Unseen - From Mother to Manhunter | The Case of Krystal Mitchell | UNSEEN

Episode Date: December 13, 2024

“I just know something is wrong with her” On June 10th, 2016 Josephine Wentzel receives the worst call of her life: her 30-year-old daughter is dead, and her boyfriend Raymond McLeod is MIA. This date marks the beginning of a 6-year-long international manhunt, but after months of fruitless efforts by police, a desperate Josephine takes matters into her own hands. She will use all her experience as a former police officer to catch him before he kills again, and get justice for her daughter, and two grandchildren. For more information or to support Josephine’s efforts to help other families with missing or murdered loved ones: https://angelsofjustice.org/ Josephine also wrote two books about her journey to get justice for Krystal: “The Chase: In Hot Pursuit of My Daughter’s Killer” and “The Capture: The riveting account of capturing my daughter's murderer.” The Chase:  https://www.amazon.com/Chase-hot-pursuit-daughters-killer/dp/B09JVJ2F49  The Capture:  https://www.amazon.com/Capture-riveting-capturing-daughters-murderer/dp/B0C9SLBV8W/ref=pd_bxgy_q_d_sccl_1/130-3774193-1159422?pd_rd_w=hWHL9&content-id=amzn1.sym.27be5bbe-3574-4f40-8c57-ce12023a2e77&pf_rd_p=27be5bbe-3574-4f40-8c57-ce12023a2e77&pf_rd_r=086VJBT0QFNXRS7C87AZ&pd_rd_wg=kdGnQ&pd_rd_r=317921c6-348b-46ed-a821-cd0731db4b22&pd_rd_i=B0C9SLBV8W&psc=1  Credits: Directed, written & edited by Alexandre Gendron Researched by Tiffany Loxton Produced by Alexandra Salois & Salim Sader Voiceover by William Akana John Walsh: In Pursuit - Investigation Discovery/Zero Point Zero Production Inc. John Walsh: The Search Continues America’s Most Wanted New Season - Fox Alternative Entertainment Still A Mystery: Charmed By A Killer - Investigation Discovery, Efran Films Crime Stories With Nancy Grace Red Seat Ventures Tamron Hall Show - ABC News/Disney Media Distribution/Summerdale Productions Access Hollywood - NBC Inside Edition - CBS Media Philip DeFranco  Court TV Unsolved Podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This CCTV footage hides a disturbing secret. This is the last time 30-year-old Crystal Mitchell was seen alive. Notice how she slides down the wall, covering her eyes with her hands. Seconds later, after standing up, you can see her nervously look behind her back before heading towards the parking lot elevator. She may seem to have escaped whoever was chasing her, but this couldn't be more wrong. Crystal was 30 years old when she was found slain. She was on vacation in San Diego with her new boyfriend.

Investigators say that he was previously convicted of domestic violence. The boyfriend was nowhere to be found. He's a brutal, evil person that has no regard for human life whatsoever. He was strangling with his bare hands. He was the weapon. The longer it takes to find him, the more powerful he is, and the more he would turn to murder. Crystal's killer thought he was untouchable until the last person he ever expected began hunting him down. I decided to take matters into my own hands.

Now her grieving mother, Josephine, a former detective, turns back into a slew to join the manhunt for Crystal's killer. What if Liam Neeson was a sweet old grandma? Because if he was, he would be Josephine Wensel. So you welcome her help? Absolutely. By the time that we got there, he was gone. So someone came and warned him that I was looking for him and he fled. And that's when I started realizing that this was not going to be easy.

