307. Patrick de la Cerda: Patrick de la Cerda: A Crime That Shocked a Family

In this episode, Garrett and Payton explore the case of Patrick de la Cerda, a man living what seemed like a fairytale romance until his life was tragically cut short by a killer no one saw coming. Links: Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/murderwithmyhusband Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/murderwithmyhusband NEW MERCH LINK: https://mwmhshop.com Discount Codes: https://mailchi.mp/c6f48670aeac/oh-no-media-discount-codes 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/a-plan-to-kill/crime-news/patrick-de-la-cerda-shot-to-death-at-florida-home News-JouralOnline.com - https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/courts/2021/05/29/man-convicted-murder-plan-slaying-romantic-rival-deltona/5243838001/ CaseLaw. FindLaw.com - https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/fl-district-court-of-appeal/2196501.html ThatsLife.com - https://www.thatslife.com.au/crime/deadly-delivery-killed-by-a-fake-postie/ TillManFuneralHome.com - https://www.tillmanfuneralhome.com/obituaries/5296709 CrimeAndCoffeeCouple.wordpress.com - https://crimeandcoffeecouple.wordpress.com/2024/10/06/the-murder-of-patrick-de-la-cerda/ ClickOrlando.com - https://www.clickorlando.com/news/2018/03/02/deltona-man-slain-in-attack-sparked-by-jealousy-sheriff-says/ DailyMail.com - https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10200995/Florida-man-nearly-gets-away-murder-wife-girlfriend-meet-hospital-ICU-stay.html CBS.com - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/patrick-de-la-cerda-murder-gregory-bender-trash-48-hours/ A Plan to Kill Season 1 Episode 6 - https://www.peacocktv.com/watch/playback/vod/GMO_00000000506750_01/e5dccebe-1846-3a2f-9acb-1fbc994f950d?paused=true 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.

• 0:01Payton Moreland?

  You're listening to an Ono Media Podcast. Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder with My Husband. I'm Peyton Marland.

• 0:08Garrett Moreland?

  And I'm Garrett Moreland.

• 0:09Payton Moreland?

  And he's the husband.

• 0:10Garrett Moreland?

  And I'm the husband. Welcome back. Another week, another episode. Here we are. Thank you for being here. Thank you for listening. Thank you for watching on Netflix. We love you guys. That's what I got. We're excited because you might not be able to tell, but if you go watch one of our other episodes on Netflix and then you re-watch this one on Netflix, Peyton and I spent hours and hours and hours relighting and redoing our entire set.

• 0:43Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, can't you tell?

• 0:44Garrett Moreland?

  If you can't tell, so damn, that sucks. But if you can tell, thank you. A lot of it is a bunch of little stuff. We added a lot more lights. We just wanted to upgrade things a little bit. We hopefully we sound the same because we still got our good mics and our good audio. So we're chilling. We're ready to go. We're excited to be here and we're excited that we were able to switch things around a little bit. Don't want to ramble too much or have too many announcements, but.

• 1:13Payton Moreland?

  We dropped some new merch and I actually wore this, I think on one of my live streams, maybe that I do on my IG and everyone's like, oh my gosh, where's the merch? So it is available now. It is so cute. It's kind of like a, what'd you call that? Barcity collection?

• 1:30Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 1:31Payton Moreland?

  I guess you could say. Yeah. So go check it out. MWMHshop.com. We got some new merch.

• 1:36Garrett Moreland?

  It's really cute. I'm not gonna lie.

• 1:37Payton Moreland?

  All right, Garrett, do you have your 10 seconds?

• 1:40Garrett Moreland?

  For my 10 seconds this week, I will make it quick. I see that every week. Um, I got a little sick. I was sick. Today's the first day that I'm feeling better. I was sick for a long time. I was sick for like a week. Feeling good. I'm healthy. No worries there. Peyton wants in their dog. She'd been trying to convince me of getting in a dog. Literally today in the car, we went and got, we go to Dutch Bros every single day. As you guys know, we're on the way back. Peyton's like, hey, look at this. Like, what is it? She's like, it's a puppy.

• 2:07Payton Moreland?

  Bro, you put me on this. You outed me.

• 2:10Garrett Moreland?

  What do you have to say for yourself?

• 2:12Payton Moreland?

  I have so much love to give.

• 2:15Garrett Moreland?

  That's a good one. Okay, I like that.

• 2:17Payton Moreland?

  And there's so many pups that need homes. They can all just come to mind.

• 2:21Garrett Moreland?

  Peyton was another puppy. We are holding off on having another puppy. So it's not happening right now. Sorry, everybody. But that's what I got this week. Puppies and being sick. So on that note, let's hop into today's case.

• 2:36Payton Moreland?

  Our sources for this episode are oxygen.com, news-jouralonline.com, caselaw.fine law.com, that's life.com, tillmanfuneralhome.com, crimeandcoffee couple.wordpress, clickorlando.com, dailymail.com, cbs.com, and a plan to kill, season one, episode six. You know, I think most people in this world deserve a second chance at happiness. An opportunity to leave the past behind and move forward with their lives, especially when it comes to love, because sometimes we really just choose the wrong people. We ignore the red flags. We rush into things. But I believe each relationship, good or bad, teaches us something about ourselves.

