's Wholesale Club, saving up to 25% off grocery store prices. Beef jerky, microwave meals, laundry pods, even they can't screw up. Have you met my kids? And with BJ's Wholesale Club, she can't screw up. And with BJ's gas, she gets there for less. They call me the road warrior. This is your home, road warrior mom. Home of the save. Join for just $20 at BJ's.com slash mesquite and save 10 cents per gallon for six months. Open soon. Limited time offer, new members only. BJ's, home of the save. Maybe the walk was taking Alyssa longer than she anticipated. Maybe she bumped into a friend or a neighbor and she stopped to talk to them. She could still get home any minute. But the minutes ticked by. Jennifer rushed back home. She hadn't gotten any calls or texts from Alyssa and she was running out of patience. And she could no longer come up with logical explanations to keep herself calm anymore. She could tell by now that Alyssa hadn't simply gotten held up somewhere. Something had happened to her. She could feel it. Her husband, Scott, was stationed in England at the time. So she was going through this without him. She tells Megan to try to reach out to this Cody person and she's able to track his information down from school friends. She connects with him, but his response to whether Alyssa ever made it to get the book raised a red flag. Now, he does not go into detail at this point, but he explains he never met up with Alyssa and she didn't borrow a textbook from him. When Jennifer heard that, it really didn't sit right with her, which brings us back to the start of this video. Sometime around 7:30 p.m., Jennifer hops in her car and drives down the street, down the street that Alyssa had mentioned in her text. But there was no sign of her there. So Jennifer creeps down the road at a slow speed, all the way back home, scouring the sidewalks for any sign of her daughter. And she still didn't see Alyssa. And with each minute that went by, she only became more concerned. Along the way, she even stopped at a park. She got out. She questioned the kids about whether they'd seen Alyssa. She told them what she was wearing, a red tank top. And Jennifer had recalled that specific tank top was a new one that she had just gotten her for dance class. She had on a pair of jeans and a very distinctive, almost fluorescent, or like a neon lime green pair of Vans. One of her favorite pairs of shoes. She also called every hospital in the area to check if Alyssa had checked in. Maybe after some kind of medical emergency or something had happened to her, but nobody had any information to share. Not even the juvenile detention center, which she also contacted as a last ditch effort to find Alyssa, but no one had seen her and no one had any idea what happened. Eventually, Jennifer came home empty-handed but she wasn't going to give up on her daughter. She still thought Alyssa could be found. Jennifer called each and every one of her neighbors to let them know Alyssa was missing. She confirmed that none of them had seen her and she hadn't stopped by anyone's house without telling her and then the whole block organized search parties to go through the neighborhood looking for her but after several hours Jennifer contacted the police. It was at 10 15 p.m. and she officially reported her daughter missing. With a missing teenager officers take this very seriously and they quickly joined the search parties. It really felt like everyone was helping Jennifer look for Alyssa. The searches continued well into the night even past midnight and by four o'clock in the morning Jennifer still hadn't heard from her daughter and even though she was overwhelmed with worry and fear she was also exhausted and in spite of her best efforts she did finally fall asleep. When she woke up the next morning she was heartbroken to learn there was still no news. No one had heard from Alyssa during the night nor had they found any evidence about what could have happened to her. That morning on Saturday September 3rd Jennifer printed flyers with pictures of Alyssa on them along with some of her trusted neighbors. They went all through the city of Las Vegas. They hung the missing persons posters on every surface they could find and handed them to everyone. And on top of that the police were actively gathering evidence and collecting witness statements to try to determine what happened. And very early in their investigation they focused on one person of interest in particular Alyssa's friend Cody. I mean it made sense. Alyssa had gone missing after leaving his house. Jennifer didn't know him so she didn't know if this was a trustworthy person or a person that might hurt her daughter. He was also apparently the last person who had seen her before she disappeared. So the officer said, the officers questioned him and he said he didn't know anything. In fact he hadn't even seen Alyssa on Friday because according to Cody he was at his house. He wasn't allowed to leave his house. His parents weren't home when Alyssa reached out to him to ask to meet so they could