Going West: True Crime - Kaylee Sawyer // 123

Episode Date: June 2, 2021

One summer evening in 2016, a 23-year-old Oregon woman got in a fight with her boyfriend, walked off into the night alone, and was never seen again. Just 2 days after she went missing, a local woman entered a police station and explained a devastating story about police regarding her husband, who at that point, was missing. And just hours later, another young woman in the area disappeared. This is the story of Kaylee Sawyer, and it’s also the story of Andrea Maes. BONUS EPISODES patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES https://www.bendbulletin.com/localstate/kaylee-sawyer-remembered-by-friends-for-ever-present-smile/article_ed416ca4-c762-515c-b75f-dc49b856c6fe.html https://www.bendbulletin.com/localstate/suspect-allegedly-fatally-struck-bend-woman-with-car/article_5fb09672-bc4a-59dc-b266-0b134c51308c.html https://www.kgw.com/article/syndication/podcasts/urge-to-kill/urge-to-kill-kaylee-sawyer-camro-reimhofer-911-call/283-29c50d46-dadc-414a-a3ba-f25d557ea72c https://thecinemaholic.com/where-are-kaylee-sawyers-parents-now/ https://www.tributearchive.com/obituaries/1638832/Kaylee-Anne-Sawyer-KK https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/167800052/kaylee-anne-sawyer https://www.koin.com/news/timeline-kaylee-sawyers-death-suspects-arrest/ https://ktvz.com/news/crime-courts/2020/07/23/kaylee-sawyers-family-cocc-reach-2-million-settlement-of-federal-lawsuit/ https://www.chillingcrimes.com/blogs/news/kaylee-sawyer https://ktvz.com/news/2016/07/29/kaylee-sawyers-body-found-in-canyon-west-of-redmond/ https://www.kgw.com/article/news/crime/salem-teen-abducted-by-bend-murder-suspect-returns-home/283-282022656 https://thecinemaholic.com/where-is-aundreah-elizabeth-maes-now/ https://thecinemaholic.com/where-are-kaylee-sawyers-parents-now/ https://heavy.com/news/2016/07/kaylee-sawyer-murder-missing-search-suspect-edwin-lara-arrested/ https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2019/04/federal-judge-issues-2nd-life-sentence-for-edwin-lara-a-campus-security-officer-turned-killer-armed-carjacker-and-kidnapper.html Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans, I'm your host Heethe and I'm your other host Daphne and you're listening to Going West. Howdy folks, hope everyone is doing well, Heet Heath and I just got back from a trip to Idaho. It always feels kind of weird being back in the studio after we've been gone for like a week. I know. But it feels good. And we actually answered a really fun Q&A over on our Instagram while we were driving

because we did a nice little road trip last week. And I put it on our highlights for anybody who wants to see it. We answered a ton of fun questions. And we had a really good time. Yeah, and you can check that stuff out by heading over to at Going West Podcast over on Instagram. So make sure you check it out. Yeah.

And today we have yet another Oregon case for you guys. It's funny because I know we kind of do do a lot of Oregon cases and West Coast cases. We do do. A lot of people are like, oh, that's why you're called Going West. But for those who still don't know, we're called Going West because to go West means to die or to disappear. So it's not because we cover West Coast cases, but we are today. So let's go.

And also, if you want to check out our Patreon, we do international cases. That's patreon.com slash going west podcast. Make sure you check that out. Subscribe. It's awesome. Alright guys, without further ado, this is episode 123 of going west. So let's get into it. One summer evening in 2016, a 23-year-old Oregon woman got in a fight with her boyfriend, walked off into the night alone and was never seen again.

Just two days after she went missing, a local woman entered a police station and explained a tragic story regarding her husband, who at that point was missing. And just hours later, another young woman in the area disappeared. This is the story of Kaylee Sawyer, and it's also the story of Andrea Mays. Kaylee Ann Sawyer, known as KK by her family, was born on March 2nd, 1993, to parents Julie Van Cleve and Jamie Sawyer in Bend, Oregon, which is a beautiful, affluent, small city of

around 90,000 people in eastern Oregon, known for its breweries and outdoor activities. So basically my favorite place. Yeah, we love Bend. Ben is awesome. And you know, there's a lot of like hiking, kayaking, and skiing, and snowboarding there. Kaylee was the oldest of all of her siblings, which the next sibling after her was born when Kaylee was seven, so she was at least seven years older than all of her siblings. And after her parents split up, they each had other children with their new respective partners.

