Esther Gonzalez
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To enjoy this episode of Forensic Tales ad-free, check us out on Patreon. Patreon.com slash Forensic Tales. Forensic Tales discusses topics that some listeners may find disturbing. The contents of this episode may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. In February 1979, 17-year-old high school student Esther Gonzalez was attacked while walking from her parents' house to her sister's home in Riverside, California.

The following day, her body was found dumped in a snowbank near a highway. Without any other solid leads or suspects, the case went cold for more than 45 years, until the police were able to use new DNA testing to find her killer. This is Forensic Tales, episode number 272, The Murder of Esther Gonzalez. ♪♪

Thank you.

When most people think about the state of California, they picture the big cities. Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego. Those cities also happen to be some of the country's most traveled to places. And why wouldn't you think about them? Los Angeles is the place you think about when talking about movies, Hollywood. San Francisco with a famous Golden Gate Bridge. San Diego.

with its miles upon miles of sunny beaches. When thinking about California and the places you can visit or live there, not many people think of the other lesser-known areas like the city of Banning. Actually, if you aren't from this part of Southern California, then chances are you've probably never heard of it.

As someone born and raised in California, I'll be the first to tell you that California is the state where you can be at the beach in the morning and then in the snowy mountains by the afternoon. So to paint a picture of the place we're going to be talking about in this episode, go to Los Angeles, then travel about 85 miles east to Riverside County, and you'll eventually end up in the city of Banning.

With a population of almost 30,000, Banning, California is a pretty quiet place to live. It's not exactly known for much these days, like maybe some of the other bigger cities to the west.

Decades ago, it was a major stop for stagecoaches and railroads in what was once considered the Old West. But today, it's just a small town situated in the much larger Riverside County. It's night and day from many places in neighboring Orange or Los Angeles counties. In the late 1970s, Banning was considered a relatively safe place to be. It wasn't a place where a

Kids stayed out well past sunset. People hitchhiked if they didn't have a car. No one really locked their doors at night. It was just a quiet and small town. There was nothing to be afraid of, really. But all of that seemed to change one day in February 1979 when a young teenage girl in high school was found murdered in a roadside ditch 15 miles away from her parents' house.

February 1979, 17-year-old Esther Gonzalez was just your typical high school senior getting ready to graduate.

She lived with her parents in Banning and had two older siblings, a sister named Liz and a brother named Eddie. She was at a point in her life where most of us have really fond memories. She was a senior in high school. She was just about ready to become an adult. She had thoughts about starting a career that she was passionate about, and she even had thoughts about someday having a family of her own.

For most of us, we look back on our senior year of high school and we think that this was some of the best times of our lives, except that never happened. Esther didn't graduate high school despite only being months away from the ceremony. She didn't become an adult or start a career of her own. Her entire life was taken away and cut short one ordinary Friday night.

On February 10th, 1979, the Riverside County Sheriff's Office received a disturbing phone call. Because Banning, California is in Riverside County, the Riverside County Sheriff's Office took the call and would eventually take the case. On the other end of the phone was a man. He said he just discovered a body off Highway 243 south of Poppet Flats Road.

So naturally, the first responders who answered the call had a lot of questions. They needed to know the who, what, where, when, and how. The first thing they asked the caller was his name.

but the man on the phone refused. He wouldn't tell the police his name. He even became argumentative with them, saying that he knew nothing other than seeing a body. He said he didn't even know whether it was a male or a female. Then when the police started asking him more questions, he just hung up. The police were never able to get his name, and the man never volunteered the information.

The entire phone call only lasted about 30 seconds. Right after the call, several deputies with the Riverside County Sheriff's Office went to the location where the caller said he saw the body, Highway 243 near Poppet Flats Road in Banning. And this is how those deputies described the scene. When they arrived, there was the body of a young female lying in a snowbank just off the side of the road.

The victim didn't look like she could be more than maybe 17 or 18 years old. She was just a kid. So right away, the deputy saw red flags. How could this caller not know whether this person was a male or a female? It was obvious just by looking at her. This was a teenage girl. But before they could worry too much about this strange caller, they had an even bigger problem on their hands.

They had no idea who this girl was. They knew she was probably a teenager, but beyond that, they knew nothing. So once the scene was secured, evidence collected, photographs taken, the girl's body was taken to the medical examiner's office for an autopsy.

