True Crime with Kimbyr - Part 2: Tragic Triple Homicide on Christmas Eve - A Family Torn Apart in One Night | Belvedere/Flint Murders

Episode Date: December 3, 2025

In Part 2 of True Crime with Kimbyr, Kimbyrleigha delves deeper into the shocking Belvedere–Flint Christmas Eve murders. New evidence, startling witness accounts, and the investigators’ evolving theories are explored, revealing layers of betrayal, motive, and unanswered questions. How did the case unfold after the initial tragedy, and what hidden connections could explain this horrifying act? With her signature mix of compassion and analytical insight, Kimbyrleigha guides viewers through the twists and turns of this tragic story, keeping the victims’ voices alive while unravelling the chilling mysteries that still linger in the aftermath. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The discovery of Johnny's body in the trunk of his own car was a devastating blow to the already grief-stricken Belvedere family, who had tragically lost both Sal and Alona. Despite their heartache, the family was still clinging to a glimmer of hope that Johnny was still alive and would be found safe. But now a third person that they loved was gone. Given the condition of Johnny's body, the detectives believed he was actually killed the same night as Sal and Alona. Detectives were looking at that concentration of blood in the passenger seat, and what they determined was that he was most likely shot in the driver's seat of his vehicle and then pushed to the passenger seat and driven away from the scene.

Now, the mystery of where Johnny had been for the last three weeks was solved, but it was clear that he was killed by someone else, which meant there was another unidentified person involved in this mystery. All they had to go on was the weapon which was used to shoot Johnny. It was identified as a 22-calibular, Ruger, the same type of gun used to shoot his fiance and his brother. When ballistics results came back comparing the bullets from all three victims, they were a match. Detectives now had a definite piece of evidence which tied all three of these murders together.

This also confirmed what everyone who knew the trio said from the beginning. There was no way Johnny was responsible for the deaths of his fiance and his brother. There was no love triangle, there was no betrayal, which left them with no explanation, to what led to these deaths. The investigators had to identify the person responsible. We all know that's much easier said than done. They only had a vague description of a man in a parking lot who had been seen driving away in Johnny's car.

Investigators pinned all of their hopes on Johnny's vehicle holding the key to this case. If only they could find something that pointed directly to the killer. So remember that random piece of tape that the forensic technician found on the license plate, Well, it was that same tape that was used to hold down the dispensers on the cans of air freshener, which meant that the tape was put there by the killer. Well, the piece from the license plate had a fingerprint on it, and they were able to recover it.

And the tape from the air fresheners had actual DNA stuck inside the glue on the back. So even though the print was clear and the DNA profile was complete, when they put it in a CODIS, there was no match. This person who committed this crime apparently did not have a criminal record, which meant that he was going to be harder to track down. This investigation had so many twists and turns, but they were back at square one.

So the investigators went back through the evidence and looked at it piece by piece, but this time with a new perspective because they no longer thought Johnny was responsible for Sal and Alona's deaths, which meant that he was not the person who had been reported to 911 for acting strangely at the mall parking

left at night. Now that unidentified person became the main person of interest in this case. Investigators went back over the witness reports from Christmas Eve. They revisited a conversation they had with Alona's co-workers following her murder. According to Alona's co-workers, after they locked the door at the shoe store and were walking away, a man approached Alona asking for directions to Buffalo Wild Wings. Alona kindly pointed this man in the right direction and then he started to walk away. However, to the surprise of Alona's co-workers, the man just abruptly stopped and then he turned back around, retracing his steps back towards Alona as she walked in the opposite direction. The women mentioned that the man was wearing a long-sleeve shirt,

and if you remember, that matches the description of the man that was seen in the parking lot. With this new information, officers go back over the CCTV footage from the mall. They retreated a few seconds of footage which shows Alona leaving the mall and walking towards a parking lot. When they keep the tape going, they captured a split-second shot of a man walking in the same direction a little bit behind Alona. The man matches the description of the person she gave directions to with those two witnesses there. It was now looking like the detectives might have landed on a suspect, so they spoke to the restaurants in the food area for CCTV footage from around that time. A few days later, they found images of a man,

