1 00:00:06,966 --> 00:00:08,968 [ambient street noise] 2 00:00:26,819 --> 00:00:28,821 [subway car rumbling] 3 00:00:38,873 --> 00:00:40,875 [suspenseful music playing] 4 00:00:45,797 --> 00:00:49,842 [woman] My mom worked at Two Rector Street as a cleaning lady. 5 00:00:51,052 --> 00:00:55,014 Her hours were from 5:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. 6 00:00:57,517 --> 00:01:01,145 On July 7th, around 10:30 p.m., 7 00:01:01,229 --> 00:01:04,357 I get a phone call from her coworker Rosa 8 00:01:04,857 --> 00:01:07,527 asking to see if my mom was home. 9 00:01:07,610 --> 00:01:09,654 I said, "What do you mean? My mom is not home." 10 00:01:09,737 --> 00:01:12,365 "Isn't she at work? She's supposed to be at work." 11 00:01:12,448 --> 00:01:13,741 She's like, "No." 12 00:01:14,367 --> 00:01:17,703 They were supposed to take lunch around 7:00 p.m. 13 00:01:18,204 --> 00:01:21,874 So she was curious that her phone was off. 14 00:01:21,958 --> 00:01:24,460 It was going straight to voicemail at that time. 15 00:01:25,378 --> 00:01:28,131 [woman] I called my aunts, my uncles. 16 00:01:28,214 --> 00:01:33,553 We actually agreed to rush to her job to see if we were able to find her. 17 00:01:36,097 --> 00:01:38,975 During the day, I was working in Two Rector as a security guard. 18 00:01:39,851 --> 00:01:42,770 So I went to the floor that she was working on. 19 00:01:44,021 --> 00:01:48,067 And I'm screaming her name throughout the building, the hallways, 20 00:01:48,568 --> 00:01:50,278 and the back of the basement. 21 00:01:51,279 --> 00:01:53,281 I'm trying to listen for anything. 22 00:01:53,364 --> 00:01:54,907 Maybe she was hurt. 23 00:01:54,991 --> 00:01:56,826 Maybe she was somewhere she can't be heard. 24 00:01:58,744 --> 00:02:01,747 People saw her coming in the building obviously, 25 00:02:01,831 --> 00:02:03,166 but we do not see her leave. 26 00:02:06,169 --> 00:02:09,755 [woman] We spoke to the security guard that was there at the moment, 27 00:02:09,839 --> 00:02:14,010 and he said that he didn't see my mom coming out the building. 28 00:02:14,594 --> 00:02:16,679 So then we started calling the police. 29 00:02:18,014 --> 00:02:19,849 She was nowhere to be found. 30 00:02:23,352 --> 00:02:26,147 [Mooney] Every single case takes a piece out of your soul. 31 00:02:28,816 --> 00:02:32,737 [Butcher] You cannot do this job unless you really care. 32 00:02:34,822 --> 00:02:36,824 [McNeely] You want to find out the truth. 33 00:02:38,201 --> 00:02:39,744 That's what detectives do. 34 00:02:40,328 --> 00:02:42,705 [man] I've always liked the peek behind the curtain. 35 00:02:42,788 --> 00:02:44,498 What really happened? 36 00:02:45,041 --> 00:02:48,711 [Rivera] It's so important for a family to know who murdered their relative. 37 00:02:48,794 --> 00:02:49,837 That's my job. 38 00:02:50,463 --> 00:02:54,717 [Titus] In New York City, the NYPD… 39 00:02:57,678 --> 00:02:58,888 this is it. 40 00:02:59,639 --> 00:03:01,641 [suspenseful music trails off] 41 00:03:13,861 --> 00:03:16,239 [Titus] When I'm driving into work every day, 42 00:03:16,322 --> 00:03:17,990 and I'm heading into the city, 43 00:03:18,074 --> 00:03:19,659 you see the whole skyline, 44 00:03:19,742 --> 00:03:22,578 and I would always say to myself, 45 00:03:23,079 --> 00:03:29,669 like, "Wow. I'm in… Homicide detective in NYPD in New York City." 46 00:03:31,754 --> 00:03:35,967 I grew up in a tough area in South Jamaica, Queens. 47 00:03:36,467 --> 00:03:37,802 There was drugs. 48 00:03:37,885 --> 00:03:40,680 There was prostitution. There was gangs. 49 00:03:41,305 --> 00:03:44,267 And it was a decision that I ultimately had to make 50 00:03:44,350 --> 00:03:48,145 that I chose education over the streets 51 00:03:48,229 --> 00:03:50,231 and became a cop. 52 00:03:53,234 --> 00:03:55,236 [low, distressing music playing] 53 00:03:56,821 --> 00:04:02,451 July 8th, 2009, we arrive at work at eight o'clock in the morning. 54 00:04:02,535 --> 00:04:06,330 The phones are ringing like crazy. We're getting calls from the 1st Precinct. 55 00:04:06,414 --> 00:04:08,499 We're getting calls from One Police Plaza. 56 00:04:08,582 --> 00:04:11,836 We're getting calls from the chief of detectives' office. 57 00:04:11,919 --> 00:04:13,629 Everybody's talking about 58 00:04:13,713 --> 00:04:18,801 a missing cleaning woman in the financial district. 59 00:04:21,137 --> 00:04:23,264 I think the public is kinda consumed 60 00:04:23,347 --> 00:04:28,019 with what takes place with the stock market hours in that area. 61 00:04:28,102 --> 00:04:31,188 Like, what goes on, and then the fast pace, 62 00:04:31,272 --> 00:04:34,525 and the great wealth that's transferred, and things like that. 63 00:04:34,608 --> 00:04:39,113 That's the kind of sexy part of it, but you have workers behind the scenes. 64 00:04:39,196 --> 00:04:43,951 After the white-collar crowd went home, there's people that clean. 65 00:04:44,035 --> 00:04:47,288 There's people that mop, there's people that do repairs, 66 00:04:47,371 --> 00:04:49,373 people that have families, 67 00:04:49,457 --> 00:04:53,085 that are working very hard to earn a living. 68 00:04:54,045 --> 00:04:56,881 [man] Detectives responded to Two Rector Street. 69 00:04:56,964 --> 00:05:00,718 We don't have any information at the very beginning. 70 00:05:00,801 --> 00:05:05,264 All we know is that we have somebody who did not return home. 71 00:05:05,348 --> 00:05:07,350 [tense, mysterious music playing] 72 00:05:08,684 --> 00:05:12,563 Outside the building, one of the bosses gathers everybody up 73 00:05:12,646 --> 00:05:15,566 and gives us a brief synopsis of what's going on. 74 00:05:15,649 --> 00:05:21,906 So we find out that the woman missing is a woman named Eridania. 75 00:05:22,865 --> 00:05:24,784 Forty-six years old. 76 00:05:25,493 --> 00:05:28,329 She worked from 5:00 to 11:00. 77 00:05:28,412 --> 00:05:32,291 And at some point during her shift, she vanished. 78 00:05:35,211 --> 00:05:36,712 [man 2] One of the things 79 00:05:36,796 --> 00:05:39,840 that stood out to me when I got to the building 80 00:05:39,924 --> 00:05:43,260 was that this lady's family was down here 81 00:05:43,844 --> 00:05:49,016 within hours of her just not being reachable. 82 00:05:50,559 --> 00:05:56,232 You don't see that a lot in New York City. You can tell they were close-knit. 83 00:05:57,358 --> 00:05:59,819 My sister, she has 17 years over me. 84 00:06:00,403 --> 00:06:03,739 She always came through and helped out taking care of me. 85 00:06:04,615 --> 00:06:07,451 She was a great sister and a great mother. 86 00:06:08,285 --> 00:06:10,871 She would never leave the family. It's impossible. 87 00:06:13,499 --> 00:06:15,751 [McNeely] Her family contended that after she was done, 88 00:06:15,835 --> 00:06:17,336 she would go right home. 89 00:06:17,420 --> 00:06:19,922 So it was, like, very out of the ordinary for her 90 00:06:20,005 --> 00:06:22,967 to leave work without notifying somebody, 91 00:06:23,050 --> 00:06:24,635 particularly her coworker. 92 00:06:25,219 --> 00:06:27,513 So these raised red flags to everyone. 93 00:06:29,640 --> 00:06:33,394 [Martinez] It was very unlike her just to disappear like that. 94 00:06:35,479 --> 00:06:37,356 Not answering her phone calls. 95 00:06:38,357 --> 00:06:40,276 I was very worried. 96 00:06:40,901 --> 00:06:42,570 [suspenseful music playing] 97 00:06:42,653 --> 00:06:47,533 I was working there for a year and a half, and my sister, approximately six months. 