MURDERED: Maribel Ramos
2023-07-10 00:39:32
If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people.
Hi, Crime Junkies, I'm your host, Ashley Flowers.
And I'm Britt.
And the story I have for you today is one that shows just how quickly the relationships we form with others can turn from something completely innocent and friendly into something a lot more sinister and even deadly. This is the story of Maribel Ramos.
Getting a text that a loved one didn't come home last night is every crime junkie's worst nightmare. I know for me, my mind always jumps to the worst possible scenario when I don't hear from someone for like a few hours, let alone a whole night. But outside of our crime junkie bubble, not everyone has that reaction. And that includes a woman named Lucero Gonzalez. It's May 2nd, 2013, and she gets a text from her sister's roommate, this 54-year-old guy named Kwonchol Joy, who goes by KC.
And he basically tells her that he's worried because her sister Maribel didn't come home the night before. The two of them live in Orange, California, and he says that he went so far as to try and file a missing persons report with the Orange County police that morning. But they told him he'd have to wait at least 24 hours.
Because, of course, they did.
Right. But even though he's clearly worried about her, Lucero has a much calmer response. She's basically like, Maribel's 36, who cares if she stayed out all night, she's probably fine.
Yeah, and, like you said, I'm a crime junkie, I know, I can overreact quickly. But yeah, I think I'd need more information to jump immediately to, something's definitely wrong.
Right. And it doesn't help that, like, Lucero has always kind of gotten this weird vibe from Maribel's roommate. So I think if it was, like, anyone else texting her, she'd probably be reacting differently. But in this case, she just thinks that he is overreacting and he needs to kind of like mind his own business. But Lucero is a good sister, so just in case, she shoots Maribel a text just to say hi and to check in.
Now she doesn't hear back right away, but that's okay, they have their own lives and Maribel will get back to her when she can. But later that day, while she's out for dinner with a friend, she's contacted again by someone else who's worried. This time it's their cousin, Frank. It's his wife. Now, for years now, Maribel had been playing this weekly softball game with their cousin Frank.
But now his wife is calling to tell Lucero that Maribel didn't show up for the game they had that day. And this is weird. We're talking about someone who is super responsible here. She is an army veteran. She's in school at Cal State, Fullerton, studying for a criminal justice degree while also working.
So I mean, this girl takes her commitments really seriously. If she was going to not show up, she would have definitely let Frank know.
Okay, so now the roommate's concerns don't seem so silly.
Right. So a few family members decide to head over to Maribel's place to just check on her. I'm pretty sure Frank is in this group. And then there's also this softball friend named Paul. And I say friend, he is Frank's friend, but actually Paul and Maribel had been kind of dating for the past few months.
And she had actually texted him the night before saying she was going to see him at the softball game. So to them, there's like zero chance she shouldn't be there unless she wasn't okay. Right. And, you know, along with her sister and stuff, like, he's been trying to text her, call her, but like she hasn't returned anything. So when Paul and the rest of the crew arrive at Maribel's house, they notice that the lights are on inside and her car is even parked in its spot, which, you know, I'm sure, is kind of a relief.
But when they knock on the door, no one answers.
Not even KC, the roommate?
Well, I guess he's not there either, because, no, he doesn't come to the door. He's, by the way, also not answering his phone. Oh. So they all decide to contact the police to come and do a welfare check. And that's also when Lucero heads over to her sister's house so she can be there.
when police arrive. A few officers get to the house that night and they try to find a way to get inside, like maybe a spare key, an open window, something. But there's nothing around and no one else has a spare key. So eventually they resort to forcing the door open. When they get inside, Lucero immediately rushes to Maribel's bedroom.
And I have to imagine she's probably dreading what she could find in there. But when she enters the room, there's no sign of her sister, which isn't exactly a relief though. Because if she's not there, where is she?
So does anything look off? Was all of her stuff there?
Well, it's a little hard to tell when she was last there. Basically, the state of the room itself is actually kind of alarming. Like I said, Maribel is an army vet. And I don't know if you know a lot of vets, Brit. And I don't know a ton, but the ones I do know, when they come home from service, they usually stick to some of like the very strict housekeeping rules that they had while they were serving.