going to the Buffalo Wild Wings Restaurant not too long after his interaction with Alona. The man was able to be identified thanks to a credit card receipt for a small purchase at the restaurant. Officers then spoke to this man about his movement sunnight, and he confirmed he did ask a woman for directions

and then he visited the Wings restaurant. Then he left them all and went home. After his alibi was checked, the man was eliminated from the investigation. So, of course, with this dead end, the investigators have to explore another possibility. And that was that maybe a member of the Belvedere family had something to do with the murders. They were part of an extremely large Italian family. So the investigators couldn't overlook that this could be

some kind of mafia-style hit. But after hundreds of man hours were spent going through every family member's phone records, emails, social media profiles, the investigators admitted there was no evidence to indicate that anyone in this family was involved. With every single, lead exhausted, and every person of interest eliminated, this investigation stalled. Days turned into weeks, and the family's hope began to wane. One dead end after another made it very unlikely they would ever find justice. The Belvedere family was struggling to cope with the loss of two of their children, while Alona's mother mourned the death of her firstborn child. The two families launched a website dedicated to finding the person responsible for these murders, and they even

offered their own reward, $10,000 for anyone with information. They even shared a post saying, quote, we want to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers during this difficult time. We stand united with the Flint family in the pursuit of justice. In the near future, own it all. Pay off your home, travel for life, drive a Ferrari. In celebration of the world premiere of the Monopoly Big Board Buckslot Machine by Aristocrat Gaming, Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is giving one person a $1.6 million dream package. the biggest prize in Yamava's history. Club Serrano members can earn daily instant prizes

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We will be updating our website with a detailed personal letter to thank everyone for everything they have done to help us in getting justice for our loved ones. We look forward to creating a non-profit charity in Johnny, Sal, and alone. as names, who will help families who lose their loved ones to violence. It's our goal not to let this tragedy define the legacy of our children.

Instead, we plan on giving them the legacy they deserve by helping other people." On the same website, Sal and Johnny's mom wrote poems about them, and this one really affected me. She said, quote, Dear Salvatore, it's strange to think that your heart still beats inside some stranger, whom I'll never meet. Does he know he carries a heart of gold? From my sweet boy, who will never grow old. So many lives saved by your own. Yes, it's true what they say. The life goes on. Love from your mother, end quote. I can't imagine being a mom and losing two of my children in one night. And she said this about Johnny, quote, paying tribute to one so dear with mere words is not easy, but we hope that these words will let him know what Johnny meant to all of us. I remember years ago, you were so little

then. Sometimes I can't help a wish that you were small again. You were my firstborn son with curly brown hair, full of love and laughter that made us tear. I'm filled with mixed emotions as I hold back all the tears and with much pride remember back so many years. When I first held you in my arms, if only I had known, the years would feel like moments after you had grown. You aren't a child, though in my eyes, I guess you'll always be. My baby boy, love mom and dad. She also mentioned on this website that Johnny and Sal were 18 months apart and they were found dead 18 days apart from one another and that they were inseparable. They were partners, brothers, and they were friends and that Johnny could never live in a world

without his brother and his fiancee, the love of his life. And now they never have to. It's extremely hard to think about daily. on a daily basis, what it feels like to lose hospital your family. Just when it seemed like this case might actually go cold. A seemingly unrelated series of events would emerge, which offered a glimmer of hope again. At 4.45 a.m. on January 18, 2014,

a man was stopped at the San Clemente Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 5 in California. And for those of you that are not familiar, these interior border patrol checkpoints are set up by the U.S. and border protection on highways within about 100 miles of the U.S.-Mexican border. And they're designated as a backup to the main border crossing, and the agents at the interior checkpoints will check immigration status and can catch anything illegal like contraband, like drugs or weapons.

Border Patrol agents usually ask drivers and passengers about their citizenship, and sometimes they will use canine units to sniff for drugs. If anyone seems suspicious, they will pull the vehicles aside for a closer inspection. closer inspection, just like at any major border crossing. And that night, a border agent sent something was very off about a man who was stopped at a checkpoint. He seemed distracted and who was asked about weapons. He declared that he had a rifle in the back of his car.

