Going West: True Crime - Sequoya Vargas // 231

Episode Date: August 31, 2022

In August of 1993, a 16-year-old Indigenous girl went missing in Hawaii after going out with a friend. Earlier that day, she and her friend had been picked up by a hitchhiker who asked them to hang out later, but despite this detail, Police initially believed she had run away. Years later, they would finally received a confession that detailed the horrible truth about what happened to her the night she disappeared. This is the story of Sequoya Vargas. BONUS EPISODES patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES 1. Justice for Native Women: http://www.justicefornativewomen.com/2016/02/sequoya-vargas-missing-from-hawaii.html 2. Hawaii Tribune Herald: https://www.newspapers.com/image/556943695/?terms=sequoya%20vargas&match=1 3. Hawaii Tribune-Herald: https://www.newspapers.com/image/556940476 4. Honolulu Star-Bulletin: http://archives.starbulletin.com/1999/09/11/news/story3.html 5. Hawaii Tribune-Herald: https://www.newspapers.com/image/557257777/?terms=sequoya%20vargas&match=1 6. Hawaii Tribune-Herald: https://www.newspapers.com/image/557271525 7. The Honolulu Advertiser: https://www.newspapers.com/image/265007391/?terms=sequoya%20vargas&match=1 8. Honolulu Star Bulletin: http://archives.starbulletin.com/2000/05/03/news/story10.html 9. Hawaii Tribune-Herald: https://www.newspapers.com/image/legacy/557342362/?terms=sequoya%20vargas&match=1 10. The Charley Project: https://charleyproject.org/case/joshua-scott-curry Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans, I'm your host Teef. And I'm your host Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Welcome everybody, thank you for tuning in to yet another episode of Going West. Special thank you to the Patreon subscriber who recommended today's case she wanted to stay anonymous, so I'm not going to say her name, but you know who you are, so thank you so much for showing us this story that we have for you today. For those of you who don't know what Patreon is, it's where you can get bonus episodes.

So that is where this suggestion came in, but if you guys wanna suggest a case, a really great way to do that is via email. We do get a bunch of our social media, but email is the best, going westpodcastatgmail.com. That ensures we will see it. Also, we have another big announcement. I know that we teased this before, like, I think it was like a month ago or so.

Yeah. But officially, the dark parts is coming back this early fall. I know that we teased this before, like, I think it was like a month ago or so. Yeah. But officially, the Dark Parts is coming back this early fall. What's the Dark Parts? The Dark Parts is our sister show where we talk about urban legends, scary stories, and lots of different mysteries. So if you're into that, make sure you tune into the Dark Parts when it comes out this fall.

Yeah. If you want to subscribe now, you can. There's 17 episodes that you guys can listen to. It's very lighthearted and fun, but also super spooky. So yeah, get ready. We're gonna announce the date soon, but it's gonna be early fall of this year 2022. So yeah, so you guys will have some spooky content for Halloween.

Yeah, I can't wait. That show is so fun. All right, guys, let's get into today's episode. This is episode 231 of going west. So let's get into it In August of 1993, a 16-year-old indigenous girl went missing in Hawaii after going out with a friend. Earlier that day, she and her friend had been hitchhiking and were picked up by a young man who asked them to hang out later. But despite this detail, police initially believed that she had run away. Years later, they would finally receive a confession that detailed the horrible truth about what happened to her mom Becky Mesa, joining

an older sister named Dove and two brothers, so four siblings total. Sequoia was born and raised in Oceanside, California, which is about 40 minutes north of San Diego. An ocean side is a picturesque coastal city that hosted about 70,000 residents at the time that Sequoia was born. Sequoia was a very gifted and fascinating young girl. According to her family, when she was four, she invented a language only she could speak and that only other kids could understand.

And this reminds me when my twin and I learned Pig Latin in fourth grade, and we would just always speak in it, did you do that? No. You never learned Pig Latin? No, I never learned it, but I did know kids that like made up their own languages and stuff like that. Yeah, it's a fun little thing. Yeah.

