Crime Junkie - MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF: Erica Alonso

Episode Date: March 28, 2022

When Erica Alonso disappears on Valentine’s Day after a night out with her ex-boyfriend, a months-long search turns up clue after clue before her body is found in the middle of nowhere. The case looks like a murder until some surprising evidence is found – and investigators come to a conclusion that, to this day, leaves many questions unanswered and has her family demanding more. If you have any information about the circumstances leading to Erica’s death or re-locating of her body, please call the Orange County Sherriff’s Department at 714-647-7055 or 714-647-7000. If you want to support the Alonso family’s efforts into getting answers in Erica’s case please visit the Justice for Erica Alonso Facebook page.  For current Fan Club membership options and policies, please visit https://crimejunkieapp.com/library/. Source materials for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/mysterious-death-erica-alonso/

Hi, crime jankies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And the story I have for you today is a mystery I haven't been able to get out of my head ever since the victim's sister reached out and asked us to cover the case. The sudden disappearance of 27-year-old Erika Alonso in 2015 led investigators to a trail of clues that sent them in several bizarre directions before eventually leading them to her body, which, instead of giving them answers, only left them with even more questions. Erika's family's willingness to do an interview for this episode was so helpful in getting the

details of a case that, to this day, feels very unresolved. This is the story of the mysterious death of Erika Alonso. On Valentine's Day 2015, two of the five Alonso sisters, Patty and Erika, are making plans to spend the night together, watching cheesy movies and hanging out on the couch at their family's house in Laguna Hills, California. It's like a true Gallentine celebration. Yeah, for sure. The sisters live at home with their mother, stepfather, and two other sisters. The whole family is very close. They spent a lot of time together. But at the last minute, things change. Because in a not-so-surprising sister move, Erika,

whose 27 and the middle sibling of the group decides to bail on her plans with Patty, and instead decides to go out with her ex-boyfriend, Larry. Even though their relationship had a history of a lot of ups and downs, Larry and Erika met up for lunch earlier that afternoon, and apparently things had gone well enough between them that they decided to go out together that night. A few hours after Erika tells her sister that her plans for the night are changing, Patty checks her Snapchat, and she sees some videos of Erika and Larry out at a nightclub in town. So she figures, that's that. Erika's out for the night, won't be making it back home to their couch to hang. Patty and the rest of Erika's family don't hear from her the next day, which is

Sunday. Now, it was unusual for her to be out of touch with her sisters, but like just one day isn't super worrisome. They all just assume she's probably recovering from a late night out with Larry, which would make sense based on what they saw on her social media. They can tell from the videos she posted online Saturday night that she and Larry had spent Valentine's Day at a place called the Sutra Lounge in Costa Mesa. The club isn't there anymore, but back in 2015 it was a nightclub in every sense of the word, like DJ's lights a packed dance floor, booze flowing freely, and I was actually trying to get a sense of the place, and I came across this Yelp review that I think sums it up. Britt, if you can read it for us. Sure, it says, quote, Sutra is totally the

typical club. Bouncers, expensive drinks, crowded space, lines for bathrooms, all that. But hello, it's a club. Don't come here looking for a mellow, cerebral crowd who's kicking back with craft beers, ain't happening, smiley face, end quote. I mean, this place seems like a total party spot, not like a super romantic quiet hideaway. Yeah. Do we know if their outing was more of like a group thing or just the two of them? Well, based on what Erica's family was able to gather, the couple might have met up with some other friends, but they don't have any details at this point because no one's spoken to Erica yet. So, you know, when they're realizing they haven't gotten in touch with her, they don't really know who she was with other than Larry. But then Monday rolls around

