Sword and Scale - Episode 190

Episode Date: June 28, 2021

What happened to Lee Paulino? He disappeared days before Thanksgiving and the police just considered him a runaway in spite of his family's pleas that he would never do that. When a gruesome discovery is made two weeks later it calls into question could the police have done more and how well do parents know their own children.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sort and scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences Listener discretion is advised I think of killing someone and I smirk I like the sound of it the idea of causing pain on someone who's getting in my way or who's causing me pain Okay, so right off the bat, if you're a free listener and you're listening to this right now, you're going to get two regular episodes a week apart. Congratulations. If you're a plus member,

you're also going to get two regular episodes a week apart. Albeit a week before everyone else. That means next week instead of a plus episode, you'll be it a week before everyone else. That means next week instead of a plus episode, you'll get episode 191. So now that you know that no complaints, got it? By the way, this is season 8 episode 190. I show that reveals that the worst monsters are real. Yeah, I know, I know. Me saying don't complain is like literally opening up the floodgates for complaints,

and that's what you guys love to do anyway. Hey listen to me complaining. Alright enjoy the show. Hi! How are you? Welcome back. Pull up a chair. You know some of you can listen so long that you feel like you know me. We've never met, of course. You probably don't know the most basic things about me or my life, but you spend a lot of time listening to my voice, so you may feel like we have some sort of connection. A lot of us tend to feel connected to people that we surround ourselves with.

We feel like we know who they are, but do you ever truly know anyone? Even those closest to you in your life, and I'm not talking about podcast hosts, have private thoughts, opinions, and feelings that they don't necessarily share out in the open. If those inner dialogues are the truest form of existence, of personality, then how can you truly know anyone? In fact, some people don't even know who their children are. Those little tiny pieces of us that grow into unique individuals with their own feelings,

motivations, and secrets. On a sunny day after school on November 18th, 2016, Lee Manuel Veloro Paulino walked home. It was a little after 3.30 pm when he arrived and greeted his grandmother, with his usual hug and kiss followed by the question, what did you make for me? He had come home from school and had eaten a lot. If you had a Hispanic grandmother, you get it. Lee's grandmother always had several things prepared for his return from school. He was a growing 16-year-old boy that needed a lot of calories, and she was a doding grandmother more than happy to oblige.

He ate, and they talked about a homework assignment that was giving him trouble. He then excused himself from the table. And said that he was going to go take a nap. As his grandmother watched him climb the stairs to the second floor apartment he shared with his mother, she had no idea that it would be the last memory of her grandson for a while. After Lee went into his room and closed the door, he vanished. I am Episcapaulino and Lee-Manuel's mother. Miss Paulino recounts what her mother told her happened

that afternoon. She was out of town in the Dominican Republic when Lee vanished. My plan was to come sell my house and go back and we had planned to open up a little restaurant with my family. My errands lasted a little longer than we should. So instead of two weeks, a month when by and I was still here. She would text Lee every day while she was selling her home in the Dominican Republic. But on that day, the responses stopped. We spoke very shortly and he had to let me go because he had a lot of homework. So the next day, I got in to talk to him, and I kept on texting, and he didn't answer.

Eventually, she would call her mother after trying to reach Lee several times without reply. By this time, Lee these grandmother was also concerned. But he had taken too long over nap because my grandma was concerned. And she went knocking and he was locked in his room. I'm like, that's weird. You know, he doesn't sleep that much. You guys should try to open the door. Say like an hour after my brothers ended up breaking open the door, and Lee was another

role. A locked door to an empty room on the second floor was certainly not the sort of place you would expect someone to vanish from. Lee had never pulled a stunt like this before. If it was typical teenage hijinks, it was completely out of character for him. My mother contacted the police the same day and they said they had to wait 24 hours, which we knew, but she still wanted to go. And she went back for a four hours later. They had no indication he was in danger or trouble. His phone was still on. He just wasn't answering.

Operating under this assumption, Lee's uncle set a trap for the sneaky teen. Beneath the window, they thought he climbed out of, they positioned pots and pans, so that when he returned everyone would be alerted by the commotion. In those first 24 hours they were at a loss as to what to think, but they held on to hope that Lee was just goofing off with friends, a teen testing his limits. Well, we didn't know what to think because Lee had never, but we knew of, had never left the house without us knowing or hidden. We didn't know where would he go if we didn't even have any close friends or what would he do.

But at that moment, I was just waiting. I'm like, okay, he's going to get home and he's going to put him in a plane. And here, you know, I am going to discipline him. And Miss Paulino's mind, she was ready to punish her son for the worry he had put his family through. When he finally showed up, he was going to get an earful. This kind of trouble-making was the reason she tried to get Lee out of Lawrence for years. I was trying to move since he was 10 years old, but we had to go back for other reasons.