exchange the book. He told the investigators that he replied that he couldn't help her out but this exchange happened too late because Alyssa was already on her way. She had already left the house and gone to a convenience store nearby waiting for him. The officers corroborated Cody's story by talking to his friends, his family, and even store employees. Everyone confirmed he had been home that night with his parents when Alyssa would have gone missing. He had an alibi and he wasn't a suspect. Unfortunately there weren't any other obvious candidates either. Alyssa wasn't dating anyone and she did not have any known enemies. I mean she hardly even knew anyone yet. She'd only been in school for four days. The next step was for the police to gather whatever evidence they could so they organized several more searches but they were just as unsuccessful as Jennifer's desperate drives through the neighborhood had been the night before. There was no sign of Alyssa anywhere. No apparent trail. No witnesses. Nothing. Except we know people don't actually vanish. There's always evidence about what happened to them even if it's well hidden. And that same evening on Saturday September 3rd of 2011 the police get a major tip. It comes from a teenage boy and his girlfriend. Their names were never released to the public but they were walking but not casually. They'd actually been out there volunteering with the search efforts to find Alyssa. They were on a remote stretch of Grand Teton Drive right behind the neighborhood Alyssa lived in. The couple were not too far from the back gate of Sky Ridge neighborhood, Alyssa's neighborhood, and they just kept walking. They were not too far from the back gate of Sky Ridge neighborhood, Alyssa's neighborhood, and they just kept walking. About 150 feet when they came to a big stretch of vacant lots, 32 acres that hadn't been developed into houses and businesses yet. It was only about 100 feet from Alyssa's backyard. Now there was a wall between her backyard and this stretch of land. And there in a ditch that was not visible from the road, they spotted something disturbing. It looked like a deceased female's body, bloodied, uncleaned. clothes in the waist down and partially burned, lying there in the desert wash. Detective Dan Long was sent to the scene and he could tell right away this was a young female. She was wearing a red shirt, but most of it had been burned away. He could also tell there were what appeared to be a pair of burned jeans nearby, as well as one charred shoe and one he could still identify as a lime green van shoe. She was covered with injuries. And when I say covered, there were so many wounds, they couldn't even count them. Many were around her face and chest. It also smelled like gasoline, which suggested an accelerant had been used. Meanwhile, Alyssa's mom had received a phone call from a friend who thought they saw Alyssa at a local fast food restaurant. Now Jennifer is completely unaware of the crime scene right behind her own house. So she races to this restaurant. And on the way, another friend calls her to let her know the crime scene. She repeated, Jennifer, they found a body. And that's when it truly hit her. She said it was like now she understood what she heard with the first call that she got from her friend. And that's when she also knew that it was Alyssa. And when she got close, everything was cordoned off. And of course, they were not going to let her through. The shirt, the jeans, the shoes, it all perfectly matched the outfit that Alyssa had been wearing the last time anyone saw her. So this did not look good. But still, an official identification had to be done. The body was carefully transported to the medical examiner's office as Jennifer broke down. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't think. She was a complete mess. And then she got a call. The police wanted a copy of Alyssa's dental records. The body at the morgue was so beyond recognition that only dental records could confirm whether it was truly Alyssa Otremba. Jennifer said, I had no doubt that it was my daughter. And she turned out to be right. Alyssa was dead. And she had been murdered. And someone had tried to destroy the evidence. It was unbelievable that this could happen right there. Just feet away from the back gate where Alyssa would have crossed into her safe neighborhood. And this shock was felt by everyone in that area and beyond. Hearing that a young girl who just started high school was merely walking right out of the door. She was outside of her gated community and was murdered. It seemed unreal. And then there was Megan, Alyssa's younger sister, her best friend. And I can only imagine because as I watched her home videos and I looked through their photos together, even I started to tear up. To have someone so close to you ripped away like that. Megan fell apart. She was told the truth right away that Alyssa was dead. And she said she started crying, but that it took her a little while for it to truly sink in that she would never get to see