Going West: True Crime - Evelyn Hernandez // 173

Episode Date: February 9, 2022

In 2002, a 24-year-old pregnant woman vanished after a normal day in her home of San Francisco just days before her due date. When her body washed up in the Bay months later, her family desperately searched for any trace of her son, as well as answers regarding who murdered their beloved sister and daughter. This is the story of Evelyn Hernandez, as well as Alex and Fernando Hernandez. BONUS EPISODES patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES https://msphanlearns.medium.com/the-racist-history-of-the-academy-at-mcateer-and-ruth-asawa-school-of-the-arts-79024f9ac426 https://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=131949&page=1 https://charleyproject.org/case/alexis-geraldo-hernandez https://www.maryhallbergmedia.com/post/unsolved-the-strange-case-of-evelyn-and-alex-hernandez https://www.altaonline.com/dispatches/a5143/a-tale-of-two-killings/ https://people.com/archive/the-other-laci-peterson-who-killed-evelyn-hernandez-vol-60-no-1/ https://www.newspapers.com/search/#query=Evelyn+Hernandez&s_place=San+Francisco%2C+CA&dr_year=2002-2002 https://medium.com/the-crime-logs/torso-in-the-bay-6138839d1f31 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on true crime fans, I'm your host Tee and I'm your host Daphne and you're listening to Going West. Thank you so much everybody for tuning into this episode of Going West, hope everybody's having a good week thus far. This case that we have for you today has been compared to Lacey Peterson's case a lot, which we covered in episode 45 of Going West since it actually took place the same year and not too far from each other. But sadly, Evelyn's story didn't receive nearly as much media attention, which is probably why you haven't heard of this one, unless of course you have. Yes, so thank you everybody for tuning in

and giving this story a listen. And as we always say, make sure to share this case because she deserves so much justice. This case to me, it more so reminds me of Nikola and Ariana Fitz, which we covered about a year ago, because it's a mother and her child in San Francisco. So that, this case researching this one actually made me think of that one.

If you haven't heard that story, please go listen and share that one as well, because that is also unsolved and needs lots of attention. All right, guys, this is episode 173 of Going West, so let's get into it. In 2002, a 24-year-old pregnant woman vanished after a normal day in her home of San Francisco just days before her due date. When her body washed up in the bay months later, her family desperately searched for any trace of her son, as well as answers regarding who murdered their beloved sister and daughter. This is the story of Evelyn Hernandez, as well as the story of Alex and Fernando Hernandez.

Evelyn Hernandez was born on February 23rd, 1978 in El Salvador, and she spent much of her upbringing there with her family, but when she was about 14 years old in 1992, Evelyn moved to the United States with her mother, who had recently settled into San Francisco, California. And while she and her mother were living there, the rest of the family pretty much remained in El Salvador, and some would eventually come over to the U.S. but at this point it was just Evelyn and her mom. After Evelyn's move, she began attending McAteer High School, which is located right next to Glen Canyon Park, as well as Twin Peaks, where you can see stunning 360 views of the city.

Now this high school shut down in 2002 and doesn't have the best reputation, and in fact allegedly was known as a dumping ground for students with behavioral issues, students who had immigrated to the US, and students with special needs. But Evelyn was known to succeed greatly and she worked hard to learn English and get good grades. A few years later in early 1996, the newly 18-year-old Evelyn, who is months away from finishing high school, discovered that she was pregnant, and then on November 6, 1996, she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy who she named Alexis, though he typically went

by Alex. Alex's father wasn't in He and Evelyn's life, though, because not only was he in the Navy, but he allegedly was not interested in being involved. So with that, the wonderful Evelyn raised him as a single mom, and she was known to be great in this role, because Evelyn was loving, nurturing, and very responsible. She just wanted to give Alex the best life that she could. So although she was working at Costco and the Clifft Royal Sinesta Hotel near Union Square, as he grew up, she worked hard to become a nurse. And a few years later, she started working as one right there in San Francisco, and she and Alex moved to the Crocker Amazon neighborhood, which is known to be a safe area from what

we could find. When Alex was 4 and Evelyn was 23 in the fall of 2001, Evelyn became pregnant with a second child with her boyfriend of a few years, Herman Aguilera. Herman was 36 years old and was working as a mechanic at the San Francisco International Airport, and he also worked for a limousine company. But there was kind of an issue here, and that was that Herman was married, and Evelyn had no idea.