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Not only did they need to figure out how this girl ended up in the snowbank, determine cause and manner of death, they also needed to identify her. But that process didn't take long. Within hours, the girl had been identified. Missing 17-year-old Esther Gonzalez.

Riverside detectives learned that Esther had been reported missing by her parents the day before, February 9th, 1979. Earlier that day, Esther left her parents' house and walked to her sister's place across town, but never made it. She also never came home later that night, so her parents reported her missing to the police. She wasn't the type of girl to just run off.

So when she didn't come home that night, her parents knew that something had to be wrong.

Now, less than 24 hours later, Esther's body is found in the snowbank off Highway 243, about 15 miles away from her parents' house. At the autopsy, the police uncovered even more disturbing details about Esther's last few moments on this earth. On top of having her body dumped along the highway, there was evidence she had been sexually assaulted and bludgeoned to death.

She had been abducted while walking the short distance from her parents' house to her sister's, assaulted, bludgeoned to death, and then had her body dumped 15 miles away. It was the kind of murder that just doesn't make sense, and it's the kind of murder that people want solved right away, especially Esther's family. When the details about the crime were released to the public, the community of Banning was shocked.

This just wasn't the kind of place where young girls were kidnapped right off the street, raped, and then murdered. So the question on everyone's mind was, who could have done something like this?

Within five days of discovering Esther's body, the Riverside County Sheriff's Office got their first big clue. They had identified the mystery caller who had reported finding her body. From the start of the investigation, the police made it a top priority to find this guy.

Normally, the person who calls in a crime has absolutely nothing to do with what happened. They're simply the innocent person who stumbled upon a crime and was just being a good Samaritan. And in this particular case, they stumbled upon a body, probably one of the worst crimes that you can witness. But there was something about this caller that just didn't sit right with investigators.

The first was he wouldn't even tell the police who he was. He just said there was a dead body in the snowbank and that was it. He didn't even know whether they were a male or a female. Second, when the police asked for his name, he wouldn't say. He wanted to remain anonymous, so detectives wanted to know why.

And when the police started to ask him more questions, just trying to figure out what was happening, the caller randomly hung up. If you're just calling to report a crime, why would you be so secretive? What are you trying to hide? It's not like the police asked him unreasonable questions. They just wanted to know who he was and what the scene looked like.

They wanted to have as much information as possible before sending sheriff's deputies out there.

So after this phone call, the police wanted to find out who this guy was and find out more about him. So within five days, the police had positively identified him, Lewis Randolph Williamson, or Randy as he was usually called. As soon as he was identified, the police went to go speak with him. And the more they spoke to him, the more suspicious they became of him,

He was just as argumentative and just as combative as he was when he talked to them on the phone to report the body. So the police asked Randy Williamson if he would be willing to come down to the police station and take a polygraph. They told him he wasn't considered a suspect in Esther's murder, but a polygraph would officially rule him out. And if he could be ruled out, the police could focus their attention on finding the actual killer. So Randy agreed.

He told sheriff's deputies that he would be more than willing to come down to the police station and take a polygraph. He said he had nothing to hide and he knew nothing about the murder. He was just the poor guy who found the body. So later that day, Randy followed through on his promise and took a polygraph. And within minutes, he was cleared by sheriff's deputies. He passed the polygraph, suggesting that maybe he was telling the truth.

He knew nothing about Esther Gonzalez's murder. So after that, Randy Williamson was officially cleared of any wrongdoing. The police could go back and start looking for other possible suspects. Now pausing there for a moment,

Polygraphs are an interesting and tricky tool. On one hand, they're used by the police to try and determine if someone is lying. Most police departments even use them during their hiring process for new recruits. But on the other hand, polygraphs aren't admissible in court as evidence, at least not here in the U.S.,

So the police consider them good enough during their investigation to label someone as a suspect, but they aren't good enough to be used against them as evidence later on. Now, I know some people love polygraphs and they think they should be allowed in court, while some of you might totally disagree with that.

Either way, that's how we use them. They're an investigative tool for the police, but after someone's arrested and put to trial, whatever they said on that polygraph can't be used against them. So after Randy cleared his polygraph test, he was free to go. The Riverside police no longer considered him a possible suspect in Esther's murder, and they moved on, looking for other leads.

