Crime Junkie - MURDERED: Emma Walker and Mya Peña

Episode Date: February 28, 2022

Emma Walker had what looked to the world like a picture-perfect high school relationship — until her football player boyfriend revealed the ugly truth. Mya Pena looked past the red flags and saw a guy in need of unconditional love. And when she couldn’t give that to him, he decided she wouldn’t be giving it to anyone else either.  For more information on teen dating violence – including where to go for help visit loveisrespect.org or you can also call them at 1-866-331-9474 or text LOVE to 22522. For more resources related to Teen Dating Violence you can visit dosomething.org Or teenDVmonth.org  For current Fan Club membership options and policies, please visit https://crimejunkieapp.com/library/. Source materials for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/murdered-emma-walker-mya-pena/

Hi, crime junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And today, I want to tell you about two relationships. Intense, first love relationships that started out okay, but over time turned toxic. Not just for the teenagers in those relationships, but for their families and friends as well. And ultimately, for the communities around them still reeling from the tragedies. February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month in the U.S. And I wanted to bring you these stories because I know that we have teenage listeners out there.

And I know we have listeners who are parents of teenagers. Domestic violence is not just reserved for adults. If you're old enough to be in an intimate relationship, then you are old enough to experience violence at the hands of the person who says they love you. But there are red flags if you know how to spot them. And there are ways to protect yourself and those you love. These are the stories of Emma Walker and Maya Pena. The Morning of November 21st, 2016 starts just like any other Monday in the Walker House in Knoxville, Tennessee.

At around 6.15, Jill Walker is heading into her 16-year-old daughter Emma's room to wake her for the day. And when Jill walks in, Emma is still under the covers sound asleep. She tried to stir her, but there was no response. I mean, she even gives Emma's leg a little like a shake, but still nothing. And listen, I know teenagers don't usually bound out of bed at 6 a.m., but according to reporting by Joseph Diaz and Alexa Valiante for ABC News, Emma is usually really easy to wake. But now she isn't moving a muscle. And suddenly, Jill has this sinking feeling like something is terribly, terribly wrong.

So on instinct, she reaches over and touches Emma's neck looking for a pulse, but she doesn't feel anything. So Jill immediately calls 9-1-1. And is there anything to indicate why Emma would be unresponsive? Like, I don't know, a pre-existing health condition or I don't know, like a bottle of pills by the bed, anything like that? No, no, no, nothing like that that I'm aware of. I've heard bits and pieces of the 9-1-1 call, but not the whole thing. So I'm not sure if Jill had any suspicions right off the bat, but someone along the chain must have because there's an episode of 2020 on this case called Shot in the Dark.

And in it, one of the responding officers says that when the call comes into police, it was tagged as a possible suicide. And when first responders arrive, the only thing that they can see that was really out of the ordinary is just this tiny bit of blood on Emma's pillow. So they assume that she likely ingested something that caused her to maybe vomit and ultimately overdose. But honestly, how she died isn't super clear, at least not at first. But then they see something, a tiny bullet hole, right on the wall next to Emma's bed, next to her pillow. And when they look closer at Emma's body, everyone is shocked to discover a single bullet wound behind her left ear.

They think the shot came from somewhere outside, and one lap around the walker's backyard proves them right. There, on the lawn, about five feet from the exterior of the house, they find a single spent shell casing. And as they continue walking around the outside of the house, they find another spent shell casing and a live round. And wouldn't you know it, there is a second bullet hole into Emma's room. Why didn't investigators notice the second one when they were in the room? Well, the second shot had actually been fired from a different location in like a totally different wall. On that episode of 2020 that I mentioned, they created a reconstruction of the trajectory of those bullets and where they ended up, which actually found really helpful.

I'm going to send it to you and you can see it in our app as well. Wow. Okay. So like Ashley said, if you're listening in the fan club app, you'll see this photo on your screen. But basically it shows Emma's up against two walls, kind of like a corner, like the headboard against one exterior wall and the side against another. And one bullet came through each wall, but they were fired basically into the same place, which is essentially her pillow. Right. And actually that's where police find the second bullet inside Emma's pillow. So this isn't some kind of drive by shooting. She was targeted. Yes. And they must have known her well enough because, I mean, it seems like they know exactly where her head would be when she slept.

Well, and she's a 16 year old living in the suburbs. Like the list of people who would want her dead can't be that long. No. And in fact, the image of Emma that's emerged just based on the very early hours of this investigation is not one of a girl with like this list of sworn enemies. Like you're saying quite the opposite, actually. As far as police could tell, Emma was a bubbly, bright, friendly high school student, a cheerleader. She's on the honor roll. She even had a part time job at a local supermarket and volunteered at an animal shelter. And she was working toward a very clear goal for her future.

She wanted to be a NICU nurse and she has no secret second life or anything. No, no secret second life. But in all the conversations police are having with Emma's parents and her friends, there is one name that keeps coming up over and over. And that's Riley Gall and Riley is Emma's ex-boyfriend, her 18 year old college football, playing very recent ex-boyfriend. Emma had actually just broken up with Riley after like two years of dating. And everyone who knows Emma says the same thing, that Riley had been taking that breakup really hard. Not because it was their first breakup. These two were on again, off again, always fighting and making up, always breaking up and getting back together.

But this time, something about this time felt final, like Emma was done. According to more reporting from ABC News, Riley became more and more controlling over Emma as time went on. To a point where he was dictating what she wore, who she hung out with, what she did. He seemed to hate the idea of her spending time with anyone other than him. One of her friends actually told Dateline that if Emma did go somewhere with her friends without Riley, it would be nothing for him to call her like 20, 30 times and send a hundred texts. Whoa, whoa, whoa. That is a major red flag.