And I know at this point in the story, they had known each other for about five years, so they must have met shortly after she gave birth to Alex, so I don't know how he hid it so well all those years. Yeah, that's a long time to be, you know, hiding a marriage. Yeah, absolutely, but he somehow did that. But Evelyn also didn't learn about his marriage until she found out that she was pregnant, and the way she found out wasn't even through Herman himself, but Herman's mother.

Evelyn had called Herman's mother to ask her why he wasn't excited about the pregnancy, and she explained that he was married to another woman. But apparently, Hermann's wife knew about Evelyn, just not that she was pregnant. So as you guys could probably imagine, Hermann did not want the baby. Whereas Evelyn was extremely excited about having another child, because she loved being a mom. When she wasn't working or caring for Alex, she volunteered at Alex's school. She just loved being an involved mother. The baby was due in early May of 2002, and by this time, Alex was about five and a half years old,

and Evelyn was 24. And according to her family and friends, Evelyn remained very excited about the birth of her baby boy, who she was going to name Fernando. But just days before her due date, Evelyn and Alex went missing. At this point Evelyn was still with Herman, but there are some records that state that they had recently broken up, and she kept in close contact with her sisters, one named Reina, who had moved to East San Francisco and the other named Olivia who was living in Virginia at this time. And her sister Raina and San Francisco was planning her upcoming baby shower.

On Wednesday, May 1st, 2002, a very pregnant Evelyn was seen taking her son Alex to his kindergarten class at Wainavista Elementary School in San Francisco's Mission District. And then she spoke with her sister, Reina, briefly about the upcoming baby shower. Then later that day, she was seen at an ATM. Then she picked up Alex from school, and the day after they were last seen, so on Thursday, May 2, 2002, Alex failed to show up to school. Days went by and neither of them were heard from at all. But a couple days after they were last seen, Evelyn's wallet was found in the gutter

of a gas station parking lot in South San Francisco. And inside was $40 in cash, along with a disability check made out to Evelyn, that obviously had not been cashed yet. And this gas station was just two blocks away from the limousine company that Evelyn's boyfriend Herman worked at. And this gas station is known to have been used very regularly by the limo company's employees, because it was the closest gas station.

On Tuesday, May 7, 2002, so nearly a week after they were last seen, Herman Aguilera reported Evelyn and Alex missing to the San Francisco Police Department. It really seems like Herman took his time reporting this. Well, as we'll get into, you know, I really don't know exactly what their relationship was like if they were still together, they weren't living together because he lived with his wife. But what I think is kind of odd here is Evelyn's family because no one in her family had reported her missing, but by the time Herman had, this was on her due date.

So what's weird is that days had gone by and no one in the family had heard from her and they knew she was about to give birth. So I wonder what their thought process was, you know, maybe they didn't talk every single day, but especially around such an important time, I wonder, you know, what her family thought was going on and if they were worried about her. And you know, at this point, her mother had moved back to El Salvador. So really, the only family member that we know of that is kind of in the immediate area is her sister, Raina. And it's worth mentioning that Raina, from the reports I read, is deaf. So, you know, when I said that they spoke on the day she went missing about the baby shower,

I could only assume that was in person. So that's another thing to this story. It's not like they were talking on the phone all the time because, you know, Reina is deaf. So I don't know if she had any hearing at all or the details of that, but that is worth mentioning for sure. So maybe it's not too weird that they didn't talk for all those days,

but it just gives me more questions, really. So back to Herman reporting Evelyn and Alex missing. Originally, the police wondered if Evelyn had gone off to have the baby somewhere else, but it was soon discovered that she and Alex's passports were inside the apartment. And she was all set up with a doctor. She knew where she was gonna have this baby,

so I don't know why the police are like, oh, she probably went off and had the baby somewhere else. Like she was planning this pregnancy, she was going to her routine prenatal appointments. Right. And her man was going to those appointments with her. Yes, as we'll get into later as well. So I don't know why they thought this originally, but that's what they were thinking. And of course, as many of us know, it's not recommended that women later than 36 weeks pregnant fly on a plane. So it's unlikely that Evelyn would have gone anywhere far anyway, despite the fact that her mom had moved back to El Salvador.