Every day, his list of victims kept growing with so many. many women's lives on the line, Josephine knew she couldn't afford to fail. According to the neighbor of a Mayan woman, he would beat her routinely. They could hear her screaming. The more reports I got, the more aggressive I became. Catching him would not bring my daughter back, but would mean that somebody else's daughter does not have to die. He needs to be stopped. I am worried about the women out there. I'm never going to stop looking for you. never until I bring an end to this Vancouver Washington

late 2012 26 year old single mother Crystal Mitchell is getting ready to start fresh following a difficult divorce she's planning to leave with her two young children but the move is bittersweet since it means saying goodbye to Josephine her loving and caring mother so she said mom I'm moving to Arizona

she wanted to know that she could do it on her own and I was really really proud of her before moving to Phoenix Crystal had lived her entire life in Vancouver, Washington, a city over 1,000 miles away. However, despite the distance, she quickly fell in love with her new surroundings and began working as a property manager in and around the city. She just had this smile. She was very funny and very bubbly and making jokes with everybody.

She was very beautiful on the outside, but it didn't interfere with who she was inside. Since she didn't want her children to lose touch with their family in Vancouver, Crystal sent them to Josephine's for a few months every year. But the summer of 2016 was different. After the kids plane landed, Crystal called her mother to tell her she'd be leaving for a last-minute weekend getaway to San Diego with her new boyfriend, unbeknownst to Josephine. This would be her daughter's last phone call. So the next day, I woke up and I texted her, hey, what's going on? How are things coming? Nothing.

I started feeling sick to my stomach. I was like, oh my goodness, something is wrong here. And the phone call came in. When I saw that phone number, that area code 619, I knew. I just knew. Every parent's worst nightmare is receiving that phone call. When she heard the voice saying it was the San Diego police, Josephine immediately hung up and handed the phone to her husband.

My husband called the number back. And as I was on the phone, I heard him. Say what? She's in a morgue. And I just screamed. And I just kept screaming and say, no, I don't want to hear it. Your mind. I covered my ears and I dropped to the floor and I just couldn't breathe. I was just so greed. The death of a woman, San Diego police, are calling suspicious. Her body found in a condo unit at the Rancho Mission Trails Condos in the 7600 block of Mission Gorge Road. When one of the condos residents noticed a trail of blood leading to his neighbor's doorstep, He cracked the door open and called out if anybody needed help. After stepping inside, he made a grim discovery.

On June 10, 2016, a resident from the 7600 block of Mission Courts Boulevard called the San Diego Police Department reporting the death of a female. We were able to identify the woman as 30-year-old Crystal Mitchell. When officers arrived unseen, there were clear signs of a struggle. It was determined that her cause of death was strangulation, so vicious that the strength of, triangulation resulted in fractures to her neck. With no witnesses or suspects, the police scoured the apartment complex for anything suspicious. Investigators still here, there were multiple evidence placards that were scattered throughout the garage. And the biggest question they have right now is who killed that woman.

But their first real clue didn't come from something they'd found. On the contrary, it was what was missing that put the detectives on the right track. They realized pretty soon in the investigation that her vehicle was missing. Which eventually led us to the San Diego International Airport. Crystal's car was found abandoned in the parking lot there. But that was not the only piece of the puzzle missing from the crime scene. Crystal, a mother of two, was 30 years old when she was found slain. She was on vacation in San Diego with her new boyfriend,

a bodybuilder and former Marine named Raymond McLeod. The boyfriend was nowhere to be found. While the mystery thickened in San Diego, Josephine and her family had to deal with the emotional turmoil caused by Crystal's death. On one hand, she had to remain strong and avoid further traumatizing her grandchildren, but on the other,

she also had to deal with the insurmountable grief she was feeling. Before revealing the devastating truth to the kids, she made sure they'd remember the love their mother had for them. So before Crystal put the kids in the plane, she took them to build a bear, and she made them special stuff, and she put her voice in it. I just told them that your mom was strong.

She wants the best for you. I keep her alive in their mind. The following week, the family attended Crystal's funeral. Amidst the tragedy, Josephine did her best to make the children understand that they would be staying with her from now on and that their mother was truly gone. And then the next day, he sat the kids down and just sat, Mommy's dad. Mommy went to happen.

