Criminology - Monique Figueroa

Episode Date: December 5, 2021

Monique Figueroa's 2015 disappearance is shrouded in mystery. Her family has said that she battled drug addiction but was set to go to rehab. It also came out that Monique sold methamphetamine as well as using the drug. This put her in contact with some very dangerous people. This has led to a number of different theories about what happened to Monique. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the disappearance of Monique Figueroa. Most people doubt that Monique would have voluntarily left her 2-year-old daughter behind. Many have theorized that her involvement in the drug trade had something to do with her disappearance. There are some who believe a gang may have thought that Monique was about to inform on them as part of a plea bargain on a drug charge. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. Hello everyone and welcome to episode 186 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Mr. Morford, what's going on with you, buddy? Not too much, just hanging out, doing a little bit of home, Christmas shopping from the computer, trying to get everything caught up and ready for the holidays. How about you? Oh, well, you know, my wife, she does basically holiday shopping all year round.

I feel as though we have two or three packages that hit the house every day. Yeah, we're big Amazon fans. So we're always getting something delivered. And my wife and I always have to race and see if it's for hers or for me. And then half the time, it turns out it's for the kids anyway. Right. Yeah, same here. Same here.

All right. we have some Patreon shout out so let's do those we had s vidya ronald martin melissa fowler sarah pike susan avia kandas wolf ania walsh and then becky mulling jumped out at our highest level so that's a lot of great new support we really appreciate it yeah we can't thank you enough that means a lot to us and the fact there's so many people willing to help support the show it goes a long way to helping us get it out. And anyone that would like to support criminology can do so by going to Patreon.com slash criminology.

So just a reminder, while we're in the midst of the holiday season, we're also getting closer and closer to CrimeCon Vegas. CrimeCon Vegas is happening April 29th and May 1st, 2022. And we're hoping that a lot of listeners will be there to hang out with us and visit us on podcast row. But don't wait to make your plans because time is running. Yeah. And if you're going to come say hi to us in Vegas, you might as well save a few bucks in the process. Go to crimecon.com to get your badge to CrimeCon Vegas and at checkout, use our

promo code criminology to save 10% off your standard badge. I just wanted to give everyone a quick shout out too that reached out and sent me some nice messages on social media telling me that they hoped they felt better after I was sick after you had to carry out the end of that episode by yourself a couple episodes back. So just a big thank you and shout it to everyone that took the time to reach out. I appreciate it. Yeah, that's amazing, man. You know, when we started this podcast years and years ago, it's been four years ago, more something. It's one of the things I never dreamed of, you know, that we would have such a large audience and that the fans would be so amazing. You know, we get so many messages and emails and, you know,

it's all encouraging and it just blows me away. Yeah, we've become so friendly with a lot of lot of the people that you're sort of like a big family and people take the time to, you know, just reach out and send you a message and say, hope you're feeling better. It goes a long way to, to making you appreciate everything that you have with the podcast. All right, more so. Let's dive into this episode. We just mentioned, you know, the holidays are upon us. And this is a tough time for families who have an empty chair at their family gathering due to a loved one who has gone missing. One of those families is the family of Monique Figueroa, who's been missing from Southern California for six years now. Monique Michelle Figueroa was born on May 11, 1987, and grew up in Southern California in a place called Little Rock,

an unincorporated desert community of around 1,000 people, located almost 70 miles northeast of Los Angeles. Monique was active in church and Sunday school, and by all accounts was a town boy who loved plenty. with the boys, riding motorcycles, riding in monster trucks, and getting dirty. She was manager of the boys' baseball and wrestling teams at Little Rock High School. It was while she was in high school that Monique met and fell in love with the young man, who was a fellow student at Little Rock. The pair were inseparable, and according to multiple published articles, Monique's family thought of the two teens as soulmates that would spend the rest of their lives together.