But she's not going to get on a plane to El Salvador without her passport anyway, and go have the baby in a different country when she's planning to have it right there in San Francisco. Right. The fact that her passport is still at home, that speaks volumes. Absolutely. Also, Evelyn didn't own a car, so it's also not like she would have driven off somewhere, and there was no evidence that she rented a car. And to take Alex out of school for all that time with no warning, and not mentioning anything to the school, this is not something Evelyn would do because she was extremely responsible. Also, Evelyn's hospital bag that she had packed was still in her apartment, so things just really weren't looking good here.

Allegedly, about a week after police were informed about Evelyn's wallet, they finally searched the canal by the gas station to look for any clues relating to her, but nothing was uncovered. And within the first few weeks of her investigation, the tips and clues were few and far between. But after about a month, it was clear that something had happened to Evelyn and Alex, so their case was transferred to the homicide unit. And of course, police wanted to see if Alex's father was somehow involved, even though it didn't appear that they knew each other at all. But they tracked him down anyway and discovered that he was living in Puerto Rico. And once they questioned him, it was clear to them that he was not involved, and he wasn't considered a suspect. Another important person to talk to was Herman Aguilera for obvious reasons.

He was dating Evelyn but still married. He wasn't known to particularly want the baby that she was about to give birth to, and he was the one to report her missing after not seeing or hearing from her for six days. Now at first, police felt that Herman was being cooperative and giving up needed information in interviews, but after some time, things changed. Herman's alibi for the day that Evelyn and Alex went missing was that he was home with his wife, and she told police the same thing.

The wife admitted to police, by the way we don't know the wife's name, that she knew about Herman and Evelyn, but that Herman assured her that they had broken up. And police seemed to be the ones to break the news to her about Evelyn being pregnant with Herman's child and that he knew about it the whole time that she had been pregnant. Yeah, so if this was his idea that he was going to try and hide this from his wife, well, in the end, police were the one to tell the wife. And, you know, it all came out eventually.

Right. And at least as far as we know, so people do speculate, which we'll go into later, you know, maybe she did know that Evelyn was pregnant and that could play into the whole story. But we don't know. She says she didn't know. So that's kind of all we can go off of. It's really just hard to know if we can trust his wife because she seems very loyal to him, despite her man's cheating, and she is standing by him in this case. But she told police that after Herman worked for the limo company all day on May 1st, he came straight home and remained there with her for the whole night. Now of course, it's unclear if something happened to Evelyn and Alex on that night or if it happened within the next week, so maybe that alibi isn't even relevant, but it is actually assumed that

something happened to her and them on May 1st. So Evelyn Sister Reina, the one who lived in San Francisco, had seen her fair share of arguments between Evelyn and Hermann, and she told police that she'd seen Hermann angry at her sometimes. She also explained that Hermann didn't want any part of the baby's life, and didn't want to help support Evelyn while she took care of the baby at all. And actually, Evelyn was beginning to get worried about how she was going to survive,

and make sure her boys were taking care of if she was going to be in this alone. And she even talked to Reina about potentially seeking legal advice to get child support for baby Fernando. Now, is that a possible motive? It could be, but that's all just speculation. And obviously couples fight all the time, so it's not weird that they got into a fight and that doesn't mean that her man's a murderer, but it's absolutely worth mentioning. One thing that we do know is that when all this went down, Herman actually loyered up,

and was advised to not speak to police regarding Evelyn and Alex's disappearances, so he didn't. He told them his alibi and that he was innocent and so did his wife and police couldn't uncover any evidence that what he was saying wasn't true, but they were definitely suspicious of him. And regarding a possible split between Evelyn and Hermann, some records state that she broke up with him and others state that she broke up with him and other state that he broke up with her, but either way they seemed to still be in

close contact. And after all, he did report her missing, so clearly they still communicated. Weeks and months continue to pass, and there was still no sign of Evelyn or her two sons. Her family was devastated by her disappearance, especially so close to when she was going to give birth. She had everything planned, she was ready and excited, and she had her family support, so what the hell happened to her? Well, almost three months after she disappeared, on July 24, 2002, a horrific discovery was

