A gregarious young man just months away
from his wedding day...
He was always happy.
All he wanted in life was to have a family,
work hard and fall in love.
Has his future viciously ripped away.
It was evident the young man had been bludgeoned.
It hurt me so much.
And I lost it, I lost it.
Investigators are sent down a rabbit hole
of suspects...
He was violently jealous.
He's a significant drug dealer.
It looked like that he may have been kidnapped.
They were accompanying
a very scared-looking Hispanic young man.
Before a shocking revelation...
What he was describing was more like something off
of a TV show.
Turns the case on its head.
What he did to us changed our life forever.
It was a shock to all of us.
It came as an absolute surprise.
He had no remorse, he had no guilt.
He's a monster.
Cornelius, a small town in northern Oregon,
nestled among picturesque orchards.
Cornelius is a longtime farming community.
It's a very kind of nice, sort of sleepy place.
It's kind of a little bedroom community.
It's mostly a blue-collar town, working class.
The calm of Cornelius
is shaken one quiet morning,
with the reported disappearance
of 20 year-old - Gonzalo Pizano- - Guzman.
That morning my mom saw that Gonzalo's bed was made,
like no one slept there.
So she obviously got all concerned
that he didn't come home last night.
And then my mom tells me to go to the police station
with Sol to report him missing.
His fiancée, Sol, and his sister, Juana,
had been actively looking for him that day.
That morning, the family contacted his place
of employment.
He had not shown up for work.
The family was extremely distraught
by this disappearance.
He doesn't miss work without calling in.
They couldn't reach him by pager, by telephone.
And we're all freaking out because this is not who he is
and what he does.
It's so odd.
It's not normal.
We learned that Sol had seen Gonzalo the night before.
They had visited with each other
until about quarter after nine that evening.
And Sol reported seeing him leaving
in his car alone headed home.
But he did not return home last night.
To aid the detectives,
Sol provides a description of what Gonzalo was wearing
when she last saw him.
He had on an athletic top with some numbers on it,
and specifically two gold chains.
While Juana and Sol speak with police,
other family members frantically look for Gonzalo.
We all went different ways in our cars,
driving around, just to see if we found his car.
We were trying to look for anything.
My dad thought, you know, maybe he got in an accident.
We were desperate.
We just wanted a clue.
Around four or five o'clock in the afternoon,
we all started feeling like, "Okay, something's wrong now."
On the outskirts of town,
Gonzalo's father makes a disturbing discovery.
My dad spotted the car in an empty field.
When he saw the car, the white car, he knew right away
that was Gonzalo's car.
He found the car burned up.
He rushed to the car, opened up the car
and didn't find any body.
So, once that happened, it was just nuts.
Where is he at?
Did he get kidnapped?
Is he dead?
It was even worse.
Detectives arrive and search for signs
of what happened to Gonzalo.
The car was totally destroyed by fire.
It appeared that the car had been heavily doused
with accelerant, probably gasoline.
Somebody was clearly trying to cover up evidence
from inside that vehicle.
There was no evidence of any body.
There were zip ties found near the car.
As far as the scene was concerned,
it yielded minimal clues.
As the car had been burned completely, the chances of DNA
or blood or fingerprints were greatly reduced.
Later that afternoon,
another chilling discovery is made just 11 miles away.
A citizen had seen something that looked like a dead body
in the ditch on Herr Road.
The body was found about a 15, 20-minute drive
from where the burned car was.
This young man matched both the physical description,
the clothing and the jewelry.
At this point, there was no doubt that this was Gonzalo.
It was clearly a homicide.
There was evidence of bullet wounds on the body,
and what appeared to be repeated knife blows to the heart.
We also discovered some injuries to the back of the head,
and it was evident the young man had been bludgeoned.
It was apparent that he had died a violent death.
We felt almost immediately
that this was very personal in nature.
There was no phone and there was no wallet at the scene.
But he still had his jewelry with him, which were gold.
So the thought of this being a robbery
was off the table pretty quickly.
There was another motive here.
There were zip ties found near the body
and they matched the zip ties from the scene of the car.
One of the things that went through my head was,
"Had someone brought zip ties to restrain Gonzalo?"
We also located four spent casings
from a 40-caliber semi-automatic pistol.
