Cold Case Files - I SURVIVED: I Lived In Fear I May Not Get The Real Eduardo Back

Episode Date: October 18, 2025

Eduardo and Jayne are married, living on a ranch in Mexico with their children. After dropping their kids off at school, Eduardo and Jayne are attacked by men who kidnap Eduardo. While holdin...g him for ransom the kidnappers torture Eduardo and send the evidence to Jayne.This Episode is sponsored by BetterHelpBetterHelp: Visit BetterHelp.com/SURVIVED to get 10% off your first month!Mint - To get the new customer offer and your new 3-month premium wireless plan for just $15 a month, go to Mintmobile.com/survivedPDS Debt - Get started with your free debt analysis in just 30 seconds at PDSDebt.com/survived!Progressive: Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.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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Starting point is 00:01:05 like an engine. And he pushed my head against the wall and started shaving up all of my hair off everything. Real people. Email came in from the kidnappers, threatening that if I didn't have a substantial amount of money to offer on a specific date that they would be injecting him with HIV-tainted blood.
Starting point is 00:01:29 who faced death. You're in a small space with music, loud day and night and a bright light, day and night. And they're in total control and there is a camera and the highest point of the box
Starting point is 00:01:45 then they're watching you. And live to tell how. How do you put a price tag on somebody's life? How do you explain kidnapping for ransom? This is I survived. It's June 2007 in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. American-born Jane and her husband of 15 years, Eduardo, live in Mexico. Eduardo and I met in a supermarket in Maryland, and before I knew it, everything moved very, very quickly.
Starting point is 00:02:20 It was really a storybook romance. I took her to Mexico, and she fell in love with San Miguel de Allende. I mean, just to the point that she said, I don't want to go back to the United States. I want to make my nest in Mexico. It was love at first sight for me with Eduardo and for this beautiful little town, and we started a life there. Eduardo, Jane, and their children lived on a ranch on the outskirts of town. Each morning, they drove their three children to school.
Starting point is 00:02:53 Our typical morning routine was to sing on the way to school. So we were singing songs with the children. and talking about our summer plans and very excited. And everything seemed pretty normal. We dropped the children off, gave them their kisses, and we were headed back to the house, Eduardo and I in his Jeep. Suddenly, things started getting strange.
Starting point is 00:03:15 We are just about half the way to get back to the house. Of course, it's a very narrow street, little road. We're going at a slow pace, and this SUV in front of us slows down even more and then very suddenly slams on the brakes. So I stopped right behind them and then I felt then the car behind me pumped me, right?
Starting point is 00:03:39 And in the same time, everything was done and exactly, precisely, in the same moment. In one second, we were surrounded by people with guns. One of them had a hammer in one hand and a gun in the other. And in that moment, my whole life flashed in front of my eyes. One guy was already pointing at me this gun like silver color right at my head. He told me to get out of the car, and with the same gun, he broke the window of the car.
Starting point is 00:04:13 Everything was just blowing in pieces. I don't know what's going on. I don't know what's going to happen. What could have provoked this, but we're about to die. They pulled me out of the door. He, with the same gun, he hit me really strong in the head. Another man came from the other side of the car, and he had a police club and a handgun.
Starting point is 00:04:35 This is all just, you know, in a second. Immediately I started feeling, you know, blood all over my body. I immediately thought about my kids. I thought we were going to get killed. He looked at me and said, you know, don't quit us. I mean, I kill you. Eduardo and Jane were forced into the kidnappers' calls. to the kidnapper's car.
Starting point is 00:04:55 I found myself in seconds inside their car with a pillowcase over my head. My hands were with handcuffs and duct tape around my feet. The other guy at the other side was doing exactly the same to my wife. I couldn't see, I only heard her screaming. The car pulled away. This was all in a matter of seconds. This had been very carefully planned. Eduardo was saying, I can't breathe, I can't breathe.
Starting point is 00:05:28 He was yelling. And they told me, shut up. Cajate! Cajete, cabron. Which means, shut up, ask. Then we drove for about seven minutes, eight minutes. We pull over, and the car comes to a stop. The car's shaking. I hear Eduardo screaming.