So I love that she did that. And she and her siblings also understood Spanish having grown up with it being spoken by family members. Sequoia was of raw remory Native Mexican descent, which is a native tribe that originated in North Central Mexico. And then they were given the name Tara Humara by the Spanish who attempted to colonize them. Ra Ramoria is believed to mean runners on foot or those who run fast after becoming known for their swift long distance running skills.

Sequoia was passionate about animals and reportedly became a vegetarian at age 2, picking the meat out of anything her mother made. She especially loved cats and had a collection of porcelain cats that she treasured, and she was also a very talented artist and loved to draw like different comic book strips, and her uncle Brad Simone remembers quote, some were just as incredible as any you could buy off the newsstand. And she was so passionate about her drawing skills that Sequoia hoped to attend art school after graduating from high school to pursue it as a career.

In 1989, when she was 13 years old, the family left California and relocated to Kalipana, Hawaii. Now, Kalipana sits on the southeast shore of the Big Island of Hawaii, and it's a small town in the Puna district, which is one of nine districts on the Big Island just outside of the Hawaii Volcano's National Park. In 1990, the population was just 24 people, so Sequoia was living in this very small village as she started her teen years. And the island itself, which is the largest of the 8 major Hawaiian islands, had a total population of about 120,000 at the time.

Sequoia began attending Pahoa Intermediate in high school in Pahoa, Hawaii, about a 12-minute drive inland from where they lived in Kalipana. In 1983, so six years before Sequoia and her family moved there, Kilauea, one of Hawaii's only six active volcanoes, started erupting and it lasted until 1991, though by then the flow had heavily declined. The lava covered Kalipana in a neighboring town and also cut off two main through roads of the island. The eruption also forced Sequoia and her family out of their home, and they relocated

to the comparatively larger town of Laelania states, near where Sequoia attended school. And ironically in 2018, Laelania states was also devastated by a volcanic eruption, destroying 200 homes and displacing hundreds of people. Despite these tragic natural setbacks, Sequoia and her family seemed to thrive in Hawaii. Before she even entered high school, Sequoia competed and won a chess championship against high schoolers, and she was active in her school's theater department while continuing to pursue her artistic endeavors. So she was good at like everything.

Her sister, Dove, remembers her as a happy teenager and a good girl. And her high school teachers recall her being extremely bright, although one said that she missed a lot of classes, to which Dove responded by laughing, she was probably at the beach Yeah, and if I lived in that area, I'd probably be at the beach too. Yeah, totally So she had a tight knit group of about six girlfriends with whom she spent a lot of time hanging out at each other's houses

swimming and going to parties Although according to friends and family Sequoia wasn't a big drinker and would usually just stick to a beer or two when she did go to parties or she was in a drinking atmosphere. In the Hawaii Tribune Herald, her English teacher, whose name was Gregory Dennis, penned a glowing tribute to her. He said, quote, in class, she was sarcastic and snippy with that wise guy wisdom that only a high IQ student has.

She was testing me to see if I could tell she was smarter than the rest. I could. I could tell after the first writing assignment. She wrote a very poetic, amazingly good story about turning into an eagle flying high above the world. She was an eagle flying far beyond the balance of Earth. I read her story to the class and we all agreed it was good, too good for even high school. After that, the students that I respected her in that strange

nervous way that normal people respect geniuses. She was smarter than the rest and we all knew it. I think that's such an amazing tribute to her. I agree. And really just shows how artistic and how creative Sequoia really was. Right, but still just this wonderful person, she wasn't some pompous teenager, like she just happened to be really smart

and she was just the coolest. And everybody knew it. Yeah. So on Sunday, August 22nd, 1993, 16-year-old Sequoia and her friend, 17-year-old Jessica Clinker, headed out for the evening. Now Sequoia told her mom that she was spending the night at Jessica's house. The girls went down to Kahina Beach to swim and hang out for a bit before hitchhiking

back, and since it was a small community in the early 90s, they probably felt pretty comfortable doing this. And they were planning to go back to Jessica, so her telling her mom she was spending the night there that was her plan. She wasn't lying. Right. So the girls were seen hitchhiking along Hawaii and her state 130 from Kahina Beach, about a 15 minute drive southwest from where Sequoia's family lived in LaLonia States. So she was very close to home. She wasn't that far away. Eventually, a man in his 20s stopped and offered the two girls a ride, and they took him up on it.