After finishing up at the crime scene,
police are faced with the difficult task
of delivering the devastating news to Gonzalo's family.
The police came early in the morning.
I opened the door and they told me, "We found your brother,
"but unfortunately he's dead."
I was in shock.
I heard my mom screaming.
It was something I never wanna hear again.
It's not even a scream.
It's a pain so deep that only moms,
only moms know what that is.
I found out that he was murdered
and I lost it.
I lost it.
To know that such an amazing person was taken away;
he didn't deserve to die that way.
Bottom line is, I don't have my brother anymore.
Born in Mexico in 1979,
Gonzalo had a playful spirit.
He loved to dance.
He loved music.
Always a smile, always caring
and always joking around with people.
When the family moved to the United States
in 1989, outgoing Gonzalo settled in quickly.
He was very charming.
He was really good-looking.
He was popular with the girls.
So he was always asked to be in quinceañeras,
which is a traditional, you know,
party for us Mexicans when you turn 15.
In 1998, Gonzalo met Marisol Mora at a party,
and the teenagers quickly fell in love.
It was that genuine love and happiness.
There was a light in him.
He was a completely different person.
A happy full person.
All he wanted in life was to have a family,
work hard and fall in love.
After a whirlwind romance,
Gonzalo proposed to Marisol.
So the wedding was set to be in September.
That was just a couple of months after he was murdered.
We have a big family, so it was gonna be a big deal.
But instead of a wedding
Gonzalo's loved ones are left heartbroken and grieving.
While his family plans a funeral,
detectives are digging in to the work of this homicide case.
This case was puzzling.
There really didn't seem to be a strong motive as
to why this young man was murdered.
Everything was going good in his life.
He was responsible.
He wasn't involved in gangs.
He's just very well-liked, very upbeat
and just a trustworthy young man.
It was really difficult.
There were still so many unanswered questions,
and we had no definitive leads as
to who would have caused this or who we were looking for.
The fact that that there was still a killer out there,
to me it was very ominous.
This is very grim.
We needed to really look into who was responsible for this.
Coming up:
investigators uncover a menacing grudge...
He held an extreme dislike for Gonzalo.
He was determined to have Gonzalo killed.
The knife wounds directed at the heart did speak
of extreme animosity.
And leads them to discover a web
of alarming secrets and lies...
She wasn't in love with Gonzalo,
and he wasn't in love with her.
She admitted it was all a lie.
He saw skinheads in the vehicle.
And that's when we really started
to think something was wrong.
Before the truth blindsides everyone.
I was like in shock.
It was so senseless.
In the town of Cornelius, Oregon,
police are investigating the vicious murder
of 20-year-old - Gonzalo Pizano- - Guzman.
Wanting more details about his last known movements,
detectives speak to his fiancée, Sol.
She described in detail how Gonzalo had come to her house
on the night of the 6th,
that they sat out front on the porch.
They were discussing their plans for the upcoming wedding
and going over a guest list.
But she stated that following the conversation
that he left around nine o'clock.
She stated while they were sitting on the porch
that her cousin, Jaime, and a friend, Eddie,
were playing in the garage of the house,
apparently shooting baskets.
That led us to believe that these two young fellows
may have been the last known persons to see Gonzalo alive.
So it was important that we interview them.
Investigators bring Jaime and Eddie
into the sheriff's office.
During the interview both stated that they had to get
to work that night and approached Gonzalo as he was getting
in his car and asked if they could get a ride.
They were running late for work.
They worked on a janitorial crew
run by Sol's brother, Rafael.
They had to be at work in Hillsboro
at the Hawthorn Farm Fitness Center at 10 o'clock.
They said Rafael picked them up
and took them to work at the athletic club,
and that eventually they got off
at about 4:30 in the morning.
The fact that they both gave the same statement
actually provided themselves an alibi.
They did not offer any conflict that they had with Gonzalo.
They indicated that they had no reason to hurt him.
To corroborate Jaime and Eddie's alibi,
police speak to their boss, Sol's brother, Rafael.
We interviewed him at his house.
He was very cooperative, very smooth, very polite.
Had his own business.
A young entrepreneur.
Rafael was a an incredibly self-possessed 19-year-old.
He had created a janitorial service.
Although he was very young, had a very good contract,
had his own cleaning company,
and appeared to be very successful.