So I got her a white casket. I got a bunch of markers with different colors. We let the kids draw on her coffin and write her notes and letters. And just let them hang out so they can understand that mom is really gone. As Crystal's family grappled with their loss, the San Diego police turned their attention to McLeod, the mysterious boyfriend who disappeared without a trace on the night of her murder. And what they uncovered completely changed the course of the investigation.

As we started looking into Mr. McLeod's background, we did notice a pattern of behavior with women in violence. Investigators say that he was previously convicted of domestic violence against his first wife out of Phoenix, Arizona. He has a pending charge out of Riverside County, California, where he was accused of attempting to strangle his third wife. With all murder investigations, we keep an open mind. But during the investigation, we've ruled out, in my opinion, all possibility that anyone other than Mr. McLeod was responsible for her death. And we later learned that Mr. McLeod had rented a car and had driven a way. eventually going into Mexico.

McLeod isn't the first fugitive to think of crossing the border, and Josephine, as an ex-detective, believed that catching him would only be a formality. To tell you the truth, I just thought, okay, go get him. All right, he fled the country, we're going to go get him. He was right over the border in Mexico. What she thought would take a few days became weeks, months, then a whole year. No one is giving up.

We will eventually find R.J. McLeod and bring him to justice. but eventually wasn't enough for Josephine. I just thought, you know what, something is wrong. I knew that there's more that can be done. Now her grieving mother Josephine, a former detective turns back into a slew to join the manhunt for Crystal's killer. I'm a former police detective on the island of Guam.

I've been involved in a lot of investigations. What if Liam Neeson was a sweet old grandma? Because if he was, he would be Josephine Wensel. The former police detective is making headlines like accused killer mess with the wrong mom. Josephine became a mom on a mission who felt she needed to take matters into her own hands to find justice for the daughter she loves so much. Waking up at 3 a.m. every day, Josephine searched every online record she could find in an attempt to gather new information concerning McLeod's whereabouts. I just spend day and night combing through the internet, combing through pages, reaching. out to people. Have you seen this man? Have you seen this man?

But Josephine was looking for a needle in a continent-sized haystack, and she knew she'd had to think out of the box if she'd ever hoped to find McLeod. One day, while browsing some shady website, she stumbled upon a tracking technique usually only used by federal agents, a barely legal process known as geo-fencing. Basically what it is is you put a line around a map of where you want to search. You put in keywords, and any conversation had with social media would come up in that area.

We do not know the details, but Josephine somehow managed to access a geo-fencing network and, once inside, quickly found a new lead. I came upon a blogger who wrote a whole blog about meeting a man in Guatemala. He was a former Marine. This crazy white American covered in tattoos, a coke had, a drug addict, a drunk. That he had woke up about five in the morning and found him hitting on one of the women that were backpacking. Josephine knew she was on the right track,

doubling down on her lead. She eventually found a TikTok video of a muscular man, aggressively dancing with a woman, convinced she was onto something. She slowed it down, frame by frame, hoping he'd turn around, even for a fraction of a second. And he had turned his face just enough to catch a glimpse of that person.

And I said, oh my gosh, it's him. It was now or never. It took her months to find him, and Josephine knew that if she didn't get her hands on him now, She may never have another opportunity to do so. She then warned the U.S. Marshals, who immediately sent a team. By the time that we got there, he was gone, so someone came and warned him that I was looking for him and he fled. Josephine was devastated by the failed capture attempt in Guatemala, but she didn't let that stop her.

On the contrary, she felt compelled to not only warn the public about McLeod, but also confront the people who dared to help the killer. If you see this man, please, he's conniving, he's charming. This is how he got my daughter. Please don't trust him. He's dangerous. He's very violent. And if you are hiding him, if you are protecting him, my daughter's blood is in your hands as well.