Like room, tidy, bed made, unless you're physically in it. But the bed in Maribel's room is a total mess. It's unmade. The sheets are kind of like pulled off. Now one of her purses is still there.
You asked like what was in the room. But her other purse, her phone, her wallet, and her keys are all gone.
So it looks like maybe she just left, maybe even in a hurry, if her room is kind of messy looking.
I mean, to some who don't know her well, yeah, that's kind of what it looks like. I mean, there's no sign of a struggle anywhere. But there is this one little thing that, you know, sticks out. According to Claudia Kerner's reporting in the Orange County Register, they find a pajama shirt that has some bloodstains on the cuff of each sleeve, which just doesn't leave anyone feeling great. But without any other evidence, like because there's no blood anywhere else, there's no telling where that blood came from or how it got there.
I mean, it could be totally unrelated. We don't know when it got there.
Right. And listen, I appreciate all these details, but I'm kind of only thinking one thing. Where is her roommate? Like dude, was concerned enough to call the police that morning, but now he's also MIA?
Okay, so this is like the strangest thing ever. It turns out. Casey is actually at the apartment. What?
Like, he's been inside this whole time?
No, no, no. He has been sitting out in his car, watching the police and Maribel's friends and family, trying to get in, but doing nothing.
I'm sorry. Nope. If I'm one of the detectives on the scene, roommates coming down the station, case closed, dude is being shady.
Does due process mean nothing to you, Brett? But also like fair, same. So here's the thing. So eventually Casey calls the police dispatcher and tells them that he's there. Like, that's how they find out.
But according to him, he says he just didn't want to go inside while the police are there.
Okay. So, just to be clear, did Casey like pull up after the police were there and he was like nervous, kind of waiting for them to find something? Or I mean, how long has this guy been sitting there?
No. So he was actually sitting in his car when they all pulled up. So he's been there the whole time.
I don't get it.
I don't get it either. But after he calls the dispatcher, the dispatcher notifies the police that are at the scene. Again, you're like, you're standing next to the guy. that's basically right there.
You could just walk up to the guy and tell them you're there? Yeah.
And they do, right? So the officer like goes up to him and he's basically like, what the hell, dude? Like? why aren't you helping us? Like, you're seeing, we can't get into this place that you live at, that you have a key to.
And Casey basically just gives the same excuse, but he does kind of give them a bit of info. He tells police that he had last seen Maribel at around 9 p.m. the night before. She was at home and he left to just, he says, go for a drive, which I think is maybe a pastime lost to another generation. Like, do you ever, just like, go for a drive?
In this economy? No. But also, I do get the appeal of just wanting to get out for a minute, you know?
Mate, like I understand you were all post like pandemic time, I get it. This is 2013.. Like, I don't know. I just like, I don't know anyone that just goes for a drive. But he said he just wanted to get out for a minute, like you said.
So anyways, he says when he comes back about an hour later, Maribel was gone. So he assumed that she had just gone out for the night and he wasn't really concerned until he realized the next day that she hadn't come home.
Glad he's talking, but this is entirely unhelpful.
It is. And it's going to take some boots on the ground work to figure out where she is. So their first step is to figure out if Casey was the last person to see her before she disappeared, when he says he saw her at 9, or if Maribel maybe interacted with someone after that. So over the next couple of days, they talk to everyone they can. And do you want to guess who they focus on first?
Sketchy roommate, obviously.
Actually, no. They focus on Paul.
Honestly, totally forgot. there was even a boyfriend.
Yeah. See, tunnel vision benefits no one. But actually, the word boyfriend might be kind of a strong word to describe their relationship.
OK.
Because according to an episode of Dateline called Mystery in Orange County, when investigators talk with Paul, he tells them that he and Maribel have been dating each other for a few months, but he says things have been pretty casual, not like exactly exclusive. I mean, he says he's for sure been like dating other people and he says that she could have been dating other people as well, but he's not sure, like he just didn't ask. Now, Paul tells investigators that he was working a 4 p.m. to midnight shift the night before, which police are able to corroborate, because Paul drives a company truck and the truck's GPS confirms that he was nowhere near Maribel's house that night. But that doesn't mean he wasn't in contact with her.
