True Crime All The Time - Alejandro Rojas

Episode Date: July 15, 2024

On Valentine's Day 2020, the body of 21-year-old Dioneth Lopez was found on a logging road in Washington State. Dioneth was beaten with a tequila bottle and attacked with a box cutter in a remote wooded area in what was an extremely vicious murder.Join Mike and Gibby as they talk about Alejandro Rojas and the murder of Dioneth Lopez. Lopez had been seeing Rojas, a married man, for about two years. Before she died, she flew to Washington to visit him, not knowing she would be murdered a day later. But it would take a lot of cunning on the part of the police to get Rojas to implicate himself.You can help support the show at patreon.com/truecrimeallthetimeVisit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact, merchandise, and donation informationAn Emash Digital productionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 392 of the True Crime All the Time podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson and with me as always is my partner in true crime. Mike Gibson. How are you? Hey, I'm doing good. How about you? I'm doing great. I do want to set the record straight about our episode last week.

I called it Edinburgh. And I immediately when I was editing it knew I had messed up, but it was not feasible to go back and re-recorded. but it's Edinburgh. And I knew it. I'd heard it a million times. And I tried to tell you. You didn't. You never said it one time.

I'm sure there, I know we have a voicemail of somebody pointing it out, but I also got a bunch of emails and stuff as well. It's just another and a long line of me messing up, city names. City names. Yeah. That's kind of our hallmark.

It is. Let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We had Mike DeCaro. Hey, Mike. Anna Swallow jumped down to our highest level. How you doing? Swallow. Stephanie.

Hey, what's up? up, Stephanie. Bobby. Good old Bobby. Mike Conforto. Hey, Comforto. Jack Sullivan. What's going on, Sullivan? Sounds like a, like a hand-to-hand boxer. Sounds like that movie that Tom Hanks was in. Sullivan. Sullivan. Sully? Yeah. Sully Sullenberger. Sullivan. Neil Laverty. Hey, Neil. Sue and Neil Olson. Hey, what's going on? Olson partners. You're going to say Olson twins, aren't you? I'm like, no. Katie O'Connor. our good friend couldn't figure out how to change her credit card information. Yeah. So she just re-signed up.

That's the way to do it. Yeah. I think she's-at-our-highest level. I think she's Irish. O'Connor. O'Connor. We finally got to meet her at Crimecom, which is awesome. Jenny Hollahan jumped out at our highest level.

Hey, Holohan Auto Parts. And last but not least, Andrea Weir. You didn't get that little? I did. Okay. I know it's not the real name, but yeah. Actually, the family and I just watched Tommy Boy the other night. Did you?

Yeah. Because one of my daughters hadn't seen it. Yeah. Well, hey, thanks, Andrea. And then if we go back into the vault, this week, we selected mole car keys. Oh, car keys. Pretty fun to say, actually.

Yeah. It sounds like car keys, but it's car keys. So you always like, did you get the, yeah, I get everything you say. I don't know if you always get it. Some of it is just not, like, laugh worthy. Yeah. And I think that really rubs you the wrong way. Some of it's pretty complex.

Oh, yeah, it's way over my head. And sometimes I want to make sure I got to step it back, walk you through it, make sure you got it. Have you ever heard that like the old comedian thing? Like if you have to explain the joke, then it obviously didn't land. I've never heard of it before. Or if you have to point it out. I don't believe that.

You don't believe in that. I don't think anyone's ever said that. We have an episode out, Gibbs right now on True Crime All the Time Unsolved, where we're talking about the Martin family disappearance. And this one goes back to 1958, December. You know, they're in the Portland area. Yeah. And they go missing.

Some are found. Some are not. And at least one member of the family is considered by some people to be a suspect. Well, there's definitely some thoughts that there could be some foul play. Yeah. And then there's also theories that maybe this was just a tragic accident. But we'll get into all of it. So make sure you check that out.

All right, buddy, are you ready to get into this episode of true crime all the time? I am. We're talking about Alex Rojas. 21-year-old Deoneth Lopez was found on a logging road in Washington State on Valentine's Day, 2020. She was viciously beaten with a tequila bottle, attacked with a box cutter, and left dead in a remote. wooded arid. And Alex Rojas would become the main suspect because the two were seeing each other, but he was married. Dioneth Lopez was described as friendly, happy, and outgoing. Her closest friends

were Armando Luna and Sarahey Gonzalez Torheads, who met Deioneth through work. They were extremely close and spent a lot of time together. Sarah He recalled that Deonith was a happy person who was always willing to help her friends. Dioneth was also a hard worker. One of her biggest motivations was her mom and brother. She didn't want them to worry about money. Sounds like very strong willed person. Yeah.

And also thoughtful of others. Deoneth lived in San Pablo, California. And her mother lived in Mexico. By early 2020, Deonith started a new job with Amazon. In February, she took some time. off to fly to Seattle. She told her family and friends she was going hiking in Washington State. She was a spontaneous person. So none of them were surprised or worried when she left. De Anath left home to visit Alejandro Rojas, who went by the nickname Alex. Alex Rojas was a married

father of two, who had been in a secret on again, off again relationship with Deoneth for about two years. That's a pretty long time for a secret relationship. Yeah, it really is. It also sounds like it would be a lot of work to keep something like that secret. Now, maybe a little easier because they live in different states. Yeah, maybe it helped out a little bit, but still, I mean, talking about constantly being on your toes with your, who you're talking to, where you going, what happened last night, you know, I mean. Clearing your messages. and I mean, I would think it would be a full-time job almost just to try to cover your tracks.

