The Deck - Ralph Salazar & Alice Griego (Ace of Hearts, Utah)

Episode Date: September 25, 2024

Our card this week is Ralph Salazar and Alice Griego, the Ace of Hearts from Utah.Back in October of 2023, we were contacted by one of Alice Griego’s son, Frankie, about covering his mother’s case. He was a listener of The Deck and had previously heard us cover cases in Utah. Unknown to him, our reporting team had already flagged his mother’s case as one we needed to take a closer look at. Not just because it was unsolved, but because we felt it had never received the full coverage it deserved. And we are confident someone out there knows the truth. Maybe it’s time for that someone to come forward…If you have any information about the murders of Ralph Salazar and Alice Griego in December of 2012 in White City, Utah, please contact Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Detective Ben Pender at [phone] or email him at [e-mail]. View source material and photos for this episode at: thedeckpodcast.com/ralph-salazar-alice-griego Let us deal you in… follow The Deck on social media.Instagram: @thedeckpodcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @thedeckpodcast_ | @audiochuckFacebook: /TheDeckPodcast | /audiochuckllcTo support Season of Justice and learn more, please visit seasonofjustice.org.The Deck is hosted by Ashley Flowers. Instagram: @ashleyflowersTikTok: @ashleyflowerscrimejunkieTwitter: @Ash_FlowersFacebook: /AshleyFlowers.AFText Ashley at 317-733-7485 to talk all things true crime, get behind the scenes updates, and more!

Our card this week is Ralph Salazar and Alice Griego, the Ace of Hearts from Utah. Back in October of 2023, we were contacted by Alice Griego's son, Frankie. He wanted us to cover his mother's case. He was a listener of the deck and had previously heard us cover cases in Utah. And unbeknownst to him, our reporting team had already flagged his mother's case as one we needed to take a closer look at. Not just because it was unsolved, but because we felt

it had never received the full coverage it deserved. And I'm confident someone out there knows the truth about what happened to Alice and Ralph. And maybe it's time for that someone to come forward. I'm Ashley Flowers, and this is The Deck. It was a cold morning on Friday, December 14, 2012 in Salt Lake City, Utah, when Frankie Cisneros got a panicked call from his older sister, Jenna. My sister had called me and said, you know, mom didn't show up to work. And my mom never missed a day.

Like, she was always at work. She didn't miss, never called out. 55-year-old Alice Criego had worked at Smith's Bakery for over 17 years. And every day of those 17 years, she promptly started her shift on time, which at this point started at 3 a.m. So it being close to 8 a.m. when Frankie got this call was every reason to be concerned. Right away, he jumped in his car and raced over to the home Alice shared with her boyfriend, Ralph Salazar.

When I was, you know, mind kind of racing, like, what's going on, I was a little scared, reluctant. So I went up there and as I got up there, I could smell, and it was in the winter time, so I can smell smoke as I got out of the car. And first thing that comes to my mind is, you know, chimney, you know, people are lighting their fireplaces or whatnot. So I tried to go on the side of his door. He has like two windows, two small windows on the side.

So I tried to look in and it was pitch dark, obviously. So I opened the door and right when I opened the door, smoke came out and I tried to enter, but there was too much smoke. And you can see that the fire had been going for a while already because the fire was out at that time, but the smoke had risen. And of course I was calling my mom's name

and I walked in about three or four feet and I couldn't make it because I couldn't breathe. Frankie tried going around the back of the house where he knew there was a sliding glass door to their bedroom. When he realized that was locked, Frankie grabbed a chair and desperately tried breaking the glass. But he couldn't. By the time he returned to the front, some of the smoke had cleared.

I tried to walk in again, but it was early in the morning, so I had on like kind of shower shoes. And it was hot in there, so I tried to walk in and I couldn't. And as I was coming out I saw somebody, I think he was a kid honestly, maybe like 16, 17, and I had asked him to give me his shoes so I can go in. I said I think my mom's in there and he was kind of like reluctant like what you want my shoes? I was like I think my mom's in there and you know I don't know what's wrong and so he said he would come in with me, and we were able to walk in and walk into the room. And as I got into the room, I just saw my mom. My mom was there, and I saw, like, her arm. The only thing I could make out of her was, like, her arm and her wrist.