Now, we didn't have a license for this weapon, and his vehicle was then pulled aside for a more thorough inspection. And that agent found an AR-15 rifle in the backseat, and he also found about 100 rounds of ammunition. a 45 caliber handgun, a homemade silencer, and a pistol with a threaded barrel. Now the AR-15 and the pistol were considered assault weapons in California. So this man was taken in a custody on suspicion of gun violations, but due to the extent of the weapons that he was carrying, the border agents wondered if he might be connected to something

more serious. So the border agent then called his supervisor, and they were advised to seize all the weapons and find out anything they could about this man behind the wheel. The driver was Carlo Mercardo, a 29-year-old from San Diego. He had no criminal record and was the registered owner of two legal firearms. Now, Carlo's guns were taken away. They were confiscated, and after being processed at the checkpoint, he was released from custody. But what he didn't know is that a federal agent was actually assigned to follow him, find out more about him, because he he was going to be charged with various gun violations. These included possession of an assault weapon or the AR-15

and a threaded barrel handgun, five magazines for the AR-15, two of which were high capacity and a possession of a silencer. All of these are federal violations and can result in pretty serious charges. Now, it was actually three months later after they were investigating him on the 29th of April

that federal agents visited Carlos home to arrest him for these weapons. offenses. But when they went there, no one answered the door, and they didn't have a warrant to enter the home. The lead agent could hear people talking inside the home, though. So instead of leaving and coming back another day, he decided to get his team to park down the street from the house and watch to see if anyone came or went from the property. And their patience paid off. 10 minutes before they were going to head home for the night, they actually saw Carlo walk out the front door and get into his car that was parked in the driveway.

They decided to box in his car, and they arrested him without incident. He was charged with three weapons-related felonies and a misdemeanor. Carlo pleaded guilty for possessing a loose silencer and as part of the court proceedings who was required to submit a sample of his DNA. When the profile was then loaded into Codas,

it came up as being a match for the unidentified person who was wanted in connection with the three murders of Alona, Sal, and. Johnny in San Diego. I was like, wait a minute. What? How? Like, who is this person? Well, remember that DNA from the tape and the trunk with Johnny's body? Well, it was also a match for Carlo. And now when the investigators from this triple homicide contacted the agents who arrested Carlo on the weapons charges, they shared that they were searching for a 22-caliber

Ruger, which was used to carry out their murders. And the agents confirmed they had actually seized several guns as well as the silencer, and one of those weapons was in fact a 22-caliber Ruger. The guns were now being held at the police station in lockup. And now that their weapons case was over, they were able to transfer these weapons to the San Diego Ballistics Lab that same day. And sure enough, the lab confirmed that the 22-caliber Ruger taken from Carlo was the weapon that was used to murder Johnny, Alona, and Sal. But why? Who was this person?

On Friday, June the 20th, 2014, six months after the shootings, Carlo Mercardo was arrested on three counts of murder. And then search warrants for his phone, his computer, and his house turned up a mountain of evidence, indicating to the police that they had found the person responsible for the triple homicide. In fact, on the 24th of December, a few hours after the shooting happened,

Carlo actually Google searched, shooting Mission Valley Mall. This was before the story had even made the news. This man was clearly looking for information about this crime to see if they were on to him. They also found gun manuals and instructions for making a homemade silencer for a 22-caliber handgun. The presence of the same exact liquid electrical tape was used to create a homemade made silencer and had also been used on the Fabrizcans and Johnny's trunk. This added to the evidence against him. Investigators also discovered numerous violent video games.