He told them that he was a professional skateboarder and asked if they'd like to come over to his cousin's house and Nanavale Estates to watch TV. Now Nanavale Estates was the next town north of Lelania's states just an 8-minute drive up the road. So this young man dropped the girls off at Jessica's house and told them to come over later. But Jessica's parents told her that she was not allowed to go, a decision that would wind up saving her life. So Sequoia said goodbye to her friend and headed back out to catch up with this mystery

man that they met on the side of the road. And that would be the last time anyone would ever see Sequoia Vargas. The next morning when Sequoia didn't come home, her mom was worried but her sister Dove told her not to be just assuming, you know, in the era of no cell phones that she was just spending another summer night with some friends and just neglected to let her family know because she was very social, she loved to go out and have fun and it was summer break after all. Right.

However, when Tuesday came with no sign of her, Becky was officially concerned and reported her daughter missing to the local police in Pahoa where Sequoia's high school was located. But as we've seen with many other cases, they were convinced that she had run away. A notice that she was missing was even printed alongside that of another teenage girl who actually had run away. Yeah, so they're trying to put these two cases like in the same category or same box, just assume, you know, based on this other girl

being actually being a run away. Right, which is frustrating, especially when that's not the case, and I know hindsight is 2020, but, you know, maybe we just shouldn't assume that someone has run away until there's actual evidence of it. Sure, not that I am a detective or a police officer, but anyway. So it actually wasn't until a month later that they officially classified her as a missing

endangered person, and suspecting foul play, they finally opened a missing person's case on her. Now according to the Honolulu advertiser, quote, police changed their investigation from a missing person's case to a homicide case, but have not explained why. And this is one of the most puzzling aspects of this case. So based on local reports, a 20-year-old man from the area was arrested for questioning in relation

to her disappearance, but was released for lack of evidence, and is said to have fled to Maui. According to police, based on this man's testimony, they had reason to believe that Sequoia had been assaulted, killed, and dumped in the ocean. And this is still so vague, you know, as far as information coming out because people didn't know if he was taking responsibility or saying someone else did this and he saw it or heard about it. And again, the fact that it took them a month to look into her case, you know, as a missing person's case, is just so sad, especially considering she was a last scene, going to hang out with a guy who looked to be in his 20s,

who was a stranger, mind you, when she was just shy of 17 years old. Yeah, and the interesting thing here is that Jessica was also in the car with that 20 year old man with Sequoia. Yeah. So she had the description of the car. She obviously saw his face, and this town is not that big. At all, it's very small.

Yeah, exactly. So you would imagine that she would be able to maybe identify this person, but I don't know. I don't know if she had ever told police that information. Yeah, we're gonna get into that a little bit later, but that is something that I wondered at this point in the story too, because you would think that maybe this would be

very good information for the police to have, the last person who was seen with Sequoia, but it doesn't seem like they really utilized that information earlier on in the investigation. Yeah, and like you said before, it pretty much just seems like they want to pin this as a runaway situation. So obviously the fire was not under their ass

during the initial investigation. For whatever reason. Yeah. So while this information about Sequoia possibly being assaulted and murdered was horrible news, Becky and her family had the support of their community. And search parties of up to 150 volunteers were formed, searching the rocky terrain along the coastline for any sign of Sequoia. Police focused their search between the eastmost tip of the island, the Cape Kumakahi Lighthouse, and the town of Opecao near the Kahina Black Sand Beach, where Jessica and Sequoia had

spent their last day together. It would be less far as the crow flies, but because it was such an uneven stretch of coast, the roads between the two points stretched 18 miles or 28 kilometers. And the fact that some parts of the area are inaccessible by foot made it exceedingly difficult to search for Sequoia there. In addition to the search parties, Sequoia's family organized a fundraising concert to pay for a private investigator. More than a dozen trained divers dove off the coast looking for her body in the sea, but came up empty every time.