His polygraph test was just thrown in with the rest of the evidence in the case, which, over time, would become boxes of information. Over the next several months, Riverside detectives worked the case relentlessly.

They dug into every aspect of Esther's life, asking questions like, could her parents or some other family member have done this? Who were her close friends at high school? Did she have a boyfriend? They also wondered, could she have gone somewhere else before stopping at her sister's house? The police knew she was on her way there when she went missing, but could she have had other plans that day?

Maybe she even lied to her parents about where she was going and that something had something to do with what happened.

But all of those questions didn't lead anywhere. Her parents were cleared of any wrongdoing. No one else in her family, including her two siblings, had anything to do with it. None of her friends were considered suspects. She didn't have any angry boyfriends or ex-boyfriends. And Esther Gonzalez was a good kid. She didn't lie to her parents about where she was going that day. It was all true.

She was snatched right off the street and killed in the worst way possible.

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During the course of the investigation, Riverside detectives had extensive interviews with Esther's brother and sister, Liz and Eddie Gonzalez, and both of them repeated the same things. Esther was a good kid getting ready to graduate high school. At the time that she was killed, she was a senior looking forward to starting her adult life. They even expressed regret for letting something like this happen to their younger sister.

Liz Gonzalez was especially heartbroken because her younger sister Esther was on her way to her house when she went missing.

so she always felt a lot of guilt for not being there for her. Although there was nothing that she could have done, there would have been no way for her to know that anything like this could have ever happened. But still, as her bigger sister, Liz Gonzalez must have felt a tremendous amount of guilt. From the beginning, Esther's family was willing to do anything and everything possible to help the police find her killer.

In an interview with Fox 8, Liz Gonzalez was quoted as saying, I never let it go because I know if it were me, my sister would never let it go. But the hunt for her sister's killer wasn't easy. In fact, months went by with no arrests. Then eventually, years passed, no arrests. Detectives knew that the location where Esther's body was found was only the dump site.

She had been assaulted and killed somewhere else, but the dump site didn't have many clues. The killer didn't leave behind any obvious pieces of evidence. He could have just driven down the highway, pulled over, and dumped Esther's body out of the car. The whole thing could have taken less than 30 seconds, and no one would have seen a thing. If Esther's body was dumped at nighttime...

chances are there were no other cars on the highway, which meant no witnesses. This was also at a time where there weren't cell phones and there weren't surveillance cameras everywhere like maybe there is today. So there wasn't any type of digital evidence for investigators to look at. And without any witnesses, the police knew nothing and had very few leads to work with.

Over the years, not much progress was made in the case, except for this. When Esther's body was recovered from that roadside snowbank, investigators collected her clothing, and they were eventually able to generate a DNA profile from a semen sample. This happened several years later as DNA testing started to become available, something that investigators didn't have back in 1979.

So as soon as investigators got the DNA profile, it was entered into the Combined DNA Index System, CODIS. But the search through CODIS didn't reveal any matches. It was back to square one. After that, the case turned cold again because the Riverside County Sheriff's Office had other cases they needed to work.

Cases that were considered much more solvable. But that didn't mean they completely forgot about Esther or her murder. The Riverside County Sheriff's Office did everything they possibly could. If they got a lead over the years, they looked into it. They did everything they could. But when the leads run out, the case goes cold.

For the next four decades, Esther Gonzalez's family was forced to move on with their lives, not knowing who killed her, who kidnapped her right off the streets, raped her, and then bludgeoned her to death. It wasn't until 2023, 44 years later, that the Riverside County Sheriff's Office made progress in the investigation again.

In 2023, members of the Riverside County Regional Cold Case Homicide Team, R-C-C-H-T, decided to go back to Esther's case file. The R-C-C-H-T is a special department consisting of members of the DA's Office Bureau of Investigation, the Riverside County Sheriff-Coroner Department, the FBI, and the Riverside Police Department.