Okay, that was their perspective, but in his possession. I don't actually feel that video games usually relate to someone actually being violent, but they seem to always come up even in the case that's happening right now with the United Healthcare murder that occurred in New York. I don't know, you tell me. But further examination of Carlos' cell phone did reveal more disturbing details connected to the case. It was discovered that he had given his phone the name

assassin, which raised suspicions about this person's interests and also their mindset. Additionally, investigators found a bookmark URL on Carlos' phone that led to a list of the top 50 assassin movies on IMDB. Another fact that may or not have been may not contribute, but there we have it. This list included various violent films, such as Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill Volume 1,

and No Country for Old Men and The Assassin. My thoughts are, are they related? In this case, maybe the violence came first. Let's just put it that way. And then he liked watching these movies. Because I like watching those movies as well. But then there was this. An entry on his Google Calendar for the 24th of December,

2013 and the event was simply labeled RIP as in rest in peace. Now that is chilling. Carlos phone also gave them GPS locations for where he was at the time of the shootings. Remember how Johnny's phone last transmitted at 1145 p.m.? Well at the same time, Carlos phone was at the same location as Gianni's. Mission Valley Mall. And when Alona dialed 911 at 1.11, at 1.11 a.m., Carlo's phone was in the same location. He also matched the description of the man the women had seen in the parking lot and driving away in Johnny's vehicle. Add to all that, that his DNA was on the tape found with Johnny's body, and he was in the possession of the handgun used in the shooting. This was more than enough proof that Carlo was the killer.

Investigators had plenty of evidence to prove the when, the who, and the how of this case. but they still didn't have the answer as to why. Now, obviously, we don't need a motive, but it's the question that everyone's going to ask. Why did he do this? As far as anyone could tell, Carlo had no connection to Sal, Johnny, or Alona. So what would cause him to murder all three of them on the same night?

He didn't have history of violence, and those who knew him described Carlo as quiet and introverted. But isn't that what they always say? Say? Gotta watch out for the quiet ones. You tell me. He actually been working at the same Target store for the past eight years and lived with his sister, brother-in-law, and their newborn baby in Mira Mesa about 25 minutes away from San Diego.

His mother and his other siblings lived in the Bay Area. And prior to being stopped at the border checkpoint, there was no history of Carlo having a particular obsession with weapons. He just had the two that were registered to him. But one of those was the murder weapon, which Carlo had just purchased in May of 2013, so just a few months before the murders. The only incidents of any note in Carlo's history were related to his motorcycle. This was his pride and joy. No one was allowed to touch his motorcycle, to ride his motorcycle, except him.

In 2012, Carlo actually crashed his bike into the back of a truck, which was stopped at an intersection. And even though it was Carlo's fault, he ended up sending the truck driver this very aggressive email listing out all the repair costs for his motorcycle and telling the truck driver that if he didn't pay him $2,000, he was going to take him to court. The truck driver verified with the police and his insurance company that he had zero liability in this incident, and he actually just ignored Carlo's demands. But later, Carlo went so far as to file a false insurance claim for the damage to his motorcycle, which was eventually rejected.

Outside of this incident, there were no other indications that Carlo had a history of aggression or violence or even any legal issues. So investigators hoped that by piecing together the sequence of events at night, the motive might reveal itself. They believe Carlo rode his motorcycle to the mall that night, possibly either to go shopping or maybe just to ride around for a draw Joyride. Geolocation data from his phone confirmed that purely by coincidence, or if you want to call it, fate, depending on how you see it, Johnny and Carlo arrived in that parking lot at nearly the same exact time. That's when their paths crossed. One theory is that Carlo's motorcycle broke down just as he was pulling into the parking lot and that it caused him to drop it on the ground and it slid against the pavement. So he was forced to park it at the Macy's parking lot, which the

then left him stranded without a way to get home. Another theory that investigators believe is that maybe Johnny accidentally cut Carlo off in the parking lot and that caused his bike to fall. Either way, Carlo was frustrated and he needed a ride home. This is just pride and joy. We know what's happened in the past with his motorcycle. He might have seen carjacking as an easier option than getting a toe or attempting to hotwire a car. Impossibly, he blamed Johnny for his bike going down. This definitely could have caused him to go into a rage. Either way, we know that the situation escalated quickly. Carlo stormed towards Johnny's car. He was yelling and cursing. That is what his cousin heard on the phone. And this is when Carlo pulled his loaded 22,

fitted with a homemade silencer out of his backpack and shot Johnny in the head, execution style while he was sitting in his car. And Carlo pushed him into the passenger side of the car and he hopped into Johnny's car and took off. Carlo then drove a short distance to an ATM, and he withdrew $500, so he did have money to get it towed. But officers believe that this was intended to use so that he could disappear because he had just killed someone. While Carlo was at the ATM, this is when Alona was walking outside