And I kind of knew it was her because I know my mom's skin tone. I know what her skin looks like. And at that time, I couldn't see Ralph because he was on the further side of the bed, and it was still smoky. It was really hard to breathe. I started crying and the kid was like, let's go, let's get out of here. We got out and I called the cops. That call came to the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Department at 8 26 a.m. Detective Ben Pender was called to the scene in 2012 and he still works this case now in his role with the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office cold case unit. From the jump, it appeared to him and other investigators that this was foul play.

The buyer marshals themselves would eventually rule this as a case of arson, but there were signs even the lesser-trained eye could pick up on. Like the fact that the fire had been pretty contained to the bedroom where the two victims were, and the fact that someone likely used an accelerant because according to Fox 13, neighbors smelled gasoline. Though it's important to note Detective Pender wouldn't confirm if that was accurate today, but the potential of gasoline might not matter so much for our purposes, because the thing he would confirm was that pretty early on, they realized both victims had been shot, likely before the flames were set,

and while they were still asleep in their beds. Here's Detective Pender. We realized that maybe the fire was to try to cover up any evidence potentially left at the time. This was probably one of the most difficult crime scenes to process after the fire department had put the fire out and after we had security search warrant to make entry into the residence, the fire department, in order to put the fire out in the bedroom,

had to pull the sheetrock from the ceiling and the walls. And unfortunately, with that, insulation all came out and it was the kind of insulation that was like blown in so that was all over everything. We probably had about a foot of insulation throughout the entire bedroom covering everything. From underneath that insulation deputies and techs collected some potential evidence like the bedding and some personal items in the room including the victims cell phones but much of what they collected sustained substantial damage due to the fire, and then putting out that fire.

Detective Pender was guarded about what other items specifically were collected, but he did tell us about one substantial finding from the scene. We don't believe that there were items taken. We don't believe it was like a home invasion. We believe it had something to do with those two. But who had targeted Ralph and Alice, and why was still a mystery? Ralph and Alice's bodies were transferred

to the medical examiner's office, and by all appearances, it looked like both of them were deceased before the fire started. But exactly when that was, was still hard to pin down. A neighborhood canvas wasn't super helpful. One neighbor thought they heard what sounded like a gunshot around 11 p.m. on the 13th. But if that's when the couple was killed, the fire most likely would have been started much later since it wasn't discovered till after 8 a.m. the next morning.

And if the ME found anything that could narrow down that window any further, Pender wouldn't tell us. But what little was collected from the scene and the bodies was sent off for testing. And in the meantime, they started to turn their attention to understanding who Ralph and Alice were before they died. Alice was a single mom of five children

who were all adults by the time she passed away. According to her kids, she always put them first, no matter what, including getting herself and them out of some challenging situations. Here's Alice's daughter, Jenna. We're actually from Colorado. She left my dad because he was abusive, and we moved probably in 89 or 90 here to Salt Lake with my grandma. And we just kind of started our life here.

That new life included another relationship that became abusive. And it wasn't until Alice met Ralph later in life that things looked like they were going her way. 59-year-old Ralph was a self-made man who owned his own aluminum siding and insulation business and he shared his success with Alice. They went to Paris for her birthday and they had just barely returned the end of September. They were out there for a month and that was her first and only traveling experience she had versus coming from Colorado to Utah. So it made me happy because she got to experience her life in the way she wanted to experience

it with him. And he showed her things that my dad, my stepdad never kind of gave her because they were both abusive. It just made me happy that he made my mom happy. He really did." Jenna spoke with her mom regularly, and she said the last conversation they had was the night before, on December 13th. It was about 9.30pm when they were on the phone.

Alice was home, but she said Ralph was at a bar with some buddies. Police confirmed with Ralph's friends that he was indeed with them that evening, and he must have had a few more than he planned because his friends say that he had Alice come pick him up at around 10 or 10.30 p.m. And Alice's son Richie could confirm at least that part of the story because he'd gotten a text from his mom asking if he could pick up Ralph's car from the bar. I didn't leave in time, though. I didn't pay attention to the text message.