98 00:06:48,451 --> 00:06:50,244 I know the building very well. 99 00:06:50,327 --> 00:06:54,832 That evening when she went missing, we was, like, combing the whole building, 100 00:06:54,915 --> 00:06:56,417 floor by floor. 101 00:06:56,917 --> 00:06:58,544 I even went back to the basement 102 00:06:59,712 --> 00:07:01,046 and… and looked up. 103 00:07:01,672 --> 00:07:03,090 I screamed her name… 104 00:07:05,259 --> 00:07:06,927 but it was so quiet. 105 00:07:08,721 --> 00:07:10,723 [erratic, distressing music playing] 106 00:07:16,353 --> 00:07:19,398 [McNeely] The location of where she went missing 107 00:07:19,482 --> 00:07:22,902 is in the heart of the financial district. 108 00:07:22,985 --> 00:07:26,113 So naturally, the police department takes that very seriously. 109 00:07:26,197 --> 00:07:28,991 Any case in Manhattan South, 110 00:07:29,074 --> 00:07:31,577 anything south of 59th Street, 111 00:07:31,660 --> 00:07:34,246 always seems to be amplified. 112 00:07:34,872 --> 00:07:38,167 I knew for sure this thing was gonna get a lot of media attention. 113 00:07:38,250 --> 00:07:42,254 Her coworkers say that she always has dinner with them during their shift, 114 00:07:42,338 --> 00:07:44,965 but the last time they saw her was around eight o'clock, 115 00:07:45,049 --> 00:07:46,967 and she hasn't been seen since. 116 00:07:47,718 --> 00:07:50,304 [McNeely] Basically, you have to do a search of every floor, 117 00:07:50,387 --> 00:07:52,765 and the building needed to be evacuated. 118 00:07:52,848 --> 00:07:54,725 So everybody, all personnel, 119 00:07:54,808 --> 00:07:58,812 the suits, cleaning personnel, elevator operators, 120 00:07:58,896 --> 00:08:02,024 anybody that was in there needed to be out of that building 121 00:08:02,107 --> 00:08:04,109 at the time that this search was conducted. 122 00:08:04,193 --> 00:08:06,654 There could be a dead body in the building, and we don't know. 123 00:08:06,737 --> 00:08:08,197 It's a little scary. 124 00:08:08,280 --> 00:08:12,409 [Titus] One of the things that made the location, Two Rector Street, 125 00:08:12,493 --> 00:08:17,498 so unique for a missing person case 126 00:08:17,581 --> 00:08:22,545 was the fact that it is like a self-contained environment. 127 00:08:22,628 --> 00:08:26,465 So there are only certain ways out, certain ways in, 128 00:08:26,549 --> 00:08:28,634 and everything else is just up. 129 00:08:30,344 --> 00:08:34,056 It's definitely a daunting task to search that building 130 00:08:34,139 --> 00:08:35,724 for anyone or anything, 131 00:08:35,808 --> 00:08:39,353 because it goes up 26 floors. 132 00:08:42,022 --> 00:08:43,899 It was an all-hands-on-deck. 133 00:08:44,525 --> 00:08:47,152 Detectives were brought in from other commands to help. 134 00:08:47,236 --> 00:08:50,030 Not just the homicide squad and 1st Precinct detective squad. 135 00:08:50,114 --> 00:08:53,117 There were detectives from Midtown South, Midtown North. 136 00:08:53,617 --> 00:08:55,286 [Titus] Everybody is involved. 137 00:08:55,369 --> 00:08:58,497 But on top of that, you have helicopters in the air. 138 00:09:00,916 --> 00:09:05,004 This was a comprehensive sweep of the entire building, top to bottom, 139 00:09:05,087 --> 00:09:06,422 every nook and cranny. 140 00:09:06,505 --> 00:09:12,469 When they went into her locker, we found her purse was still there. 141 00:09:14,430 --> 00:09:16,724 I had a mom and four sisters. 142 00:09:16,807 --> 00:09:19,059 And they don't go anywhere without that purse. 143 00:09:19,935 --> 00:09:22,271 Basically a… an appendage. 144 00:09:22,354 --> 00:09:25,274 So it definitely set off bells and whistles. 145 00:09:25,357 --> 00:09:27,276 [tense, unnerving music playing] 146 00:09:27,359 --> 00:09:30,154 [Titus] And then her pushcart and hair clip 147 00:09:30,237 --> 00:09:32,531 were found on the eighth floor. 148 00:09:34,241 --> 00:09:37,286 What was the purpose of it being on the floor? 149 00:09:37,369 --> 00:09:39,872 Uh, you know, was there a struggle? 150 00:09:39,955 --> 00:09:43,667 Maybe it's some kind of a sexual assault type of thing, 151 00:09:43,751 --> 00:09:45,669 and the person is holding her hostage. 152 00:09:47,838 --> 00:09:49,465 We need to speak to people. 153 00:09:49,548 --> 00:09:53,844 We need to know employees of the building who work for the building itself. 154 00:09:53,927 --> 00:09:57,139 Who was there during Eridania's shift? 155 00:09:58,432 --> 00:10:00,601 [McNeely] The people working in the building at the time, 156 00:10:00,684 --> 00:10:05,147 I would categorize them all as witnesses, 157 00:10:05,230 --> 00:10:07,691 or people of interest, if you will. 158 00:10:08,609 --> 00:10:10,986 [Titus] There's a lot of different things playing in our mind, 159 00:10:11,070 --> 00:10:13,697 but we do know that time is of the essence. 160 00:10:13,781 --> 00:10:17,743 The longer it takes us to find her, the less likely she'll be alive. 161 00:10:17,826 --> 00:10:19,828 [dramatic music playing] 162 00:10:22,831 --> 00:10:25,959 [Titus] We knew that if she left the building, 163 00:10:26,043 --> 00:10:30,297 she would be captured by one of the many videos at one of the entrances. 164 00:10:31,548 --> 00:10:35,678 [Vergona] There are 32 cameras that were in this building. 165 00:10:35,761 --> 00:10:39,264 So 32 cameras at eight hours a clip that you want to review, 166 00:10:39,348 --> 00:10:43,602 that you want to look at, is a really tedious act to do. 167 00:10:44,937 --> 00:10:47,523 So we sent in our best guy. 168 00:10:49,441 --> 00:10:52,444 Brian MacLeod, known as the "Video God." 169 00:10:53,237 --> 00:10:55,197 [Vergona] He's a fantastic detective. 170 00:10:55,280 --> 00:11:00,077 Brian's… a very quirky fella. 171 00:11:00,160 --> 00:11:01,620 It's an important job. 172 00:11:02,121 --> 00:11:05,249 Not everybody can do it, and deal with what we deal with. 173 00:11:05,332 --> 00:11:08,711 -[fly buzzing] -This… I'm gonna squash that fly. 174 00:11:08,794 --> 00:11:10,671 [laughing] 175 00:11:12,047 --> 00:11:13,048 [McNeely] Brian's intense. 176 00:11:13,132 --> 00:11:16,802 When he gets focused, he liked to put his headphones in, 177 00:11:16,885 --> 00:11:19,096 and he'd listen to heavy metal music. 178 00:11:19,179 --> 00:11:20,973 [heavy metal rock playing] 179 00:11:21,056 --> 00:11:21,974 [MacLeod] Headbanger? 180 00:11:22,057 --> 00:11:24,893 Well, when I was younger, I had a mullet, so… 181 00:11:24,977 --> 00:11:26,353 [laughs] 182 00:11:27,104 --> 00:11:30,357 I always had my heavy metal music going at work all day. 183 00:11:32,401 --> 00:11:35,612 [Titus] He just has the patience and the diligence 184 00:11:35,696 --> 00:11:39,658 to just stay there and… and stare at a screen for hours. 185 00:11:40,784 --> 00:11:43,036 We knew that if she left the building, 186 00:11:43,120 --> 00:11:47,541 he was gonna find her or anything else that may have looked suspicious. 187 00:11:48,584 --> 00:11:50,169 You don't wanna miss something. 188 00:11:50,252 --> 00:11:52,504 All you need's that one frame. You're gonna miss something. 189 00:11:52,588 --> 00:11:54,298 [fly buzzing] 190 00:11:55,507 --> 00:11:56,800 I got it. 191 00:11:56,884 --> 00:11:58,886 [menacing music playing] 192 00:12:01,722 --> 00:12:03,348 [MacLeod] It's boring. 193 00:12:03,432 --> 00:12:05,142 It's time-consuming. 194 00:12:06,518 --> 00:12:08,270 It strains on your eyes. 195 00:12:08,979 --> 00:12:11,106 But I just had the patience for it. 196 00:12:14,193 --> 00:12:16,737 Eridania is seen getting onto an elevator 197 00:12:16,820 --> 00:12:19,448 to go to the upper floors to start her shift. 