expecting for Johnny to show up and pick her up. When she didn't see him in his usual spot, that's when she called his brother Sal, and asked him to come instead. Meanwhile, Carlo decided that rather than take off immediately, he needed to, for some reason, drive back to the Marl Parking Lot. Maybe this was to figure out what he was going to do with his bike. Maybe he didn't just want to leave it there. As he pulled into the parking lot and now Johnny's car that he's driving,

alone and Sal were sitting in his dad's black Toyota trying to figure out where Johnny was. Meanwhile, Carlo was going back to where his carlo was. bike was parked in the Macy's lot, and when Sal and Alona saw Johnny's car pull up, they were probably thinking initially, oh, we found Johnny. But then they realized that it's being driven by a stranger. That's when Sal most likely tried to block the car in, which is why it's parked in not position. He rolled down his window, remember it was open? And there was some kind of confrontation. Alona then picked up the phone to call 911 to report the car is stolen, which is when Carlo got out of Gianni's car, came around to the driver's side, and shot Sal between the eyes, knowing that they'd

seen him and that they could identify him. Then he walked to the passenger side, and he shot Alona in the back of her shoulder, and then in the back of the head while she was on the phone with the dispatcher. Then he grabbed Sal's cell phone and his car keys and got back in Johnny's car and left. What's really chilling, and I could see this too. I look through the footage and I saw it, I can show it to you right here. When investigators looked back through the crime scene photos taken on the night of the murders, they could clearly see Carlo's motorcycle parked in the background only a hundred feet away from the crime scene. After he shot three innocent people, Carlo was forced to abandon his pride and joy in that parking lot in order to make his getaway.

The next day he returned to the mall with a rented U-Haul truck, and he collected his bike. While Sal was being declared dead, Carlo then staged a fake accident with his motorcycle. He orchestrated the whole thing on Christmas morning, December 25, 2013, at 9.04 a.m. He meticulously captured numerous photos of his motorcycle, positioned on the ground at a busy intersection near where he rented the U-Haul. the previous day. Carlo executed this elaborate scheme because he was trying to conceal crucial evidence.

His motorcycle. It held the potential to implicate him in the murders of Johnny, Sal, and Alona. So Carlo filed yet another false insurance claim, saying that he swerved to avoid hitting a small animal that was running across the street, and his motorcycle fell off a trailer behind the U-Haul he rented.

This time, the insurance actually paid out. and the bike was loaded in the rented U-hall to be carried away. Then Carlo parked Johnny's vehicle at the home he shared with his sister and brother-in-law, and he taped a false plate over the license plate on Johnny's vehicle and drove it to Riverside to abandon it. He poured baking soda in the trunk, and he unloaded several cans of Frize to conceal the smell of Johnny's decaying body. When he abandoned the vehicle, he removed the fake plate, but he left a piece of duct tape behind him. The taping of the plate and the cans of Febreze would ultimately lead investigators right to Carlo's front door. After dumping Gianni's car and his body, Carlo bought a cheap car, which he then used, he got it like from Craigslist, to drive home to San Diego.

And for the next few months, this man just went on. He carried on with life like nothing happened. He celebrated Christmas and the new year. He went to work. He spent time with his family. in time with his family, even though he just killed members of other families, and he drove around with the weapon he used to take these three lives in his car. It must have felt like he got away with it. But this confidence ultimately led to his downfall, and I'm happy about that. With all the evidence at hand, it looked like the motive for Sal Alona and Gianni's death was a simple road rage

incident and Carlo's fantasy of being some kind of high-powered and dangerous assassin. He named his phone assassin. The only thing his phone killed was his alibi. The day after Carlo was arrested, his lawyer said that he was not involved and that they would prove he was innocent. They said he was loved by his family, that he'd never been in any trouble before, and he's adamantly denying any involvement whatsoever. And they even said, you see, he's very quiet, he's unassuming, he's soft-spoken, he's clearly not someone who fits the mold you would suspect to be guilty of crimes like this.