Starting point is 00:05:51 There's a lot of commotion. I hear the engine of another car pulling up alongside of us. And I hear the doors open, the doors closed, and I don't hear what it screams anymore. And then we were separate. But I thought that she was right behind me in another car. I find myself blindfolded, bleeding, tied up. It took at least 35 to 45 minutes drive,
Starting point is 00:06:20 And they keep telling me, just shut up us. When the car stopped, Eduardo was dragged into a dark room. He was stripped naked and his blindfold was removed. In the corner of the room was a box. This guy pushed my head down and pushed me inside his box, all covered by this dark, great, rough material, all of it. inside the box I had exactly four fingers
Starting point is 00:06:53 like that before I can touch the ceiling of the box and I could put two fingers before I can touch the side. Eduardo's prison was six feet high, seven and a half feet
Starting point is 00:07:08 long and 27 inches wide. The first thing that you feel right away is that they are trying to scare the hell out of you. You are totally weak, not close on, in a tiny little box. I had a bucket, and it had like maybe an inch and a half or two inches of chlorine. There was the smell of it, and the whole thing, it would burn my eyes.
Starting point is 00:07:37 It was, we use it as a bathroom. Because he had two holes on the box. One was pumping air in, and the other one was soaking air. two light bulbs and two big speakers. And the music was on since the moment that I arrived. And there is a camera in the highest point of the box, then they're watching you all the time. The kidnappers slid sheets of paper under the door.
Starting point is 00:08:07 They want me to write everything about how much money I have exactly to the detail, everything that I had. And again, don't even try to lie. Don't even try to lie because we know everything about you. We have your wife next to you staying in another box. We have all the information from your wife. We want to double check with you. And don't even try to lie to me because I kill you right then.
Starting point is 00:08:35 We want money, but don't come with a ridiculous figure as $2 million, son of a bitch, because that won't be even enough to get you flowers. for you funeral. His captors tell him Jane is locked up in another box. They told me that she was staying in another box very close to where I was kept. I was so concerned about Jane that even I will hallucinate that I could hear her voice, screaming and yelling.
Starting point is 00:09:12 I feel like I'm alone, and I took the thing off my head. I looked around. There was nobody there. Jane had actually been left behind in the abandoned getaway car. Eduardo's captors were deliberately deceiving him. I was out of that car so fast, I mean, it took me seconds. I'm bound with duct tape, and now I'm hopping like I'm in a sack race, trying not to cry, trying not to lose my breath, to get to the highway.
Starting point is 00:09:38 This poor old man on a bicycle, this rickety old rusty bicycle with a machete in his belt is riding by, And I said, I think my husband's been kidnapped. Please help me stop a car I need to get to help. Imagine what this looked like. Now we've got a guy with a machete in his belt, standing next to a woman who's bound and bleeding. It looked really bad. Eduardo was told he could only communicate by writing notes.
Starting point is 00:10:05 Never make sounds, never knock the door. And you wait for us until we decide whatever request you have. So if you don't follow the instructions, we're gonna beat you up until you understand. So even thinking the most simple things in life, they will make me suffer for them, big time. At the highway, Jane finally forced a car to stop, and the police were called.
Starting point is 00:10:37 We were now accompanied by many police vehicles to the scene where they had left me with the first getaway car. There was actually an envelope in the car. an envelope in the grass right next to the door I had exited. And it said, uh,
Starting point is 00:10:51 Senora Jane, we have your husband. Uh, we will be giving you instructions through emails. We will be in touch. Jane returned home and waited for the email. One of the toughest moments of my entire life was when
Starting point is 00:11:07 my children came home from school that day. And I had to tell them what had happened. They believe in a world that has Santa Claus in the Tooth Fairy. How do you explain kidnapped for ransom? A masked kidnapper unlocked the box and gave Eduardo a note. They sent me a note saying $8 million, and that's what they wanted. And I told him I don't have that kind of money. And he says, you have that kind of money.
