Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Dancing Teen On TikTok Accused Of Double Murder

Episode Date: February 24, 2025

Alan "Alina" Abad, 19, is accused of murdering two family members in an apartment in Spring Valley, New York. Videos on the teen's TikTok account show her dancing and eating pizza with one of the aunts she is accused of murdering. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy looks at the disturbing case in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Download the FREE Upside App at https://upside.app.link/crimefix to get an extra 25 cents back for every gallon on your first tank of gas.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guests:David Sarni https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-sarni-ba002910a/Jonna Spilbor https://www.instagram.com/jonna_spilbor/CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A video posted on TikTok and then the person dancing in it is accused of killing two people. I'll tell you what Alina Abad is accused of doing to two family members. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. There is a family in Spring Valley, New York that is grieving. They've lost two family members. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. There is a family in Spring

Valley, New York that is grieving. They've lost two family members and police say another family member is responsible for the murders. Before I get into this case, I'll tell you right off the bat. The person facing first degree murder charges is identified by police as Alan Abad, but on TikTok, Alan identifies as Alina Abad, so it appears she is transgender. Abad's legal name is Alan, so both names are used in the arrest documents. This case is out of Rockland County, New York, about 30 miles north of Manhattan. The population is more than 330,000. The apartment complex where the murders happened is in Spring Valley, a small village in the county. The murder investigation started on Saturday, February 15th in the evening hours. Monzi Scoop posted video showing first responders entering an apartment building on Gessner Drive.

What the first responders found inside that building was concerning to say the least. A press release from Spring Valley Police states when officers arrived, they discovered two female victims inside, both with significant head injuries. Now, one of the victims was dead. Another later died at the hospital. It would take less than 24 hours and police took Alina Abad into custody. A complaint states the defendant, Alan Abad, aka Alina Abad, being over the age of 18, did knowingly, with the intent to cause death and prevent the victim, Evelyn Aguilar-Agustin, from calling the police, did strike the victim about the head and body numerous times, causing

her death. Deponent further states that during said same criminal transaction, the defendant, with intent to cause serious physical injury or death to an additional person who is not a participant in the criminal transaction, and to further prevent the second victim, Annabelle Aguilar, from calling the police, did strike the victim about the head and body numerous times, causing the victim's death. So Alina Abad is accused of killing both women by hitting them in the head several times. She appears to have a black eye in both booking photos. So did the victims try to fight back? That's not clear, but it seems like it's possible.

What we do know, Abad posted a TikTok eating pizza with the caption, I love my auntie. That auntie is one of the women she is accused of murdering. And before that, there are TikTok videos posted that show Abad dancing in the snow. Were these taken and posted before Abad is accused of killing her aunts? That seems likely. Loved ones of Evelyn Aguilar-Augustin and Annabelle Aguilar have set up a GoFundMe account to pay for their funerals. So far, that GoFundMe has raised more than $11,000. A message on the page states, On February 15th, we unfortunately lost two beautiful angels in a horrible, violent tragedy that should have never occurred. Due to the unexpected losses of both these women, our family is torn and is working to pick up the pieces. We aim to raise money for funeral costs

for our loved ones that passed too soon. I want to tell you about an app I've tried. It's called Upside, and it's a free app that will give you actual cash back on things that you use each day, like gas, groceries, and takeout. Upside will give you real money that you can transfer right from the app straight into your bank account. When I pump gas or go to Dunkin Donuts for a drink, I use Upside. I've even used it when grabbing an ice cream cone. Download the app, claim an offer for whatever you're buying on Upside, pay as usual using a debit or credit card, and follow the steps and get paid. To find out how much you could earn, click the link in the description to download Upside or scan the QR code that's on your screen and use our promo

code CRIMEFIX to get an extra 25 cents back on every gallon on your first tank of gas. That's promo code CRIMEFIX for an extra 25 cents back on your first gallon of gas. So I want to bring in David Cerny. He is a retired NYPD detective. He's also a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. So talk to me a little bit, David, about your first thoughts on this case. I mean, we have a 19-year-old who is accused of murdering two family members. He's saying these are his aunts on TikTok, or at least one of the women is. Yeah, I saw that. And I saw the TikTok.