Her Uncle Brad didn't work for a month stating, quote, we're not stopping until we find her. We're kind of talking about setting her spirit free and letting her go to heaven. Uncle Brad and other family members even went so far as to take imprints of tire tracks left in the gravel on the side of the road where Jessica and Sequoia were picked up, a step which was far beyond what local police were accomplishing in the case. Finally, in 1994, almost a year to the day after Sequoia went missing, Pohoa police received a confession, but the story of what really happened to Sequoia Vargas that night was worse than anybody

could have imagined. On August 16, 1994, just six days shy of a year after Sequoia went missing. Big Island Police Chief Victor Vieira announced that an indictment was due soon in the case. According to Victor, quote, We've had all the information, but we had to just tie up some loose ends. So this means that for the last year of their investigation, or at least the 11 months that they were considering her a missing person and with foul play in the case, they had information and they just needed to

to dot their eyes and cross their teeth. Yeah, exactly. And this really came from that first guy that they talked to a long while ago, which we're going to get into now. So a 19 year old man named Matthew Gibbs had turned himself in for the involvement in the disappearance and murder of Sequoia Vargas.

While his name wasn't made public quite yet, he was known to hang out with the man whom police had arrested for questioning in his involvement the year prior, a man named Jason McCubbins, and their accounts seemed to align. Both putting much of the blame on a missing third party, Richard Damien-Sarono. So to clear this up, Jason McCubbins is the one they spoke to a year earlier, now they're talking to a guy named Matthew Gibbs, and they're both saying that Sequoia was murdered and that Richard Serrano was the main man behind it. Yes. So, according to Matthew Gibbs' account, on the night of August 22, 1993, the three men

in Sequoia were drinking at Jason's Nanavalia State's home. He said that he knew Sequoia but didn't say how or where they had met, and it was the first time that she had met cousins Jason McCubbins and Richard Serrano, who were friends of Matthews. They were drinking beer and taking shots, blasting music, dancing, and just relaxing and allegedly having fun. Now Richard escalated the situation by dousing Sequoia's drinks with cough syrup and hopes of getting her more messed up. So because of this, even though Sequoia didn't really drink that much, she was so out of

it that at one point she fell and hit her head on a table. Instead of seeking medical attention for her, they dragged Sequoia into a bedroom and left her on a bed to sleep it off. Which also is very dangerous because if she had hit her head and became concussed, letting her sleep it off is the last thing you should do, so that was just very dangerous anyway. I mean, you know, bad thinking, poor thinking, on them in the first place for giving her cough syrup. Right, I mean, they didn't go into this with good intentions.

No, not at all. So that's when Matthew said that Richard came up with the idea to sexually assault her. Without going into too much detail about this, we'll just say that they all took part in her rape while she was unconscious. And in Matthew's words, they even stabbed the mattress around her body using a large knife because they were, quote, just playing around. Eventually, Sequoia began to wake up and to keep her quiet because obviously she was very scared, Richard allegedly ordered the other two guys to help, with Jason apparently throwing

her into a wall to knock her out. At that point, with Sequoia unconscious again, the three men decided to discard her body to hide what they had done. And obviously, right now she is very much alive, she's just unconscious. So to think about just getting rid of her body, I mean, just complete idiots. So Richard took her into his car with him, and Jason and Matthew drove behind him separately. They met at the Cape Kumakahi Lighthouse, which was the exact spot where Sequoia's search party began their investigation.

