[Esperanza] I remember being at home,
and it seemed like a typical night,
nothing out of the ordinary.
I fell asleep.
Shortly after that, I heard screaming.
I saw my dad standing there, covered in blood.
I called 911.
[phone ringing]
It was a whole family massacred.
It was just gut-wrenching.
I was in disbelief.
These crimes are contained in this home.
The attack was directed on this family.
Why this family?
I had my belief that this was done with great anger,
great hatred.
It's unconscionable.
These are just two evil people
who carried out something 'cause they wanted to be together.
He loved her.
What do you do for love?
Some people do anything they can.
I wish them the same pain my family felt
in their last moments.
[theme music]
[muffled scream]
[gasps]
[Narrator] July 21st, 2000.
3:30 AM.
Dispatchers in Los Angeles County
field a terrifying call
from the home of the Flores family.
[Marsh] Monica Diaz made the first 911 call.
She said she heard somebody breaking in and screaming.
And she became scared and sequestered herself
in the bathroom.
She was so scared, she couldn't move.
[Narrator] Moments later, dispatch receives
a second 911 call from 18-year-old Esperanza Flores.
[Narrator] All available law enforcement officers
are immediately routed to the scene.
When deputies arrive, they're met by Esperanza,
16-year-old Monica,
and their sister, 18-year-old Laura,
outside the residence.
[Marsh] One or two make an entry into the residence.
That's procedure.
They want to do what's called a protective sweep
to check and see if there's anybody else inside the house
or even potentially a suspect.
The deputy makes a right-hand turn into a bedroom
because the information was
that there was a victim in that bedroom.
He did a quick check, and that victim was Sylvia Jr.
A 14-year-old young lady.
The amount of injuries inflicted was so horrific.
She suffered a terrible death.
The deputy continued in a westward fashion
and entered a room, and that's where two boys were at.
Richard Flores Jr and then Matthew.
They were young, 17 and 10 years old.
Richard Jr was lying on the floor.
Matthew, his body was lying resting against his brother.
He had suffered horrible lacerations.
The deputy was shaken,
visibly shaken.
They did a sweep and found yet another victim.
That ended up being the father, Richard Sr.
[Narrator] The children's mother, Sylvia Flores,
is lying on the bed bleeding--
but she's still breathing.
The mother, the matriarch of the family,
is in critical condition.
Her injuries were quite severe.
Puncture wounds to her upper torso area.
It caused for a collapsed lung.
There were slashes cut off the windpipe.
Sylvia was treated and then transported to a local hospital.
[Narrator] After clearing the rest of the house,
officers exit and secure the scene.
[Marsh] We had surviving members of the family,
and that would be the eldest daughter of this Flores family,
and her name was Esperanza,
and adopted daughters Laura and Monica.
We were standing in the front yard.
There's this ambulance,
police cars, the lights flashing.
There was just so much that I was just trying to process.
It was just overwhelming.
[Laura] It was hard. It was hard to go through that.
And it was hard have images of family when they passed away.
[Marsh] I've already been on the job about 26 years at that time,
worked things to where I was exposed to a whole lot of death.
Yet here, effectively an entire family was wiped out.
That was startling.
[Narrator] Pillars of their Pico Rivera community,
Sylvia and Richard Flores were known for
the large and close-knit family they had raised.
[Esperanza] I grew up being raised
not only by my parents, but my neighbors as well.
My parents were very involved in the community.
Our house was always the central hub for everything.
Me, my two brothers, and my sister were really close.
[Narrator] In 1987, the Flores family grew
when Sylvia and Richard became the legal guardians
of their nieces, Monica Diaz and Laura Reta.
Our mom struggled with drugs, to be honest with you.
I was five when she passed away.
Monica was four.
Cops took me and Monica away and gave us to my aunt Sylvia.
[Esperanza] It did require an adjustment,
going from a family of six to a family of eight.
But if you were there, you were part of the family.