I always said that I thought that he was too naive and was going to let himself get influenced because not everybody can deal with, you know, a hard neighborhood. Lawrence, Massachusetts, isn't necessarily a dangerous city, but it isn't entirely safe, either. Normal, everyday, hardworking people with families live in Lawrence,

but there's also another side to the city, an underbelly. In Lawrence, our neighborhood was not the best. It was still not the worst, but that's where my parents and that's where I grew up. In 2016, Lawrence ranked as the 12th most dangerous city in Massachusetts per capita, according to FBI crime data. By 2020 it rose to ninth, outpacing Boston by several spots. The surrounding area of Lawrence had a heavy MS-13 presence. A salvedorian gang founded in the 70s and Los Angeles that had since spread internationally. It's tough because there's all types of people and personalities and if you didn't have a tough skin it was a little difficult. So it has changed a little bit over the years but you know there is there is

crime there is drugs there is a lot of homeless and of course there's children growing in this type of environment. So in school there's bullying. You know, Lika bullied her and he was around 10 years old in a top school where there is gangs. You don't see it as much as they say you see it on TV. But there is gangs and there's you know bullying and not good people. In her attempts to find an environment more conducive to raising her son, she moved a lot since Lee was 10. They lived in the Dominican Republic for a while before they moved to Florida

around the time Lee started the eighth grade. Despite multiple moves during middle school, Lee was a good student, and by the fall of 2016 was back in Lawrence starting a sophomore year at Lawrence High School. Second day goes by and we still don't know anything. That's when we actually find out that his phone was under his pillow in his room. While his phone is on, we're texting and calling. So that's when I get worried, because his phone and his wallet with his ID was in the room.

Why no teenage or no one goes out without their phone? And there was no reason for him to be mad. There was no reason for him to run away or rebel, so that's when we got worried. So I took the plane back to mass, nothing. The first day passed, then the second, and still no commotion from the pots and pans, and we're still no Lee. As time passed, Ms. Paulino's worry increased.

When we asked her if the police took her son's disappearance seriously, she replied simply, they did not. With hope diminishing and the increasing likelihood that Lee's disappearance was more sinister in nature, the family began their own investigation. Like any family of a missing child, they felt that the police weren't doing enough, so they did it themselves. We were the ones that went to the neighbor across the street to ask for the cameras, you know, to see if we can look through their cameras. That's when we saw him leaving. Through the recordings of the neighbor surveillance system, Miss Paulino spotted her son.

The time stamp on the recording said 540pm, but Lee was not alone. He was with another person who appeared to be a kid around the same age. The family immediately handed this evidence over to the police. The other boy was identified as Matthew Borges, a kid from the same high school. The detective goes and interviews Matthew. This was four days after Lee was officially reported missing. It was a Wednesday, a school day, but the detectives found Matthew at home and questioned him there. That day I went to school. It was a very good day. Sully at lunch.

And then after lunch I went home. Matthew admitted it was him in the video and said he and Lee had gone down to the Merrimack River to smoke a joint and look at the boat house lights on the water. When they had finished their smoke session, he said Lee left him there. Matthew even took the officers down to the spot on the river where they were that night. Matthew's best guess to Lee was maybe he ran away and was hiding out. The interview with Matthew didn't bear any real leads, just a bunch of gossip from a kid. He was either covering for Lee, or didn't know anything about him going missing.

But the surveillance video also revealed something else, something bizarre. Twenty-four minutes after Matthew was seen leaving with Lee and walking towards the Marimak River, four unknown males are seen coming and going from Lee's apartment. This was two coincidental to be unrelated. They didn't have much. We had just, he had a fake Louis Vuitton belt. They stole the fake belt, a hoodie. Oh yeah, they. Take the PlayStation.

While Lee left a smoke adjoint with a friend by the river, he had also been targeted for burglary. What's bizarre is the timing. It's far too coincidental that Lee would leave with a friend and wind up missing while simultaneously being the target of a burglary. Lee's family was now really confused on top of their constant concern for his whereabouts, had leab in the target of a seemingly organized group,

and if so, why? With questions swirling around the minds of Lee's family, that's when the detective returned to Miss Paulino with his findings from interviewing Matthew. What he spoke with Matthew about, you know, that Matthew doesn't know anything about it. Matthew had been a dead end in the investigation, but there was still more potentially uplifting information, just not from Matthew. So another kid that says that he saw Lee on Saturday at six in the morning by the high schools. Lee was spotted, a glimmer of hope for his family, but that hope quickly

turned to dismay based on the interview with Matthew and the supposed sighting of Lee, the detective tells Miss Paulino that the current working theory is that he was simply a runaway hiding out with friends. This is not something Miss Paulino wanted to hear. You know, like teenagers usually have a group of friends that are always hanging out with self-know. Lee had only been back in Lawrence for about a year. He was still the new kid and hadn't had time to cultivate a close group of friends. Because of our moving, probably that's why he had less friends, but he was very popular

mate. A popular kid, with few friends outside of school or church vanishes after a smoke session by the river. To the detective, it sounded like the typical delinquent behavior of many youths, especially in their crime and gang-ridden city. What he told me was that we didn't know Lee and that he was being rebellious and that he believed Matthew. But Miss Paulino didn't buy that theory. We don't believe that's the way it is.