Yes. If you're married person, you know, in this type of relationship. Alex kept their relationship a secret, but Deioneth had mentioned him to her friend, Serahy. She said that they broke up and got back together often, but always stayed in touch. And we've talked about people doing that, I know, on a number of episodes. I do think there are some individuals who maybe impulsively break up, get back together, break up and, you know, becomes like a vicious cycle. I also think there are some people who just can't stay away from each other. Yeah, there's some reason they're just drawn like magnets, but in the good way.

Were you saying magnets are bad? No, instead of the magnets, you know, when they repel each other and they push away. Oh. Okay. You know what I mean. Yeah. Right. I got you. Yeah. I absolutely. Gotcha. But I think sometimes there are people who, you know, deep down, they know that the relationship's probably not going to work or it's not good for them. But they just can't stay away from the other person. Yeah, they have a hard time just coming to the realization that it should be over or needs to be over. On February 10th, 2020, Deonith flew to Washington.

state to visit Alex. He picked her up at the Seattle Tacoma Airport, which is close to his former home in Renton. Deonathan Alex then headed over 100 miles away to the Sequam, Washington area and slept overnight in his truck outside a gas station before they drove to a remote area of the Olympic National Forest. You ever slept in your truck? I have not.

No. I have never needed to. No. Have you ever slept in my truck? one you don't allow me in your truck ever since that time i uh drove in your spilled the like 800 gallon sprite it was the biggest sprite ever in my brand new vehicle it was like bigger than a big gulp that was what 15 years ago or something you're my boss at the time it was not good it was not good i was not a happy camper i don't think i'm going

to get erased uh here in a few months when it's time the fact that you made me take the straw out and still slurp it up off your uh Floormat was wrong, but I'll leave that there. But necessary. So let's, I mean, let's set the scene here. Obviously, there is an affair going on here. One of these individuals, Alex, is married. Dioneth is flying in so that they can spend some time together and they're going to a remote

area of this Olympic national forest. So my first thought is, you know, how do you get away? What story do you come up with that allows you to kind of just take off for days and days and days and your significant other not be suspicious? I guess it depends on what type of work he does, right? Because you can certainly say, well, I got to go to somewhere for training or for a meeting or for whatever. But now, let's keep in mind. This was like four years ago. Yeah.

So there were a lot of tracking softwares as, as there are today. It seems like it would be very tough to get away with some of these things. I think so. You know, I add the fact that your spouse could call you on the phone, you know, how are you handling that? You're like, hey, be quiet for a minute. I got to talk to the wife. And then there's a bear growling.

Yeah. In the conference room they're supposed to be in. I'm sure it added some challenges. Yeah, a layer of complexity to it. On February 14th, 2020, the Clallum County Sheriff's Office responded to a report from a passerby who found a woman's body in a remote section of the buckhorn wilderness area of the Olympic National Forest. The witness found the woman laying on the ground and noticed that she didn't respond when they called out to her. So they called the police. The woman later identified as Dionys Lopens was found on Forest Service Road 28,

which begins at the end of Palo Alto Road south of Sequim, Washington, and leads into the mountains. Now, I've said that city name two different ways already, and probably neither one of them is correct. Well, that's because you don't know how to say city names. That's your big revelation? It was pretty large. Okay. but this is a tragic scene, right? You have, as you do in many cases, you know, a person who's just out doing whatever, hiking, they're not doing anything wrong, and they stumble upon a dead body.

For me, it'd be very freaky, right? You know, to find this body laying there dead, you know, right by some more that you were thinking about hiking. Well, I'm sure it's not what this person imagined when they thought about how their day was going to go, right? Nobody thinks that that's going to happen to them. Deonith was found several yards near the end of a trail near a dirt parking area. And again, this was a remote area and a trail that was not heavily used. The first thing investigators did was look for an obvious cause of death. The woman's head was covered by the hoods of her sweatshirt and jacket. When the hoods were removed,

investigators saw significant injuries to the woman's body. She had lacerations to the head and jaw, deep incised wounds in her neck and throat, as well as 11 puncture wounds to the torso. There were defensive wounds on her fingers and wrists indicating she struggled against the attack. Sounds like a pretty rough scene they look at.

Well, it also sounds like it was a very vicious, brutal attack, right? Slashes to the neck and throat, 11 puncture wounds, lacerations to the head and jaw. I mean, you know, picturing this in your head, it only comes out one way. And that's that it was very brutal. Yeah. The fact that she put up a fight, though, I mean, she made an effort to try to get away from this individual. She had no ID or purse with her, the woman was wearing a jacket with fur trim and pink gas brand shoes. Her nails were painted pink and she had glitter in her hair. According to oxygen, homicide investigator Sergeant Eric Munger remembered thinking to himself, why is this gal that looks like she's ready to be

on a date out in the middle of nowhere? Good question. Well, yeah, I mean, let's talk about it. If you're planning on going hiking in the mountain. Most people would pick out a certain type of outfit, certain type of accessories to take with them. It's probably, for the most part, not going to include, you know, pink gas shoes and, you know, nice attire and glitter in your hair. I would think you wear hiking gear if you're going to go hiking. No, most people would, right? Boots. Maybe even have a backpack with you, layers, you know, just stuff like that. Unlike the movie Jerry. Have you seen that movie, Jerry?