her, talk to her, hug her, or say goodbye. Star Wars The Mandalorian and Grogu. Now streaming on Disney+. Rated PG-13. For just $20 at BJs.com slash mesquite and save 10 cents per gallon for six months. Open soon. Limited time offer. New members only. BJs. Home of the save. Ever again. Alyssa's dad was the next to hear the heartbreaking news while overseas so far away. And Jennifer couldn't bear to say the words. So she handed her phone to a friend when Scott called. And they were her support system. They had the heartbreaking task of letting him know that Alyssa had been found. But not the way they had wanted. And little Hayden was only six. She wouldn't have understood death. But Jennifer had to sit her down and tell her her big sister was never coming home. And I can't even imagine having to be a mom and that be my reality. It was hard. And there were so many questions. How? How did no one hear her? How did no one see what happened? And who could have done this? Why? Why? The very first clue from the post-mortem exam, which indicated that Alyssa had been violated before her death. There was still DNA from the perpetrator on her remains, which the medical examiner was able to collect. But when they ran those samples through CODIS, the database that holds all previous offenders, they didn't get a single hit. And to the detectives in that moment, a blank result read like a blank slate. No match meant no record, which told them in that moment they were probably looking for a first-time offender, someone who had never been arrested, never been on anyone's radar. That's the natural way to read an empty hit like this. But hold on to that, because the database wasn't telling them the truth. It was telling them what it had. And what it had was nothing close to the whole picture. Because given the sheer brutality of what was done, it was already hard to believe that this was a first act of a killer like this. The injuries didn't look like something from a beginner. It looked like someone who had practiced. It actually looked like this could be a serial killer, somebody who had experience. And that was because of the extent of the wounds. The autopsy showed that Alyssa had died from multiple sharp force injuries, which the police had already assumed given the state of her body. However, during the initial investigation, they had said multiple, or maybe a dozen or so, but the medical examiner documented that. And so, the autopsy showed that Alyssa had died from multiple sharp force injuries, documented more than 80. Much more than anyone realized. And the majority of these wounds were around her face and torso. Some were on her legs, arms, and one large slash in her left hand. And that was a defensive wound. There was a cluster of 15 sharp force injuries to the upper left chest area alone, and about the same amount to the right side of her head and face. Many were so close together, it was hard to count them all separately. Some of them were shallow, and others were very deep. The superficial ones were not fatal, but there was a fragment of the weapon that was later recovered in the skull, which suggested that this killer had used enough force to break the blade and to leave a piece of it inside and keep going. There were multiple injuries to the left lung, the heart, and the aorta. And there were also post-mortem wounds, which meant they occurred after Alyssa's heart had already stopped beating. This also suggested she was already deceased when the wound was removed. And so, the autopsy showed that Alyssa was already dead when the fire began. This wasn't only a murder, it was destruction. The crime was horrific, and the detectives were more resolved than ever to figure out who had done this and bring them to justice. Just thinking about a monster like this roaming the streets is terrifying. So, they began to collect evidence in the vacant lot, and this was a tedious job. There were all kinds of items out there, some of which may not be related to Alyssa's murder, and there were a number of bloody rocks leading from the road to where her body had been found. In fact, there were a number of parts of the road to where her body had been found. It was determined that Alyssa had used the underground pedestrian tunnel that ran from one side of the freeway to the other in order to get to and from the direction of Cody's and back. When she came back through that tunnel, on the side where her neighborhood is located, and I am showing this on a map, she would have been right at the vacant lot. Now, on Google Maps now, they're showing the built-out neighborhood, but before, this neighborhood actually ended right behind the home Alyssa lived in, so the vacant lot was right up against a wall that was right there, and then her backyard was right behind that wall. Investigators believed someone may have followed her through that tunnel that night and attacked her as she made her way to her gate. There were actually blood droplets on the sidewalk, and when they were tested, they matched her DNA. So, the trail actually