So it's a team made up of very experienced investigators. The reason they went back to this particular case was because it was one of the county's oldest unsolved homicides, and they also knew that a lot had changed since 1979.

especially when it comes to DNA and forensic testing. So the team went back to the boxes of evidence and very quickly made a phone call to a private Texas-based DNA lab, Othram, Inc.,

If you've listened to my podcast before, then chances are you've heard the name Othram. We've probably covered over a dozen cases that they've helped to solve. But in case you aren't familiar, Othram is an American lab specializing in forensic genetic genealogy. Their mission is to help solve unsolved homicides,

identify missing persons, and identify previously unidentified people, John and Jane Doe's. What makes Othram so unique is its ability to test even the smallest and most degraded DNA samples. If a police department has done everything possible to try and solve a case or identify someone, they hit a dead end.

they can turn to a private lab like Othram to see if there's anything they can do. If there's still DNA in the case, no matter how small or how old it is, Othram might be able to help.

Since 2018, when Authram was founded, they have helped to solve so many cold cases. It would take me hours just to mention all of them. But some of the more well-known cases that they've been involved with are Beth Doe, a woman who was found murdered and dismembered in three suitcases back in December 1976.

She was eventually identified decades later using genetic genealogy as Evelyn Colon. They also worked the septic tank Sam case from Canada. In April 1977, Gordon Sanderson was found in a septic tank, but the police weren't able to identify him until 2021 when Othram did the DNA testing. Another famous case, Delta Dawn.

In December 1982, a baby was found dead in a Mississippi riverbank but remained a Jane Doe for decades until she was eventually identified 38 years later as Alicia Ann Heinrich.

These are cases that we've covered in earlier episodes if you want to learn more about them. These are also all cases in which law enforcement had DNA, but they had run into a dead end with it.

maybe because there wasn't a match in CODIS. Other times, it's because the DNA is either too small or too degraded for them to test on their own. When any of that happens, they can turn to a company like Othram to see if they can help. So in Esther's case, that's exactly what investigators in Riverside County, California did. They had DNA from the sexual assault, a semen sample, had

However, they didn't get any direct matches through the national databases, so they contacted Othram to see if they could help, and once they had the financial funding, they agreed. All the evidence in the case was sent to their lab facility in Texas. Riverside detectives had worked with Othram in the past on another case, the murder of Juana Rosas Zogel and a few others.

so they felt confident sending them all the evidence they still had. Once it arrived in the woodlands of Texas, Othram's scientists went through everything and used what they call forensic-grade genome sequencing to build a comprehensive genealogical DNA profile. Here's a direct quote from Othram's website about what this technology is. Quote,

Developed by Authrem, forensic-grade genome sequencing, or FGGS, is used by local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies across the United States and internationally to break through previously impenetrable forensic DNA barriers and close previously unsolvable cases.

End quote.

Once they had developed the new DNA profile, it was sent back to investigators in California who used the profile to start the forensic genealogical search, the process of taking unknown DNA and uploading it to various DNA databases in hopes of finding a possible relative. They already knew there wasn't a direct match in CODIS, so finding a relative, finding a family member was the next best thing.

and within weeks, they had found a promising suspect.

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ProlonLife.com slash Forensic Tales. By the end of 2024, investigators in Riverside were convinced that the person who called in the discovery of Esther's body was also her killer, Louis Randolph Williamson, a.k.a. Randy. Although police had officially cleared him as a suspect back in 1979 through a polygraph,

He was never cleared through DNA because that technology hadn't been developed yet. It turns out polygraph examinations aren't always reliable. People can lie and people can beat them. And in this case, that's exactly what happened.

When they uploaded the new DNA profile to the databases, they got a hit for a potential relative. The woman had died years earlier, but in a newspaper article about her passing, the woman listed her son as the executor of her will. That son was Randy Williamson. But that name wasn't new to detectives. He'd been interviewed by the police back in 1979.

So once he was considered a credible suspect in 2023 and 2024, detectives contacted their fellow officers thousands of miles away in Broward County, Florida. But why Broward County, Florida? Well, as soon as they identified Randy as a possible suspect through this new DNA profile, they ran a background check to find out that's where he lived.

But when the results of that background check came back, they learned that he died in 2014 in Broward County, Florida.

So the only way the police in California were going to find out if he really was Esther Gonzalez's killer was to get his DNA sample. But to do that, they needed to convince the police in Florida to dig up his grave. He wasn't alive anymore to submit to DNA testing on his own. So the police in Riverside called the Broward County Sheriff's Office and told them everything.