and her family gets a call that is worrisome. It's from the Victoria secret store where Erica had recently started working. And they tell the Alonso's that Erica was a no-call, no-show that day. Once her family hears this, they immediately contact the Orange County Sheriff's Department who tells the family that they're going to begin to track down her movements. The first place they start is with Larry. And according to the statement he gives police, he and Erica were having a great time at Sutra. They had some drinks, they were out on the dance floor, and at some point in the night, they met up with another couple, a man and a woman. And Erica quickly befriended them. Her older sister, DeNora, who is the reason we found out about this case, told us that this kind

of friendliness was totally Erica's style. And we actually had a chance to speak with her recently and she described Erica as a true social butterfly. Erica, she could make friends with anybody. But she saw you sitting in a corner and she would start talking to you randomly like she would start a conversation with anybody. I love that about her. There's an old lady, a little kid, she could start up a conversation with anybody. So the two couples hit it off and around 1.30 in the morning, the group decides to leave Sutra and go back to Larry's house, which was about 15 minutes away in Irvine. Bar is in Costa Mesa, closed at 2. And a lot of them do last call around 1.30. So if they wanted to keep hanging out and keep the party going, they had to go somewhere else. Right. You don't have to

go home, but you can't stay here. Exactly. Larry tells police that he and Erica had taken an Uber to the club. So this other couple, whose names he says he doesn't remember, drove all four of them back to his place in their red Toyota. When they got to Larry's place, they had some more drinks, they listened to some music and just hung out. According to Larry's statement, around 3.45 in the morning, he and Erica get into an argument and the couple that they've been hanging out with leaves. About 15 minutes later, Larry says that Erica gets into her car, which is a white 2014 Honda Civic, and she drives away. And he says, that's it. That's the last time he saw her. Now, obviously, Erica's family is starting to feel frantic at this point. They appeal to the

public for help and offer a $5,000 reward for information, just trying to get some more attention in hopes that someone will come forward who has seen Erica or knows something. A few more days go by with no word, no sign of Erica, no activity on her social media or cell phone. Investigators do manage to get ahold of some footage from the nightclub, and they're trying to locate this mystery couple that Erica and Larry were hanging with, hoping that they can shed a little more light on what had happened that night. According to Erica's family, a few friends had actually seen her at Sutra, and they said she was behaving like her normal, fun loving self. But it's only the mystery couple who saw her after she left with Larry. So they're really the key to explaining

her next steps. Like they can talk to as many people in the club as they want, but that's not going to give them like the next break in their case, or it's not going to back up Larry's version of events. So the Orange County Sheriff's Department thanks their lucky stars. When a call comes in, around 1 30 in the morning on Friday, February 20. So almost a week after Erica went missing. And on the other end is the mystery couple. Apparently the couple had seen themselves on the news and decided to come forward. They corroborated most of what Larry had said before met at Sutra and decided to go back to Larry's house in Irvine around 1 30 in the morning. They say they hung out for a few hours.

But when Erica and Larry started fighting, they decided to leave. Are they able to tell police what the fight was about or maybe even what started it? I'm assuming they were witnesses to the whole thing if it was just the four of them there or even just the beginning of the argument. So it was like you're saying just the four of them together at Larry's house. But they either don't know or can't remember what the fight was about. Like they can't give police any information about that. But they do agree that it happened around 3 45 on Sunday morning though, which is the same time that Larry said it happened. They tell investigators that when they left Erica was still at the house and still with Larry. So because Larry is cooperative from

the start and the mystery couple seems to corroborate his timeline, law enforcement doesn't really press him harder at this point. But that doesn't mean her family doesn't have questions for Larry. Based on media coverage on this case and what we learned from the Alonzo's, the couple's relationship was definitely rocky, which sets off alarm bells immediately for the family. Erica's sister DeNora told us she was struggling to hold out hope right from day one because the second Patty told her who Erica was with before she went missing, she felt in her gut things were going to be bad. When my sister called me, I had left work and I remember that so well and when she told me that Larry was the last person that saw my heart, like literally I felt

like if you're like on an elevator or something and it just like dropped. I feel like if she would have told me anybody else, anybody else was the last person I would have been like hopeful. I would have been, you know, oh, she's probably here or whatever. But the minute she told me that from stuff that I knew, I just, my heart's saying, I went home and I started crying. Because I just felt, I felt something had happened. Okay. Whoa. Why would DeNora be so certain? Well, look, there is a backstory here and some major problems in Erica and Larry's relationship. So just to back up for a second, they met about two years before all of this happened in like