And this gave Kaylee four younger brothers to look after, and four parents to love and guide her, and they were all incredibly close and big on family time. Growing up in Bend definitely made Kaylee an incredibly adventurous person. So some of her favorite things to do included taking scenic bike rides or going snowboarding at the local ski and snowboarding resorts that the area had to offer. She also was very creative, so photography was a big passion of hers as well as drawing and even poetry. But growing up, Kayleigh had dreams of becoming a dentist. She got her GED during her sophomore year of high school at Mountain View High and then

began working for a company called Ibex Global. I think it's Ibex IBX. I also read that she had begun attending Central Oregon Community College early, but eventually paused her education to work. While working at Ibex, she became incredibly tight with her co-workers, but when she turned 21, she decided it was time to work on her dreams, so she began working as a dental assistant at Aubrey Dental Group right there in Bend after re-enrolling at Central Oregon Community College to pursue a dental degree. And it was around this same time that she

began dating a guy that she had gone to high school with named Cameron Reemhoffer, who was just the love of her life. And fun fact, Kaylee's great, great, great grandfather was chief Joseph Forebear. So Kaylee was an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sue tribe of South Dakota. Oh, that's super cool. Yeah, I thought that was interesting fact. Yeah. Yeah, isn't your grandpa Native American?

Yeah, yeah, he was half blackfoot. Yeah, pretty cool. Yeah, pretty interesting. And it's also worth mentioning that Kaylee was described as a sweet, kind girl who was just a good person. She always brought smiles to people's faces and some classmates remember her doing things like surprising them with pizza after lunch and just always making people laugh. And that's why everyone who knew her really felt like Dentistry was such a good path for her because she was comforting and she was caring and just really good with people.

A little while later, Kaylee and her boyfriend Cameron moved into an apartment together, and by all accounts they had a wonderful relationship. One week after their two-year anniversary, and just a few months after Kaylee's 23rd birthday, she got invited to her friend Lisa's bachelor at party. And at first Kaylee didn't think she could go, so she declined the invitation. But after some reconsideration, she ultimately decided that she wanted to go and made it kind of work out for her schedule. So on Saturday, July 23, 2016, she joined a group of young women where they drank, laughed and danced and bar hopped throughout the whole night. They stopped at three different bars.

Mavericks bar and grill, the astrolounge, and the summit, all located in Bend. At Maverick's, Kaylee was seen dancing with a man, but her friends just kind of thought that she was having fun and wasn't really interested in the guys since she was in a serious relationship with Cameron. At 12.04am, Kaylee texted her boyfriend Cameron to come pick her up, and then he did. Cameron had also been out that night at some bars, and while on the drive home which was only about 5-10 minutes long, they got into a huge argument because Cameron had been in a bad mood when he picked her up.

So when they arrived back at the apartment, he went upstairs and she sat in the car all by herself. And I read that part of their fight was about her dancing with another guy, so there was some jealousy happening here and it just really blew up. And two minutes after Kaylee had texted Cameron to pick her up from the bar, she had also texted one of her friends who was with her at the Bachelor at party that night, but who had left prior, that she was sorry that she had been dancing with that guy. So this was kind of like, it seemed like it was maybe an awkward point for all the friends

like, what is, why is she dancing with this? Like maybe other people were, the friends were uncomfortable. Right, right. And I mean, this happens with younger couples. They go out, they drink, people get jealous, there's a lot of other people around, you know, I can see how this would lead to an argument. Yeah, it just, you know, by all accounts, she was just having fun, but it led to a fight. So Cameron was up in their apartment for about 10 minutes before going down to the parking lot, hoping to talk to Kaylee. But to his surprise, she wasn't in his car, nor in the parking lot, nor was she anywhere near their apartment.

He texted her to please come home and she expressed in response that she was sorry that she wasn't important enough to him, and that if he cared about her at all, he would know where she was. Cameron was then essentially begging Kaylee to tell him where she was so he could come pick her up, and he apologized for being upset when he picked her up earlier from the bar and said he just wanted to fix it. But Kaylee then said, my phone's about to die, bye. They kept texting a few more times back and forth and Cameron explained in text that he drove up and down the road slowly well looking for her, but he didn't see her anywhere. Her response was,

are you kidding? Because that's bullshit. Good bye. And he said, Kaylee, please. After that, Cameron didn't receive another text from her. At this point, Cameron was just kind of hoping that Kayleigh had maybe called a friend or her mom and was somewhere safe. But since she wasn't responding, there was very little that he could do. Kayleigh had run off during arguments before, so she could, you know, kind of cool off,

but she always came back. This time, she didn't. By the next morning, Kaylee still wasn't home. The argument that they had gotten into was incredibly trivial, which can be very normal for a lot of couples like we mentioned, but the fact that she hadn't returned made Cameron worry. He called her phone, but it appeared to be dead since it kept going to voicemail. He then proceeded to call her whole family as well as a handful of her friends, but no

one had seen her, which worried them too. So a few hours later, Cameron decided to call 911 and explain the situation to them. After telling them what had happened, and giving them a description of her as well as stating that her car was still at their apartment and that she didn't have to work that day. The dispatcher told Cameron that they would try giving Kaylee a call and if she didn't respond, that they would have an officer get in contact with him. Every minute that passed was just painstaking for the family because they really felt like something had happened to her.