You were gonna get taken care of.
You're gonna get treated like one of us.
[Laura] Richard made me feel welcome in the home
when we finally moved in
and made me feel like one of his kids.
There was never a dull moment in the house.
There was always someone laughing, making fun of someone.
There was just always the love.
[Laura] Espie, Richie, Sylvia, and Matt played sports.
My dad enjoyed watching everybody play a sport,
and I loved playing, and I loved watching him
in the front of the stands, cheering us on.
Playing basketball, I was decent,
so I continued to play.
And basketball was a pathway to go to college.
[Narrator] By July 2000,
Sylvia and Richard's oldest daughter
had finished her first year of college,
and the family of eight looked forward to
spending the summer together.
I felt like we had the perfect family,
the perfect everything.
[Narrator] But in the early morning hours of
July 21st, 2000,
the Flores family has been attacked in their home,
and law enforcement have descended upon
the chaotic scene.
[Marsh] The scene is well established as a crime scene.
There's the yellow tape.
There's police cars everywhere.
There are neighbors that are up at this time,
standing outside of the yellow tape.
The number one thing is we are there about getting the truth.
First, I talked with the surviving sisters,
Espie, Laura, and Monica.
[Narrator] With the sisters' help,
investigators begin to build a timeline of the events
that led up to the horrific attack.
The night before it happened,
it was like normal dynamics at the house.
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
I would say probably, like, 10:00,
I think I was the last one to go to sleep.
[Marsh] Around 3:30 in the morning,
Monica said she got up to use the bathroom.
And then while she's there, she hears all this noise, footsteps.
And then she becomes scared,
so she just stays in the bathroom.
Esperanza and Laura, they generally slept
in the same room, in bunk beds.
Esperanza hears a thud against the wall.
[Esperanza] I thought it was an earthquake,
so I jumped out of bed.
But then I realized someone hit the wall.
Like, the wall connecting my parents' room and my room.
I ran outside into the hall.
And when I did, I saw my dad just holding his neck.
And there was just blood everywhere.
I just remember being like, "Dad, what happened?
Dad, what happened?"
And that's when he got out the words, "I've been stabbed."
When I saw him fall, I guess I started yelling.
[Narrator] That's when Monica exited her hiding place
in the bathroom and ran to Sylvia and Richard's bedroom.
She found her mother lying on the bed.
She goes to assist her mother.
I saw Monica over my mom, and she was applying pressure.
She was trying to help her.
So I was like, "Monica, stay with my mom, stay with my mom."
I went to go look for the phone to call 911.
The dispatcher just kept asking me all these questions.
And I was like, "I can't do this."
And I was like, "He's bleeding."
He was stabbed so bad, you can see
parts of his insides coming out.
And I knelt beside him.
There was just so much blood.
Literally my knees were soaked in his blood.
I covered him with a towel,
trying to stop some type of bleeding,
but I knew he was gone.
I see my brothers' room door closed,
and I thought they were okay.
I thought they were just scared
from all the commotion that was going on.
I go into my little sister's room,
and I seen something brown on her bed.
Didn't know what it was until I got closer.
When I realized it was blood,
dried blood, I started screaming out her name.
She didn't respond to me.
[Esperanza] Laura was in the hallway screaming.
I was like, "Laura, get out of here.
Go, go outside. Go wait outside for me."
I panicked and I ran outside of the house.
That's when Espie and Monica followed me.
[Esperanza] The police were finally there,
and they were like , "Is anyone here?"
I was like, "I don't think so."
[Narrator] The girls insist that their family
doesn't have any enemies.
Instead, they believe the attack is the work of a random killer.
Everyone thought there was
some type of serial killer on the loose, hurting people.
I think that was the last thought that my family had
when they were killed.
If somebody would attack and kill this family,
who else would they kill?
Who else would they target?
[Narrator] Coming up,
evidence inside the home points investigators
toward a terrifying prospect.