led from the sidewalk toward where the empty lot was, closer to the tunnel. When Detective Long started looking into this area, specifically the tunnel, that's when he realized there had been other attempts. A couple of months before this, the victim had been attacked on March 8th. Her phone was stolen, and the perpetrator forced himself on her. Alyssa's phone was also missing, so that previous case matched in that regard as well. But the victim survived, and the perpetrator had never been caught, not yet. There were even flyers all over town hoping people would recognize him. They started to wonder if these two cases were connected. And they had to act fast, because they had a feeling that this monster would strike again. It was on Monday, September 5th, Labor Day, the day that Alyssa was looking forward to having a day off school, that the sheriff's office went public, and they announced that Alyssa had been murdered. But they assured the people of Las Vegas that the homicide investigation was open and ongoing, and they were collecting tips from all over the community. And the tip line soon began to ring nonstop. Many of the calls failed to produce a usable lead. But it was clear that people in Las Vegas wanted this crime to be solved, and they were willing to share everything they knew, no matter how minor each tip may feel. And that's a really good point to make, because a lot of times people are afraid, like, "My tip might not be important. I don't know if it's even related." Just call. Just call. If you saw something, just say something. You never know. Because within just a matter of days, they get a break. The break that they needed. When a young woman called in, her name was Elizabeth Morales. She identified herself as an 18-year-old Las Vegas resident. But it was what she said next that was startling. She said she knew who killed Alyssa Otremba. According to Elizabeth's statement, she had been out on a date with her boyfriend Daniel Ortiz on September 2nd, the same night when Alyssa went missing. And even though Elizabeth and Daniel were trying to relax and have some fun, they kept getting interrupted by phone calls. Daniel's phone was ringing again and again at least 20 times a day. All of these calls were from the same person: Daniel's best friend since they were in 8th grade: 19-year-old Javier. Now, Daniel and Elizabeth were trying to ignore Javier as much as they could, because this was their night, not his. And they hoped if they kept rejecting his call, he would eventually get the message and leave them alone. But instead, he kept calling. And calling. And calling. And finally, Daniel found himself wondering if there was some kind of emergency going on. Clearly, Javier had a reason why he was reaching out so many times. So Daniel answered. And he talked to Javier. And the call went on for quite a while. Now, Elizabeth couldn't hear what Javier was saying. All she knew was that she was watching Daniel's reaction. And when he finally hung up, he seemed nervous. And Elizabeth could tell that something serious was going on, but she didn't know what. And that's when Daniel told her that the date was over. He was going to take her home because he had to take care of something. He said Javier needed him. And he had to go. He told her he was going to drop her off home before he had to go do whatever he had to do. Elizabeth really didn't know how to react to that, because Daniel had never done anything like this before. He wasn't the kind of guy to just cancel their date halfway through and ditch her for one of his friends. The whole situation was very confusing. She kept asking him, "What did Javier want? What's going on?" But Daniel refused to answer. He drove her all the way to her house in silence. But then, before Elizabeth could even get out of the car, she would tell him he leaned over and he said, "I think he might have killed somebody." Elizabeth could not really comprehend what she was hearing. And then Daniel just said, "I'll call you when I'm done." Elizabeth told the investigator she spent the rest of the night thinking about what Daniel had said. Those words were seared into her mind. She couldn't sleep, she was so overwhelmed with emotions, and she couldn't make sense of this. Elizabeth was worried, because she thought her boyfriend Daniel was a really good guy. She had never seen him as someone who could be involved with anything like this, especially a murder, even if it was just to help his friend. She was angry too, because Elizabeth cared about right and wrong. She hated the thought of her boyfriend or even Javier hurting someone and getting away with it. It's like she had this secret hanging over her head, one that she didn't want. There was also fear, because now she had to wonder what else Daniel and his friends were capable of. And she was still in that state of mind when she turned around. She was so scared, she didn't even know what to do. She couldn't turned on the news the very next day and she saw coverage about Alyssa's murder. She recognized that Alyssa had