It didn't make sense that no one had heard from her, so they just all drove around all day looking for her. Later that day, an officer called Kayleigh's mom Julie, and told her that they would be handing the case over to a detective who was going to do everything that they could to find their daughter. But until they reached out, the family just kind of had to hang tight. At this point, Julie started to wonder if Cameron was even telling the truth about what happened the night before.

It didn't make sense to her how Kaylee just could have walked off without Cameron being able to find her. And since they'd gotten into a fight, it just kind of felt suspicious. Yeah, and you definitely have to think of this from a parent's point of view. Oh, I mean, I totally understand this. And as detectives began looking into Kaleigh's case, they actually felt the same way. So the first thing they did was contact Cameron and question him about the previous night. Detectives have said that he was extremely helpful and forthcoming and seemed genuinely

concerned about where she was. He was just torn up about her disappearance. And they did feel like he was being real with them, but they wanted to do their due diligence and check his texts, cell phone, as well as his computer, car, and apartment. And Cameron willingly let them do all of this. So then detectives begin wondering about the guy from the bar that Kaylee had been dancing with. And apparently, there's a little more to that story. Kaylee had been drinking, and her friend stated that she was being pretty flirty with this guy, and they were dancing and getting very close, and one of the friends actually said that they kissed.

Luckily, police were able to find this guy quickly, and he admitted to having fun with Kayleigh at the bar, but said he didn't see her or pursue her after she left. And after interrogating him, police felt he was being truthful, so they crossed him off the list. It hadn't even been 24 hours since Kayleigh was last seen, so there was still the possibility that she had just gone off somewhere, especially since she was 23 years old. And actually, the day before she went missing, she had texted her dad Jamie and said that

she had been busy trying to figure things out, and she was, quote, in a bit of a whole. So investigators waited until the next day, which was Monday, July 25, 2016, to see if she would show up to work. Kaylee was extremely responsible and she loved her job, so she never missed a shift. But that Monday morning, she did. At this point, the whole city is on higher alert looking for this 23-year- old woman with blonde hair and blue green eyes, standing at 5'2 and 120 pounds, wearing a black dress, brown boots, and carrying a green purse. She also had a couple distinguishable tattoos including a rosary on her ankle and an oam symbol, you know, the spiritual Hindu symbol on her wrist.

By the way, for anyone wondering if they tracked her cell phone, they did, and it had been pinging around Madras, which is located north of Bend, as well as In Bend. But the next day, which was Monday, they physically went to the area of the pangs, and found out that Kaylee had given her old phone to a friend, so they were accidentally pinging the wrong phone. Oh, that's really frustrating. I know.

And I mean, this makes sense when since we know her phone was dead, making it unpangable. So that was a huge waste of time. But anyway, that very same Monday morning, a woman named Isabel Ponce-Lara walked into the Redman Police Department at 11.52am with some horrifying information. She explained to an officer that earlier that morning, her husband Edwin, who was a security guard at Central Oregon Community College, had killed a woman. Redmond is a small city that's just northeast of Bend. So they weren't the police department that had been working on Kaley's case, but nonetheless, they were blown away at Isabelle's confession.

Isabelle explained that her husband Edwin worked as a security guard at the Central Oregon Community College in Bend where he drove a security patrol vehicle during his shifts. And apparently, on Saturday evening, he had been driving around the campus when he accidentally hit a young woman with his work SUV and had to hide her body because he didn't know what else to do. Isabelle was in complete disbelief, so to prove it, Edwin told her that he had put the woman's belongings in their shed and the garden behind their home. And after telling her this, he grabbed Isabelle's 9mm handgun and drove off in his Nissan

Ultima. Isabelle was a rookie cop with the Ben Police Department. So luckily she did the right thing here and she reported her husband to the police and I really think it's interesting that she was part of the police department and that her husband was a security guard and all of this is going down. I know and it's weird too because at this point we don't know how long she's known this information so they're kind of like but I think she went in at like 11 a.m. and or sorry 11.52 a.m. and this had happened a little bit earlier in the morning. So police are kind of like, first of all, why don't you

call us because that would have been easier than you driving down here and waiting for one of us to talk to you. And you also waited to even come down here. So it's kind of like, are you helping him? Like what, what's really happening here? And secondly, they're like, who's Kayleigh? They don't know that this case even exists. Yeah, so that's another thing is, Isabel knew, you know, her husband worked in Bend. So they kind of lived closer to the Red Men Police Department,

but she worked in Bend, so why not just go report to your work? I don't know. I suppose it was just convenience. I guess so. So although investigators felt fairly confident at this time anyway that Kayleigh Sawyer really was dead, they still didn't know where her body was at this point nor where Edwin Lara went. And if he killed once, he could do it again, especially since he was armed with Isabel's