Like, you don't know our Lee. While the police were thinking Lee was a runaway, Miss Polino knew that wasn't true. He wouldn't just run away, he wouldn't leave without saying goodbye, he just wouldn't. This wasn't a street-wise kid that yearned to be on his own. He loved his family and was more interested

in art, music, and poetry than anything else. I mean, his grandparents were both teachers and Miss Polino was raised in a strict household. Something she passed down to Lee. He thrived with his family. There was no way, in her mind, he would run away and he didn't have to because he was going places. Just a few months before what happened, he actually had written a few poems that got him into a program where he was going to be able to show off his work in Washington, D.C. and got a scholarship for it.

While the police would decide a high school sophomore who already had his eye on college was a rebellious runaway as beyond me. But I guess well, just being a good student and having a loving family doesn't rule anything out, it certainly lends to the idea that there was something more nefarious at play and his disappearance. Lee was a lanky 16 year old kid with a peach fuzz mustache and a poof of hair on top of his head. He was creative, friendly, respectful, and other than this one time when he snuck out, he had never gotten into trouble.

He had no reason to be mad or run away. He wasn't abused. He didn't want for anything. He wasn't the type to try it alone on the streets or join a gang. He didn't have a lot of friends with which to hide out. He wasn't a good target for burglary because he didn't really have anything valuable. None of this made any sense, but Miss Paulino didn't discount the possibility because it was better than the alternative. That Lee was gone and never coming back, not because he ran away, but because something bad had happened.

The family was left wondering and waiting with nothing but questions and no answers. After Lee Manuel Vilaria Paulino's knockout of his bedroom window, he hadn't been seen in days other than a possible sighting near the high school. His family was worried, but the police were under the assumption that he was just another rebellious teenage runaway. Miss Polino didn't want to believe it, but to deny it would be to accept that something much worse had happened. I was hopeful to like the sixth day. At the beginning I didn't understand you know why he would even away but you know it could have been a possibility. Five days after a lease to disappearance was Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was his favorite holiday and I knew that he wouldn't

do that. He wouldn't do that to my parents. He wouldn't do that to me. I knew something was wrong. Thanksgiving came and went and still. No sign of Lee. The family chose action rather than losing hope and took to the community to post missing person's flyers all over town. When they were distributing flyers, they were

searching for Lee at the last place he was known to be, the Bank of the Maramack River. I went there every single day. Many times I went with a group of people, 10 people, 12 people, 5 people. And we looked everywhere. Miss Polino searched for her son every single day with family and volunteers from the community. Days became a week and a week slowly approached two weeks with no sign of Lee. Finally, they caught what they thought would be a break. We were able to get, you know, some was attention because a friend of my mother's actually requested a meeting with the mayor and the chief of police on like the 13th day of Lee of Lee, goodness. This is after we were already posting flyers everywhere around the city. When we went that day for the meeting, there was actually a poster in the door of the police station

of a missing dog, I believe, but the poster that we had left them, because we actually left them, one, was not even posted in the police station. Lease family seemed to be the only ones putting any effort in defining him. The police didn't have Le's missing flyer posted anywhere. Instead, they had a flyer for a missing dog. A missing dog. Despite this, Ms. Paulino remained undeterred. That's when they tell us that they just found out that the second kid that said that had seen Lee, he has issues

somewhat of mental disorders and he was lying and thought that he could help the case, so they decided to go back to Matthew. Matthew Borges, the last known person who have seen Lee alive, was once again their only lead. But what happened to the police believing Matthew's story? Apparently the runaway angle hinged on one kid's supposed sighting of Lee. And with that kid discredited, Matthew's story didn't line up. The day following her meeting with the chief of police and the mayor, the police seemed reinvigorated in their pursuit of Lee. To Miss Polino, it was too little and too late.

The 14th day, the detective goes to my house and tells me if I had something of Lee because they had dogs coming in. Now Ms. Paulino isn't just wanting to take things lying down as I'm sure you can tell. Just like when she tracked down the surveillance footage of Lee and Matthew, she did her own research on the reliability of search dogs. Right, there's a lot of research. At 14 days later, the dogs cannot trace his scent. They can take him to a place and see if they find that but it cannot trace it. With them, they would have been before 10 days,

they could have, but they didn't do it then. The last-ditch effort by the police wasn't exactly reassuring for Miss Paulino. To her, it meant that they were finally taking the disappearance seriously. Sure, but it also meant they weren't looking for Lee, but instead for his body. But the police wouldn't have a chance to find Lee's body. On December 1st, Omar Medina was walking his dog down the bank of the Mara Mac River, like he did on most days.

This particular day, however, his dog broke their usual routine, taking a left where he would normally take a right. The pooch caught a scent of something and ignored Omar's repeated calls. As he approached the bank of the river to retrieve his dog, he made the grisly discovery. As I approached, I got closer, so I really sniffing at a particular area.

So I pulled her back and when I looked, I kind of second-guess myself, you know, I thought I saw a dead body, but I wasn't too sure. Confused by what he was seeing Omar called for his girlfriend to take a look, she wasn't confused at all. She knew that what they found was a body, half submerged, in the river. Immediately, she called 911. Officers arrived quickly and confirmed what Omar and his girlfriend feared. It was a man's decapitated body bobbing on the edge of the Merrimack River.

