265. The Missing Instagram Model - Esmeralda Gonzalez

In this episode, Payton and Garrett explore the chilling case of Esmeralda Gonzalez, an Instagram influencer who mysteriously vanished from her Las Vegas neighborhood. Links: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/murderwithmyhusband NEW MERCH LINK: https://mwmhshop.com Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/themwmh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/murderwithmyhusband/ Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@murderwithmyhusband Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/into-the-dark/id1662304327 Listen on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/36SDVKB2MEWpFGVs9kRgQ7?si=f5224c9fd99542a7 Case Sources: Oxygen.com - https://www.oxygen.com/crime-news/christopher-prestipino-pleads-not-guilty-esmeralda-gonzalez-murder News3LV.com - https://news3lv.com/news/local/new-details-emerge-surrounding-murder-of-young-woman-who-was-found-encased-in-concrete 8NewsNow.com - https://www.8newsnow.com/news/local-news/woman-extradited-charged-in-the-murder-of-esmeralda-gonzalez/ HalfPriceLawyers.com - https://www.halfpricelawyers.com/blog/arrests-made-in-connection-with-murder-of-las-vegas-young-woman/ People.com - https://people.com/crime/instagram-model-encased-concrete-man-sentenced/ WPDE.com - https://wpde.com/news/nation-world/judge-sentences-man-accused-of-killing-woman-encasing-her-in-concrete-las-vegas-southern-nevada-christopher-prestipino ReviewJournal.com - https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/courts/woman-gets-prison-in-las-vegas-models-killing-2782246/ LawAndCrime.com - https://lawandcrime.com/crime/man-sentenced-in-grisly-killing-of-missing-model-who-was-strangled-injected-with-pool-cleaner-and-encased-in-concrete/ SinsAndSurvivors.com - https://www.sinsandsurvivors.com/death-of-a-rising-star-esmerelda-gonzalez/#:~:text=The%20Gonzalez%20family%20came%20to,and%20raised%20their%20children%20there. KTNV.com - https://www.ktnv.com/news/police-believe-missing-woman-strangled-to-death-injected-with-poison#google_vignette Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:57Payton Moreland?

  You're listening to an Ono Media Podcast. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder with my husband. I'm Peyton Morland.

• 1:04Garrett Moreland?

  And I'm Garrett Moreland.

• 1:05Payton Moreland?

  And he's the husband.

• 1:06Garrett Moreland?

  And I'm the husband.

• 1:07Payton Moreland?

  Okay, I'm pretty sure I have really great news.

• 1:11Garrett Moreland?

  What?

• 1:11Payton Moreland?

  We have new Strangy Danger merch available right now.

• 1:18Garrett Moreland?

  I'm not gonna lie.

• 1:21Garrett Moreland?

  No, no, listen to me.

• 1:23Payton Moreland?

  They're not gonna believe you can say it every time.

• 1:25Garrett Moreland?

  It's my favorite Strangy Danger merch.

• 1:27Payton Moreland?

  Oh, it's my favorite merch, hands down.

• 1:29Garrett Moreland?

  Really?

• 1:30Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, it's my favorite one we've ever done.

• 1:32Garrett Moreland?

  Extremely comfortable. Sizes is good, are good.

• 1:36Payton Moreland?

  Foxy fit, oversized, cute, freaking sweatshirt. You can wear it anywhere.

• 1:42Garrett Moreland?

  I know, it's actually, it's nice. I wore it yesterday.

• 1:45Payton Moreland?

  It looks trendy.

• 1:47Garrett Moreland?

  You're gonna love it. New Strangy Danger merch. Check it out in the description. It'll be everywhere on all of our social medias. We love you guys and we hope you love it.

• 1:58Payton Moreland?

  Strangy Danger has been highly, highly requested, probably I think our most requested merch option. So yeah, if you wanted it and you didn't get it, go get it right now. You got 10, 15, 20 seconds for us?

• 2:12Garrett Moreland?

  Well, hockey season is over unless your team made the playoffs. Ours didn't. So hockey season's over and now we're getting into golf season. For all those who golf out there, the Masters was on recently. It was so good. Honestly, it was, it was such a good Masters. Loved it. Watched the majority of it. Congrats Rory. Yeah, do golf so hard. Golf season's coming up. I'm gonna try to golf a couple of times, lose a bunch of balls and wait for the winter to come. Basically what happens every single season. One of these days I'll be really good at golf, but today's not the day.

• 2:49Payton Moreland?

  I don't think you're bad.

• 2:51Garrett Moreland?

  No, I'm not bad, but I don't go enough to be

• 2:56Garrett Moreland?

  good. Like I'd have to be going three times a week. Four times a week. I don't do that.

• 3:01Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, that's just like not really attainable.

• 3:04Garrett Moreland?

  Like, like, could I do it? Sure. Is that a lot of time? Lot of time. I don't know. Maybe I'll try golfing more. Pick up a lesson here and there. I wouldn't consider myself bad, but I also wouldn't consider myself good. I'd say I'm mediocre when it comes to golf. But I'm not gonna lie, I can drive the ball pretty well.

• 3:22Payton Moreland?

  Me too.

• 3:23Garrett Moreland?

  That's what we got going on. Also, there is a golf company that recently, recently sent me some stuff.

• 3:28Payton Moreland?

  We just spun, we did an ad.

• 3:29Garrett Moreland?

  We did an ad for them. They're called PXG. So if you want to check it out, go check it out.

• 3:34Payton Moreland?