The presence of duct tape made me go,
okay, this is not a random event.
This is a planned event.
[Narrator] And a forbidden romance sparks suspicion.
He gave her all this attention that she craved.
She was head over heels.
[Narrator] On July 21st, 2000,
the Flores family is attacked in their Pico Rivera home,
leaving four dead
and Sylvia Flores Sr clinging to life.
Daughters Esperanza, Monica, and Laura
were spared in the attack.
[Marsh] These crimes are contained in this home.
The attack was directed on this family.
Why this family?
[Narrator] While authorities scour the neighborhood
for witnesses and suspects alike,
investigators begin processing the Flores home for evidence.
By now, it's past daybreak. Sun is up.
This is a large crime scene.
Each bedroom was its own crime scene.
You know, you just start working your way in.
The front door opens up into a hallway.
From this hallway,
I'm able to see little Sylvia lying on the floor.
She looks as though she slid off the bed
or is pulled from the bed.
She had terrible wounds to her body, her torso.
She had a piece of duct tape that was affixed to her mouth.
The presence of duct tape made me go, okay,
this is not a random event.
This is a...planned event.
I continued down the hallway
to take a look into that room which contained the two boys.
Again, I see the presence of duct tape affixed to the bed.
Richard's on the floor.
It immediately jumped out,
this man didn't even know what hit him.
His throat was slashed brutally.
It's my belief that Matthew more than likely was awakened
during the course of this event.
He obviously fought.
His body was lying resting against his brother.
I'm standing over this young man to take a look at the wounds,
the type of wounds, where they're located,
all these things.
And I remember catching myself because
I didn't want my tears to fall in and comingle DNA
on this young man.
It made me angry and sad
because of how violently he was brutalized.
Stabbings, when you see multiple injuries to a body,
it can support and give the belief
that it was done with great rage.
There was passion involved in this.
[Narrator] Investigators continue down the hallway
to the master bedroom.
I believe Sylvia is attacked first
because her movement and wrestling in the bed,
by all accounts, causes Richard to get up.
Richard Sr had a number of puncture wounds,
slashing wounds, defensive wounds to his body.
It shows that he fought hard with his assailant.
You've got to be in pretty good shape.
I've handled over 300 homicides in my career.
But there are those that are significant to me
because of the gravity of it,
the amount of death in one scene.
As I'm walking down the hallway,
there's a military-style flashlight.
And it had a red lens on it.
The red lens on there, it cuts down the light signature.
It's done in a military tactical settting to where
you don't want to have a blaring light.
So, the attacker was able to see where he was going.
[Marsh] Based on what we were seeing, we had to think,
this was done was tactically.
This was methodical.
[Narrator] Investigators continue to the bathroom.
[Marsh] This is the bathroom that Monica said
that she had hidden in or locked herself in.
Sitting on top of the vanity, I saw a double-edge knife.
I saw another, it looked like a butterfly knife.
It looks like evidence items to me.
That made me go, hold on a second.
Take photos.
Let's go back there and interview with them again.
[Narrator] In the kitchen,
investigators discover the rear door is unlocked.
That family, routinely, all doors would be locked.
Yet that rear door was unlocked.
A couple steps down a landing, I see a backpack.
Within that backpack, what was prominent
was this particular towel, a multi-colored towel.
I see pieces of duct tape
stuck to the air conditioning unit
that's outside there.
There's scissors on there.
Then, more compelling is lying on the ground, a hatchet
and a double-edged knife.
They have a particular type of handle wrapped,
black type of tape.
And the reason I say that--
because one of those knives sitting in the bathroom,
had a very similar wrapping, something handmade.
We see these items in the bathroom.
The tape connected to the tape outside.
Either one well thought out individual
is coming to wipe out this entire family
or there are multiple individuals involved in this.
As investigators, you want to leave yourself
open minded about things,
but no, this can't be a serial killer.
The girls said, "Go get the people responsible for this."