No. With Casey Affleck and Matt Damon. I don't think I have. Oh, they're both named Jerry. And they go on a random hike. It doesn't go well. Is it good? Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. It's a little slow in the beginning. I'll check it out. Yeah. Munger added, in my 29 years as law enforcement, this was easily the most brutal attack. I've seen on another human. Okay, 29 years is a long time. This is a lot. It does say a lot,

but we also described it. It did sound very brutal. Detectives continued searching the area around the body, and they found a large piece of a broken glass tequila bomb. At the bottom of the trail, several yards from the body were broken glass shards with blood on them. Blood was also found in the vegetation near the broken glass. So potentially they have the murder weapon. Or at least one weapon that was used in this attack, for sure. A red knife was found near the woman's hand. A box cutter knife was found at the top of the trail near the parking area.

Dark strands of hair were found on the blade believed to have come from the woman. So now we have a number of different possible weapons, murder weapons. The woman's death was declared a homicide. by multiple blunt and sharp force injuries, which were believed to be caused by the tequila bottle, knife, and potentially other weapons. Investigators believe she was killed at or near the location

where she was found. And I'm assuming, you know, a lot of that had to do with the blood. I mean, we have covered cases where it's very obvious that a person was killed at another location and then their body, ultimately dumped where it's found. But that's not what we have here. We have blood on the vegetation

all around. Yeah. And then weapons found near the body as well, which makes you wonder, did the killer not have time to collect those, to dispose of them in a way that they wouldn't be found? Or were they rushed? Or was there another reason? Yeah. It would be a few days before Deonis identity was confirmed. At this time, she was classified as a Jane Doe. And investigators' first goal was identifying her. And we've talked about that in many episodes, right? Especially in unsolved episodes, identification of the victim is key. Because that's what kind of kickstarts the investigation, right? How do you know where to start if you don't know who this person is? You don't know their family. You don't know, you're not going to be able to find out who they were dating.

You know, it's hard to start to compile your suspect list. Oh, yeah. Or your person of interest list. The only two businesses in the area for miles were the longhouse market gas station and the nearby seven-seaters casino. The casino complex was in charge of the gas station security cameras. Investigators asked for footage from the past seven days. Detectives reviewed the security footage.

and they saw a woman who looked like the victim entering the gas station alone. She didn't appear to be in distress. She spent half an hour in the store and made a purchase with a cart. She did not speak to any customers. Well, you would think by using a credit card that that would potentially lead them to discovering who the victim is. Make it easier. Right.

But I did have a thought about the amount of time. Half an hour, to me, is a long time to be in a gas station. Well, that's a beaver one that you like. The beaver one, Buckees. You know that beaver gas station that you like? Yeah, you can spend a long time in Buckees for sure. But I've been in a lot of just regular gas stations. I can't remember ever probably being in one for half an hour.

That's a long time. Unless you ate some of that gas station sushi. Yes. Then you might be in there longer. And that's a no-no. Investigators then reviewed exterior cameras. and watched the woman leave the store and walk to the back of the parking lot where she entered a vehicle that was obscured by another vehicle parked in front of it.

She got into the passenger side, which indicated she was with someone. Detectives decided to rewind the footage, and they saw a truck pull into that parking spot. They weren't able to see a lot of detail, but they could tell that it was a two-wheel drive Chevy or GMC. Meanwhile, Deanna's family and friends were becoming extremely worried about her because they hadn't heard from her for four days. Well, that's a long time to go without contacting friends or family. It is, especially when you're close, right? With your family or you talk to your friends a lot, four days is a long time. And add in the fact, you know, when they're trying to get a hold of you and they can't.

Right. No return calls. Yes. It's not just you haven't called. them, they're trying to get a hold of you and they can't. So that, you know, ups the worry factor. Deanna's mother texted her friend Armando Luna and asked if she'd contacted him or if he knew anything about her whereabouts in Seattle. Armando knew she was supposed to be camping. So he thought she might have forgotten to bring a charger to the campsite and her phone done.

He called her and sent messages through multiple social media apps but received no response. And I could see where this would be a thought, right? If you are camping in a pretty remote area, okay, if you didn't bring some kind of portable charger along, yeah. Your cell phone could die and you wouldn't have really much in the way of communication. I thought like you're going to walk up to a tree and plug it in somehow, you know, though that would be very cool. That would be.

It was highly unusual for Deanna to go so long without speaking to anyone she knew. Armando posted a photo of her on Facebook and Twitter with the caption, Missing Person. If anyone has seen or knows where Deonith is, please let us know. Last known, she was in Seattle, Washington. Does live in California, travels back and forth. We have not had any communication since Monday. That's a good friend.