Detectives ask him to confirm Jaime
and Eddie's story.
He confirmed that he had picked them up at Eddie's house
and drove them to work.
He confirmed their story
that they had worked cleaning the health club that night.
He said that he was at the athletic club
until about four in the morning.
So Rafael, in effect, corroborates Eddie
and Jaime's version of events on the night of the 6th.
So we kind of set them aside.
With Jaime and Eddie alibied,
investigators turn to the autopsy report,
hoping to find new leads.
It became very apparent just how violently he had died.
The medical examiner did find three blunt force blows
to his skull.
The autopsy also showed that he had been shot five times.
And then he had also been stabbed five times,
very brutally, in the area of the heart.
The close cluster of the knife wounds directed
at the heart did speak of extreme animosity,
some violent emotion.
The gunshot wounds made it appear
that his hands were up in a defensive gesture.
Gonzalo was likely pleading for some measure of mercy
and ultimately none was to be had.
The autopsy report also determines
that Gonzalo's death occurred around 10:00 p.m.
With the findings in hand, investigators now turn
to Gonzalo's workplace, searching for possible suspects.
We interviewed his supervisor.
Gonzalo's boss described him as reliable,
steady worker, punctual.
As detectives dig deeper,
they learn about a startling new side to Gonzalo.
It appeared that he had a relationship with one
of the security guards that worked there.
Gonzalo's boss did tell us
there may have been some possible involvement
between the security guard, Bobette, and Gonzalo.
So we needed to look into it.
We needed to interview her.
Police bring Bobette,
Gonzalo's alleged girlfriend, in for questioning.
She was very upset about his death.
She was very emotional, very distraught about finding out
that Gonzalo had been murdered,
and ultimately disclosed that, in fact,
she'd had a very intimate relationship
with Gonzalo for a couple of months.
But she made it very clear she wasn't in love with Gonzalo,
and he wasn't in love with her.
Bobette described her relationship
with Gonzalo as kind of a fling.
It was kept secret.
She understood that he was engaged to be married.
But it crossed our minds
that maybe Bobette's feelings were stronger than she let on.
Maybe she did not want this wedding to go forward.
The wedding was planned for September,
only a few months away.
Police ask Gonzalo's co-worker about her movements
on the day of the murder.
Bobette had been at several different locations that day,
running errands, and she had receipts to support that.
So she was ruled out as a suspect.
But while Bobette's cleared of suspicion,
she hands detectives a crucial tip.
Bobette mentioned an ex-boyfriend named Oscar Rodriguez.
She told us Oscar was quite jealous.
He was extraordinarily jealous;
apparently had been violently jealous in the past.
About four days before the murder, Oscar found out
about her relationship with Gonzalo.
He became infuriated and began accusing her
of cheating on him.
That could be a motive for Gonzalo's murder,
so Oscar became a lead suspect.
Only two days into the investigation
of the vicious murder of - Gonzalo Pizano- - Guzman,
police discover he was involved with his co-worker, Bobette.
Now she's pointed the finger
at her jealous ex, Oscar Rodriguez.
She speculated that maybe he had something to do with it.
We looked into him.
He had a criminal history.
He'd been pretty extensively involved in gangs
at that point in his life, and he was he was well known
to the local police.
Very much an impulsive young man
that was also involved in drug activity and drug use.
Bobette told us that this was a relationship she had
to escape from.
She personally felt threatened by his presence
and his behavior.
And she was very worried that perhaps he was the one
that took some action towards Gonzalo.
Investigators uncover a troubling detail
about Oscar's life.
It was discovered that Oscar Rodriguez's mother
lived right next door to the victim's family.
The investigation kind of perked up as far as focusing in
on Oscar, given the fact that he had such access to Gonzalo.
Detectives' suspicion grows further
when they speak to Oscar himself.
When Oscar Rodriguez was interviewed, he lied to us
and told us he had not had any contact at all with Bobette,
and didn't really know anything about what was going on.
When we started to confront him that this was
in contradiction to the information we had from Bobette,
he became furious, started yelling, at us,
"You don't trust me!"
He stated he had no claims to continue any relationship
with Bobette and he wanted to wash his hands
of this entire investigation.
Because of his nature, he just drew suspicion upon himself.