2013. He was almost 20 years older than she was. So there was a significant age difference, but her sister Patty told KTLA that they were very alike, which she says was not always such a good thing. The relationship was very rocky with lots of ups and downs, but Erica really wanted to make things work between them. Larry had a daughter who Erica loved and she was close to and even though her friends and family say that there were issues pretty much right from the start, they seemed determined to try and make it work. But her mother told us some awful stories that definitely indicate that their relationship was unhealthy. And she said that she had seen scratches and bruising on both of them at various points. Erica's sister DeNora says that she was

very concerned for her sister right from the beginning. The few times that I met him, he just seems very kind of like arrogant and she I guess kind of forced him onto me to kind of like get to know him. But I had already started to hear some not good stuff about him. I just feel like she would say some stuff, but then she would kind of hold back because she knew she knew what I was going to tell her. You know, she knew from my side what I was going to tell her probably because I was starting to hear stuff and I was like, you know, I want to talk to her and I want to tell her, you know, like on a serious note, you know, this is this is bad for you. But I never got to. Now, it's always hard to know what's happening between two people in private. We tried to get

Larry's side of the story and we called all the numbers that we could find for him that we believe could have been associated with him and his family members, but we couldn't reach anyone for comment. So I want to give you all the facts that are publicly known because I think they might be important to understanding what happened on the night Erica disappeared. According to a KTLA piece that came out about two weeks after Erica disappeared, there was an alleged domestic violence incident between the couple on November 2nd, 2014 that resulted in a court ordered restraining order against Erica, not Larry. Apparently neighbors overheard an argument which took place at Larry's house in Irvine and they contacted police. Now, I don't have all the details, but for whatever

reason, when police arrived at the home and assessed the situation, Erica was the one that they arrested. Two days after her arrest, she was charged with misdemeanor domestic violence with corporal injury and given a four month order to stay away from Larry. Okay, so do we know anything about his part in all of this? Like had there been previous incidents or arrests that he was found at fault for? I mean, did her friends and family know what was going on between them? I guess based on like the stories that we've told before, it's pretty unusual for these kinds of altercations to just be one offs. Yeah, I mean, I think it's easy to hear things like this and start jumping to conclusions. We can't know exactly what happened, which is why I'm really

grateful to Erica's family for opening up to us about what the relationship looked like from their perspective. But apparently there had been previous calls to police. But according to Erica's sister DeNora, those calls like never really resulted anything. They didn't go anywhere. Many times the police was called. Sometimes her, sometimes him. And but they were always called off. The calls are there. But since she never reported anything, it's not on the record. So they don't take it serious. So to me, if she would have every time it would have been on, you know, on paper, they would have taken it more serious. So it sounds like there were some pretty major red flags in this relationship, even though Erica was the only one who ever actually got into any

legal trouble. Yeah, definitely. And Erica's mom told us that Erica really didn't want to press charges because she didn't want Larry to lose custody of his daughter. So I guess what happened with the charges against Erica, though? Well, in December of 2014, she had requested that the domestic violence case be postponed, agreeing instead to attend alcohol abuse counseling sessions. And on February 6, which was just a week before she disappeared, the restraining order and the case against her were dropped. So when she's meeting up with Larry on Valentine's Day, this is an attempt to work on their relationship again. Although the evidence provided by the mystery couple about their fight shows that things, you know, weren't entirely going as smoothly as

planned. Erica's family told us that they had shared their concerns and suspicions with law enforcement right from the beginning. But the Orange County Sheriff's Department has always said that Larry cooperated with the investigation. And a lieutenant even went so far as to publicly say that everything Larry had told them, quote unquote, checked out, and he was basically a dead end. After authorities initial questioning of Larry, days pass, and then weeks go by. And while the investigation is ongoing, few leads come in and nothing much really happens. Erica's family, however, is very active in trying to find her and to keep her story in the public eye. On February 28, their community in Laguna Hills holds a candlelight vigil and hundreds of people attend.

