Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Gorgeous Texas Bartender, 21, VANISHES: Arrest Made

Episode Date: August 5, 2023

After a night out with friends, Madeline Pantoja returned home, then stopped responding to texts and phone calls. One of Pantoja’s friends and a sibling went to her apartment, but the door was locked and no one answered. Midland police were called. Officers broke in and found Pantoja’s phone, keys and her dog inside. Her car was also still in the parking lot. Information began filtering in from neighbors who heard arguing from both inside and outside the apartment and screaming around 1 a.m. Surveillance cameras caught a pickup truck speeding away from the home.   Pantoja's body is found, 10 days after she vanished. Ex-boyfriends Mario Juan Chacon, 24, is booked on first-degree murder charges.  Joining Nancy Grace Today: Jasmine Hernandez - Victim’s close friend (showed up at Madeline’s apartment the next day when she wasn’t answering her phone) https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-find-madeline #helpusfindmadeline Irv Miller - Criminal Defense Attorney, The Miller Firm; Legal Analyst: CBS2 Chicago WBBM-TV and Legal Technical Advisor to “THE GOOD WIFE” and “THE GOOD FIGHT”- CBS productions Dr. Carla Manly - Clinical Psychologist and Author: “Date Smart: Transform Your Relationships & Love Fearlessly" Dorian Bond - Private detective and owner of Bond Investigations Inc. in Dallas, TX. (largest African American-owned Private Investigative firm in the United States, Licensed in over 42 states and Canada for over 25 years); Former Detective in Arizona and Investigator on the “Baby Gabriel" case in Arizona; Twitter: @bondinvestigate Rachel Hallam - Reporter for KMID TV in Odessa, TX; Twitter: @rachelhallamtv See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. The disappearance of a young Texas woman, Madeline Pantoja, after we take the story to the air, a Texas man arrested. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. The family of a 20-year-old Texas woman devastated 10 days after Madeline goes missing. Her body found. Pantohalacin around 11 p.m. on May 10 after going out with friends in Midland. That's about 300 miles west of Dallas. Family and friends immediately suspicious when they could not reach her the next day she had also left her phone purse keys and dog behind her at her apartment

her loved ones became even more angry after a week passed and no progress reports in the search for beautiful Madeline, we learn that Mario Chacon, 24, booked on murder one in connection to the disappearance and death of a beautiful 20-year-old girl, Madeline Pantoja. How did the whole thing begin? Take a listen to our friends at KWES. Search continues for a 21-year-old Midland woman, Madeline Amaline Pantoja. She was last seen on Wednesday around 11 p.m. at 1711 West Francis. There's still no word on what she was last wearing,

but her phone and car, they were left at her apartment. If you have any information on Madeline's whereabouts, you can call the Midland Police Department at 432-685-7108. It's a nightmare for any family having no idea where your loved one is. And the Pandoha family says they have no new information on where Madeline

is. Madeline's father, Roberto, is just desperate to have his daughter back and safe. It's something that we don't wish this on anybody. We never thought this was going to happen to our family. Madeline Pandoja was last seen at her apartment complex on May 10th. Thursday at 1.30. Guys, I'm taking a look at her right now. She looks like a beauty queen. And of course, that's neither here nor there. Her life is as valuable as everyone else's. But I'm wondering who has seen her, because I would remember this face, anywhere. She's absolutely stunning.

I find it very, very disturbing right off the top that she's missing without her cell phone. Now, this is a 21-year-old girl, young woman. And if my children are any example, or basically anybody I know, and that includes all three of you sitting here in the studio, nobody goes anywhere without their cell phone. Before I go to our investigative reporter joining us from KMID-TV in Odessa, that would be Rachel Hallam. I want to go straight to Carla, Dr. Carla Manley, clinical psychologist, author of Date

Smart. Dr. Carla, it's great to have you with us. You can find her at DrCarlaManley.com. Dr. Carla, it's like our cell phones are an appendage. I often think, I'm sure you've seen or read Harry Potter's. They never go anywhere without their wand, ever. It's their lifeline. Same thing with a phone.