• 3:21Payton Moreland?

  It is a lesson on what we want, what we don't want in the future. So when someone is brave enough to walk away from a situation that doesn't serve them, I have a lot of respect for that. Unfortunately, it is not always that easy to shut the door and never look back. Because for some of us, the past refuses to stay in the past. And instead, it haunts us, it torments us, and will stop at nothing to get what it wants, even if it destroys us. It's 2018, in the small town of Deltona, Florida, a quiet suburban community between Orlando and Daytona Beach.

• 4:04Payton Moreland?

  Now, for 25-year-old Patrick de la Cerda, this is home, a place where he's ready to start the next chapter of his life, being that he's in his mid 20s. Now Patrick's pretty close with his family, so close in fact, that he shares the same home and construction job with his dad, Max. Patrick and his dad Max, living together. Now, his family described Patrick as a go-getter, someone who lived every day to its absolute fullest. His mother, Patricia, also described him as a romantic, someone who always dreamed of meeting the perfect person, settling down and starting a family of his own.

• 4:46Payton Moreland?

  A dream that actually started to come to fruition a year before, back in June of 2017. That was when Patrick had met a 28-year-old bank teller named Jessica Devnani. He met Jessica on a dating app called Plenty of Fish. And it only took a few dates for Patrick to fall head over heels for Jessica.

• 5:13Garrett Moreland?

  That's kind of a smart name.

• 5:15Payton Moreland?

  Plenty of Fish?

• 5:15Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 5:16Payton Moreland?

  Is that the first time you thought that?

• 5:18Garrett Moreland?

  What do you mean?

• 5:19Payton Moreland?

  Like, when you, you've heard of Plenty of Fish? You've never heard of the dating Plenty of Fish?

• 5:23Garrett Moreland?

  Babe, I, I just turned 56.

• 5:27Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 5:28Garrett Moreland?

  Okay, guys, for those, I'm not 56, I'm 30. Um, okay, 31, same thing, chill. But no, I never used dating app because it was like I met-

• 5:42Payton Moreland?

  Cause he had motion.

• 5:43Garrett Moreland?

  I had motion. Can a white boy get a little motion? No, but I met you and it was right around the time I feel like dating apps were becoming more popular, so.

• 5:52Payton Moreland?

  I didn't have a dating app either.

• 5:54Garrett Moreland?

  See, because you have motion.

• 5:55Payton Moreland?

  No, I just, again, they weren't that popular yet, I feel like.

• 5:59Garrett Moreland?

  That's funny.

• 5:59Payton Moreland?

  So it only took a few dates for Patrick to fall head over heels for Jessica. And honestly, she felt the same. She saw him as the full package. And even though the two lived about 30 miles away from one another with Jessica in Orlando, their relationship escalated pretty quickly. They started taking trips together and talked about a future with one another. Even Patrick's dad, Max, whom he lived with, could see that this was the person for Patrick. He had found the one in Jessica. So, in December of 2017, Patrick actually took the next step. He bought Jessica a ring and got down on one knee. And Jessica said yes.

• 6:41Payton Moreland?

  Patrick told her, okay, this ring I'm proposing with, it's just a placeholder. He wanted her to pick out something custom, something that she really loved, but he still wanted to be able to propose to her and keep it a surprise. This was basically just another gesture that showed how romantic and caring Patrick really was. He cared that the proposal was a surprise and then he also cared that she gets a ring she loves. And as they worked together to design this ring, the two already started coming up with plans for their wedding. They were considering two different places, either West Palm Beach, Florida,

• 7:20Payton Moreland?

  where they actually planned to move eventually, or France, where Patrick's mother Patricia was from. Now, by the end of February, Jessica's custom engagement ring was finished and was supposed to be on the way any day now. She couldn't wait to try it on for the very first time. That point, Patrick and Jessica seemed more in love than ever. On the night of February 26, 2018, Patrick left Jessica a voicemail. He said, quote, "I love you. Good night. Sweet dreams. In the morning, I'll call you. I'll send you a text when I wake up a little later, all right? Love you. Good night. Bye." It was a voicemail that would be played over and over by Jessica in the years to come because

• 8:05Payton Moreland?

  it was actually the last one Patrick would ever leave her. Now, on the morning of February 27, Patrick was home alone while his father was out on a construction job that was about 70 miles away. That morning, he texted Jessica as always, told her he loved her and wished her a good day at work. And again, promised to call her a little later, like he always did. But shortly after 7:38 a.m., Max, his father, tries to call Patrick. He'd just gotten a call that someone was there to deliver a package for him and it needed to be signed for. Now, Max thought it was probably the engagement ring that Patrick and Jessica were waiting on.

• 8:46Payton Moreland?