Did Emma recognize that this wasn't normal? Well, by the time it got to that point, yes. But her friends had been seeing the red flags for a lot longer and they had been telling Emma that Riley's behavior wasn't okay. But every time she would brush off the concerns and here's the thing, they weren't just worried because of what they saw through Emma. They'd actually also seen a lot of Riley's crap firsthand. Like they'd occasionally see Emma's social media and phone activity. So they would see these really nasty messages coming in from Riley after he and Emma would fight, saying how much he hated her and how she is the worst person he's ever met,

or how she's dead to him, that kind of thing. And it was awful the way that he talked to Emma in those moments. But he was always quick to apologize and she was always just as quick to take him back. Emma's parents, Jill and Mark, tried to talk to her about their concerns several times, but nothing seemed to work. And the longer this went on, the more and more withdrawn and combative Emma had become. And you know, there's such a delicate balance with teenagers, too. Like you don't want to push too hard and risk having them withdraw even further. And in this case, risk pushing her even closer to this guy.

But you also can't sit back and do nothing. Like that sends a message, too. It's really tough to figure out the right balance between kind of push and pull in situations like this. Yeah, and based on everything that I've read and watched on this case, it seems like Emma's parents, they were trying so hard to find that sweet spot, trying to help her see Riley's behavior for what it really was, and sort of guiding her toward making her own decisions when it came to her relationship. But when that didn't work, they took away her phone and they forbid her to see him.

But I mean, that didn't work either. It was like whatever action Jill and Mark took, Riley and Emma found some way around it. But around the end of October that year, they dropped the hammer in a big way. They actually grounded Emma. She was allowed to go to school, go to cheerleading, and that's it. And they were monitoring every move that she made, making sure she went straight from school to practice and then home again. Okay, but I assume that Emma and Riley can still see each other at school, right?

So no, not anymore, actually. Remember, Riley had graduated, so he had gone off to university that fall and while he was only a half hour away, he at least wasn't in the same building all day every day. And I don't know if the timing was just really good or what, but Jill and Mark's approach seemed to actually work. And by mid-November, Emma and Riley had broken up and Emma told her friends that this time it was for good. And of course, her friends and family were ecstatic.

But like I said, Riley, he did not take the breakup well. About two weeks before Emma's death, he'd been taken to the hospital by his friends after overdosing on pills. According to WVLT, Riley was back on campus a couple of days later and seeing a counselor, but otherwise he was physically fine. But Emma's friends tell police that this kind of stuff Riley would do all the time to try and manipulate Emma into taking him back. And on the Friday before the murder, Riley had really leveled up.

On that night, November 18th, Emma's parents let her go out with a group of friends to a sleepover party. Now, this is her first time out in weeks. And around 1130, she started getting these really weird texts from a strange number saying that Riley had been kidnapped. And if she didn't come outside alone, the kidnappers were going to hurt him. So she grabbed her friends and went outside but didn't see anything. So she figured it was Riley and one of his friends from college

pulling some kind of prank on her, though not a super funny prank. But the texts keep coming and they get even more aggressive. I'm actually going to have you read one I pulled from Jamie Satterfield's reporting in the Knoxville News Sentinel. It says, quote, we have him now. If you don't care about him anymore, then it shouldn't bother you. Call the police and he dies. Your choice.

If you'd like to hear his final screams, give me a call. He's in a ditch beside her house. It's a shame you can all of a sudden not value someone's life end quote. So what is this kidnapper looking for from Emma like money? No, and honestly, there isn't really a clear ask as far as I can tell. It's mostly just demanding that she come outside the house alone. And eventually again, she did go outside again, not alone, but with her friends. And this time they actually spot something or someone laying face down in the ditch.

And it was Riley. He got up acting all confused and holding his head like he'd been hit saying, like, where am I? How did I get here? What happened? But Emma wasn't buying it. And in fact, she was absolutely furious about the whole thing. When she didn't take Riley's bait and rushed to his side to help him,

he left and she went back to the party with her friends. And naturally, she was upset because they were broken up. Like she just wanted him to leave her alone. And he kind of did. For the rest of the night, there were no more calls, no more texts. And eventually she was able to kind of shake it off and enjoy the rest of her night. The next morning, Emma packed up her stuff and headed back home. She was getting ready to head out to meet her mom when all of a sudden out of nowhere,

this man dressed head to toe in black, black sunglasses, black everything, started pounding on Emma's door trying to get into her house. Now, she was home alone. And as you can imagine, freaking out. So she actually ended up texting Riley asking for help. And he, of course, responded right away. He came to the house, checked everything inside, looked around outside, but there was no sign of this man in black.

But Emma was clearly shaken by the whole thing. And did it call police? Well, according to the episode of Dateline, no. But Emma told the whole story to her mom. And her mom had a sense right away that the man in black wasn't a stalker or a burglar like Emma thought. She figured it was probably Riley pulling another one of his stunts trying to get Emma's attention.

But Emma was like, no way, not possible. Like he wouldn't go that far. He wouldn't do that. So to come back to the present investigation, police hear both of these stories and think that there's for sure a connection. Either there's a stranger out there stalking Emma and that's who killed her. Or it's all part of the same pattern of behavior from Riley, a pattern that may have escalated all the way to murder.

But later that same day, investigators are already ruling out the stranger theory because they're handed a police report that puts a gun matching the kind that killed Emma right in the hands of their main suspect. It turns out Riley's grandfather filed a report that weekend saying that his gun had been stolen. And he suspected Riley had taken it and was worried that Riley might hurt himself. But when his grandfather confronted him, he flat out denied knowing anything about it. And if that's not concerning enough, police get a call from Riley's two friends.