Tragically, the young man Monique was dating, would die young. before the pair was able to get married. His death was a shock to everyone, but especially to Monique. And as a result, her life would take a very different path. Monique tried to move on, meet new people, but she got mixed up with the wrong crowd, a crowd that included a criminal element. Monique had a short-term relationship with someone else that she wound up having a daughter with.

That relationship was short-lived, and soon after her daughter was born. Monique started dating a young man named David McKell. Monique and her daughter lived with Monique's father, Jeff, on the 7,200 block up East Avenue in Little Rock. At 4 in the morning, on Tuesday, May 19th, 2015, 28-year-old Monique Figueroa drove away from home alone in her black 2004 Mercedes-Benz SUV. She was headed south to Los Angeles. both of her parents got a text from Monique that read, Had to leave, be home soon. Monique was never seen again.

Monique had left her two-year-old daughter in Jeff's care, and her daughter was anxious for her mom to come home, and it was very uncommon for Monique to stay away from her little girl. But Monique was going through a lot, and her parents were not initially overly concerned. They knew that Monique had been involved with drugs, both using and dealing them, methamphetamine for the most part, but she was also set to check into rehab, to try to turn her life around. What they didn't know, what only came to light later was that

before Monique checked into rehab, she wanted to make one last big sale. Something that would set her and her daughter up financially is she tried to make a fresh start after rehab, perhaps in another state, maybe Arizona or Nevada. When Monique didn't return home, and the day she was supposed to go to rehab past, her family became really concerned. They wondered if the text that came to them from Monique's phone were really from her.

This sounds like a situation where someone is getting ready to do some life-altering improvement. They're going to try hard, but they want to get this one last thing out of their system. I think some people maybe when they go to rehab, Sam going to do one last, whatever it is. Sort of like when you're on a diet, maybe, when you're trying to change your life through diet,

you're like, I want one big last meal before I try and do this. So it sounds like Monique was really prepared to make some kind of change that would improve her life and her daughter's life. And unfortunately, just never got the chance. Well, I do think you see that morph when people are trying to, to quit something, whatever it is. You know, you mentioned diet. I've done it before. Okay. I'm going to go on a diet Monday. But the weekend before, I'm going to eat all my favorite foods because I know I'm not going to have them for a while. I've seen it with smokers. Okay, this is my last pack. Not throwing the

pack away, but I'm smoking the rest of the cigarettes and then I'm quitting. I know these are not quite apples-to-apples type analogies, but you do see that quite a bit. Monique's family began reaching out to her friends in an effort to figure out where she was. Some people thought she was hiding out voluntarily to avoid rehab, but others felt Monique was looking forward to getting clean. Out of loss and growing more worried, on May 23rd, four days after he last saw her, Monique's father, Jeff, reported her missing. By this time, calls to Monique's phone were all going straight to voicemail, and there had been no sign of her at all. Monique had never been gone for a whole night before. Jeff later told the

Daily Beast, she was never out overnight. That's why I filed the missing person's report, because she never missed coming home. Never. On May 30th, Monique's black Mercedes-Benz was found in Juniper Hills, California, about seven miles south of her home in Little Rock. The car had been hidden in an abandoned shed, and it was damaged as if it had been run. It was damaged as if it had been run off the road at some point. According to police, there were signs of foul play inside the vehicle, but they didn't elaborate. There is a major discrepancy in the available reports about where the vehicle was found and what Jeff Figueroa says about the SUV. The 2015 Antelope Valley Times article reported that Jeff said his daughter's vehicle was discovered Saturday night by local residents who

reported it to authorities after spotting the car sitting off the road in Juniper Hills. It was also reported that Jeff believed that somebody ran her car off the road before it was dumped in a field. This version, the car being found in a field, is different from reports of it being found in an abandoned shed, which is the most repeated version of the recovery of Monique's vehicle. More recently, Jeff claims that the Mercedes-Benz sat for about a week and a half at a residence in Pierblossom, California, just north of Juniper Hills and east of Little Rock, where there's a run-down house with a dilapidated wooden carport. This is the location that we hear about in all the reports. An abandoned shed is the three-sided carport of the abandoned property in Juniper Hills. It's unclear how Jeff knows how long the SUV was supposedly at that location, but from the report,