handgun. But they had no idea where he was, and Isabel said that she didn't know either. She just figured that maybe he was on his way to his grandfather's house in Los Angeles, which for reference is like a 13-hour drive south. Police immediately put out a bolo, also known as a Bee on the Lookout, for both Edwin Lara and his 2008 Silver Nese on Ultima while they tried to figure out where he was. Time was really of the essence here, so investigators searched hard on this until one of them found that Edwin's stepfather lived just minutes from the Redmond Police Department, and that

they had previously arrested him. Thinking it was possible Edwin could be hiding out there, they sped over with the SWAT team and found his silver niece on Ultima in the driveway. Unfortunately, Edwin was not there and his parents just said that he had been there earlier, asked for money, and then left. So of course, with that, they issued a search warrant for Edwin's home to see if there were any clues that could lead to his capture. In his home, they found religious papers, used by bulls, and other things indicating to them how important faith was to Edwin. They also stumbled upon his music room where he would film YouTube videos of himself singing and playing guitar, but when they entered the shed, a garbage bag with

various items inside left everyone with a pit in their stomachs. They found a bloodied green purse with a black wallet, passport, credit card, and some high heels, and it all belonged to 23 year old Kayleigh Sawyer. But they also found a big blood stained rock with a clump of blonde hair attached to it, including Edwin's work boots and uniform that also contained blood. On top of this, inside the shed was a poster board for one of Edwin's class projects that he had kept, which weirdly enough was on the Railroad Killer, turns out 31-year-old Edwin Lara was previously a criminal justice major at the Central Oregon Community College where

you worked, but all of this alarmed investigators anyway, especially the bloodied rock with hair. Because this directly contradicted Edwin's story to Isabel that he had accidentally killed Kaylee by hitting her with his car. And you know, the whole poster board thing, the way they were looking at it is like, yes he was a criminal justice major, but why does he have this poster board? Like it was just kind of a weird kind of eerie. Yeah, it's kind of like, okay, this is kind of, he's maybe idolizing this Hispanic serial killer.

Is he trying to follow in his footsteps? You know, that's kind of coming to question here, especially once they found the rock. And all of Kaylee's things, this is pointing away from an accident, just like you just said. Right, and we've talked about's things, this is pointing away from an accident just like you just said. Right, and we've talked about other cases like this where people have been in law enforcement or correctional officers and actually go on to become killers.

So just because you're interested in criminal law doesn't mean that you can't become a killer. Exactly, so this horrifying evidence is really painting a certain picture for the investigators. And meanwhile, everything is also really coming together in Isabelle's head, his, you know, Edwin's wife. So on Saturday evening, the night Kaylee disappeared, Isabelle texted Edwin at around 11.30 pm, knowing he would be at work for the evening, and then she went to sleep. When she woke up at around 7.30am, he was beside her in bed. After he got up, they went to church as they usually did on Sunday mornings, but she noticed that he was being extremely quiet and seemed off.

They had been having some marital issues, and Edwin had previously cheated on her actually, so she figured this was maybe why he wasn't up for talking, and she just left it alone. But she noticed his mood change as the day progressed, and he kinda went back to normal. And in fact, that Sunday night, they even saw a movie together and then were intimate after. But the following morning, Edwin broke down to Monday and explained to her that he had been acting weird because he had accidentally killed a woman. After finding the bloodied boulder, investigators knew that it had been used to kill Kaylee,

and they had to do the hard job of informing her family and loved ones what they discovered, all while still trying to find out where Edwin had gone. I mean, and imagine how hard that is, like, they have to tell the family, this guy told his wife X, Y, Z, we found this boulder and her things, and oh yeah, we have no idea where this dude is. And we still don't know where she is. Right, even more important. About 2 and a half hours by car north west of Bend is the city of Salem, Oregon, which

is also the capital of Oregon, located right off the I-5 Freeway. That very Monday evening at around 8.45 pm, 19 year old Andrea Mays got off of a double shift at Ross Dress for less and headed out to her gold vulvo to head home. She was only supposed to work until the early afternoon but decided to help a coworker out by covering their shift. When she reached her car, Andrea sat in the driver's seat and got out her cell phone to take a snapchat photo to send to one of her friends. It was a selfie of her with her eyes closed with a light grin and she used the butterfly filter, the one where the golden butterfly almost kind of makes a crown above your forehead, and added the caption, 12-hour

shift got me like. And as she posted that photo, Edwin Lara reached into her passenger window, opened the car door and sat inside. He immediately pointed a gun at her, which he had in his backpack and forced her to drive. Andrea genuinely thought that this was some kind of prank, because it was almost too unbelievable to actually be happening to her. So she kind of laughed, and that sent Edwin into a fury. He pointed the gun at her thighs and asked her if she thought that this was a game and if what he was doing was funny and that's when Andrea knew that it was real. So she drove. Andrea's car had an oil leak so she tried to tell Edwin that her car wasn't going

to make it and that he should just find another girl or take another car. But he just kept telling her that he would fix it. And in fact, they stopped at a service station to add more oil to her car and then they went to a McDonald's so Edwin could get some food and he held her at gunpoint even as he ate his dinner. It's kind of a such a weird thing to do. It's just weird, because it's like, why are you doing this? I'm holding you hostage, but wait a second, I gotta get a big double.

