Law&Crime Sidebar - ‘She-Hulk’ Bodybuilder Killed in Brutal Hammer Attack

Episode Date: June 23, 2025

Zunilda “Amy” Hoyos Mendez, a rising star in the bodybuilding world, was reportedly killed in a horrific act of domestic violence. Police in Spain believe Mendez’s husband, Jarrod Gelling, beat her with a hammer, then stabbed himself. The couple’s bodies were found inside a rental home after Mendez didn’t show up to her gym to train for an upcoming competition. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber discusses what may have triggered the fatal confrontation with trial attorney Bob Hille.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Give your summer closet an upgrade—with Quince. Go to https://www.quince.com/LCSIDEBAR for free shipping on your order and three hundred and sixty-five -day returns.HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. An international bodybuilding champion known as the She-Hulk has been found brutally murdered in Spain, and police believe her husband is to blame. Zunilda Amy Hoyos-Mendez, a rising star with thousands of fans on a promising future, was reportedly killed in a horrific act of domestic violence just weeks before a major competition. What unfolded in that quiet coastal home has shaken the global fitness community to its core. Welcome to Sidebar. Presented by Law and Crime, I'm Jesse Weber.

Just a tragic and deeply disturbing story that has emerged from Spain and is sending shockwaves through the international bodybuilding community. We're talking about Zunilda Amy Hoyos-Mendez. This is a renowned Colombian bodybuilder, affectionately known as the She-Hulk. She was a was found brutally murdered in what authorities suspect to be a case of domestic violence at the hands of her own husband bodybuilder and coach Jared Gelling. Now, while investigators have yet to confirm a definitive motive here, according to the Daily Mail, those close to the couple have revealed that Amy was preparing to file for a divorce. That's a decision that may have marked a turning point in this relationship. So there's a lot to get into. We want to take a closer look

at this all. And also, by the way, the lasting impact that this is. This is going to have on Amy's loved ones, her fans, the bodybuilding world at large. So according to local Spanish news outlets, Sir and Canaria 7, it was just before 2 p.m. on June 19th, when officers from the Spanish National Police forced their way into a rental home in Fenweola, a coastal town in the province of Malaga, in southern Spain. And apologies if I mispronounced anything here. But inside, this is when they were met with a gruesome and heartbreaking scene. Amy, as she was known by her friends, was found at her body showing, quote, obvious signs of violence that were consistent with multiple blows from a hammer.

This is according to authorities. And nearby, Gelling was discovered lifeless in the bathroom with what appeared to be self-inflicted stab wounds. A bloodstained hammer was recovered at the scene. The couple had been staying in Spain for about a month while Gelling was recovering from knee surgery. And Amy's family, who spoke with her daily, began to grow alarmed. after she abruptly stopped responding to calls and messages. In fact, her niece, Uladis, told, sir, we were so surprised that we hadn't heard from her since Saturday. That Saturday, June 15th, is now believed to be the last day that Amy was alive.

And adding to the growing concern was her sudden disappearance from a local gym, right? Amy had quickly become a well-known and admired figure there. Jim, working out. Her absence didn't go unnoticed. And ultimately, it raised the first alarm that something was terribly wrong here. Sir reports that on June 18th, just one day before this tragedy was uncovered, Amy's nieces, again, you laid us, and Angie launched a desperate search for answers. Growing increasingly alarmed by her sudden silence, they flooded social media and WhatsApp groups with urgent appeals

for help. And this one haunting post featured a photo of Amy Angelling smiling together, accompanied by a chilling plea, family and friends are anguish with no news of life. And that sense of dread it deepened as messages went unanswered. Amy remained unaccounted for. That same day, a deeply concerned friend took the step of filing an official missing person report at the Tori Molanos police station. And less than 24 hours later, authorities would make that grim discovery, Amy and Gelling both dead. Now, before I go any further, I want to bring on a special guest friend to the show. Trial attorney Bob Hillup, Bob, thanks so much for coming in. Thank you for coming here on Cybar to talk about this case. You know, based on the facts that are being