It is a good friend, but it's also, you know, what we have said highlighting social media. you can get the word out very, very quickly. I mean, he's using Facebook, Twitter. There's all kinds of different social media apps. You go back 30, 40 years ago,

we're talking about people making up flyers and, you know, stapling them to telephone polls or making calls to friends. But outside of that, maybe going, if you can get on the television,

that's great. But social media really, really adds an entirely different element. It really does. A lot of options when it comes to social media. Over 500 people shared the photo, but no one knew where she was. Armando decided to file a missing person's report on February 15, 2020. Since Deoneth was reported missing in a different state, Washington investigators did not yet make the connection between her and the Jane Doe. found in the woods. That's always a problem. We've heard this before. Well, let's face it,

right? As good as technology is, it doesn't mean that law enforcement in every area of the country knows everything about a missing person. It's not that good. No. They were still focusing on identifying the two in the truck. When they reviewed footage from the gas pumps, they confirmed it was a red Chevy Silverada. They were also able to see the driver exiting the truck to throw out some trash. It looked like he was throwing away the same type of bag.

The woman carried out of the gas station. So their next step was trying to identify the man. Unfortunately, the cameras did not clearly capture his face. And it was hard to make out the license plate number from the cameras by the gas pumps. But luckily, the exit camera captured a clear image of the life. license plate. The truck was registered to an older man from this Seattle area. So investigators went to

this man's workplace. He said he recently sold his truck. The new owner apparently had not registered their name yet. Man, you talk about hitting some roadblocks. Some big time roadblocks here. You know, they can't get a clear view of his face. They finally get this big break, which is a clear view of the license plate, it must have thought, okay, we're going to get to the bottom of this, only to find out that whoever's driving this truck hasn't registered it yet. So it's, it's not the guy they went to go see. Yeah. And if the person that you sold the truck to, you don't have those, if you don't have his information, if you pay cash, there's no way to track it down. Detectives were back to square one. So they returned to the security cameras, hoping to find a

clear image of the driver. They found footage from 5.45 p.m. on February 10th when the driver left the vehicle and entered the store. He made a purchase but used cash so they couldn't get any banking and information to identify him. But the exit cameras recorded the man's face. He appeared to be a Hispanic male between 25 and 35 years old. He was wearing a hoodie in jeans. And that's great, right? You've got a video of this guy, but a Hispanic male between the ages of 25 and 35. It's a big pool. It is. It doesn't narrow it down, you know, all that much. But it's helpful. Detectives received the copy of the card transactions from the gas station. They hope the woman's name would be listed in the records, but it wasn't. And I'm assuming they were really thinking

that was going to give them the name right off the bat. And I would think so too. And I would think so, too. right, unless it's one of those prepaid credit cards. Yeah, we don't have all the details, but I did think it was strange that there was no name. So it could have been something like that. Then detectives searched missing persons databases and discovered Armando's post and information about Deonis Lopez. They thought she looked like the victim. Detectives reached out to Armando Luna to see if he could identify the woman from the gas station footage.

he confirmed she was Dionys Lopez. Now think about this. If we didn't have social media, this would never have happened. No, they would not have been able to identify Deoneth as quickly as they did. There is no doubt about that if this was an older case prior to social media. But you also have to credit the detectives, right? And the work that they were doing, they're hitting roadblock after roadblood. and they start to branch out,

look at missing persons databases, and they discover this post made by Armando. That's just good police work. Yeah. Deanna's friend, Serahy, sent a Facebook profile to Armando and said the man might know something about Deanna. His name was Alejandro or Alex Rojas,

and he looked like the man from the gas station footage. When detectives looked through his social media, they found a photo of him, wearing a hoodie similar to the one worn by the truck driver at the gas station. So again, you know, here's more social media leading to the identity now of Alex Rojas. The other thing that jumped out of me is De Honest friends are playing a big role. If you think about it in this investigation, they are being very helpful to, detectives. But again, like you just said, another role that social media played. And here it is again, right? I mean, I'm sure social media is driving a lot of these friends helping out because they have the awareness around it. Well, a lot of us put much of our lives on social media,

if you really think about it. You know, we post pictures, timelines, all these different things, probably not too hard, but it was also very smart for, you know, one of her friends to start looking into Deanna's friends. Yeah. Maybe sees a picture of them together. You know, I don't know what clued her in. But once that name was provided to police, they were often running, right? Looking through this guy's social media. They learned that he had a wife and was a father of two young children. Detective spoke to Deanna's mother in Mexico. She confirmed that she had contact with Alex Rojas after they realized Deonath was missing. He told her he took Deonith to the forest and dropped her off to go on a hike with friends. So, you know, it does sound as though her mother and maybe more

individuals in the family knew about Alex. Maybe just didn't know the extent of their relationship. or probably didn't know that he was married with Kit. That could be as well. But now he has put himself, right? Alex has with Deonath saying that he took her to the forest and dropped her off to go on a hike with friends. But he also gave conflicting accounts of Deonis whereabouts. He told one of her friends that he had not seen her since she left for a trip to Mexico in November 2009. Okay, that's going to be a tough statement to get past because you're later saying that you dropped

her off in the forest. Well, obviously, you have seen her. Yeah. On February 17th, 2020, investigators confirmed that the truck was registered to Alejandro Aguilera Rojas from Renton, Washington. He acquired the truck before February 10th. but he didn't register the truck until February 15th. It was after he returned from his trip that he got new license plates.