They gave him all the details about the case, the murder. They said that Randy Williamson was the mystery caller who discovered the body, but he was never arrested because he passed a polygraph test. But now, through new DNA testing, they believe he's the guy. He's the one who murdered this girl four decades earlier.

But for them to be sure, they need to conduct a direct DNA comparison. So when law enforcement in Florida heard this, they agreed.

they got a sample of Randy's blood that had been collected during his 2014 autopsy and sent it back to the California Department of Justice, or DOJ, for testing. Once the sample arrived at the DOJ, it was then compared to the DNA profile that Othram generated from the semen sample. And bingo, there was a match. Randy Williamson assaulted and killed S.

Esther Gonzalez over four decades earlier. He was the one who called in the discovery of her body. He was the one who lied and passed the polygraph. But now, he was finally identified as her killer. In November 2024, the Riverside County DA's office officially announced that Louis Randolph Williamson is believed to be Esther Gonzalez's killer.

But because he died in 2014, there are still so many unanswered questions. Like, how did he manage to beat the polygraph test? Why did he do it? Why did he pick Esther Gonzalez? Was it because he saw her walking to her sister's house and that she was alone? How did he convince her to get into his car? Or did he force her?

Also, why did he call the police to alert them about her body? Did he feel like that would somehow lessen what he did to her? Did he feel guilty and wanted her body to be found sooner rather than later? Then there's this question. Are there potentially other victims out there?

Given what he did in this case, law enforcement suspects that there might be other victims out there. So right now, the Riverside County Regional Cold Case Homicide Team needs your help.

They're asking that anyone who knew Williamson or may have information about Esther's case or potential other victims, contact them directly, 951-955-2777. That's the Riverside County Regional Cold Case Homicide Team at 951-955-2777.

You can also send an email to coldcaseunit at rivcoda.org. According to Othram's website, the identification of Esther Gonzalez's killer represents the 50th publicly announced case in the state of California where officials have used technology developed by Othram to solve a case.

And this is just the beginning. Like I mentioned earlier in the episode, we've covered so many of these cases on just this podcast alone.

But there are still so many other cases that need to be solved. Unsolved homicides from decades ago. Missing people that need to be identified. There are still so many cases that need this type of DNA testing that these private labs can do. But for that to happen, there has to be funding, money, resources.

It's not cheap to perform the type of DNA testing that is needed. And companies like Authram, they rely on financial donors and private funding. That is why me and this podcast are proud monthly financial donors to Authram.

For about the last two years, this podcast has made regular monthly financial contributions to help fund these types of cases that are simply awaiting DNA testing.

If you would like to do the same, I encourage you to go to DNA solves.com to learn more about how you can help fund these cases. You can select a specific case or you can set up a monthly donation that is spread across all the open cases. Any amount can really help get justice for a murder victim or help a family get answers. Again,

If you want to learn more about funding these types of cases, visit DNAsolves.com.

Immediately following the DA's announcement in November 2014, Esther Gonzalez's family spoke out. In a CNN article, Esther's sister, Elizabeth Gonzalez, who is now in her 60s, said this, quote, We are very happy that we finally have closure. We are happy about it, but since the guy has died, a little sad that he won't spend any time for her murder, end quote.

Esther's older brother, Eddie, wrote on Facebook, quote, the Gonzalez family would like to thank the Riverside County Sheriff's Department on a job well done after 40 years the Gonzalez family has closure, end quote.

There's probably only one person who knows why they decided to take the innocent life of a 17-year-old girl with her entire life ahead of her, and that person is Randy Williamson. After he killed her, he went on to spend the next 35 years of his life. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps, lived a normal life, and eventually moved to Florida where he died in 2014.

While detectives found some old assault allegations against him over the years, he was never convicted of any violent crimes, which explains why his DNA wasn't in CODIS. Are there other victims out there?

Hopefully, through more DNA testing, we can finally get the answer to that question. As of today, his DNA has never been matched to any other unsolved rapes or murders. But that doesn't mean they aren't out there. To share your thoughts on this week's episode, follow the show on Instagram and Facebook. To find out what I think about the case, sign up to become a patron at

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