  Okay, you guys, reminder, we have two other shows in Ono Media. My solo show, Into the Dark, our true crime news show, Rising Crime. Just been a second since I talked about them and sometimes I forget. Not everyone knows. Yeah. So Rising Crime is current news, true crime news. Twice a week and then Into the Dark is basically murder with my husband, minus the husband, once a week. So yeah, go check them out if you need more content to binge. That being said, let's get into our case sources for today's episode.

• 4:06Payton Moreland?

  Our sources for this episode are oxygen.com, news3lv.com, 8newsnow.com, halfpricelawyers.com, people.com, wpde.com, reviewjournal.com, loncrime.com, sinsandsurvivors.com and ktnv.com. So I think it's safe to say that for most of us listening to this, social media feels unavoidable these days. I'm always shocked when someone tells me they've managed to stay off social media because I think. Like how? It just doesn't even feel possible. And the way I see it, Instagram and Tik Tok are ways to stay updated with people in our lives. For others, it's a way to make new friends and connect with people that have similar interests.

• 4:48Payton Moreland?

  And sometimes it's just a way to not feel alone in this world. But the thing with social media is you sometimes never know who is looking at your profile. Who is waiting for your updates, looking to connect with you through a screen. Especially when you're someone with a big following. Which is why when an influencer goes missing these days, the police often turn to social media to see what was happening in their DMs. But today's case is a reminder that while social media and the people we encounter on it can certainly be unpredictable, the real threat doesn't happen online.

• 5:32Payton Moreland?

  It happens in the real world. So for today's case, we are turning back the clock to 2019 and we are heading to Las Vegas to meet 24-year-old Esmeralda Gonzalez. Now, unlike a lot of people living in Vegas, Esmeralda's not a transplant. She's actually spent most of her life there. She and her two brothers grew up in the historic neighborhood of West Las Vegas. Maybe not a place you'd venture to if you were looking for casinos, nightclubs. But for Esmeralda and her family, this was home.

• 6:12Payton Moreland?

  Her family was from Michoacan, Mexico and came to the States in the 90s looking for opportunities. I looked it up and that's how you say it. I'm pretty sure.

• 6:23Garrett Moreland?

  That was good.

• 6:23Payton Moreland?

  Michoacan.

• 6:24Garrett Moreland?

  Good babe.

• 6:25Payton Moreland?

  That's how I, it said. But if I did say it wrong, don't blame me. Blame the internet. So born on May 26th, 1995.

• 6:35Garrett Moreland?

  Wait, my birthday is May 26th, 1994. That's kind of crazy. I'm not gonna lie.

• 6:41Payton Moreland?

  A year after you. Esmeralda.

• 6:43Garrett Moreland?

  All the May 26th is unite. Also, interesting time to be an influencer, 2019.

• 6:48Payton Moreland?

  Mm hmm.

• 6:49Garrett Moreland?

  I feel like that was.

• 6:50Payton Moreland?

  Definitely like.

• 6:51Garrett Moreland?

  Before influencing, I feel like has really blown up, but still like, oh, wow. You have a lot of followers on Instagram. That's crazy. How did you do that sort of thing?

• 6:59Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 6:59Garrett Moreland?

  But not really like, oh, I'm making tons of money blow up yet.

• 7:03Payton Moreland?

  Maybe like 2020.

• 7:05Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, I feel like 2020, 21 is when all of a sudden the crazy money maybe started coming in for influencers. Maybe they were making good money before. I don't know, but I'm not an influencer. Don't ask me.

• 7:14Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, I definitely feel like influencing was known, well-known in 2019, but not maybe as common.

• 7:23Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 7:23Payton Moreland?

  As like everyone trying to be an influencer type thing.

• 7:26Garrett Moreland?

  Until TikTok came along and.

• 7:27Payton Moreland?

  Right. So she's born in Mexico and then her and her family come to the States in the 90s. So Esmeralda really couldn't have been older than five when the family found the small community in Vegas and decided to go there and call it their own. So while the Gonzalez is strongly believed in working hard and keeping their heads down to achieve the American dream. Esmeralda wasn't exactly the kind of girl who was, you know, keen on living a quiet, modest life in the shadows. She had big plans for her future and she knew with the perfect cocktail of brains and beauty that the right doors would open for her in time in what she wanted.

• 8:07Payton Moreland?

  So as Esmeralda got older, she began participating in beauty pageants while also staying after school for the chess club. And while Esmeralda was the only female in the chess club, that sort of spoke to the kind of person she was. She wasn't someone who was easily intimidated or willing to back down. After graduating from high school, Esmeralda knew she wanted to stay local. Her family meant the world to her and she never wanted to venture far. So she chose to attend the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. And there she began studying for her bachelor's degree in communications. But even during her college years, Esmeralda kept her eye on the prize. She became a member.

• 8:52Payton Moreland?

  Of UNLV's chapter of the National Society for Leadership and Success. And actually had plans to go on to law school after she finished her undergrad degree. Now Esmeralda, like many girls her age, also had dreams of becoming a mother one day, starting her own family that she could be proud of, much like the life her parents had built for her. But for the time being, Esmeralda was content just being a dog mom to her miniature poodle that she named Bonita. Now, especially because she wasn't in a rush to settle down, quite the opposite, actually. In 2018, Esmeralda's Instagram started growing.

• 9:34Garrett Moreland?

  Hopping off.

• 9:35Payton Moreland?

  Her following started growing. And you have to think this was similar to the time we were going through college.

• 9:40Garrett Moreland?

  Yes.