Starting point is 00:11:37 And we know my father owned newspapers, and he was very famous in Mexico. So they thought this guy is a multimillioner, you know. What a lot of people didn't know was this very powerful, very, very wealthy man, lost the majority of his fortune before his death. Then it was divided among nine brothers and sisters. So we worked for our money. We were in real estate, and we lived a simple life. Jane called the AFI, a Mexican federal agency that fought organized crime.
Starting point is 00:12:05 It would be the equivalent of the FBI in Mexico. And they told us that an agent representing the AFI would be arriving to the ranch within the next 12 hours. The AFI believed Eduardo had been snatched by the EPR, a leftist guerrilla group. Five days later, an untraceable email arrived from the kidnappers. The message basically said, we've got Eduardo, and he's going to be with us
Starting point is 00:12:33 until you pay us the sum of $8 million. There would be no negotiating. And to answer in the classified ads of a national newspaper that they specified. Jane placed the coded reply in the missing pets column of the newspaper. Basically, it would say this puppy was lost on Wednesday.
Starting point is 00:12:53 We're doing what we can to come up with the price asked for this puppy, but the amount you're asking is out of our economic reality. After seven days, Eduardo suffered sleep deprivation due to the constant light in music.
Starting point is 00:13:11 I would say, to myself many, many, many times a day. They're trying to drive you crazy. Don't let them. Drive, you know, calm your mind down. I will visualize the beauty of living out in the ranch and see that beautiful sky. Wow, it's beautiful, the sky full of bright stars
Starting point is 00:13:36 and the bluish color of the moon and just gorgeous. I would say, trust that force, you know, trust that energy. And I will repeat that also thousands of times. On the 10th day, the kidnappers gave Eduardo a note telling him they had released Jane. Then they sent me a note saying, your stupid family doesn't want to cooperate with us. So here's what we're going to do.
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Starting point is 00:17:04 Speeds may slow above 35 gigabytes on unlimited plan. Taxes and Fees Extra, see Mint Mobile for details. Eduardo has been kidnapped and held for ransom in Mexico. He has been tortured, brutally beaten, and confined in a box for 30 days. Inside the box, the light is always on, and music blasts 24 hours a day. At the very beginning, they play one and then they play another one without stop. But different kind of cities. But they later on, they choose just one.
Starting point is 00:17:39 Eduardo was blasted with Mexican drug trafficking ballads called narco pop. And that one stayed on every single day over and over and at night. And there is a camera in the highest point of the box, then they're watching you all the time. So every time that I want to rest and just lay down, they will put the volume. up and a split of a second. I will try to cover my ears, and it was just like, I just couldn't take it. I mean, it was too much. You know, you get used to the small space and you get used to the light day and night.
Starting point is 00:18:26 But one thing that you can never get used to is that loud music all the time, that drives you crazy. And it's the same thing over and over and over. Jane received an email from the kidnappers with a photo attached. I collapsed, and I felt like at that moment I wasn't going to be able to go through this. I didn't know how we were going to get through it, but I just started falling apart. And it just destroyed me. You know, I fell apart.
Starting point is 00:18:59 The emails would slowly but surely get more and more aggressive. and nasty. They were expecting $8 million. That wasn't anywhere near what I was going to be able to come up with. So for as many times as I could, I would say, you know, I'm looking for money, I'm looking for money, I'm looking for money, but I can tell you one thing.
Starting point is 00:19:18 I will do everything. I will go to the end of the earth if it takes until my last breath and the last penny we have when I'm getting him back. During the daily beatings, his captors taunted Eduardo with lies about Jane. They will tell me that
Starting point is 00:19:34 you know, she has another man in her life. They seem very happy and obviously it looks like they have a romance and I think they're having a great time with your money. I started thinking then some of the things that they
Starting point is 00:19:50 were telling me about her they were true. Eduardo has now been captive for 100 days. His kidnappers forced him to write hundreds of letters to Jane. An email came with an attachment and I was really scared to open that attachment.
Starting point is 00:20:07 And it was a letter from Eduardo that had been scanned. It was handwritten. It was in his handwriting. And that was one of the most difficult moments for me for some reason, just to see his handwriting and also what it said. You have me abandoned here, laying in this box. I'm tortured and starving. You're such a bitch. You want to keep all of my money and let me die here.