My children take their phone everywhere. If they're in the back of the house and they come up to the front for a glass of milk, they bring their phone. I'm like what do you think is going to happen you're you're going to get a call from the white house why do you have to have your phone with you at all times but i really you know don't have leg to stand on i do the same thing that is i'm leading up to a point rather circuitously i find it disturbing she doesn't have her phone and that tells tells me she has been taken against her will.

Absolutely. Our cell phones, for so many of us, have become a security blanket. So if she's left her home without her cell phone, either she left, who knows, maybe just for a minute and intended to go back, but to leave your home for, what a week now and to not have your cell phone that is really a negative sign let's go straight to rachel hallam investigative reporter kmid tv odessa rachel thank you so much for being with us tell me uh where was her car and where were her car and cell phone found so i mean what we've been told is that her car and where were her car and cell phone found? So, I mean, what we've been told is that her car and cell phone were at her apartment.

Her cell phone was in her in her apartment off of West Francis in Midland. Now, it does seem that this apartment complex itself is pretty isolated. It is a good distance from downtown Midland, about five minutes. I know that doesn't seem like a whole lot, but it is a pretty good chunk of time. And it is connected to a pretty active street, which is Garfield Street, where West Francis meets Garfield Street. Now, it seems like somebody would have seen it.

Somebody could have seen her leave or be taken. So it's just odd, like you said. And interesting enough, it's a very active apartment complex itself too. Rachel, I'm glad you said that. Guys, Rachel Hallam joining us, reporter KMID-TV. I want to talk about Midland for a moment. Midland, of course, we all know is in western Texas.

It's an oil industry center. But what is grabbing my attention, it has a population of 131,325 at the last census. In broad terms, that's a relatively small town. I came from one much smaller than that at the time, out in the middle of, all you could see are pine trees and soybean fields. So that's, Midland's bigger than where I came from. But still, when you're thinking about narrowing down suspects or narrowing down what happened to Madeline, I'm thinking about what you said that it's about five minutes drive, not walk, five minutes drive from the city center. Is that what you're saying, Rachel? Yes, ma'am. It's about five minutes.

Drive or walk drive drive okay so that's significant it's not like she got thrown in the car at a red light a busy intersection in downtown Midland she is out in a more residential area but then also you said the apartment backs up on a very busy, is it an interstate? Yes. So it connects to Garfield, which connects to I-20, interstate I-20. And that is a very, very active interstate right there. Oh, yeah.

I-20 goes all the way across the country to the eastern seaboard. Okay. Let me bring in Dorian Bond, guys, former Arizona detective, private detective, owner of Bond Investigations in Dallas. And I'd like to point out that's the largest African-American owned PI firm in the country, licensed 42 states. Long story short, you can find them at bondinvestigations.com. Dorian Bond has looked for people. Let me tell you that. The reason I'm concerned about it, first of all, being a suburban area, that's good as far as trying to find a suspect that may have taken her because it's less likely she's, you know, carjacked and taken or

kidnapped, grabbed off a corner at an intersection or, you know, walking on a busy street, much less likely in a suburban area. But backing into I-20, that's a whole nother animal, Dorian, and I'll tell you why. This gives me, okay, I just felt it. It gives me shivers. I just got them down my legs. When I think about Shasta and Dylan Groney, I use them as the perfect example, Dorian. Dorian, that was a little girl and her little brother up in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. And if you look down on an aerial, which I did from up in the sky looking down where they were kidnapped from their home, you see nothing but green.