• 9:41Payton Moreland?

  And it was really that time of like influencing became.

• 9:45Garrett Moreland?

  Started becoming.

• 9:46Payton Moreland?

  Just really well known. And it was like, whoa, there's people making money off Instagram with tons of followers. Like Instagram famous. And so she was getting to enjoy plenty of perks that came along with being this influencer. So if you think about it, Esmeralda was already in the perfect place to grow a following. She had a backdrop of one of the craziest cities in the world. And she was candid about sharing her nights out and the outfits and accessories she sported while doing it. Safe to say Esmeralda was a little ahead of the game. So by 2018, she had close to 300,000 followers in 2018.

• 10:26Garrett Moreland?

  Well, that's a lot.

• 10:27Payton Moreland?

  Yes. And her profile included credits like BA in communications, entrepreneur, real estate investor, social scientist, and foreign model. I think back then Instagram bios were a little bit more about like a LinkedIn profile instead of like an Instagram bio.

• 10:45Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 10:45Payton Moreland?

  You know? So Esmeralda was definitely doing well for herself as an influencer because it seems this helped her bring in quite a bit of cash in 2018. Suddenly she was sporting designer shoes, bags, she had a $40,000 Rolex. And when she turned 23 that year, she was even able to purchase her first house on her own at 23.

• 11:09Garrett Moreland?

  23.

• 11:10Payton Moreland?

  Now meanwhile, Esmeralda's love life also seemed to be blossoming. She had been seeing her boyfriend, Luis Merlo, for some time now. Though the two hadn't taken the steps to move in together yet. For now, Esmeralda was still enjoying her independence and soaking up any chance she could to spend time with her family, including the day of her 24th birthday, that's May 26th, 2019. Now, little did Esmeralda's family know, everything was about to change for her, and not for the better. So on the afternoon of May 31st, this is after her birthday, a week after celebrating her

• 11:50Payton Moreland?

  birthday, Esmeralda's brother Juan went by her house to check on her. He hadn't heard from his sister for the last day or so, which wasn't normal, and so he was starting to get worried. So he gets to his sister's house, goes up to her front door, knocks, and no one answers. But even more alarming, he realizes that his sister's front door is unlocked. So Juan is able to let himself inside, which is completely unlike Esmeralda. She's usually very responsible, would never leave her front door unlocked, especially because she was someone who lived alone and also liked her privacy. Now Juan starts calling her name around the house.

• 12:34Payton Moreland?

  At first, he thinks she couldn't have gone far, because when he pulled in, he noticed her car was still in her driveway. Plus, her purse and wallet are inside the house, but he can't find her phone. And there's one thing about the house that really seems to scare Juan the second he goes inside. It's a disaster. And it's not that he necessarily thinks that someone has kidnapped Esmeralda when he sees the state of the house, because he's actually seen Esmeralda's personal belongings in a state like this before.

• 13:12Payton Moreland?

  What had been in the past and what it looks like now to Juan is that Esmeralda might have had another mental health episode. This was something she had been struggling with on and off for a while, according to Juan.

• 13:28Garrett Moreland?

  Got it. So a little bit of a breakdown, maybe throwing stuff everywhere, something like that.

• 13:32Payton Moreland?

  Well, Esmeralda had actually been diagnosed in the past with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Now, I'm not sure how long she was battling these illnesses, but I know she had been prescribed medication for both of them, and they really did seem to help her, according to Juan. But just a week ago, at her birthday party, Esmeralda had actually confided in her brother Juan that she had been struggling again. She wasn't sure if her medications were working anymore. Maybe she just needed to get her dosage changed. So when he didn't hear from her, and then he goes to her house, sees her car, sees her stuff, no phone, and sees the state the house is in, he's worried. He's immediately worried, which is why he's even there.

• 14:17Payton Moreland?

  So he actually thinks Esmeralda might be in Vegas somewhere in an unhealthy state of mind. He knows without her medication, Esmeralda has a hard time grappling with her perception of reality, which as we know, can be dangerous for any human being. But before he lets the panic set in, Juan decides to get in touch with Esmeralda's newish boyfriend, Luis. See if maybe they're just together somewhere. Only this conversation leaves Juan even more unsettled because Luis says to him that the last time he saw Esmeralda was actually yesterday, so the day before.

• 14:59Payton Moreland?

  And things didn't go well between the two of them, so they weren't necessarily talking. He noticed that Esmeralda wasn't acting right. Whether or not he knew about her mental health history, I'm not sure, but he said he could tell something was definitely off with her. And then Luis admits, he took Esmeralda's cellphone and her car keys, trying to help keep her safe because she just wasn't in a very good frame of mind. Now, knowing that Esmeralda isn't with her boyfriend either and doesn't have these personal items, Juan gets the police involved.

• 15:36Garrett Moreland?

  What a good brother, by the way.

• 15:37Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, like really following these steps, trying to figure out, and He tells the police the last time he saw Esmeralda and then also the story he got from Luis, her boyfriend. He's like, this is what her boyfriend told me. And for a police officer investigating a case, the first people you're gonna consider in a situation like this are those close to the missing person.

• 16:03Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 16:04Payton Moreland?

  Especially because when they decide to look in Luis's past immediately, they just immediately off their bat are like, let's just pull, pull him up. They find he's not exactly squeaky clean.

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• 17:40Payton Moreland?

  Just a couple weeks before, police had been called to Esmeralda's house over a domestic violence incident involving Luis. And I don't know the details of what happened that night, but I know this is obviously going to be an immediate red flag for detectives. A couple weeks before. They get called for domestic violence and now

• 18:01Garrett Moreland?