They carry signs saying justice for Erica and missing person posters with her picture and the word desoparasita, which is disappeared written on them. They're all doing everything they can to make sure no one forgets about Erica while the search for her continues. An entire month goes by and no new leads emerge. There are no signs of Erica and not even any clues as to where she could possibly be. Then on March 25, law enforcement responds to a call about an abandoned vehicle in the Glenwood Park neighborhood of Elisa Viejo, which is about a 20 minute drive from Larry's house where Erica was last seen. The call comes from a neighbor who later told CBS Los Angeles that the car had been there for weeks, just untouched. And after seeing it over and over,

the resident told the reporter, quote, I just kind of got that weird feeling and I looked in there and I saw a purse, end quote. When police arrive on scene, they find a white 2014 Honda Civic covered in dust with two parking violation notices on it. When police run the plates, they discover it's Erica's car. And yes, the person's eye belongs to her, but what they don't find is Erica. So is there a reason she would be in this area where her car was found? Well, it turns out that it is very close to Erica's house, like a mile away from her house. What? Yeah. So this whole time while everyone has been searching for her, her car has been parked just a mile from her family's home and no one made any report of it, made any connection, nothing.

Yep. I mean, could they tell anything from the car? Like maybe it had broken down, there was a flat tire, anything to explain why she would have just left it there? No, according to reporting from KTLA, police investigators told Erica's stepfather, Isaac, that there was no apparent damage to the car or any signs of foul play. So even though finding it is a huge clue, maybe a step in the right direction, it honestly kind of just deepens the mystery even further. Yeah, I was gonna say a clue to what though? The police tow the Honda away and begin processing it. Her family feels like maybe there's some renewed hope because they have something to go on now. Like again, this feels like some kind of clue. They're also really

concerned about the fact that Erica's belongings are all in the car, but she's nowhere to be found. Like it's even more of a reason for them to worry. All her stuff was there. And again, another neighbor said it seemed weird because you could see a female's purse, personal things, and no, and normally as women, I don't think we leave our stuff just like that. And but everything was there except her phone. So her phone was never found. For her family, Erica's missing phone is a big deal because Erica would never have gone anywhere without it. To this day, they wonder what evidence could have been found if her phone had been recovered. The day after her car is found, March 26th is Erica's 28th birthday. And of course,

it's a tough day for the Alonso's. They gathered together for a small ceremony in their neighborhood and send dozens of balloons up into the sky at sunset. They send red balloons specifically her favorite color. And at this point, they're just praying that she is found safe and she is found soon. But another month goes by another month of waiting and hoping and searching. Police are still processing Erica's car and her family is still doing whatever they can to make sure as many people as possible know about Erica's case. They post flyers, they talk to reporters, they write updates constantly on social media. But it's not until late April two and a half months after she vanished that they finally get some news that they think

might solve the mystery of Erica's disappearance once and for all. On the morning of April 28th, Erica's sister DeNora gets a call from a family member saying that she was on her way to work and saw some activity on the Ortega Highway, this stretch of road in the middle of the Cleveland National Forest. She says that she thinks that a body had been found. Even though they hadn't heard from police yet, family immediately thinks of Erica. My aunt, she lives in Lake Elsinore and she drives that every day, every day. Around eight or seven, she calls me and she had already passed because we don't get signaled and she called me and she goes, there's white vans on Ortega and there's cops. And that's