Now, you could say that's a coincidence or not. Or not. You could say it was a heck of a coincidence or it was extremely calculated. I know I'm going to be seen on security cameras before a certain event takes place. So I don't want to get the truck registered before then. I'll do it after. The truck appeared to be dirty in the surveillance video. But when the detective conducted surveillance on February 17th, he noticed the truck was clean. I don't know if that's that strange. No, I mean, I'm sure there are a lot of people who, you know, after being in the mountains or the woods or

whatever with your truck, you come home, you want to get it washed. But you know who also wants to get their vehicle washed? Killer. Killers. We see it time and time again. It's dirty. They never wash their car. There's a murder.

And then all of a sudden, they're cleaning it with a toothbrush. Yeah. It's all detailed out. It's all detailed. I do think that's one of those things that can go either way. That could be an innocent coincidence. or it can be indicative of a calculating move. Dionis identity was confirmed on February 18th, 2020.

So they know exactly who she is. At a certain point, they know who Alex Rojas is. They know the two were together. Pretty hard not to think that he's a pretty serious person of interest. And I think the fact that they were, were surveilling him kind of gives that away. Yeah, I mean, they definitely were on to him. And why wouldn't you be, right?

Well, if you're one of the last people thought to have been with the person, you're going to be a person of interest. If you are a married man and father of two and you're the last, one of the last people to be seen with this woman, you're going to be a person of interest. Definitely some suspicions there. Yeah, they're going to want to know, you know, hey, what happened? what's going on. The next focus of the investigation was obtaining warrants for Alex and Deonis phone

records. Their phones appeared in the same places at the same times on February 10th and 11. Quincidence? I think not. You know you can't say the word coincidence, right? I just did. But you continually try to say it. I said it really fast, so maybe it didn't sound. You do that too. The faster I say it, maybe it'll just blend together. Yeah. Detective saw that Deonath was picked up at CTAC International. She and Alex went to the gas station and stayed for about seven hours before their phones traveled to the trail near the crime scene. So their phones just walked there?

No, I'm assuming that meant they traveled with their phone. Oh, okay. His phone was in the general vicinity of the Olympic National Forest between 834 and 844 a.m. On February 11th, 2020, both phones were switched off for over three hours and then returned to the Seattle area. That's suspicious. Shutting your phones down, both of them at the same, around the same time? Strange. Strange enough that I think detectives thought, you know what, it's time to talk to Alex Rojas.

They approached him on February 19 and told him they were looking into a missing person's investigation. they lied so that he would feel comfortable speaking to him. Alex agreed to come in for an interview and waived his Miranda rights. About the smartest thing to do. Well, I know it's something that you would never do. You've talked about it, you know, many, many times. But, you know, as we go through what these detectives did, I do think it's very interesting to see kind of how they intentionally tried to disarm him.

if I call you in Gibbs to an interrogation room, which I would love to do with a polygrapher, by the way. But if I said, hey, I want to talk to you about the murder of so-and-so, your guard is going to be up immediately. Well, first, I'm going to say I'm not into polygraphy. Second, I'm going to turn my forearm over and see my tattoo and my attorney's name and number on it. And call that right away. Yeah. But if I say, you know what, we're looking into a missing person's case and we're just talking to everybody who, you know, knows this person.

Can you help us out? It's a little more disarming. It is. Yeah. You feel kind of, oh, I'm here to help. Yes. You're not here because they're about ready to throw you in jail. They just want to talk to you, right?

You're going to help them out. But as long as we've been doing this, I know. from that and from previous experiences, maybe, maybe not, that the police are allowed to lie if it helps get some information from you. Oh, absolutely. But to me, it's not the lying so much as it is kind of the craftiness that they went about it, I guess is what really stood out to me. Definitely a skill set there.

Rojas was first asked to give a timeline of what he and DeAnath did on February 10th and 11th. Alex said she came on Monday. I picked her up at 830. So we were just driving around the roads and stuff. We came back to that Chevron next to the casino. He confirmed that he drove a Chevy Silverado and that he and Deonis spent the night in his truck. But he said they slept just down the street from the gas station. And I did think it was strange, right? Number one, she's in there for 30 minutes. I thought that was strange. And then their phones were there for like seven hours. Yeah. When asked about his relationship with De Anath, he said, I met her like two years ago.

I met her through a friend. And then we started talking. We kind of had a thing. We kind of had a thing. There's a lot of vague statements here. Well, this is also a married guy. Yeah. I think he's working hard to kind of walk the line. Well, he's walking it. It was said that he was. pretty calm and matter of fact when he spoke but i think to detectives it seemed as though he knew more than he was telling but i also think almost all detectives believe that yeah you know more than you're telling me i think that's kind of like in their top five things to say yeah except for you i can honestly say i don't think you know more than you're telling me we're not even sure why you're

here the detective told alex that He believed his relationship with Deonath had more significance. And I think he was downplaying it, right? I mean, what married man is going to willingly want to come out and say, she flew in so that we could be together. We were having an affair. If it comes out,

it comes out, but you're trying for it not to. Yeah, I don't think you want to just up and volunteer that unless it's needed to save your hide. Alex simply said, I mean, we just had a thing, you know? Again, we just had a thing. And you would say, if that was you, you'd be like, no, I don't know.

Explain you know to me. Yeah, because I don't know what a thing is. A thing could be, we like getting pizza together. It could be just all kinds of different stuff. Now, I think we know what he's trying to say. Of course. He said that Deonith knew he was married. And this did not cause any tension or jealousy in their relationship.