And the bottom half was actually still submerged in the water and upon still inspecting, we couldn't locate any hands to the body as well. Back up arrived and spread out to search for clues, or at least the missing body parts. About 50 yards away from the location of the headless body, an officer noticed something odd in the water. Not far from the shore of the river was a plastic bag, holding something inside. He fished it out of the water, and just in case it was evidence he gently opened it with two sticks so as to not contaminate it. I opened it up just enough where I could notice an ear.

After finding the head nearby, they now had 95% of a human body. The authorities collectively held their breath, hoping that this body wasn't the missing teen. There was a rush to identify the remains and determine the actual cause of death, something had to give them a clue as to why this happened. When we opened the body bag, there was decapitated body with no hands. In addition to decapitation and amputation of the hands the body had been stabbed 76 times. The severity of the injuries would require an 11-hour autopsy to be performed. Even after that, with the multitude of injuries, it was hard for the medical examiner to determine

if the man was to capitated before or after death. Major blood vessels and structures of the NAC were severed to remove the head. There's just too much hemorrhage in that area to really know if the person wasn't alive or dead at the time. The sheer cruelty of the crime had the community in an uproar. The idea of a missing teen is one thing,

but when a headless and handless corpse shows up in the river, people start to pay attention. And for the local authorities, this wasn't the kind of attention they wanted. With rumors circulating that the community was not safe, they were hard pressed to solve this case fast. The local media flocked to the scene trying to get any details they could. Police are confirming to me that a headless body was found around three this afternoon. That body is of a male that grisly discovery triggering a full-scale surge in the area.

Police are also not confirming if the headless body that was found here is that of a young teenager who was reported missing. With the shock of the gruesome murder rippling through the neighborhood and the news, residents found the whole idea unimaginable. It's just sickening. It's just, uh, it's just scary to think that something like this could happen. So close to home, kind of in shock. It's a vicious, I mean, it's sickening.

I can't even imagine. I can't imagine how someone can be that sick. But to those family and friends who searched for the missing teen for the past two weeks, fears rose that it was him they found dismembered and dumped in the cold river. My fear is that, you know, it's him. But I also feel bad because this is somebody's son. In addition to Miss Paulino, Lee also had a stepfather. His mother's ex-husband, this man, Carlos Valoria. Have they told you anything? They haven't said anything.

What are you thinking? I'm just, I hope it for the best. They still working on it. I can't talk right now. What is your fear now at this point? I'm afraid I hope it's not him. Fear was mounting. Not just fear that the body was that of the missing teen,

but also that a person capable of brutally stabbing and meticulously dismembering another human being was loose amongst the residents of that neighborhood and the citizens of the city at large. The chief of police and the mayor hurriedly addressed the public in a press conference the day following the discovery of the body. We've discovered a body along the banks of the Mary Macriva. Based on the information that we have, I believe that there is no further threat to the city of Lawrence.

While the chief tried to quell the city's fears, the mayor addressed the crowd of onlookers and journalists to reassure their faith in the city's legal system. For me, it's with a heavy heart that I stand before you after a body was found in our city on the banks of the river, Marymac. The factors that driving this investigation for me need to be first to make sure there is a good positive identification of the body so we can have some closure on who the victim is.

And secondly, that the officers involved build a rock solid case to aid capture. That people involved, which is not an easy task, doesn't happen fast, and be, for the DA and his team, to build a case that can put those involved behind bars. This would bring closure to our community. I also think that it would be prudent for the district attorney to make a personal statement

about the progress of this case. The residents of the community are worried, and the rumors that in New End Do are causing greater concern for safety. You could help delay those fears. But those fears were running rampant and leading to worrisome theories about why this unidentified person was murdered. Is there any MS-13 gang activity in town that may be linked at this time of crime? I have no idea about that. I think that's a question for the DA's office.

Mary, you concerned about this escalation of violence in your city at the capitation is very, very rare. Yet it's happened right here. Yeah, that's why I'm here. You know, I live here at work here, and I'm concerned about this. People out there are identifying the mission of this and this inquiry.

If you're saying don't leave that? What I'm saying is that the district attorney is the only one that's going to come out with a decision or who the victim is. Fear gripped the city because of the very real possibility that MS-13 had something to do with it. The year before Lee's disappearance, another teen was stabbed to death in the park by several members of MS-13, and the brutality of this crime indicated a clear escalation of violence. Then the police returned to Miss Paulina with a disheartening request.

And then they called me and asked me for his dental records because they found the body. For a moment in the news and everybody talking, they said it was like an adult, it wasn't a kid, and I had a little tiny hope. She hoped the dental records would rule out Lee as the body, but in the end, it wouldn't. For Lee's family, their worst fear had come true. You're a mean in reaction to your worst fears. Yeah, I'm sorry. I can't talk to nobody right now.