And his lawyer fully believed that he would be acquitted once they had all the evidence so they could fight it in court. Three days later, Carlo pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and a special allegation for the use of the handgun. Each count carried a sentence of 25 years to life. At this point, Carlo would have been eligible for the death penalty if he was convicted of more than one murder. Just three months later, in September of 2014, Carlo's attorney announced they were going to take a different approach. He asked that all criminal proceedings be suspended because his client needed to undergo a mental capacity exam. Carlo had been weak after he was arrested, he was unresponsive, and this prompted authorities to place him in a safety cell for observation. but his condition worsened.

And after about an hour, he was sick and he had to be transferred to a medical center. And that is when they noticed that he had taken a big quantity of Tylenol, let's just say that, and it ultimately made him very ill. But he did get medical treatment in time and they found he was competent to stand trial.

However, two psychiatrists and one psychologist diagnosed him as schizophrenic, psychotic, and suffering from catatonic depression. Ultimately, the judge determined that he was not competent to stand trial, and he was put into a psychiatric institution for three years. That's right. And all the while that he was in this facility, his lawyer was asserting his innocence.

He said that he didn't see anything that would tie him to these homicides. And I'm thinking, really? So how did the tape get there? I don't understand that. Like, how are you going to defend that? Carlo's family made similar statements, and they were supporting him. They even said, on behalf of Carlo Mercado, we would like the community to know how very sorry we are for all the pain

that the Flint and Belvedere family have been suffering. We have only limited contact with Carlos since his arrest and have not been made aware of any evidence against him. We remain fully supportive of him and ask the public to respect our privacy during this difficult time. I know that it's not necessarily the family's fault, but sometimes when they ask for privacy, I'm like, really? You don't think there's going to be questions surrounding all this with everything that happened in this case?

Less than a year later, the Institute where Carlo was determined that he was now competent to stand trial. I was very happy about that. And he was transferred back to San Diego. Now, Carlo's lawyers argued that nothing had changed and that the criminal proceedings should actually be tried. However, a judge disagreed. In December 2015, he found Carlo fit to stand trial.

Two months later, the DA confirmed that they would be seeking the death penalty. The trial was set to begin April 2017, which would be more than three years since the murders. Carlo appeared in court in January of that year for pretrial proceedings, and he made a shocking announcement. Carlo admitted that he was responsible for shooting Johnny, Sal, and Alona. He pleaded guilty to all the charges against him, but he gave no explanation for his motive or what made him decide to kill them. Carlo was sentenced to three life sentences

with no chance of parole. He probably took that plea deal because he wanted death off the table. This monster refused to make eye contact with the families of the victims, even when they were reading their victim impact statements. Johnny and Salis Sister Antoinette read a letter from their mother, reminiscing about her two sons' musical talents.

Johnny played the piano while Salvador loved the guitar. They frequently performed at Sunday night family dinners, and now it's quiet. The laughter and loudness have been replaced by silence and sorrow. The unbearable pain is to stay. For all of these difficult and heartbreaking years, three years that feel like 30, may God continue to grant me the grace

and the courage and strength to somehow endure. In a very emotionally moving gesture, the family of the victims brought forth photos of Johnny, Sal, and Alona, their cherished faces forever captured and frozen in time. Each image served as a painful reminder of their lives that were cut short and the memories that were stolen.

And as the pictures were presented, the judge ordered Carlo to look at them. I was surprised at that, but the judge was like, no, you must. And Alona's mother spoke. about how her daughter's early years in the Soviet Union and her love for Johnny. She said that life held so much promise for her. And now she's gone.

After Carla pleaded guilty, the investigators released hundreds of pages of documents that I read. Yes, I did. I couldn't include everything in this video. But it was all related to how extensive this investigation was. But there are a couple things I did want to mention from these documents.

One were some emails for some emails from Carlo's email account. And these were all the way back from the beginning of December, but it just shows you his mindset. So one of his coworkers went back home for the holidays, and they were saying like, oh, now I know why I hate being back here. There had been four killings in two days.