At first, Alex claimed that on the morning of February 11th, he took her to the woods and dropped her off at the hiking trips. She was supposed to be meeting some friends. But she didn't tell him how she knew these people or where they were from. She was wearing boots but didn't have any hiking gear with her. All right. So just thinking about this scenario, this is a good friend that came in. You picked her up, slept in the truck together, and you're going to drop her off and be like, oh, you mean some people you don't want to tell me anything about them, and you're going to go hiking,

but you don't have any gear with you. And I'm going to go ahead and just let you go. I'm not going to say, hey, let's go at least get a backpack, maybe put some water in it. Maybe, I don't know, you want to map, you know. Well, here's the other thing. She's not from this area. Yeah. So she just happens to have some friends.

in the area that she's meeting. It just doesn't seem to add up, right? Pretty sketchy. Alex said that he didn't see her friends, and Deonath never called him back, but she seemed pretty good when he left her. Pretty good. Pretty good, yeah.

Pretty, pretty, pretty good. Yeah. He then claimed that he went straight home after dropping her up. The detectives interviewing him confronted him about the lie and presented phone data proving he and Deonath both went to the forest and they even showed him a spot on a map where her body was found and this was the first time he was confronted with the knowledge that the police knew she was dead not just missing that's when you want to be there and see the look on his face well you can't see it online yeah there is an interrogation video we're going to play

some audio here in just a second. But, you know, again, this goes back to me and my kind of fascination with police interrogations. And especially this one, because of the way that they approached it, they didn't even come out and tell him that they knew she was dead, right? They prefaced everything by saying, you know, we need your help. She's missing. So, In his mind, I think he had to, I'm sure he was maybe a little nervous, but less so because to him, they hadn't even found her body yet. They don't know yet. So I can play this one off until this aha moment happens. One of the detectives tried a new interview strategy where he presented his theory of what happened to Deonath. The detective told Alex that he thought he and Deoneth got into a fight because she was trying to,

to pressure him to leave his wife. So let's play this bit of audio and then we'll break it down. I believe your story. And I actually believe you're a little bit of a victim, again, this whole thing. Okay? That may sound a little weird, but I want you to follow me here. I think you were put in a bad scenario. Okay?

By that right there, what I handed you, you're off the beaten path. and that dot is right where we found the body so we're going to put this together a little bit and I can tell you a little bit about what I think if that's okay again I don't want to scare you to death but I know you got off the pavement

it looks like you guys are probably fighting about something got off the pavement got up there and I think she was trying to pressure you to leave your wife that's what I'm thinking I'm thinking you guys are sitting up there and the argument goes pretty bad because you don't want to leave your wife. She's pregnant. You got kids.

She's up there and she's pressuring you to leave your wife and she gets upset. So what we did find, we find a bottle of tequila and pieces, right? So we got this bottle of tequila. We got pieces. It looks like things went bad, but I think you're the victim of this whole thing. I'll tell you why because we found a knife right off her hand

I think you went down that you guys were in an argument you went down to take a leak to clear your head and I think she followed you from your car with a knife out of your truck that you work in

and followed you down there and I can only surmise what happened then but I'm assuming and you can correct me if I'm wrong at some point but let me kind of finish my theory here because that's kind of why

you're not in handcuffs is I think she could followed you down there you had this bottle and she pulled a knife on you and threatened you and maybe she had too much tequila to drink at which point you had to defend yourself with that bottle got busted because she's got your knife and trying to get you to leave your wife and obviously this is a much longer interview but you know to me this is the one of the very fascinating parts of it because the detective is laying out a store and he even says.

says it. I think you were the victim. Well, what's he doing? He's giving Alex an out or what Alex would perceive is an out because he hasn't told this story. He hasn't said to this point that she came after me and I hit her with the tequila bomb. Right. He's just hoping that Alex bites on this and takes what he probably sees as this little sliver of life. He's just hoping that Alex bites on this. And takes what he probably sees as this little sliver of light that might save me. That's what happened. Yeah. That's exactly what happened is what he's open. Alex says. Well, and Alex does change his story completely. He said she started drinking. And you know, she did tell me a couple of times that she was going to kill my wife and my kid. I mean,

I was pretty scared because you never know what a woman can do, you know, especially like that. she would lose her mind out of nowhere. He continued his story saying, she just took out the knife and she just came at me right outside the truck. He explained that their altercation occurred in the woods. He said Deoneth tried to stab him, but was unsuccessful. He defended himself by pushing her away. At first, he said he didn't hit Deonith,

but he then admitted, just with the bottle, that's it. And he was referring to, you know, this glass tequila bottle that was found at the scene, which he said was in his passenger seat. He grabbed it and had it in his hand when she came at him. Okay, so now we have him actually in a confrontation with her. He just didn't drop her off, let her wait for her friends. He's finally admitted, yeah, I was there. And this is what happened. Well, and to me, the most important thing is they now have him kind of locked into a story. Sure. Yeah. And I truly believe that in large part, it was based off of what this detective said he thought happened. And, you know,

like you said, Alex just kind of jumped right on it. And this is where if you had an attorney with you, I thought I'm glad he didn't. But if you did, the attorney would have stopped the interview well before this even happened or at least would advise you, hey, you know what they're doing right now, right? Yeah. Yeah. Maybe ask for a little sidebar or whatever and said, hey, I can see it from a mile away. This is what they're trying to do. But again, that goes back to how they came at this guy.