I can dole this. Thank you. As Paulino refused to believe it. I wanted to see his body because I didn't believe it. Obviously, at first, they denied her request, but she was adamant about seeing the body. She needed to see it with her own eyes to realize it was true. But I still insisted, so they let me go to Boston and they showed me just a picture of

his head. In these types of situations, they usually don't let the loved ones see the body. They recommend holding on to the way you remember them rather than replace it with the horrible reality. But when Miss Paulino gazed upon her son's picture, her thoughts were of his birth. When Lee was born, the first thing I said was like, you are so ugly. birth. Miss Paulino was incapable of seeing her son in a bad light. The cruel reality didn't mar her image of Lee.

When she looked at his picture, she saw her child sleeping peacefully. As the new spread that the body was indeed Lee's, those friends in the community were left with only memories and heartbreak. Lee was such a humble young man and he's going to be greatly missed by many. It's very awful and just believe at this point. Then even with Lee's body, the police didn't seem to be any closer to understanding why this happened or even why he was targeted. They have informed the family that there's a

nongoing investigation that they do have some leads. No one can can put this puzzle. There's a lot of pieces missing. A lot of pieces. With the unanswered questions came suspicions. The community began to talk with what happened to Lee, what was simply talk quickly became speculation and rumor. The police now had to investigate every angle, even the most obscure theories. There were so many theories. You know, people were saying so many things and they said that my dad and I were drug obscure theories. One of the most bizarre theories that didn't make any sense at all because I knew my son. One of the most bizarre theories that emerged was that Lee's family knew more than they were letting on.

We were asked for ransom for him. He had been kidnapped and we were asked for ransom. You heard that right. While Lee's family was suffering the greatest loss they had ever known, the police suspected that Lee was kidnapped and being held for ransom in the two weeks prior to his body being discovered. And that the family just didn't say anything because, you know, kidnappers always say not to go to cops or else. At least, that's how it works in the movies and South American countries.

These Massachusetts cops, man. They said his father was the drug lord and owed money. Lee never met his biological father. Doesn't make sense, doesn't add up in every, in any way whatsoever. Related or not, Lee's biological father was murdered a few months after Lee's death. He was deported from the Dominican Republic and living in Puerto Rico when he was randomly

shot while driving and killed. The Lawrence Police investigated this theory seemingly determined to put forth the effort they lacked in the early part of the investigation, but it didn't lead anywhere. With the identification of Lee's body and the countless theories surrounding his death, most of which unjustly pointed back to his family, their dissatisfaction was beyond measure. Can you imagine how pissed you would be if you were Lee's mother. After his body was identified, the family held a vigil across the street from the police station. This is something that has affected all of us. How the family and community lord

who come to terms of this tragic death. He was such a nice caring kid. I would never expect him to ever end up like this. You know, it hurts me and it hurts people who go up with him. Because he's Hispanic, they may seem like he was a runaway. Lee would never do something like that. We all have many questions and we don't have any answers yet. It hurts. It hurts.

It hurts. It doesn't go our way. For a community that felt wronged, their heartbreak was immense. The deliberate choice to hold the vigil across from the police department wouldn't go unnoticed, but it didn't ease their pain. Days later, they would hold Lee's memorial service before he would be buried in the Dominican Republic. Everybody's grateful to have everybody in there, and trying to be positive, but it's horrible. Everybody's crying. There's no way to really describe it.

It's just, I don't know, sad. And as a parent, you should never have to go through bearing your own child because The way the cycle of life goes is that it was full-strived before your kids and not the other way around and he was just a really sweet kid The way the cycle of life goes isn't always fair This Paulino lost his son and Lee's grandmother lost a grandson

something that should never happen. I can describe him only a lovely kid. The husband has done nothing but to no one. The thefty told me maybe he's going to show up who he is. No, no, he's a lovely son. He's a lovely child. Grow up in a lovely family. No, and I said that's things they won. What Lee's family always knew that Lee would never run away, they could now prove. Lee hadn't run away. He had been murdered.

Now they just wanted to know who did it and why. On December 3rd, the District Attorney held a press conference to announce a development in the case. That morning, they served a search warrant at a home not far from the Paulina home and the river. Based upon evidence found at the scene, the arrest was made. The Lawrence PD served a search warrant at the home of Matthew Borges, and shortly after, arrested him.

On account of murder in the first degree, he will be charged as an adult. Fifteen-year-old Matthew Borges would be charged with first-degree murder and tried as an adult. This was a horrific, horrific murder, and while it shook the community, we were completely and totally committed and I resolved to bring this to justice. I want the Polino family to know as I've spoken to them already that we would secure justice for them. I told that to Lise Muldee yesterday and that has happened. Miss Polino and the rest of her family weren't convinced that justice was served.

They were under the impression that more could have been done sooner. The chief of police though defended the department. I understand the grieving process and I would content that we did everything that we could. What few were aware of is that the police never really stopped investigating Matthew, and had interviewed him a second time just a couple of days before Lee's body was found. That's why you saw our speedy arrest them, because we were looking at everything. In the second interview with Matthew, history changed a bit. Instead of Lee leaving him by the river, he now said he left lead there. A small detail, but obviously glaring and consistency.