  She's missing.

• 18:02Payton Moreland?

  She's missing. So they call Luis to try and get him to come down for questioning, or at the very least to hand over Esmeralda's cellphone and keys. So they can dig further into her call and text history and maybe even get into her car. But Luis doesn't do himself any favors at this point. He's not very cooperative. He actually gives the evidence to his attorney to hand over to the police, which I'm not necessarily saying is a bad idea, but to the police, it seems a little shady.

• 18:34Garrett Moreland?

  No, it's not a bad idea. I mean, I think that if you went missing and that's what I would do.

• 18:41Payton Moreland?

  Oh, yeah. I mean, I think in just today's day and age.

• 18:44Garrett Moreland?

  Correct. And I know it's hard because it does raise red flags for police, but I think also 2025 detectives and police in general need to realize people do it for actually more safety now than.

• 18:57Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, than trying to hide.

• 18:58Garrett Moreland?

  Granted, that was 2018, so 2019 is a little bit different.

• 19:02Payton Moreland?

  Right.

• 19:03Garrett Moreland?

  But, yeah.

• 19:03Payton Moreland?

  So meanwhile, investigators realize there's something inside Esmeralda's house that they now actually have investigated that might actually help them get to the bottom of her disappearance. And that is security cameras. Though, once they pull the footage from the security cameras at Esmeralda's house, they find nothing. It's just Esmeralda wandering her house, going about her business, which is great for Luis. He's not pictured in the house at all before Esmeralda disappears out the front door alone on May 30th and doesn't come back. So the question now is, nothing happened to her at the house.

• 19:48Payton Moreland?

  Where did she go? And is Luis involved? So days pass as detectives dig deeper into Esmeralda's life, looking for any clue.

• 19:58Payton Moreland?

  And what they have put together is a brief timeline. So this is what they know so far. Esmeralda argued with Luis the afternoon of May 30th. She leaves her house that same night and doesn't come back home. She's never seen again on camera. And then her family reports her missing the following day, the afternoon of May 31st. So without much to work off of this early in the investigation, police turn to a new pool of suspects. Pretty big one. Esmeralda's social media following. I mean, when a celebrity is murdered, it's not that weird to say, did she have or he have any stalkers?

• 20:38Garrett Moreland?

  So they ruled out the boyfriend for sure?

• 20:40Payton Moreland?

  No, they're just trying to look at other angles. Yeah. So when someone attracts that much attention online, she has close to 300,000 followers. You have to consider whether there was someone who had taken an interest in her, especially because she wrote one very obvious thing on her Instagram profile. And that was no DMs. She doesn't want to talk to people. She makes this clear.

• 21:05Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 21:05Payton Moreland?

  So they start to wonder, why? Like, why all of a sudden is she closing off her DMs? Was there someone in the past who had been harassing her? She was probably no stranger to people messaging her online, and I doubt it was always kind or appropriate.

• 21:21Garrett Moreland?

  I also can't remember. They've changed Instagram so much from then until now. What filters were in place, what restrictions, safety blocking? I know there was that stuff, but I don't know to what extent there was in 2018 and 19. It's just, it's been so long.

• 21:38Payton Moreland?

  I'm trying to think because I worked social media.

• 21:41Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 21:42Payton Moreland?

  From 2018, no, 2019?

• 21:44Garrett Moreland?

  No, 2018 to 2020.

• 21:47Payton Moreland?

  Well, 2022, actually.

• 21:51Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, you're right. Yeah. Yeah. So maybe you did start 2019.

• 21:53Payton Moreland?

  I'm trying to think if the requests thing for people with a high number of followers was a thing because. I'm pretty sure it used to be that anyone could DM you.

• 22:03Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, anyone could DM you. There wasn't, you couldn't restrict people.

• 22:07Payton Moreland?

  And now, I mean, now, if you have a certain number of followers, if you didn't know, um, your message actually goes into like a request folder. And then that person has to go check separately, check the request folder and scroll through. And then like, accept a message and some people don't even check their request folder. So they don't even get eyes on your DM, if that makes sense. So I don't know if that was a thing at this point. And I mean, police are going through her comments on her photos. And they were just random, you know, creepers commenting, you should marry me, we should go out sometime, normal.

• 22:43Garrett Moreland?

  Normal social media, unfortunately. Nothing out of the ordinary.

• 22:46Payton Moreland?

  And it also wasn't just that she did have like some very, I don't want to say like risque, but I mean, there are people who would have considered her pictures risque. So that can draw a certain attention.

• 23:00Garrett Moreland?

  Didn't she have like foreign model or something on her?

• 23:03Payton Moreland?

  And then also, I mean, she posts about her luxurious life. She posted that she had a $40,000 Rolex. This is like catnip to robbers. So they have to take that into consideration as well. Was someone keeping an eye on Esmeralda? Did they find out where she lived and then waited for her to leave? As police dig into this very large suspect pool, Juan is doing his own due diligence, trying to locate his sister. He and the family are posting flyers around town, spreading the word through Facebook, anything they can to find Esmeralda. And it works. A neighbor of Esmeralda's comes forward to say

• 23:43Payton Moreland?

  they actually noticed something odd around 2:30 AM on May 31st. And she didn't really realize it was that strange. The neighbor didn't until she got word that Esmeralda was missing. So, security footage caught Esmeralda lingering in the neighbor's driveway before approaching her neighbor's front door and knocking at 2:30 AM. In this footage, Esmeralda is dressed in only lingerie and high heels.