gone missing the same night that Javier had called Daniel to say that he might have killed somebody. And she couldn't shake the feeling that Javier was a murderer and that her boyfriend was involved. And Daniel had warned her about Javier in the past. He said, he's not a good guy. He's dangerous. And he told her never to be alone with him. And she had suspected something. Remember those flyers that were all around town, the attack on the girl in the tunnels months before? Well, those flyers were passed out at her high school. And when she saw the composite sketch, she thought that it looked like Javier. Now, Elizabeth had been connected to that case. Her brother, her little brother, was actually one of the people who heard the girl screaming and came to her rescue. That's when Elizabeth realized what she had to do. She called the tip line. She thought that would be it. She did what she was supposed to do. But days later, the police had follow-up questions. They believed Elizabeth was telling the truth. And this tip could break open the investigation. But they wanted to question her more in depth and gather a lot more information. The problem was that Elizabeth was so afraid. She told the investigators she didn't want to come to the police station because Daniel or Javier might find out. And she didn't know what they would do to her. She also wasn't willing to let the police come to her house and talk to her there because again, word might get around, so she made a compromise. She agreed to meet the investigators at a particular gas station in town. That way, Elizabeth would have plausible deniability. If Daniel or Javier somehow found out that she had been talking to the officers, she could just say, well, I was at the gas station. They came up to me and asked me questions. She could pretend she had not reached out to them herself. But the truth was that during the gas station meetup, she spilled everything she knew. Except Elizabeth didn't know anything concrete. All she had were theories based on one half of a phone conversation that she'd overheard. And a single comment from Daniel about Javier might have killed someone. Star Wars The Mandalorian and Grogu is now streaming on Disney+. What are you waiting for? Hop on. The Mustang. Let's see Galactic Adventure comes home on Disney+. This is the way. Our only chance is to work together. I like this kid. Always wear your seatbelt. Star Wars The Mandalorian and Grogu, now streaming on Disney+. Read PG-13. Elizabeth was cooperative and helpful, but she didn't know for sure that Javier actually committed a murder, let alone whether his victim was alive or not. This was the end of the world for Javier and Melissa. She didn't even know Javier's last name. If the police wanted a break in this case, they're going to need to go further. So next, they had to question Daniel. Now, before the investigators approached him, they assured Elizabeth, "Don't be afraid. We're not going to tell him who tipped us off." I don't know. I understand they gave her those reassuring words, but I would still be very scared. But by now, Elizabeth was feeling very brave. It was as though giving her statement had, you know, empowered her, and she wasn't afraid of Daniel anymore. As a matter of fact, she told the detectives she wanted them to explain to Daniel exactly how they learned what they knew. She wanted Daniel to understand in no uncertain terms that she was the one who came forward. She was so angry at him for what he had done, and she was sick of worrying about what he thought. So with her permission, the investigators made contact with Daniel, and they told him about Elizabeth Tip. And at first, he was not cooperative. He denied everything that Elizabeth had said, and he insisted he knows nothing about Alyssa's disappearance or her murder. Except the investigators didn't let him off that easily. They got more aggressive, and they made it very clear that Daniel wasn't going anywhere until he told the truth. At this point, he knew they were serious, so he agreed to speak with them, and he opened up about the night of September 2nd. Daniel's statement started the same way Elizabeth's had. He said he was out on a date, but it kept getting interrupted by his friend, his best friend, Javier Rigetti. He wouldn't stop calling. When Daniel got sick of hitting reject on the calls just to hear his phone vibrate and ring again, he finally answered. And that is when he said that Javier told him he had killed a girl in what he called "the desert area." And that was a disturbing thing to say. But it was also pretty unbelievable in Daniel's mind. He did not see his friend Javier as a killer, and said he thought his friend was high, maybe hallucinating. Perhaps Javier thought that he killed a girl, but he probably hadn't. It was hard to reconcile that statement with the fact that he told Elizabeth he believed that Javier had killed someone. If he really thought that this was just some kind of delusion, there would be no reason for him to say something so disturbing to his