In fact, when police pull her phone records, they notice a couple of things. First, Maribel's phone has not been used since the night she disappeared. And second, Paul is the last person she had spoken to on the phone that night. So they ask him about this call, and it turns out this was definitely not a normal conversation.
Paul tells investigators that the night Maribel went missing, he was on the phone with her while she was having a super intense argument with K.C. Oh, apparently K.C. had been having some financial troubles and hadn't been paying his rent on time, and this was becoming a recurring issue. So finally, when he hadn't paid his rent for May, Maribel told him that he needed to leave the apartment and she wanted him out, like, the next day.
And this was all happening while she was on the phone with Paul.
Yeah, she even had Paul on speakerphone, and he tells police he was kind of doing the whole macho guy thing and telling K.C. that if his stuff wasn't out of the apartment the next day, that he would come over and throw it all out himself. So he was kind of like her backup. Now, Paul says that he couldn't really make out anything K.C. said in response.
He mostly just heard mumbling in the background. But he says that he did ask Maribel if she was worried about the whole situation, like, did she need him to come over? But she told him all was fine, she was just going to go to bed, and that was the last time they spoke.
And when was that?
So that call and that whole interaction happened at about 7.30 p.m.
So police must have asked K.C. about this argument. What's his version of the story?
He says that it just wasn't really a big deal.
Uh, getting kicked out of your apartment isn't a big deal?
Apparently not. I mean, in the Netflix series Worst Roommate Ever, it contains footage-.
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Spoiler alert. much? The title alone proves I was right.
You know, don't cite my sources in the episode, They Come For You. Cite your sources in the episode, They Come For You. I don't know why you people want for me. But on this Netflix show, linked in our show, notes-.
Okay, is it in APA, MLA, what are we talking here? That's enough.
In this footage, it shows K.C.'s interview, and he corroborates that Paul was involved on speakerphone, but says that after they argued, Maribel went into her room and shut the door, and that was when he decided to leave to go for his drive.
How long had K.C. been living there? Like, does Maribel's family actually know this guy? Is he some, like, recent rando?
No! He's not. Lucero tells police that Maribel and K.C. have been roommates for actually a couple of years, after K.C. answered a Craigslist ad that Maribel had posted, which, quick, fair warning for people, honestly, that is a 50-50 game, or at least it was in 2011 when I played.
I was gonna say, that sounds generous.
Odds are probably worse now. Maribel, like, I had, this is like a quick story, I never do this, well, I've been doing it more lately, maybe I've been getting chatty, but I had, in college, I did one where I literally got stuck with people in a house who, like, didn't pay the electricity in Arizona, and they were trying to, like, smoke me and Chuck out, so I was there for, like, a month before I left, and then I found, like, one of my best friends, and had, like, the most amazing year ever, so just be careful, you guys out there, you never know what you're gonna get. But basically, he finds her on Craigslist, and he was moving there from Knoxville, Tennessee, so, you know, he's looking for a place to settle with his dog, him and Maribel met up, they hit it off, she decided to offer the place to him, and, you know, at first, Lucero said K.C. was pretty quiet, kept to himself, but he and Maribel slowly did become pretty good friends, like, it was, for him, a good flip of the coin, and I know the family knew him, because she would invite him out to her family functions, or, like, meetups with friends, they would walk their dogs together in the park, at one point, they even went on a cruise together.
Yeah, this sounds like they actually had a pretty good thing going there for a while, at least until the money stuff came up.
Britt, we've never been on a cruise together.
Seriously? So, yeah, they- Should we correct that?
I feel like maybe we should, but yes, they had a good friendship, but there were also some things that just didn't sit well with Lucero, even when things were kind of good.
Okay, like what?
Well, it almost seemed to her like KC was too attached to her sister. At one point, the summer before, KC actually called Lucero up and was talking about how he knew that Maribel wanted to get married and have kids, and he wanted to be the man to give that to her.
Oh, so this was like a romantic thing for him, and- Yeah. And Maribel dating Paul, even just casually, she wasn't reciprocating those feelings.