  See, Max and Patrick's property was behind this big gated fence. So Max had a sign on the gate that said to text or call if something needed to be delivered. So, none of this was unusual. What was strange was the fact that Patrick wasn't answering his calls or his texts after Max said, "Hey, there's someone there with a delivery", especially because he knew Patrick had been anxiously waiting for this ring to come. So instead... Hours went by with no word from Patrick. So Max calls Jessica to see if she's heard from him.

• 9:29Payton Moreland?

  And she says, no, actually, I've been a bit worried too. She hasn't spoken to Patrick since that morning. That's when she decides, okay, I'm gonna leave work early. I'm gonna go check on Patrick. Cause now his dad is saying he's not answering. At this point, she's kind of feeling like something might be wrong. So around 11 a.m., she makes the 30 mile drive from Orlando to Deltona. And meanwhile, back at Patrick's property, a neighbor is actually calling 911. She had stopped by the home and noticed that the front door was wide open. And she had also noticed that Patrick de La Cerda was bleeding right inside the entrance of his home.

• 10:15Payton Moreland?

  And when the operator asks her if she wants to perform CPR, the caller says no. And she says, it's because it's pretty obvious that Patrick is already dead.

• 10:27Speaker 02

  911, where's your emergency?

• 10:29Speaker 03

  Um, um, has been shot and killed.

• 10:33Speaker 02

  When did that happen?

• 10:35Speaker 03

  I don't know.

• 10:36Speaker 02

  You don't want to try CPR, correct?

• 10:39Speaker 03

  No, no, he's dead, he's cold.

• 10:42Payton Moreland?

  So Jessica actually gets there a few minutes after this 911 call is placed. And before the police can even arrive, she also walks up and sees her fiancee lying there in a pool of his own blood. His body is already cold to the touch. A minutes later, sheriff's deputies arrive on the scene and they determine that Patrick had been shot four times through the head, chest, and hip.

• 11:11Garrett Moreland?

  Jeez dude.

• 11:12Payton Moreland?

  And it's pretty obvious just by looking at him that the weapon of choice was a high-powered rifle.

• 11:20Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, okay.

• 11:22Payton Moreland?

  They could also tell because the killer had left behind two unique shell casings that are used in semi-automatic weapons. But the attacker had seemingly collected the other four casings since we know six shots were fired in total. It appeared as though Patrick had almost been ambushed here, answered the door only to find his killer standing there on the other side. Now luckily, Max and Patrick did have security cameras set up around their house.

• 11:50Garrett Moreland?

  I'm talking about, I want to see the cameras.

• 11:54Payton Moreland?

  But when police went into the home to try and locate the footage, they find that Patrick's computer and hard drive from the home's security system is missing. What's odd is, there's nothing else that appears to be missing from the home. So if this wasn't a robbery, this was definitely a planned out orchestrated attack, which obviously means now it was time to look at suspects, and there seemed to be one, right from the start. Patrick and Max had another neighbor who was an Army veteran supposedly suffering from dementia. Turns out, Patrick and this neighbor had exchanged some words in the past.

• 12:34Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, man.

• 12:35Payton Moreland?

  And on one particular evening, things escalated. The neighbor went inside, grabbed his gun, and started firing towards Patrick's house. Now thankfully, no one was injured, but Patrick called the police, who then sent an entire SWAT team to deal with this. The man was tackled and taken into custody. So the police look into this report, and they're obviously like, hey, he has a neighbor feud, this is a potential suspect. Maybe he felt like he hadn't settled the score against Patrick? But there was one big problem, the neighbor was currently in jail. It's a pretty good alibi, honestly. So they quickly scratch him off the list.

• 13:16Payton Moreland?

  But this is when his father, Max, tells the police there might be another person of interest. During his interview with them, he mentions the call he'd got earlier from the delivery driver, and the fact that Patrick was shot seemingly right as he opened up the front door? Well, that doesn't look good for whoever dropped off that package. And Max also remembers that the delivery driver had asked for Patrick by name. So Max had said, okay, let me call my son and I'll call you right back, what's your number? But the delivery driver refused to leave any details with Max, which is why he thought this was a bit strange. He's like, what if this wasn't actually a delivery driver? Now meanwhile, distraught Jessica is also brought down to the station and is speaking with

• 14:01Payton Moreland?

  police. And when asked if she thought or knew of any enemies that Patrick might have, she says there is one person who might have wanted to hurt him. Her ex-boyfriend of eight years, a 50-year-old man named Greg Bender.

• 14:20Garrett Moreland?

  Okay. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. There are plenty of reasons we put off getting support and for a lot of people, cost is one of them. With BetterHelp, insurance options may now be available nationwide with an average copay for eligible members of just $23 per session. And while we're reconsidering old assumptions, maybe there are a few others worth questioning too.

• 14:44Payton Moreland?

  Women inherit a lot of unwritten rules. Be ambitious, but not intimidating. Be there for everyone, but still make time for yourself. Have it all together, but don't look like you're trying too hard. And I have definitely fallen into all of these traps. But if you have been wanting to start therapy, BetterHelp works with more than 125 health plan networks and eligible members have an average copay of just $23 per session with insurance. If you don't have insurance or don't live in the United States, you can still get 10% off your first month.