You don't even see their house. And you think, how did somebody find these two children to kidnap them? Unless they were a local. You'd have to be a local to find that place. Right? Wrong. A guy on the interstate, Dorian, was driving by and he happened to look out from a certain vantage point and between the trees he saw Shasta, the girl, at her above ground pool. Went and killed the whole family and took the children. Later killed the little boy. Shasta

lived. So you're not safe even in a nice suburban area tucked away in Midland, Texas. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, when you're close to an interstate like that, and yes, you can see Midland's close to the border of Mexico, when they, if somebody disappears, the first thing you're going to look at is for their phone. I don't like that at all. Close to the border of Mexico. Nothing good is happening there. Go ahead, Dorian. Yeah, the first thing you're going to look at when you start an investigation is you look for the person's phone. The fact that her phone was left there

is going to first tell me that it's deliberate. Then we're also going to look for the, try to get a hold of the telephone company and see if we can get the last few phone calls, the geolocation of the phone, and maybe the last few text messages of who she texted because that's going to be a key but the fact that her phone is still there it helps us because maybe they can get access to the phone maybe her family which had uh information that

maybe lead to the password on the phone but you know there's always going to be problems going through um apple trying to get through a phone it's an iphone yeah hopefully somebody can crack it like i know everybody and my family's uh code to their phone so somebody should probably know her code guys joining me right now is a very special guest it's one of madeline's dearest friends. She showed up at Madeline's apartment, but Madeline didn't answer the phone. Jasmine Hernandez is with us. But first, I want you to hear our friends at CrimeOnline.com. After a night out with friends, Madeline Pantoja stopped responding to texts and phone calls. One of Pantoja's siblings went to her apartment, but the door was locked and no one answered. Midland police were called. Officers broke in and found Pantoja's phone,

keys and her dog inside. Her car was also still in the parking lot. Information began filtering in from neighbors who heard arguing from both inside and outside the apartment and screaming around 1 a.m. Surveillance cameras caught a pickup truck speeding away from the home. Was that Madeline? Was she fighting someone off? If so, why didn't the neighbor call 911? And what do we know about a mystery truck peeling off? Jasmine, thank you for being with us.

What led you to go over to Madeline's apartment looking for her? Hi, yes, ma'am. so we had some plans that following day and so she was answering her phone and I have her location on my phone and I noticed about her location was at her apartment all day and it's very unlike her to cancel plans to just not respond and she texts me every day so I know when something's wrong I know when I need to show up to make sure she's okay so I showed up and sure enough she wasn't in there and the rest of her stuff was in there

crime stories with Nancy Grace. A double blow for the family of Madeline Pantoja. After they search desperately to find 20-year-old Madeline, her body is discovered, booked in her murder. Mario Chacon. All along, friends believe Pantoja's ex-boyfriend, with whom she had recently broken up and who still had a key to her apartment, was to blame. He was not publicly named as a POI person of interest. What do we know about Madeline's disappearance? Guys with me is a very dear friend of Madeline's. Now, I think you said, Jasmine, that you have her on your location. Yes, ma'am, I do. What were your plans for the next day? What were you two going to

do? We were going to swim at her apartment. So let me understand this. You keep calling her, you text her, she never responds. You have plans plans for that day about what time of the day did you go over and find out there's her car the locator on the phone says she's in her apartment but she's not coming to the door i want to hear the whole thing and tell me in slow-mo jasmine yes ma'am so i showed up around 6 45 p.m And I was outside her door for quite a bit of time. And I actually left at one point and had a gut feeling to go back. Why did you leave? Because she wouldn't come to the door?

Yes, I just figured maybe her phone's dead and maybe she left her phone here. And maybe she left with a friend. I don't want to overreact. But then, I don't know. I just had a gut feeling to turn back around. Hold on. Let me make a note of that. So if your phone has gone dead, everybody here in the studio, Google this very quickly. I think I know the answer, but I'm not sure. If your phone goes dead, will it still show up on the location tracker? I think it will show its last location, but I don't know that. Jack, can you look at that really quickly? So you think, okay, your phone's dead, she's gone somewhere. And then you leave. What made made you go back jasmine i find that really curious

i just had a really bad gut feeling and i trust my gut when you say bad gut feeling what did it feel like i felt wrong for leaving i don't know i felt like i needed to know that she was at least okay and she was in there or if she was out with a friend i needed to know so i contacted her friends and sure enough they hadn't heard from her either. Okay, guess what? I was wrong. If someone's phone dies, their location is no longer trackable. The phone would need to be turned on and connected to a network in order to be located. If it's turned off or the battery dies, the phone can no longer be located. Huh.