One of them, this kid named Alex, says that he knows Riley stole that gun from his grandfather because Riley had shown it to him. Riley apparently told Alex that he needed the gun for protection because he was worried that people were out to get him and Emma. The other friend that called into police was a kid named Noah. And he tells them that Riley had called him just that weekend asking him how to get rid of fingerprints on a gun. I'm sorry, what?

Yeah, Noah's like, first of all, why do you want to know that? And second, why in the heck are you asking me? That honestly was like my question. Like, I don't know if I have a person in my contact list where I'm like, this person knows how to get rid of fingerprints. I mean, it's just wipe it down, right? Like, I mean, I think it's just weird that he called anyone. Like having a friend that's like that person.

Okay. Yeah. And ultimately, Riley's like, chill, chill. He's not me asking. My roommate's asking. I'm asking for a friend is basically what he's saying, which is still freaking weird. Yeah. And Noah kind of knew that this was BS because unbeknownst to Riley,

Alex had already like talked to Noah and told him his whole story about how Riley had taken his grandfather's gun. So clearly like he knows it's not your friend is not asking this. Like, bro, it's you. Right. So was this fingerprints question before or after Emma's murder? It was before, but truly at the time, they said that the idea that Riley might hurt Emma didn't even cross their minds.

They were more worried about Riley using the gun to harm himself. But now that Emma has been murdered, they're seeing it all through different eyes. So do they know for sure that this is the gun that killed Emma? Well, they know it's the same type like it's a nine millimeter, but to know if it's the actual one, they need to find it so they can test it to do that. They start by asking the person that they think might know where it is. Riley, according to that ABC story, when detectives go and talk to him,

honestly, they still have an open mind. Maybe he's just a grieving ex-boyfriend. But when they actually sit down with him, that's not what they get at all. Instead, they see something they've seen many times before, a dark side, not to mention he's just actually weird. Like instead of saying Emma's name, he keeps referring to her as the girl or the girl who passed away. Almost like he's trying to distance himself from the girl he dated for two years.

That's definitely weird. Yeah, that was kind of my thought too, except he can't really distance himself from her because everyone already knows, like you said, they've been dating for two years and they all know that they had to just broken up and he was a wreck about it. Ultimately, Riley denies stealing his grandfather's gun and detectives give him a few opportunities to turn that one around before they tell him about that call that they got from Alex and Noah.

And when they do, Riley is like, I have no idea why Alex would say any of this because it just didn't happen. And he said he had called Noah asking about fingerprints, but it really was his roommate asking. Oh, he's sticking to that story. Okay. Yeah, but he's like, I have no idea why my roommate's asking. I just was, again, doing him a favor by trying to help him find out.

According to Matt Lakin, who reported for the Knoxville News Sentinel, Riley just says, quote, he's a weird guy, end quote. So police move on to Riley's whereabouts on the night of the murder and he tells them that he had spent pretty much the entire weekend trying to reach Emma, but she ignored all of his calls and all of his texts. Now, he did end up connecting with her eventually on Sunday night. That's the last night she was alive using a friend's phone since she wasn't answering any calls from him.

He wanted to call her with a different number. But even then, she told him basically just to stop calling. It is over. And then she blocked that number too. So she's like, serious about not talking to him again. This isn't just to appease her parents. She's really, truly done with this relationship and just wants him gone out of her life. Yeah, totally.

Now, in addition to a lot of this, like, I loved Emma. I would never do this kind of stuff. Riley tells police that he actually couldn't have killed her. He says that he wasn't even in Knoxville when she died. He says that he was in Merrillville on his college campus for almost all of Sunday night and Monday morning, except for, like, this brief trip to his grandparents' place in Knoxville, where he was there just long enough to log on to his school account

from his grandparents' laptop, and then he drove straight back to Merrillville. And he says that when he got back, he was parked in front of the athletics building on campus for hours. Just, like, looking at pictures of him and Emma on his phone in his car, like, crying and trying to process their breakup. Like, just sitting there in his car. That's what he says. And he tells police it's something he's done before.

And while it seems kind of ridiculous, especially in the middle of the night, I don't think it's that wild to think that his car might actually be the only place that he can go for privacy. I mean, when you think about it, he's, like, in a college. He lives in a dorm with roommates. But how long was he in the car? Well, pieces of the interrogation tapes were played on the show Crime Injustice with Ashley Banfield.

And Riley's exact words to police are, quote, I sat in the parking lot in front of the athletics center, just sat there for about two to three hours and just looking at pictures of us and stuff like that. I sent her a text at 1255. I just told her how much I loved her and that I was sorry she didn't want what we had anymore. And she was going to do great things in the future.

And that is why I was going to leave her alone after that. I fell asleep around then. And then so I woke up to the call about what happened, end quote. So he's saying he was in his car alone, first crying and looking at pictures. Then he texted her. Then he was sleeping until whenever the news makes its way to him that Emma was dead. So that's what it sounds like to me.

But either the story ends up changing or maybe just get to fleshed out a little bit during the course of the interview because what he ends up landing on is that he did go back to his dorm around 4.30 and fell asleep till morning. So basically he has no alibi is what you're saying. Do police ask him about the weird Friday night kidnapping thing or the person dressed in all black being on Emma's door at all? Yeah, they do.

And he denies having anything to do with either of those things. He actually tells them the whole story of the kidnapping about these two guys who basically plucked him up off the street and shoved him in a vehicle and stole his phone. And he says that he wasn't the person banging on Emma's door dressed in all black. He was the person who came to help find that person banging on Emma's door dressed in all black. But police aren't really buying any of this.