I'm seeing my big Mac. Yeah, like what the? It's just weird. It almost seems pointless. It seems like it's a lot more effort to kidnap her. If you're not really doing anything, like what is the purpose of it? Right, yeah.

Anyway, so Andrea just really didn't know what to do or what the best tactic would be. Because of the few stops they made, she actually did come in contact with many workers and people. But she was afraid that Edwin would take out his gun and just start shooting people if she spoke up. So she just had to keep thinking of her next move. So just before midnight, Edwin told Andrea that they were going to stop for the night as they were entering the small town of Cottage Grove, which is just south of Eugene, Oregon,

and about an hour and a half south of Salem, which is where Andrea worked. They pulled into a relax inn and got a room. There's actually a surveillance video of this this where you can see the whole freaking thing happen very clearly. It's a black and white video right outside the motel's check-in and both Edwin and Andrea are outside standing next to each other. Check out our socials and watch this video. It's so crazy knowing what we know now and knowing the employee has no idea that Andrea

has been abducted at gunpoint and you can only imagine what is going through Andrea's head in that moment while she's kind of weighing out the best method of escape. But ultimately, she did what Edwin told her to do and after getting the room, they both got back in the car and drove over to it. So again, check out our socials Instagram at Going West Podcast, Twitter at Going West Pod, and we'll also put a link on our Facebook, Going West True Crime. Once they got into the room, Edwin handcuffed Andrea while he took a shower, and when

he was done, he forced her to shower while she was still wearing the handcuffs. Then afterwards, Edwin gave her a sleeping pill and made her sleep next to him in the hotel's bed, which of course she was handcuffed to. But before they went to sleep and before her sleeping pill kicked in, Edwin began making sexual advances towards her and Andreia knew that she was about to be sexually assaulted

and that since she was restrained, there was nothing that she could do about it. But then, Andreia's cell phone, which was in she was restrained, there was nothing she could do about it. But then, Andreia's cell phone, which was in the room with them, went off, and it was in alarm. When Edwin heard it, he asked her what it was. And this is where she got smart. She told Edwin that she had an STD, and that she had to take medication for it every night, and this angered him and made him

no longer interested in sexually assaulting her. She didn't actually have an STD, but just hope that it would stop him from doing anything bad to her. And it did. Just after this conversation, Edwin's cell phone went off, and he answered it. The call was coming in from one of his family members, who tipped him off that the police were after him. And with that, he decided that it was time to go on the run again. And he grabbed his stuff and Andrea, of course, and they ran to her car and sped away. During their overnight drive and in the early morning of Tuesday, July 26, 2016, Edwin tried to scare Andrea with a supposedly made-up story that his family was full of rapists and criminals, and that he was taking her to them in Los Angeles.

They had been driving for hours, and Andrea's car, which remember had an oil leak, wasn't doing so well, so Edwin told her they were going to need to get a new car ASAP. So at about 5am, Edwin pulled off the highway in Northern California to a super eight motel in Waireka where he saw a man outside of a motel room. The man was unloading his car and bringing things into his motel room, so Edwin took this opportunity to jump the man, gun in hand, and demand that he give them his vehicle. The man wouldn't stop screaming, so even though Edwin threatened to shoot him if he didn't stop, the man was really afraid so he couldn't keep quiet. Then, Edwin shot him in the stomach and went running to a nearby gas station with Andrea.

There, they found an older woman pumping gas in her vehicle, and inside were two younger men, one of which was behind the wheel of the car. So basically what Edwin did is he forced the older woman into the car, got in with Andrea, and then forced the younger man behind the wheel to drive, with all five of them in the car at the same time. And of course these poor people are so confused and they have no idea what's going on, but he just kept telling them to drive and he had his gun, so they were scared. It's so weird that now he's including like all these other people in his abductions. It's very messy like this dude is not doing anything right.

Yeah. I mean, you know what I mean by right. This guy just... He's dead. He's an idiot. Yeah. So while in the car for about 30 minutes, Edwin forced everyone except for Andrea out of the group's car.