But I guess you could still, Jackie, get the last known location. But now we know when you're getting somebody's location on a tracker, like I've got my whole family on Life360, I guess when their phone dies, you can't track. But it does say, my daughter's phone goes dead all the time. It says last at home at 2.40 p.m. So it does give you that much. Okay, Jasmine, you know what I always tell the children? I always say, you know what? If what you're doing makes you feel bad or if you think you're not going to do something and that makes you feel bad, that means that's the wrong thing to do. You need to hear your feelings and follow them. So you leave. Did you go get in your car? I did. I got in my car. I drove down the street. I actually called

in some food and I never ended up getting the food. I turned back around and I went back. Wow. You are a loyal friend. So you've been out there bamming on the door, ringing the doorbell, calling her name. Nobody comes to the door. You leave, and then you have a second thought. You go back,

and then what happens? Still no answer to the door, and that's when I contacted her brother. Hey, tell me about her apartment, please, Jasmine. Can you see in there? Is it on the second floor, third floor, first floor?

Can you look in the back door? The front door doesn't have a balcony. What can you tell me? Yes, ma'am. um it is on the third floor and she does have a balcony and from her door there's a little crack and you can see that there is a light on a crack where at the top of the door her door is a little wonky so if you kind of lean on it there's a crack at the top and you can see whether the light's on or it's off so by then you know it's 7 7 30 is it getting dark? Not quite yet. It gets dark maybe around 8, 9-ish. But you can see a light was on inside. And you know, her phone is saying it's inside. And did you see her car? Her car was there. It was parked

in the parking lot. What kind of car is it? It's a kind of like a dark blue Mazda. So then what do you do? You call her brother and then what happens? So he joins me and tries to continue knocking on the door. And we were found by the maintenance man and he let us in for a wellness check. And? That's where we found all of her belongings, her purse, her phone, her keys. Everything was there. Her phone was between the couch. Her keys and her purse were on her coffee table.

Well, phone was where? Between the couch? You mean in the cushions? Yes, the couch cushion. Down in the cushions yes the couch cushion down in the cushions interesting okay i know this sounds like a crazy question but when you say the phone was in the cushions was the phone on one end of the sofa like she had had her head on a pillow with her phone and it fell down in there where on the sofa was it it was like towards the middle of the sofa um between those cushions okay towards the middle of the sofa between those cushions. Okay.

All right. Phone in the cushions, purse there. Was the balcony locked? It wasn't, but she never locked her balcony. Well, I mean, yeah, it was on the third floor. And the dog was there, right? The dog was there. Dog named?

Luna. After you find all of her stuff there, what did you do, Jasmine? We immediately got worried, and that's when we called the Midland Police Department and they had came down to start looking for us and figuring out what to do. Has she ever gone this long without contacting you? No, she's never gone more than a couple hours without contacting me. How long have you known Madeline? For about four and a half years.

Joining me right now is Irv Miller. You may recognize his name. He's a renowned criminal defense attorney with the Miller firm. You can see him on CBS, WBBM. He is the legal advisor to The Good Wife and The Good Fight with CBS. Irv, thank you for being with us. Here's the rub. She's 21 years old. You don't have to tell anybody you're going anywhere once you are of a majority. And cops will say, well, that doesn't mean she's missing. And they very often say, oh, she's run off with her boyfriend. Some BS like that, because they know at that age, 21, you don't have to answer to anybody. You can leave without your cell phone.