And once they pull cell records and tower data on Riley's phone, they know for sure that his whole eye sat in the car on campus and cried for three hours is a load of BS because his phone shows that he was actually in Knoxville from 12 30 a.m. to 3 45 a.m. on the night Emma was murdered. But that's not enough to arrest Riley or even enough to hold him any longer. What police really need to clinch this case is a murder weapon. They are sure that it's Riley's grandfather's gun.

They just need to figure out where he's hiding it. They cut Riley loose and they keep watching him. But the real game changer of a lead in this case comes the next day in the form of a phone call on Tuesday. This is the day after Emma was found dead. Police hear again from Riley's friends, Alex and Noah. They tell police that Riley told them that he did in fact still have his grandfather's gun and that he needed to get rid of it ASAP.

OK, wait. So after he knows that his friends went to the police with information, Riley is still like, yeah, I can trust you. Let me see if you can help me get rid of this gun again. Thank God criminals are dumb. And here's the thing, though, when he's talking to them, he still swears it's not a murder weapon. He says he's just concerned about having it and police finding it,

thinking that he says, you know, it's something that's going to like send him to jail for a crime he didn't commit. But Alex and Noah don't believe him. They have been watching him basically come apart at the seams. And as much as they care about their friend, they do not want him to get away with murder. And they think that they can help investigators either get a confession or at least smoke him out.

So Alex and Noah meet up with detectives that evening who wired them up with mics and a hidden camera. So police can listen in the whole time and they send them out to meet with Riley. Alex and Noah invite him over to hang out and they talk for a while. They talk about Emma's murder and how Riley definitely didn't do it would never do it. But having this gun around was going to be a problem for him anyway. Then Riley asks them if they'll go with him to get rid of the gun. And I don't mean at like some point in the future.

I mean, like right now, will you leave with me? He says he wants to go to the bluffs. It's like wooded area next to the Tennessee River and throw the gun into the water. So does he have this gun on him like right now? So not in that moment. They have to go get it. So they all pile into the car and go to Riley's stepfather's place. Riley goes inside and emerges a few minutes later with a garbage bag

and off they go towards the bluffs. Now, Alex and Noah don't actually know for sure if the gun is actually in the bag. And this whole sting operation is based on them actually seeing the gun and police moving in to make an arrest. So the two boys like are trying to coax him into showing them the gun the whole time they're driving. And finally, after they've parked at the bluffs, he finally shows it to them. Again, police are listening in.

But Noah and Alex also have this group text going on with detectives. And so Noah sends a note like the eagle has landed or whatever. And within a minute and a half that must have felt like a lifetime, the car is descended upon by lights and sirens and police who take Riley away in handcuffs. I'm not going to lie. That is a really risky freaking move for these kids to be just hanging out with their unhinged buddy who they know has a gun and suspect

just killed someone they know with it. Listen to this. So I guess Alex and Noah, when they were entering for dateline, they said that they didn't even tell their parents that this was going down. Yeah, like, you know, they weren't like hiding it. They say like they didn't have time. It just all came together so fast. But their role in Riley's arrest was crucial.

And what police found in that trash bag helps put the entire puzzle together because it's not just the gun. There's actually other stuff in there, too. Gloves, garbage bags, black clothes, sneakers, a blacked out with duct tape. Everything Riley would need to sneak into Emma's backyard that night undetected and everything that mysterious man in black had been wearing the day before. It takes two years for Riley's case to finally go to trial. But once it does, he's facing seven charges.

According to WVLT, first degree murder, felony murder, especially aggravated stalking, theft, tampering with evidence, reckless endangerment and using a firearm while committing a felony. He pleaded not guilty to those charges and prosecutors are prepared to move forward with the case that they believe proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was Riley who killed Emma, not some mysterious stranger. But then on the first day of the trial, the defense team shocks everyone by turning the tables and admitting that Riley did fire the gun into Emma's room that night.

But they say it wasn't first degree murder, it was reckless homicide. Okay, but isn't that more like doing something risky that may have resulted in death but not like a for sure result? I feel like reckless homicide is more of like if a drunk driver gets into an accident and in that accident, a death occurs or something like that. Yeah, that's actually my understanding of it, too. But Riley fired a gun into her pillow from two angles at her head. Like, how is that reckless homicide?

Well, because according to the defense, it's reckless homicide because Riley, they're saying didn't intend for the bullets to kill Emma. I mean, what did he think the bullets would do? Bounce? Well, he said that he just wanted to scare her and specifically to scare her into calling him for help so that he could like swoop in and be the hero once again. I mean, which is what he did with the whole man in black situation. But if you want to scare her, don't shoot at her head.

I don't know. Yeah, well, according to Jamie Satterfield reporting for the new Sentinel, Riley says that he didn't know the bullets would even go through the wall, let alone into Emma's head. His lawyer says that it was just a dumb mistake, a huge mistake, one that cost Riley the love of his life. Okay, I actually buy the whole like hero complex thing, like seems to track with his behavior anyway.

I just feel like you can't stand five feet from a wall, fire a gun and not expect it to go through the walls. I mean, you'd at least have to think maybe that would happen, right? Well, and that's what the prosecution was saying. And considering that they have Riley's own friends testifying against him, their argument is a really strong one. The jury only deliberates for four hours before calling B.S. on the reckless homicide thing, and they find Riley guilty of first degree murder,

which in Tennessee, you might remember from the Centoya Brown story we covered last month, carries a mandatory life sentence with at least 51 years before he can be considered for parole, a life for a life, as Riley's friend Alex says. And I wish I could tell you that this was just some terrible one-off story, but it's not. Teen dating violence is happening all too often. We just don't talk about it very much.

And when we do come across stories like these, they aren't always told through a teen dating violence or domestic violence lens, but they should be because that's what they are. Again, I wish I could tell you Emma's story is the exception and not the rule when it comes to teen dating violence, but it's not. And I want to tell you another story today, one that is similar in so many ways, but different in others. This story starts just after three on a Tuesday afternoon in mid-January of 2020.

