48 Hours - Post Mortem | The Journals of Maria Muñoz

Episode Date: December 19, 2023

When police respond to a 9-1-1 call at the home of Maria Muñoz, they discover a chaotic scene: Maria, unconscious on the floor, and her husband, a trained nurse anesthetist, performing CPR. Only hours later, Maria is declared dead. Producer Marcie Spencer and 48 Hours correspondent Erin Moriarty discuss how this mother of two ended up with a deadly combination of drugs in her system, including propofol, the substance most commonly known for killing Michael Jackson.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial, and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. It was 1989 in Titusville, Florida. Kim Halleck said she and her ex-boyfriend Chip Flynn were kidnapped and attacked at gunpoint. Kim fled the scene, but Chip didn't make it out alive. Did you kill Chip Flynn? No, ma'am. Crosley Green has lived more than half his life behind bars for a crime he says he didn't commit. I'm Erin Moriarty of 48 Hours, and of all the cases I've covered, this is the one that troubles me most, involving an eyewitness account that doesn't quite make sense. A sister testifying against a brother.

They always say lies. You can't remember lies. A lack of physical evidence. And questions about whether Crosley Green was accused, arrested, and convicted because he's black. Just because a white female says a black man has committed a crime, we take that as gospel. Listen to Murder in the Orange Grove, the troubled case against Crosley Green, early and ad-free on Wondery Plus and the Wondery app. Welcome to 48 Hours Postmortem, where we discuss your biggest questions coming out of each new 48 Hours episode. I'm CBS News anchor and 48 Hours correspondent Anne-Marie Green. Now, you've probably just watched or listened to the Journals of Maria Munoz. And today, I'm joined by longtime

48 Hours correspondent Erin Moriarty, again, along with producer Marcy Spencer for an inside look at what it was like to report on this case. Welcome, Erin Marcy. Great to be back. Hi, Emery. I'm happy to be here. Do you always have to put the long time correspondence that I've been here a long time? Yes. But then let me point out that this case did stand out to me. This is an unusual case and it's one of those that has just stayed with me. So I'm thrilled to talk about this today. Okay, we are going to get into it. We want to talk about what makes this case unique,

the possible motive, the evidence, but first, a little background on the case. In the early morning hours of September 22nd, 2020, Laredo Police Officer Gregoria De La Cruz responded to an emergency call at a home on Canyon Oak Drive. Joel Peo, dressed in teal surgical scrubs, was performing CPR on his 31-year-old wife and stay-at-home mom, Maria Munoz. She was warm. She was still warm to the touch. Joel, a nurse anesthetist, had told the 911 operator that he found his wife unresponsive and that she may have taken pills. Clonazepam, a drug often used to treat anxiety.

Maria, who had been prescribed medication, was seeking help through the church. She was also writing in journals. I don't want to be sad anymore. I don't want my heart to hurt. I don't want my mind to be in torture. After Maria Munoz died, an autopsy was done. No pill residue from clonazepam was found in her system, but a toxicology report would later reveal the presence of seven other drugs mostly used for surgery. Sergeant Luis Mata. So positive for

morphine, Demerol, Versed, Propofol, Ketamine, L lidocaine, Narcan. A team of prosecutors led by attorney Maricela Jackman was assigned to the case. It was enough medication to survive two major surgeries. It was so much. Was Maria's death a suicide, an accident, or murder? Authorities turned to her journals for help. How crucial were those journals? Very. So, Erin, you've been at this for over 30 years.