That's not a crime, right, Irv? It's not a crime, but it's not typical. And that's what the law enforcement agencies look for. What's not typical? When you have a missing person and the door is locked and they're not in there, the purse is still there. The dog is still there. The car is still there. The dog is still there. The car is still there. You know, if I could just comment quickly about the location, there's a big difference between what might happen in a city like Chicago where I live and what may happen

in a rural area of Midland, Texas. You know, in Chicago, on every bridge on the highway, there's license plate readers. On doorbells on every block, there's ring doorbells where you can get pictures of what's going on. On street corners, we have police pods with cameras on them to surveil the area. None of that's going to be present in this particular scene that we're talking about today. You know what? You're right. It's going to make it much more difficult. The best clue we've got right now is a late night argument i can't tell rachel hallam kmid joining us out of odessa the neighbors say they heard an argument did they hear a female voice or could they tell from what i've been told they could tell if there was a female voice and there was also a male voice they were arguing both outside of the apartment and inside the apartment.

Did they call 911? Not from what I've been told, no. The search is on, guys. Take a listen to Hour Cut 3, our friends at KWES. We've gone to lands over there, just empty lots looking. We've had people that we don't know searching with their drones. They sent us the videos, they sent us pictures of the footage they took.

We've had people offer horses to us so that we can search. The family just wanting to find Madeline as soon as possible. I found my daughter. All he wants is to find his daughter. soon as possible. Rachel Hallam joining us, investigative reporter, KMID-TV in Odessa. Tell me about the search. What is being done to find Madeline? Well, I mean, like we just heard, there are so many people in this area and even outside of Midland that are searching themselves,

drones going out, they're going on foot in and out of fields. And I've been in contact with MPD pretty much every day since her disappearance, trying to get some answers. They say that they are actively investigating any leads that they might have and searching themselves. But as of right now, of course, there's just no updates. You know, I want to go to you, Dorian Bond, as well as Irv Millerer to talk about what should be done right now what should be happening in the search for this beautiful young woman 21 year old texas woman madeline pantoja dorian uh dorian bond joining me uh detective private investigator owner owner of Bond Investigations, Inc. in Dallas. What should be happening right now to find her? Well, I'm sure the police have already done this, but the first thing I'm doing is going

to interview the neighbors that heard the arguments, see if there's any kind of, sometimes the people in apartment complexes, they have cameras that are pointing outside their windows looking at their cars due to the property thefts in those areas. So I'd check and see if there's any kind of cameras in the area. Look for red light cameras. Look for local businesses that are close by there that might have cameras to see if they can see any kind of vehicles going in and out and see if they can get any license plates ran. I don't know if they have license plate camera readers in that area, but that's one of the first things.

But like I said before, the first thing is the cell phone. If the cell phone's gone, you've got to move to talking to neighbors and what they've heard and what they heard in the midst of the argument. I'm very curious about ring doorbells. What do you know, if anything, about that? Rachel Hallam joining us, KMID, because we've had so many breakthroughss and package thefts and and and and petty thefts like that but I mean it definitely would be a possibility and a big help if they could have anybody have an eye on that. Rachel or Jasmine what is the name of her apartment complex? It is the Palladium

apartment. They're in Midland? They are. And how big are those apartments? Jasmine do you know how many people would live there? I'm not quite sure. Rachel, I'm trying to figure out if they have security cameras at the entry, the exit. When you look at the apartment, anyone on the panel, are there multiple entries and exits? There is just the one entrance and they should have cameras right in the front. It is a pretty big apartment complex, so there should be plenty of residents and there's pretty big apartment complex, so there should be plenty of residents. And there's a lot of buildings, so there should be some cameras out there. Also, there's a playground.