• 15:16Garrett Moreland?

  And Peyton and I are big advocates for therapy. Give it a try. Life can be crazy. There's a lot going on. Like we were talking about, sometimes it feels like you need to have everything figured out. You don't. Go talk to someone. Go see what's going on. Visit betterhelp.com/husband to explore your payment options. That's betterhelp, H E L P dot com slash husband.

• 15:37Payton Moreland?

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• 16:20Payton Moreland?

  number, you guys. Switching is so freaking easy. You can choose from three, six, or 12-month plans and say goodbye to a monthly bill. To get your new wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to mintmobile.com/mwmh. That's mintmobile.com/mwmh. Cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com/mwmh. That's it, guys. There's no catch. Upfront payment of $45 for three months, $90 for six months, or $180 for 12 months. Plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. Initial plan term only. Greater than 50GB may slow when network is busy. Includes

• 17:00Payton Moreland?

  up to 20GB hotspot. Capable devices required. Availability, speed, and coverage varies. See mintmobile.com. She said that Greg was, even to this day, still in love with her and was not happy about her whirlwind romance with Patrick.

• 17:15Garrett Moreland?

  Gosh, dude.

• 17:17Payton Moreland?

  In fact, she hadn't heard from Greg in months, but he had actually called her that morning, not once, but twice. Jessica refused to answer because she's like, why is my ex-boyfriend calling me? But now with everything that's happened, she's like, maybe those calls weren't a coincidence. So, let's talk about Greg, the ex-boyfriend.

• 17:39Garrett Moreland?

  I feel like I'm not gonna lie, Greg.

• 17:41Payton Moreland?

  He and Jessica had met on a dating app back in 2009, when Greg was 42 and Jessica was 21. Greg was a successful hedge fund manager. He lived in this big house in a fancy neighborhood right outside of Orlando. He was the kind of guy who loved fast cars, guns, and living an expensive, luxurious lifestyle. Basically, he was the polar opposite of Patrick. But Jessica and Greg went on to have this pretty long relationship, and six years in, Greg actually proposed to her. And while Jessica said yes, she probably had some doubts about the marriage.

• 18:20Payton Moreland?

  They weren't exactly a healthy couple. In fact, things had been pretty toxic and on and off for those six years. And Greg apparently showed his true colors early on.

• 18:33Payton Moreland?

  When Jessica told him about someone else she'd been seeing, Greg began stalking the other guy, found out where he lived and said if he ever came near Jessica again, he would tie him up and make him regret it. Greg's jealousy was a constant problem in the relationship, but Jessica admitted she was a bit naive when she said yes to his proposal. That she was in love with him and she wasn't interested at the time in being with anyone else. At least that was how she felt until 2016. That year Greg was hospitalized after undergoing a medical procedure and Jessica showed up to offer her support. But when she got to the room,

• 19:15Payton Moreland?

  there was another woman sitting by Greg's bedside.

• 19:19Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 19:20Payton Moreland?

  Confused, Jessica explains to this random woman that she was his fiance, like my ring, to which the other woman responded, "I'm his wife."

• 19:32Garrett Moreland?

  Oh no.

• 19:34Payton Moreland?

  So that's when Jessica realized Greg had been living this double life. Their entire engagement.

• 19:40Garrett Moreland?

  How does that happen? How, how do people pull that off? Because I've heard of cases too where people have like full on kids and families in other countries.

• 19:50Payton Moreland?

  And they just don't know.

• 19:51Garrett Moreland?

  And they somehow have a full blown relationship with somebody else.

• 19:55Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 19:57Garrett Moreland?

  Like how? I just don't understand how.

• 19:59Payton Moreland?

  And here's the thing, it's like the projection of him being like super jealous and overly protective of his 21 year old girlfriend when he has a whole wife. So she realizes in this moment, oh my gosh, our relationship was a lie. But when Greg recovered and left the hospital a few days later, he called Jessica begging her to fix things. He's like, listen, yes, I'm married, but it wasn't serious. It was just a business arrangement. He only married the other woman so her son could go to the good schools in the district he lived in. I don't know whether Jessica believed this or not, but she gave Greg an ultimatum after that. She said, "You have until the end of the year to leave and divorce your wife or I'm leaving."

• 20:44Payton Moreland?

  But 2016 comes and goes and Greg doesn't make any moves to get divorced. So in 2017, she gives the ring back to Greg and says, and that's it, I'm done. But Greg doesn't let her walk out of his life that easily, as we probably guessed. Says things like, you can't do this to me. I'm not going to let you go. And no matter how much she tries to ignore him, he keeps pursuing her to the point where she actually has to block his number and his accounts on several apps. And then she creates new profiles just to hide from him. All of which only pushes Jessica further away from this long-term relationship she'd been in.

• 21:25Payton Moreland?