Starting point is 00:20:33 here, things like that, things that he would never say to me. I lived in fear that I may not get the real Eduardo back if I ever even got him back, but things got worse. And email came in saying that they were threatening that if I didn't have a substantial amount of money to offer on a specific date that they would be injecting him with HIV-tainted blood. So they started injecting me with his blood.
Starting point is 00:21:00 I was so weak and my arms got like balloon because they would put any kind of blood and wasn't even my type. They started sending me pictures of what Iwardo looked like after these injections, but then they started saying that they were going to shoot him.
Starting point is 00:21:16 On day 141, Eduardo's captors become even more violent. They came into the box early in the morning, like at 6 o'clock in the morning. They covered, they blindfold me, they tight my hand, and I could hear the gun being prepared
Starting point is 00:21:37 with a bullet going in, you know, when the... And the pain was more than worse can say. I felt like it was a bomb inside my leg that explored from the inside out. There was a part of me that was in denial that I really didn't think they'd do it. And then the photograph came in. They said that they were going to be shooting him,
Starting point is 00:22:01 I think, once every 50s. once every 15 days or something like that. We didn't have $8 million for goodness sake. How do you put a price tag on somebody's life? Eduardo was left lying in a pool of his own blood. It was a lot of blood just sitting there, rotten. I slept in top of the blood and the wound got infected. They wrote me a letter, said, let's see what kills you first.
Starting point is 00:22:29 The infection or shooting you around your body. I started really feeling right after they shoot me that it wasn't worth living. And then I really was wishing to die big time. And I was finding ways to kill myself, but it was very, very hard. Then I found one of these little metals and they stick in the wall, not like a nail,
Starting point is 00:22:57 but like a staple. And he had a very rough edge. an edge to it. So I start cutting myself with it. And I start bleeding. In that moment where I started bleeding and cutting myself, I thought it's not bleeding enough because the thing was too small.
Starting point is 00:23:16 Everything I tried, it didn't work. If I had to have pills or something like that, I would have tried anything. I don't think that there is a way even to describe that is the closest to hell than you can ever be. I just couldn't take it anymore. It was too much. An email arrived warning Jane that unless she paid,
Starting point is 00:23:38 Eduardo would be shot again. The powers that be within the AFI tell our agent, now it's time to be silent. And I said, how would you mean silent? We're not going to answer? I said, that's absolutely right. This is our way of pressuring them back. It's expensive for them to keep up this whole thing.
Starting point is 00:23:56 They've got people to pay. So we're not going to answer. On the 157th day, when Jane did not reply, Eduardo was told he would be shot a second time. The next day, they did the same exact thing. They covered my face, blindfold me, they put me against the floor, and this time they shoot me in the arm.
Starting point is 00:24:19 They say, now we're going to come back, starting out every 10 days, until we received money. I didn't want to believe that they'd do it again. that they'd do it again, but they did, and the photograph came in. You know, what could I do? I just, I felt completely helpless.
Starting point is 00:24:38 That was one of the toughest things, I think, was to not answer, you know, give them some silence. They were increasing with the torture and the music. The quality of the food and the quantity, it went down immediately also. They will give me, for instance, a chicken soup with the head of the chicken. chicken, you know, with the eyes coming out and the peak and the whole thing in there. And of course,
Starting point is 00:25:06 I will eat everything. I was pure skin and bonds. And I was so weak. After 170 days, Eduardo clung to his sanity by visualizing his family and friends. I visualized talking to his imaginary friend. But of course, the conversations were just inside my head. So I will say, you know, good morning, Jim, look at me this morning. I've been shot. I haven't been able to stand up for one month. Look at the stuff they feed me. This is not a way of going through life.
Starting point is 00:25:40 I don't know why I deserve this torture. And he will listen to me, and I could hear his voice talking back at me. Jane's strategy of ignoring the kidnappers begin to show results. I could tell just in the speed of their... messages coming in, the frequency, what they were saying, they were starting to get desperate. And I decided that maybe I could help make them feel a little more nervous.
Starting point is 00:26:09 I very often felt that we were being watched. And that was when I decided to start moving things around and make it look like I was leaving for the U.S. And maybe I wasn't going to give them anything. Maybe I was just going to take off for the States. They were starting to sweat. And I was loving it. They told me that my family didn't want to cooperate,
Starting point is 00:26:31 and that they decided to kill me. I swear to my life that I thought that's the best thing it can happen. I will die, and I'm very happy that my family is not going to send one dollar to these criminals. They don't deserve one penny. So this is my time to go. They told me that they were thinking of shooting me in the head. just between the eyes. Knowing he was about to die,
Starting point is 00:27:01 Eduardo thought of his children. Naya, the smallest one, I could only see the beauty of her eyes. I couldn't even hear saying anything. But I will hear, for instance, Fernando will say to me, I miss you that, and that as brief as that.
Starting point is 00:27:18 And then I will hear Emiliano. I could see him inside the bottle of water that I have always on my side. I could visualize him inside the bottle trying to look at me. They arrive into the box, and they tied my hands, and I thought this is it. This is it. So I'm shaking, because I know this is the moment that they're going to shoot me between the eyes. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp.
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Starting point is 00:29:18 Progressive Insurance. You chose to hit play on this podcast today. Smart choice. Progressive loves to help people make smart choices. That's why they offer a tool called AutoQuote Explorer that allows you to compare your progressive car insurance quote with rates from other companies. So you save time on the research and can enjoy savings when you choose the best rate for you. Give it a try after this episode at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates, not available in all states or situations. Prices vary based on how you buy. To free her kidnapped husband, Jane must raise $8 million. Eduardo has been locked in a box for 180 days, tortured, beaten, and shot twice.
Starting point is 00:30:02 One morning, Eduardo's captors enter the box and make him face the wall. I thought this is it. This is it. I heard a sound of a plastic behind me, and probably the plastic they're putting on the is to carry my body and just burn it or dump it. Then all of a sudden I hear something electric, like an engine. And he pushed my head against the wall and started shaving up all of my hair off everything.
Starting point is 00:30:37 Nothing left. And I started shaving my beard that I could see my beard. It was so long. Six and a half months long beard, and the hair was. was down to here. When you spend hours and hours, 16 hours, sitting down in one tiny little space
Starting point is 00:30:59 with the music trying to drive you crazy, I put my mind into cleaning up everything, just picking hair by hair, my own hair and the previous people there, hair. And I found hair from a curly white hair from a previous guy who was inside a filthy box. and that I spent most of days doing that cleaning up. On Day 200, Jane got an email.
Starting point is 00:31:27 Finally, literally from one message to the next, they dropped their demands to what I was finally able to offer, which for us was a substantial amount of money. They finally realized after seven months that that's what they were going to get. And they told me to prepare. the cash. Two brothers who worked for Jane and Eduardo went to Mexico City with the ransom. And then finally, at 3 o'clock in the morning, the phone rings. So the younger of the two called and said, my brother went down in the dark alley with the duffel bag as instructed.
Starting point is 00:32:06 It's been four hours and he hasn't come back. And then a few hours later, I finally got an email saying, we will not be releasing your employee until you pay us the balance of of the money making this $8 million. They've decided that what we've negotiated to was a nice gesture on my part, but now they're gonna hold the employee until we get given the full amount. I had barely made it through this,
Starting point is 00:32:34 and my husband wasn't even home yet, and now we're starting over. And we're seven and a half months into this. You know, in what world is this possible? On day 225, Eduardo was told that his ransom has been paid. They give me a new set of pants, a new shirt, a baseball cap, and then this guy came in, threw me off on his shoulders, and put me inside his car.
Starting point is 00:33:06 They took me to this cemetery. It was probably around 5 o'clock in the morning. And they told me to put my face against the wall and to count from 1 to 2.000. 200 slowly and never turn around. I count very slow 200. Then when I open my eyes and I look at the sky for the first time and feel the fresh air, it was incredible experience. It was really like discovering a new planet.