reported. And obviously we don't have all the answers. What are the steps if this was to be, I don't know if you're familiar with the Spanish investigations, but if they were happening here in the United States, what are the steps you think authorities are taking to investigate that this is an episode of domestic violence, a domestic violence-related homicide? What do they do? Well, I think wherever you have this investigation going, it's not going to be much different in Spain than it is here. So the people charged with having to find out what happened are going to go in there, they're going to want to identify who had the last contact with these individuals. They're going to look for surveillance videos. They're going to look for any sort

of audio visuals. They're going to try and find any devices that were left in the location where they found the bodies to try and see if they can get access to those. So a lot of the same bits of police work are going to be engaged here by these authorities to try and reconstruct what happened and when, because the timeline is going to be important. But the investigation over. Some people might be saying, oh, well, you know, two people are dead. We think we know what happened here. There's going to be no charges, right? I mean, if he's the one who ultimately did this. But that doesn't mean the investigation's over. Sometimes it's just beginning to figure out what happened, right? Well, there are a lot of the legal aspects beyond the criminal that

have to be resolved here. Sure. Sure. And how things happen when they happened. The fact of the deaths of the individuals all have to be established legally. And that would be part of the investigation. But they would want to make sure that they have to rule out foul play. And so even though it looks like a murder suicide, they have to make sure that it was a murder suicide. By the way, if you've been following us regularly here on Sidebar, you know, I'm always trying to look nice. I'm trying to dress up. I'm trying to switch out my outfits. But I don't want to break the bank when I do it.

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artisans and they cut out the middlemen. So you get luxury without the markup. Plus, they only partner with ethical factories using premium fabrics. So give your summer closet an upgrade with Quince. Go to Quince.com slash L-C-Sidebar for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com slash L-C-Sy-Bar to get free shipping, 365-day returns. Quince.com slash L-C-Sidebar. How much can the forensic evidence, the testing of the hammer, the scene, the autopsy results? How much can that tell the story when, sadly, you don't have these two people alive to be able to explain what happened?

Well, there's a lot of cases where they were. convictions just on circumstantial evidence. We've had cases where you don't even have bodies and somebody's been convicted of a murder. So generally speaking, you look at what the circumstantial evidence is and for each body of that that's going to be used to try and establish a fact is the only reasonable conclusion that that fact is proven by this evidence. And if it is, and you can accept that, it's not entitled to any or lesser weight than you would for what we would call direct evidence, somebody visualizing somebody doing something. If she really was preparing to file for divorce or was in the middle of filing for divorce,

that feels like a big, big piece of evidence in this case. I mean, how many times have we covered cases before? Don't they say that if killings happened is like one of three reasons? It's like money, it's jealousy, it's a relationship issue. If that's true, how much does that factor into whether or not this was a, and if he ultimately did it, a premeditated attack? Well, I think generally those are sort of the different types or categories of sources of, you know, murders.

But in here, I think that the evidence probably will show that he had a dispute. The fact that he was maybe going to be the object of a divorce from her, you know, is questionable because there was a history of abuse. They had split up for a while, as I understand it, and then got back together again and then he started the system of abuse again. You mentioned before about beyond the criminal case, right? If it turns out that a couple has a history of domestic violence or one, there's been reports against one against the other or vice versa, and something like this happens, is the reporting

agency, do they have a sense of responsibility here? Should they be put under the spotlight? Well, I think yes if there were threats to the individual, to the victim, and yes, if that victim was seeking help. I'm not so sure the answer is yes, where there's been a history in their relationship of aggressiveness, I think, is how it was termed, and behavior, you know, because if that's the case and neither one is looking for help, then I don't know what the authorities can do. How many times have you had domestic violence situations where people don't want the law to get involved? Well, what about Amy's family? So assuming the worst here,

assuming that he did this to her. Do they have any legal recourse against, I don't know, against you? Would it be against his family? Would it be against, like we talked about, law enforcement, a reporting agency, would it be against, I don't know. What are their options in terms from a civil context? Well, civil is a whole different ballgame. Sure. I'm not sure what the civil law would be over in Spain. Let's say it was here in the United States. And in the United States, of course, then juries decide everything. Europe, everybody thinks of systems like ours, but it's not exactly because jurors aren't involved in a lot of the civil cases.