how, you know, we started, they didn't call or say my aunt passed and we started like telling each other. According to KTLA's reporting at about 10 30 a.m. her stepfather Isaac shows up at the scene just in case he can help identify her. And he's right behind the county coroner who was called in by police. Apparently the night before law enforcement got a call from a group of biologists with the California Department of Transportation who were working out in a ravine next to the Ortega Highway when they stumbled across a body down in a dry creek bed. This was at about 10 or 10 30 at night. So because it was late at night and dark, Orange County officials decided to wait until the following morning to start any kind of crime scene investigation. Now this area that we're

talking about is remote. According to the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service website, the Cleveland National Forest is about 460,000 acres. And the place where this body is found is out there. And about one mile to the west is a fire ranger station. But other than that, it is pretty much just woods and wilderness, like as far as the eye can see in all directions. Here, but I'm gonna actually send you an aerial map of the park. Oh, yeah, I see what you're saying. There are like a couple of roads that run off into the woods, but nothing that actually really leads anywhere. I guess my first question is how far is this from like the towns we've been talking about, even just about where Erica's car was found? Okay, so this is the bananas thing to me.

We're talking a distance of about over 20 miles from where her car was found, which where her car was found was like a mile from her house, right? Right again. So you have to ask how did she get there? Like she's abandoning her car a mile from where she lives. And then her body shows up 20 miles away in the middle of nowhere. So Orange County Sheriff's deputies start processing the scene around dawn on the 28th. And they're quickly able to identify Erica based on her clothes and tattoos. At 11am, the coroner removes her remains in order to conduct an autopsy. And the Sheriff's department later announces that they were able to use fingerprints to officially confirm her ID. As you can imagine, the Alonzo family is devastated by this discovery.

Even though Erica has been missing for two and a half months, they've still been like holding out this little bit of hope and praying that the next lead in the case would be the one that brought their daughter and their sister home safely. So are they able to get some answers at least like now that she's been found? Things are actually about to get a lot more confusing because according to the official autopsy results, Erica's body had been in the national forest exposed to the elements long enough that I guess the level of decomposition made it hard to immediately determine what her cause of death was. Now, the local ABC News channel runs a report that states that there may have been some blood visible at the scene, but then the Sheriff's office is quick to tell the

press that law enforcement's initial inspection shows quote, no obvious signs of trauma, end quote. So I'm not sure what's what. Now, I've seen the autopsy report and I have to say, to me, the statement seems a little premature because Erica's sister, DeNora, shared the document with us, which she only saw recently. And she was surprised by what it showed because it seemed to directly contradict the Sheriff Department's claim that there was no obvious sign of trauma. They had always said from what I remember that she did not have any bruises, anything broken, you know, nothing. And when we got the autopsy report, it was very hard to see that that was not true. It was very hard.

Wait, what does the autopsy report show? Well, it showed several bruises on Erica's body. Now, some are small and according to the report, indistinct, but there is a large bruise on her head measuring five inches by four inches. That's big. And one on her buttocks that measures five inches by two inches. And what I will say is that, you know, A, it's totally possible that she got these bruises on another day or that they were caused by an accident of some kind. Also, again, if it's on her head, is it is it where her hair would have been her butt shift? She was fully clothed. So I can also see why potentially they're saying they couldn't, there was no obvious signs like maybe right when you're looking at her.

They couldn't tie those injuries to any sort of trauma that led to her death. Well, and I'm saying maybe they didn't even see them right away. Again, you don't move the body when you first arrived. So maybe that's what they meant is like literally when we first looked at her, we didn't see anything. I don't know. And again, to your point, you don't know if those actually led to her death either. But for the Alonso family, it's hard for them not to wonder if they could be related to her death. But here's the thing, bruising a side that is not the only suspicious thing. According to the autopsy report, Erica was found in the fetal position, wrapped in layers of plastic bags, saran wrap and duct tape. I'm sorry. What? Yes. They have to be calling us a