It sounds like people that drove past the residence might have recalled seeing it. So I think despite the details being a little bit murky about exactly what was found, the thing that really jumps out to me is that the car was found without Monique. And the police noticed that there were signs of possible foul play, and they didn't elaborate. So her family had to be worried at that point in finding her car with signs of something going down. apparently. Yeah, I don't think there's any doubt that a family would be worried. Number one, because your loved one didn't come home. Now, I do question why it took four days to file the missing person's report. That's one thing that has kind of jumped out at me already in this story.

I don't believe more if that Jeff has really ever elaborated, why four days, but I'm not blaming him. It's a question that kind of has jumped out at me. If Monique never, ever missed coming home, why four days? But then to find her car and for there to be signs of foul play, you really have to be worried at that point. A citizen investigator going by the name of A.V. Watchman, who hosts a YouTube channel, A.V. Watchman United We Stand, interviewed Jeff Figueroa at the location in May 2020. In the video interview, it was claimed that Monique grew up with kids who used to live in the now abandoned house. Also in this interview, Jeff claimed that the man who owned the abandoned property had been running water lines to a water tank across the road.

And he had called a neighbor who had a tow truck and asked him to move it off the property to another location in Juniper Hills where Monique's car was actually found. less than five miles north of the abandoned home. Jeff says that the house across the street from this second location is owned by the same man who owned the abandoned property in Pear Blossom and that the neighbor with the tow truck lived in this area in Juniper Hills. And adding to the mystery here, Jeff claims that the house next to the area where he says the car was dumped and found belongs to a sheriff's deputy. If Monique was the victim of foul play, this would be a very brazen thing to do if someone knew that the deputy lived there.

But there seems to be deeper implications coming out of this interview, maybe more of a cover-up of some kind. The story leading up to Monique's disappearance is convoluted. And part of why, before her car was found, some people believed Monique was simply in hiding, perhaps fearing for her life. On March 11, 2015, a couple months before Monique went missing, a resident in Lancaster, California, called in a tip to police. They had spotted someone wanted for murder living in a tent in their neighbor's backyard. Deputies quickly responded and arrested David McKell, as well as Monique Figueroa, who had been sleeping in the tent in the backyard of a home that belonged to a relative of McKell's. The two were apparently living on the run since early February, because David McKell was alleged to have been involved, in multiple murders. According to police, on February 2nd,

McKell shot 18-year-old Troy Philanelle in the throat and in the back in Palmdale, California, killing him. A female witness stated that Troy was standing outside when he and McKell got into an altercation, during which McKell pulled out a gun. Authorities found a pair of prescription eyeglasses at the scene and were able to recover DNA that matched McKell. Investigators also learned that McKell was involved in a robbery. that turned into a double homicide on February 8th, two victims had been found shot to death in Montclair, California, execution style. Their hands had been bound with duct tape, and their eyes,

noses, and mouth had been taped as well. At least $48,000 in cash and close to 20 pounds of methamphetamine was stolen during this robbery. At the time, police believed the third victim had been murdered elsewhere after running from the scene. There was blood at the scene from the third victim who had been shot in the head and whose throat had been slashed, but witnesses had seen him run off. This victim later turned up alive. He had fled the scene despite his injuries because he had an active warrant and didn't want to be there when the police arrived. The third victim had been driven to Mexico, where he received medical treatment and hid out from his attackers. For her, part, Monique was arrested for possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute.