We left the river to smoke after that. It was like 630. We were still smoking and I left around 645 to 7. Detectives noticed the change in the story and tried to poke holes in his account. I thought he said that he left them there around seven o'clock or so. And again, I said, you're going to leave a kid out here and just knock out. I can't imagine you're going to leave him there. And he goes, he wanted to stay there. Matthew cooperated with the detectives and answered all of their questions.

Did you expect him to go all that way? Okay, so, yeah, so what did you find out that when I was at work the next day? with the detectives and answered all of their questions. Detectives doubted his story, and in an attempt to trap him in a lie, they asked him what he thought happened to Lee. We don't know. So you see that with your opinion. I think he's probably heading out somewhere. Do you think like one of those friends plays?

Matthew was adamant that he didn't know where Lee was, but one detail made detectives especially suspicious. Matthew's hands were covered in scratches. Initially, he claimed that he got into a fight on the south side of town, but then immediately changed that claim. And he said that he didn't get the cuts in a fight, that he got the cuts when he was changing bike paths. Maybe he changed a story because he was trying to downplay his propensity for violence. Getting into a fight on the south side of town

certainly didn't make him look less suspicious. The detectives turned up the pressure. I've been in interviews for seven straight-out of the people and they lie for six and a half and 59 minutes are them. And then the last minute interview, they tell the truth. Okay.

Okay. You yourself said the other day, this story really doesn't sound too good. So you don't think he was killed? Nobody had any reason to kill him. Not that I know. To kill Lee. He certainly didn't kill Lee.

Did you? No, I didn't kill Lee. A few days after this interview, the police would be back with a search warrant and a rest Matthew. few days after this interview, the police would be back with a search warrant and a rest Matthew. But with this justice, this polino still had her doubts that police did enough and so did the community. There's nothing I can do to change anything.

To the mayor, to the chief of police, to every police officer, detective and our police department. If it was their kid, would they have wait two weeks to look for him? We knew him would have ran away, and from very early on, they have been custody now, we knew that had nothing in my son and that his story did not make sense. And the family's feelings of dissatisfaction were echoed through every press conference, the DA, the Chief of Police, or the Mayor held.

Well, the team's families says that they feel no justice right now, despite any arrest. I mean, what's your message to them? They say that more should have been done earlier. Well, in terms of what this office did, the Ex-Discreturnies Office, as soon as we were notified, we immediately sprung into action. We had state police from my office out at the scene until 4 o'clock this morning. And while no one can bring back Lee, and I understand the anguish they feel, I assure them that to the best of my ability, in terms of what I do is to security, I would secure justice for the failed one. Mayor, do you believe that everything that should have been done was done by the police

early on as every trying to find out? That's what they're telling me. I have no evidence to the contrary. But he was aware of the collective opinion of his voters, and they were all leaning toward the cops didn't do enough angle. So he was walking a very thin line between defending his government departments and distancing himself from them. Just in case they didn't actually do enough.

Don't you just love politics? Later, he would announce an independent investigation into how the police handled Lee's case. But still, there were many leering questions floating overhead. First and not least, how could Matthew have pulled off such a brutal crime? How can Matthew and the river not only be able to stab 74 times, cut his hands that were never found, cut his head and the river where there's houses right there, a few feet away. And it didn't, no, it doesn't make any sense. If you can suspend disbelief for just a moment

and just assume that Matthew, the 15 year old Moth Top Kid was capable of stabbing Lee that many times and cutting off his head and hands. How was he not seen by the nearby residents of the Marimack? Okay, so now stop suspending disbelief and think about what was done. A young man was stabbed to death and his head and hands were cut off. Why? Well, if you don't have dental records or fingerprints, it's harder to identify a body.

It seems like the kind of thing a gang would do. We don't know exactly if this is true, but we do know it would have been very hard to cut through all of that tissue and bone, and it would have taken a decent amount of time to complete if it's just one person doing it out in the open by the river. Yet Matthew was never seen and his home had no evidence that actually tied him directly to the murder.

I don't think one person can. I mean they try to say that he was a monster, that he was very strong and no. The mayor even thought the question was worth asking. The community remains concerned about public safety since this event. Any assurances they can provide that this individual acted alone would ease the concerns of our community. I call on the D.A. to ensure that the investigation into this matter does not end with this one arrest. There is information that the public has in hand that leaves doubts and only brings more concerns about public safety in our city. Specifically, did this person act alone? What I'm saying is that the public has information about what happened that brings the question

whether or not the person acted by themselves. But what really supported this idea was the sneaking suspicion that Lee's body was dumped in the river well after he went missing. How else do you explain it taking so long to find his body? He was not killed in that river because we went up and down that river. For those 14 days, every single day, I looked exactly where he was from. I looked everywhere in that day they found the body.