And how crazy to think that the police were actually on the right track. I mean, they were at the Kumakahi lighthouse, like you're saying, where they actually did discard of her body. Yeah, they were in the right place. Yeah. What they did is they drove down the coast to the secluded Mackenzie State, sorry, Mackenzie State Recreation Area, which featured a rocky cliff with ocean views and a steep 20-foot drop down to the water. Now according to Matthew, Jason and Richard hoisted her body over the side of the cliff.

Remember she is still alive. They were probably hoping that this 20-foot fall would kill her. So Matthew's account of the evening ends there, but in a statement that wouldn't be made public until years later, Jason finished telling the story in his interrogation. So they were about to leave the area when they heard Sequoia crying. So Jason and Richard climbed down to where she had landed and then swam her body out into

the choppy water and left her there to drown. Matthew remembered that Jason was, quote, hyped up. The three men returned to his house and began arguing. And according to Maureen McCubbins, Jason's mom, and Richard's aunt, she awoke in the early morning hours of August 23rd to Richard swearing at and threatening the other men. When she asked what the hell is going on, Jason said, quote, I think someone died tonight. To which Maureen responded, shut up Jason, you're making me sick.

Like you think someone died tonight, you mean you killed someone? Yeah, right. So in her testimony, she recalls being worried that Richard would hurt Jason and Matthew, apparently threatening them by yelling, you want some too? And this happened while the other two cowarded. She also remembered Richard's clothing and hair being wet. And later, as it started to rain,

Maureen remembers her son saying that, quote, heaven was crying. After the other two men started to rain, Maureen remembers her son saying that, quote, heaven was crying. After the other two men went to bed, Jason told her what had actually happened, and she awoke Richard to tell him that she knew what they had done. Richard swore at Jason and shoved him and then ran off, and that would be the last time that Maureen would see him until he was on trial for Sequoia's murder. He did, however, call from San Francisco two days later and ask, did they find anything?

And Maureen waited seven years to give her account to the authorities. I wonder if Jason had told his mom Maureen that, oh, it was all Richard and I just felt like I'd do along with it like some sob story even though that's not true You're totally complicit and that's why his mom didn't come forward But the fact that this woman knew that this poor 16 year old girl had been murdered by her son and her nephew and Didn't tell police meanwhile police and her family and a bunch of volunteers are searching the area for her is so so sad. It's very sad.

And we see that a lot in other cases that happen where parents just defend their kids until the end. And I'm sure that that was the scenario that Jason was like, oh yeah, I had nothing to do with it. It was all richer. Right. Totally. But I feel like it's more rare that we hear that somebody confesses to their family and their family just keeps a tight lip about it for so long.

So that's just super, super disappointing regarding Maureen. So anyway, in July of 1995, Matthew pleaded no contest to a third sexual degree assault charge, which is a felony that stemmed from his testimony, and sat awaiting trial. Prosecutors dropped a second sexual assault charge against him in exchange for his plea, and both Matthew and Jason got reduced time for testifying against Richard, especially since they were the ones to come forward and confess what they had collectively done. And I do understand this, you know, them getting a lesser sentence since if they hadn't confessed,

her case may have gone unsolved, but even if Richard was the instigator in all this, again, they didn't stop it, and they partook in it so they are certainly just as guilty. Absolutely, I completely agree. stop it, and they partook in it so they are certainly just as guilty. But the crazy thing here is that at the time of the trial, which was nearly two years after Sequoia's disappearance in murder, Richard was still nowhere to be found, like he was still at large. Sadly, two years later in 1997, with him still at large and Sequoia's body still missing, Sequoia's mother Becky passed away from a heart attack.

Jessica Klinger, the friend whom Sequoia was with on the night of her murder, now counts Becky as another one of Richard's victims, claiming she couldn't handle hearing what those men had done to her daughter and that she died from a broken heart. That's just so awful. I know. And in the last conversation with her before her death, Jessica actually remembers Becky saying, quote, oh, God, Jessica, I'm not doing well at all. They were even cooler than we had imagined. So clearly this was something that was severely weighing on her as we can completely understand. Yeah.