As far as Lucero knew, that's correct. And she told KC as much, like, sorry, dude, you're a nice guy, like, you're clearly good friends, but Maribel just isn't into you like that. And she even called Maribel afterward to encourage her to just set the record straight with KC, because, as far as she was concerned, if KC couldn't get past those feelings, then their living situation wasn't going to be a healthy one for either of them. Right. Now, Lucero says that Maribel assured her things were fine, KC just had this little crush and he'd get over it, but that wasn't quite what happened.
Around this time, he started to change how he acted, even how he looked. He got this giant tattoo of a bangled tiger on his arm, apparently because Maribel had mentioned he'd look good with a tattoo. He started to dress differently, almost like he was trying to look younger. And at one point, when Lucero was over at Maribel's apartment, she noticed that KC had a bunch of bandages on his face, and when she asked him what had happened, KC was, like, weirdly vague about it and wouldn't really answer her questions. But she learned that he had gotten plastic surgery on his face to make him look younger.
This just got really extreme.
I know. I mean, it's one thing to have a crush. I think everyone has probably been in a situation where you have feelings for someone and maybe they don't feel the same way.
Yeah, but that's your sign to move on, not literally change everything about yourself, including your face, just to win them over. Yeah.
Now, it seems like KC eventually lost his job at some point, and that's when his money troubles started, and it led to Maribel covering the rent for both of them, which obviously is not a sustainable situation, and it ends up boiling over.
And that's when she had that argument with KC while Paul was on the phone with her.
Not exactly. So what detectives learn as they dig into Maribel's phone records is that she and KC had had another major argument a little over a week before that phone call with Paul. And this argument got so intense that Maribel actually called 911.. Oh my god. Yeah, when detectives listen to that 911 call, it is just red flag after red flag after red flag.
And what they hear is Maribel in tears as she talks to the operator. She says that she and her roommate just had this huge fight over money and that she had told him she wanted him out of the house by the end of the month. And she says that his reaction really freaked her out, and she thinks that he sounded like he might hurt her. I mean, Maribel was so worried on this call that she says she feels like she needs to lock her bedroom door behind her. And not only that, in audio of the call featured on the show See No Evil, she admits to the 911 operator that she told KC that she had a gun in the apartment that she could use to protect herself if necessary.
This is definitely not your typical roommate argument or disagreement.
Yet not even a little bit. Now Maribel tells the operator that she was actually bluffing about owning the gun, but she just wants it. known that if something horrible happens, that she was acting in self-defense. Because at that point, she truly feared the worst.
Obviously, police are stunned when they hear this 911 call. And they learn that officers were dispatched to the house following the call, but ultimately Maribel had decided not to file an official report. She just wanted it on the record that KC needed to leave the house by the end of the month.
I can't believe she was giving him till the end of the month.
I know, but I think that shows you, A, how close they were before, like, I don't think she wants to just throw her friend out, but B, it shows you how kind she was.
So investigators are basically now where I was 20 minutes ago, a hole aboard the KC train.
Yeah, he is definitely their main focus, but that doesn't mean that they aren't looking into every possible avenue, especially without any physical evidence to work with. I mean, they don't want to miss any other possible leads.
What about the blood on her pajama sleeves? Can they test that?
They can, and they do, and the test comes back confirming that the blood was Maribel's. But I mean, there was no other DNA present, so it doesn't really help them move the case along. So they're really focusing on those interviews that they're doing, interviewing as many people as they can who were close to Maribel, friends, family, co-workers. And as they're doing this, there are some other names that pop up that could be of interest. For example, according to the Dateline episode on this case, there was this guy that Maribel had encountered at a veterans group that she joined, who apparently had become obsessed with her at one point and made her very uncomfortable.
But when police look into him, it turns out he was in Japan at the time of her disappearance. So definitely couldn't have been him. Now, police also learned that Maribel had been chatting with someone on the dating site Plenty of Fish in like the lead up to her disappearance. But again, he has a rock solid alibi. Now, while they're interviewing people, they're also trying to collect any evidence.
I mean, I said there's this huge void of physical evidence. So best they can do is try and corroborate the stories that they're hearing from people. And in doing so, they are able to get a piece of security footage from the night of her showing her dropping off a rent check at the management office for her apartment. The video is timestamped at around 7.15 p.m., which is around the same time as the call she had with Paul. So it lines up with what investigators already know about the timing of that night.