Which we hear a lot, right?
"Go get them," a way of diverting us away from them.
At this point in time, I'm looking at the survivors.
Something in the back of my head's going,
maybe one of these young ladies is involved.
[Narrator] Authorities in Pico Rivera, California
are investigating the tragic murders of
42-year-old Richard Flores
and his children, Richard Jr, Matthew, and Sylvia Jr.
Investigators bring the surviving girls,
Esperanza Flores, Monica Diaz, and Laura Reta,
in for questioning.
[Marsh] Saturday afternoon,
the girls were interviewed individually.
What I'm looking for, are the accounts consistent?
[Esperanza] It was just so surreal sitting there
and just trying to answer these questions,
and making me feel like I was part of it
or had some type of knowledge on what happened.
[Marsh] I presented these photos and asked, first Espie,
"Do these look like items from the house from the house,
"that you kept around?
Are these items that you'd seen before?"
Esperanza provided that she did not.
Laura quickly said, "No, I've never seen any of that stuff.
What are those knives doing there?"
Quite frankly, early on, there was something about Laura
that gave me a little bit of pause.
She's, she's tough.
[Laura] I think multiple people had said,
"Look at Laura, she might be the person for this."
And it was only because I was always in trouble.
I was always doing my own thing in my own little world.
But I could never hurt a human being.
I was always very protective over my brothers and sisters.
I don't know, just something in the old gut went,
explore this a little bit more.
But that quickly subsided when I now talk with Monica.
I said, "Take me through this again."
She explained what she did again.
She was in the bathroom.
Then I put a picture up there and I said,
"Do you know anything about these items here?"
She looked at it and went,
"Oh, I think Michael gave me that knife."
[Narrator] Monica reveals she has been dating Michael Naranjo
for the past year.
Investigators begin to wonder
if he could be involved in this crime.
As they continue interviewing the three sisters...
other officers dig into Michael's background
and learn that he grew up in Pico Rivera,
not far from the Flores family.
[Marsh] He had two older brothers
long since out of the house.
And he just resided at the home
with his mother, father, and himself.
I remember him being very slim, clean-cut kid,
you know, very innocent.
He was a good student. He was quiet.
[Narrator] At 15, Michael joined the Junior ROTC,
where he rose to sergeant and dreamed of becoming a Marine.
[Rafael] Once he got exposed to the ROTC,
I started noticing the changes in his clothes.
Aiming more towards the, I guess, military style.
Michael started wearing black cargo pants and boots
and a bomber jacket as well.
[Narrator] Investigators learn that Monica joined
the ROTC program a year later.
[Marsh] That's where Monica and Michael met,
and that's where their relationship started.
They were only in ROTC together one year.
But it was significant enough to where
their relationship progressed and became more involved.
He joined us everywhere.
He had dinner with us.
He went with us on family outings.
They seemed like a normal couple.
[Narrator] Monica's sisters tell investigators
that while their family was passionate about sports,
Monica always cared more about academics.
[Laura] She was a straight-A student, always in her books,
always trying to figure out how to do things.
Chemistry, AP, honor classes.
Monica wasn't the athlete that her sisters were.
[Marsh] There were some statements made
that she was treated differently
because she wasn't as athletically gifted.
She was looked down on.
[Manuel] So when she met someone like Michael,
who was devoted to her and gave her all this attention
that she craved, you know, she was head over heels.
[Marsh] Michael and Monica, once they were together,
they became more withdrawn.
It was one of those things where
they were together often, a lot, constant,
enough to where neighbors would mention
that it was, quote, "Hot and heavy."
The parents didn't want him to spend
as much time as he appeared to be starting to spend
at the home.
[Laura] Monica never had a problem with her grades.
I think her grades started slipping
when she did meet Michael.
That's when Sylvia kind of had a feeling something was up
when it came to Michael.
I just didn't like him, period.
[Marsh] He had problems with the mother.