Another tragic case you're dealing with. We don't know why. You go visit them. You don't live in the neighborhood. You don't live in the city where they are. You go visit them. Apparently, based on the TikTok video, Alina is having a good time. I love my auntie.

She's dancing up there. The next thing you know, police get a wellness check and finding two, her aunt, but their heads bashed. And she's nowhere to be found. So it didn't take long for investigators to pursue this, the leads on this. The question comes down to players, who made the phone call to, for the wellness check? And that's the question that will come up later on i guess and you know seeing this situation happen and another younger individual another young individual who's involved in violent acts and this is something that we you know is becoming very concerning we see the crime stats even though crime stats in new york city are getting lower we're seeing violence among teenagers rising. And that's

something that is a really tragic aspect to this. If she loved her aunt so much, what caused both of them to get to be murdered in the way they were? Seems very violent to what happened to both of them. Yeah, incredibly violent. I mean, it's just, and it's and this is a double homicide case. And, you know, in looking at the complaint that was filed in is going to try to evade detection and prevent those who they're attacking from calling for help. But this just paints a really, really disturbing picture of what possibly went on in that apartment as far as Alina Abad being accused of attacking both of these women. I'm assuming they think it was one at a time. That's what it appears to be. And that's why I don't know because Alina apparently is a very, is a larger, of course, for the five, eight, about two 15.

So not small. I know that there was an injury that showed up on the mugshot. Not sure where that came from. That'll get, you know, hammered out. Maybe there was a situation multiplication location in the house where – and these are all speculation that she blew up in a sense and started attacking one where the other tried to make the phone call and then going after them. I mean this is the one thing I'm concerned about is – this is, again, you're seeing these younger people with this is raged it's out and outraged i mean if they were there's such a love to aunties that you're sitting and eating pizza at their house and you're visiting them what triggered the the severity of the assault against them

and not only just one you killed both of them and there's allegation, but there are two dead women there in a house from a person allegedly that loved them. So I don't know what triggered it. I think that'll come up as the investigation goes forward. I don't know if they've spoken to or interrogated Alina at this time, but they had enough to make the arrest. So that's a that's a positive where you have a clearance on this, but the investigation is still ongoing. Yeah, and there was a lot of talk when the police department, the Spring Valley Police Department, you know, I'm assuming, you know, this is a village police department. I'm assuming they don't get a lot of homicides. I mean, and they thanked a lot of other agencies. They talked about a computer crimes division. So I'm wondering if they tracked Alina down somehow using maybe cell

phone technology, something like that. Obviously, I think the TikTok account could come into play somewhere in this investigation. It may place Alina at that apartment at a certain time. So, you know, I'm sure that Spring Valley called upon other agencies to assist them. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Anytime, especially in an area like Spring Valley, it is not a crime capital. It's rare that things happen up there like that. And all things are going to be put to bear on this.

And that's the benefit. And that's why, again, detectives do these things in the best way they can. They do it methodically. It's organized. It probably interviewed people in the house nearby who said, you know, she was known to the family. I mean, they're her aunt, so she's been up there probably before. So they probably got to leave that way. And they just worked and they worked to at least apprehend her. Now, the continuing of the case is ongoing. Investigations, homicides don't end or at least investigations don't end at the arrest.

There's always going to be a follow up. And you have a lot of that coming into play. And this comes down to whatever every detective does. You want to make sure that you've got the right person and the evidence that you have. What's that case? And the person that you have is going to prosecute the full extent of law beyond a reasonable doubt based on the evidence that you put into play. And this arrest was made fairly quickly, um, within 24 hours of, of the women being murdered. Um, so, you know, I'm thinking a family member, somebody had to have made this phone call saying, Hey, I need you to go check, uh, you know, on my family members or that that's my inclination, or that's how i'm looking at this because there had to have been a concern and possibly somebody pointing to alina right yeah and that's what