McKell was charged with three homicides, the two February 8th fatal robbery victims, and the death of Troy Philanow. Police wanted Monique's cooperation in the investigation, but she wouldn't speak to them. Monique's family bailed her out the same day she was arrested. Since McCell's charges were more serious, his bail was much higher and he remained in custody. One of the last public post on Monique's Facebook page was a group of inspirational quotes like, If it is important to you, you will find a way. If not, you will find an excuse. And will it be easy? Nope. Worth it? Absolutely. These were posted on February 9th, just one week after Troy Filanel was shot and killed in Palmdale, and the day after the fatal

burglary in Montclair. It's unclear what this was about, but some of the comments back and forth hinted that Monique might be a snitch. Monique's friends and family say she was not going to cooperate with the police investigation, though. Jeff claims that before she disappeared, she told him that she planned to keep her mouth shut because she was afraid of some people that thought she was a snitch. Lieutenant Steve Jowch of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department told Dateline NBC that Monique refused to cooperate in that investigation. And because of this, he didn't think that the idea that she may be a target for revealing information and a murder was accurate.

But despite Monique telling people she wasn't going to cooperate and police backing up that story, some people may still have been worried that she might change her mind. We've seen how one person talking can lead to the downfall of a lot of desperate people in episode 141 of criminology, the murder of Jessica Chambers, we mentioned how Jessica was found, badly burned next to her car, which was still on fire, and that Jessica tried to give information about her attack before she died. The investigation into her death resulted in the arrest of 17 suspected members from three different gangs. Jessica's mother recalled her being afraid of someone and telling her that people thought she was snitching, but she wasn't. Like Monique, Jessica

wanted to get a fresh start after going to some sort of treatment or counseling program. She wanted to be a nurse someday and maybe write a book about her life, something else that could have made gang members or criminals connected to her nervous. Someone might have had a good reason to want to silence Monique, since she may have had information about multiple murders, and they were worried that she would eventually break her silence. And we mentioned earlier how Monique's life sort of took a new track when her high school sweetheart died and she got mixed up with the wrong crowd. And I think it's clearly evident that this man she wound up dating is clearly bad news. He's connected to three murders and it was so bad that he stayed in jail.

He couldn't even get bowed out. And now she's worrying possibly about being a snitch and some of his associates and there's all these rumors going around. and then she ultimately vanishes. So her getting mixed up with the wrong crowd is definitely a bit of an understatement. These are some very dangerous people. Yeah, I think a lot of times when you say, okay, so and so gotten mixed up with the wrong crowd, right? You're thinking they're doing some pot.

They're, you know, just doing some things that they had never done before, maybe wouldn't have done or tried if they had not met these people. This is at an entirely different level, more. These are some extremely dangerous people and, you know, some of the most serious crimes that you can commit. And I think it's scary to think about, you know, being in that situation, the situation of knowing what people have done and thinking that those people believe that you might go to the cops. That would be scary because you know what these people are capable of. We talked about three murders. In your mind, is it impossible to think that another murder, your murder, could occur to try to keep individuals out of jail?

I don't think it would be that hard to figure that out. Yeah, it seems like a very bad situation to be in, one that would have you worried and frantic. And what's worse is perhaps she didn't have information, but because these people, people assume she did or assumed she was going to talk about whatever she knew, they may have had motive to silence her. And in the end, she may not have been planning to talk at all or might not have known anything. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. I wonder what's emergency. We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed

investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020. Blood and Water. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts. The interview that Jeff Figueroa did with A.V. Watchman seems to imply that Monique was deliberately set up to look like a snitch by the police. The term that the AV Watchman cameraman used was that police will quote put a jacket on you so that word travels. And then next thing you know, people believe the police over you.