198 00:12:20,199 --> 00:12:24,578 Think it was roughly, uh, 5:12 p.m. 199 00:12:25,078 --> 00:12:27,831 But she's not seen again. She's not seen again on camera. 200 00:12:27,915 --> 00:12:31,126 She's not seen getting off the elevator at any other time, 201 00:12:31,210 --> 00:12:33,587 and she's not seen leaving that building. 202 00:12:35,964 --> 00:12:37,132 Where is she? 203 00:12:37,216 --> 00:12:39,218 [tense music playing] 204 00:12:40,928 --> 00:12:44,014 [Titus] In order to understand her better, 205 00:12:44,097 --> 00:12:47,601 you do a complete background, find out about relationships, 206 00:12:47,684 --> 00:12:50,145 whether they had financial troubles, 207 00:12:50,229 --> 00:12:53,315 everything you can about the, uh… the victim. 208 00:12:54,775 --> 00:13:00,072 We found out from the family that Eridania was from the Dominican Republic. 209 00:13:00,155 --> 00:13:02,950 My mother was born in Santo Domingo 210 00:13:03,742 --> 00:13:07,287 and came to the United States in 1973. 211 00:13:08,080 --> 00:13:12,167 She married my father, Jeronimo Figueroa, 212 00:13:12,835 --> 00:13:15,128 and she had three kids. 213 00:13:15,963 --> 00:13:21,218 She actually stopped going to school to basically take care of us. 214 00:13:21,301 --> 00:13:23,136 [somber, touching music playing] 215 00:13:23,220 --> 00:13:24,972 [Martinez] She was a matriarch herself. 216 00:13:25,055 --> 00:13:28,350 Her cooking, it was unbeatable. 217 00:13:28,976 --> 00:13:33,230 I always looked forward to it on Thanksgiving, New Year's, and Christmas. 218 00:13:34,022 --> 00:13:37,401 It didn't matter what it was, she always wanted the family together. 219 00:13:39,027 --> 00:13:41,655 This brought back memories of my mom. 220 00:13:41,738 --> 00:13:45,826 She was an immigrant herself from Panama 221 00:13:45,909 --> 00:13:49,204 and found little jobs until she got her feet planted 222 00:13:49,288 --> 00:13:53,876 to provide for the family and make sure that we had everything we need. 223 00:13:55,252 --> 00:13:58,630 I can imagine something happening to my mother 224 00:13:58,714 --> 00:14:01,300 and how I would have to deal with that. 225 00:14:01,383 --> 00:14:03,677 It just made the case very personal. 226 00:14:05,637 --> 00:14:07,389 [Figueroa] I wasn't thinking right. 227 00:14:08,473 --> 00:14:11,226 I was depressed at that moment. I was panicking. 228 00:14:11,310 --> 00:14:15,230 I was just praying to God that my mom will walk in any minute. 229 00:14:15,314 --> 00:14:17,316 [mysterious music playing] 230 00:14:20,152 --> 00:14:23,572 With Eridania, we found out that she was divorced 231 00:14:23,655 --> 00:14:26,783 and later reconnected with her ex-husband. 232 00:14:27,910 --> 00:14:29,870 So we talked to her family. 233 00:14:30,996 --> 00:14:34,374 He was not down at… at Two Rector Street. 234 00:14:34,458 --> 00:14:37,544 So in the back of my head, I was thinking, "Why isn't he here 235 00:14:37,628 --> 00:14:40,964 if the daughters are all here, the brother is here?" 236 00:14:41,048 --> 00:14:43,258 He is our very first suspect, 237 00:14:43,842 --> 00:14:47,471 and we need to interview him, find out what he knows. 238 00:14:47,554 --> 00:14:49,514 [tense, curious music playing] 239 00:14:49,598 --> 00:14:54,937 Besides the husband, the family said several days earlier 240 00:14:55,020 --> 00:14:57,105 that Eridania was 241 00:14:57,189 --> 00:15:02,653 what she thought was being stalked by someone that worked in the building. 242 00:15:02,736 --> 00:15:04,196 [erratic music playing] 243 00:15:04,780 --> 00:15:07,282 [Martinez] My sister said she had a couple of bad vibes. 244 00:15:07,366 --> 00:15:09,326 She mentioned one guy looking at her 245 00:15:10,035 --> 00:15:13,497 when she was taking the elevator to the floors to clean. 246 00:15:14,206 --> 00:15:18,835 The news reporter came into the house to interview us. 247 00:15:18,919 --> 00:15:22,381 [reporter] Her kids say her mom was nervous about a man 248 00:15:22,464 --> 00:15:25,926 who worked also in that Rector Street office building 249 00:15:26,009 --> 00:15:28,261 and who she believed was stalking her. 250 00:15:28,345 --> 00:15:31,390 He would look at her weird, and she was nervous. 251 00:15:31,473 --> 00:15:34,184 So while she was cleaning, he used to stare at her. 252 00:15:34,267 --> 00:15:37,896 She said that someone was making her scared, following her. 253 00:15:39,189 --> 00:15:41,233 [Vergona] The person did it two times, 254 00:15:41,858 --> 00:15:44,736 but Eridania's daughter had told us 255 00:15:44,820 --> 00:15:48,031 that a couple of days prior to her being missing, 256 00:15:48,115 --> 00:15:50,283 he tried to speak to her again. 257 00:15:50,367 --> 00:15:53,954 Obviously, the family is very scared about the situation. 258 00:15:54,037 --> 00:15:58,166 She was very upset and worried about the situation 259 00:15:58,250 --> 00:15:59,793 that she mentioned it to her family. 260 00:15:59,876 --> 00:16:02,879 I told her give me a chance to try to get her another job. 261 00:16:02,963 --> 00:16:04,548 And she's like, "Okay." 262 00:16:04,631 --> 00:16:07,718 If it doesn't work in a week, she was gonna leave. 263 00:16:07,801 --> 00:16:09,803 [tense music pulsing] 264 00:16:10,846 --> 00:16:15,142 It was something she was willing to quit her job about because she felt unsafe. 265 00:16:15,225 --> 00:16:18,103 And the fact that it happened multiple times… 266 00:16:18,687 --> 00:16:21,231 Would he assault her, take her, abduct her? 267 00:16:21,982 --> 00:16:24,109 How far is this guy willing to go? 268 00:16:24,192 --> 00:16:28,238 Knowing that the stalker knows the layout of the building, 269 00:16:28,321 --> 00:16:30,907 and the exits and entrances of the building. 270 00:16:30,991 --> 00:16:33,785 It's somebody that was there daily 271 00:16:33,869 --> 00:16:37,080 and knew where people went at what times, 272 00:16:37,164 --> 00:16:40,042 what time the building shut down, what time it opened up, 273 00:16:40,125 --> 00:16:42,419 who was where, when. 274 00:16:43,628 --> 00:16:45,047 It became very important 275 00:16:45,130 --> 00:16:47,924 to identify this person as soon as possible. 276 00:16:49,509 --> 00:16:51,261 [McNeely] While we're looking for that guy, 277 00:16:51,344 --> 00:16:54,514 detectives were dispatched to interview Eridania's husband 278 00:16:54,598 --> 00:16:57,642 and verify his whereabouts. 279 00:16:57,726 --> 00:16:59,311 [officer knocking on door] 280 00:16:59,394 --> 00:17:03,940 His story was that he was working that evening until about eight o'clock, 281 00:17:04,024 --> 00:17:06,818 at which time he went home to their apartment. 282 00:17:06,902 --> 00:17:11,281 He was the only one that stayed home to see if she was to come home. 283 00:17:12,282 --> 00:17:16,453 The detectives were able to verify his whereabouts and, uh, put it to bed. 284 00:17:17,370 --> 00:17:19,206 [Vergona] At this time, we were confident 285 00:17:19,289 --> 00:17:23,919 that he had nothing to do with the disappearance of Eridania. 286 00:17:24,419 --> 00:17:26,046 [low, distressful music playing] 287 00:17:26,129 --> 00:17:29,633 [McNeely] Meanwhile, we were able to contact the stalker. 288 00:17:30,133 --> 00:17:33,678 We brought him upstairs to the squad, put him in the interview room. 289 00:17:33,762 --> 00:17:38,016 He claimed that he was playing ping-pong with friends 290 00:17:38,100 --> 00:17:40,644 that evening when Eridania was at work. 291 00:17:40,727 --> 00:17:45,273 And all those people that he claimed participated in that event, 292 00:17:45,357 --> 00:17:49,736 that were with him, were interviewed too, thoroughly and in detail. 