Very smart. We're not asking you about the murder. They didn't even say the word murder. Oh. We need your help, Alex. We need your help to find this woman who's missing. Yeah, help us out, please. Alex was shown photos of Deonis' body and was asked what he thought about seeing her.

He said, I had to defend myself. So it was her or me. I got two kids. He was asked about some of her other injuries like those caused by the box cutter. Alex denied attacking Deoneth with a knife, found at the scene and said, I didn't do those. I don't know how those got there. He said that he thought Deonith was still breathing when he left her in the woods. Again, this is why it's important to kind of lock someone into a story.

Because nowhere in his story does the box cutter come in. Does the other knife come in? So how did she get all of these injuries? Some of them were caused by the tequila bottle. Sure. But not all of them. And at this point, it's going to be kind of hard to believe that you didn't cause those other injuries, right? Well, you're either going to have to amend your story, which never looks good.

Nope. Or as he did, say, I don't know, I just didn't do those. Wasn't me. Must have been a passer by her. But I also thought it was strange that he said, he thought she was still breathing when he laughed her in the woods. And I know why he would say that, but I don't know if that's a good thing to say. Well, let's say you were attacked by someone in the woods, someone that you claim to have cared for. Right. And they were hurt very badly, but you thought they were still breathing.

Now, you would want to extricate yourself from the scene because you, you believe your life's in danger. But once you get in your truck, there's no harm in making a phone call to emergency personnel. Right. And if you don't do that, then what is that set? Doesn't help your scenario. No, it really doesn't. Alex said that Deonath had two phones, one of which she used to communicate with him. He admitted her phones were in the duffel bag.

She brought with her, and he threw them both out on his way home. He put her duffel bag, which contained her clothes in his home garbage. The trash was collected on February 12. So here again, if you're truly involved in a self-defense scenario, why do you have to get rid of, you know all of this evidence anything anything why would you not make a call and say hey this is what happened i had to hit her on the head because she came after me with a knife but i think she's still breathing send somebody out there right to help her but i also want her charged because she tried to kill me the cell phone data confirmed that one of diana's phones traveled back to the area

of alex's residence after she was killed and that never looks good Just seems like he lied because he told the police he threw him out the window on his way home. But now they track one all the way back to his house. So it just makes him a liar. Well, it also doesn't seem very smart. Why would you take the phone with you back to your residence? Yeah. Why would you not have gotten rid of it?

Alex was arrested during his interview and charged with second degree murder. It seemed like the case had been solved. And the legal proceedings were going to move pretty quickly on March 6, 2020. Alex Rojas pleaded guilty in Clowlam County Superior Court to second-degree murder with a deadly weapon enhancement. However, that charge was dismissed on April 20, 2020, without prejudice, meaning it could be refiled at a later date. On April 24, 2020, federal prosecutors filed a complaint charging Alex with second-degree murder in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of, Washington at Tacoma. So just days later, but with a different court.

Well, now it's a federal case. He was charged in federal court because the murder occurred on federal land. So my thought is, you know, he was charged locally and then a month later, they dismissed it without prejudice because federal investigators came in and said, hey, we want to take this thing because the murder occurred on federal land. And it's a good thing they got involved, right? The federal government's definitely going to have more resources. A lot more resources.

Over a year later, in December 2021, Alex pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in federal court on May 16, 2022. He was sentenced to 200 months in federal prison or more than 16 years. You asked attorney Nick Brown told the press, this cruel and cold-hearted attack robbed a family of a young and vibrant daughter, sister and niece. And I do think we need to talk about second-degree murder. Obviously, he would have received a much stiffer sentence penalty if it had been first-degree murder.

Sure, yeah. But my thought is that they were probably going to have a tough time proving premeditation. Because my thought is, you know, a defense attorney would probably have a pretty easy time laying out this picture of, you know, two individuals drinking tequila, got into a heated argument, and Alex Rojas killed Deanna. Well, that's not planning it in advance, right? That's not premeditation. And maybe they thought, well, we get him to plead guilty. it's a sure thing. We don't have to take the

chance of a jury seeing it differently and him either getting off completely or them coming down to like manslaughter or some lesser charge. Yeah, I agree with you. I mean, this is a much better way to take it through, right?

Second degree. Then to try to argue first degree. Yeah, I do think that was probably calculated. There was a team, that sat around and thought there's no guarantee. Right. And we don't even know if we can prove first degree. But I think you got to give it to the detective that brought him in.

Pretty smart on how they handled it. No, I really thought it was. That was one of the fascinating parts of the case for me. Because, you know, I think if they had come at him in a much more threatening tone, talking about, hey, you know, we want to discuss this. murder with you, he probably would have clammed up pretty quickly, looked at his arm, saw his attorney's phone number. Yeah. As you say. And, and maybe even lawyered up. But my thought is, he was probably thinking, they don't know anything about me. Right. I'm not on their radar. They just want to talk to me

about her being missing. I'm in no immediate danger. And they kind of played him. And they kind of played him. They did. The other thing I was thinking was how lucky was it that her friend put her picture out, put the message out on Facebook as quick as he did. And then her other friend, you know, played a little detective to help move the case along as well. I mean, and found the picture of him. And yeah, I mean, you have to give them a lot of credit because they did some of the work that really helped out the investigation. You know, at the end of the the day, as we wrap this one up, Gibbs, really, only Alex Rojas knows exactly what happened in the Olympic National Forest on February 11, 2020.