Even called her, "Ah, she's a bitch."
We started to think this young man's involved in this,
and if he's involved, Monica is involved.
[Narrator] With Esperanza, Laura, and Monica
waiting in separate interview rooms,
investigators decide they need to speak with
Michael Naranjo immediately.
[Marsh] We had him come there.
We asked him if he would consent to an interview.
Absolutely.
He sat down, and we started talking.
He sat effectively at attention,
to where I was going, "You can relax, young man, it's okay.
We just want to talk to you about what happened."
And it was, "Sir, yes or no, sir."
[Narrator] Michael admits Monica's parents
didn't approve of their relationship.
[Marsh] He was talking about the problems
he was having with the parents,
that the mother didn't like him.
They were always watching them.
And I just remember that during the course of this interview,
I saw something.
"What happened to your arm?"
-He goes, "What?" -I said, "What happened?
Is that a fresh cut?"
He peels it back and there's a, a, there's a laceration.
"Well, what happened there?"
He goes, "Some of the guys at school were goofing around.
"They threw a bottle, a glass bottle, and it broke,
and I got cut."
My partner immediately goes, "Michael, hold a second.
"That's not an injury received
from somebody throwing a bottle at you."
He got a little flustered.
My hope obviously was maybe I can get some admission?
[Narrator] Michael continues to deny
any involvement in the Flores murders.
So investigators decide to collect fingerprints
from him and Monica.
While they wait for forensic results,
Michael and the three sisters are free to leave.
[Marsh] On Monday, we start receiving word
that preliminary testing and processing of items
that had been collected started producing results.
The flashlight that I talked about,
fingerprints from the batteries inside of it,
Michael.
[Narrator] A forensic examination of the duct tape
ultimately confirms investigators' worst suspicions.
We have a roll of it outside.
We have, uh, scissors there.
We have precut pieces that have been affixed for ready use.
You just peel it off and ready to go.
They all came from one single strand
consistent with the source item, the duct tape.
And it also showed fingerprints.
This piece was the one that was on Sylvia Jr.
This piece comes from what was collected
from the boys' bedroom.
We had latent prints of two individuals,
Michael...
and Monica.
[music]
[Narrator] Three days into their investigation,
authorities in Pico Rivera, California
have connected 17-year-old Michael Naranjo
and his girlfriend, 16-year-old Monica Diaz,
to the brutal murders of Monica's family.
The forensic examination of evidence items reveal prints
determined to be those of Monica and of Michael.
The 27th of July was when the arrest warrants
and the subsequent search warrants were served
at two different locations.
Monica had been staying at her uncle's residence,
along with Laura and Espie.
[Laura] A detective came to the door, rang the doorbell.
They opened the door.
As they're talking, there's cops on the side of the house
walking towards the back to where Monica was.
Then I'm seeing her walking towards the car,
is when I realized that they were arresting her.
I was in disbelief.
I couldn't believe a family member
could do something like that.
[Laura] I think we were all confused.
Everybody couldn't believe that
our own family took our family from us.
[Narrator] With Monica in tow,
investigators race to Michael's house
before he has time to learn of her arrest.
[Marsh] I go to Michael's house.
I'm at the door, and it's answered by his mother.
And I said, "Hi, we need to talk with Michael."
I took Michael outside, and I said,
"Michael, you're under arrest
for the murders of the Flores family."
And he just looked at me and went...
Just a nod. That was it.
Handcuffed and put in the car
for transportation to the station.
We had set up a vehicle which was being recorded
and put them in the seat together.
Not an uncommon tactic that we use.
And there was no wailing of,
"No, we didn't do this, what are they doing?"
Nothing you would expect from somebody that was innocent.
[Narrator] At the station, the suspects are placed
in separate interview rooms.
Investigators sit down with Michael first.
[Narrator] Down the hall, investigators confront Monica.
She wanted to try and mitigate her involvement in this.