  And by February 2017, she is back on dating websites where she connects with 24-year-old Patrick de La Cerda that June. And that's when things start to get pretty ugly. Obviously, she's happy to have met Patrick. But Greg comes across Patrick's Facebook page when him and Jessica start dating. And he sees that this guy on Facebook is dating his ex-girlfriend.

• 21:55Garrett Moreland?

  The ego on this guy is mind-blowing.

• 21:59Payton Moreland?

  So he turns to his wife and is like,

• 22:01Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

• 22:02Payton Moreland?

  My girlfriend!

• 22:03Garrett Moreland?

  To have a full-blown wife

• 22:05Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 22:05Garrett Moreland?

  and kids and then be dating somebody else, but then being mad because your ex-girlfriend. Yeah, that's just, that's insane.

• 22:13Payton Moreland?

  Isn't cheating on you, by the way, like left you and is in a new relationship. So he sees the two of them together on Facebook and he starts sending Patrick threatening messages, saying things like, quote, "I know where you live. I'm going to harm you." And then Greg says things to Jessica like, quote, "I'm going to hire a hitman" or "I'm just going to do the job myself in regards to hurting Patrick." In fact, it was threats like this that actually made Patrick install those security cameras around his and his dad's home in the first place. There was even a point where Jessica felt compelled to meet up with Greg in person to just try and like, Severtize, try to make him understand, just talk him down off the ledge. Like, you can't keep threatening my new boyfriend.

• 22:58Payton Moreland?

  You've got to let this go. She felt that if she gave him what he wanted, maybe goes on, you know, meets up with him, maybe he'd back off, that maybe he wouldn't actually hurt anyone.

• 23:09Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, this is sad. This is horrible.

• 23:11Payton Moreland?

  What Jessica didn't realize was, at this point, Greg had actually hired a P I. To follow him and Jessica on, like, when she would meet up with him, secretly film them and then sent that film to Patrick saying, "Oh, she's going on dates with me. She's meeting up with me. She's doing this behind your back. You should break up with her." And I'm not gonna lie, it did work a little, because Patrick was like, "Jessica, like, why are you even meeting up with him? They did fight about it." She explains, though, she's like, "I'm trying to get him off her back, like, let him down gently, like, try to sever it slowly so that he can just leave us alone." And Patrick forgives her. He understands. Greg doesn't give up, though. The threats continued, some of which were left on voicemails.

• 23:56Speaker 04

  I'm making a phone call. I'm giving instructions. And I'm gonna have my, my plan put into action.

• 24:04Payton Moreland?

  Greg said things like, "I'm giving instructions. I'm going to put my plan in action", seemingly about hiring a hitman. And that's when Jessica and Patrick actually decide to go to the court for a restraining order. Both of them filed for protection against Greg for a much older ex-boyfriend. But only Jessica was granted that protection. Patrick's order was denied, which is terrifying, because Jessica actually said in interviews that she was never afraid of Greg hurting her. She was always terrified of what he might do to the next people she got involved with.

• 24:44Garrett Moreland?

  Now, it's really sad, because there really isn't much you can do about it. Even say, let's say the restraining order was granted. Like, it, it's not like there's a bubble around you that stops somebody from coming close to you.

• 24:57Payton Moreland?

  Most of the time.

• 24:59Garrett Moreland?

  Like, if that person wants to kill you still, they probably will.

• 25:03Payton Moreland?

  Now, a part of this restraining order actually required Greg to turn over his large gun collection.

• 25:10Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, okay.

• 25:11Payton Moreland?

  They were like, "You gotta get rid of your guns." This was in December of 2017. He never does, just like Garrett said, they don't ever really obey it. But after Jessica said things did start to quiet down a little bit, like after she got the restraining order, the voicemail stopped, the Facebook threats came to an end. It seemed like maybe Greg had finally come to terms with reality. So two months go by with radio silence from Greg. That was until February 27th, 2018, when she saw Greg Bender's name come up on her phone that day, and then her fiance ends up murdered in his doorway, and she realizes

• 25:53Payton Moreland?

  something is seriously wrong. Now, hearing all of this, police are like, okay, forget the neighbor guy who's in jail. We have obviously found our primary suspect. Like, this is suspect 101, but they need more evidence. So they ask Jessica, hey, would you be willing to help us out? Call Greg and see if you can get him to confess. And she agrees, she tries. With officers listening in, Greg tells her he saw the news about Patrick's death, he's so sorry for her loss, but Jessica puts him on the spot, tells him, hey, I know you did this. You told me so many times you were gonna hire a hitman. You told me you were gonna kill Patrick.

• 26:35Payton Moreland?