He was asked if he'd take a polygraph to show
that he didn't have anything to do with Gonzalo's murder.
He became very volatile, and immediately demanded
to end the interview.
And actually stormed out of the interview.
With Oscar not cooperating,
detectives investigate his whereabouts
during the time of the murder.
During this timeframe,
Oscar Rodriguez was actually serving a sentence
in a restitution center.
The restitution center
is a work release facility for low to mid-level offenders
where Oscar could get passes to go out and find work.
So the question was, did Oscar have a pass at the date
and time of the murder?
Was it possible that he wasn't in the restitution center?
He is on a strict timeline.
He had to check in, check out.
It's a secure facility.
The building is locked.
There are alarms on all the doors and windows.
At the restitution center there is a lockdown period
at night until early in the morning.
After the records were examined,
it was positively concluded that he was
in the restitution center at the time Gonzalo was killed.
It was impossible for him to have been involved
in the actual homicide.
And ultimately he was ruled out as a suspect.
It's been a week since the murder,
and the investigation is no closer to finding a suspect.
Meanwhile, the family prepares
to bury their beloved Gonzalo.
It was really hard on everybody.
My mom decided she wanted to take him to Mexico.
He was buried over there and we all stayed
for a while trying to grieve together as a family
and process what had just happened to our family.
My mom was just devastated.
It hurt me so much to lose Gonzalo.
I was grieving deeply.
I was in denial, I was in my own world.
And I don't even know how I got by.
While the family grieves in Mexico,
the community of Cornelius is feeling on edge.
There wasn't a quick arrest within, you know,
a couple of days or a week.
This caused concern in the community
'cause no one knew who did it.
Searching for new leads,
detectives turn to the public.
We decided to put out a reward for information.
And the idea was to get people to come forward
if they knew anything, and let them know
that we're a little bit frustrated
with where this investigation is going.
We need public help.
Nearly two weeks after Gonzalo's murder,
police get a tip that sends the investigation
in a whole new direction.
We got a call from an employee of the SB gas station.
His name was Ryan Petty.
He claimed that he had seen some graffiti written
in the bathroom of the gas station.
And the graffiti said, "Gonzalo Guzman.
"12th Street gang.
"Please help.
"Call the police."
And once he heard about the reward,
he put Gonzalo with that name Gonzalo,
and recognized it must be the same victim
who had left that cry for help on the wall.
Detectives rush to the gas station
to interview Ryan.
While interviewing him, he divulges a shocking revelation.
So what called his attention to the bathroom was shortly
before he saw a car pull up, a white Monte Carlo, that had,
in his words, skinheads in the vehicle.
One of them allegedly had a swastika tattooed on his body.
They were accompanying
a very scared-looking Hispanic young man.
He stated that it looked like
that Gonzalo may have been kidnapped.
That was significant in the fact that we felt
this was a big break that came in the case.
Nearly two weeks
- after Gonzalo Pizano- - Guzman was found brutally murdered,
a gas station attendant named Ryan Petty has told police
he saw Gonzalo with three suspicious men
the night he was killed.
He described a carload of skinheads that had drove up
and a young man in the backseat who appeared frightened.
And they escorted him into the men's restroom
for a short period of time.
He said that ultimately, out of the bathroom,
the Hispanic individual came out
and they hustled him back into the car and drove away.
Ryan Petty reported that when he went into the bathroom
after the individual left it, he saw written on the wall,
"Gonzalo Guzman.
"Help.
"12th Street gang.
"Call police."
But as detectives dig into Ryan's story,
some details don't add up.
Had it been Gonzalo who had gone into that bathroom afraid
for his life and put his name on the wall,
he never would have written his name as Gonzalo Guzman.
We knew that was incorrect.
He would not sign his name in that nature.
That was the maternal name.
He would have used the paternal name.
Guzman is his mother's name.
He would have written his name as Gonzalo Pizano.
Pizano is his father's name.
And so right away this was suspicious.
And just the whole nature
of what he was describing was more like something off
of a TV show.
The skinheads, the swastika, it just
didn't ring true.
And so it was suspected that he was trying
to come forward for the reward.
We looked through the videotape from the SB station
during the period of time this employee stated
that car had gone by.
There was nothing in that videotape
that corroborated anything he had told us.
No white Monte Carlo.
No individuals who could be characterized as skinheads.
More importantly, no individual
who was a scared Hispanic person being escorted
to the bathroom.
The examination of the surveillance video
at the gas station contradicted Ryan Petty's
version of events.
And also one of the issues was
he didn't report this right away.
When police check Ryan's record,
they find more troubling news.
He had a pretty checkered past.
He was no stranger to the criminal justice system.
Some of his arrests were for crimes
that would cause you to doubt his honesty.
In my mind we ruled it out as pure fabrication.
It just was too cute, too stereotypical.
The mistake with the Spanish surname.
I didn't buy it.
With another lead exhausted,
investigators face a daunting realization.
We reached a point where we were getting nowhere.
Leads weren't panning out.
Having no significant suspect is very depressing.
Really, if you don't solve these cases early on,
the longer they go, the likelihood
that you're actually going to be able
to solve them becomes less and less.
In cases like this where we're not getting anywhere,
especially on a homicide, we took this very personal.
Up to that point,
this team had not had an unresolved homicide.
The lack of progress also adds
to the pain suffered by Gonzalo's family.
It was very hard.
It was very painful to come back from Mexico
and there was no arrest yet.
Everything was very silent
and we were getting very, very impatient.
My mom was getting very impatient with the detectives,
and all they told us is to please trust them.
So we put our life in their hands.
Two more months pass without an arrest.
With the case at a standstill,
detectives review the entire investigation
for something they may have missed.
It can be very frustrating when you reach that point
where you've kind of hit the wall,
but you just have to resolve to redouble your efforts
and to keep digging, keep pushing.
It was time to go back
and look over everybody one more time.
We knew that Eddie and Jaime were the last people
to see Gonzalo at Sol's house the night of the murder.
Even though they'd been interviewed
and gave a pretty good account of their activity that night,
their boss, Rafael, provided an alibi for them.
We wanted to be sure.
So at this stage is when we asked them to take a polygraph.
But when we began to ask them to take a polygraph,
they started dodging and weaving.
For some reason they began to balk
and this threw a red flag as
to why they weren't coming forward.
Again, these are the last two people to see Gonzalo alive.
And now they're getting cold feet
about taking a polygraph exam.
And that's when we really started
to think something was wrong.
Detectives keep the pressure on Jaime
and Eddie, and on September 14th,
Eddie comes in for his polygraph.
The polygrapher was hooking Eddie up,
attaching these leads to him to measure his response.
And he doesn't even get to the questions,
and Eddie says, "Okay, I'll tell you what happened."
And he immediately makes it clear
that he wants to tell everything that happened.
In police parlance, he spilled it.
Two months after the murder
- of Gonzalo Pizano- - Guzman,
detectives are re-interviewing witnesses hoping for a break.
Now, Eddie, one of the last people to see Gonzalo alive,
has told police he knows more than he's let on.
He gave a detailed, recorded statement
about what happened on the night of the murder.
As he talks to investigators,
Eddie drops a bombshell.
He disclosed that that he had actually been approached
by his boss, Rafael, who was Sol's brother,
to coordinate delivering Gonzalo
to the Forest Hills Country Club parking lot.
Eddie told us that it had all been planned out by Rafael.
Rafael had enlisted Joe Noble to help with this crime.
Joe was Rafael's friend.
Eddie went on to tell us that night he
and Jaime lured Gonzalo to drive his car to the golf course.
And as they pulled up, Joe Noble appeared
with a gun in his hand.
And as Eddie and Jaime got out of Gonzalo's car,
Noble got into the car pointing the gun at Gonzalo.
And also present in the parking lot was Rafael
in his white Ford F-150.
Gonzalo was driven away by Rafael and Joe,
but Eddie claims he has no idea what happened next.
He stated that he and Jaime had left the country club
and got into their vehicle, left
and went home and went to work as usual.
Could the brother of Gonzalo's fiancée, Sol,
really be behind his brutal murder?
It was extremely surprising to suddenly see Rafael Mora
as somebody different than this
really incredibly self-possessed 19-year-old
who started his own business.
But according to Eddie,
Rafael leads a disturbing double life.
Eddie told us that Rafael was a pretty active drug dealer.
The nice entrepreneur cover of
Rafael was all a lie.