Yes, you were a longtime correspondent. You should own that. But how is this case different from other crimes you've covered? Well, one of the major things is the weapon. If the prosecutors are correct and they believe that the major things is the weapon. If the prosecutors are correct and they believe that she was murdered, the weapon was unusual. A combination of drugs that are normally used in surgeries. I've never worked on a case where this many drugs were involved and drugs that we don't get from the pharmacy. These are drugs that you would get in a hospital. Another thing that was really interesting is that this individual might have gotten away

with murder, if not for his colleagues, because Maria's husband told police, look, she took these pills. I found them here. And he was an expert, but it was his colleagues who warned police, you know what, take a deeper dive, you know, take a look, get a real toxicology screen. And that's how they discovered these drugs and not just medications, but these medications that are normally used in surgery. The medical examiner did not initially rule this a homicide. Couldn't, because even though the medical examiner did not think that Maria had taken her own life, there was no way of knowing whether she had taken these medications early on.

All the medical examiner knew initially was that there was mixed drug intoxication. Did not know how she got those drugs in her system. So, you know, that's why it was a big mystery. So let's talk about propofol. It's probably most associated with the deaths of Michael Jackson. I've had propofol before for a minor medical procedure, and it's a very powerful sedative. You don't even remember falling asleep. You just remember waking up. The average person does not have access to this drug. Now, there are cases where people use propofol and they take their lives with it. But in this

case, the little needle point for the IV in Maria's arm was in her right arm and she's right-handed. That made it less likely that she did it to herself. Very unusual. It would be very difficult to put an IV in your, if you're right-handed, to put it in your right arm. You think about it, that would be really difficult to do. But if someone else is doing it, that might be a little easier. Now, when police first arrived on the scene, they didn't know if they were dealing with a suicide, an accidental overdose, or if Joel was somehow involved. It's a very chaotic scene. They see a woman laying on the floor, unconscious. The husband is trying to give her CPR.

And the first officer on the scene noticed that Joel Peo was wearing scrubs and said, this guy can probably do better CPR than I can. And I think Joel Pell, when you think about it, thought everybody's just going to take my word for it. She took Bill's end of story, but they didn't. And the officer on the scene asks, what'd she take? Where are the drugs? And Joel gets up, goes into the bathroom, goes into the medicine cabinet, comes back and shows the officer a bottle of pills.

It's a bottle of pills of clonazepam, which are prescribed to him, not her. And his behavior seemed unusual to investigators. Is it me or did he just not seem as upset as you would expect him to be? I agree with you, Anne-Marie, but I kept thinking he is a medical professional, so he is used to emergencies. So I kept thinking that's not really the part that bothers investigators. I think it's the fact that normally when there is some kind of overdose, the medication's right there, and it's not. In this case, Joel Peot had to go up and get the bottle of pills that he thought his wife had taken.

That was weird. That was weird. Joel tells the police that he's a private man, and he doesn't want people to search the home, doesn't want anyone searching the home. He also told police that he and his wife had had sex, and he took a shower. But then we heard from Sergeant Luis Mata. I want to play some of that sound. When a common person showers, what's going to be in the bathroom? Steam, condensation, the smell of soap or shampoo. That master bedroom shower, which is the one that he alleged to use,

was as dry as a desert. I mean, I don't know if he thought this whole thing out. He clearly didn't. No, that would be so obvious. There was another thing that was actually very unusual, is that Joel Pio said that he had found his wife in the bed, unconscious. And when first responders arrived, her body's in the foyer. And so anyone who's had any experience where they've had to administer CPR, you immediately, if someone's

in a bed, you put them on the floor right next to the bed. You don't move them several feet from the bed. I mean, it's a chaotic scene, but they found that very odd. And, you know, by the way, I had talked about how I didn't think he was very emotional until I saw his reaction at the police station in the interview room, where suddenly he becomes incredibly emotional. And compared to his behavior at the house, I just, for me as a viewer, I thought something's off. Here's Sergeant Luis Mata again. I could see him through my camera. Everything there is recorded.

He's hitting walls. He's moving furniture. It was scaring some of the people down the hall in the dispatch room. So that's how loud it was. And I people down the hall in the dispatch room. So that's how loud it was. And I'm sure those people in the dispatch room have seen a lot of odd behavior in the interview room. If it's scaring them, it must have been sort of out of the ordinary, even under the circumstances. It might have just occurred to him that he didn't cover his tracks well enough. He might have been more upset about himself.