• 24:17Payton Moreland?

  And she's not walking very steady. She seems very confused. She's out of sorts.

• 24:23Garrett Moreland?

  So drugged or drunk?

• 24:25Payton Moreland?

  And when the neighbor wakes up and notices Esmeralda on her front door, they tell her, hey, you have the wrong house. And Esmeralda quickly responds, oh, I do. Okay, thank you. And leaves the property. She doesn't put up a fight. She isn't combative, just apologetic and moves on. And you have to think the neighbor is like, who is this person? You know? But that's not the only tip police receive after that. There's another one. One that starts to help them build an even more concrete timeline. So Luis takes Esmeralda's car keys sometime on the morning of May 30th, because they're in a fight and she's not acting normal.

• 25:07Payton Moreland?

  Later that day, someone reported seeing Esmeralda at a local BMW car dealership. So police go and they find video footage that confirms this tip. Esmeralda is walking through the lobby of this dealership in lingerie and heels. So the same outfit, but this time during the day. This is the same outfit she'll be seen wearing later that night at the neighbor's front door.

• 25:32Garrett Moreland?

  Okay, that's kind of weird.

• 25:34Payton Moreland?

  But this is Vegas. So the people who worked at the dealership didn't kick her out. Honestly, they didn't even really find it that strange. This could be her work attire. They thought maybe she's a dancer on her way to work. But Esmeralda is there for another reason. She wants to get another key to her car since her boyfriend had took hers. The catch is she's not alone at this BMW dealership. She's with another man. The gentleman in his 40s or 50s who seems to be walking with her, but he's not acting suspicious in any way. He looks more like a friend trying to help her out. So police sound the alarms on this. They have to figure out who this stranger is with Esmeralda.

• 26:19Payton Moreland?

  Basically, the day she disappears. The family doesn't recognize him, so they start posting photos of him on the local news. And they get a hit. The guy himself comes forward and says, uh, I saw that you're looking for me. My name is Brent Smith. Now Brent Smith lives very close to Esmeralda. He's actually another neighbor of hers.

• 26:42Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 26:43Payton Moreland?

  But he didn't know her before that day. That's like from what I can tell is that he didn't know her very well. Though he says plain and simple, Esmeralda approached me on the 30th and told me that her boyfriend took her keys and she needed a new set. She asked me if I could give her a ride to the dealership and me being a good neighbor, I said, sure. Now Brent would of course be considered a person of interest in all of this, except after that trip to the dealership. Esmeralda got dropped back off at home and she was seen on her interior surveillance cameras. After that, this is before she leaves the house for good later that night.

• 27:26Garrett Moreland?

  So he's cleared basically, yeah.

• 27:27Payton Moreland?

  Yes. This means Brent probably is the good neighbor he claims to be because he did drop her off.

• 27:31Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 27:32Payton Moreland?

  And then hours after that.

• 27:33Garrett Moreland?

  Do you think he was like, dang, I'm dropping her off and she's wearing lingerie?

• 27:37Payton Moreland?

  Or I don't know. I don't know. Is this normal in Vegas? Like, I just don't know.

• 27:41Garrett Moreland?

  I don't know. I don't live in Vegas.

• 27:42Payton Moreland?

  But he also, I mean, he's probably like, wait, you're telling me that I meet her for the first time. I take her and now she's like missing.

• 27:49Garrett Moreland?

  Missing, yeah. That's kind of freaky.

• 27:51Payton Moreland?

  So as we know, she's going to leave the house and then hours after that drop off around 2:30 AM. She's going to be seen at a different neighbor's door, being told she's at the wrong house, but never actually go back to her own house, even though she's in her own neighborhood. So police are now wondering, okay, what's the next step? Where did Esmeralda disappear to after that? There's been no usage on her credit cards, no activity on any of her social accounts, including her Instagram profile.

• 28:20Garrett Moreland?

  That's not good.

• 28:21Payton Moreland?

  Nothing that shows proof of life from Esmeralda after May 31st at 2:30 AM.

• 28:27Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 28:27Payton Moreland?

  The police are starting to hit dead ends. It is now July 18th. So she went missing May 30th. It's now July 18th and another tip comes in and this one really hits the gas. So that day, an anonymous caller gets in touch with Las Vegas police to say they. Have a name of someone that they are certain is connected to Esmeralda Gonzalez's disappearance.

• 28:55Garrett Moreland?

  Let's hear it.

• 28:56Payton Moreland?

  And the tipster says, actually, it's two names, forty five year old Christopher Prestapino and his roommate, thirty nine year old Cassandra Garrett.

• 29:07Garrett Moreland?

  Don't bring me into this case. Take, keep me out of this, please.

• 29:10Payton Moreland?

  Keep my name out of this.

• 29:11Garrett Moreland?

  Keep my name out of this crap.

• 29:13Payton Moreland?

  So we have a forty five year old Christopher and thirty nine year old, thirty nine year old Cassandra, and they are roommates. So this tipster, this anonymous tipster, says that back in May, Christopher and Cassandra mentioned to them having killed a woman.

• 29:31Garrett Moreland?

  What? Sorry, that was a very, that was very aggressive, what?

• 29:37Payton Moreland?

  Well, and the tipster tells police that after, um, according to this, these roommates, after they killed this woman, they took her out to the Nevada desert in a U-Haul and left her body out there.

• 29:51Garrett Moreland?

  Give me a break, dude.

• 29:52Payton Moreland?