Josephine Wetzel. Former police detective. From there, Josephine decided to make more media appearances. She agreed to interviews for documentaries, podcasts, television shows, and news stations. She figured that public attention would push the kids. case forward, and it was about time because the latest clues she uncovered didn't paint a pretty picture. According to the neighbor of a Mayan woman, he would beat her routinely. They could hear her screaming. Isn't that true, Josephine? Yes, I was told that she was beaten so badly,

as how the woman described it. She just said so, so. The neighbors say they don't even know how the woman lived. So if this guy walks, there will be another victim. Catching him would not bring my daughter back, but catching him would mean that somebody else's daughter does not have to die. The sightings and rumors from Central America were rapidly escalating. McLeod was seemingly involved in drunken rampages, drug deals, brutal fistfights, violent assaults, even rapes, and yet still managed to evade the authorities. The more reports I got that he was hurt. women that more aggressive I became. He needs to be stopped.

I am worried about the women out there. He's out there in these nightclubs, meeting other women. It's very disturbing. I don't doubt one bit that he's killed again, not with his record, not with his recklessness. And I believe that the longer it takes to find him, the more powerful he thinks he is, and the more he would turn to murder. In 2019, America's Most Wanted aired multiple segments about Crystal's case and interviewed Josephine for the show. Now that she was on national television, the grieving mother turned detective

addressed McLeod directly. My message to Raymond Samuel McLeod Jr. I'm never going to stop looking for you. Never until I bring an end to this. Reminiscing about her daughter, she wanted the world to know that her mission wasn't driven by revenge. On the contrary, Crystal was an amazing woman, and her mother took every occasion to let the public know that she deserved justice, not only for herself, but for her entire family. She'd take the jacket off her back and hand it to you if you were cold. That's the kind of person she was. She loved your children so much.

There was everything to her. This is why my surge is so important because it's justice for them as well. I want them to know that Nana did everything possible to find this man and bring them justice. The FBI and the U.S. Marshals had been on the case since the beginning, but Josephine's recent findings escalated their own chase from McLeod significantly, and he was put on both agencies' top 10 Most Wanted list. McLeod's history of violence will continue to escalate, and he will strike again, most likely, against an unsuspecting woman.

I can tell you that the U.S. Marshal Service thought, this man is a danger to society as a whole. After years of relentless efforts from Josephine, The Hunt from McLeod finally hit the mainstream, and not only in the United States, authorities in the far reaches of half a dozen Central American countries ran extensive campaigns looking for him, and on August 28, 2022, a crucial tip came in. After a woman saw him at a club and claims that he was very creepy-looking, she called the tip in in El Salvador where he was reciting.

The morning routine was always the same. Josephine had just finished tidying up after breakfast, and her grandparents'clock. grandchildren were off to school. She sat at her desk with a cup of coffee and opened her laptop, ready to comb through the day's digital leads, with the renewed sense of hope, since she had gotten the tip that McLeod may be in El Salvador. Her geofencing network had flagged Sonsanade, a small city on the western edge of El Salvador. Scrolling through posts, she leaned forward when one image stopped her cold. It was a photo of an emaciated white man, standing before a whiteboard with a dumbfounded expression on his face. He was teaching English to a group of children.

She zoomed in on the face, familiar but aged, thinner than she remembered. She glanced down, frustrated. His long sleeves obscured his arms, hiding the tattoos that would confirm his identity. Josephine kept searching, her coffee untouched. A second photo popped up, the same man with other school teachers. Then, a third. This one taken in a crowded nightclub. The angle was clearer, the man, unmistakable.

It was him. There was no doubt about it. When I went through the pictures and I started screaming, my God, this is him. Sam. He was in El Salvador, teaching English. Now in possession of actual proof and afraid that someone would come in to warn McLeod again, Josephine immediately contacted the U.S. Marshals. U.S. Marshals obtained a federal U.FAP warrant for McLeod. The authorities took her claim seriously. After arriving in El Salvador, they coordinated with the local precinct to raid McLeod's residents. He had been cited with firearms in the past,

so the police were expecting the worst. And then I got that phone call that Okay, we're here and we're going in. He's believed to possess an arsenal of automatic guns and ammunition. McLeod knew what was coming. The search for him had become so widespread over the years that he probably couldn't go a day without seeing his own face on a wanted poster. He stepped out of his residence without resistance and was arrested on the spot. The lead marshal called Josephine immediately, thanking her for finally closing the case.