And he said, in a bag, 50 feet away, feet away and running river. His face was not decomposed, his not sold him, his not there. No, he was not killed in that river, he was brought there, and Matthew couldn't have done that by himself. We told you earlier that Miss Paulino did her research. Well, she also researched the rate

at which human bodies decompose, and that letter to believe that because Lee was so well preserved, he must have been alive for some time before being murdered and dumped, or his body would have been in much worse condition. If this were true, then Matthew would have had to carry Lee's dead body and dump it in the Maramaque. A feat, he likely couldn't have done alone. After us insisting that there must be other people, I believe they just arrested Matthew and that's it. Lee Manuel, the laureate of Paulino, went missing for more than two weeks before his decapitated body was found by a dog and his owner on the Marimack Riverbank. Rumors and speculation that escalating gang violence

was to blame spread through the psyche of the city until the arrest of Matthew Borges. Those questions were then replaced with the disbelief that such a young kid could have not only committed, but also physically carried out such a brutal crime. It's hard to cut off a head. You ever tried deboning a whole turkey? Despite the questions raised by the public that there had to be more people involved the police and the DA's office were confident they had their man. I mean, boy.

Matthew Borgis was charged with first-degree murder and was going to be tried as an adult due to the horrendous nature of the killing. These head had been cut up and his hands had been cut up. The defendant took everything away from him, took who he was and who he was going to be. Every piece of evidence in this trial points to one person, points to him. He's the person who killed repulsed. A amount of evidence that isn't subject to interpretation, it's evidence that points to one person and one person only him because he's the one who did

it. When you're prosecuting attorney in a murder trial, like this one, you come out swinging. The prosecution's opening statements hinged on a few things. First, the motive they surmised was reason enough for Matthew to kill Lee was jealousy, and high school level jealousy. At that, he just described every teenager or in fact every adult for that matter. We're all full of fear and trying to hide it from the world. It's hardly a motive for murder.

But if you think a 15-year-old can't commit a crime like this, take a look around at the world we're living in. It is what it is. It's straightforward. Maybe it is hard to believe a 15-year-old kid would kill someone. But that's the world we live in today. The evidence they say proved Matthew did it was a history of text messages, social media group chats, a voice memo, a journal entry, and testimony from classmates. To solidify that Matthew was a jealous person, they called to the stand his ex-girlfriend to share a story from more than a year prior

to Lee's death. She continued to tell the court that Matthew yelled at her in the middle of the cafeteria when he got jealous that she was even talking to Lee. And Lee, he was standing there too. Next, they called his current girl, friend. I guess. Not sure if they were dating or going steady or what, but they were texting each other all day every day in the couple of months prior to Lee's disappearance, and she had Matthew listed as baby in her contacts.

She had a series of texts that painted Matthew in a bad light. I like the sound of it. The idea of causing pain on someone who's getting in my way or causing me pain. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. The rest of the text read, it's all I think about every day, but I control myself. I see people I don't like and that comes to mind. I'm going insane. And it gets more wild from there. I'll hide in the back of my mind, like always,

do my eyes look dead? I'm thinking thoughts that make me shiver. And then he sent this 49 second voice memo. Eyes that are dead and scary makes you think about what the person had done, what they've seen. Eyes that don't shine that are full of darkness, it's just sad. It's like these people are just different. They've done things that make them lose their humanity.

Like they have no soul, and they just have big black pupils. Ooh, edgy. Followed by the more macabre messages. Look carefully into my eyes the next time you see me. That may as well be the last time you see them like that again. I know what I'm going to do and I can't do anything about it. People will notice a big difference in me once my eyes turn dead. Later Matthew would ask her to delete their conversation for a fresh start and told her to keep their conversations

between them. In a social media group chat titled Game Winners, Matthew posted another more specific message. And then there was the entry in a journal found in Matthew's bedside table drawer. If you're a stupid teenager, it's probably not a good idea to murder someone. Just say. And it reads, go chill with him, edit scribble alone, drink, smoke, and play it off. Kill them. Call J.M. and Scooby, tell them to pull up, then take everything. For example, bath, wear gloves, clean up masks, wear bags on shoes, wear clothes you don't care about.

If that journal wasn't damning enough, it turns out that the prosecution had witnesses that said Matthew confessed to them that he had indeed killed Lee. Who were these witnesses? Matthew confessed to them that he had indeed killed Lee. Who were these witnesses? They were the four unknown males seen burglarizing Lee's house the night he disappeared. How they knew Matthew was a whole other story that tarnished any image of an innocent teen that Matthew may have wanted to portray. The plan went a little something like this.