you're gonna do you're gonna do a cell phone record you're gonna do cell phone records checks you're gonna check on the house to see what phone calls were made if there made anything during that time uh maybe to a family member maybe they were trying to reach out and, you know, talk to her, whatever, whatever domestic incident or domestic incident occurred then. It's just beyond the pale that you're able to do this. I mean, she struck in, you know, allegedly struck and killed two people seriously over the head. One trying to make a phone call. So, you know, that's going to come into play. And I think maybe that's the reason why they did a wellness check. They might've

called 911 and it went dead. We don't know. And I think that's why the detectives are going to do this case. They, you know, you have an interior crime scene that's going to be worked on. The exterior, you're going to see, you know, did they recover the weapon used in this case or the item or the object used in this case? And, you know, that's what you're going to do. And that's the whole thing. They're putting everything together. The dotting the I's teases the course of the season. I want to go back to the to the shiner, you know, in the mugshot.

There's no you know, you can't see any of any evidence of that in the TikTok videos I've looked. So it does seem to me possibly that maybe there was some type of effort on the part of the women. Maybe the police know this, maybe they don't. Alina Abad is innocent until proven guilty, of course, but maybe there was an effort on the part of these women to defend themselves and try to fight because it it looks like, you know, quite the, quite the black guy there. Yeah. Yeah. And that's the thing when you have two people in a house, you know,

you're dealing with the strength of one individual against two. And there's probably during that, it might've been an altercation, which got really, it got really violent. And then one, and then you're looking at one person being struck, the other person going to the phone. And while that person is being struck and maybe knocked unconscious, attacking the second. So you'll see this, and I guarantee the crime scene photo will show the chronological order in which this occurred to the most part. You'll see where the injuries took place, where the person was struck as opposed to where the phone is.

These things are all going to come into play. But this is, you know, that's the thing, I think. Did she receive that during whatever fight or dispute was going on that created the situation where she allegedly, you know, bashed, they just clearly stated, bashed their brains? Yeah, it's just an awful, awful case. You know, they made the arrest pretty quickly. Alina Abad apparently lived in New Jersey. So she was arrested over in New Jersey, I guess, brought over to New York. So I mean, the process is going to move forward. The police really aren't releasing a lot of information at this point in time about the crime other than what we saw in the complaint.

So do you think we'll learn, you know, as the months go on a little bit more about possibly what went on here? Yeah, I think, you know, this is the thing about these investigations. Again, they have the arrest. They want to keep everything close to the chest. And I have no problem with police agencies doing this. They don't want to release everything because, you know, there's speculation. Media gets on this. Again, you're dealing with an individual, and could there be some salaciousness in the story based on the fact that it's, you know, named Adam, but known as Alina, that could be one issue. But it's not necessarily what I'm concerned as a detective or an investigator. My concern is we have a crime that took place. We have an individual in custody that we believe is the one that did it.

What's the evidence that supports that fact? What evidence supports those facts? And that's what you're looking at. And that's the thing. It's going to take some time. And that's why, you know, departments don't want to tell everybody everything. Because then you create a lot more fervor. You lose information.

You know, they have some things they're looking at. We try to keep out those, you know, Internet sleuths in a sense where they'll look for this, they'll look for that. And they kind of muddy the waters. And then social media gets involved. What detectives want to do, they want to get the case in the best solid position they can. And sometimes withholding information to the point where, you know, they already said, you know, this person who's been arrested is not a threat to anyone else. That was beneficial for that part of it. But everything else, you let them let them do their job, let them get all the evidence. And, you know, that'll come out at the end, you know, when this case is finalized,

you'll hear probably more or during the trial if there is a trial. Yeah. Well, it's a horrible case and the poor family grieving the loss of two women. Thank you so much, Dave Sarney. I appreciate it. Thank you very much. You stay safe. I want to turn now to Jonna Spilbor. She is a criminal defense attorney in New York. Jonna, this case, it has some really disturbing allegations. So just your first reaction to Alina Abad, whose legal name is still Alan Abad, being charged with murdering these two women who sounds like were both his aunts. Yeah, this case is disturbing, and Jeanette, on a number of levels. And if you just analyze it by reading about it, I don't think you get the full breadth of exactly what was going on here. I had the, I guess, misfortune of going through the defendant's TikTok.