made near Bay Bridge, which connects Oakland and San Francisco. A citizen had been walking near the bridge on the shore in the San Francisco Bay when they saw what appeared to be human body parts floating in the water. More specifically, this was along the Embarcadero near Folsom Street. The person called the police, and when they arrived, they uncovered a badly decomposed woman's torso and two legs partially attached to the torso. The torso was dressed in a maternity blouse, and DNA tests were conducted immediately to

confirm the woman's identity. And sadly, after comparing the DNA to her toothbrush, it was indeed the body of Evelyn Hernandez. But terrifyingly, sign of Fernando, this begged the question. Did she give birth after all and was then met with foul play, or did somebody do something to her and her unborn baby? So an autopsy of course was performed, and due to the state of decomposition, a cause of death could not be determined. And maybe you're assuming that Evelyn was dismembered just based on the fact that her torso

and her legs were found, but there actually wasn't any clear sign that she was. There also wasn't any clear sign that Fernando was removed from her body, so instead, it seemed that possibly Evelyn was thrown into the bay and the water exposure as well as, you know, sea life partook in her dismemberment post-morta. And what I read, there's actually like 11 different species of shark in the, like, in the bay, the San Francisco Bay, so it's possible that these sharks or even sea lions or crabs, what have you. Yeah, I mean, just like you're saying, there's so, so many different species of sea life

in that bay that could have a partook in her dismemberment, but also, like we found in our research that the water alone could have done that just from badly decomposing her body. I don't want to get too graphic, but you see where I'm going with this, that the water alone could have been a huge part of that process. But Evelyn's hands, head, and her feet have never been found. And sadly, neither has any sign of Alex or Fernando. So police had this to say about the case. Qu quote, My gosh, we have three victims. We have Evelyn, her six-year-old son, and a baby. All three of them

very, very innocent victims. But sadly, homicide inspector Joe Tumi later stated, quote, the case is still under investigation, but we have no new leads. There's not too much we can do. And Evelyn's family was extremely disappointed by this, of course, because they really felt that the police weren't really doing enough to solve this case. I mean, I understand they have her body. It was probably in the water for almost three months. But to say there's not much we can do, like what do you mean there's not much you can do?

Like you have her body, you know she was murdered. I'm not an investigator obviously, but I mean, there's gotta be some, something you can do to carry this case along. Right, yeah, and that's the thought process here is that her family is saying, you guys are just not doing enough. Well also, I mean press conferences where you can get this case more into the spotlight

and into the, you know, to the eyes and ears of people in the city and the county, but they didn't do that. And Evelyn's sister Raina said, I loved my sister. I adored her. I loved my Alex. I loved the baby that she was going to bear. Evelyn's friend Twiggy added, we're a part of a community that's not usually seen, that's invisible. And that was the case for Evelyn. Evelyn's family tried super hard to get her case feature on America's most wanted, but they were rejected numerous times because there weren't any clear suspects.

But eventually in 2003, so the next year after finding Evelyn's body, her case was segmented in an episode. And this was a clear homicide for Evelyn, but the equally terrifying part was that her five-year-old son was nowhere to be found. So was he in the bay two and just wasn't discovered like Evelyn's other body parts? Or was he still alive and out there somewhere? Early the following year when Lacey Peterson was found in the San Francisco Bay as well,

it was of course speculated that there might be some sort of serial killer out there murdering pregnant women since both Evelyn and Lacey were nearly at the same stages of pregnancy when they were murdered. And some also believe that Lacey's husband Scott Peterson, you know, for those who believe that he did it since he was convicted, had gotten the idea to put Lacey in the bay after hearing about Evelyn. But as we stated, Evelyn's case was barely discussed and reported on, so it's highly unlikely that the news of her murder would have traveled even to nearby Modesto for Scott to take this idea or murder Evelyn too for that matter. But either way, police are extremely adamant that the cases are not connected. San Francisco detective Holly Perra stated to ABC News in 2003, quote, "'It's extremely rare for a woman to disappear during her pregnancy.

But if that does happen, the number one cause of death is murder." And regarding Evelyn, she continued with quote, "'It looks from her apartment like she was going to come back. We think something happened to her and somebody had to get rid of the wallet. A year after Evelyn and Alex's disappearances on May 2nd, 2003, a vigil was held by the Bay Bridge where her body was found were 20 of her friends and family members gathered to mourn them. They performed a purification ceremony, which included burning resin on various beautiful flowers that were then tossed into the bay.