That's when Audra Peña is at work waiting for the usual text from her 17-year-old daughter Maya telling her she's home from school. Every day, Maya sends the same text message when she arrives at their home in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. I'm home, Mama, with a yellow heart emoji. That's the message Audra is waiting for, and it usually comes in before 315, but 315 comes and goes and there's no message. Now, there's always a chance that Maya got delayed or maybe just distracted,

so she picks up the phone and calls Maya, but Maya doesn't answer. According to Deborah Takahara's reporting for Fox 31, Audra knows immediately that something's not right, because Maya and her big sister Alexis know that when mom calls, you answer. Not because Audra is strict or even heavy-handed, but because they know how much Audra worries about them. She's a single mom, which means she doesn't just carry the physical load of two parents when it comes to the day-to-day work of raising kids.

She carries the worry for two parents, too. So Audra calls again and again and again, and by 3.30, she can't ignore the horrible feeling in her gut anymore. So she grabs her stuff and leaves the office to go check and see if Maya's home. As she drives, she still keeps hitting redial just to hear that never-ending ringing on the other end. And then, at some point, it just stops. Maya's phone starts rolling right over to voicemail like it had been shut off, and that sends Audra's worry off the charts.

She already knew that Maya's day had been going downhill since around lunchtime, and she felt like this is all wrong. Well, what happened at lunch? Well, Audra knew that the reason Maya's day had taken a nosedive almost certainly had something to do with her on again, off again, 18-year-old boyfriend, Samuel Hoffman. And actually, when Audra's phone rings at 3.45, she's still driving home at this point. It's Sam calling her to ask if Maya had come home. And the question throws her off guard because she would have bet money

that if Maya had gone anywhere other than home like she was supposed to, it's because she went somewhere with Sam. But Audra can clearly hear the panic in Sam's voice, too, and she tells him, listen, I'm on my way to the house now to check on Maya. Like, please come meet me there. It's four o'clock by the time Audra gets there, and the car is barely even stopped and she's already sprinting towards the house. She walks through the door calling for Maya the whole time,

checking room to room, upstairs and downstairs, but Maya isn't there. So Audra calls her daughter's friends, and they tell her that Maya hadn't hung around after the final bell after school. She had left immediately after classes were dismissed. Based on the account of the day that Audra gives on the Maya's World Facebook page, her friends didn't know where she was headed off to. But they do say that Maya had been basically glued to her phone right up until the point that she was walking out of the school doors,

and she had been visibly upset by something. And Audra knows that it could only be one thing, Sam. You see, just a week prior, Audra had put her foot down and told Maya that she couldn't see Sam anymore because the relationship wasn't a good one. It had basically up to that point just been like months of heartache and tears, and as a mother, she knew that's not how a good relationship should make you feel. And was Maya okay with that,

or did she kind of see it as a more like ill-fated, star-crossed lovers kind of situation? Maya seemed to understand and honestly even accept it, but she was still really sad. And Audra knew that she was also kind of a chip off the old block, so she wouldn't put it past her daughter to make plans to defy her mother and see Sam anyway. And so she keeps going back to that conversation she had had with Sam. And sure, he was saying that he didn't know where Maya was, and he was asking her if she knew where Maya was,

but she can't shake the feeling that's now kind of settled into her bones, that he was lying, that maybe he called to check in on Maya, knowing exactly where she was because she was with him. Almost like a cover or something. Mm-hmm. So she gets back into the car and drives through their neighborhood, looking up and down the streets for any sign of Maya or Sam,

all the way to Maya's school. The whole time she's calling both of them over and over again, getting no answer from either. So I assume Sam didn't actually meet Audra at the house then. No, which again, I don't know how long Audra stayed there, and I don't know how she was feeling, but for me would make me even more suspicious. But finally at 445, Audra's phone rings, and it is Sam.

By this time, she's frantic, and she asks if he's been able to reach Maya, and he says, No, she won't answer my call. She's done with me, that she never wants to see me or even speak to me again. And that's when Audra's heart starts to race, because when she had talked to Sam, you know, what an hour ago,

he had sounded panicked, but now he just sounds cold. And for her, it's really unsettling. So she asked him again, like, Come meet me. Come help me look for Maya. And he says, Sorry, I can't help.

I'm busy, but I hope you find her and then just hangs up. Even though what, like an hour, hour and a half before, he was asking her where Maya was? Mm-hmm. Now, this is where the details of this story get a little messy, because I don't know who reported Maya missing or when. Just that by this time,

police are actually already looking for her and for Sam. If not because of a missing person's report, because of something that they'd seen on Sam's social media. According to KOAA News 5 in Colorado Springs, several people had seen something Sam posted on social media, talking about how he was concerned about his own behavior with Maya. And when did he post this? What did he say?

Well, the details have never been made public as far as I can tell. So I don't know exactly what it said, though in that KOAA story, they mentioned a rumor going around that involved a photo, maybe a photo of something happening to Maya, but police have never confirmed that. And again, it is a rumor, so I don't know.

But what I do know is that the people who saw whatever this post was called police as soon as they saw it and that whatever it was was concerning enough for police to send out a BOLO with a description as soon as they found out. And that BOLO went out before 330. So I'm not even sure that Audra knows that they're even looking because at that point, she was just driving home still calling Maya.

Right. But by the time she speaks to Sam that second time at 445, police have already been looking for both Maya and Sam for over an hour. And when I say police, I don't even mean just like local police at the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, but a total of seven law enforcement agencies, everything from neighboring sheriffs to the Colorado State Patrol. Oh, so clearly whatever Sam posted was pretty serious.