Which all this is great, but it doesn't really give them anything new.
No, pretty much every lead that investigators chase down ends up being a dead end. Except for Casey. He just remains this big question mark, surrounded by even bigger red flags.
Okay, but is he a question mark, though? I mean, I'm sure these officers have worked enough cases to know that he's the one they should be spending all their time and resources on.
I agree. But I mean, the problem is at this point, investigators don't even really know what could have possibly happened. Like, it's not like they found any trace of Maribel. And they can't force a confession out of him. But still, his only real alibi during her disappearance was that he went out for that drive.
I mean, there's something they can do. Are they searching his car at least?
They did. They even went so far as to bring in a cadaver dog. But I mean, that dog didn't get a hit. And when they search his car, there's nothing in there that even corroborates his story. He didn't stop anywhere that might have caught him on surveillance.
There's no receipts or GPS data confirming his story. They've got nothing. Just his word. And there's this other thing that's not sitting well with detectives. When they had originally interviewed KC, one of the first things they noticed was that he was covered in scratches.
And he had told them that the scratches were the result of this incident at a local park, where he had accidentally gotten some fishing line tangled in a thorny bush. And when he tried to get it out, his arms took some damage.
Okay, I'm all for not getting tunnel vision. At least I try to be. But there's a fine line between not zeroing in on someone without proof and ignoring very damning circumstantial evidence. Like, what the hell, Ashley?
Which is fair. But the thing is, they're not just taking him at his word. They actually go and check this out. They add it to their growing list of circumstantial evidence. But when they go to the park, they do see the bushes that KC is referring to.
And they're just so thorny. But I mean, this is 50-50, right? Like, that doesn't mean he actually got the scratches that way.
Like, but he could have. But it doesn't mean that it doesn't, right?
I know. But this whole time, again, I mean, everyone, their hackles are just up. And even Lucero, especially. She can't shake the feeling that KC was involved in her sister's disappearance.
Same, Lucero. Same.
And you know, it doesn't help that when she sets up a Facebook page dedicated to finding Maribel, she notices KC leaving comments in which he refers to Maribel in the past tense.
I mean, red flag number, what is it at this point? 17, 34?.
I've lost track. I have no idea. And another thing that Lucero has noticed is the way that KC is speaking to investigators. She says it's super off. And I kind of got to give you a little bit of back information.
So KC is of Korean descent. And so when he's speaking to investigators, he has an accent. And when I say accent, like a super heavy accent. But the thing is, Lucero has never heard him speak like this before. KC has lived in the States since he was a child.
He is completely fluent in English. So she doesn't understand why, all of a sudden, he's acting confused when police are asking him questions about Maribel. Like, he can't understand.
That screams suspicious.
Right. And I'm telling you, it just gets worse. Because investigators take a look at KC's criminal history from before he moved to California. And what they find out doesn't help his case at all. They discover that before he moved to Orange, KC was living in Tennessee, where it seemed like everything that could go wrong did.
He lost his job. His parents passed away. And that led to some big disagreements with his sister regarding their inheritance. But, just like with Maribel, this wasn't a typical argument over money. According to Salvador Hernandez and Alejandra Molina's reporting in the Orange County Register, things reached a boiling point when KC left a voicemail on his sister's phone, threatening to shoot her in the head and cut her body into pieces.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. So this dude has a history of threatening violence, losing his cool over money, and we're still like, well, I don't know. Maybe he doesn't have anything to do with Maribel. I know.
Now, granted, his sister is still alive. She actually reported the call to police. She also filed a restraining order. And investigators in Maribel's case are even able to speak with her. She not only confirms that KC has an awful temper, she even goes so far as to describe him as a monster.
And that's her describing her own brother.
Exactly. Like, it's hard to think of a more damning thing to say about someone. So this is just yet another reason. police are thinking KC has gotta be their guy. But still, there is no evidence of even a crime at this point.
Right. Their guy for what?
Exactly. So all they can really do is monitor him to see how he behaves and hope that maybe he slips up at some point and leads them to something that can help them understand what even happened. Now, it's around this time that investigators get an interesting tip. See, KC rents the car that he drives, and investigators get a call from the rental company. And they tell him, you know, he actually switched cars right around the time Maribel went missing.