  Now, if this tip is accurate, it means that Esmeralda's case is no longer a missing persons case. It's a homicide.

• 30:00Garrett Moreland?

  A homicide, yeah.

• 30:01Payton Moreland?

  And because the tip is just so specific, it'd be foolish of them not to look into Christopher's background. I mean, the, the two names that were brought to them. So they do. And they find that Christopher works as a stagehand at the Paris Hotel, working for one of their shows there. But he also has a criminal background. He's been arrested before on charges related to drug use. Though there's nothing violent on his record, so police have to take that into consideration as well.

• 30:32Garrett Moreland?

  Drug use to murder is a pretty big jump.

• 30:35Payton Moreland?

  But here's the thing that really worries the police. Christopher Prestapino and Cassandra Garrett, their house is in the same neighborhood as Esmeralda's, actually just a few doors down. Now, remember where Esmeralda was last seen alive?

• 30:56Payton Moreland?

  In her neighborhood, on camera at 2:30 a.m. At a different neighbor's house, being confused where she was, looking very out of it. And then they get a tip that two of her other neighbors are the ones who killed her. And that's where she was last seen was her own neighborhood. I mean, this really lines up for police. This makes the most sense.

• 31:18Garrett Moreland?

  I mean, I guess these cases never make sense when someone kills somebody. But like, why would they kill her?

• 31:25Payton Moreland?

  Well, I just.

• 31:26Garrett Moreland?

  Where is this going?

• 31:27Payton Moreland?

  I think to police, it's like, how did she die in her own neighborhood? Just like steps away from her house?

• 31:33Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 31:33Payton Moreland?

  This is really the only option is that one of the other neighbors got her before she got to her actual house. So knowing that Esmeralda was last seen wandering around the neighborhood. Chris and Cassandra are climbing to the top of the suspect list quickly. So investigators' next move is to follow up on another little detail from that tipster. The fact that Chris rented a U-Haul to get rid of Esmeralda's body. So they start calling local U-Haul stores. And sure enough, one of them finds that a rental was made to a Christopher Prestapino just days after Esmeralda went missing.

• 32:11Garrett Moreland?

  Coming together, okay.

• 32:12Payton Moreland?

  And on that contract is Christopher's phone number, email, home address. He did not even try to like, use a fake name renting this U-Haul.

• 32:22Garrett Moreland?

  Nothing.

• 32:22Payton Moreland?

  Now, just as the police are making some moves on this case. Another anonymous tip comes in telling police. If you want to find out what happened to Esmeralda. You should speak to this woman named Tricia Ott. And police are like, oh, my gosh, how many freaking tips can we get? Like, we're already, we already have a really, really.

• 32:44Garrett Moreland?

  I don't understand. Like so many people know about the murder, except the police.

• 32:48Payton Moreland?

  But it would be shoddy police work to not follow up every tip. So they track down Tricia, even though they feel like they're on the right path. And when they speak with her, they realize that this tipster actually was being helpful because she begins to connect the dots even more for police. She tells the police that in early June, a week or so after Esmeralda went missing, her friend, Christopher Prestapino, called her in the middle of the night. He told her he needed her help moving something large and asked if she could come over to the house right away. Tricia got out of bed, made the drive over, and when she got there, she found her friend, Christopher, blasting music and the TV so loud that she could barely speak to him.

• 33:33Payton Moreland?

  But also, Christopher was acting really paranoid. He was going on and on about a woman who had come over to his house and he had tied her up and maybe he accidentally killed her. This is now the second person he's opening his mouth to. Christopher cannot keep a secret.

• 33:49Garrett Moreland?

  This is what I'm trying to say, though, like, I mean, no one can comprehend it. It just, the fact that this girl was out there and then also this random guy was like, oh, I'm gonna tie her up and I'm gonna kill her. I'm saying, like, how does that possibly go through somebody's mind?

• 34:04Payton Moreland?

  It's gross.

• 34:05Garrett Moreland?

  It's insane.

• 34:06Payton Moreland?

  But that's not even the half of it because.

• 34:09Garrett Moreland?

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• 34:41Payton Moreland?

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• 35:07Garrett Moreland?

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• 35:28Payton Moreland?

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• 36:11Payton Moreland?

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• 36:50Payton Moreland?

  Tricia sees some other really shady stuff while she's there that night trying to help her friend, I guess, move a body. For starters, that U-Haul is sitting there in the driveway, just waiting to be loaded up. And meanwhile, Cassandra, Christopher's roommate, is frantically cleaning out their garage. And according to Tricia, she's high on drugs. And the most chilling detail is there is a giant handmade wooden box in the garage. From pictures, it looks a little bit bigger than like a chest freezer. And apparently that wooden box is what Chris needs help moving into the U-Haul, getting it in.

• 37:34Payton Moreland?

  He said that him and his roommate Cassandra had been trying for hours, but were unsuccessful, so they called Tricia to see if the three of them could get it up. Now later, having heard the news about this missing Esmeralda, Tricia was pretty certain that it was her body inside the box that she had helped move that night. Now, I want to be clear, Tricia is being forthcoming with police, but they came to her off of an anonymous tip.

• 38:06Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, because, I mean, I'm not saying that she's guilty of coalition.

• 38:13Payton Moreland?

  She should have went to the police.

• 38:15Garrett Moreland?

  But, ah, come on, like, come on, let's not be, let's not be naive here.

• 38:20Payton Moreland?

  The second you, you even had a

• 38:23Garrett Moreland?