But finally, some good news actually came from Sequoia's family. On Monday, September 6, 1999, over six years of being on the run following the rape and murder of Sequoia Vargas, Richard Damien Serrano finally turned himself in. He was living as a fugitive in Mexico until word got back to his mother about where he was hiding out, and his mom was the one to tip off the FBI. Go mom. Yes, oh my god, so amazing. You know, uh, that she did the right thing here.

And remember, this would be Jason's aunt and Richard's mom, so not Mori. And this is probably either Mori and sister or sister in law. Yes. So undergrowing pressure, Richard then 28 years old turned himself into the Mexican authorities. He was reportedly into climbing health, but his lawyers would not elaborate. So we don't know what this really means. Yeah, I wonder. His lawyers would not elaborate so we don't know what this really means. So he was extra-dited to Hawaii to await trial and entered a plea of not guilty. In his lawyers' words, quote, his position is that the two other men are lying to cover

up their own responsibility. When Richard himself took the stand, he even said, quote, I feel bad about what happened to Sequoia, but I took no part in the killing. I feel the people who did this should be punished, but I'm not that person. However, a character witness recalls him bragging, saying, quote, Do you know how many times I've done this regarding attacking women? And my add, who the hell goes on the run for six years directly after a girl goes missing and lives in Mexico away from everyone they know so they can be in hiding if they're innocent?

Yeah, that doesn't make any sense. And these other two guys were not on the run. He's the only one that left to go to San Francisco first and then went down to Mexico. Yeah, so I see why it's unfortunate that Jason and Matthew are the ones that were confessing first and pinning it on Richard, the one who had not been spoken to yet, but everything adds up here. Everything is just trying to get away with it.

Yeah, exactly. Everything is connecting to Richard, although the other two are shitheads as well. So let's go back to that comment really quick earlier that you made Heath about Jessica and either giving or not giving the description to police regarding which man she talked to in the car who she got a ride from and whose car they were in

because you mentioned that this is a small area. So it would have been probably pretty easy to find this guy if she had given a description if they made a composite sketch and a wanted poster with the information regarding his car, like I feel like that would have been the right thing to do. But this is a part of the story that's still unclear. So we can just assume that it's Richard because he said that he was a skateboarder who wanted to take them back to his cousin's house.

And the party that night or the quote unquote party of four was at Jason's house. And Richard. Yeah, I mean, no, that Richard is Jason's cousin. Exactly. So we can just assume that this was Richard, but I still, I'm so curious if Jessica ever said that's the guy or this is what he looked like,

this is what he drove. Like I wonder if that connection was made. Yeah. Because that's important too. Right, but also, I mean, I feel like that kind of means less because it's not like he attacked her in the car on the ride. He just said, hey, come over to my cousin's house. Yeah.

And then from there, it's basically these three guys' stories, which one do you want to believe? Right, I'm more so mean like, it'd be good to know like who invited them there, who picked them up, and also it would just connect to these men being involved anyway, which we know they are involved, but I'm more so mean like in the earlier part of the investigation, this would have been so crucial I feel, but I don't think they utilize this information. Oh yeah, I get what you're saying, like they would have been able to make the connection

to these three guys. Yeah way earlier and just for us to be able to we can go ahead and say that was more than likely like pretty much 100% that was Richard. Yeah. So thankfully the jury was not buying Richard's whole like innocence scheme, you know, trying to convince everybody that he didn't do anything to Sequoia. And in May of 2000, Richard was found guilty of two counts of kidnapping, second and third degree sexual assault, and second degree murder. In his sentencing, the judge remarked, quote, there is very little difference at times between humans and animals, but humans have a conscience. That's what I find lacking. Sequoia's sister Dove said, quote, I'm just glad he's off the streets.

He won't do that to any other little girl. In 2013, Dove published a book about what her family went through in pursuit of justice for her sister, entitled Where's Sequoia. So that was published 10 years after Sequoia's murder. Richard was sentenced to two consecutive life terms, plus 20 years in prison, where he is to this day.