As of now, almost exactly 20 years after all of this occurred, there has been no arrest made, and police don't have any solid suspects, which is a big reason why we wanted to cover this case so we can reach more ears. When Alex Hernandez was last seen, he was about 5 and a half years old, and his description was as follows. Hispanic and Caucasian male, 4 feet tall, 45 pounds, brown hair, brown eyes. If he's alive today, he would be 25 years old. And if Fernando survived the birth and is still alive as well, he would be nearing his 20th birthday. If you have any information about the case of Evelyn and Alex

Hernandez, please contact the San Francisco Police Department's cold case unit at 415-553-1450. Last updated in November of 2018, the SFPD is offering a large reward for any information. Their crime bulletin reads this. The mayor's office has authorized a reward in the amount of $100,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the death of Evelyn Hernandez and her unborn, full-term fetus, as well as for information leading to the identification, apprehension, and prosecution of the person or persons responsible for the disappearance of her 5-year-old son, Alex Hernandez. Anyone with information is urged to contact Inspector Daniel Dettit of the SFPD cold

case unit. Persons wishing to stay anonymous may call the anonymous tip line at 415-575-4444. I think it's great that there is a $100,000 reward for her case, which actually really surprised me to learn just based on seemingly the lack of, you know, actual investigation in her case. And it's easy for us to say that there hasn't been an investigation because you know

We're going off of what is out there on the internet as well as what Evelyn's family is saying but it who knows maybe behind the scenes they have Doug deeper than we are able to see because obviously since this is a non-solved case There are a lot of things in this case that cannot be released to the public. And we do know that they did contact Alex's father who was living in Puerto Rico. So I know that they did some investigative work, but you know, where there are any other suspects, where there are any other persons of interest that's not been released to the public, that's something I think we'd all like to know.

And I think as well, such a downfall of this whole case is that the media really didn't cover it because the media does Make a huge difference whether or not a case is highlighted in it because that's how the general public finds out about it That's how people can call in with tips But what I read I can't remember exactly how many articles had been published on her Those I think it was somewhere around 50 like there was barely any buzz about And we do, we find a lot of information on newspapers.com, for example. And I could only find, I think, three or four newspaper articles from that time that mentioned her name at all. And that's all that's available online.

So I'm sure there were more that were printed that aren't uploaded into the archives of newspapers.com. But this just goes to show you how no one was really talking about this story. And the fact that her body was found in the bay, and her head, her hands, and her feet have never been found, and this didn't blow up, like for example, Lacey Peterson's case did. And a lot of people will argue, oh, her family had money. They were out there like pounding it into people's brains, absolutely.

And it's really sad because Evelyn didn't really have the same resources. So- Right, but both cases deserve the same amount of justice. Absolutely, absolutely. So it's very unfortunate that Evelyn's case was not highlighted more because, like you mentioned earlier, Heath,

not only is this a murder investigation, but there is a child that is potentially still alive out there, potentially two children. Right, potentially two children that could be out there alive with somebody who is not their family. So that is really serious. But unfortunately, that is all the information that has been released to the public. But we'd like to go into some theories, you know, into what could have possibly happened to Evelyn, Alex, and Fernando. And we know

a lot of you out there don't like discussing theories, and sometimes they can be totally baseless, which I get. But we think it's super important to do this for any unsolved case, you know, just to break down things and see the possibilities. But if you're not into that, thank you so much for listening up to now. So first and foremost, you know, what's on probably a lot of our minds is was robbery a motive. And to us, we don't believe that robbery was a motive because we know that Evelyn's apartment wasn't in disarray and there was still $40. And to be exact, $220 bills and a disability check that was still in Evelyn's wallet, that was found in the gas station parking lot's gutter.