And Carlo wrote back only four dead. That's not bad. I think people go crazy around the holidays. So it just might go to show you, you know, something was going on with him. And then the same coworker asked him if he could pick up a shift, couple days later and he said, no, I've only been here for two hours and I already want to,

you know, take his own life, basically. And then on December 22nd, just one day before the murders, Carlo was buying PVC adapters and electrical tape, all items consistent with the homemade silencer that he used to kill Johnny, Sal, and Alona. So clearly, this man had murder on his mind. He was already constructing this gun with a silencer. I also read through new and a bunch of false insurance claims he had been doing this for a while and he would talk about these incidents with friends one time he said you know a truck cut him off and he dumped his bike as a result another was that a car ran into him at a red light and to me this further indicated that something similar may have happened between carlo and johnny or maybe carlo was attempting to orchestrate

yet another fake accident now i do like to be thorough in all of my cases so i am going to mention this in in case somebody else does this case and they say, oh, Kimber didn't mention this. You must not have known about it. No. It's just that I want to respect the memory of the victims, but I will mention that they did a very thorough investigation. Like I said, and this had nothing to do with the murders.

I'm going to preface it with that. But there was information about Johnny having a history of buying substances. Initially, the investigators thought that maybe there was a connection with someone that he had bought some substances from before going to the mall that night. But again, it had nothing to do with Carlo or the killings. Another surprise from these documents was a blog that Alona had posted back when she was between 14 and 16 years old.

And on it, she said that her new stepfather was a serial killer. So, investigators spoke to her mom, and she confirmed that her daughter had wrote these entries when she was going through a very difficult time after Jeff had passed away, and she didn't want her mom to remarry. At one point, even Salon Gianni's dad was considered a suspect, and it was really strange, but one of the shell casings in the car landed on an apron that was in the back seat, and when they tested it, it had like a trace amount of his dad's DNA on it. But this was his dad's vehicle, so obviously when you put everything together, you would expect

to find his DNA on things that were in the Toyota. But, you know, they had to do a thorough investigation. Can you imagine him being questioned? It happens all the time. And I was actually impressed that when this case was looking like it was going cold, the detectives had requested 63,934 voice calls that had pinged from the nearest cell tower in Mission Valley. They do this all the time. They're trying to find out what phones are in the radius, like who was there? This is how I think they might have even found Brian Coburger knowing that he was in this location, but as a whole other story. And they use a timeline of a Lone's 911 call to narrow these calls down to 711. and they were all looked into.

But what was interesting is that Carlo's name never came up during this time. But maybe that's because they used voice calls. I think voice calls are easier for the pings. They weren't looking into any other kind of activity on a phone. And even when the evidence indicated Carlo was responsible, the investigators explored every single angle because they wanted to be sure.

They went through more than a year's worth of phone records from all three of the victims to confirm they never had been in contact with Carlo ever. If it wasn't for the fact that Carlo was trying to escape to Mexico and going through that checkpoint with illegal weapons, I'm not sure they would have been able to find him so easily. Unless at some point he committed a crime and his DNA went into the database. In so many cases, the right answer is usually the most obvious one. But this case proved to be an exception. The truth was both simpler and even more tragic than any theory the investigators had considered.

Alona, Sal, and Johnny died after a random encounter with a stranger in a mall parking lot. That's it. Before we end, I want to read you something from Gianni and Sal's mom, Grace. She wrote this on the website, dedicated to them at the time. It's no longer up. She wrote, I came across this quote from Rosamond Plincher from a book called September. Perhaps if Johnny could, he would tell us the following. to comfort us. Death is nothing at all. It does not count.

I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has happened. Everything remains exactly as it was. I am I and you are you. And the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged. Whatever we were to each other, that we are still. Call me by the old familiar name. Speak of me in this.

the easy way which you always used. Put no difference in your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together. Play. Smile. Think of me. Pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word it always was. Let it be spoken without effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was. There is absolute and unbroken continuity. Why should I be out of your mind because I am out of your sight? I am but waiting for you for an interval somewhere very near, just around the corner, all as well.

And I just want to thank all of you so very much for being here for this video. And I hope you have a wonderful holiday season, even though we have to talk about such sad things. Hold your family tightly. love them deeply, and I will see you in my next video. Bye.