Without you, he would not. have been arrested. That's what they told me. McLeod was extradited from El Salvador by the local police and flown back to San Diego by the marshals. There, Josephine stood before a crowd of journalists and finally announced his capture.

But the number one thing for this conference is, yes, I got him. And he's not going to get away again. This is Euphoria Calvin Klein, the new elixir collection, featuring three perfume intense scents, inspired by a unique orchid accord, paired with vanilla,

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He has rich parents, who sent him $10,000 on the day he killed Crystal, hired the best lawyers in San Diego, and celebrity experts like Dr. Drew Pinsky for the preliminary. Dr. Drew is far from a reliable doctor. He has built a career off of exploiting sick people. Celebrity rehab goes against pretty much everything that any medical professional would do for someone who was in a serious state of addiction. Gotta do. What is your mother fucking problem?

Together, they dragged the procedures for over two years, delaying the preliminary hearing 10 times over. Josephine Winsel, what exactly is happening in court right now? He has a lot of money, hiring attorneys, and saying accidental death. Accidental dead. How is he possibly claiming her murder is an accident? There's a trail of blood, literally a trail of blood, leaving the apartment to the elevator.

The prosecution also had security camera footage showing Crystal falling to the ground and McLeod grabbing her by the throat in the elevator. It's a hard video to watch. He had his hands on her neck. It's really a crossing of a line to blame the victim because that's really what he's doing at this preliminary hearing. Victim blaming, victim shaming, and victim alienation. But when you look at that video of him in the elevator, this did not have a few. that she wanted this.

The defense claimed Crystal's death was accidental, saying she had asked McLeod to choke her during some sexual game. But the prosecution argued this was a lie, pointing out he had assaulted many past partners, including his ex-wife Rachel, the victim in an ongoing attempted murder case against him. A witness of the brutal attack even testified at the preliminary. I unlocked the door and he was on top of her.

She was gurgling. Her lips were blue. She was not longer able to speak and was struggling to raise. Evidence will show that it took several people to actually pull the defendant off April and they stopped him from strangling her. They got him into the hallway and he still tried to go after her and again started strangling her again. At that point, they were able to pull him off of her.

They got him out of the house and called police. You know, Nancy, a horrendous set of circumstances. Just a tragic state of affairs that played out and it was not intended. Are you serious? Is this a joke? I mean, are you just saying this because you don't know what else to say? That's the claim that his defense is bringing, and I'm just sort of trying to articulate that for your viewers.

So then yes. Okay. Following the preliminary hearing, all eyes turned to Josephine. She knew she'd soon have to take the stand at the trial, but the grieving mother still wasn't sure how she would hold up when put face to face with a man who killed her daughter. In October of 2024, on the air of Sharon McCollum's podcast, she even expressed doubt regarding her ability to testify.

something the show host quickly countered by pointing out the courage it took to come this far and her ability to channel that bravery once more. You are the X factor here. Your determination. You're just flat out bravery for your child. You were fearless. That's how you get at this capture. This is you.

So when you say, I don't know how I'm going to fare, I do. You're going to walk in that place like the boss you are. You're going to look right at him. You're going to testify. And he's going to stay in jail. for the rest of his natural life. The trial is set to begin in January 2025, and Josephine is confident

she'll finally get justice for her daughter and her grandchildren. Someone asked me, when will I feel that I've, we're done with this? Are you satisfied? You've got him? No, I will be satisfied when he is convicted for brutally murdering my daughter and that he's sentenced to life in prison. And I will be just as much involved as I was in the search to see this happen. Whatever the circumstances, Josephine proved that hope and determination

can light the way through even the darkest of situations. I was in so much pain that nothing would matter. I just turned my pain into power and nothing could stop me.