When I finally decided to look at my phone, I was like, oh, I told Anna, I was like, babe, let's go get this car before they tow it from the parking lot of the bar. So when we went, I'd missed her and the keys were just sitting on the tire. And that was the last text message I'd sent to my mom. Detective Pender told our reporters that the drive home from the bar to Ralph's house would have taken about 25 to 30 minutes, putting them home anywhere between 10 30 and 11 p.m. The theory Alice's children have is that Ralph and Alice arrived home and then likely went to bed right away. Knowing Ralph was drunk and Alice had to be up in a few hours for work,

it would make sense to me that they fell asleep pretty quickly. And then that's when their killer, or killers, struck. Now whether the perpetrator or perpetrators was already in the house or not is unknown. Alice's children feel like this seemed planned or professional. That's how Brinke put it. They also said that Ralph often carried a gun and had a gun in the house. He also said that Ralph often carried a gun and had a gun in the house. No matter how or what happened, a clear suspect and motive eluded police. According to Detective Pender, Alice didn't have any criminal history, and Ralph didn't have anything too serious.

The MO of this crime didn't fit the two victims at the center of it. So who out there wanted to harm them? Like so many investigations, this one started by looking at those closest to the victims. And when police learned that Ralph was still married when he was dating Alice, that raised more than a few eyebrows. But it's not nearly as salacious as it might seem. He and his wife had been separated for around 10 years by that point. And Pender said they apparently had a decent arrangement the whole time. It looked like Ralph had continued

to take care of her and their daughter financially throughout the separation. So at least in Pender's mind, there doesn't seem to be a lot of motive there. He said detectives interviewed the wife and ruled her out as a suspect. But Alice's children aren't entirely convinced by the same rationale. Here's Alice's son, Jermaine. He's getting ready to divorce his wife because he doesn't want to take care of her anymore. She's living this high life and all of a sudden it's going to get taken from her because he's going to divorce her and he's not going to pay her no more.

Kid's already grown. Kid's my age, his daughter, so he's not paying child support, not paying nothing. He's going to cut her off." According to Alice's children, their mother had also found what sounds like an anonymous threatening letter at Ralph's house that their mother assumed was written by Ralph's wife. Alice's children also claimed that Ralph had a significant life insurance policy, although Detective Pender could not confirm anything regarding that. Ralph also appeared to own several properties, at least one of which Alice's children lived in. And after Ralph died, they claimed the wife quickly made a move.

Here's Jermaine again. Immediately, she was there with the lawyers, scooped up everything, kicked us right out. Not even a warning. Took everything, put it together, and sold it." But how much the wife controlled Ralph's assets and benefited from his death remains unclear. Ralph had a will, according to Alice's children. Ralph's daughter and son from another relationship appeared to have been the beneficiaries. But Alice's children believe Ralph's wife got it all at the end of the day, as they were technically still married when Ralph died. But her children's speculations aside, Ralph's wife has never been charged in this case.

As far as police were concerned, there's no proof she's connected to this crime. She's not the only one Alice's children are suspicious of, or at least believe war't a closer look. The other person they point to is a business partner who they say Ralph had been arguing with over money just a month or so before he died. The argument that Ralph and his partner got into apparently had some witnesses. One of them was Alice's son, Frankie. There was one time when we were working and Ralph and the business partner were arguing to where they almost got in a fight where me and my brothers were kind of going up there like what's going on, like, you know, kind of get Ralph's back or whatnot. And later on I kind of heard or found out what it was actually about.

Some of Alice's sons worked for Ralph. So they knew a little bit about his business. And they heard that the business partner had allegedly been skimming money off the top, basically stealing from the business and pocketing it. But Detective Pender points out previous investigators had combed through the company's finances. Just hours and hours and hours have been spent

just dealing with the financials, trying to figure out if there was anything there. And up to right now, we don't believe so. We just have nothing to indicate that it had to do with the business at this point. While Pender wouldn't get into specifics about what the financials showed, he did say that they interviewed this business partner multiple times and that they felt he was able to account for his whereabouts around the time of the murder.