Totally. And even though Sam is only 18, he's actually already known to police, at least a little bit. Janet Oravets reported for 9 News Denver that he had had prior contact with law enforcement because of something that had happened on school property. What, I don't know, but it ultimately led to an emergency mental health hold.

And he'd also been arrested the year before and charged with third degree assault in a domestic violence incident. Was that with Maya or someone else? No, not Maya, it was someone else. This had happened in like March of 2019, which I'm not sure if that's before Maya and Sam met, but it was for sure before they started dating. Now, I don't have a step-by-step narrative of the police's search for Maya and Sam,

but I was able to piece together a few things. Audra shared some photos on the Maya's World Facebook page of what looked to me like police reports just based on the content and the fact that the names and identifying information was redacted. And the content in those reports suggests that police visited the home of one of Sam's friends who says that they might actually be able to help. They say that Sam had called that evening

and said that he'd blown a tire somewhere in Colorado Springs and had gotten off the highway so he could fix it. Sam apparently didn't know which exit or anything, just that there was a bunch of trees around. So I'm pretty sure police used that information along with data from Sam's cell phone pings to hone in on an area off of I-25. So police blasted that information out to this huge multi-agency law enforcement team

that they've assembled saying, hey, we think that they might have a flat tire and they're likely trying to hide the car and here is the general area that they're in. So police are looking for both of them. Do they think that they're together like they're running away together? I don't know if they actually are treating this as like Maya being with Sam voluntarily or more of a kidnapping situation.

I mean, it almost doesn't even matter anyway since police are clearly treating Maya as endangered and missing. So it feels more like they think they're together and it's not voluntary. Anyway, it's the Colorado state troopers who first spot what looks like Sam's vehicle kind of lurking off the side of the road in this area around I-25. And at first they think, okay, finally we've got them. But once they get close enough,

they realize it's actually not Sam and Maya. So there just happens to be some other car lurking off a side road in the exact area that these two kids are thought to be hiding. Well, not exactly. It doesn't just happen to be another vehicle in that same area. It's a news van and it's there on purpose. Now, I assume that they had heard about the location over police radio because when the Colorado Springs Crime Watch wrote about it,

they said that the news truck beat police to the area. Oh, I bet those cops were just thrilled. Yeah, they're not sight. And they obviously send the reporters away. So I know there's at least one false alarm before two officers finally spot the right vehicle, pulled over on the side of the road on an I-25 underpass at 7.39 p.m. And Sam is actually standing outside of the car at this point.

But he spots police before they pull up and by the time they stop the car, he's back inside his. The officers climb out of their car and start walking towards Sam's vehicle. But before they can even get close enough to speak to him, they hear the unmistakable sound of a gunshot. It shatters the back window into a million pieces and then there's just nothing.

Silence. They walk towards Sam's vehicle, not knowing what to expect. And when they're close enough to look in the windows, they realize that they're too late. Maya is laying dead in the back seat. And Sam, who had been standing on the road right in front of them, not even 30 seconds before, is in the front, dead from a single gunshot wound to the head.

So wait, no other shots fired? I mean, that means that Maya was already dead before the police got there. Yes, she had to have been. Police shut down that section of the road so they can do a thorough search of that scene. And they send both bodies to the coroner's office for autopsy. Now, Maya's official cause of death and time of death

will be important to know, of course. But otherwise, there is very little mystery here for investigators. It's clear that what they're investigating is a murder suicide. The question isn't what happened or who's responsible. It's how did this happen? And just as importantly, how could it have been prevented from happening in the first place? By the following afternoon,

investigators have pieced together a loose timeline of events for the day before. They confirm that the reason Maya left the school in a hurry was in fact to meet Sam, just as her mother suspected. Police think he picked her up around 315 and then drove less than a mile down the street to an off-campus parking lot, which is when and where he killed Maya. Wait, they think he killed her like right after school?

Yeah, they think that that happened in like the narrow window between 315 and 330. And in a parking lot? Is this like an underground parking lot or something? No, wide open, broad daylight. Now, police only really ever say that the parking lot that they went to was off-school property. But based on a Facebook post that I found from the Connections Church,

I'm pretty sure that that's the lot they're talking about, which the church itself describes as quote, very active between 2 and 4 p.m. with more than 100 students being picked up and dropped off end quote. And no one saw anything or like even heard a gunshot? No, no one saw or heard anything as far as I know. But for sure, they wouldn't have heard a gunshot because Sam didn't shoot Maya.

When her autopsy results come back, it shows that he strangled her and stabbed her twice once in the leg and again in the chest. Okay, so maybe there wouldn't have been like a loud gunshot, but I have to think they would still attract attention, especially between what, 315 and 330 near a school with people coming and going by the hundreds. You'd think so, but again, as far as I know,

police found zero witnesses. And that might be because even though Sam wasn't like a big dude, like in some pictures, he looks even smaller than Maya, he knew what he was doing. Like, I'm pretty sure he knew how to make someone unconscious pretty quickly and effectively because he had training in mixed martial arts. And the police are sure about the timing of 315 to 330.

As far as I know, yeah. Okay, I ask because first of all, it does seem so bonkers that there would be absolutely no witnesses, even to a quiet or silent crime. But the other thing I keep coming back to are those calls that Sam made to Audra. Of 315 to 330 time of death means Maya was already dead when Sam called Audra the first time being like,

hey, did Maya make it home or whatever? Like, what? Yeah, well, that's exactly what police think happened, which is chilling. And actually, we know that Audra wasn't the only person Sam called. The police reports note a few calls to friends. We know there were two calls that he made to Audra. Then the social media post police mentioned two.