293 00:17:49,820 --> 00:17:54,074 And they were able to rule him out as any particular person of interest. 294 00:17:56,660 --> 00:17:58,662 [suspenseful music playing] 295 00:17:59,788 --> 00:18:01,957 Now we needed to really step up our efforts 296 00:18:02,040 --> 00:18:03,792 and try and locate Eridania, 297 00:18:03,875 --> 00:18:06,294 meticulously, with K9 units. 298 00:18:06,795 --> 00:18:09,798 [Titus] Everybody knows that when they bring in K9, 299 00:18:09,881 --> 00:18:11,842 if there's something there, they're gonna find it. 300 00:18:12,425 --> 00:18:15,595 [Vergona] The K9 dogs, as they came through the 14th floor, 301 00:18:15,679 --> 00:18:18,723 they had two hits in the utility room, 302 00:18:18,807 --> 00:18:23,311 which houses the air conditioning system and the heating system for the unit. 303 00:18:24,646 --> 00:18:26,439 [McNeely] They had emergency service personnel, 304 00:18:26,523 --> 00:18:30,402 everybody that you can imagine, focusing now on that floor. 305 00:18:31,319 --> 00:18:34,739 We were just waiting for the notification that they found something, 306 00:18:34,823 --> 00:18:36,241 something that we could use, 307 00:18:36,324 --> 00:18:39,369 something that would tell us more than what we already had. 308 00:18:40,912 --> 00:18:44,124 It was a false hit with the K9 unit. 309 00:18:44,207 --> 00:18:46,209 [distressing music playing] 310 00:18:46,960 --> 00:18:48,295 It's very frustrating. 311 00:18:48,378 --> 00:18:51,965 And you feel for the family because you know that they're just… 312 00:18:52,048 --> 00:18:55,385 You know, every day that goes by, every hour that goes by, 313 00:18:55,468 --> 00:18:57,888 their hope is shrinking too, you know? 314 00:19:00,932 --> 00:19:03,310 [Martinez] For every second that was passing, every minute, 315 00:19:03,894 --> 00:19:07,522 the family is just getting, like, overwhelmed. 316 00:19:07,606 --> 00:19:11,109 Everybody's scared. Nobody's eating. 317 00:19:12,736 --> 00:19:13,570 Like… 318 00:19:14,154 --> 00:19:15,697 Everybody fears the worst. 319 00:19:15,780 --> 00:19:17,782 [frantic music playing] 320 00:19:17,866 --> 00:19:19,868 [sirens wailing in distance] 321 00:19:23,788 --> 00:19:27,834 [MacLeod] There were so many cameras. Hundreds of hours' worth of this video. 322 00:19:28,501 --> 00:19:30,045 I've spent hours at work 323 00:19:30,128 --> 00:19:33,673 watching that video surveillance over and over and over. 324 00:19:33,757 --> 00:19:37,302 Make absolutely sure that nothing was being missed. 325 00:19:37,385 --> 00:19:40,555 I'm lookin' for evidence, anything that's suspicious. 326 00:19:41,139 --> 00:19:44,809 And the only individual that was, um… 327 00:19:44,893 --> 00:19:48,355 his behavior was a little off, was the maintenance guy. 328 00:19:51,650 --> 00:19:55,904 You see him workin' the freight elevator. Then you see him in the basement. 329 00:19:56,488 --> 00:19:59,282 You see him walking to his maintenance room, 330 00:19:59,366 --> 00:20:01,952 which is also like his locker area. 331 00:20:02,452 --> 00:20:06,206 Followed every single camera that he was pictured on 332 00:20:06,289 --> 00:20:08,083 while he was in that building. 333 00:20:08,166 --> 00:20:12,754 And he… he disappeared for quite a few minutes. 334 00:20:13,880 --> 00:20:16,967 It may have been like 45 minutes or so. 335 00:20:17,050 --> 00:20:19,844 And then all of a sudden, a little after 8:00, 336 00:20:19,928 --> 00:20:21,888 he's spotted in the basement. 337 00:20:22,681 --> 00:20:26,017 But he's not caught on camera comin' from the elevators 338 00:20:26,101 --> 00:20:29,062 either in the basement or in the lobby. 339 00:20:29,145 --> 00:20:31,982 The only way he could have gotten there was from the stairwell. 340 00:20:32,065 --> 00:20:34,067 [menacing music playing] 341 00:20:35,819 --> 00:20:40,365 His behavior on camera was like, "Hmm, what is going on here?" 342 00:20:40,949 --> 00:20:44,202 We're very suspicious of what is up. 343 00:20:44,286 --> 00:20:46,830 Now we felt it necessary to get him in. 344 00:20:46,913 --> 00:20:52,043 He was definitely now a person of interest with regard to Eridania's whereabouts. 345 00:20:52,127 --> 00:20:54,087 That person was Joseph Pabon. 346 00:20:55,547 --> 00:20:59,217 I called him, and he said okay, he would talk to us. 347 00:20:59,301 --> 00:21:02,220 So what I wanted to do was go back to the precinct 348 00:21:02,304 --> 00:21:04,556 so we can get into a more controlled environment. 349 00:21:04,639 --> 00:21:06,641 [suspenseful music playing] 350 00:21:09,436 --> 00:21:11,604 [Vergona] Now, when Joseph Pabon came in, 351 00:21:11,688 --> 00:21:14,607 he had said he was working the freight elevator, 352 00:21:14,691 --> 00:21:16,943 and he was taking the cleaning ladies, 353 00:21:17,027 --> 00:21:20,780 dropping them off at the floors that they were scheduled to clean at. 354 00:21:20,864 --> 00:21:24,909 He explained that he dropped her off on the 8th floor… 355 00:21:27,454 --> 00:21:31,082 which is where they found her cart and hair clip. 356 00:21:31,583 --> 00:21:33,543 And that was the last time he saw her. 357 00:21:33,626 --> 00:21:35,628 [unnerving, erratic music playing] 358 00:21:37,547 --> 00:21:38,381 It was July. 359 00:21:38,465 --> 00:21:42,427 You know, you could sweat in an igloo. It was so hot. 360 00:21:42,510 --> 00:21:45,638 I have to wear a suit because I'm a New York City detective. 361 00:21:45,722 --> 00:21:51,853 If I could have a pair of flip-flops on and a bathing suit and, you know… 362 00:21:51,936 --> 00:21:52,771 I'm all-in. 363 00:21:53,605 --> 00:21:55,357 But he was wearing a… 364 00:21:55,440 --> 00:21:59,194 Like a thermal long-sleeve shirt and a T-shirt over it. 365 00:21:59,277 --> 00:22:03,490 And I'm thinkin', you know, "This… This kid's out of his mind." 366 00:22:03,573 --> 00:22:06,993 "He's dressed for a snowball fight, and it's July." 367 00:22:07,077 --> 00:22:10,914 And that just kept bothering me the whole time I was talking to him. 368 00:22:10,997 --> 00:22:14,417 Then I said, "Take your shirt off." We made him take his shirt off. 369 00:22:17,379 --> 00:22:19,297 He had scratches on the back of his shoulders, 370 00:22:19,381 --> 00:22:21,466 his neck, other parts of his torso. 371 00:22:21,549 --> 00:22:24,511 And I asked him, "How can you explain them?" 372 00:22:24,594 --> 00:22:29,099 And he said that, on the Tuesday evening that Eridania was reported missing, 373 00:22:29,182 --> 00:22:32,352 he was charged with operating the freight elevator 374 00:22:32,435 --> 00:22:34,854 to take this construction crew up and down. 375 00:22:35,355 --> 00:22:40,610 He claimed that he was helping them off with these carts with rebar and framing. 376 00:22:40,693 --> 00:22:45,365 So, I'm like, "You're a 32BJ guy. You're a union guy, right?" 377 00:22:45,448 --> 00:22:46,533 He's like, "Yeah." 378 00:22:46,616 --> 00:22:49,869 And my knowledge is, coming from a family that… 379 00:22:49,953 --> 00:22:52,080 Union family, people in different unions, 380 00:22:52,163 --> 00:22:57,502 I know if you're tasked with a job and you do another job, you're in trouble. 381 00:22:57,585 --> 00:23:02,465 You don't touch anything other than that elevator lever or pressing a button. 382 00:23:03,049 --> 00:23:06,761 I was like, "And you helped these guys on and off with carts?" 