And like Ralph's wife, this partner has never been charged in connection to this case. So that left police exactly where they started, without a suspect. If the answer to this mystery didn't lie in the time leading up to their deaths, maybe they needed to look even further back. Police discovered that Ralph's house had been robbed way back in 2009. A robbery that Alice's children claimed was committed by a former employee of Ralph's who lived with him. Here's Pender again.

I do remember that being looked into at the time, and they didn't believe at the time that that part of it was connected to what had happened here. It wasn't just this robbery that police didn't feel was connected. They were confident that Ralph and Alice's murder wasn't connected to other crimes in the area either. According to Detective Pender, this crime felt personal, yet strangely they weren't finding evidence that anyone directly connected to the couple committed it. So if they were gonna get a break in this case, maybe some of that stuff that they sent off for testing could help them out.

Now they'd already gotten the cell phone data back, but that hadn't led anywhere. We were able to track everything and everybody down that they were in communication with and verify information. So none of the phone information provided us a lead as far as a potential suspect goes. Same went for whatever else they collected. Nothing was coming from it. Well, nothing that solved

the case. But there was a glimmer of hope. Pender says they do have a DNA sample. Now, from where, how good, when was it found, who's been compared, I wish I could tell you. But this is their golden ticket that they think will solve the case, and they don't want to give anything away too soon. I would say on the record that DNA was collected in this case, and it has been processed to what degree it can be processed, and we're still investigating

and working on what we have with that. About a year and a half after the murders, tragedy struck Alice's children once more when their youngest brother Mario took his own life. I knew when he passed away because my soul just left my body. What many people forget in all this is the devastation that follows for a victim's family.

They're left to pick up the pieces that can really never be put back together, no matter how hard they try. He was crying one day and it just literally broke my heart because I walked in his room and he was so sad. I asked him what was wrong. And he's all like, I miss mom. And I just grabbed him and I hugged him and I told him I'm sorry. I go, I'm not mom, but I'll promise to do everything

that mom try to do for you, you know? All family had to hold on to was that one day their mother's murder would be solved, hoping somehow that would finally bring them peace. But time was not their friend. As the years continued to tick by, nothing happened. And as much time as they've spent on it over the years, as many hours as they've worked, Pender admits that this case is pretty much at a standstill.

It has been quite a while since we've received a tip in this particular case. But again, that doesn't stop us from what we're doing. You know, if somebody has information, we're gonna follow up on it and either include it or exclude it. But as of late, no, we have not had any current tips coming in. — When our reporters asked Alice's daughter, Jenna, if she had a message for those involved in this crime, she said this.

— I think about that every day. And it keeps changing every day. But my main, why? Why my mom? You know? I always think of sitting in court and having that person there and having this letter that I can read to them, but it changes because it goes from hate, then it goes to sadness, then it goes to like me thinking about why did he do this?

What was going on in his life that he had to do this? You know what I mean? I really can't answer that because it changes every day. Every day it changes for me. And that's one thing I think about every day. I do want to say that Pender, he's amazing, and I do thank him from the bottom of my heart for continuing to do what he does

for me and my family and my mom and Ralph. Detective Pender is determined to solve this case for Ralph and Alice's families. Still, he knows he'll need some help, either through future testing of evidence or from someone listening to this right now. I always encourage people who have any information to obviously come forward. If anybody's listening to this, I believe in these types of cases and what I mean by these types of

cases, cases that have been unsolved for a number of years. I think relationships change. I think family structures change. There's a lot of things that change as we get older. Maybe it was something that somebody had done when they were younger that they now, you know, hopefully regret and maybe want to speak up or have heard something about this. So those are really the people that I'm looking for is somebody that may have some information on this case. If you have any information about the murders of Ralph Salazar and Alice Griego in December of 2012 in White City, Utah,

please contact Salt Lake County Sheriff's Detective Ben Pender. His number is 385-468-9816. We'll also put his email in the show notes. 9816. We'll also put his email in the show notes. The Deck is an AudioChuck production with theme music by Ryan Lewis. To learn more about The Deck and our advocacy work, visit thedeckpodcast.com. So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?