The cameraman said, this could be a scenario of what happened with Monique Figueroa. And Jeff Figueroa, standing next to him in the interview, didn't disagree. Jeff also stated, and the interview is kind of chopped up due to editing and, you know, unfortunately the winds of the desert make it very hard to hear. But Jeff stated that when Monique was arrested, and charged with drug dealing, she did go to court to try to fight the charge, only to find that suddenly there were no charges. And I think more to someone worried about Monique talking, you know, going to talk to police, coming home with no charges could certainly look like maybe she was working with the police

in exchange for freedom or a lesser sentence or the dismissal of all charges. Yeah, usually, you know, at least in a lot of the TV shows and movies that all of us watch, someone is caught up on one thing and the police lean on them and say, okay, well, if you want to get out of this, you're going to help us with this. And before you know it, the person is cooperating and trying to cut a deal. So it might easily look to people that she was cooperating and somehow did something to get those charges reduced or eliminated. Yeah, no doubt about it. I think if you were, you know, part of the bad element involved in everything that was going down, you would most likely be keeping a very close eye on what happened with Monique Figueroa. And if you found out all of a sudden that her charges were dismissed, completely dropped, okay, I think you would be worried at that point. If Monique really did have information about the murders that her boyfriend David McKell is thought to have committed, then who would have more motive than him to silence Monique?

Could he have wanted Monique to disappear? It seems like even without Monique cooperating, investigators already had his DNA on eyeglasses at the crime scene. We don't know if McKell knew what evidence police had or that they had a witness. It's possible that he wasn't aware that police already had a strong case against him, even without Monique's cooperation. But L.A. County Detective Karen Shanka told The Daily Beast that when she made McKell aware that they were investigating Monique's case as a homicide, that he broke down crying. Detective Shanker said, he genuinely loved her. I never seen anybody so hurt and so upset.

So perhaps David McKell wasn't behind Monique's death. One thing is clear is that if Monique did meet with foul play, it wasn't at David McKell's hands, as he was in jail the day she vanished. Investigators learned that Monique had delivered $20,000 to an associate of hers in Los Angeles as part of her last big drug deal before checking into rehab. A friend last heard from her just 20 minutes before the plan dropped. Monique said she was almost there and would call back soon, but she never did. So, yeah, I think more if the evidence here is pointing in all different directions. The phone call to a friend puts Monique about to make a drop. and then never making it back from meeting with her associates, a successful drop of $20,000. And her car back in the Little Rock area would mean that Monique completed her transactions

and was almost back home when something happened to her. Three days before she headed out for this last job, Monique called David McKell and asked him for help. He told her to go to his fellow gang members from his gang. AGK, always going crazy for help. Monique's ties to drugs, both selling and using, and to gangs, meant that she had dangers surrounding her at all sides. While Monique was initially just using methamphetamine, she soon realized that if she sold it, she'd be able to support her own habit basically for free and make extra money. So we have a possibility that Monique could have been killed in a drug deal gone bad, or perhaps overdosed on drugs, and whatever happened,

her body was disposed of. We also have the possibility that Monique was caught up with dangerous gang members who were worried. She would wrap them out. So she was killed to silence her. Neither the drug connection nor the gang connection worked in Munich's favor. Although Monique repeatedly said she wasn't going to work with police, David McKell decided he was going to cooperate with investigators. He offered to talk to people he knew and find out what happened to Monique,

but he soon received an envelope in the mail with a photo of his mother and his children inside. Someone didn't want him to talk, and they were very clear that they knew who he loved and exactly where they were. After that, he reversed his position on cooperating and refused to help police in any way. Now, here's a guy that we know clearly isn't a good guy, but he seems to have maybe genuinely cared for Monique, and he wanted to try and help. But then he tries to do the right thing and all of a sudden he's getting threats against his family. That's got to be an impossible situation to be in, knowing that on one hand you could help.

But on the other hand, someone you love might be killed as a result of that help. Well, and it also speaks to the fact that just because a person is in prison, it doesn't mean that they can't be intimidated, right? So this is not someone inside the prison physically intimidating David McKell. This is simply something mailed in, meant to be a threat to say, hey, you may be on the inside, but you have people on the outside who you love, who you care about. Don't do what you're thinking about doing or else these people will be harmed. In 2016, police received the tip that Monique's remains were buried somewhere in the 11,000,

block of Pear Blossom Highway in Palmdale, California. Authorities searched the area with officers, an inmate work crew, and a mini excavator. Cadaver dogs and scent dogs were also brought in and apparently hit on a scent about 15 feet. From where there had been previous searches with the mini excavator, Jeff Figaro also helped search the area, but still nothing was found. Ever since Monique vanished, many people have wondered and some still do, If her disappearance was at all related to the disappearance of 26-year-old Michelle Russ from nearby Quartz Hill, California, just two years earlier,