First Matthew would lure Lee away from his home under the guise that they were going to hang out and smoke. Then after the coast was clear the others would break in and steal these things. It was a classic divide and conquer strategy that went off without a hitch. But after when the teens were making their escape they turned down an alley to regroup when they got a call from Matthew. They put her on the speaker so the whole group could hear. The call started like this. My hands are bloody. He came at me the wrong way so I did what I had to do. he didn't. He told me he stabbed him a lot of times and he cut his head off so they

wouldn't know who it was. With the prosecution case all laid out, the defense tried to create doubt. As for the texts, if they are relying on that to prove that Matthew killed Lee, it's a joke. The texts never actually targeted Lee or anyone for that matter. They could have just been some weird shit a kid would text his girlfriend. It didn't really connect him to Lee, but rather showed he was a kid with some dark preoccupations. As for the testimony of his jealous outbursts at school year prior, and cross examination, the ex-girlfriend did say that the following day, Matthew apologized

to both her and Lee. Does that sound like a kid who would later kill because he was jealous? Then there was the journal entry the police found in his bedside table that seemed to describe what they thought happened to Lee. The defense argued that if he had killed Lee, he wouldn't have just left the plan laying around. I mean, he couldn't have possibly been that stupid, right? It shows that he does not have any consciousness of guilt about that. No, because it doesn't apply to what ever happened to Lee. He didn't do it. The defense also raised questions

of why he would write himself instructions. In the third person, no less, that doesn't mention Lee or the river. As for the testimony of his partners in burglary, they each confessed that they had originally lied to police during the investigation, which called into question if they could be trusted at all. There's some big secret that these kids are hiding.

The defense finished by calling attention to the fact that there was no actual physical evidence connecting Matthew to the crime. Just hearsay that didn't equate to proof. Especially when some of the witnesses were known as liars. There is no murder scene. There is no murder weapon. There is no tools in the prince, there is no blood, there is no DNA. And there is no motive. Matthew sat stoically during the trial, a stark contrast from the shaggy haired teen that was arraigned three years previously. Now, clean, cut, and shaven, he would become an adult inside the legal system.

With the case coming to a close, the defense explained the gravity of the decision to the jury. You have an important decision to make. And you know, you didn't get the truth. After nine days of trial, the jury took less than a day to deliberate. They returned to the courtroom and declared him guilty. Before his sentencing, Ms. Paulino took the stand to read her victim impact statement. were found in the years leading up to his conviction, we drove ourselves crazy, trying to make sense of what had been done. Alimano Velore Polino was a sincere, loving, responsible, charismatic, and altruistic young man. With the assassination of Limano, we were also assassinated.

There are no more dreams for the dreamer, the brother, the writer, and the poet that was Lee Monovie-Loye-Poldingoff, because the minds of this criminal man that on him is a target, and decided to take his life. We will never get ahead of it, that's giving dinner, because Lee Monovie was torn from our arms just a few days before that's giving up 2016. We understand that nothing will bring you going all back to us. However, we feel that this criminal, this Earth's meant this life and car say already. After Miss Polyno's statement, both sides were allowed to present reasons for the harshest or the most lenient sentence, respectively.

So the family, they will never be justice for what was done for me. I would suggest that the maximum penalty is the justice that the defendant should receive and that this tortured him down. Thank you. Accepting the fact that Matthew was going to prison, his defense attorney tried to present Matthew as a case for redemption.

He was, after all, just now 18 years old, being sentenced for a crime he committed when he was just 15. And the final thing I want to say is he has been convicted of a horrific offense. The worst thing that any of the lawyers have ever seen, but he's not in deemily deported. There is hope, but his to adapt to human can change his life. Maybe he can change his life. He'll certainly have enough time to think about what he'll do if he ever gets paroled. The court having really considered your offense, it is ordered by the court to be punished by confinement for a term of life with parole eligibility on the theory of its scream, atrocity, and cruelty

at 30 years. With Matthew sentenced to life in prison in May of 2019, Ms. Paulino had a year to dwell on her son's death and the trial of his murder before speaking with us. son's death and the trial of his murder before speaking with us. When we asked her if she thought Matthew really killed her son over some childhood fit of jealousy she replied, was a different plan and there was a lot more people involved. I know that well I don't believe that Lee was killed the day that he was missing. He was not killed in that river. He was brought there and Matthew couldn't have done that by himself. Not even to move a body. Even with doubts in her mind, she still agrees with one of the final statements of the prosecutor.

She does not feel any better after Matthew's sentence. No closure, of course, in the closure at all. Matthew was sentenced for life, right? But with his age, he could be up for parole 25 to 30 years. He'll be my age when he comes out. My son will not ever come back. He'll be out capable of, let's say, doing something similar or worse. In the aftermath of a city torn apart by the horrible crime, the chief of police resigned

just months before the trial began. He returned to the rank of Captain. The district attorney and the mayor still hold their open positions to this day. Murderers and gang violence still occur in Lawrence, but there hasn't been a death as horrible or impactful as Lee Manuel Valoria Paulino's. Miss Paulino knew her son well and knew in her heart that he wasn't the type of kid to run away.. Did anyone really know what was hiding in the dark corners of his mind or just how heinous they were?

It's just a reminder that there are some people in your life right now that you think you know, but we'll never really know. Hey, that's going to do it for this episode. Thank you so much for joining us. By the way, there's a new perk available. We're going to post it on social media. If you're already a plus member, hit the Perk's tab on your dashboard after logging in so you By the way, there's a new perk available. We're going to post it on social media. If you're already a plus member, hit the Perks tab on your dashboard after logging in so you can see exactly what it's all about. You get a whole bunch of stickers, custom stickers that we're not going to release anywhere

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