So it seemed like, you know, whoever may have had this wallet at that time, just discarded of it with money inside. And as we know, Evelyn was a very hardworking mother. She was on disability at this time. She was about to give birth and she was trying to figure out how to get money herself so that she could support not only Alex but Fernando. Yeah, and we also know that it's highly unlikely that Evelyn herself would have been at this gas station because remember

she did not have a car and primarily took the bus. Also, we know that she did live in the Crocker Amazon area and this gas station is described as being in South San Francisco, on Lyndon Avenue and Canal Street, which is about 6 miles or 14 minutes by car from the area that Evelyn lived. So it doesn't seem like, you know, if there's not a reason for her to be in that area, I mean, it's obviously possible that she could have been, but it doesn't seem like she would have had any reason to be in this area at this gas station. It's obviously unknown if the wallet was accidentally dropped or if it was put there on purpose,

which is another big mystery in this case, but with gas stations being so busy, police haven't been able to track down how the wallet actually got there. From basic research of this area, it appears that this gas station is on South Linden Avenue and South Canal Street. And it's also now called the Speedway Express. And it sits right on the Colma Creek, which as we mentioned earlier, police did check for any sign of Evelyn before she was found in the bay, around 20 minutes north by car. So let's talk about what there is against Hermann. So we know that his wife says she knew that Hermann was seeing someone,

but when she found out and what she thought of this isn't known to the public. Hermann was aware of Evelyn's pregnancy for many months before she was due to give birth, and because she found out in the fall of the previous year, so she told him early on, because they were dating. So he had known for a very long time. And he was also known to be unsupportive. Now, according to what his wife told police,

she didn't know about the pregnancy at all, and they were the ones to tell her, right? So Evelyn was just five days away from her due date when she went missing, so it's absolutely possible that Herman had something to do with her disappearance. We know that he wasn't interested in financially supporting Evelyn and Fernando, but why kill Evelyn so close to her due date when he had months to leave her. I mean, once he knew that she was pregnant, I'm assuming he probably thought that that was a huge problem.

But what I mean is, you know, why then why stay with her all those months, you know what I mean? Like if he was, if he killed her at the very end, unless throughout the whole thing, he was, he was trying to figure out how he was going to do this and then it came down to the wire and He was like I just have to get rid of her because I don't want my wife finding out or I don't want this baby I don't want to be financially responsible. These things are all possible. Right. We talked about that being emotive early on Yeah, I guess in my mind I'm just like why wait until she's literally about to give birth. She could have given birth early as well.

You know, so this just seems so close to the, I mean, it is so close to the due date that it almost feels like, why do it then? Yeah, I don't, I, if, if he, in fact, is the person who killed Evelyn, I can't wrap my head around why he would do it that close to the due date. But something that's really interesting here is that the day before her disappearance so on April 30th 2002 Herman actually went to IKEA in Emoryville to buy Alex a new bed and then he and Evelyn attended a routine prenatal doctor's appointment together at the San Francisco General Hospital

So it seems that he was, you know, somewhat supportive up into this point, despite some reports stating, you know, a potential break-up. Well, I think this part of the story is actually really important. The fact that he bought Alex a new bed, again, this is not his son, and he went to this appointment, the prenatal appointment, a week before Evelyn was set to give birth. So he was a part of her life, he was a part of her children's life, and his upcoming child's life. And you know, although he's really the only person of interest at this point, he was seemingly in this open relationship with Evelyn and had many months to split off from her in order to like not be involved with a baby, just like Alex's father had done.

But as we know, Evelyn told her sister that she was interested in seeking child support. So is it possible that Herman wanted to get out of having to pay this and possibly get out of his wife finding out about Fernando, even though she found out anyway, and then he murdered Evelyn? I mean, we have to think about the gravity of this. I mean, if this was the case, he would have also had to have murdered his nearly newborn baby and a 5-year-old boy, you know, Alex. And although we don't know Herman's character and personality, murdering a pregnant woman and a young boy is pretty unthinkable.

I completely agree, and of course, any murder is unthinkable, but this is a pregnant woman who is literally days away from giving birth. So this is essentially, you, but this is a pregnant woman who is literally days away from giving birth. So this is essentially, you know, this is a fully grown newborn baby and another small child. So this is like next level messed up. And we don't know if Herman had that in him if he had these violent tendencies. There's no record of it that we could find. So, I mean, who would be capable of this? I'm curious what the investigators on this case thought about Herman, right? I agree. You know, because I'd really love to know. I'd love to pick their brain and see if they felt like there was any potential that he could have been involved or I wish we knew. And

also, you know, all we do know about Hermann's personality, other than the fact that he didn't want a child, which that's not a bad thing. There's many people who don't want children, but Reina had said that she had seen them angry with each other. Of course, like I said earlier, all couples fight. It's not like she said, oh, I've seen him fricking slam, you know, Evelyn. He hasn't like physically hit her or something like that, you know? Yeah, not that we don't know.