They're usually judge trials. But if we're in the United States, yeah. I mean, obviously they would look to the estate of the bad actor here, which would be the husband. If it was concluded, he did commit the event. And that's why it's important to make that determination. And also whether some other agency, as you just alluded to, should have stepped in.

And if they had stepped in, would they have prevented this, you know? And those are the important questions as to whether or not there be a legal case against them. And the criminal investigation, like you said, could be used in the civil context. The conclusions of the criminal investigation can be used to benefit somebody in a criminal case, a civil case. The conclusions or the people who gathered the evidence in that case. Meaning they could testify in a civil case. Right, because all that evidence would come into a civil case. In fact, more of it would come into the civil case than if there were a criminal trial. Because the burden of proof is different and the evidence rules are different.

Right, right. And in the United States, at least. Right. To just add to a little bit more context, this. So according to Amy's friends and family, this tragedy, again, assuming the worst here, assuming what might have happened, it followed months of escalating tensions between the couple. Her family told news outlets that Gelling had been abusive for over a year, that Amy had even confided in and then that she planned to divorce him after their trip in Spain. So the timing of this is really, really significant. Sir reports that she had told her family of her plans in WhatsApp voice notes and videos.

Euletis spoke to the outlet revealing chilling details about the couple's relationship. She said, quote, she had decided to separate from her husband because of his aggressive behavior. For my aunt, it was her last trip with him, a farewell. So here's the timeline, according to what Amy's family told news outlets in Spain. Amy and Gelling had been living in Dubai before traveling to Spain for Gelling's knee surgery, and she was planning to compete in Portugal before returning Halone to Columbia to finalize divorce. The couple had actually separated once before but ended up reconciling. This is according to Amy's niece. She told, sir, they had broken up already once and were apart for a while, but

then got back together again to try to resolve things, although the mistreatment continued. This is like what Bob was talking about. And you let us says that she believes Amy never filed a police report, something that experts say is tragically common in domestic violence cases. How much does that play into it? If she hadn't filed a police report, whether it's this case or another one, important is that from a legal point of view? How problematic is that from a legal point of view? Well, I don't think it's really problematic from a legal standpoint because most people in domestic violence situations are reluctant to either air-dirty laundry, get involved, or are afraid. You know, so they don't want to do something that's going to precipitate a worsening

of the relationship or whatever the harm was that they're experiencing. So that in of itself may not be a critical fact, but it will be something that will be used by some party in a litigation to say, well, was there really abuse here? Was it that bad? Because they didn't file anything. And if it was really that bad, you know, you would think that they had that avenue and why didn't they pursue it? How important are verbal or digital alleged confessions to family or friends? How do they make their way into a court? Are they reliable, how do you see that playing out? Because again, you don't have Amy to testify. You have apparent written words, and I know context matters, when they were sent matters,

but if there were these purported admissions about what was going on and how she was feeling what she was planning to do to family and friends in a text message or even just a verbal account, a witness comes over, she told me this. You know, what do you think about those issues and how do they present themselves in court? Well, any out-of-court statement always triggers hearsay, considerations, okay? And the reason for hearsay is because you can't really probe those statements for the truth, and the jury's entitled to, say, a jury in the United States is entitled to hear that. And, you know, so if you can't cross-examine an out-of-court statement, there's some question of reliability because you really can't test it. But certain exceptions

to the hearsay rule are allowed. In other words, you know, if a defendant or a party in a matter makes that statement, well, they can come forth and explain it. So that That's an exception that's allowed to come in. Certain things like excited utterance, you know, that somebody says something, at the time something's happening, and that gets recorded. That, again, may be relevant. If it's not relevant to the truth of what's in the statement, you know, in other words, then, you know, in other words, somebody made the statement, not whether the statement was accurate. That could be important, but that's not hearsay in that context. They're still trying to piece together what happened here, but you've got to say the timeline of this, if this is true, she was planning.