  She asks him point blank, did you shoot him? Now, on this phone call, Greg denies it, says absolutely not, like, I'm your friend, I would not do that. But obviously Jessica's like, okay, you're lying. Realizing that the call is going nowhere, police try another tactic. They can't arrest Greg just based on his history of threats, but they can't arrest him for violating his restraining order against Jessica since he did call her twice earlier that day, which he's not allowed to do. So, they track Greg down and they get him into custody. But, they can't keep him for long if he's not gonna confess, he's working on making

• 27:16Payton Moreland?

  bail, they're gonna have to move quickly if they wanna file charges for murder, which either means extracting a confession or finding more evidence that he is the one who killed Patrick. Now unfortunately for Greg Bender, he's made more than one enemy. And when he gets arrested, all of these enemies are willing to speak out. So that night when Greg was behind bars, detectives received a phone call from none other than Greg Bender's now estranged wife. This is the same wife who he told Jessica he was married to as a business arrangement after they had met in the hospital.

• 27:57Payton Moreland?

  Now, her name is Demara Sanchez, and she has something she wants to share with the police about her husband after finding out he'd been arrested.

• 28:06Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 28:07Payton Moreland?

  She's pretty nervous and clearly terrified. So the police tell her, hey, let's just meet secretly. They pick a spot in a secluded parking spot and set a time for the following day, February 28th. And here's what she tells them during this little meetup. In December of 2017, she and Greg finally did decide to get divorced. She was packing her things to move out of the house they shared when she stumbled across something. It was a blue spiral notebook that according to her belonged to Greg. So she opened it.

• 28:44Payton Moreland?

  And inside, she found what sounded or looked like an elaborate plan for a murder.

• 28:54Garrett Moreland?

  That's insane. All right, guys, we're jumping into an ad and it is the one and only Skims.

• 29:01Payton Moreland?

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• 29:42Payton Moreland?

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• 30:02Garrett Moreland?

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• 30:15Payton Moreland?

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• 30:59Payton Moreland?

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• 31:43Payton Moreland?

  That she's found while packing her house up, she marches right up to Greg and confronts him about it. She's like, what is this? This is weird. Like, what is this in this notebook that's yours? And he admits it's his and that he wrote it, but it was just a fantasy. It was fiction. Wasn't actually planning to murder anyone. Now, she's on her way out the door. So she's like, you know what? Whatever. You're weird. I'm getting out of here. And she just lets it go because.

• 32:13Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, she wanted to be done. I don't blame her.

• 32:14Payton Moreland?

  What else is she gonna do? That was until she saw the news about Patrick. She knew about his connection to Jessica and the plan in the spiral notebook that she had found, read, sounded almost identical to the crime that had been committed against Patrick. So that's when she goes to police. And this actually gives them enough to get a search warrant for Greg's house. So like if he was planning the murder in his house, we can now search his house. They move fast on that. While Greg is still behind bars for violating his parole, police execute the warrant on his home.

• 32:54Garrett Moreland?

  Which is good because then he can't go and clean anything up. He can't move things.

• 32:58Payton Moreland?

  Right.

• 32:59Garrett Moreland?

  A great time.

• 33:00Payton Moreland?

  So the detectives feel like this is probably a shot in the dark. I mean, what are the odds that this guy just left evidence around the house incriminating him? But the second they get inside and look through his home office, what do they find?

• 33:13Garrett Moreland?

  The notebook.

• 33:14Payton Moreland?

  Spiral blue notebook. Just like his estranged wife had described. And in those pages were specific details, not only about a random murder, but about Patrick's house. Like the fact that he had a dog named Optimus, who was, quote, "slow and old." Written in the notebook. And that there was mulch in Patrick's yard, which he notes he could use for cover. This is obviously things Greg would only know if he had been stalking Patrick and literally planning out this murder. The difference was Greg wrote about how he planned to tell Patrick that he was just gonna rob him.

• 33:58Payton Moreland?

  And then his plan was to inject him with a mixture of heroin and fentanyl to make it look like he'd overdosed. That didn't work. He was just gonna suffocate Patrick to death. Imagine just like listing all this out.

• 34:10Garrett Moreland?

  I was gonna say, who writes this down? Like what? Nobody.

• 34:13Payton Moreland?

  Is he afraid he's gonna lose it?

• 34:14Garrett Moreland?

  Nobody writes it down. It's only insane people that write this down because no normal person would be writing this down.

• 34:20Payton Moreland?

  He just pulls out his handy dandy notebook and is like, was it fentanyl? Or was it what was I doing?

• 34:25Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, what am I doing?

• 34:25Payton Moreland?

  What was I gonna do?

• 34:27Garrett Moreland?

  Crazy.

• 34:28Payton Moreland?

  It's gross.

• 34:29Garrett Moreland?

  It's weird.

• 34:30Payton Moreland?

  Now, obviously, it seems like Greg pivoted. He got to the property and pretended to act like a delivery man to lure Patrick into a vulnerable position. When he opened the door to sign for the package, Greg shot him, hoping the crime would just seem random. Still, it was clear that Greg had thought this crime out because among those pages were notes like, quote, dispose of clothes, plate, cracker, gloves. Put duct tape on the bottom of a second pair of shoes so there's no tread prints. Wait for confirm that he is alone. Turn off cell phones. As for additional evidence, detectives also discovered a hand drawn map sitting on the

• 35:14Payton Moreland?

  top of his garage bin that shows the exact location of Patrick's house.