And you can clearly see there's there's something going on that's not quite right between the ears of this defendant. And in one of the videos, you actually see, I'm going to call him him, with one of the alleged victims eating pizza, having somewhat of a normal, just teenage TikTok interaction. And then this happens. So it begs the question, you know, 19-year-olds, healthy 19-year-olds are not supposed to kill anybody, let alone their family. And they particularly don't do it when moments before, relatively soon before, they're just kind of having a normal day. So you'd have to examine what was going on inside the mind of this particular defendant. In fact, was this particular defendant legally insane or something

a little short of insane? But you can't analyze this case or represent this person without getting some sort of psychological evaluation done because this just ain't right. Yeah. And there's still so much that we don't know about the case and what was going on leading up to this. All we have is a snapshot in time in the form of that TikTok video, hanging out, eating pizza in what appears to be you know the apartment or a bedroom or something uh just having a fun time saying i love my my auntie um you know you know alina abad um you know identifies as female um i don't know if that's going to come into play somehow in this case was there some tension about that in the family? Sometimes that can

create some tension in the family with coming out or the whole issue of how somebody identifies. But it didn't look like there was anything really bad going on at all in that TikTok video. So if this case lands on your desk, Johnna Spilbor, as a criminal defense attorney, you've already mentioned possible psychological evaluation. Where do you go from here? Because we're so early on in this process and they really made quick work of making an arrest in this case. So obviously this defendant must have left some pretty big clues because you're right. They did not take long in making this arrest. But of course, you have to begin with

the psychological evaluation because I'm going to say this, and this may not make me many friends, but obviously this person is transgender. And oftentimes we're not doing the transgender community any favors if we ignore the fact that there is a psychological component to it that can sometimes be unhealthy. For example, transgender or gender dysphoria is in the DSM-5, right? It is listed as a disorder. And what the powers that be did fairly recently is they used to call it gender identity disorder. And then they tried to soften the name by calling it gender dysphoria. And you can't just give something, you know, a Disneyland type name and make it better. There is a real psychological component to it. And if those psychological components are not dealt with

properly by the proper psychological and medical professionals, who knows where it leads? Is this an example? Is this case an example of an extreme place where something like that, if not handled properly by professionals, can lead? That is something that I would want to explore with the help of my experts if this case landed on my desk. You know, it's just it sounds like a really horrific crime too. I mean, it talks about in the complaint, these women having their heads essentially beaten in. I mean, pretty horrific head injuries. And the allegation is that they were prevented from calling police. So it sounds like, and I'm seeing a big shiner in the mugshot too. So that leads me to believe there may have been some sort of effort on the part of the women,

or at least one of them, to fight back. So there was an effort to allegedly keep these women, to hurt them, and then keep them from calling police. And it looks like there was a struggle. And all good points. What we also don't know, because this is really new, was there any sort of history? That's another thing that's important to me as analyzing this case. And if I were representing this person. Did it happen in a vacuum all of a sudden? Was there a history of some sort of domestic violence and how long did that date back? Is there any family court struggle that we can look to to see if this was brewing, for example, and that it got ignored? These are

all going to be important components in defending this person, because, look, we're talking about a 19 year old. I'm going to say kid, even though legal adult, 19 year old kid who's looking at the rest of his life. And excuse me if I'm offending anybody by calling him him in prison, who, you know, when you look when you look at the tick tock history, you have a teenager who's always seems to be out on a street in public doing some kind of weird dance juxtaposed next to eating a piece of pizza next to an aunt that he allegedly killed, murdered by bludgeoning her in the head. Like there's just so much going on underpinning this person's behavior that you can't ignore it. You absolutely can't. Like this wasn't a drug deal gone bad. This wasn't anti got in the way of a drug deal. This wasn't, you know, anti did something that provoked this. You would, at least we don't think so. So there's just so much psychological mess that's going to have to be waded through in this case. And we don't know. We just don't know yet how deep that's going to go. Yeah, we really don't. And it'll be interesting to see how this plays out. But we just know that this family, the family of these two women are grieving and they are heartbroken. It's a tragedy.

Shauna Swobor, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you, Anjanette. Good to see you. You too. And right now that case against Alina Abad is going to be presented to a grand jury in Rockland County. So more charges are possible. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.