But we don't know anyone has reported, but yeah. Right, we don't know, you know, the intensity of these arguments or... So, I don't know, you know, Raina saying that is one thing because it is Evelyn's family member, so I can understand, but... But that's as bad as it got as far as she explained to the police. Right. But that's as bad as it got as far as she explained to the police. Right. And also, many speculate that if Herman was involved, that his wife could have been as well.

She definitely seemed like a very supportive wife, since she didn't leave him despite the infidelity, and she backed up as alibi the night of the disappearances. So is she lying for him? And if so, did she do so out of fear or out of love, I guess? Herman's attorney stated that his client had done everything he could to cooperate with police and was, quote, deeply saddened by the news of the death of his close friend. Oh, yeah.

What? I don't know. Just, just saying, you know, friend. Well, I was thinking about this too, because maybe he said close friend as not to publicly say girlfriend when he had a wife. And it's also possible that at that point in time, they weren't in an actual relationship anymore. That's true. Yeah. So maybe they were close friends. Cause like I said, they had met five years prior, so they had known each other for quite some time. And the attorney followed with quote,

he hopes the police department identifies the perpetrator of this horrific crime. He has assisted the police in every respect possible. So again, although it seems like Herman does have motive more than, you know, anyone else, there could have been other people in Evelyn's life with bad intentions. But since this case is unsolved and police haven't really uncovered any other potential suspects, we don't have any other names, which is incredibly frustrating, of course. And because of this, it's hard to speculate on anyone else that Evelyn knows doing this to her, though it does feel likely that she was killed by someone that she knows. I agree. I think it is quite personal that, you know by someone that she knows. I agree.

I think it is quite personal that, you know, she's pregnant, she has a young child, and both of them go missing and we know at least she was murdered, so I agree that it was likely somebody that she knew. Right, but why? You know, of course, it's possible that someone completely unknown to Evelyn murdered her, but as we stated, robbery didn't seem to be a mode of it all, which really only leaves us with Evelyn being murdered just for the violence of it, as with many other murders? Definitely possible.

But was Alex killed too, or is Alex still alive? Well, many speculate that the reason for Evelyn's murder was so her newborn boy Fernando and Alex could be taken so that someone could raise them as their own. So that is definitely a possibility because that sadly does happen sometimes. The Hernandez family is still desperate for answers. They want whoever murdered Evelyn to be prosecuted, and they want to know what happened to Alex and Fernando. And if they are indeed out there alive, they deserve to be reunited with their real family.

According to a spokeswoman for the Hernandez family named Nancy Hammons, quote, they are hopeful that Alex is still alive and will not give up hope that he might be found. So again, if you have any information about the case of Evelyn and Alex Hernandez, please contact the San Francisco Police Department's cold case unit at 415-553-1450 Persons wishing to stay anonymous may call the anonymous tip line at 415-575-444. Thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of Going West.

Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. I know you guys say that I always repeat that, but it's just because I want to thank you guys too. Do people say that I always repeat that, but it's just because I wanna thank you guys too. Do people say you repeat that? Yeah, I think so, but you know what? That's our outro line. It is our outro, but I just wanna thank you guys personally from the bottom of my heart

for listening to this show. And please, please share this case. And on Friday, we'll have an all new episode for you guys to dive into. That's my line. I did your line for you. But yeah, please share this case. You know, there's not a whole lot of information about it, but as we were doing the research, we're

like, this is a horrifying story that involves not only a young woman, but a young boy and a newborn baby. So this is really important that this case gets to more ears. So thank you for listening. Thank you in advance for sharing and we love all the support and all you go in West listeners. And as I always say, if you guys are looking for more episodes, you can head over to our Patreon. That's patreon.com slash going West podcast. We got a ton of ad free full length episodes for you guys to binge. Yes, we almost have 60 of them. A lot of them are international, but we do have some US ones in there as well.

But we do Canada, Australia, the UK, and beyond. So head on over there if you want more episodes and thank you guys again. All right guys, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. 1.0% 2.0% 2.0% 2.0% 2.0% 2.0% 2.0% 2.0%

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