• 35:19Garrett Moreland?

  This is crazy. This is like.

• 35:21Payton Moreland?

  A couple of things.

• 35:23Garrett Moreland?

  This is like really well thought out in a bad way.

• 35:26Payton Moreland?

  I'm like, are you trying to get caught? You're literally leaving a blueprint.

• 35:31Payton Moreland?

  Like this is worse than having a Home Depot receipt.

• 35:34Garrett Moreland?

  If you think about it, if he burned the notebook.

• 35:36Payton Moreland?

  Maybe he thought he would be able to.

• 35:38Garrett Moreland?

  There's no evidence after that.

• 35:39Payton Moreland?

  So fast. So maybe, maybe he thought I'd be able to get rid of it. I mean, it was sitting on the garbage bin. So maybe he was just planning on throwing it away. But also like it's 2017 and we know that you've been stalking this guy. Why do you have a map that has the exact location of Patrick's house? Like you're overboard. You know where he lives. You know what I mean? Like it's almost begging to get caught. And when they run this map for Prince later, the only ones on it are Greg's.

• 36:07Garrett Moreland?

  I mean, this is open and shut 100%.

• 36:09Payton Moreland?

  Now, on top of that, they find a gun safe inside his walk-in closet and it has the same ammunition that was used to kill Patrick. And while they don't find the murder weapon itself, they do find a bunch of other guns, which are still in violation of his parole. And Jessica can confirm that she remembered him owning an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle when they were still together. This is the same gun that would later end her future fiance's life.

• 36:38Garrett Moreland?

  So sad.

• 36:39Payton Moreland?

  A gun that detectives were sure was now in the bottom of a lake somewhere. Now meanwhile, down at the station, 50-year-old Greg Bender's paying his bail for that previous arrest. He is released. I mean, they're trying to move fast, but he still is able to get out. He's heading home. When he gets there, he finds police at his house, literally searching it, executing a search warrant. And before he can even step inside, they're like, ah, turn around, you're back under arrest. They place him back in handcuffs. They send him back to county jail. And this time for first degree murder charges. Here's the problem though. We have no eyewitnesses. We have no DNA at the crime scene. We have no confession. We have a lot of probable cause and a lot of circumstantial evidence.

• 37:23Payton Moreland?

  We just don't have anything directly tying him on the front porch to Patrick's body, if that makes sense.

• 37:31Garrett Moreland?

  No, no, it makes sense. I'm just trying to think. Yeah, I mean, I guess everything is circumstantial.

• 37:35Payton Moreland?

  But it does feel like it's conviction worthy.

• 37:38Garrett Moreland?

  No, 100%. It just sucks when it's all circumstantial.

• 37:41Payton Moreland?

  But prosecutors are like, let's just keep building. Let's make this an airtight case. And they find a couple more things of note, like one of Greg's neighbors actually had a security camera. And they find some security footage and the video shows Greg leaving his house in his car around 6:13 a.m. on the morning of February 27th. That is roughly an hour before Max got that call that a delivery person was waiting at the gate, trying to get Patrick to come to the door and sign for a package, which we now can infer was the killer. Now, there's also some information on a burner phone that Greg had in his possession. And the data from the phone shows it only ever called two numbers.

• 38:27Payton Moreland?

  Greg's own personal phone and Max, Patrick's dad. Confirming basically with evidence that he was the delivery person who called just moments before Patrick opened the door and was killed. Now, data on the phone also showed it sat at Greg's house for weeks leading up to the murder. Premeditation and only left once to travel to Patrick's property the day he was killed. Meaning it was likely bought with the sole intention of being used for the murder plan. He didn't want to call Max on his own phone. Now prosecutors also ran some bullet casings that were found in Greg's desk drawer.

• 39:10Payton Moreland?

  They discovered they were an exact match with the two that were left behind at the crime scene.

• 39:15Garrett Moreland?

  Interesting, okay.

• 39:16Payton Moreland?

  Unfortunately, it would be about three years before any of this could be presented in a courtroom.

• 39:23Garrett Moreland?

  I mean, this used to bother me a lot. And it still does for like the families and the victims that are involved because they have to wait so long to get justice. But the only upside is that usually that person is in prison.

• 39:36Payton Moreland?

  And usually the reason it's taking long is because they're building an airtight case. It's not always just.

• 39:43Garrett Moreland?

  There's trying to.

• 39:44Payton Moreland?

  Yes, you have the few who are like, just trying to wait on purpose, like trying to just.

• 39:50Garrett Moreland?

  But a lot of the times, there is reasons behind it. Yeah.

• 39:54Payton Moreland?

  So as Patrick's friends and family waited for that time to come, Jessica's 30th birthday happened. And on that day, Patrick's parents actually gave her a birthday present that she would never forget. The real engagement ring that Patrick had never gotten to give her, the one that was supposed to be delivered. A ring that she's actually wearing when it came time for Greg Bender's trial in May of 2021, which is devastating and also just like.

• 40:22Garrett Moreland?