And as soon as the guy's and the older woman got out of the car, one of the group's car. And as soon as the guys and the older woman got out of the car, one of the young men used his cell phone to call the police and explain what had happened. And within minutes, police and helicopters were on Edwin and Andrea's tail. At this point, Edwin knew that he was going to get caught. So he took Andrea's cell phone and recorded a video of him in the car talking while he was driving. And here's the audio from that video. a cop and sorry about that girl about that girl and 10th working and I just want to let family members Andrea that she's fine and she will be fine as far as you's been doing what I've been calling you to. You know, and if you guys are wondering, if I have done 30 things to hurt her, all right, I'm not that kind of guy.

You know, I just... Now you can kill that other girl, you know, and I regret it. I regret killed her. Now she's kept screaming and outside her forever. So, you know what I say? She's still fine. We're driving.

And she'll be home pretty soon. I'm sorry to her grandma and her family members to her boyfriend. You know, I'm sorry. Everything could I cop. Okay. And she will see her pretty soon. Okay. Go to the, and I thought my father. Okay, but... Sorry, everybody. Bye. I just... The thing that irritates me the most is when people make these type of apologies,

it's like, I don't care. No one wants to hear your apology. You're a bad dude. You're not gonna convince anybody that you're a good dude by saying, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. No, you're a piece of shit What's frustrating about this video is first of all how like non-chalant he's being He's like sorry for what I did like clearly does not actually care about this

He's just sorry he got caught and then the fact that he says that for anyone who or I don't know the exact quote But for anyone who is wondering if I did dirty things to her talking about Andrea like, no, I'm not that kind of man. We're going to go into what happened to Kaylee and- You're going to think otherwise. Yeah, you are that kind of man. God, it just makes you mad. Yeah, it's really frustrating. And to see the look on Andrea's face, because at one point he shows the camera of her sitting in the passenger seat,

she just, I mean, she looks visibly like, just, she looks so frightened and exhausted. And we'll post that video, or as much as we can, on our socials as well, if you want to see it, you can also just go into YouTube and type in Edwin Lara Facebook video, and that'll come up. Because weirdly enough, Edwin asked Andrea to post That video to her own personal Facebook and she did but she changed the setting So only she could see it because like he said he points the camera to her and She just felt like she looked really vulnerable in the video and she didn't want the people on her Facebook to see that So she changed the setting made it on her Facebook to see that.

So she changed the setting, made it so only she could see it, and she posted the video at his demand. And then at 7am, Edwin called 911 to turn himself in. And here's part of the recording from that call. I'm not in emergency reporting. Yes, I'm Zedwin Lara and I'm the guy on Interstate 5. When I high speed, I know you guys have the shop around me already. Yeah. Yeah, I just want to say I am going to turn myself in. Okay, where are you at?

Okay, I'm on I-5. I think close to redding if I'm right. So, you know, I didn't want it for murder and the state of Oregon. Okay. Edwin, where are you at right now? Can you stop? I am going to stop once I head ready. Once I'm in ready, I'm going to stop. Are you by yourself or? No, I have someone with me. I kidnapped her in Oregon. She's innocent. Her name is Andrea. What's your laughing? He doesn't know. I'll let you I'll let her give her a laughing if you can call her family. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay Andrea what's your last name? Name? M-A-E-S.

Okay are you heard at all Andrea? No. No, okay. Do you know where you are? Let me talk to Edwin again. Okay. Hello? Yeah Edwin, you're heading south down on five.

Yeah I'm heading south down on five. Edwin, how fast are you going? I'm going about 120 miles an hour. You're about 120 miles an hour? Yes. Can you slow down? I don't know. Well, I want to make it there quick.

That way I can turn myself in. Well, the officer sees you with it. We just don't want you to speed away from anything. If you can stop and just give yourself in or apply it to easier. Well, there is an officer behind you right now. Okay, they see you. We're talking to them. They see you. Yeah, she's being me. I think he's right behind me.

Okay. The officer sees you. And are you able to safely stop? Yeah, I can stop. But not right now. I'll stop in warning. What's the difference from stopping now in warning? I use the one to stop right here in the middle of the road, you know, putting myself in danger and putting everybody else in danger, more in danger, I guess. You know what, they won't.

They're, they're well. I'll let them know they won't, but if you can stop placing, they just don't want you to run. They think you know, kind of run or anything. Okay, yeah. Is it good to have any weapons with you? Yeah, that's what I was going to say. I do have a gun on me. I am not going to flash the gun. You tell them not to shoot me. I don't want to die. Okay. You stick to your words. I'll let them know.

Yeah. I'm not. Yeah. I'm going to let them know. You know, don't hurt Andrea. You know, she's a nice girl, you know, the herder. I'm actually, it's probably my family is to stay by to them. So once I'm done calling all my family then I'll turn myself in. Okay, we can get out of your family if you want. I already call my wife, I call a lot of people already. I am wanted for the death of a Kayley Sawyer at Ben Oregon. What's the girl saying Kayley what? Sawyer? Sawyer? Yes.