They were separated, planning to divorce, planning to leave him. It would suggest that it's pretty clear what happened here, right? You would have to imagine. I mean, I think it's pretty clear what happened here. I think most people would agree that he killed her. Whether it was the result of the divorce or not, probably really doesn't even matter. I have questions whether the fact of the divorce may have been the precipitating instant or conduct that led to it. Because, remember, they were around for a long time.

Then they broke up. Yeah. So the breakup, after aggressive behavior after abuse, would kind of suggest otherwise. But, you know, again, obviously something precipitated it. There was an argument and, you know, it led to a bad result. And I want to be clear about something. Amy wasn't just a bodybuilder, okay? She was an international champion.

She was a rising star in the fitness world. She had more than 75,000 followers in Instagram, a flourishing career. She was just weeks away from competing on the international stage in Portugal, which I mentioned before. And behind her impressive physique and commanding presence was a record of hard-earned achievements. Amy had secured a second-place finish at the 2021 NPC Worldwide Latin American Championships. This is a performance that earned her the coveted title of IFBBB Pro. That designation granted by the International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness is reserved for athletes who reached the highest level of competitive bodybuilding excellence. As for Jared Gelling, according to his LinkedIn profile, he was the owner of a supplement store in Florida called Southern Muscle and a competitive bodybuilder in his.

his own right in 2014. You're into fourth place finish at the National Physique Committee's Team Universe competition. And while we can't confirm specific details about whether substances were used, it is worth noting that elite level bodybuilding competitions often do not require drug testing as far as our understanding is. And this lack of regulation leaves always open the possibility of performance enhancing drug use and whether or not it was used. And this includes anabolic steroids, which if present could be a relevant factor in the extreme and disturbing. level of violence that is involved in this case. You know, Bob, again, from a civil point of view, right, if you're talking about somebody who had this promising, this lucrative career ahead,

if the family is pursuing civil damages, wrongful death, what that person could have earned, what that person could have brought to the family, that's a consideration, right? Sure, sure. I mean, I think, you know, they're going to be looking at, I mean, the steroids, and that medication can cause aggressive behavior. And, you know, they were likely probably engaged in their use. But I think whether they were or not is going to be a relevant factor. And then whether or not you want to target who got them, that medication that perhaps, you know, led to that dependency and then led to the result. And by the way, we're not saying that's what he was on. We're not saying it was in his system. But it's something you have to be thinking

about. It's a weird case. And I imagine, should they be testing, you know, an autopsy, testing to see if it's in a system? And to be honest with you, I don't know how long it remains in a system or how that works? Well, it's something they should test. And again, you know, we don't know that that is the case. But ordinarily, they do a toxicology report when they do, you know, the autopsy. So, because they look to see whether there's a presence of drugs or anything else in the system. So that would probably be revealed there. Whether they look at that on the spectrum and what they're testing for, who knows, but people can ask that it be considered. And from a legal point of view, if he was alive and he was charged in connection with her killing,

the effects of that wouldn't be a defense, right? He can't say, hey, I was on this substance. It had mind-altering capabilities unless he was given something he had like it was tainted, right, in some way. That wouldn't be a defense, right? Because it's a voluntary act of taking it. And because you take it on your own, nobody makes you take it. The effects of that are implied that they're agreed to or consented by the individual taking it. that drug or medication. So, you know, it's just like with alcohol, you consume and you get