  Premonition or, or thought, sorry?

• 38:26Payton Moreland?

  That it might have been this missing woman who disappeared in that exact neighborhood and you might have helped move her body into a U-Haul, you should have contacted police.

• 38:36Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 38:37Payton Moreland?

  So after this, police feel pretty certain that Christopher is their guy, so they subpoena his phone records next. And they find something else that sort of confirms Tricia's story. So needless to say, they are just gluing everything together. They're just getting some, some backend behind their evidence.

• 38:56Payton Moreland?

  So Christopher spent a lot of time at Home Depot. There's a specific Home Depot by his house after her disappearance. So they reach out to that store where his phone was constantly pinging. They ask for security footage and sure enough, Christopher Prestapino takes multiple trips in and out of Home Depot, buying all of the supplies that someone would need to build a wooden box, just like the one Tricia described. Wood, cement mix, lime drills, mixing paddles. And then on June 8th, Christopher's phone records placed him somewhere else. That's kind of suspicious. That day, he spent multiple hours out in the middle of the Nevada desert.

• 39:40Payton Moreland?

  So police assume Christopher must have found a way to get that box inside the U-Haul and he was out there dumping it that day. So now investigators are getting closer to finding out what happened to Esmeralda. The issue is they only have Christopher's cell coordinates to work off of and the Nevada desert is a pretty big place. So while they do multiple searches of the area spanning hundreds and hundreds of miles of desert, they don't find anything. And that's when they realize as badly as they wanted to find Esmeralda before arresting Christopher, they were going to need to go directly to Christopher to find Esmeralda.

• 40:21Payton Moreland?

  So it's September by this point and police decide that they're going to actually start with finding Cassandra, the roommate first. Only they quickly realize she's not even in Vegas anymore. She actually ran off to Wisconsin to her boyfriend's house. So police hop on a plane and knock on her boyfriend's door. And Cassandra is pretty good at playing dumb. She says she knows nothing about a U-Haul or a missing girl, even though Tricia said she was there cleaning out the garage. In fact, she's really combative, which of course is not helpful. But for now, it's not enough to arrest her. So they move to the next phase. They need to get a warrant for Christopher's house back in Vegas. So on September 20th, they knock on his door.

• 41:06Payton Moreland?

  And as much as I hate to say it, They find nothing. They find no evidence that Esmeralda was ever inside his house, let alone killed there.

• 41:14Garrett Moreland?

  Surprising.

• 41:15Payton Moreland?

  And Christopher insists over and over, he has no idea who Esmeralda is. He's never seen her before. So, police are getting frustrated. They feel like they have a lot of circumstantial evidence and a lot of tips against these people, but just nothing to like prove it. So, this is when they realize that Christopher and Cassandra might actually just be roommates because Christopher has a girlfriend named Lisa Mort, who is in prison at this time. She's at a nearby detention center on some unrelated charges. I'm not sure what. But, police had heard that she and Chris spoke over the phone regularly.

• 41:56Payton Moreland?

  So, they actually wondered if maybe they could cut a deal with Lisa to kind of get more information and maybe even to testify against her boyfriend, Christopher. But, when they questioned Lisa, she's also saying she knows nothing about the crime. It's just dead end after dead end. But, police feel like they're so close. So, they throw one final Hail Mary. In October, they connect with Cassandra, the roommate. Again, they say to her, "Look, we're just willing to make a deal with you at this point. We're hot on your trail. We're inches away from making an arrest. But, if you cooperate with us and you lead us to Esmeralda's body, we will fly you back to Vegas. Let you get all of your affairs in order before we arrest you." Now, this is not a conventional arrangement by any means,

• 42:40Payton Moreland?

  but it seems like maybe the guilt was just too much for Cassandra to bear because that's when she caves and says, "Okay, let's do it. I'll do it." So, on October 8th, Cassandra flies from Wisconsin to Nevada. And that same day, she gets in the car with detectives. She drives them out to the desert. But, for hours, it seems like Cassandra's just leading them on. She keeps saying she doesn't remember exactly where it was. Nothing was looking familiar. Until, they come to one particular rock formation and she says, "Oh, this is it." So, that's when a detective gets out of the car, climbs up to an embankment, looks down and sees a giant homemade wooden box lying there in the Vegas sand.

• 43:25Garrett Moreland?

  Found it.

• 43:26Payton Moreland?

  So, police actually have to call in for a crane. To come and lift this structure out of the desert. And when they get it back to the lab, they have to call for firefighters to drill into it to see if the remains are inside. Sure enough, they find a body. But the level of decomposition is so bad that they can't even perform an autopsy.

• 43:50Garrett Moreland?

  Gosh, man.

• 43:51Payton Moreland?

  It's clear to investigators that foul play was involved with this body, though, because the victim's hands are still bound with rope. The only thing left to do is confirm that this is, in fact, Esmeralda, which doesn't take long because that Rolex watch, the one she's pictured wearing on Instagram, is in the box with her. And once her brother Juan locates the receipt, they are able to match the serial numbers, confirming this is definitely the Rolex that belongs to Esmeralda. And if that wasn't enough confirmation, the coroner's office also used some of the bone fragments to test the DNA. And when compared to Esmeralda's parents, it's a match. After more than five months, the mystery of Esmeralda's disappearance has been solved.

• 44:35Payton Moreland?