Michelle was a young woman in the Antelope Valley with a young child just like Monique on May 9, 2013. Michelle Russ had seemed depressed. But by the evening, she seemed to be feeling a little better. She had told a relative she was going out with people she met earlier. that day. But her family told her not to. And she just stayed home. She tucked her young son into bed that night, but then she disappeared. She was last seen sometime between 11 and 11.30 p.m. Police believe she voluntarily left that night. But did something prevented her from coming home against her will? There is no known

gang activity in Michelle's history, at least not any that is publicly known, but her family did state that she was very easily influenced by other people. In August 2016, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors offered a $20,000 reward for information related to the disappearance of Michelle Russ, but to this day, no credible leads have been generated. While the drugging gang angles in Monique's case seemed like a solid road to go down and consider there are other possibilities. Perhaps Monique crossed paths with a serial killer type and met a violent end. Another possibility, although there's no evidence to support it, is that Monique vanished of her own free will. A vigil was held for Monique on October 8, 2016,

with an event called Poker Run from Monique Figueroa. Some people accepted Monique's fate, despite her body not being found. And more if you know, in these types of cases, we often run through different possible scenarios. The serial killer angle or just the plain killer angle is always there, an unknown killer. And then someone making the decision to vanish is always there as well. What really makes me kind of discount that theory here is Monique's child with everything in the research that has been written about Monique and her relationship with her daughter.

I just can't imagine that she would voluntarily leave her daughter. You know, I think that's tough for a lot of parents to come to terms with, that someone would be willing to do that. But if your life was in danger, then by connection, that would most likely mean that her daughter's life was in danger as well. And that could be a different scenario. I could see where a parent might make that decision in order to keep a child safe. And this even sounds like a situation where perhaps Monique, if she had some really huge information,

that might help with some major investigation, there could be some kind of witness protection program where she goes and gets a new identity. But if that was in play, would she really do that and leave her daughter? why wouldn't she take her daughter with with her? So to me, it makes it seem as if something happened to her and she didn't do this. She didn't disappear willingly. Yeah, I think if witness protection was involved, there would have been a way to take her daughter with her. So, you know, as in most of these cases, I tend to discount the left on their own accord.

You know, when we're talking about these victims, to me, it usually points in the direction of foul play. And I think it does here as well. In 2017, L.A. County Sheriff's Department detective Karen Shanker told the Daily Beast that Monique's disappearance wasn't a mystery and that she just needed evidence to prove her case. She stated, I know what happened. And I'm working to recover her body and put my mom. my evidence together. I think Morf by this time it was clear that authorities believe that Monique was not just missing. She had been murdered. Detective Shanka also noted how difficult it is to get the people who live in the high desert to cooperate with authorities. In this case, there is a general distrust of law enforcement, a paranoia, and also a fear of retribution

for those responsible for the disappearance of Monique. Later that same year in December, David McKell pleaded no contest to murder charges and was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. In November 2018, a 34-year-old man named Jesus Guzman was killed by authorities in Charleston View near the Nevada border. At the time, he was suspected in a homicide and wanted for questioning in seven more, including an attempted home invasion involving the theft of a large amount of marijuana. Three decomposing bodies were found on his rented property in the 30,900 block of 106th Street East in Little Rock, just 10 minutes south of Monique's home.