girlfriend, especially because we know how upset she got after that. So maybe he wasn't truly being fully transparent with the investigators. The point was that after Daniel got off the phone with Javier, he had to check on his friend. Even if this was just a substance-induced hallucination, Javier was clearly upset, and he couldn't be alone. So Daniel told Elizabeth goodnight. He drove to Javier's, and once he arrived, Javier met him at the front door. He told him to be quiet. He didn't want to wake up his family. He directs Daniel to the back of the house, where he says, "I messed up." He tells him he was in the middle of a robbery, and he might have killed a little girl. That's how he described his victim. Daniel, however, was really worried now, especially since Javier already had a black duffel bag in his hand, packed up, a flashlight, and a tin gas can ready to go. There was just one big problem. Javier couldn't afford to buy the rest of what he needed, which was gasoline and matches. He was begging Daniel for help. He told him, "This cannot wait until morning. I have to do it now." Now, to anyone hearing something like this, I think it would be pretty obvious what Javier is trying to do. If he had really done what he said he did, and now he has a gas can in his hand, and he wants to fill it up and get matches, he's trying to cover up his crime. Daniel told investigators that he still wasn't completely sure that Javier was telling him the truth, so he did end up agreeing to take him to the gas station. It was about 1:44 in the morning when Daniel pulled up and gave Javier the money. Javier goes in, pays for the matches and the gas, and that is when Daniel saw him actually filling up the can, that it started to sink in. He said he was sick to his stomach. It really hit him, because there would have been no other reason Javier would need to buy gas because he didn't have a car. There was no good reason for him to be trying to go in debt with his friend just to buy gas that he wouldn't have needed. In spite of this realization, though, Daniel stuck around. Once Javier got back in the car, he asked Daniel to drive him to a particular vacant lot a few hundred feet away from a residential neighborhood on Ozaplanka Drive. Another feeling of certainty came over Daniel. Now, he didn't know how he knew, but he said he knew that Javier had killed someone there at this vacant lot. Once Javier gets out, Daniel doesn't want anything else to do with this. Even when Javier asked him, "Are you going to come help me?" He refused. He said, "Listen, man, I love you, but I gotta go." And Daniel just sped away. The last thing he said he saw was Javier heading towards the lot. But he didn't stick around to see what was going on. He didn't get out of his car to look around, and he couldn't see anything incriminating from the street itself. So he wasn't sure of anything. But his gut feeling, his instinct told him his friend was a killer. He was crying when he was telling all of this to the investigators because he was hoping that somehow he was going to be wrong, that this wasn't true. He even agreed to show the investigators where the vacant lot was. And you probably already guessed. It was the same lot where Alyssa's body had been found. So now the officers know that Javier is probably the murderer. And now they have his full name, Javier Brigetti. And they have his address located right on the other side of the freeway from Alyssa's house. Only a five minute drive. He lived practically parallel in a straight shot to where the tunnel would have come out near the vacant lot where Alyssa's body was found. And as a matter of fact, his house was on the path that Alyssa would have been taking from where Cody's was back home. And on the same night, Monday, September 5th, the investigators get another piece of evidence to confirm Javier was their guy. They had been trying to ping and track down Alyssa's phone, but it was turned off or it died. However, for a brief moment, someone powered it back on and then quickly it either died or was turned off again. But it was enough for it to ping and it came back right away. Right near Javier's house. Confessions from friends are great, but physical evidence is much better. The investigators didn't know if he was going to resist them or how hard he was going to fight back or if he was just going to come out peacefully. So they surrounded his house with a full SWAT team and an arrest warrant. They also had undercover agents lining the street, but luckily they were able to apprehend him with no issues. He actually came out of his house with his hands up. And when detective Long saw him, he knew right away that Javier matched the sketch of that perpetrator from the tunnel attack. He also noted the large gash on his hand. When they put him in the patrol car, the very first words out of this monster's mouth was, "Have you ever seen anything as bad as this?" It's like he was bragging. Like he wanted credit for what he had done. And this is going to be a theme. Javier wants to talk. Thank you.