So Sam was busy. He wasn't just like heads down highway driving during that time, which might explain why his whereabouts are largely unaccounted for, at least publicly between 330 and 630, which is when he spoke to a friend and reported being in Colorado Springs at that exit with a flat tire. So do the police know where he was planning on going? They say they don't.

But Audra says that she had heard he was headed to Texas to dispose of Maya's body. Of course, he didn't make it there, if in fact, that's where he was going. He only made it as far as the highway exit near the power plant, which is where police spotted his car at 739. Just three minutes later at 742, Sam died by suicide as officers approached his vehicle.

And that's where the timeline ends. That is a lot. It is a lot. It's a lot for everyone, for Audra and her sister, of course, for Maya's many friends and classmates and other students at her high school. And it's a lot for Sam's family and friends too, who are just as rocked by this tragedy. According to KOAA News 5's coverage,

the number of teen deaths by suicide in Colorado had risen nearly 60% in the three years leading up to this incident. That's the fastest rate in the country at the time. And Sam's issues with mental health, which are not really reported in detail, but which Elizabeth Hernandez identified as depression in her piece for the Denver Post were no secret. His friends knew, Audra knew, police knew too.

Remember, they had placed Sam under an emergency mental health hold at least once before. But even police, who again had prior contact with Sam for domestic violence, didn't know what was actually happening inside Sam and Maya's relationship. Sam and Maya hadn't been dating that long actually, a few months. But according to comments the Douglas County Sheriff made, they'd known one another for years before that. Audra had met Sam for the first time in August,

so like five months before all of this. And he and Maya had gone out once for ice cream. And after that, he didn't come around again. And Maya didn't mention him, so Audra figured it hadn't worked out. And to be honest, she wasn't all that sad about it. But then in September, after school started, Maya started hanging out with Sam again. But one of Audra's rules was that if Sam wanted to take her out,

he had to come to the house and pick her up and like come inside for a chat first. Right, not like a pulling the driveway and honk the horn situation. Right. And it was during one of those discussions that Audra learned how difficult Sam's childhood had been, how much unresolved trauma that he was carrying around. And she also knew that that is what had drawn Maya to him in the first place. She had seen his broken heart and thought, I got this.

In Maya's mind, Sam just needed some stability and understanding and unconditional love and he would thrive. On the Facebook page, Audra writes, quote, As time went on, there were occurrences that I totally didn't approve of. And so I started to be more concerned, concerned about many things. Maya being my ultimate concern. I remember my younger self and my stubbornness and headstrong mentality, which Maya inherited.

So I treaded lightly with the situation as not to push her further into a bad situation. End quote. And of all people, Audra knows how bad of a situation this could be. She'd seen it before. She had lived it before as a victim of domestic violence herself. And I feel like that's such a blessing and a curse. Not that domestic violence is ever, ever a blessing, but experiencing that, living through that, getting through that

would definitely help Audra recognize the signs probably quicker than the average parent. But at the same time, I know for me, it would fuel that like overwhelming urge I have to just cover my kids in bubble wrap and never let them out of my sight. Yeah, I mean, you want them to learn from your mistakes so they don't make the same ones. But evolution does not work that way, unfortunately.

No. But Audra was concerned enough about what she saw between Sam and Maya to start pulling together family members and friends to try and talk to Maya about breaking things off with him. And in early November, that's exactly what Maya had done. But not long after Audra got a frantic call from her daughter saying that Sam was in the hospital, he'd attempted suicide. And because he'd done this right after the breakup,

right after telling her that he couldn't live without her, Maya felt responsible. And in Maya's mind, Sam had no one, no one but her. So they got back together. And Audra watched for weeks as Sam got more jealous and more possessive, more obsessive. Finally, in early January, Audra put her foot down and told Maya there would be absolutely no more seeing this boy.

He's not good for you. He's hurting you. And something bad is going to happen. I can feel it. But nothing, no lived experience, no mother's intuition. Nothing could have prepared her to be right about that. Yeah. I mean, this really isn't a story about loved ones not seeing

the signs of a violent relationship. Audra knew exactly what to look for. It sounds like Maya knew what to look for too. And I think that's actually the part of what makes the issue of teen dating violence in particular so fucking scary to me because even in a situation like this, where people saw what was happening and did everything they could, or at least everything they felt they could

to prevent it, Maya still ended up a victim. Right. Honestly, it's the same in Emma's story too. Like her parents saw it. Her friends saw it. Even she saw it. And that's why it's so important. Again, like I could remember being this age and thinking

that, you know, oh, I know better than everyone else or ignoring things that you shouldn't ignore. And I think it's why it's so important that again, that these messages not only be passed down through parents, but teenagers themselves hear these stories and know that it can happen because I promise you both of these girls never thought in a million years this is how it would end. And I get that it is so hard to see when you're in it,

but intimate partner violence is nothing like random stranger violence. You guys know that the person hurting you physically, mentally, sexually is also the person that you love or loved so much, and it is really, really hard to untangle that. And here's the thing, you guys, if you're listening to this and you're in high school right now, I want you to stop what you're doing and listen to my words because according

to do something.org one in three young people will be in an abusive or unhealthy relationship, which means that if it's not happening to you, it is probably happening to someone, you know, that is an outstanding statistic one in three. So it is happening everywhere, even if you're not seeing it yourself or hearing about it from your friends, I promise you it is happening.