He's a significant drug dealer,
and it appears, orchestrated the kidnapping of Gonzalo,
with Joe Noble.
This completely surprised me.
Rafael did appear, at least on the surface, to be legit,
and now he's not who we thought he was.
It was a shock to all of us.
The one thing detectives still need to know
is why Rafael would wanna kill his future brother-in-law?
Up to that point in time there was nothing to link him.
There was no motive that anybody could speak of.
Investigators first turn their attention
to Joe Noble, suspecting
he may have been taking orders from Rafael.
Joe Noble was known as a small-time criminal.
An informant told us he was very concerned
about a 40-caliber pistol he had sold to Joe Noble.
And he suspected
that this may have been the murder weapon used
in the killing of Gonzalo.
That's not the last
of the informant's revelations.
He said that Joe Noble had talked to a female
at one of the local bars and had asked her to alibi for him
on the particular night in question.
We contacted her.
She told us that, yes, Joe had asked her to say he was
with her on the night of the 6th and,
most importantly, she said, "I wasn't with him."
Police bring Joe in for questioning.
Joe denied having any involvement whatsoever
to the murder.
During our interview with Joe, he actually tried
to use the alibi.
And then when we confronted him with the fact
that we'd already talked to her
and she said it was all BS, then he stopped talking.
Joe stated that he wanted an attorney
and didn't wanna talk anymore.
With nothing concrete to hold Joe,
police are forced to release him
and turn their attention to Rafael.
Investigators learned
that Rafael's cleaning business was not all
that it was purported to be.
He had a contract with the Hawthorn Farms Athletic Club.
The manager of the health club was not very impressed
with the quality of Rafael's work and the work of his crew.
It was really a shoddy operation by all accounts.
We considered the fact
that the cleaning company may have been a front
for Rafael's drug dealing.
Rafael told police he was cleaning the gym
with Eddie and Jaime the night of Gonzalo's murder,
so investigators check with management
in order to corroborate his alibi.
The manager of the club said he often couldn't reach him.
So he had no idea if he was there or not
on the night of the murder.
With his alibi falling apart,
detectives ask Rafael's sister, Sol,
why he might want Gonzalo dead.
Sol admitted that Rafael had a serious talk with her,
and that it was clear that he was opposed to the wedding,
felt she was too young.
Rafael did not want Gonzalo marrying Sol.
Just did not see Gonzalo as being worthy
of marrying into the family.
Investigators learned that Rafael would mock Gonzalo
for the car he drove.
He'd mock him for bringing over a bottle of wine
to his parents that was cheap and not any good.
Rafael held an extreme dislike for Gonzalo.
When accompanied by friends, he would go by Gonzalo's car
and talk about keying it, or smashing a window out
and laughing about it.
With the evidence against Rafael stacking up,
police are ready to bring him in for an interview.
But there's just one setback.
He disappeared.
At this point, it's become pretty apparent
that Rafael's got something to hide.
When you put it all together,
there was probable cause to arrest him.
With a warrant for Rafael's arrest,
police initiate a manhunt.
He had a girlfriend named Cindy Montez.
We found him hiding at his girlfriend's house.
He had dyed his hair orange.
And it was obvious that he had done it
to try to change his identity.
On September 28th, 2000,
Rafael is officially charged with first-degree kidnapping
and aggravated murder.
I was like in shock. I had
so much anger at Rafael.
It's an anger I can't explain.
Just when police believe they have their man,
the investigation takes another shocking turn.
We had Rafael in custody when his girlfriend showed up
with evidence stating that there is no way
he could have been at the murder scene.
This raised some obvious concerns.
Could it be possible
that Rafael was not involved in Gonzalo's murder?
It came as an absolute surprise.
Police have arrested Rafael Mora
in the death of his sister's - fiancee, Gonzalo Pizano- - Guzman.
But now, Rafael's girlfriend, Cindy,
claims she has an alibi for him on the night of the murder.
Cindy produced a receipt from a auto detailing place
that purported to have dropped off Rafael's vehicle
the night of the murder, and that Rafael was there
and signed for it.
It was presented as a solid piece of evidence
that Rafael was working at the athletic club the night
in question, and they had the receipt to prove it.
And an individual named Cassandra, who owned the company,
had signed off and was going to be an alibi witness.