Is there a playground at Palladium? Yes. Well, that tells me that they may very well have cameras. Have any of you seen a camera there? Yes, they do have cameras. Where? All over the apartment, yes they do have cameras where they all over the apartment but they do not work we've already contacted the management and they have said that none of them

work besides the one entering the apartment to the gate and that one is only a live feed it doesn't save data according to the management is this rachel or jasmine this is j. You know what? Really, Irv Miller? Do I have to say the two words Chandra Levy? Did nobody learn a darn thing? Remember when Chandra Levy went missing, the D.C. intern from California that was having the affair with the congressman, Condit it and she disappears we can't find her and she left her apartment just before she went missing but they rolled over it they videoed over it in the lobby so you don't know if she left with somebody if someone you know had a gun in her back under a coat there was she dressed to go jogging was she dressed out to go out to dinner? It would have told us so much. That was the big deal when Chandra Levy went missing.

She was later found dead. She had gone jogging, and I believe it was Rock Creek Park, not far from where she lived. But how much more quickly would we have looked there for her if we could have seen her in her jogging outfit? Because that was her jogging route. So, Irv Miller, you know what? That is a huge, huge blunder for the apartment complex. Oh, absolutely. And, you know, the case also goes to prove that it's not always the typical suspect that ends up being the bad guy.

But the other thing that I would suggest that the police should be doing right away is checking financial accounts of hers to see if there was any suspicious activity on her credit card, suspicious activity on any bank accounts. Did she use an ATM? And perhaps there's, you know, some of these ATM when they're fraudulently used is actually a photograph of the person that is actually using the ATM. Those are things that I think should also be doing rather quickly to try to solve this one. Are these the Palladium apartments on La Mesa Road, Jasmine? No, ma'am. There are two Palladium apartments. This one is across from the Horseshoe Arena. It is off of Industrial. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. It's amazing to me that they don't have video cams and the ones they do have are only a live feed.

The search for this young lady goes on. I mean, once you look at her, you will never forget her face. She is stunning. Guys, take a listen to our cut 19, our friends from CrimeOnline.com. It's been eight days since Madeline Pantoja disappeared. Pantoja's father says they are searching everywhere. People are using their drones to cover land and empty lots quickly, sending the family videos, pictures of the footage.

The family has also had offers of horses for searches. Madeline Pantoja is approximately 5 feet 4 inches tall and 130 pounds with long dark hair. She has two butterfly tattoos behind her right ear and a tattoo of a snake on her right arm. Okay, that is helpful. That's very distinctive. Tell me about the genesis, the origin of those tattoos, Jasmine Hernandez. What do they mean, the butterfly tattoos? So she actually has a matching butterfly tattoo with another friend of hers. And the snake, she was so anxious to get her first tattoo.

She just chose whatever she wanted to at the tattoo shop. Tell me about her personality, Jasmine. She's really bubbly. She's such a girl's girl. She's so sweet. It's honestly really disappointing that all this happened to her. She really doesn't deserve any of this. What does she do for a living, Jasmine? So she actually works with me. We bartend at Clear Springs Cafe, and we work there together. of possibilities, a real Pandora's box. How do we know that someone didn't spot her as a bartender,

follow her, stalk her, get obsessed with her? It happens a lot, Dorian. It does happen a lot. And I know a lot of bars have implemented that when the bartenders do leave that somebody, usually security, walks them to the car. But not only walks them to the car, but not only walks them to their car, but they also watch to make sure if any vehicles follow them before they leave and see exactly how many vehicles departed the area, right when the bartenders left, because that's an extra layer of security.

Cause that's one problem that we've started noticing. A lot of people go to bars and they fall in love with the bartender because bartenders being nice, which usually bartenders are nice because they're looking for a tip. And so some people take that niceness the wrong way and then they follow them home and we've had problems like that across the country. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Her disappearance unfolded within her community there in Midland. Family and friends desperately trying to find her. The family is suffering.