Some people thought perhaps that one of the bodies might be Monique's, but none of them were, and the search for her remains continued. And Morph, this is something that never ceases to amaze me. I don't know why I continue to be struck by it. But every time that you and I research a case, we find out about all of these people, some connected with the case, some possibly not connected at all, but around the area where, you know, let's say the victim is from, where the crime occurs, there just seems to be a lot of bad people, a lot of bad things going on.

obviously we had David McKell who pleaded guilty to multiple murders. Now we have this guy, Jesus Guzman, who killed what appears to be a number of people. I don't know if they ever figured out exactly what the number was, but some really bad people. Yeah, we're talking about a town of a thousand people. So for all this stuff to be going on is, it is pretty disturbing. And as far as Guzman, those bodies in his home, I'm getting pictures of the movie. Sicario where the agents raid the house and find a bunch of bodies covered up in the sheet rock in the walls. It just sounds very, very creepy. On August 3rd, 2020, another woman vanished

not far from where Monique was last known to be. 27-year-old Gloria Huerta was last seen in the 14,700 block of East Avenue Q14 in Palmdale. just 12 miles from where Monique was last seen. Gloria's trailer, which was described as a 15 to 20 foot white trailer with no markings and a door towards the rear was also missing. Many people in the area immediately thought of Monique when they heard about Gloria's disappearance. There was also a $20,000 reward for information in the disappearance of Gloria Huerta.

Now, whether there are disappearances are related or not, the number of missing women in the Antelope Valley and the number of $20,000 rewards for information in that area have led to no answers. And I think more that's alarming. A lot of people consider that to be alarming. We talked about, you know, not only do you have all of these missing women, you have quite a few bad individuals, gang members, drugs, a number of murders. There's a lot going on. And what is a relatively short amount of time?

I'm picturing or visualizing an area where if my wife or was out driving or my mom or whoever, I'd be a little bit nervous with them going out in this area with all this stuff going on with all these women. On September 1st, 2020, the $20,000 reward for information leading to arrest and convictions in Monique's disappearance was reinstated. The reward had expired in August after no leads had been generated, but the L.A. County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to extend the time. Finding Monique's remains may be the equivalent of finding a needle in the haystack, as the area she's thought to have vanished from is surrounded by desert. If you watch horror movies, you've probably seen the landscape of Little Rock. California, which looks just like and is basically indistinguishable from the nearby areas in Juniper Hills, Lancaster, or Palmdale. All of these towns are connected by swaths of

empty desert in between. Movies such as No Vacancy, House of a Thousand Corpses, The Devil's Rejects, and the Forever Purge have been filmed in these areas. So if you've seen any of those movies, you can get a sense of just what we're talking about here. We recently covered the McStay family murders and talked about how miraculous it was that anyone found bodies buried in the substantial nothingness of the desert in Victorville, California, just 40 miles east of Little Rock and Juniper Hills. While some of these desert towns may be an hour apart, the landscape doesn't really change all that much. It's like one giant desert filled with tumbleweeds. It's kind of place where a body could be hidden with little, if any, chance of it ever being found.

And more if this kind of makes me think of Breaking Bad. And I know Breaking Bad is shot in New Mexico. So we're talking about a difference between California and New Mexico. But anybody who has seen that show knows that, you know, they go out into the desert. I mean, there's nothing there. Now, they're going out there to cook meth sometimes, but there's also bodies being buried, money being buried. You know, these are places that I don't think anybody would stumble upon something just by happenstance.

Yeah, I think we've all probably seen movies or shows where someone wants to meet up in the desert. And there's some, it's obviously for, for reasons of not wanting to be witnessed or wanting to steer clear of people that are going to know you're there. So usually it seems like it's a case where there. something shady going on. And if you wanted to hide a body, for example, that's probably a good place to try and do it. During our research into this episode, a body was found in the 14,900 block of Mesa Linda Avenue in Victorville, about 35 miles east of the abandoned Juniper Hills location that Monique's car was said to have been found in the old carport. On November 18, 2021, this was confirmed to be the body of 34-year-old Vanessa Vidal from Pico River.