Or Sawyer maybe. And she was from Ben Oregon? Yes. I want to say that it was an accident. I uh, so I worked for campus probably to stay here. And she was really drunk and I didn't see her and I run her over. Okay.

And then, uh, after that, you know, I just she was still breathing and then she was breathing. and I decided to sign on her forever. Okay, are you able to safely just pull over then so the officers don't keep them chasing you. Just pull over. Yeah, I'll pull over right now. Okay, how long did you talk to Andrea?

Okay, I just don't hang up. I'm not. Oh, hang up. You don't want me to hang up. Hello? Yeah, hi, Andrea. Are you okay? You don't need any medical or anything?

No. Okay, so Edward, where is his gun at? Does he have it? Oh! I don't know. Can you see if he said he had a between his legs? Is he stopping? Yeah. He is stopping? Yeah.

He is stopping? Mm-hmm. Okay. Make sure your hands are up to you. Except I know you're on the phone right now, but just hold your hand up so they can see your hands too. Okay. I'm going to stand in line with you until the officers get there, okay?

Sure. And you're going to be okay. Can you see, do they have him in custody already? They're putting the cops on him right now. They're putting the cops on him? Yeah. Okay. Unfortunately, police really didn't understand what was going on. They didn't know if she was really a hostage or what was going on in this case. Since this was the California police, so they arrested both Edwin and Andrea. But as soon as detectives from Oregon arrived, they confirmed with the California police holding Andrea that she was indeed a hostage and had been abducted by Edwin.

And we have to remember like the the man who got shot at the motel are the super a motel. Basically he by the way he received medical attention pretty quickly so he survived the attack. But according to him you know he's like this man and this woman attacked me. But he didn't know that she was a hostage, same with the older woman and the two boys in the car. So nobody really knows, at least in California, like Huandrea is in this situation, so they arrested her. And when investigators arrived to question Edwin in California, he was being super pompous,

and he acted like he was enjoying the attention that he was getting. He also insisted to police that he was looking forward to going home, and he acted like he was enjoying the attention that he was getting. He also insisted to police that he was looking forward to going home and that he was going to do whatever he had to do to go home, as if he were saying that he wasn't going to serve time for the horrible things he did. And at this point, investigators were kind of just telling him what he wanted to hear and hopes that he would spill the details as to where Kaley Sawyer's body was. Because at this point, they assumed she was dead but they had no idea where she was or what exactly Edwin had done to her.

Edwin told police that he would show them where her body was, confirming that 23-year-old Kaley Sawyer was in fact dead, and that's when he began drawing them a map. As we mentioned earlier, Edwin had family in Redmond, the city right above Bend, where Kaylee lived, and in Redmond is where Kaylee's body was found that same day at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, July 26, just three days after Kaylee went missing. She was found in a canyon about 20 feet off of Highway 126 in a ravine, and it was pretty clear that the wound on her head had caused her death. In fact, the wound made her quote, unrecognizable, which is a term that haunted her family ever since.

And because of this, sadly they weren't able to see her body to confirm that it was her. Instead, officials took the body in for an autopsy where the Oregon State Medical Examiner's office determined that her official cause of death was blunt force trauma, and that it had been done by the boulder found at Edwin's home. When police questioned Edwin about what happened to Kaylee, he was fairly forthcoming. And by that, I mean that he at least said that he killed her. So he stated that on the night of Saturday, July 23, he quote,

accidentally hit Kaylee with his work patrol vehicle on the community college's campus due to him speeding. But after he hit her with the car, she was screaming, so in order to shut her up, he started choking her. Then he proceeded to put Kaylee in his car, where he choked her even more, and she died. However, investigators didn't feel this was true at all. Knowing Edwin was a religious man, one of the investigators got a little clever.

He told Edwin that he had to repent his sins and essentially own up to what he did for God. And Edwin completely changed his story and told the real story, the story that actually makes sense. That Saturday night, he was patrolling in area of the campus when he came across Kaylee walking, and he felt it was a good opportunity to do something he always wanted to do. Something he always said he had the urge to do. Kill

Kaylee's Sawyer and her boyfriend Cameron lived in an apartment next to the Central Oregon Community College, which is where Kaylee was studying. So after she had gotten into her fight with Cameron, it's believed that she walked to the campus, a place that she was very familiar with, to cool off, and that's when Edwin Lara approached her in his work SUV. In this particular area, it's incredibly wooded and hidden, so there's no one around to witness this. But 31-year-old Edwin Lara stated that he put Kayley in the holding cage in the back of his vehicle, which is typically used for holding animals or other items

that need to be contained, but not for humans. Once Kayley was inside the cage, Edwin forced Kayley to hand over her purse and cell phone and kept her locked inside. We can only assume that Kaylee was absolutely terrified at this point, so she continued to scream. In this angered Edwin, so once again, he choked her until she passed out. And then he drove to an area on campus called B12, which is a secluded parking lot. Once they arrived to this parking lot, Kaylee regained consciousness and desperately tried to escape