383 00:23:06,845 --> 00:23:11,349 So, to me, that was unfathomable. I didn't believe that at all for a second. 384 00:23:11,433 --> 00:23:13,518 [mysterious, disturbing music playing] 385 00:23:13,601 --> 00:23:15,520 [Vergona] I tried to implore to him, 386 00:23:15,603 --> 00:23:18,690 "If you did something with her, or she's somewhere in the building, 387 00:23:18,773 --> 00:23:21,109 let us know where. We'll go get her." 388 00:23:21,192 --> 00:23:24,237 "And maybe we could bring her back to her family." 389 00:23:25,029 --> 00:23:29,451 And he just maintained that he didn't do anything. 390 00:23:30,452 --> 00:23:34,289 We interviewed him a good 14 hours at that point. 391 00:23:34,372 --> 00:23:38,418 We asked him, "Do you mind giving your DNA?" 392 00:23:40,211 --> 00:23:42,839 And he was okay with giving his DNA. 393 00:23:42,922 --> 00:23:44,257 He swabbed himself. 394 00:23:44,966 --> 00:23:49,429 He was not admitting to any kind of criminal activity or anything like that. 395 00:23:49,512 --> 00:23:52,265 So we were forced to let him go. 396 00:23:57,604 --> 00:23:59,689 [Vergona] We don't have a body to charge him, 397 00:23:59,772 --> 00:24:04,319 but I made it known to my supervisors that we believe that 398 00:24:04,402 --> 00:24:08,031 this guy right now is the number one person of interest. 399 00:24:09,449 --> 00:24:13,244 And at that time, we started following Joseph Pabon 400 00:24:13,328 --> 00:24:15,580 and watching his whereabouts 401 00:24:15,663 --> 00:24:18,708 because, possibly, he could have her somewhere. 402 00:24:18,791 --> 00:24:21,169 He could have her at his house. 403 00:24:21,252 --> 00:24:25,131 He could have her, uh, at another building or another site. 404 00:24:26,549 --> 00:24:29,844 We put a couple of detectives on him to follow him around 405 00:24:29,928 --> 00:24:33,556 and just to keep up with his whereabouts. 406 00:24:34,098 --> 00:24:38,895 We wanted to provide 24-hour surveillance on Pabon. 407 00:24:38,978 --> 00:24:40,688 So we set up different shifts. 408 00:24:40,772 --> 00:24:44,025 If he made a right, I made a right. He made a left, I made a left. 409 00:24:44,108 --> 00:24:47,487 When he went into a diner, if he stayed in there too long, 410 00:24:47,570 --> 00:24:50,532 we sent someone in to make sure he was still there, 411 00:24:50,615 --> 00:24:54,160 and we weren't trying to be inconspicuous. 412 00:24:54,244 --> 00:24:57,872 We had no problem with him knowing that we were following him. 413 00:24:57,956 --> 00:25:01,501 It was like cat-and-mouse game, us against him. 414 00:25:01,584 --> 00:25:03,002 We weren't gonna lose this. 415 00:25:03,086 --> 00:25:05,088 [sirens wailing in distance] 416 00:25:06,756 --> 00:25:09,384 We've been looking for her for a couple days now. 417 00:25:09,467 --> 00:25:11,344 We can't find her on the video. 418 00:25:11,427 --> 00:25:14,097 We can't find her actually leaving the building. 419 00:25:15,390 --> 00:25:17,809 [Titus] We'd looked at every nook and cranny of the building 420 00:25:17,892 --> 00:25:20,895 from top to bottom, and couldn't find her. 421 00:25:21,437 --> 00:25:24,816 It's like… It's just not making sense at this point. 422 00:25:25,858 --> 00:25:29,362 So now, not only did we feel deflated, 423 00:25:29,445 --> 00:25:33,741 but that also made our jobs a whole lot more difficult. 424 00:25:33,825 --> 00:25:38,121 That means that instead of just Two Rector Street being the place 425 00:25:38,204 --> 00:25:41,416 where all of the investigation was gonna take place, 426 00:25:41,499 --> 00:25:43,293 it now became New York City. 427 00:25:44,586 --> 00:25:47,338 It just became even bigger. 428 00:25:47,422 --> 00:25:51,884 That means more resources and a wider-scale investigation. 429 00:25:51,968 --> 00:25:53,845 Because she could be anywhere. 430 00:25:53,928 --> 00:25:55,471 [frantic music swelling] 431 00:25:55,555 --> 00:25:59,392 We decided to expand the video canvass, or surveillance canvass. 432 00:26:00,184 --> 00:26:03,646 [MacLeod] Do we see her going up Trinity Street? 433 00:26:04,147 --> 00:26:06,357 Do we see her walking up Greenwich Street? 434 00:26:06,441 --> 00:26:09,527 Do we see her walking down Rector Street, east or west? 435 00:26:09,611 --> 00:26:12,322 But that wasn't fruitful. 436 00:26:12,405 --> 00:26:14,991 That didn't… We didn't see her. 437 00:26:17,785 --> 00:26:20,913 [Vergona] "How come I can't find them? What am I missin'?" 438 00:26:21,414 --> 00:26:23,166 "What are we missin' as a collective?" 439 00:26:23,249 --> 00:26:25,710 Because there's so many of us workin' this case. 440 00:26:27,003 --> 00:26:30,214 [McNeely] During the search, a bit north of Rector Street was a store, 441 00:26:30,298 --> 00:26:36,304 and we found video of Joseph Pabon from Tuesday when Eridania went missing. 442 00:26:36,387 --> 00:26:38,389 We were able to get the receipt from the vendor 443 00:26:38,473 --> 00:26:43,728 that Joseph Pabon had purchased alcohol inside that establishment. 444 00:26:44,687 --> 00:26:48,650 Possibly Eridania stumbled upon him drinking. 445 00:26:49,734 --> 00:26:55,114 Maybe a verbal dispute ensued, and he made it physical. 446 00:26:56,199 --> 00:26:58,076 I like to call it an "oh shit" moment. 447 00:26:58,159 --> 00:27:01,829 Like, "Now I gotta cover this up." So it's reactive. 448 00:27:02,497 --> 00:27:05,333 But we didn't have probable cause to arrest him. 449 00:27:05,416 --> 00:27:07,210 [Titus] We still don't have a body. 450 00:27:07,293 --> 00:27:10,046 We still don't have an actual crime. 451 00:27:10,129 --> 00:27:13,383 We're gonna just continue following him like… like we have been. 452 00:27:13,466 --> 00:27:15,468 [mysterious music playing] 453 00:27:23,726 --> 00:27:28,439 We are now looking at areas where a body could be dumped, 454 00:27:28,523 --> 00:27:31,150 rather than where a person could run off to. 455 00:27:31,234 --> 00:27:36,781 We thought that maybe she was put into one of the trash containers. 456 00:27:36,864 --> 00:27:40,118 And they are taken away by a private sanitation company. 457 00:27:42,620 --> 00:27:44,664 We sent detectives out to Pennsylvania 458 00:27:44,747 --> 00:27:48,209 to sift through the area in which they dumped all their trash. 459 00:27:48,292 --> 00:27:50,211 [somber, pensive music playing] 460 00:27:54,173 --> 00:27:56,509 [reporter] The family's been through every emotion this week. 461 00:27:56,592 --> 00:28:00,388 An exhaustive search ensued earlier when police scoured a landfill 462 00:28:00,471 --> 00:28:03,349 in Pennsylvania where garbage is dumped from the building. 463 00:28:03,433 --> 00:28:04,767 I couldn't believe it. 464 00:28:05,560 --> 00:28:07,103 My mom was not garbage. 465 00:28:09,230 --> 00:28:12,942 I was just thinking, "Oh my God, can my mom be there?" 466 00:28:15,236 --> 00:28:16,362 Horrible… 467 00:28:17,989 --> 00:28:20,074 if someone can do that to her. 468 00:28:21,701 --> 00:28:24,662 At the end of the day, there was no Eridania Rodriguez, 469 00:28:24,746 --> 00:28:26,539 and there was no more evidence 470 00:28:27,123 --> 00:28:30,501 that we could use to try and find Eridania Rodriguez. 471 00:28:30,585 --> 00:28:35,465 Since they said nobody was found there, I had a little bit of hope again. 472 00:28:36,257 --> 00:28:38,801 Forty-six-year-old Eridania Rodriguez has not been seen. 473 00:28:38,885 --> 00:28:41,262 [reporter 2] Police now believe she is likely dead. 474 00:28:41,345 --> 00:28:45,057 Right now, the family is going through it. We're waiting for answers. 475 00:28:45,141 --> 00:28:48,186 It turned into a big story. And when you have a big story, 476 00:28:48,269 --> 00:28:53,441 and you got the press askin', you know, the police department, 477 00:28:53,524 --> 00:28:54,984 "What's going on here?" 478 00:28:55,067 --> 00:28:58,863 There was a lot of frustration. Like, "Where the fuck is she?" 479 00:29:00,364 --> 00:29:01,783 [Titus] The pressure was on. 480 00:29:02,283 --> 00:29:04,994 So many resources were put on this case 481 00:29:05,077 --> 00:29:08,706 that it could not be sustained at that level. 482 00:29:08,790 --> 00:29:11,417 Other detectives had to get back to their cases. 483 00:29:11,501 --> 00:29:13,586 Cops have to patrol the streets. 484 00:29:13,669 --> 00:29:17,799 The department was gonna start pulling resources away from this 485 00:29:17,882 --> 00:29:19,634 to go to other things. 486 00:29:20,343 --> 00:29:22,595 Not only aren't we solving the case, 487 00:29:22,678 --> 00:29:25,765 but it doesn't look good for NYPD. 488 00:29:29,227 --> 00:29:32,688 [MacLeod] Now we start getting a little bit of heat from our bosses. 489 00:29:33,189 --> 00:29:35,191 We're like, "Shit," you know? 490 00:29:35,817 --> 00:29:38,986 Chief Matarazzo, who was the chief of detectives of Manhattan, 491 00:29:39,070 --> 00:29:40,488 had us all in a meeting. 492 00:29:40,571 --> 00:29:43,449 And at one point, Chief Matarazzo turned to me and goes, 493 00:29:43,533 --> 00:29:47,203 "Hey, John. Well, you know, what's going on?" 494 00:29:47,745 --> 00:29:50,498 You know, "What do you think? Where is she?" 495 00:29:51,165 --> 00:29:54,710 I just turned to him and said, "She's gotta be still in the building." 496 00:29:54,794 --> 00:29:56,796 [unnerving music playing] 497 00:29:58,464 --> 00:30:01,634 He goes, "Let's get another canvass on that building." 498 00:30:01,717 --> 00:30:03,719 [frantic music pulsing] 499 00:30:06,639 --> 00:30:10,518 Here we go again, searchin' this building. She did not leave this building. 500 00:30:11,102 --> 00:30:14,522 "Get in there. Find out where the hell she went." 501 00:30:14,605 --> 00:30:18,526 And they called in ten sergeants and 100 officers 502 00:30:19,110 --> 00:30:22,613 to search every nook and cranny of that building, 503 00:30:23,281 --> 00:30:24,407 floor by floor. 504 00:30:25,449 --> 00:30:27,034 [Titus] We were all invested. 505 00:30:27,118 --> 00:30:31,664 We spent so much time with the family, with the… the whole case. 506 00:30:31,747 --> 00:30:34,417 So we all wanted it to be a positive outcome. 507 00:30:36,794 --> 00:30:39,171 Unfortunately, that's not what happened. 508 00:30:39,797 --> 00:30:43,009 I got a phone call from a detective in the 9th Precinct. 509 00:30:43,092 --> 00:30:46,637 He said, "John, I'm on the 12th floor. I just got off the elevator." 510 00:30:46,721 --> 00:30:47,722 [dog barks faintly] 511 00:30:49,098 --> 00:30:50,892 "You're gonna wanna come up here." 512 00:30:51,517 --> 00:30:54,979 [MacLeod] Floor number 12 was under construction. 513 00:30:55,062 --> 00:30:59,775 Bare-bone walls, you know, just concrete. No Sheetrock, no furniture. 514 00:31:01,527 --> 00:31:03,195 [Vergona] When I got off the elevator, 515 00:31:04,196 --> 00:31:06,490 the smell on the floor is the smell of death. 516 00:31:07,617 --> 00:31:10,953 And the detective was like, "Take a look inside." 517 00:31:12,246 --> 00:31:14,332 And I can see, um, 518 00:31:15,041 --> 00:31:18,628 some blood and residue 519 00:31:18,711 --> 00:31:20,630 coming from the air conditioning duct. 520 00:31:21,881 --> 00:31:24,258 We had ESU and Crime Scene come. 521 00:31:24,759 --> 00:31:27,345 And we opened up the air-conditioning duct, 522 00:31:28,095 --> 00:31:29,263 and she was inside. 523 00:31:29,347 --> 00:31:31,349 [low, haunting music playing] 524 00:31:32,892 --> 00:31:35,102 Now you know you for sure have a homicide. 525 00:31:36,687 --> 00:31:37,939 The original search, 526 00:31:38,022 --> 00:31:41,317 those dogs weren't making up the scent they were getting. 527 00:31:41,984 --> 00:31:44,320 The air was passing and rising. 528 00:31:44,904 --> 00:31:47,448 On the second search, that air duct was shut off, 529 00:31:47,531 --> 00:31:52,328 and the air stayed stagnant where Eridania was found on the 12th floor. 530 00:31:52,411 --> 00:31:54,747 Unfortunately, there was decomposition, 531 00:31:55,247 --> 00:31:59,752 which made physical identification, uh… impossible. 532 00:32:00,753 --> 00:32:04,715 But we can make assumptions at that point that it was Eridania. 533 00:32:06,217 --> 00:32:11,681 She was bound, hogtied, hands behind her back, mouth duct-taped. 534 00:32:11,764 --> 00:32:14,183 The duct tape, I remember, wasn't typical duct tape. 535 00:32:14,266 --> 00:32:17,353 It was almost like a caution tape. Yellow and black. 536 00:32:17,436 --> 00:32:22,566 Oddly enough, Eridania had a crucifix that she wore around her neck, 537 00:32:22,650 --> 00:32:25,152 and it was in her mouth. 538 00:32:25,236 --> 00:32:27,071 There was a lot of people theorizing 539 00:32:27,154 --> 00:32:31,117 that it might have been some sort of a ritualistic intent. 540 00:32:31,826 --> 00:32:34,662 When you think about doing that to a person, and… 541 00:32:35,538 --> 00:32:38,624 Man. He put her in the air conditioning duct. 542 00:32:38,708 --> 00:32:42,169 Like, you know, who would even think to go to that extreme? 543 00:32:42,253 --> 00:32:43,796 "That's how I'm gonna hide her." 544 00:32:46,507 --> 00:32:49,510 Medical examiner's office was just here to remove the body. 545 00:32:49,593 --> 00:32:51,637 Police have been here all day. 546 00:32:51,721 --> 00:32:54,598 We're waiting to hear who they found in the building. 547 00:32:54,682 --> 00:33:00,146 A lot of us still hope it's not her, but… I have a bad feeling. 548 00:33:00,229 --> 00:33:02,231 [distressing music playing] 549 00:33:13,993 --> 00:33:14,994 [shallow exhale] 550 00:33:17,329 --> 00:33:18,831 My mom was found. 551 00:33:22,626 --> 00:33:25,421 She was found in an air conditioning vent, 552 00:33:25,963 --> 00:33:27,506 tied up… 553 00:33:28,340 --> 00:33:29,675 like an animal. 554 00:33:30,593 --> 00:33:34,597 [shakily] I'm, like, banging on the kitchen table, 555 00:33:35,139 --> 00:33:37,600 and my brothers try to hold me down. 556 00:33:41,437 --> 00:33:45,941 It was just nonstop of crying. 557 00:33:47,568 --> 00:33:49,445 How can a person do this to a person… 558 00:33:49,528 --> 00:33:55,701 [voice breaking] …that all she has done is always be there for a person? 559 00:33:57,078 --> 00:33:59,413 She was so kind, so loving. 560 00:33:59,497 --> 00:34:01,916 Always bringing joy to everybody. 561 00:34:02,666 --> 00:34:04,877 What did she do to deserve this? 562 00:34:07,129 --> 00:34:09,006 I could imagine her screaming. 563 00:34:10,466 --> 00:34:12,635 Trying to scream for help, 564 00:34:12,718 --> 00:34:15,846 but in that building, you could scream all you want, 565 00:34:15,930 --> 00:34:17,181 they won't hear you. 566 00:34:18,974 --> 00:34:24,605 I said, "We are absolutely gonna get justice for your mother." 567 00:34:25,689 --> 00:34:30,027 "Because Eridania didn't deserve what happened here." 568 00:34:31,904 --> 00:34:34,490 [taut, suspenseful music playing] 569 00:34:41,539 --> 00:34:44,458 [McNeely] I was tasked with attending the autopsy. 570 00:34:45,835 --> 00:34:50,297 I knew that whatever was found there was definitely gonna help the case. 571 00:34:50,381 --> 00:34:54,218 Cause of death to start with and then forensic information. 572 00:34:55,219 --> 00:34:56,846 Sexual assault was ruled out. 573 00:34:58,097 --> 00:35:01,767 There were no signs of blunt trauma. No stabbing. No gunshot wounds. 574 00:35:01,851 --> 00:35:03,519 No skull fractures. 575 00:35:03,602 --> 00:35:07,481 Her hyoid bone was intact. 576 00:35:07,565 --> 00:35:10,568 It wasn't done with a ligature or anything like that. 577 00:35:10,651 --> 00:35:14,613 Because of the constricted nature that Eridania was in, 578 00:35:14,697 --> 00:35:15,906 being bound, 579 00:35:15,990 --> 00:35:19,827 her head was kinda pushed forward, and her neck was down. 580 00:35:19,910 --> 00:35:24,331 She was duct taped, so she couldn't get a lot of air. 581 00:35:24,415 --> 00:35:28,335 So it was deemed homicidal asphyxiation was the cause of death. 582 00:35:30,045 --> 00:35:33,048 [Vergona] She was probably alive when somebody taped her up, 583 00:35:33,132 --> 00:35:34,425 lifted her up off the floor, 584 00:35:34,508 --> 00:35:37,344 put her in the air conditioning duct, and sealed it back up. 585 00:35:45,936 --> 00:35:46,812 [sputtering] I… 586 00:35:46,896 --> 00:35:48,063 Yeah, it just… 587 00:35:48,898 --> 00:35:53,235 Yeah, like, my heart sunk because when I was in that basement, 588 00:35:53,319 --> 00:35:56,906 and I looked up, I looked at that vent, 589 00:35:57,448 --> 00:36:00,451 and I screamed her name, and I'm trying to listen to her. 590 00:36:01,327 --> 00:36:04,663 And obviously, if she was still alive, she couldn't… 591 00:36:05,748 --> 00:36:08,250 scream back, or say my name, 592 00:36:08,334 --> 00:36:10,669 or scream for help, because… 593 00:36:11,295 --> 00:36:14,715 the tape was… the caution tape was covering her mouth. 594 00:36:19,720 --> 00:36:23,766 [voice breaking] People say, "It's not your fault. Don't think that way." 595 00:36:24,808 --> 00:36:25,809 [shuddering breath] 596 00:36:26,977 --> 00:36:29,688 But put yourself in my position. 597 00:36:30,439 --> 00:36:32,816 When it was the last time I spoke to my sister, 598 00:36:33,692 --> 00:36:35,736 she felt, like, a weird vibe. 599 00:36:37,196 --> 00:36:42,243 And I told her give me a few days to get her another job somewhere else. 600 00:36:43,118 --> 00:36:44,495 And then this happens. 601 00:36:49,625 --> 00:36:52,628 I guess I dropped the ball on that one too. 602 00:36:53,379 --> 00:36:55,130 Not letting her quit 603 00:36:56,423 --> 00:36:59,510 and not combing that vacant spot on the 12th floor. 604 00:37:00,636 --> 00:37:01,971 [McNeely] Fortunately for us, 605 00:37:02,054 --> 00:37:04,265 we still had a person of interest remaining. 606 00:37:04,348 --> 00:37:06,684 Joseph Pabon didn't have an alibi. 607 00:37:06,767 --> 00:37:09,478 He actually was in Two Rector Street working 608 00:37:09,561 --> 00:37:11,105 when Eridania was working. 609 00:37:11,188 --> 00:37:13,482 Joseph Pabon was the only person 610 00:37:13,565 --> 00:37:16,819 that had scratches on his body that weren't properly explained. 611 00:37:17,319 --> 00:37:19,321 [pensive, mysterious music playing] 612 00:37:21,031 --> 00:37:23,826 [MacLeod] During an autopsy, they take DNA swabs. 613 00:37:24,535 --> 00:37:26,578 They take fingernail clippings 614 00:37:26,662 --> 00:37:30,541 to see if there's any DNA that doesn't belong to the victim. 615 00:37:30,624 --> 00:37:33,377 The only problem with that is… uh… 616 00:37:33,460 --> 00:37:36,255 It's not like a COVID test you get back in 15 minutes. 617 00:37:36,839 --> 00:37:40,384 We had to wait for those results, and we were hopeful 618 00:37:40,467 --> 00:37:44,471 that we were gonna get back a connection between Joseph Pabon 619 00:37:44,555 --> 00:37:47,975 and the DNA samples that were taken from Eridania. 620 00:37:52,938 --> 00:37:54,732 [taut, suspenseful music playing] 621 00:37:54,815 --> 00:37:57,860 As we dug deeper on Joseph Pabon, 622 00:37:57,943 --> 00:38:03,532 we found several cases of domestic violence against women. 623 00:38:03,615 --> 00:38:06,910 In one case, after an altercation with his ex-girlfriend, 624 00:38:06,994 --> 00:38:10,998 he took a bowling ball and smashed out the windows of her car. 625 00:38:11,081 --> 00:38:13,459 That kind of made us feel even stronger 626 00:38:13,542 --> 00:38:17,755 that it's possible that this guy had some kind of breakdown or issue 627 00:38:17,838 --> 00:38:20,841 where he completely lost it with Eridania. 628 00:38:21,884 --> 00:38:25,679 [Vergona] We already initiated a tail on him after we interviewed him 629 00:38:25,763 --> 00:38:28,974 to make sure that we knew where he was at all times. 630 00:38:29,058 --> 00:38:32,686 Now we're definitely staying on him until we get the DNA back 631 00:38:32,770 --> 00:38:36,523 that shows us beyond a reasonable doubt that that's him. 632 00:38:36,607 --> 00:38:39,151 It would have been a major disaster 633 00:38:39,234 --> 00:38:40,819 if we had lost him, 634 00:38:40,903 --> 00:38:43,572 and the DNA came back, and we didn't have him. 635 00:38:43,655 --> 00:38:47,701 Here we have a guy who possibly committed this heinous act. 636 00:38:48,202 --> 00:38:51,705 Tied up this woman, asphyxiated her. 637 00:38:52,206 --> 00:38:56,502 And yet he's living his normal life as if he did nothing. 638 00:38:56,585 --> 00:39:01,256 But another thing that was also concerning was that, you know, 639 00:39:01,340 --> 00:39:08,097 if he's had a domestic violence history, maybe he might attack his new girlfriend. 640 00:39:12,393 --> 00:39:14,395 [suspenseful music continuing] 641 00:39:25,072 --> 00:39:30,911 On July 17th, I receive a call that the DNA came back. 642 00:39:30,994 --> 00:39:36,625 And it's… it's looking like two-billion-to-one that it's Joseph Pabon. 643 00:39:38,585 --> 00:39:40,295 When we got the arrest warrant, 644 00:39:40,379 --> 00:39:43,882 I made a phone call to Al Titus and told him, 645 00:39:44,633 --> 00:39:46,885 "It's a go. Time to arrest him." 646 00:39:48,053 --> 00:39:49,763 [Titus] He lived in Staten Island. 647 00:39:49,847 --> 00:39:53,892 He pulled off the main street and went into one of the backstreets. 648 00:39:53,976 --> 00:39:55,185 We surrounded him. 649 00:39:56,937 --> 00:39:58,897 Came out with our guns out 650 00:40:00,065 --> 00:40:02,359 and told him to stop the car. 651 00:40:02,443 --> 00:40:03,819 [sirens wailing] 652 00:40:03,902 --> 00:40:07,531 When we finally pull out Pabon and arrest him, 653 00:40:07,614 --> 00:40:09,825 his girlfriend was in the car too. 654 00:40:10,701 --> 00:40:13,745 She may not have realized it at the moment, 655 00:40:13,829 --> 00:40:17,249 but at some point, I'm sure she realized, like, 656 00:40:17,332 --> 00:40:20,461 "Wow, I was living with a killer." You know? 657 00:40:20,544 --> 00:40:23,881 We possibly saved her from being the next victim. 658 00:40:24,715 --> 00:40:29,136 It was a great conclusion to a long, drawn-out case 659 00:40:29,219 --> 00:40:32,389 that allowed us to get the guy, which was good, 660 00:40:32,473 --> 00:40:34,308 to get Pabon off the street. 661 00:40:36,435 --> 00:40:38,103 [Martinez] When we finally got the news 662 00:40:38,187 --> 00:40:41,440 saying they arrested Joseph Pabon on murder charges, 663 00:40:41,523 --> 00:40:45,194 and everybody's screaming with happiness and crying, 664 00:40:46,236 --> 00:40:47,237 I was just… 665 00:40:47,321 --> 00:40:48,655 I was happy, but… 666 00:40:51,575 --> 00:40:55,537 When we got off the phone with the investigator, 667 00:40:55,621 --> 00:40:57,623 we was asking questions. 668 00:40:57,706 --> 00:41:02,419 Like, "Why would he do something like this?" 669 00:41:04,838 --> 00:41:07,257 I've been working with this guy for a year and a half. 670 00:41:07,341 --> 00:41:09,426 Always conversed. He always said good morning to me. 671 00:41:09,510 --> 00:41:14,306 He always talked to me at the front desk, always did his job. 672 00:41:14,890 --> 00:41:16,850 I had never had a problem with him. 673 00:41:16,934 --> 00:41:18,602 I never did anything to him 674 00:41:19,228 --> 00:41:23,607 for him to, like, do any harm to my sister. 675 00:41:26,360 --> 00:41:29,488 I didn't think he was my enemy. He was my coworker. 676 00:41:29,571 --> 00:41:31,573 [somber, determined music playing] 677 00:41:33,575 --> 00:41:34,701 [McNeely] He's brought back, 678 00:41:35,911 --> 00:41:39,081 placed in a cell in the 1st Precinct detective squad. 679 00:41:39,581 --> 00:41:41,250 Everybody's fuckin' psyched. 680 00:41:41,333 --> 00:41:44,169 I was chomping at the bit. I wanted another crack at him. 681 00:41:44,253 --> 00:41:46,588 I wanted him to admit what he did. 682 00:41:48,298 --> 00:41:50,092 It was personal at that point to me. 683 00:41:50,175 --> 00:41:53,345 Unfortunately, he invoked his right to counsel, 684 00:41:53,428 --> 00:41:54,763 and we never got a crack. 685 00:41:55,889 --> 00:41:59,560 But at the trial, Joseph Pabon was convicted 686 00:42:01,520 --> 00:42:04,022 and sentenced to 25 years to life. 687 00:42:04,982 --> 00:42:06,275 And, uh… 688 00:42:07,150 --> 00:42:10,404 that's a fate he definitely deserves. 689 00:42:12,322 --> 00:42:14,866 [Figueroa] When they mentioned that he was guilty, 690 00:42:16,410 --> 00:42:18,078 I just broke down. 691 00:42:23,125 --> 00:42:24,376 We all broke down. 692 00:42:27,296 --> 00:42:28,755 He wasn't sorry. 693 00:42:29,256 --> 00:42:31,967 He was laughing while looking at us. 694 00:42:32,884 --> 00:42:34,511 That really broke my heart. 695 00:42:35,178 --> 00:42:38,015 It took every… every strength from… 696 00:42:38,557 --> 00:42:43,895 every little bit of me in my gut not to rush straight to him. 697 00:42:44,896 --> 00:42:49,192 I just wanted to punch him, like, in the back of his head. 698 00:42:49,276 --> 00:42:51,445 I wanted to, like, choke him out. 699 00:42:56,366 --> 00:43:00,495 [Figueroa] Pabon never answered the question why he did this. 700 00:43:01,997 --> 00:43:05,208 To this day, we're still waiting for that answer. 701 00:43:05,959 --> 00:43:09,296 What was the purpose? Did my mom did anything to him? 702 00:43:10,339 --> 00:43:13,634 Did she say anything that made him upset? 703 00:43:17,846 --> 00:43:18,680 Why? 704 00:43:21,933 --> 00:43:24,061 [Vergona] I just think he snapped. 705 00:43:24,811 --> 00:43:28,315 I think he had a moment of anger. 706 00:43:28,815 --> 00:43:34,446 Like he had in the other prior issues with women. 707 00:43:34,529 --> 00:43:37,282 [solemn, mournful music playing] 708 00:43:37,366 --> 00:43:40,369 [Martinez] She fought for her life. I know she did. 709 00:43:40,869 --> 00:43:46,041 During her last moments, I know she was very scared. 710 00:43:46,792 --> 00:43:48,710 But she's gone. 711 00:43:49,920 --> 00:43:51,254 She's not coming back. 712 00:43:53,173 --> 00:43:54,591 My life hasn't moved on. 713 00:43:55,467 --> 00:43:58,387 I have it in the pit of my stomach. 714 00:43:58,470 --> 00:44:02,974 Like, I still, to this day, don't get what happened. 715 00:44:03,684 --> 00:44:07,145 Like, he altered the family, like… like, forever. 716 00:44:09,940 --> 00:44:16,947 Investigating this case, and seeing them, and their grief, and… 717 00:44:17,989 --> 00:44:21,952 all the work we put into this to eventually find the guy who did it… 718 00:44:22,035 --> 00:44:23,912 You know, it'll stay… 719 00:44:23,995 --> 00:44:26,081 That'll stay with me forever. 720 00:44:28,291 --> 00:44:30,293 [somber, dramatic music playing] 721 00:44:32,629 --> 00:44:37,134 I remember growing up thinking of NYPD 722 00:44:37,217 --> 00:44:40,637 as the biggest gang in New York City. 723 00:44:41,138 --> 00:44:44,516 But after working with them for so many years, 724 00:44:44,599 --> 00:44:47,769 I realized that it's more of a family. 725 00:44:49,354 --> 00:44:54,693 There's not enough understanding of what the police do. 726 00:44:56,194 --> 00:44:59,364 They're not this occupying force. 727 00:44:59,448 --> 00:45:02,909 And the community are not these bunch of savages 728 00:45:02,993 --> 00:45:05,495 that we have to go attack. 729 00:45:07,873 --> 00:45:10,083 So a couple of years after the trial, 730 00:45:10,167 --> 00:45:16,631 I retired with the goal of doing my best to bring the two entities together. 731 00:45:19,426 --> 00:45:24,055 I went from Detective Titus to Doctor Titus, 732 00:45:24,723 --> 00:45:27,684 teaching at John Jay College of Criminal Justice… 733 00:45:27,768 --> 00:45:30,437 An arrest is removing someone's freedom. 734 00:45:30,520 --> 00:45:32,731 …working with future law enforcement. 735 00:45:32,814 --> 00:45:34,775 Hear all of the facts and the evidence, 736 00:45:34,858 --> 00:45:39,112 and then determine whether or not an individual is guilty, 737 00:45:39,196 --> 00:45:43,450 not just based on their looks or some kind of stereotypical bias that… 738 00:45:43,533 --> 00:45:47,370 My goal is to get you to understand 739 00:45:47,454 --> 00:45:50,332 that there's a lot of different perspectives. 740 00:45:50,415 --> 00:45:53,418 Some are like yours. Some are very different from yours. 741 00:45:53,502 --> 00:45:57,714 And when you go into law enforcement, you have to acknowledge that. 742 00:45:57,798 --> 00:46:02,010 You can't treat them differently because they're from a different place. 743 00:46:02,093 --> 00:46:05,722 So the students can understand this is the world they're going out into. 744 00:46:05,806 --> 00:46:08,183 And that's what's important to me. 745 00:46:08,266 --> 00:46:10,685 Work for the common good of everyone, 746 00:46:10,769 --> 00:46:13,605 to make the world a better and safer place. 747 00:46:13,688 --> 00:46:15,690 [somber music continuing] 748 00:46:20,779 --> 00:46:22,781 [distorted audio warping] 749 00:46:28,620 --> 00:46:30,914 [Parrino] I think survival guilt from September 11th 750 00:46:30,997 --> 00:46:34,251 is what motivates me to go to the Middle East. 751 00:46:34,960 --> 00:46:37,420 I was a contractor with the Marine Corps. 752 00:46:37,504 --> 00:46:39,381 And my last tour in Afghanistan, 753 00:46:39,464 --> 00:46:43,885 I got a call telling me that they were gonna reopen the Howard Pilmar case. 754 00:46:43,969 --> 00:46:45,971 [cryptic music playing] 755 00:46:47,430 --> 00:46:49,850 [man] He was murdered in the office. 756 00:46:49,933 --> 00:46:53,061 I knew no one that would want him dead, 757 00:46:53,144 --> 00:46:55,647 that would want him murdered like that. 758 00:46:56,189 --> 00:47:00,360 There's very few cases that I continue to think about because they're unsolved, 759 00:47:00,443 --> 00:47:03,738 but the Pilmar case, I'd still be thinking about years later. 760 00:47:04,239 --> 00:47:05,574 We were almost there. 761 00:47:06,867 --> 00:47:09,452 I think every detective has a case 762 00:47:09,536 --> 00:47:12,163 that has eluded them for some reason or another, 763 00:47:12,247 --> 00:47:16,001 and it becomes the Moby-Dick of their careers. 764 00:47:16,626 --> 00:47:19,963 Howard was slaughtered. He was slaughtered like a pig in a pen, 765 00:47:20,046 --> 00:47:21,506 like an animal. 766 00:47:24,759 --> 00:47:26,761 [dramatic outro music pulsing]