  That's so heartbreaking.

• 40:23Payton Moreland?

  Heart wrenching.

• 40:23Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 40:24Payton Moreland?

  So Jessica is the star witness at trial and a pawn in the defense's arguments. Now, while Jessica told the jury about Greg's history of control, jealousy and threats, the defense used those secretly recorded meetups as a way to try and discredit her. They pointed to how she agreed to meet up willingly with Greg after she was already with Patrick, how she was leading Greg on, letting him rub her leg, hold her hand, kiss her head.

• 40:53Garrett Moreland?

  This is something I hate about.

• 40:56Payton Moreland?

  Also like.

• 40:56Garrett Moreland?

  Like the defense side of cases like this is they make the, they just make people look so bad. And especially when they make like a victim look bad and they can't defend themselves. Messed up.

• 41:09Payton Moreland?

  Also, like, what's a girl to do with an obsessed ex-boyfriend? Like, if she's really genuinely trying to get him to stop, she's gonna say, ew, no, don't kiss me? No, like, you're gonna piss him off. She's trying to get him.

• 41:23Garrett Moreland?

  She's legit scared.

• 41:24Payton Moreland?

  Yes.

• 41:25Garrett Moreland?

  And guess what? She was scared for a valid reason because he literally killed her fiance.

• 41:30Payton Moreland?

  Using any way she can think of, of what can I do to psychologically get into this guy's head and get him to get away from us?

• 41:38Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 41:39Payton Moreland?

  She argued that she found all of this unusual because it wasn't his typical behavior when they were together. And it wasn't until later that she realized he was actually touching her and doing all of this for the hidden cameras that he was planning to share with Patrick. Jessica told the jury that she met up with Greg to subdue the situation, hoping it would eliminate some of the threats the couple was receiving. Now, at one point, the defense even tried to point to Max, Patrick's father, as a suspect. And again, just like Garrett said, the defense's way of just like revictimizing and dragging everyone through the mud in a trial.

• 42:15Garrett Moreland?

  I hate it.

• 42:16Payton Moreland?

  They said there were discrepancies about where Max said he was and where he actually was on the day of the murder, to which Max defended himself by saying he was always on different sites for his job and likely just got confused about where he was scheduled. Like, I'm constantly going back and forth. Still, they said Max had motive because he had feelings for Jessica.

• 42:37Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, give me a break, man.

• 42:39Payton Moreland?

  This is what they say the motive is. Oh, well, he was actually in love with her fiance. Now, imagine hearing this. This is something both he and Jessica insist was absolutely not true, but like, this is disgusting. The evidence brought forth by the prosecution far outweighed any hearsay mentioned by the defense. Between the bullet casings, the threatening voicemails, the restraining order, and the detailed murder plan in his little handy dandy notebook, there was little room for doubt. After four days of testimony, the jury left to deliberate, and when they came back, they announced that Greg Bender was guilty of first degree murder.

• 43:17Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, good.

• 43:18Payton Moreland?

  Now, in Florida, that automatically meant a life sentence without the possibility of parole. But there's one thing. Patrick's family and Jessica are actually left wondering. If Patrick had been granted a restraining order against Greg, would he still be alive today, or would the outcome honestly have still been the same?

• 43:39Garrett Moreland?

  Just my opinion, laying weighing in. I don't know. I think that he probably would have done anyways. He seemed pretty set on killing him.

• 43:46Payton Moreland?

  I mean...

• 43:47Garrett Moreland?

  And it's horrible. It's so sad.

• 43:49Payton Moreland?

  Greg still had his gun collection, even though he was supposed to hand it over as part of the order. We know that that was never strictly enforced. No cops showed up to his home saying, "Hey, give us the guns." And because of that, one of those exact weapons was used to take Patrick's life and Jessica's future with him. Which is why Jessica actually looked at Greg during her sentencing hearing. When she gave his impact statement, she said, quote, "We were gonna have the fairy tale dream and live happily ever after, but this dream never became a reality because it was taken away by this man sitting in the courtroom today."

• 44:29Payton Moreland?

  And that is the murder of Patrick de la Cerda.

• 44:33Garrett Moreland?

  Just senseless. I mean, I hope he rots in prison. Hope he hates his life. But all I got. Horrible, absolutely horrible. My heart always goes out to the victim and their families.

• 44:44Payton Moreland?

  It's also horrible because there's so much nuance and complexity to Jessica surviving, but her ex-boyfriend being the one who murdered her fiance. And then you add just on top of that, the fact that they were in their fairy tale stage of relationship. They hadn't known each other that long. They just got engaged. Like, this is the most devastating heartbreak a woman can feel. And it, my heart just goes out to Jessica, her family, Patrick's family, everyone who was dragged through the mud at trial. I hope they know that there are tons of people listening to this right now that back them and love them and want justice for Patrick. And we got a little bit of that with Greg being put away in prison.

• 45:27Payton Moreland?

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

• 45:33Garrett Moreland?

  And I hate it.

• 45:33Payton Moreland?

  Goodbye.