I'm sorry, what?
So they go and they get this other car. And so when they go do that, they bring the cadaver dog with them. And sure enough, the dog alerts at the back of this car, which I take to mean the trunk. But so he switches out his car and the one he had before has, like a scent, a cadaver dog is into.
And now they go arrest him, right?
No, the cadaver dog hitting isn't strong enough evidence. Because, I mean, you know, it could be a fluke. It could be a false hit. Maybe the fact that it's a rental has something to do with it. I mean, the dog could be alerting to something from a previous driver or a new driver, something that has nothing to do with KC.
But by this point, I mean, they're where you're at. Like. literally, all of their focus is on him. So what they decide to do is they put him under constant surveillance. And what they notice is that he makes a number of visits to the public library.
And what they learn is that you can rent out laptops to use for free while you're there. And that is what KC is doing. According to public court documents, police obtain a warrant to monitor everything KC does on this computer. We're not talking just like checking his browser history after the fact. They're literally monitoring every single keystroke, every page that he opens in real time.
And it doesn't take long for things to start getting suspicious. On Thursday, May 16th, this is now two weeks after Maribel's disappearance, he's browsing the internet at the library. And he visits a search engine page where he enters in the question, quote, does the cell phone has to be turned on to track its location? Which, okay, I could see. maybe searching that question if you're just like a concerned friend, wondering if there's any hope of finding your missing loved one.
Or maybe if you've hidden a body and think the police might be on to you.
And you're not wrong, because one of the next questions he enters is, how long does it take a human body to decay?
There it is.
Well, not so fast, because even though I'm guessing the detective's hearts are probably racing in that moment, to them, this still isn't enough. They want physical evidence that he did something, or at least physical evidence that something happened. And look, have I Googled something like that before? Yes, am I probably on a list somewhere? Yes.
Sure.
But we said this before, we have a legit reason. It's quite literally our job.
Fair. I wish I could tell you I only Googled these things once I had this job. I think I've been on this for a long time.
Same.
But anyways, they keep watching as Casey makes himself look worse and worse and worse. And then he gets on Facebook and he sees that there's going to be this walk to both raise awareness of Maribel's case and to also physically search for her. The walk is going to be happening in this park called Peter's Canyon. So then he goes and he loads up Google Maps and looks up the park's location. So the detectives monitoring him think he's probably just interested in, you know, maybe attending, double checking where this park is.
But then Casey does something strange. Instead of closing out Google Maps, he switches the map to satellite view. So it's not a map anymore. It's literally like a bird's eye view of the park. And then he starts just scrolling around the area until he finally settles on this big tree in the middle of nowhere, about seven and a half miles away from where the walk will be taking place.
He zooms right in on it. And then once more, he clears his browser history.
That's it. This is the evidence.
Investigators are dispatched to that area. he was zoomed in on immediately. And when they arrive on the scene, the first thing they notice is just how remote this area is. I mean, there is nothing around. But the team starts canvassing the area, looking for anything.
And it doesn't take them long to find what they're looking for. Less than 45 minutes after arriving, investigators are searching near this large tree. when they notice something sticking out of the ground that looks out of place. Now, they can't tell what it is from where they're standing. So they get a bit closer and then their hearts sink because they realize that what they're looking at are leg bones.
And as they process the scene further, removing rocks and stones, they slowly unearth a body. The body itself is in a pretty advanced stage of decomposition at this point, and it looks like animals have likely been around as well. So investigators can't make a positive identification there at the scene. It's going to take a pathologist to do that eventually to confirm it's her. But I mean, really, right then and there, just considering how they got there, they know.
Yeah.
Now, because of how badly her body is decomposed, they're not able to determine a specific cause of death. They are able to tell that there were no weapons involved in her death, but the official ruling is homicide by unknown means. But this is what investigators needed to finally make a real move on Casey. Before this, all they had were red flags, but nothing to definitively connect him to Maribel's disappearance. But that's all changed now.
Yeah, he essentially led them right to Maribel's body.