Checking the validity of the receipt,
police interview Cassandra,
who admits to being a friend of Rafael.
With a little bit of prodding by the investigators,
she finally admitted that in fact the receipt was fake.
She confessed it was all a lie
orchestrated by Rafael.
It was something that she'd dummied up
because Rafael had asked her to.
With Rafael's alibi discredited,
investigators turn up the heat on co-conspirator, Joe Noble.
He told the officers
that he hadn't been completely honest.
He admitted that he was at the parking lot
at the golf course.
He was there when the car was burned.
He admits to kidnap, he admits
to pistol-whipping the victim.
He said that it was Rafael ordering him to do that.
They then picked up Gonzalo, put him in the back
of a Ford white pickup truck.
And then Rafael drove Joe home,
with the victim knocked out in the back of the truck.
But when he last saw Gonzalo, Gonzalo,
albeit knocked out, was still alive.
And then supposedly Rafael would have then driven back out
to Hagg lake and killed Gonzalo.
Detectives have a hard time believing
Joe was not there when Gonzalo was finally killed,
but have no proof.
We had no physical evidence that we could link them
to the crime, and it was frustrating.
Desperate, investigators obtain
security footage from businesses along the route
they believe Rafael and Joe would have taken to
and from the murder.
Something on one of the tapes grabs their attention.
We saw Rafael's pickup pull into the gas station
to get gas.
And lo and behold, there's Joseph Noble getting out
of the white Ford and going into the gas station.
And the timing of the gas station surveillance footage
indicated that would have been probably shortly
after the murder.
Police also obtain a warrant
for Rafael's phone records.
Rafael insisted all along
that he couldn't have committed the murder
because he was miles away cleaning the gym.
And lo and behold, at the time of the murder,
his phone was not bouncing off the nearest tower
to the athletic club.
It was bouncing off the nearest tower to Hagg lake,
which puts him in the area of the murder.
That was huge.
I felt ecstatic because I knew in that moment
that we had him, and it absolutely conclusively meant
that his alibi at the athletic club was false.
This was a big moment
of actually having some physical evidence.
There's a great deal of satisfaction
to having found the truth.
With the new evidence in hand,
prosecutors are confident they can secure a conviction.
And, in 2003, Joe Noble and Rafael Mora
are tried together.
Both were charged with aggravated murder
and with kidnapping in the first degree.
At trial, prosecutors present a picture
of what they believe happened
to Gonzalo the night he was murdered.
Rafael did not want him marrying his sister.
Rafael was determined to have Gonzalo killed.
And so he hatched a plan to get Gonzalo out
to the golf course.
Lured Gonzalo out there with Eddie and Jaime.
After getting out of the car, Gonzalo was beaten,
pistol-whipped, and thrown into the back seat of the pickup.
Rafael or Joe then set the car on fire,
and they proceeded to Hagg lake.
They drove to an isolated spot.
Gonzalo got out of the car.
The gun was pointed at him.
We believe that he was shot multiple times by Joe,
and that Rafael was the one that wanted
to get the final word in,
and stabbed him multiple times in the heart.
On the stand, a witness reveals Rafael bragged
to him about the murder.
That Gonzalo was begging for his life,
that Gonzalo was promising
that he would stop the relationship with Sol,
that he would move to Mexico.
No one deserves to be killed that way.
No one.
It was so senseless.
On April 28th, 2003, the jury finds Rafael
and Joe guilty of Gonzalo's murder.
Joe was sentenced to life with the possibility
of parole after 25 years.
Rafael was sentenced to straight life,
no possibility of parole.
After five years in prison,
Rafael appeals his conviction, arguing ineffective counsel.
The judge decided that this case should go back to trial,
which was a shock to all of us.
Ultimately, the decision was made to allow Rafael
to plead to manslaughter in the first degree.
Rafael's sentence is reduced to 25 years
and 10 months.
With time served, he will be eligible
for early release in 2024.
He had no remorse, he had no guilt.
He's a monster.
What he did to us changed our life forever.
He destroyed us.
Even after everything they've endured,
Gonzalo's family remains inspired by his memory
He was a happy person that wanted everybody around him
to have that same joy, and made sure
that we were always laughing.
Those are the moments that I will always cherish the most.
Gonzalo was one of the most genuine men
that I've known and that I continue to admire.