We don't know what was making him upset. Right. During the police interview, Joel was asked about a syringe wrapper and a catheter left on the stairs of the house. Joel told the police that they were used for when he took steroids. Yeah, he was enhancing his physique. And so, yes, he admitted to taking steroids. I mean, that was actually part of this story. He had been very devoted to his wife and his first son, because this was at a time before his second son was born. And then he suddenly changed. And that included the use of steroids. That's what most of his friends thought. Joella Maria had an elaborate security system as well? Very elaborate security

system. They had cameras everywhere in this house, including cameras in the closets. And that footage disappeared. Really? But even though it disappeared, it picked up movement. And that was important in this investigation too. Anybody has a security system. They usually get alerts on their phones if there's motion in the home. And the motion sensor was going off between the upstairs and the garage. And this went off several times between the hours of 930 at night and 1.32 in the morning, which is when Joel Peo called 911. Did Joel have an explanation for that movement?

It's an odd thing to do, go back and forth between the upstairs and the garage. No, he did not have any sort of explanation for that. But certainly that was one of the things that definitely the law enforcement was very curious about. What did they think? Getting rid of any evidence? You know, why wasn't there more? Why was there so much movement in the house? And why wasn't there more? Like if in fact, she had propofol in her system, where was that IV and IV system? You know, where was it? So, you know, he was, and we'll talk about that,

but he was later charged with tampering with evidence. Okay, so when we come back, we're going to talk about a possible motive and then the other things that made this case really stand out. The all-female prosecution. case really stand out. The all-female prosecution. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military, and when they do, the NCIS gets involved.

From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free, with a 48-hour plus subscription on Apple Podcasts.

Welcome back to Postmortem. I'm here with correspondent Erin Moriarty and producer Marcy Spencer. So let's talk about the motive. Hoelle was seeing another woman, Janet, while married to Maria, and there was talk of divorce. Janet says Joel had been living with her for five months, and Maria did confront both of them shortly before her death. We actually saw that video. Well, and to me, he had the best of both worlds because he took his girlfriend on two European trips, but then also took Maria on a great trip. So it was at that time, though, right before her death, where I think it seemed that Maria was really becoming serious about, okay, you're either in or you're out, and I'm going to go for a divorce.

And prosecutors believe that the motive was the fact that even though Joel was making a lot of money, he would have to split his assets. And, you know, they're two kids. And he didn't want to do that. Unbelievable. I want to go back to the propofol. Why did prosecutors think Howell used this drug? Of all the choices, why this drug? Well, it's interesting.

Prosecutors believe that it was a kind way of killing her. And it is. Anyone who's had propofol, it's, you know, a very gentle way to go into sleep. I think that was probably one of the hardest things to hear in this case is that it was a kind way of killing her. Can we talk about this prosecution team, right? They're made up entirely of women. There's that amazing shot of them walking down the hall together and they look like this dream team. I'm Karina Rios. My name is Anna Karen Garza. My name is Cristal Calderon. We are Maria's team. Okay. I love that they refer to themselves as Maria's team. Absolutely. It's so funny.

When we first got this story, I started looking at it and I'm like, oh my gosh, they're all female prosecutors. Not only were all the prosecutors women, but their support staff, all women. And I said, Erin, this is how we're going to do this story. We're going to interview all four of these women. Well, I was worried. Oh my gosh, no one will have enough time to talk, but they were all, they work so well in concert. And it actually was a really fun, interesting interview. But I have to admit, Marcy would tell you, I did objectively heard I had four prosecutors to interview. Yeah, because lawyers can be verbose.

But what you get from listening to them all is that this was not just another case for them, not just another victim for them. I felt like they were doing what I was doing watching the hour, which was identifying with Maria.