I just remember going, nope. It just doesn't add up.
They are ultimately booked into the LA County system.
They were both effectively juveniles at the time.
He was 17. She was 16.
So therefore, they go to a juvenile detention facility.
[Man] Ah, we just served a search warrant.
[Narrator] With Michael and Monica in custody,
investigators execute a search warrant on Michael's home
in order to gather incriminating evidence.
Quite a number of things that were consistent with
some of the evidence items
that had been collected from the crime scene location.
Things like a particular type of cording that was used
to wrap and make a particular type of handle
similar to the one that we had collected from the crime scene.
There were books on torture.
There were books on killing.
There were books on how to kill,
books on hand-to-hand combat.
There was a military manual.
It was all focused on someone trying to get schooled
in the art of being a trained killer.
He was an avid collector of, uh, knives.
He had a large array of various types of knives
that were in there.
There was a notebook, which had a listing of things,
basically a check-off list,
showing the premeditation of this event.
As I'm walking down the hallway,
there's the hallway cabinet open.
In that cabinet are these set of towels.
[Manuel] There was a hand towel
that was found inside of a backpack
that matched a similar brand of hand towel
that was at Michael's house.
[Marsh] It's the same towel.
It's the same brand.
Everything.
[Narrator] Now with a mountain of evidence against Michael,
investigators wonder how big a role
Monica played in the crime.
They return to the Flores home
in search of revelatory evidence.
[Marsh] That leads to the discovery of a box.
It was full of handwritten correspondence.
Monica to Michael, Michael to Monica.
I started reading and I saw the beginning of this relationship.
You could read as it developed.
Writings about their future together.
They were gonna be married together.
And then became more, ah,
I guess you could use "sinister."
Monica talked about, "I want to see blood."
She's talking about killing, mass murders,
and says, quote, "I want to see the blood on their faces.
"I want to be a mass murderer.
"The best job is to kill people professionally.
"Imagine how many victims I'd have
if I lived 800 years."
Monica Diaz assisted Michael Naranjo
in the planning and the completion of this event.
Not only involved, but she, in my view, puts it in motion.
[Narrator] Based on their findings,
investigators piece together a theory
for what they believe occurred
in the early morning hours of July 21st, 2000.
[Manuel] The evidence shows that Monica took a large role
in helping to make this happen.
She cut up strips of the duct tape to give to Michael
so he'd have it ready to go
when he put them over the victim's mouths.
She then unlocked the rear door and allowed him into the home.
She then went into the bathroom obviously
to make it seem as if she was just a scared young woman.
[Marsh] This was done with great anger,
great hatred.
It's unconscionable.
These are just two evil people
who carried out something 'cause they wanted to be together.
They are ultimately booked
into the LA County system.
[Narrator] Three days after the murders,
investigators receive optimistic news about Sylvia Flores.
It's a miracle that she survived.
I remember my mom, really just my mom.
I know there was other people there.
But I don't remember them.
And I kept telling my mom,
"My head hurts, my hair hurts,
my...something's going on." But I had no clue.
"What happened?"
They still didn't tell me that Richard and the kids had passed.
There's no way.
And all I remember telling my mom...
"Monica did this."
[Narrator] Despite catastrophic injuries
in the attempt to end her life,
Sylvia Flores has pulled through...
after the attack that claimed the lives of her husband
and three children.
[Sylvia] I remember hearing Espie scream.
I remember being put in the ambulance.
I know I died.
I know I was no longer breathing.
My heart wasn't beating.
I know I passed.
And I saw Richard, Matt, and Nana,
and Richie Rich.
It was a beautiful light, like they say.
Perfect weather, perfect everything.
And them telling me, "No, you can't come with us.
"Go back with them.
Go back with the girls."
And they pointed.
I looked back and there was Espie and Laura.
And I looked back to look at them.
They were not there anymore.
[Narrator] Investigators visit Sylvia in the hospital,
where she shares her memories of the attack on her family.