Take a listen to our cut nine, our friends at ABC. Most would not expect this to happen to someone they love. And for friends and family of Madeline, that is exactly the case. She was just so loving and goofy, caring. It was like, who would have thought anyone could hurt such a sweet soul like that? Overall, they just hope that if she is watching watching they have so much they want her to know please don't blame yourself for everything we are here for you you will always be here for you and no matter what we will keep trying there's so many people looking for you there's so many people

that just want you back you're not alone and we're not going to stop looking for you until we have a response we We will find you. We will give up. And our cut 20, our friends at NewsWest 9. The days have just been all mushed together, honestly. Because we've just been doing the same thing. We've just been reaching out to whoever we can reach out to, looking in the landfills and everywhere we can look for her.

It's like the best word right now is just heartbroken because we feel hopeless. There's nothing that we can do. Like it's out of our hands and we searched everywhere. We passed out flyers everywhere. If you're watching this, Maddie, just be strong. We're coming to get you, and we're trying our hardest to find you. Just stay strong, and we will stay strong too.

Family and friends doing everything they can to help police find missing Madeline. Rachel Hallam joining us, investigative reporter KMID, who's been on the story from the very beginning. And that's got to be a horrible, horrible scenario for her friends out digging through landfills trying to find her. What can you tell me about the identity of the man we believe was having an argument around 1 a.m. that morning at her or near her apartment. Yeah, so what I've been told is that

he was an ex-boyfriend of Madeline, and they were having an argument, like we had mentioned, outside of their apartment and inside their apartment. They had been living together for a while, but recently had broken up, and he still had a key to her apartment um and told friends that he didn't have a key but they that they told me that they knew he had a key and he was probably one of the only options about only options to get into her apartment luckily the maintenance man like uh we had talked about helped them get in there but they know that he had a key to her apartment still jazzy hernandez how long had they been broken up? I want to say for about a month. Let me guess, she broke up with him?

Yes, ma'am. Was he angry about the breakup? Yes, ma'am. More so upset and sad. Just trying to get her back any way he could. Really? Any way he could? What was he doing to try to get her back?

Sometimes he would just send flowers to her apartment randomly but she would continually say that she did not want to get back with him and that she was better off by herself why did she break up with him honestly he just wasn't very good of a person inside and out he just wasn't very very good and she deserved more than what he had to offer her okay what do you mean did he neglect? Did he neglect her? Was he rude to her? Was he abusive to her? Why did she break up with him? What did she tell you as to why she broke up? She told me that he cheated on her with someone. So yeah, that's the reason for the breakup. She didn't really go into detail. And we don't know that that's true or whether she thought that it happened and it did or did not happen. But that's the reason she gave for breaking up. Take a listen to our friends at KWES. Pantoja's body was found near East County Road 190 and South County Road 1138.

The report doesn't say how Pantoja died, but did say that her body was sent to the Dallas County Medical Examiners for positive identification and an autopsy. Madeline, just 20 years old, when she reportedly was murdered by ex-boyfriend Mario Chacon just 14 days before her 21st birthday. Take a listen to our friends at KWES. Police were tipped off that 24 year old Mario Juan Chacon Jr. may have been their suspect after initial questioning. According to the arrest warrant, Chacon was evasive when Pantoja's friends asked him if he knew where she was. The warrant says that Chacon kept telling him that he was at his dad's house and that the anger medication he took

didn't allow him to drive. Police also said that when they investigated him, his story had some holes in it and it also kept changing up. The warrant says he forgot to mention that he went to get drinks with his cousin, picking him up in a Ford F-250 at the same apartment Pantoja lived in. A report also says that his pickup was found near an oil company off of Montgomery, while the warrant also says that foul play was suspected after two investigations of her apartment. Amidst the desperation of the discovery of 20-year-old Madeline Pantoja's disappearance, family and friends choose to celebrate her life. They gather together to celebrate what would have been Madeline Pantoja's 21st birthday. Those who are close to Madeline gathered at Our Lady Guadalupe Church in Midland to memorialize a beautiful daughter, sister, cousin, and friend.

Madeline Pantoja. Her body found just days before her 21st birthday. Now, justice. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.