homicide now, right? They're not not at this point anyway. Because according to a Los Angeles Times story, the coroner wasn't able to determine that cause of death during her autopsy. So you can't say manner yet. They still need a full toxicology report to make a ruling, but that's going to take six to eight weeks to complete. So while investigators wait for those results, they continue to process evidence and information collected at the scene. The rest of April passes with no further announcements about the case and authorities release Erica's remains to her family. So the Alonso's are finally able to lay her to rest with a standing room only memorial on May 8th. At the ceremony, Erica's stepfather speaks to NBCLA reporter Vicky Vargas,

saying that he believes she was murdered. And he vows not to give up speaking for the truth until he knows exactly what happened to her and who did it. He goes on to say that he's upset and surprised by how absent Erica's ex-boyfriend Larry has been. Isaac says that at that point, Larry has not been in touch even one time since she disappeared. Wait, so he hasn't reached out to Erica's family or helped in the searches or the efforts to get the word out like nothing? Nothing, nothing. According to the Alonso family, Larry hasn't so much as called them since Erica first disappeared, which they obviously think is weird. The next development in the case comes on July 22nd. OCSD releases the results of Erica's toxicology report and the findings are shocking. For months,

many people, including her family, had assumed that she was the victim of foul play. I mean, she disappeared suddenly, she wasn't found with her car, she had left her personal belongings behind. Again, she is found wrapped in plastic deep in the forest laying in a dry creek bed. But according to the findings from the toxicology report, Erica's cause of death can't be labeled a homicide. Why not? Well, first of all, her talk screen shows that she had a blood alcohol level of 0.22, which is three times the legal limit in California. So it's super high, but honestly, not super surprising given what we know she was drinking at a nightclub. She was drinking back at Larry's. But there was another finding that no one saw coming. Her body also contained lethal

amounts of gamma hydroxybutyric acid, also known as GHB, which is the date rape drug. Yes, GHB is most commonly called the date rape drug, but it can be taken recreationally. Though Erica's family is insistent that there's no way this is what happened in her case. Her brother says that Erica may have experimented with mind-altering substances sometimes, but she would absolutely have known better than to combine GHB with so much alcohol. She wasn't careless of that. And again, that's just not her, that she would do those two things like that, knowing how much she had drank, how fat it was, and for her to do that. Even if she would have been like, I don't think she's the type of person that would have said, okay, let me take this. That's just not her.

So are they thinking she was drugged at the club then? Well, according to her family and based on the research that I've done, it seems pretty unlikely that she could have ingested that much GHB at the club and then still been functioning the way witnesses say she was, let alone driving a few hours later. Which means, again, if all that is right, that most likely the drug got into her system back at Larry's house, whether that be knowingly or without her knowledge. So in the end, her cause of death is determined to be an overdose. But because they can't prove how the GHB got into her system, they can't officially call it a homicide. But her family is frustrated by this. Here's DeNora again.

If you're telling us that's what killed her, then how are you telling us that she drove away? Because that's what they said, that she drove away. The detectives, that's what they said, that she drove away. Okay, she would have been in a car accident or something within less, to me, less than a mile. So the driving away, weird, sure. But it's the plastic and the duct tape and all of that for me. Like, this brings me right back to Kaysera Stop's pretty places, like, all over again. It makes no sense. I mean, at a minimum, don't you have to say that someone was involved with disposing of her body? Right? Like, am I, am I missing something? No, like, I'm right there with you. Like, you can't wrap yourself up like that. I mean, plus,

how did she get there? Because again, if we say, okay, she was with it enough to drive away, her car was 20 miles away. Did she Uber out there? And the driver wrapped her up because she asked and then there's like, left her in the forest? What? You have to literally come up with all these like, wild explanations. But again, even if we're going to go with this, you know, she got another ride out there. We don't know if that happened. I don't know if we'll ever know what happened because her phone was never found. Okay, but you should still be able to get like, the records from her phone without having like, the physical cell phone in your hands, right? I thought about that too. But when we asked her family about the records, they said that they

thought police had requested them, but they had never heard anything else about it. One of her sisters thinks someone told her Erica's phone died at the nightclub. So she might not have even been able to use it later that night, which would actually rule out again, any fringe theories about her taking a rideshare from her car 20 miles into the national forest. I mean, or even calling a friend to pick her up. Like, she has no access to communicate with anybody. Exactly. Listen, the Alonso's have the same questions we do. And they think that the only way her body could have been found so far from her car is if someone else took her into the forest. Like, even if she did drive away from Larry's house alone, impaired, someone would have had to,

at the very least, meet her in Aliso Viejo, if not, which without her phones, this would have had been preplanned. Well, I was just going to say, if not go with her, right, and then drive her all the way out to the Cleveland National Forest. Or again, maybe she wasn't driving. Like we said, she was pretty impaired. Maybe someone else drove either her car or another car. I don't know. And listen, we're not even saying that it's a premeditated thing. Honestly, her family believes that she may have overdosed accidentally either after taking the drug on purpose or being given them without her consent. And then maybe her body and her car were moved after the fact. With all the information that they have, they think that her ex-boyfriend might

know more. And they're even open to the idea that it was an accident. Nothing, again, preplanned, but just a night gone terribly wrong. And choices made to try to cover it up, right? Right. Now, clearly, there are some major holes in this story. And this is the reason I can't stop thinking about this case and why I wanted to share it with you and all of our listeners. Someone out there must know something. And Erica's family won't rest until they know exactly what happened. They want justice not only for Erica, but for anyone else who has gone through something similar. They're hoping that by telling her story to all of you, something new might come to light or law enforcement might be motivated to

review evidence they already have to progress the case. We just want me out of this. I want people that had called in before, people that, you know, like, that old neighbors or if they ever hear this, you know, to call in again. I want them to start doing it again. Like, get the case, like, look into something, you know, something. Because right now it's a cold case and it's on the back burner. So I just want people to come forward if, you know, to please come forward if they had called before to please call again. Something has to happen. Something. Okay. We can't keep going like this every year, hoping something. In the years since Erica's death, the Alonzas have worked tirelessly to tell her story and to create a platform for others

to share information about their missing and murdered loved ones. Their justice for Erica Facebook page is an active testament to the community they've built and the support that they give to families experiencing a tragedy that they know all too well. They've also worked really hard to make sure that if there is someone out there who moved Erica's body after either killing her or realizing she overdosed, they worked to make sure that if that person or persons are ever found that they will be penalized together with California State Senator Janet when they've successfully lobbied for Erica's law, which allows for charges to be filed against anyone who conceals an accidental death up to one year after they are identified by law enforcement.

It also extends the statute of limitations for the dumping of a body to four years. California Governor Jerry Brown signed the law in 2017 and it officially went into effect on January 1st, 2018. You know, I am just always so inspired when people can take their pain, their grief, their suffering and build something from it that helps others, even if it potentially could never, you know, even help them. Me too. It gets me every time and I think the Alonzo family is an incredible example of that. I actually want to wrap up today's episode with their voices because we wouldn't have been able to tell this story without them. We asked them to share a little bit about their memories of Erica and this is what they told us. She's the fun one and my other

two sisters that I'm closer with. They're like the calm ones compared to me and Erica. And yeah, I just, I miss her a lot. I was 21 when she passed, so I feel like there was a lot more. I still had to learn from her and I really wish she was here sometimes so I could talk to her about things. Sometimes in life you get family, but you don't always get home. With her, I feel like I connected in many levels. She was very accepting. She was very open-minded, always willing to listen to me. Like when I had things, never judgmental. So don't see her as a number. Don't see her as her just a name. She was someone, you know? She's still loved. We still miss her. It's not like she's just gone, you know? We love her. We're going to love her until the end.

This investigation is still ongoing. If you have any information about the circumstances leading to Erica's death or the relocating of her body, please call the Orange County Sheriff's Department at 714-647-7055 or there's an alternate number in our show notes. Again, I want to thank the Alonzo family for all of their help putting this story together. If you want to support their efforts to get answers in her case, please visit their Facebook page. It's Justice for Erica, which again is linked right in our show notes. For all of our source material, please visit our website crimejunkiepodcast.com. And be sure to follow us on Instagram at crimejunkiepodcast.

We'll be back next week with a brand new episode, but stick around for prepped of the month. So, what do you think Chuck? Do you approve? Okay, so this month's prepped is coconut or cocoa and she was submitted to us by her mom, Callie. Now, Callie works at a veterinary hospital and after one very, very long Saturday, which I cannot even imagine, the hospital was just about to close up for the weekend when the owner of a local animal rescue came flying through the door with this kennel and they told the hospital that the puppy inside the kennel had just been pulled from a dumpster where she had been thrown away to die. I cannot even tell you, but the rescue was like, hey, we are in way over our

heads to treat her here at the rescue. Like we need your help. And when Callie opened the kennel, she found a terrified pile of a puppy, hairless from mange with open sores all over her little body. Like when they reached out to get her out of the kennel, like just just to assess her, she was screaming in pain. And Callie said that you could see in her eyes that she had just completely emotionally shut down. And since she was so underweight, it was difficult to even tell her age, but they estimated that she was about a year old and had likely suffered every single day of her short life and was only about half the size that she should have been. So the rescue that brought her in said, Hey, we are all in. Do whatever you need to to save her life and make her better.

And they did. The rescue started fundraisers, people from all over the world donated to help save this precious puppy's life. And I mean, they needed it too. She needed a ton of care. And she actually spent something like seven weeks at the hospital where Callie worked, getting blood transfusions, medicated baths for her skin, soaks on her feet because they were so infected. They were so infected that they actually had to amputate one of her toes. But every day, this little Bob got stronger and stronger and her fur started coming back in. It was patchy at first, but this beautiful chocolate color and everyone thought she looked just like a little coconut. So that's what they started calling her. And she was eventually well enough to leave the hospital

and go to the shelter to further recover and a foster family came and picked her up one day. And obviously, this is great news. Like this dog's life was legitimately saved. That's amazing. But that day, Callie realized that she had completely fallen in love with her sweet baby coconut. And you know, she had watched her heal not only physically, but emotionally too. Like despite how life had treated her, this puppy overcame her fears and her pain and her torture and still loved humans. Like that's what like I will never get over. I think we've talked with this a thousand times again, we don't deserve dogs. Well, like the way a dog can forgive and not like hold on to stuff is a trait I would love to be able to learn from animals.

I would say you and I especially are like, what? Because we are kind of famously grudge holders. Yeah, 100%. That's maybe putting it very politely. But like, I cannot process like this dog is just still trusting, still loving, still willing to give love, even okay, okay with humans. Like, I would be maybe okay with humans. And that's like the nicest I would be at this point. But Kelly just said coconut is just so beautiful inside and out. And the same night she left the hospital with that foster family, Kelly called the rescue and was like, I gotta adopt her. And the rescue was like, well, of course, and they've been together ever since. It's been five years. And Kelly is so thankful that not only was she able to help coconut live, but introduce

her to this whole new life as well. And what's so sweet I think is Kelly was Coco's main nurse. So during those seven weeks at the hospital, it gave them a ton of time to bond. And Kelly feels honored that she got to not only be the face that Coco came to love and trust as a nurse, but she's now the human that Coco can call mom forever, which I was just like, oh, I love this story so much. I'm so happy. Get it Coco. And Kelly, of course, wanted us to shout out the Midwest Animal Rescue in Raytown, Missouri. They're the ones who brought Coco in, raised all those funds to, you know, cover her care in the hospital. And of course, they united these two through pet adoption. So we'll have all that information as well as pictures of coconut on our website.