I think many women can think about that one person, that one guy that you dated, that you wanted to be something that he wasn't. And you were hanging on to hope that he would be nicer, as nice as he was when you first started dating or more committed or, and at some point you just go, oh, he's never going to be that person because he never was. And I felt like those women, they connected with Maria in a way that a woman connects with another woman. Am I making any sense? You are. And they were speaking for her. They were. Absolutely. Absolutely.

I think every woman knows someone like Maria or has met someone like Maria in their life. And they did connect with her. Yeah. Erin, you know, you mentioned in the broadcast that the 48 Hours team, of course, made several interview requests to speak to Joel's defense team. Not even to him, but at least to the defense team, never received a response. Meanwhile, Joel declined, obviously, to sit down and have an interview as well. It was a big disappointment.

We definitely wanted to hear because at trial, his defense was that he didn't intend to kill her. He admitted that he did inject her. He said to calm her down, that when he had gone there to have this heart-to-heart that the two of them planned, that she became upset and he calmed her down, but that he actually tried to save her. If you look at the list of drugs, there was also Narcan. There were a lot of questions we had, and unfortunately, we didn't get those answers. So the jury was very quick to come back with a verdict, right? In this case, Joel was found guilty of murdering Maria and tampering with the evidence. He was sentenced to life in prison.

Their two children are now living with Joel's mother. Yeah, so Maria's sister and Maria's father both live in Puerto Rico. Okay. And so, yeah, I think that custody situation is complicated. Yeah, that's got to be tough on all of the people involved. Erin, you know, you noted at the end, perhaps the most important witness in the case ended up being Maria herself because of her journals. Absolutely. And you know what, how often do we get to hear the voice of the victim? Maria got a lot of, you know, I guess, consolation from writing in her diary, her journals.

And she wrote all the way up to almost to when she died. And so you heard how sad she was, but you also heard hope. She was ready to turn the corner and go on and find out who she was and raise those two kids with or without a well. And so, and the jury could hear that. And that's one of the reasons why the medical examiner ruled out suicide because of that journal. So in the end, Maria did, if you want to say I got the last words, she did. I want to play a clip from a district attorney, Maricela Jackman. She's reading Maria's words. I want a life that's mine, different and unique. A life that's balanced with

every emotion, but a happy, fulfilling life. So there you go. And as you point out, this is part of the reason why the medical examiner said it's unlikely it's a suicide. This is a woman who is looking forward to the future in some way. Marcy, you know, you also kind of felt connected to her. Absolutely. I think that, you know, reading her journals, you definitely learn about someone that you've never met before. But I will say that very early on in this story, I did dream about Maria. Normally, I don't dream about someone, but she definitely creeped up in my dreams. Just because I wondered, did you know what was happening? Did you feel yourself getting drowsy? It was one of those things that I think was very haunting about this.

But there were many otherworldly things that happened. Like what? haunting about this, but there were many other worldly things that happened. Like what? My, our colleague, Iris Carreras, who was very instrumental in this project. She was out in Laredo grabbing a cup of coffee. And when she got her coffee, she also got a little cookie. And the name Maria was on the cookie. And we thought, okay, this is interesting. Maybe it's a coincidence, but an interesting sign. And actually when they were out shooting and they were in front of a girlfriend's house,

a well's girlfriend's house, the lights were flickering off and on, off and on. So we talk about it a little bit, but we kind of wonder. And I just wonder with the prosecutors, with Aaron, with Iris, with myself, if somehow Maria was sort of sending this message to all of us. Tell my story. Oh, you're giving me chills. You're giving me chills. Wow. It's a heck of a case. And you made Maria's voice all the more prominent in it. You really feel like you knew and liked her.

I thought it was excellent. Erin Marcy, thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you. Thank you. For all of you listening, be sure to join us next Tuesday for another Postmortem. And make sure you watch 48 Hours, Saturdays, 10, 9 Central on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.

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