For reference, Pico Rivera is about an hour and 45 minutes south of Juniper Hills and about 20 minutes away from Los Angeles. While many people thought that Vanessa's remains might actually have been Monique's, the fact that yet another discarded woman was found after going missing in that area. Drives home just how troubling it is that so many women in that area of California have apparently met with foul play. Even before Vanessa Vidal's remains were located on October 1, 2019, Skeletal remains were found in Lancaster, which came as a shock to residents there because just the day before on September 30th, more remains were found five miles away. So we just talked about it, right?

Some of these places, very desert-like, just like in the movies and in TV shows, places where bodies might be buried to try to be hidden, but remains are found. So you have to ask the question. Will someone stumble across Monique's remains one day out in a lonely section of desert? Or I think against the odds more, could Monique be out there someplace alive? You know, we talked about that. It's possible. You can't say that it's impossible until something definitive comes along.

You know, remains are found. they're identified to be her. Until that day, you can't say for sure that she's not out there alive. Now, just like I said before, if I have to lean in one direction or another, I would lean in the direction that Monique Figueroa is deceased and that she met with foul play. But there's no doubt Monique's family wants and deserves to know what happened to her. Monique's daughter is today living with and being raised by Monique's dad, Jeff Figueroa. There are multiple social media accounts focused on Monique's case, including on Instagram and Facebook,

as well as multiple Reddit and web sleuth threads. If you have information about the disappearance and presumed murder of Monique Figueroa, you were urged to call the Los Angeles Sheriff Department Cold Case Unit and Detective Karen Elshanka at 323-890-5621. or you can call crime stoppers. 8800-222-2-2-tips. So morph, as we wrap up this case, it's an interesting one. It's tragic.

Obviously, anytime someone disappears, and it appears that they were murdered. That's a very tragic situation. Here's a young woman who had a young daughter that adds to the tragedy. She left behind other family, members as well. But I think what makes this case different than some that we do is Monique's connection to the drug world, to, you know, gang activity and this theory that she was

silenced because of what she knew and possibly because someone or people felt as though she was going to turn on them, implicate others in criminal activity. Yeah, and I don't want to sound like I'm blaming Monique for whatever happened to her in any way. But I think it's clear that when you surround yourself with dangerous people doing dangerous things, there's a risk that you're going to get mixed up or swept up in some of that stuff and whatever violent stuff is going on might make its way to you. And I get the feeling that that's what happened with Monique. I think someone silenced her for whatever reason, which is unfortunate because she leaves a little girl behind. Her parents are wondering what

happened to her. And what really jumps out to me is how things have a ripple effect. She had such a great young life going and was promising coming out of school, had a, a relationship with someone she was in love with who died young and her life just took a different direction after that and brought her down a path that she might not have been headed down had that not happened. Yeah, I mean, I completely understand what you're saying. I don't see that as victim blaming at all. I think that's a fact that when you surround yourself with dangerous people, when you engage in dangerous activities, there is a chance that the danger comes back to you. I just think that's a cold, hard fact.

And it doesn't mean, though, that she should have been killed. Nobody is saying that, that, you know, she deserved to be killed or, you know, whatever ultimately happened to her. It's just that the chance of that, I think, goes up exponentially, the greater the danger of the activities that you're into. And I think odds are probably stacked against it happening, but I hope that if Monique did meet with foul play, that the person or persons that had a role in that

and may have ended her life, hopefully somehow, some way they're identified and they're punished for what they did and they don't get away with this. Thanks goes out to Sunny Landon for writing and research assistants in this episode. As always, if you love this show, but you haven't done it yet. Take a minute.

Go out. Give us a rating. You can leave a review. Keep telling your friends. That word of mouth about the criminology podcast really goes a long way. If you want to find us on social media, we're on Twitter with the handle at Criminology Pod. You can also find us on Facebook by searching for Criminology Podcast or by joining our Facebook discussion group, Criminology Podcast, Discussion and Fans. Some more, if that is it for our episode on.

Monique Figueroa, but we'll be back with everyone next Saturday night with a brand new episode of Criminology. So until then for Mike and Morf. We'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone.