Cold Case Files - REOPENED: Daddy Dearest

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

Nine years after a mother and her teenage daughters are murdered... the killer’s sisters helps crack the case. Greenlight: Start your risk-free trial today at Greenlight.com/coldcase 

People can't just disappear. I think that's what makes missing person cases so frustrating. The idea that the person you're looking for is out there and you just can't find them. The not knowing what happened must be so upsetting. In 1994, 37-year-old Lucy Messino and her two teenage daughters went missing. It was like they had just vanished from their apartment in Downey, California. It was unlikely that Lucy would leave her husband and two younger children behind and disappear with her teenage daughters. That, plus the signs indicating a struggle in the apartment, made it likely Lucy Messino and maybe her daughters had been victims of foul play.

From A&E, this is Cold Case Files. I'm Brooke, and here's the distinctive Bill Curtis with the classic case, Daddy Dearest. I came to this location on a follow-up on a missing persons report. Detective John Lynch is looking for three people. ...of a missing mother and her two teenage daughters who had basically fallen off the face of the earth. Thirty-seven-year-old Lucy Musino and her daughters Edith and Gabriela were reported missing by a friend the day after Thanksgiving.

And this was the last location that they were known to be at. Detective Lynch enters Mussino's apartment and finds it empty, except for a few small signs of foul play. In checking the carpet, I noticed a brownish-red, which potentially could have been blood. I then noticed around the baseboards, around the door, and the floorboard area there were what appeared to be blood spatter marks. Detectives saw or noticed a very large red-brown stain.

Steve Renteria is a criminalist with the LA County Crime Lab. In the closet, they showed me a stain that pretty much took up the whole area of the interior of the closet. Renteria runs chemical tests on the stain and determines it to be human blood. After that, the detectives pointed out a certain area in the second bedroom. In this area here was the second stain, about four inches in diameter.

The second stain also tests positive for human blood. Renteria decides to coat the apartment with luminal. We started in this bedroom and we sprayed the entire carpet area. Obviously the area where there was blood gave a positive result, but then we started noticing a trail or a path about two feet wide that came from that blood stain through the doorway, a continuous reaction all the way down the hallway, and it looped around all the way back into the closet

where the larger stain was located. My gut feeling is somebody probably bled out and somebody either had died or was near death, but without doing any scientific experiments as far as how much blood volume it would have to take to see that pattern, we weren't really able to say that to the detective. But inside, I knew something bad had really happened. We didn't really know if we had their true names. Detective Lynch's missing persons case is beginning to look more and more like homicide.

Again, no relatives on Lou's side at all. We found no one that was interested in these people besides their friends. Lynch's only lead is Lucy's live-in boyfriend, Estanislao Gonzalez. At the time of the disappearance, Gonzalez was seen packing up and moving out of the apartment by the building manager. She was real surprised by this because he had signed a year lease for this place, and less than a week later he's moving out. So she asked him what was going on, and he said, well, we're not getting along, and she's going back to Mexico, and I'm leaving. Detectives are unable to locate Gonzalez. In 1994, forensic technology cannot identify the blood found in the closet. And so the investigation hangs in limbo.

You have to prove that a crime has occurred. And we weren't able to show from the blood that we had at the time and the technology at the time, we could only show that that was human blood. You know, we suspected who it belonged to, but we still have to prove it. This is the cold case homicide room of the Downey Police Department. Sergeant Jim Elsasser is closing in on retirement when he decides to take a shot at one of Donnie PD's most puzzling cases. We had no idea where the suspects were, and maybe the biggest stumbling blocks is we had

no idea where the bodies were. We just had three missing persons with a lot of blood, evidence at the scene that we were unable to analyze. Like many in the department, El Sasser suspects Lucy Moussino and her daughters are dead, and that the key to the case lies with Moussino's boyfriend, Estanislao Gonzalez. I knew that there was a good likelihood that this man had killed those children. And when I was doing my investigation on it, I ended up getting photographs of these girls, 8 by 11 photographs. And I had one for each child. And every time

you get a little tired and discouraged or something, you look at the pictures of these children and you just realize, hey, you know, this guy killed him and he's getting away with it and he's got away with it for five years. And I was going to do what I could do to find him. On the morning of September 9, 1999, Sergeant L. Sasser sits down at a computer terminal and begins to search for Estenislao Gonzalez. Six hours later, he develops a lead. I ran his vehicle identification number,

and I ran it to USDMV, which is a... We can get license information for all across the United States. And even though his license plates no longer were on file, the VIN came up, and he had just registered that vehicle in Las Vegas. El Cesar gets on the phone with Las Vegas police, who are able to confirm Gonzalez's whereabouts.

They did a stakeout on the house. They saw him come home. They saw his vehicle. I knew he was there. Finding Gonzalez is one thing, building the case for murder quite another. We're at the Alley County Sheriff's Department Crime Lab, building the case for murder quite another. We're at the Alley County Sheriff's Department Crime Lab, where we analyzed evidence in the Gonzales case.

By 1999, DNA technology is advancing rapidly and bringing detectives ever closer to identifying the blood found at the scene of the disappearance. A lot of these cases that we get, if we don't get results right away, some of these cases, in fact most of them, we always have in the back of our mind, you know, if a future technology develops, this might be a good case to bring back out. In fact, in this particular case, I had portions of the carpet actually in my work area all the way back from 1994 and on a daily, I would actually see them in my work area, and it would remind me that when this new technology

was in place and we were able to do it, that this would be a perfect case to do future work. The results we got from blood stain one, which was from the closet, and blood stain two, which was from the bedroom number two, told us that the two different bloodstains originated from two different individuals, that they were related to each other and that they were from two females.

The blood of two related females, sisters perhaps or a mother and daughter. The results are consistent with foul play and the disappearance of Lucy Moussino and her daughters, but not specific enough to be conclusive. Anytime you try to prove a homicide with no bodies, that's a difficult case. In the fall of 1999,

Jermell Sasser retires after 30 years on the job, and the disappearance of Lucy M Jim El Sasser retires after 30 years on the job. And the disappearance of Lucy Moussino and her daughters once again goes cold. Bottom line is, city of Downey, we have a hundred plus thousand people. We have three people working robberies, homicides, and they're extremely busy. And we have robberies all the time. I know one year we had 19 homicides and cold case files get a backseat sometimes to active cases.

It will take a new round of DNA testing and a fresh set of cold case detectives to turn up the heat on Estanislao Gonzalez. This message is sponsored by Greenlight. As your kids get older, some things about parenting get easier. You can finally have a conversation without constant interruptions, and they might even remember to put their dishes in the sink. Sometimes. But some things don't get easier, like having that conversation about money. The fact is, kids won't really know how to manage their money until they're actually in charge of it.

That's where Greenlight can help. Greenlight is a debit card and money app made for families. Parents can send money to their kids and keep an eye on their spending and saving, while kids and teens build money confidence and lifelong financial literacy skills. With the Greenlight app, kids learn how to save, invest, and spend wisely, thanks to games that teach money skills in a fun, accessible way. The app also includes a chores feature where you can set up one-time or recurring chores customized to fit your family's needs, and reward kids with allowance for a job well done. As a kid, I would have been much more motivated to do my chores if I knew I'd get paid instantly upon completion. And now I'm so happy to be able to do that for my kids.

It's a great way to keep your household organized while teaching kids the value of hard work and financial independence. Millions of parents and kids are learning about money on Greenlight. It's the easy, convenient way for parents to raise financially smart kids and for families to navigate life together. Start your risk-free Greenlight trial today at Greenlight.com slash Cold Case. That's Greenlight.com slash Cold Case to get started. Greenlight.com slash Cold Case. Five years after Lucy Massino and her teenage daughters, Edith and Gabriella, were reported missing, the blood evidence from their apartment was finally able to be analyzed.

It belonged to two related females. The state of the apartment seemed to indicate foul play. It had blood soaked into the carpet and splattered on the walls and door. Unfortunately, the DNA connection and the signs of foul play weren't enough to prove a murder had even occurred. Murder convictions are extremely unlikely without a body. The file took its place with the other cold cases when Detective Alasser retired in 1994.

But in 2001, a detective reviewing cold cases took an interest. reviewing cold cases took an interest. I first looked at this case in June of 2001. Detective Gil Toledo is reviewing cold cases when he comes across the 1994 disappearance of Lucy Musino and her two daughters, Edith and Gabriella. It was very intriguing. No bodies, and these people had been missing for several years. By 2001, detectives have developed DNA profiles from a trail of blood found in the apartment. The two different blood stains originated from two different individuals. They were related to each other, and they were from two females.

So we wanted to try to identify them and one way was to locate a relative that could provide us with some DNA through blood or saliva to compare with the blood we found in the apartment. And what we learned after talking to the investigators, that there were two living children from the missing mother that were possibly with the suspect in Las Vegas. The suspect in Las Vegas is Estenislao Gonzalez. Gonzalez fathered two of Moussina's four children and abruptly skipped town with them when Lucy went missing. And we told the detectives if they would be able to get a sample from those two living

children, we would be able to compare the genetic profile from those children to the blood stains found at the crime scene. And it would tell us, number one, if one of them could be the mother of the living children and by default, the second stain would possibly be the daughter to that particular mother. Downey detectives pack up and head for Vegas, gambling on a hunch that saliva samples from Lucy Moussino's children will help unlock the mystery of her disappearance.

of her disappearance. We came to the trailer and we decided to knock on the door and use a ruse that we were child protective services. Linda Turner is a detective in Las Vegas, called in by Downey PD to help make contact with Estanisla Gonzalez and his children. He was very cooperative. He told us that we could look around his trailer, that we could talk to him, that we could talk to the kids. And I began questioning him about the conditions of the mobile home,

the children, whether they're attending school regularly, normal questions that a social worker following up on something like this would normally ask. The trailer was dirty, there was food, but it was very disorganized, there was dog feces inside the trailer. I asked him, by the way, where's the mother of these children? And he appeared extremely startled. And we asked him, where is your mother at?

And I remember the twins just staring at us kind of blankly. They said they didn't have a mother. And I asked them if they remembered their mother. They said they did not. I asked questions about what happened to her. He said that she left him long ago. I asked her if he knew where she was. He indicated that he didn't.

He really wanted to avoid that line of questioning. Gonzalez doesn't give up any new information, but detectives come away from the meeting with a connection they had hoped for. And I pretty much laid the groundwork for a follow-up that I was going to come back in the near future to check the children's health, make sure they're OK, they're being fed, they're going to school.

And that was the time we were planning on actually getting the saliva sample from the kids away from him. So we knew the twins came here every day after school. Two weeks later, detectives reestablished contact with Gonzalez's children at a local boys and girls club. So we came here, told the twins we needed to do a health check on them. They remembered us.

They were very cooperative and we took one swab from the female and one swab from the male. Back in L.A. County, Steve Ranteria compares the children's DNA to profiles developed from the blood stains found at the suspected crime scene. What we found out was the DNA results from the two living children were consistent with being the natural children of the blood stain we found in closet number one. So by doing that we were able to establish that that is where the mother bled out in that particular crime scene. Cold case detectives believe they know where Lucy Moussino died.

Now they prepare to take down the man they suspect killed her. At that point we were excited. I mean we were jumping out of our seats wanting to go down there and obviously as investigators we want to arrest this guy and get him off the streets as fast as we can. Before making an arrest, detectives place a wiretap on Gonzalez's phone and approach his sister Delia Mora in hopes of stirring the pot. We asked her if she had seen or spoke to her brother, whether she knew the whereabouts of Luz Musino and the girls and she denied any knowledge of them. We had a team, a surveillance team, on her,

watching the house, and immediately, within minutes, she packed up her car with another male, got on the freeway, and drove maybe about 20, 25 minutes out of where they lived. Detectives keep a tail on Maura, as she pulls off the freeway and gets on a payphone. The team that was watching her called us and said, hey,

she's on painful right now. She may be calling our guy. And sure enough, our guys know why her call's here. We got a call coming in. Hello. What's up? How are you? It's me, Delia. Hey, we're all fine. Just the bad news. Bad news? Yes, I want you to feel good and relax.

Look, Danilo, they came to my house today. I don't know how they did with my phone, with my address, some people from the homicide, in which they are looking for Lucy, Gaby and Eddie. Evidence says that they have evidence. I don't know if these stupid fools want to scare me

to take away the children. That's why I'm telling you. I don't know what to do. But I don't know what I can do. I'm doing my life here. The best I can do is, under what conditions. I don't know. During the conversation she offered to take him to Mexico, let's go. I'll help you. Mm-hmm. Well, if it's necessary, I would have to do it with Lucifer. for the border, detectives need to move quickly. help with real talk expert insight and actionable advice. This is a podcast every mom needs in her playlist because

sometimes the best way to be a great mom is to ask why follow rate interview moms ask why now on apple podcast spotify or wherever you listen to your podcasts. We didn't want him to get the children. In fear of maybe there maybe if we end up trying to take him down, we'd have a hostile situation or he may even harm the children. Detectives know Gonzalez is headed to the Boys and Girls Club to pick up his children, and that's where they plan to take him down. Gonzalez walked out of the Boys and Girls Club with the twins. He walked towards his car. As soon as he got in the vicinity of his vehicle, we stopped him. When I first mentioned to him that I wanted to talk to him about disappearance of Luz Musino,

like his jaw dropping, everything came tumbling down on him. He was very startled. Detectives took him away across the parking lot to another vehicle and my partner and I stayed with the twins as we already had a rapport with them. They were obviously upset seeing their dad being taken away. We stayed with them, comforted them. You are going to be booked of a triple murder. That's fine. That's fine. And we're going to show it. Gonzalez is arrested and taken in for questioning.

So we're going to deal with you that way. Do it! Do it! There, the detectives will find the suspect to be less than contrite. My friend, you're done. What if I told you that I had evidence that you did something to this woman? Mm-hmm. Yeah. I don't understand what you're saying. What are you talking about?

An interview room in Las Vegas. Cold case detectives Gil Toledo and Dwayne Cooper turn up the heat on Estenislau Gonzalez, a man they suspect of murdering Lucy Musino and her two daughters, Edith and Gabriella. What if I told you that when we went into that apartment, we found evidence of something happening to some people in that apartment? How would you answer that? How would you answer that, Tony?

He denied for the good majority of our interview. I became very accusatory. I accused him of murdering them. I want you to tell me what happened, Tony. What happened? I want you to tell me, Tony, because you want me to tell you what happened. I want to know what happened with their bodies. What happened to these girls? What happened to your ex-wife?

What did you do with them? Are you accusing me that I killed them? I'm accusing you of murder, Tony, and I want to know what happened. I laid some things out to make him believe that we had a whole bunch of evidence that would implicate him in these murders. Let me tell you something, you do a lot of things for a body. You burn it, dismember it, do all kinds of things to get rid of a body. But you know what?

Tiny, minute particles of DNA will still be around. Even if you bury it, we find stuff like that all the time. Tiny. Okay? DNA. Three little letters that appear to have a big impact on the suspect's demeanor. You did something to these bodies. You did something to these women. Okay. We can prove it now. Okay. Now you can prove that I killed these people. Yeah. That I did this with my own hands. That I killed these women. Okay. We can prove it. Okay. Now you can prove that I killed these people.

Yeah. Did I did this with my own hands? Did I kill these people? Yes. You're involved in their murders. He stated, uh, you think I killed them. You think I killed them. Well he did that.

He was motioning in a stabbing manner. Or did I personally kill them? You would ask, what's this? With a knife or whatever? Did you kill them with a knife? Okay. With a gun? I don't know. I don't know, I mean you motion like this, what does that mean?

Okay, I'm sorry for this, okay? Next time I'm gonna go like this, and then you go like this. How about that? You make the motion. OK. OK, well, we are talking about people being murdered. People have been murdered all kinds of different ways. Why did we go to that? During the point of that interview,

he became very angry with me. You're going to apologize to me one day. I'm not going to apologize to you. You're going to apologize? I'm not going to apologize. And you're going to be sorry. Unless you can tell me. But what you are doing right apologize to me one day. I'm not going to apologize to you. You're going to apologize and you're going to be sorry for what you are doing right now to me. Unless you tell me where their mother is. Dennis Flynn is a detective with the Las Vegas Police Department.

As questioning of Gonzalez reaches an impasse, Flynn is called in to transport the suspect to the county jail. The ride to the jail was about a 15 minute drive. Using the opportunity to do a little questioning of his own, Flynn takes on the classic good cop persona. We were both divorced fathers, that we had both had two children. We knew what it was like for someone to try to take your children from you. The suggestion that Lucy Mussino was attempting to take the twins away seems to strike a chord with Gonzalez. He then started to agree with me that the mere fact that she was going to take his children, the two twins, away from him madeged. The thought of that made him enraged. And he began to start to confess.

As Gonzalez begins copying to knowledge of the murders, Sergeant Flynn heads back to the police station, back to the interview room. I want to know what you can tell us about this incident. Well, we picked up these two guys. He told us that these two workers that he hired to help him move things out of the apartment that day were the ones that actually

murdered Luz, M Musino and the girls. And there's the two guys threw back and they pushed it inside of the apartment. And his story just didn't make sense because he kept giving us some cockamamie reason why they would murder them. Okay, so you just kind of ignored their screams and I don't know if it's a good or bad thing, but I don't know if it's a good or bad thing. I don't know if it's a good or bad thing.

I don't know if it's a good or bad thing. I don't know if it's a good or bad thing. I don't know if it's a good or bad thing. I don't know if it's a good or bad thing. I don't know if it's a good or bad thing. I don't know if it of this. I'm leaving with... I'm getting out of here. That's pretty much what happened, right? Gonzalez is trying to spin the facts to minimize his involvement, but can't avoid placing himself at the scene and providing detectives with details only the killer would know.

And at this point you see bodies lying on the ground with blood. There's blood on the carpet. And you know they've been killed. Yes. With blood. Yes. There's blood on the carpet. Yes. Okay? Mm-hmm. And you know they've been killed, okay? At least for us, we got him to admit that these bodies were in fact, they weren't missing, they were in fact dead, murdered, and that he was forced to help them clean the bodies

up and dispose of them in the riverbed. You're trying to tell me now that they forced you to take them into your van. It's closing in on 10 p.m. and detectives aren't buying Gonzalez's tale of furniture movers turned cold-blooded killers. No much sense that makes? Zero. Doesn't make any sense. People aren't that way. And you're saying these guys had held you at bay with a knife and threatened to kill you. They were so concerned about getting those bodies out of that apartment apartment they have no connection with apartment that they never even been to people you don't even know they were so concerned about

getting these bodies out that they had you drive them 15 minutes away dump the bodies and they jumped out with those bodies. Forget about that, okay? We don't forget about that. Don't forget then. Then go to there. I didn't kill them, I was not present when they were killed. I didn't witness anything, okay? I only witnessed my kids. Okay. Okay. And I'm gonna tell you something. Yes. You are gonna be booked for a triple murder. That's fine. You're going to be booked for a triple murder. That's fine. You are involved in it.

That's fine. And you are going to show it. Okay. Okay. So we are going to deal with you that way. Do it. Do it. You already basically confessed to this whole thing short of saying you killed them.

You moved their bodies. You were responsible for their lives. You are out of your way. You don't know what you are talking about. You took them out of there. You dumped the bodies in a riverbed and you are trying to tell me you have nothing to do with it. My friend, you're done. You're done. Gonzalez is booked on the triple murder and enters a plea of innocent.

As his trial date approaches, however, the suspect has a change of heart. It was a death penalty type case, and his attorney approached this attorney's office, and eventually he confessed to these murders. In a one-page statement, Estonisla Gonzalez admits to the murders and to dumping the bodies in the Nevada desert. I think that was the biggest surprise of the whole case was when we found out. Details of Gonzales' confession square with police department records of three Jane Doe's discovered on March 26, 1996. The burial site is right here on this corner.

Teeth and bone samples from the three Jane Doe's are tested and confirmed as belonging to Lucy Moussino and her two daughters Edith and Gabriella. It's bittersweet when I come out here. Today their bodies rest here at the Palm Cemetery in Las Vegas. I'm happy that they've been identified and they have a final resting place, but it's hard to come out here and know that she could be with her twins and see them as they grow up. But I'm glad that there's been some kind of resolution to the case and that they finally

have some place to be and the twins can come out and they can visit their mom whenever they want to. Lucy Messina's surviving twins are currently living in a foster home in Las Vegas. As for their father, Estanislao Gonzalez, he will be spending the rest of his life in a California prison. Tanny Gonzalez is currently serving out his sentence in Chukwala Valley State Prison in California. He's 64 years old. The twin children from Lucy and Tanny are now 19, but I couldn't find any information on their current circumstances. Cold Case Files the Podcast is hosted by Brooke Giddings, produced by McKamey Lynn and Steve Delamater.

Our associate producer is Julie McGruder. Our executive producer is Ted Butler. Our music was created by Blake Maples. This podcast is distributed by Podcast One. The Cold Case Files TV series was produced by Curtis Productions and is hosted by Bill Curtis. You can find me, at Brooke Giddings on Twitter and at Brooke the podcaster on Instagram. I'm also active in the Facebook group, Podcasts for Justice.

Check out more Cold Case Files at aetv.com or learn more about cases like this one by visiting the A&E Real Crime blog at aetv.com slash real crime. Go Unchained, Ali and Coach Carter. You have an incredible gift up here. Gripping series like Power and The Game, next level comedies, music video channels and more. Brilliant black entertainment, intentionally curated and all free. This month and always on Pluto TV. Stream now, pay never.