Exactly. And so they go, they bring him in, but when they do, it's pretty clear that he's also been watching the news and he knows that Maribel's body has been recovered. Because when police arrive, he bolts. I mean, this dude jumps out of a window and tries to flee the scene. But remember, he has also been under 24-7 surveillance, and so they see him doing this, they're able to head him off and bring him into custody.
When they question him, he really doesn't give them anything, though. All Casey says is that he can't believe Maribel is dead. There's no confession, no details on how Maribel might have died, nothing. But nevertheless, police believe that they have all they need to bring closure to Maribel's family. And so Casey is arrested and officially charged with murder in the first degree on May 21st, just a few days before Maribel was due to receive her degree in criminal justice from Cal State Fullerton.
The trial doesn't begin until more than a year later, in July of 2014.. And the prosecution obviously brings up all of the red flags that had caused them to focus in on Casey. to begin with. The 911 call, the fight the night of her disappearance, the scratches on his body. But the heart of their case is the map search that led investigators to Maribel's body.
During testimony, one of the investigators describes it as essentially a virtual drive-by of the scene. Now, in terms of motive, the prosecution argues that the murder was a result of both financial troubles, but also Casey's infatuation with Maribel. They say that because she was about to kick him out of the house that they shared, he basically panicked and saw it as the end of any opportunity for them to be together. And that is what led him to murder her. The defense, on the other hand, doesn't really even try to argue that Casey wasn't involved in disposing of Maribel's body.
Basically, they're focused on the fact that this is a very circumstantial case overall, and they say that it hasn't been proven that Casey murdered Maribel, or even that she was murdered at all.
What the hell are they saying happened, if not a murder?
Well, their argument, basically, is that her death could have been the result of some unknown medical condition, or maybe she could have died by suicide. And that, following that, Casey could have just discovered her after the fact, and then panicked and disposed of her body, despite not being involved in her actual death.
Okay, but are they saying that could have happened, or are they saying that's what did actually happen?
I mean, they're just kind of like throwing out possibilities. I don't think they stick to a specific story. It's more like they're saying, you know, any number of things could have happened, and the prosecution can't prove murder.
I get they're just throwing stuff out there to plant reasonable doubt, but I mean, if we're just listing possibilities, let's add aliens to the list, because everything else is just as bonkers to me. We know he was there. We know he disposed of her body. If you have another excuse, now's the time, dude.
Well, at one point, one of the suggestions of the defense that they throw out is that Casey might have killed Maribel, but it could have been a crime of passion and self-defense.
So manslaughter instead of homicide, basically.
Basically, yeah. Now, on July 23rd, once the defense and prosecution rest their case, jurors begin deliberations, and they don't return with a verdict until nearly a week later. So it seems like they're actually torn. But on the 29th, Casey is found guilty of second-degree murder.
Not first-degree, though.
Not first-degree. So I'm guessing that the jury sees something in the idea that this was more of a spur-of-the-moment crime and not something Casey had planned out for weeks, days, even hours. Now, about a month later, Casey does something pretty out of the ordinary, and definitely against the recommendation of his legal counsel. He gives an interview to ABC7 Eyewitness News in which he continues to maintain his innocence. He even says that he never actually searched the area where Maribel's body was found and claims that he was set up by police.
In September, Casey is handed a prison sentence of 15 years to life and also denied a request for a new trial. And during that hearing, he again proclaims his innocence and refuses to apologize to Maribel's family, saying that he has nothing to apologize for. I mean, this guy even goes so far as to say that he cared for Maribel more than anybody else in the courtroom, which, as you can imagine, doesn't sit well with Maribel's sister Lucero, who was in that room with Casey at the time.
I would be raging if I were her.
And she is. I mean, she speaks to KTLA afterward and says, quote, he killed my sister. And then he sits there and says he is the person who misses her the most. It's disgusting. And I don't disagree with her there.
Yeah.
Even if you weren't involved in her murder, that's a pretty bold statement to make with Maribel's family in the room. Casey remains in prison today, but he will be eligible for parole in 2024, which I'm sure doesn't feel fair to Maribel's family and friends, who will never stop wondering what she would be doing today, the jokes that she would crack, the lives she'd change, if not for one man's senseless act of violence.
You can find all the source material for our episode at CrimeJunkiePodcast.com.
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