Starting point is 00:33:40 I started taking the first few steps and I was trying to figure out which direction My hometown was, and I saw a car pass by, and I asked him if he will give me a ride. Eduardo hitched a ride to the family ranch. As soon as I arrived home, the door was open of the ranch. So the first thing, when I opened the door and I was in front of the glass door, I saw my wife at the other side of the glass trying to figure out who I was. I look up and there's a man standing there. And at first I didn't know who it was.
Starting point is 00:34:23 And it was a very thin, old, frail person losing his hair. And then I realized, oh my God, I never forget it. I didn't even recognize my own husband. So I opened the door and he couldn't even walk. I mean, he was just, I don't know how he even managed to get to the front door. And then he couldn't even talk. He couldn't smile. smile.
Starting point is 00:34:47 Seven and a half months without talking, you lose your voice. So I just start crying. I just started kissing him on his cold, bony cheek. And I told him how much I loved him and that everything was going to be okay. And he was so worried. He said, it's not going to be okay. They have our employee. You know, we have to get him out.
Starting point is 00:35:09 And I said, it's going to be all right. We're going to get him out. And I'm not alone. And we're going to be fine. She didn't want the kids to look at me. She said they're going to be in a shock. I saw myself in the mirror. I couldn't take it.
Starting point is 00:35:24 I just, I couldn't believe myself that I was just pure bonds. But I said, please let me hug those kids. So they came out, and I just went on my knees and grabbed them. It was an incredible moment. They couldn't talk. They were in shock to see how I looked. I couldn't talk either. I was just crying.
Starting point is 00:35:50 I'm just so happy that I'm here. During his ordeal in the box, Eduardo lost half his body weight. My regular weight is 160, more or less. And when I came out, I was about 84 pounds. Then the police came to see me, and they told me that I was going to be better off if I would leave Mexico,
Starting point is 00:36:12 because they could never... guarantee the security of my family. So I was not even allowed to be in my house for 48 hours when I had to come to the United States. It was tough, you know, to pack your life into one suitcase. But the most important thing is that we're a family again. We have everybody. So we got on the plane.
Starting point is 00:36:39 Eduardo, Jane, and their children left Mexico and fled to America. Well, the whole family was still healing. We were all being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder. Eduardo was still very frail. It took him really months to heal. I lost 15% of my hearing on this eye because of the loud music. And, you know, you don't rest.
Starting point is 00:37:04 So they did a lot of damage. My liver, they broke three ribs. They, they, uh, the wound in my leg was the worst thing. Tests show the blood Eduardo had been injected with did not contain HIV. I was still continuing to negotiate for the employee's release. And literally every penny that we had left, which wasn't much. Everything that we had access to now that Eduardo was free was being offered for this man. And then one day the phone rang and they just let him.
Starting point is 00:37:42 go. And he just called his family from the bus station. It was over. Eduardo was one of more than 780 people kidnapped in Mexico in 2007. In 2010, the number of kidnappings rose to 1,847. I still love Mexico. I love its people. I love its culture. I love the life that we had there. But for us, that chapter of our lives is, it's definitely over. They say that it's better not to say never, but I don't think I ever go back to Mexico in my life. It's going downhill very, very fast. It's totally out of control. Eduardo and Jane have never revealed how much they paid in ransom.
Starting point is 00:38:23 Eduardo's kidnappers have never been caught. How did I get through this? Love? Love of my husband, my children. Just never giving up. never, ever give up, no matter how hard it is. Even in the very worst moments, you just hold on, you know? Eduardo survived 225 days in the box.
Starting point is 00:38:50 I survive because those three things that I keep repeating myself, to visualize the love that I had at home, visualizing the love of my kids and my kids. my wife, and my family, to trust the energy and to calm your mind down, those were the three things that kept me going, kept me going. That's how I survive. This October, fear is free on Pluto TV,
Starting point is 00:39:32 with horror movie collections from paranormal activity, The Ring. You will die in seven years. Seven days. Scream. And from dusk till dawn. This is my kind of place. And don't miss the man-made nightmares in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or the world ending chaos in 28 days later.
Starting point is 00:39:49 There's something in the blood. All the scares. All for free. Pluto TV. Stream now. Pay never.

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