They just aren't talking about it. And in fact, of that third that are in this unhealthy relationship, only a third of them will actually tell someone about it. And there's a lot of reasons for that. Maybe it's that they can't see it. You've got hormones and self-doubt and uncertainty for all those teen years and your brain is still very much

under construction. You could be confused about how you feel about how you can love someone and feel hurt by them at the same time, especially for people who've never experienced like a healthy relationship, you know what I mean? Or true love. That's the first thing you experience. You might think that's what's normal and maybe they're not

telling people because they're scared of what might happen to them if they say something. Maybe and we just saw this play out in both of these stories today. They're worried about what their partner might do to themselves if they leave. But I want you all to know what teen dating violence looks like in the early days especially so you can see the red flags

in your own relationships and in those of the people around you. So Brett, I'm actually going to get you to read this part. This is from teendvmonth.org. Okay, so this is an article from January 2021 that lists some warning signs and it's written for parents, but it's I think completely applicable for everybody. It says, quote, warning signs that could mean your teen is

in a toxic relationship include your teen's partner is overly jealous or possessive. You may see that your teen spends less time with friends and family or stops participating in activities. They enjoyed jealousy and control can be exerted in a subtle way that may be hard for a parent to see if your teen's partner attempts to control how your child dresses influence their social media use or tells them that certain friends are

a bad influence. It should serve as a red flag. If your teen's partner shows a lack of respect for your child's goals and ambitions, you should pay close attention to the dynamics in the relationship. If your teen has worked to make the varsity team or wanted to work to save it for a car and their partner belittles their goals, beware, your teen feels the need to continually check

in with their partner. One or both parties may be dealing with insecurity and jealousy. If your teen doesn't respond to a text immediately, does there a significant other begin to call incessantly? Unexplained injuries are one of the scariest signs for a parent. Never hesitate to ask questions if you notice bruising, scratches or other physical indicators that could mean abuse.

Teens who are victims of physical or sexual abuse often feel embarrassed, afraid or protective of their partner. So they may not tell the truth about what happened. End quote. If there's anything about Maya's story or Emma's story that sounds familiar because you're experiencing it in your own relationship, you need to tell someone. Even if you're not sure, honestly, especially if you're

not sure, tell your parents, your best friend, a teacher, a grandparent, a neighbor, even the police, but tell someone. If things don't feel right, it's because they probably aren't right. You guys, I can't stress this enough. Trust your gut. Abusers are very, very good at making you feel like it's your fault or worse, like it's all in your head.

At least by telling someone, you can get a second opinion. Healthy relationships should lift you up, not tear you down. They should make you feel better and not worse and they should never, ever leave marks on your body or your mind. For more information on teen dating violence, including where to go for help, visit loveisrespect.org. If you think that your browser history may be monitored, you can also call them at 1-866-331-9474 or you can text

loveis, all one word, to 225-22. We're actually going to be making a donation to this organization and we're going to include all of that information and more in the show notes and on our website. For all the source material on this episode, please visit our website, crimejunkiepodcast.com. And be sure to follow us on Instagram at crimejunkiepodcast. We will be back next week with another episode, but stick

around for profit of the month. Crimejunkie is an audio check production. So, what do you think Chuck? Do you approve? So, today's profit was submitted by our listener Joe about his best friend, Gary. He adopted Gary, the most gorgeous white dog from a shelter in Montana and Gary had actually come from the meat trade in

South Korea and have been rescued, moved to Montana to find a forever home and found Joe. Now, Joe is a big fan of motorcycles and in late 2018, shortly after he got Gary, he had bought a new motorcycle. Now, actually, I haven't been to Montana, have you? No. But that late in the year, I assume it's pretty cold and probably not the best like motorcycling weather.

So, Joe put his new bike in a trailer and went down to Las Vegas for a few days to try out his new bike. And Gary went to a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's house, Joe's parents. Every morning, Gary would go out with Joe's parents dog, Witten, for a little morning stroll around the neighborhood. They went together every morning for about an hour, just the two of them walking around the neighborhood.

I think it's the cutest thing ever. And every morning, they came back until one day, Gary didn't. And Joe's parents start freaking out. They didn't tell him right away. They went out looking for Gary all day. But they finally broke the news to Joe, who was on the last night of his trip in Las Vegas.

Joe said he barely slept that night and the 12-hour drive from Vegas home the next day- Torture. flew by. All he wanted to do was get home and find Gary. Now, this was now New Year's Day, 2019. And Facebook friends, family, everyone in their little town was out and about looking for Gary

with absolutely no luck. Now, a week goes by. And one morning, one of his mom's co-workers calls and she's like, Gary is on my porch. Come now. And so Gary's mom hops in her car, runs to her co-worker's house. And as soon as she hops out of the car, Gary takes off. So she calls her husband. He comes out.

He tries to chase Gary down. Nothing. Now, they got so excited about the idea of finding Gary and bringing him home to Joe. They forgot to tell Joe. Oh, no. So they finally called Joe. Wake him up.

And they're like, oh, we need your help because I think we have Gary. So Joe heads out to his mom's co-worker's place. He sees Gary off in the distance, kind of walking away. Joe calls him. Gary immediately stops. Turns tail and runs straight into Joe's arms. And they still have no idea where Gary was

for that entire week he had been missing. But it looked like he'd been well taken care of. I mean, this is a white dog. You would kind of know if he was living on the streets, right? So they assume someone found him, took him in for the few days and saw the ad about a missing dog that Joe's mom had put in their local paper, which I think is the sweetest. And they're like, oh, shoot.

And they kicked Gary out to head home. And it's been three years since Gary is still besties with Joe. They are now living with Joe's girlfriend and her three sons, who all adore Gary. They're the four sons, really. And he can still be a little bit skittish around new people, but Joe said it hasn't stopped them from living their best lives together.

Did he ever get him a sidecar for his motorcycle because that's what I need to know is happening? That's like the goal. Joe, if you haven't done that yet, I think Gary would really appreciate going on some of those trips with you. And as always, I want to highlight a rescue local to our profit. So be sure to check out the Humane Society of Northwest Montana, which we will be linking to on our website,

along with pictures of Gary at crimejunkiepodcast.com.