drunken and you kill somebody. That's not an excuse of that homicide. And authorities are investigating this case as a gender-motivated violence episode. And if confirmed, this would be the third such killing, third such murderer in the Malaga province, and fifth in Andalusia this year. This is according to reporting from the Sun. The Daily Mail reports the tragedies there include a Spanish woman who was strangled and beaten to death in Marbella, leading to the arrest of her Bulgarian partner, and a mom of three who was allegedly killed by her Nigerian ex-partner at a popular Costa del Sol resort. What does that pattern tell you? Well, I can tell you one of two things. We're not really sure which. One is that the coverage of it becomes more

prominent in the press. So people are looking at these things. And whether or not this was under the surface, but nobody was just covering it. The other part of it would be that, you know, There's some driver here that's certain vulnerable relationships between men and women are subject to and that in those certain circumstances it could lead to a volatile and a bad result. So what those are, I don't know that we know enough yet about it, but that's something that would be needed to look into the trending of that. And if that's the case, because of the high-profile nature of it, because of a repeated pattern, assuming that's what this is, does that create a change? Does that create a public policy change? Does that create a change in how law enforcement, you know, approaches these kinds of issues? Should there be a change if you're seeing a growing pattern?

Well, it could. You need to know what the cause of that growing pattern is, though, to be able effectively deal with it. So with respect to education, with respect to sensitivity, with respect to alternatives to violence, that people can go for outreach and to talk to somebody, to address their problems, to avoid these kinds of issues. You know, those are all things you could probably do even without knowing, but again, you really need to know what's driving it.

Yeah. So look, at this point, authorities are awaiting autopsy results to confirm exactly what happened, the exact sequence of events, and as Amy's grieving friends and family now prepare to retrieve her body, lay her to rest in Columbia, they're left with the aftermath of this.

And her coach, Brandon Ray, posted this gut-wrenching tribute in a since-expired Instagram story writing. We had 17 days until we were going to hit the stage and shock the world. I told you that you could possibly be top 10 in the world by the end of this year, and I meant it. Rest in paradise. And he added in a second part to his story, we were so close to the end, but the closest person to you ended it too soon. Domestic violence should never be taken lightly because it can leave many with a heavy heart. And another bodybuilding friend, Benaz Azar, said in an online tribute,

I don't know where to begin. My heart is broken. My mind is clouded and my soul is drowning in shock and sorrow. Amy, my kind, strong, fierce friend, the most powerful woman I knew in the world of bodybuilding. Yet with the gentlest heart, you weren't just a friend. You were my sister, my teammate, my safe place. You were a part of me. We had dreams, big ones. We were going to travel the world together. Step onto the competition stage side by side and chase the goals we poured our heart into. Now all that's left is silence. A wound so deep. I know it will never fully heal. The news of your your murder shattered something inside me. It doesn't feel real. You didn't deserve this. No one like you ever does. Amy, I will carry your memory with me always in every rep, every journey, every moment my heart aches for you until we meet again in a world kinder than this one. Rest in peace, my shining star. Obviously, through these comments, Bob, people are making reasonable assumptions as to what happened. You can understand that, although it hasn't been proven in a court of law or definitively stated by authorities. Put that to the side, the loss is tremendous and you think about if this really is a domestic violence

situation a horrible domestic violence situation the consequences what's left behind family friends children this is a reminder of that isn't it well there's more than one victim here you know victim is anybody that's connected to the person who died but it also is a lesson that you know you can't have tolerance for abuse of any kind in a relationship especially a domestic one and you know in that circumstance it's important to perhaps address that and maybe exit it because these things don't tend to get better with time.

Sad case. Sad case. I'm glad we had a chance to talk about it covered and the best that we could with the limited information that we have. Bob Hilla, good seeing you. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Good to see you.

And that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Everybody, thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this long crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.