[Sylvia] I woke up.
I knew I was stabbed.
I was having problems breathing.
And I saw the blood on me.
The bed was moving.
I didn't know what was going on.
And I saw somebody on top of Richard.
Somebody was hurting him.
And somehow, he kind of pushed that person off.
I remember the person falling on the dresser
that was in front of my bed.
And he took off.
Richard got up.
All I remember is telling him, "I love you."
He said something to me.
For the life of me, I have no idea.
[music]
[Sylvia] Monica all of a sudden was there.
And I says, "Go get a towel!"
So she went to the bathroom, got a towel.
And I says, "Put pressure!"
Then I felt her hands reaching for my throat
and applying a lot of pressure.
I grabbed her arm.
Her face was like, "She still has strength
to hold her back?"
To this day, I know she wanted to kill me too.
She was choking me.
She was trying to finish me off.
But I didn't let her.
No.
Not today.
It's hard to say your child wanted to kill you.
How can you hurt somebody like that?
Somebody you love?
I don't even know how to describe it.
Honestly, I have no idea
when I found out that Richard and the kids were killed.
I was probably told several times, but I was in denial.
I couldn't handle that information.
[Narrator] With Sylvia's testimony in tow
one week after the murders,
the Los Angeles district attorney announces
that Monica Diaz and Michael Naranjo
will be charged as adults.
They were charged with four counts of first degree murder
for each of the victims.
And they were charged with a count of, um, attempted murder
for the attack on Sylvia.
[Narrator] In September 2003,
jury selection for Michael's trial gets underway.
But on September 30th,
right before the trial is set to begin,
Michael's lawyers contact the district attorney.
[Manuel] The night before,
he surprised everybody by pleading guilty to everything.
And in his plea, he basically admitted to...
doing it all by himself.
He talked about always having these thoughts of killing.
He just needed the right opportunity,
and this was the opportunity he had.
[Narrator] On October 22nd,
Michael is sentenced to five consecutive
life terms in prison.
When he was being told he's going to spend
the rest of his life in jail, he just had no emotion.
He was just very callous.
[Narrator] Monica Diaz's trial begins in late January 2004.
When she takes the stand,
she continues to assert her innocence.
[Manuel] She continued to defend herself
by saying that she took no part in the murders.
[Narrator] Michael also takes the stand in Monica's defense.
[Marsh] He was once again the dutiful soldier who,
"I'll take this all. I did this all. It's all me.
She didn't do anything."
[Esperanza] On the stand, he was asked why did he do it,
and he said, "I just wanted to kill someone."
He's like, "I liked them. I had nothing against them.
I just wanted to kill someone."
[Sylvia] Why would he do that?
Just to save her?
You both wanted to be killers.
Why not say...
"We did it"?
No, she told him what to say.
He did this ultimately to try to save her
from a lifetime of incarceration,
but the jury never bought it.
She was convicted on all counts,
sentenced to, uh, consecutive life terms.
[Sylvia] I think something happened in her mind.
I know I raised a great woman.
I don't know that murderer.
Monica.
Who that is, I have no idea.
[Laura] I went to ask her multiple times,
"Why did you do what you did?"
Maybe she was dead inside, I don't know.
[Sylvia] They might have played off of each other
and fed off of each other's characters.
But it was all her.
She is the mastermind of the murders.
[Laura] He loved her.
What do you do for love?
Some people do anything they can.
He made her feel that good
and she manipulated him into doing what she wanted.
I do not think justice was done.
In all honesty, I wish them the same pain...
...that my family felt in their last moments.
I love talking about Richard.
I love talking about my kids.
But no one brings them up.
No one wants to say they were murdered.
Retelling the story is hard,
but remembering them is even harder,
because...I can't get that time back.
And it's harder 'cause the memories of them are fading.
It's hard to share the good things that we did.
It's hard to go back and replay all those beautiful memories.
[music]