the cage. And once again, Edwin choked her until she passed out, and then he hit her over the head until she was unconscious again. Then Edwin dragged Kayley's body into the woods next to parking lot B12, and he raped her. Kayley once again came too, and that's when Edwin grabbed a nearly 70 pound boulder and crushed her head. Originally Edwin left Kaylee's body in the woods while he continued on with his security shift on campus. But worried someone would stumble upon her body,

he later retrieved it, drove up to Redmond and disposed of her body in the ravine where she was later found. And then Edwin returned to his home and slept next to his wife for the remainder of the evening. So Edwin confessed to it all and he was facing four counts of aggravated murder and even the death penalty if he were to be convicted. But a major issue would arise later. Before Edwin was questioned, he asked for a lawyer, but he wasn't allowed one, and because of this, the judge threw out the entire taped confession, and it wasn't

allowed to be used as evidence at all. Either way, there was a lot of evidence against Edwin, including his DNA under the fingernails, her blood in his car, and the murder weapon being found at Edwin's home. So to avoid the death penalty, Ed blood in his car, in the murder weapon being found at Edwin's home. So, to avoid the death penalty, Edwin Lara accepted a plea deal and pleaded guilty to the aggravated murder of Kaylee Sawyer, a year and a half after the murder occurred in January of 2018. He was then sentenced to life in prison. And the hearing where Edwin pleaded guilty was extremely tense and emotional, and many

of Kayleigh's family members spoke, like her grandfather and her father both emotionally explained how they wish they could carry out the death penalty themselves on Edwin, and others explained how amazing Kayleigh was and how she had her whole life ahead of her, but because of Edwin, her life was cut short. And Edwin had the audacity to pray for Kaylee's family and say that he hoped that she would rest in peace. And he did this while he was like nearly crying, he was closing his eyes and praying, and

he had this like really tense face and it was just really infuriating to watch because this guy was like Gloting when police questioned him and after killing Kaylee He abducted another young woman like this was no accident. This was no moment of weakness situation It was incredibly intentional and for anyone wondering where Andre amazes today She's now in her early 20s and she's just kind of lays low, but occasionally does interview sometimes to tell her story. In 2019, so about three years after Kaylee's murder, Oregon legislation passed Kaylee's law, also known as Senate Bill 576, which mandates that campus security officers are not allowed to look like law enforcement officers, including their uniform and vehicles.

And this is because it's heavily believed that Kayleigh looked to Edwin for help or assistance because he looked like a cop, and that she felt safe when she saw his car. When Kayleigh's parents fought for this law to be passed, they did it with the hope in mind that no one else's daughter would meet the same horrible fate that theirs did.

Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this tragic episode and next week we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into and Of course we got to give thanks to all of our amazing patrons who joined in the last week We love all of you. Hope you guys liked the May bonus episodes and can't wait to come out with a couple more this month Thank you so much to sailor sadist Danny, thank you, Danny. Love you Danny. Thank you so much to Sailor Sadist, Danny, thank you Danny, love you Danny.

Thank you Lindsay, Heather, Chelsea, Erica and Tammy. Big thanks going out to Amanda, Lucy, Nichma or Nichma, not sure. Jesse, Jen, another Amanda and Jill. Thank you so much to Lisa, Laura, Nikki, Rachel, Kelly, another Kelly, love that name. LSRM and Laura. Another big thanks going out to Christina, Shelley, Brooke, Rob, Carol, Lauren, Amy, Lisa, and Dan. Last but not least, thank you so much to Billy. I think it's Karissa.

Karissa or Karissa? I think it's Carissa. Carissa or Carissa? I think it's Carissa. Thank you so much. Thank you, Haley. Thank you, Magenta, Marianne. Jasmine, he's wanting to do these last few. Oh, and Big thanks going out to you. I always say Big thanks.

Big, Big thanks. Big, Big thanks. Going out to Double Jessica, two of them. Abigail, Lisa, Kathleen, Sarah, Farah, and Jill. You guys are amazing. Thank you so much for subscribing. We love to have you guys in our Patreon community. If there's any episodes that you guys wanna hear,

let us know. Yeah, and just a reminder, we have over 40 bonus episodes total. We have about 20 something, I think it's 26 for our $5 tier, and then we have a $10 tier and you guys have over 40 bonus episodes. So we're doing one episode a month for the $5 tier, two a month for the $10 tier. Patreon is what keeps the show going.

So if you wanna support the show other than just telling a friend or writing us a really nice review on Apple Podcast, you can also become a patron and we really appreciate it. Alright guys, so for everybody out there in the world, Cheerio and Don't Be a Stranger! Thank you. you