  There were a few questions that remained. Was Christopher a follower of Esmeralda's and did he kidnap her? Did they know each other? What happened the night she went missing? What led to her death? And how did she die? Well, now that Esmeralda was found, they were quickly able to get a warrant for Christopher's arrest. Problem was, his girlfriend, Lisa Mort, the one in prison, had given him some advice a few days before. She told him that the police were on to him. They called her and he'd better leave the country while he still had time.

• 45:07Garrett Moreland?

  No way he left.

• 45:08Payton Moreland?

  So he did exactly that. When police went to find him, they learned that he had taken off to Belize.

• 45:13Garrett Moreland?

  Wow.

• 45:14Payton Moreland?

  Which means police have to find another way to get him in handcuffs now. So they bug his phone and they start listening in on his conversations. And just a few days after finding Esmeralda's body, they get lucky. On October 11th, Christopher gets a call from Lisa, his girlfriend in jail. She says she's going to be getting out soon and Christopher insists he needs to get back to be there to pick her up. So he flies back to Vegas the following Day, October 12th.

• 45:40Garrett Moreland?

  That's hilarious.

• 45:41Payton Moreland?

  And because police were listening to the phone call, they know this. And the second he lands, he gets a welcoming party, a handful of cops are waiting there to arrest him. By the way, Lisa Mort doesn't even make her way out of prison that day. She doesn't actually get out. She's arrested again on the day she's supposed to be released for being an accessory after the fact. About a week later, on October 20th, Cassandra Garrett also gets a knock on the door and a set of silver handcuffs. And now with all of the offenders in custody, police finally learn what happened to Esmeralda in the final hours of her life.

• 46:21Garrett Moreland?

  Cassandra should have made a deal with them.

• 46:23Payton Moreland?

  So it's no secret that Esmeralda was likely off her medication and struggling. And it was no secret that she was wandering around the neighborhood, asking for help from strangers. But apparently, one of those strangers was a friend of Christopher and Cassandra's. And he found Esmeralda on the street that night, likely in the early hours after she rang the other neighbor's doorbell. So after 2:30 a.m. So they invite her into the house. They're all partying. And I think at some point shortly after, the friend who had like gone outside and invited her in left. But then Christopher, this is all according to them, got Esmeralda high on methamphetamines. This, of course, only worsened her current mental state.

• 47:07Payton Moreland?

  And when she started behaving strangely, it scared Christopher. He grabbed some rope and tied her to a bedpost. According to him, Esmeralda got more erratic. She began screaming and thrashing. But Christopher and Cassandra said they were afraid to let her go at that point, thinking that she might call the police and turn them in. Eventually, Esmeralda starts calming down.

• 47:27Garrett Moreland?

  Killed her instead?

• 47:28Payton Moreland?

  They go to untie her. She starts fighting back. She attacks Christopher, punching him in the face. Christopher retaliates by trying to strangle her, ties her back up, throws some blankets over her. And then he goes downstairs, comes back up with a syringe filled with pool cleaner.

• 47:46Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, and killed her.

• 47:48Payton Moreland?

  He injects it into her and then he and Cassandra go downstairs. They come back up to check on her later and they find her dead. Christopher panics, devises his complicated plan to get rid of the body, which as we know, doesn't work. Christopher Prestapino is indicted on charges of murder, kidnapping and conspiracy. Cassandra Garrett faces the same charges while Christopher's 31-year-old girlfriend Lisa Moore is also charged with accessory to murder. Both Cassandra and Lisa, however, take a plea deal. Lisa's given 24 to 60 months with 151 days of credit for time served. Cassandra's sentenced to voluntary manslaughter and given 20 years with parole after eight. Christopher, on the other hand, thought he could fight the charges, at least at first.

• 48:33Payton Moreland?

  Early on, he entered a plea of not guilty. Later changed his mind to plead guilty via an Alfred plea. We've talked about this before. It basically says you're maintaining your innocence while pleading guilty. So as a result, Christopher was sentenced to 10 to 25 years for second degree murder and five to 15 years for kidnapping. His sentences will run concurrently.

• 48:53Garrett Moreland?

  Interesting. Okay. Curious to see when he gets out or if he gets out.

• 48:57Payton Moreland?

  It is kind of interesting because it appears that although a stranger, Christopher wasn't one of Esmeralda's online followers after all. Esmeralda just happened to find herself in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people in her own neighborhood, which ultimately goes to show that while the internet may seem like a scary place at times, sometimes it really is no match for what's lurking out in the real world. And that is the case of Esmeralda Gonzalez.

• 49:25Garrett Moreland?

  Because at the beginning, you think it's the boyfriend, but he had nothing to do with it.

• 49:28Payton Moreland?

  Nothing. He had been trying to protect her.

• 49:30Garrett Moreland?

  I'm just really confused why they wouldn't just let her go. Like I feel like they're still lying about stuff. Did they torture her?

• 49:37Payton Moreland?

  I think they thought she was gonna turn them in for having methamphetamines and they would get drug charges.

• 49:43Garrett Moreland?

  Well, a lot better than getting murder charges.

• 49:46Payton Moreland?

  Also, just like.

• 49:47Garrett Moreland?

  Like that makes no sense.

• 49:48Payton Moreland?

  The syringe? It's just weird.

• 49:50Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, the whole thing's weird.

• 49:52Payton Moreland?

  I guess they were high on drugs. Probably not gonna make sense.

• 49:55Garrett Moreland?

  So sad.

• 49:56Payton Moreland?

  All right, you guys, that is our case for this week and we will see you next time with another one. I love it.

• 50:02Garrett Moreland?

  I hate it.

• 50:02Payton Moreland?

  Goodbye.