Matthew and Jason, however, are free and still residing in Hawaii, although they will remain on the sex offender registry for the rest of their lives. Richard Serrano attempted to appeal his conviction in 2012, but he was denied. And another very devastating and extremely tragic detail about this case is that on November 25th 1994, so a year and three months after Sequoia went missing, Sequoia's ex-boyfriend Josh Curry also disappeared without a trace. Like Sequoia, foul play is suspected in his disappearance and his body was never found. He was actually scheduled to testify at the very first trial for Sequoia's murder when charges were being brought against Matthew and

Jason, and he reportedly even saw and spoke with her on the day of her disappearance. Some believe that their disappearance as are related and that Josh was a victim of witness intimidation. Josh was last seen by his mother, who dropped him off at his mountain view Hawaii apartment, only about 23 miles or 37 kilometers from where Sequoia disappeared. Apparently, six men have come forward with information that Josh was beaten to death, but no one has ever been tried or convicted in his murder, and no evidence or body have ever been found. That's a lot of people to come forward saying the same thing.

Yeah, I mean, it feels like that needs to be further investigated, and I don't know if it has, but I mean, you're right, that is a lot of people to say the same exact thing. Yeah, really scary. He was reportedly struggling with heroin use and oppression at the time, but it's not known whether or not that's linked to his disappearance. Josh Curry was 20 years old and 5 foot 10 weighed 140 pounds and had blue eyes and blonde hair. He had a dragon tattoo on his upper right arm.

And we did share photos of him as well if you guys want to look at those especially if you live or lived in the area at the time. In the tribute written for Sequoia after her murderers were convicted, her English teacher wrote quote, Like her story, Sequoia was an eagle. She was meant to fly high in life, to the highest branch of her dreams. She could have given so much to the world. Because she was daring like an eagle, she went out one night when everyone else stayed

home. She was a go for it girl, as all strong spirits are. And like the noble spirits sometimes are, she was brought down by dogs. The ones who killed her were cowards, like the dogs that hunt and kill the wild boar or fox, traveling in packs, afraid of anything strong, noble or free. Sequoia was all of those things. The dogs who caught her had no idea they had got a hold of a great poet and artist, a great soul, no idea they were robbing us of a Shakespeare or Rembrandt, or more importantly, a precious

little girl. They had no right to touch an eagle like her, they weren't worthy. She was meant to fly high and was brought down before she flew. Her killers will answer for it in the next world and the next life. The hottest place in Hades is reserved for those who kill an angel, a spirit like Sequoia with wings to fly on Earth. And because she was an eagle, she fought and went down scratching. Sequoia Vargas would turn 46 years old this year.

Due to the circumstances surrounding her disappearance and murder, it is unlikely that her body will ever be found, but just in case, she was 5 feet 3 inches tall, had long, dark brown hair and brown eyes, a mull on her left thigh. If you have any additional information regarding the disappearance and murder of Sequoia Vargas or the whereabouts of her body, please contact the Hawaii Crime Stoppers at 808-961-8300. 1, 8, 3, 0, 0. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode, and on Friday, we'll have an all-new case for you guys to dive into.

What a tragic story, and I honestly am still just so surprised that Jason and Matthew even came forward at all, and then that Richard turned himself in. I mean, I don't think he felt like he had a choice, especially if he was in declining health. But I'm glad that they did, or else, like you said, like her body might never be found if they did put it in the ocean, and she drowned and went off to see, you know, we would have never known what happened to her. And again, good on Richard's mom for, you know,

for basically turning her son in and giving the FBI his whereabouts because I know a lot of parents wouldn't do that. I'm a marine. Yeah, but she did the right thing here. Yeah, I completely agree. I'm really glad that she did that. So thank you guys for listening to today's

incredibly tragic story. Thank you for tuning in each week to hear us tell you these stories We're so happy to have you here and we love you guys so much also be on the lookout for the dark parts coming this early fall All right guys, so for everybody out there in the world. Don't be a stranger. Thank you. you