Detectives believe that Deioneth traveled to Washington to talk to Alex about their relationship and tell him she wanted to spend more time together. They went to the woods because they thought they would have privacy. They most likely couldn't be seen in public together, because. because Alex was married. Once they got to the trail, they drank too much, they got into a physical altercation,

that ended with Deonath being beaten and stabbed to death. And that right there kind of negates the first degree part, I think. Sure. Even their own theory of it. Now, I could add some of my own thoughts, and maybe it was she threatened to out him. Sure, exposed the relationship.

Exposed the relationship. There could have been some other things involved, but we don't know. That would purely be speculation. You know, you add alcohol, you add tempers, and there's a lot that can go very wrong, very quickly. We know some things can go wrong with tequila. Remember what happened the last time I drank some tequila? Yeah, you wrote me into that. I mean, I really did not like.

having to be your alibi. I did not appreciate that at all. That's what friends are for. But I do think, you know, this is a little bit of a different case. Obviously, this Alex guy was a cheater. Sure, yeah. No doubt about that. But Deonith knew he was married.

Yeah, it seemed like, well, I was going to say, it seemed like she was okay with it, but maybe not okay with it as long as it continued. Well, and we don't know the dynamics, right? He could have been saying, my marriage is ending. He could have been stringing her along saying, you know, I'm leaving my wife. We're going to be together. Just give me more time. Right.

We don't know all of that stuff. But what we do know is that, you know, this was not, she's trying to hurt me and I hit her over the head with a tequila bottle. Yeah. I mean, just go back to the injuries that caused her death. They were vicious. There was a lot of them. This was a lot more than a split second decision while being drunk. And it certainly wasn't self-defense in any way.

No. And if she was breathing when he left her, which I don't believe she was based on all of the injuries we talked about, that would make it even more horrific. Meaning he could have saved her life potentially. He could have called somebody. Absolutely. He did the exact opposite, right? He tried to cover his tracks.

and and all that. What I still get amazed about is that in this day and age, and this was only four years ago when this happened, people don't understand cell phone tracking and, you know, all of that. Now, the cell phone was turned off for like a three hour period.

Yeah. But what about all the time before, the time after? Yeah. Turning it off while the murder takes place is not in and of itself, going to save you. Actually kind of makes it look like you turn it off for that purpose. Right.

Why would you turn your cell phone off for three hours? Especially if you've really never turned your cell phone off before. And then I think, you know, this was a guy who was probably just a little bit too confident. You know, going in talking to police, not thinking that he needed an attorney. Now, I think a lot of that had to do with the little game that they played on him, which was brilliant. It was. but I think he thought he was smart enough to talk his way out of this, which a lot of criminals do. And thankfully, oftentimes they are absolutely wrong.

And he was as well. Absolutely. But that's it for our episode on Alex Rojas. We've got some voicemails Gibbs. You want to check those out? Yeah, serum. Hi, guys. This is Rebecca from New York.

I'm going crazy here. I'm listening to episode of 391. of the Williams, Burke and Haynes, and holy cow, it's Edinburgh. Not Edinburgh, it's Edinburgh, and also, at the time, drum meant that mute. They couldn't speak, like Tommy's deafdom and blind kid. Anyway, I just had to set the record straight before I continue. Okay, thank you for all the great entertainment. Thanks, bye.

I know, I told them. You said nothing. I talked about it to being the episode, about the Edinburgh. I can't believe I miss that. Also, the dumb thing we probably should have got as well, because I have heard that saying, that nobody uses it anymore, but I've heard it, you know, throughout history. Yeah, plus the who song. What song is that?

That song by the who. Oh, do you mean that one? Yeah. Oh, okay. I didn't know you were talking about that one. Yeah, that one. Hey, guys. This is Becky from Utah.

I just finished listening to your two-part episode on Sodi Airy. and also the one on Susan Powell. And I just wanted to tell you, as a Mormon, it's really nice that you guys cover these cases and don't make any of the cheap jokes. Everybody always makes about Mormons. Yeah, you just cover it really respectfully, and I really appreciate it.

And, you know, most of us are just normal, cool people who don't believe in zombies. and aren't killing anyone. So, yeah, thanks for being awesome. I love both of your shows and keep your own time ticking. Oh, thanks for the kind words. We appreciate it. We do.

We do make a lot of cheap jokes, but they're normally at our own expense. There's nothing about my jokes being cheap, man. They're expensive. They're very expensive. The one thing that we don't do is make cheap jokes. about groups. Yeah. Stereotyping groups because I just think there's a real danger in that.

Yeah. And it's just not fair. Outside of carnival workers. Yes. And Fiesta owners. Owners. Yeah. But outside of that.

Exactly. We're good. We try not to. And I actually had one of my good friends growing up when I was young was Mormon. Oh yeah? His family moved from. Utah all the way to the little podunk town where I grew up. And he was a wonderful guy.

Just a great kid. Podunk. It was pretty poeunk, you have to admit. You know what poeunk really means. I don't either. Yeah. It probably means something bad now, as every word does all of a sudden. Was that too?

That was two. But I think on that note, we'll call it another episode of true crime all the time. So for Mike and keep me, stay safe and keep your own. own time ticking.