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You're listening to an Ono Media Podcast. There's been an arrest in a grisly cold case murder. A suspect in Texas is behind bars accused of killing a man whose body parts were found in Griffith Park more than two years ago. Someone commits a murder, you know, you can dispose of the body in places that are less sensational. I looked over and it rolled down the hill and fell down into a ravine. I thought it might have been a soccer ball. I turned to my mom and I said it looked, it actually looked like a head.
Hi everyone and welcome back to the podcast. I am so excited today because I have a friend with me on the show. Everyone, welcome Annie. Hello, hello. I'm so happy to be here. I know, this is so fun. If you don't know who Annie is, she has
amazing shows. Not to mention you're like blowing up, like just completely taking off. Like I feel like you are taking over the true crime industry. I mean, I wouldn't go that far. Let's hope though that we keep the momentum going. It is so, so awesome. So she has 10 to life. Seriously, you're major on YouTube. Like, yeah, I started YouTube back in,
2020. Okay. Yeah. That was the primary thing and then the podcast started about a year ago. Okay. So fun. So yeah, just another girl boss who's with me doing our thing. Excited. So we are going to be telling you a case today together. I hope you like the format. It's definitely new for me. I think it's new for you as well. Pretty new. I've done it a couple times. Yeah, it's pretty new. To do like the dual host thing. Yeah. So we thought we'd try it out, see how it goes. Be kind. Yeah. Yeah.
We're so excited. We're friends off of podcasting as well. We've been to lunch. We do all the things. So I just thought it would be fun to come together. I know. I'm so excited. Okay. So before we get into it, we have to do our 10 seconds. So I guess I will start with mine because I'm going to give Annie her own too. I was explaining to her.
And to listeners, if you're new and don't know our other show, Murder With My Husband, my husband does a 10 seconds at the beginning of every episode. And then when I started Into the Dark, we kind of were like, if Peyton's doing a solo thing, people were kind of wanting me to do a 10 seconds as well. Yeah, I love that. So that is kind of what...
of where it comes from. Okay. So if you don't know, I go to hot yoga all the time. And last night I went to a class and I was the only person there who was probably under 40. Really? Yes. It was kind of the night classes are like that. It's always a bunch of older people who are trying to like just keep moving their body, be able to put their shoes on type thing. Um, and
And there was this couple. So we finished class and I go out and most of the time I just kind of like grab my stuff and go. But there was this couple and she starts talking to me. She's older, retired for sure. And she's like, oh, it's just so cold today. I had to be in a blanket all day before class. And then I was like, we definitely need to go to yoga. And when she said we, I was like, what? And then her little old husband came walking out and he comes next to her. She's like, oh, and she's like.
yeah, we're definitely making soup tonight because it's so cold. And he was like, we're making what? And she was like, soup. And he was like, oh, yum. And I was just like, this is goals. I love that. That's like so wholesome. Yes. It gave me hope. I was like, oh my gosh, these, they just come to yoga together. They're going to go home and make soup. Does Garrett ever go to yoga? No. Yogurt, yoga, yogurt. There is a couple our age that sometimes will come, but no.
No, not really. Yeah. I don't think he could do it. Yoga is kind of hard. And especially the hot yoga. Yeah. Because you're in like 120 degrees. It's really hard. I remember the first time I tried it, I thought I was going to faint. I was like, I don't know if I'm built for this. Yeah. I think that it would drive him crazy. Like he would be like, I can't, I can't, I can't. Oh, yeah. Yeah. No, not built for it. I mean, I will say your 10 seconds is way deeper than where I was going to go. Oh, no, no, no. I don't have any good stories. Mine are always just randomly all over. But that happened last night. And I was like, that would be fun.
be fun to share because it's just so wholesome and it was fun. It is. It really is. I was going to go more along the lines of like, I'm really excited for Vanderpump to come. I'm obsessed with all things Bravo. And I'm literally counting down the days until Bravo was back on my screen. We, Garrett and I have been wanting to watch Real Housewives of Salt Lake City together because we heard it's so good. Oh, you're from Utah. Yeah. Oh, it is so good. This was a great season. Yeah. So we were like, should we start it? And then we were like, should we stream it?
And like share our live reaction to watching because we like neither of us have ever watched. 1000% please do that. I will be all in the comments on it. I think we need to. It's so good. This season was like gold. I want to watch it. Yeah, that'll be fun. All right, you guys, that is our 10 seconds and we are going to jump into the episode trigger warning. This episode includes discussions of murder, self-harm and the dismemberment of a body. So please listen with care.
So sadly, it seems that you can never really know what's going on in someone else's head.
Even if you think you know them really well or trust them with your life. We've all heard of someone whose partner cheated on them or whose best friend spread a nasty rumor or who mistakenly gave a lot of money to a con artist. But even if someone doesn't betray you in a major way, they may still deceive you in smaller ways. That friend who assures you that your favorite outfit is flattering then mocks your fashion sense behind your back.
The salesperson who promises you that this is the best deal you're going to find while charging a premium. A coworker who covers up a big mistake at work because they're afraid of getting in trouble. People lie all of the time. Even otherwise good people who generally don't intend any harm.
So today, as I tell you a story that's all about lies and deception and false facades, I'm bringing on a guest to help me peel back some of these false layers and try to find the truth. And that is Annie. We are going to get into it. So it can be really hard to cut through all the artifice we all build up around ourselves, even when it's a matter of life or death.
So this came into play in a big way on January 17th, 2012. That day, Lauren Kornberg and her mother were hiking together on a trail in Bronson Canyon.
Now that name might not ring any bells, but Bronson Canyon is one of the most iconic places in Southern California. It's where you can see the Hollywood sign, the Los Angeles Griffith Observatory, and the actual Bat Cave. In the 1960s, they filmed portions of the Batman TV show outside some of the caverns that are in the canyon as well. So this was a really popular trail with a glitzy Hollywood connection and a lot of foot traffic.
Hardly the kind of place where you'd expect to stumble upon a crime scene. So Lauren and her mother didn't think much of it when they went off the trail a little bit so one of their dogs, Ollie, could kind of run around.
A report with People Magazine Investigates says that as soon as he got free off of his leash, Ollie darted straight towards this peculiar bush and he began digging at it. Ollie dragged something out. It was wrapped in a 99 cent store bag. And while Lauren tried to figure out what Ollie had found, the thing actually tumbled out of his jaws and it rolled a little bit down into the ravine.
From the trail above, Lauren and her mom tried to get a good look at this object, but they still couldn't quite figure out what it was. So Lauren's mom even hiked a little lower to see if it would be easier to identify if she was closer. And when she recognized the item, she was horrified. Ollie had found a human body.
Now obviously this was shocking and upsetting, so much so that Lauren and her mom wondered if there was some other explanation for this. Like maybe it was a very realistic prop from a movie, which had maybe been abandoned in this canyon. I mean they are in Hollywood, but they couldn't deny what they were really seeing. A human head, and honestly it was a fresh one at that.
The deceased couldn't have been dead for long. Lauren later told People magazine that she couldn't help but wonder if the killer was still somewhere nearby watching them.
Lauren and her mom didn't have their cell phones with them. They hadn't expected that they would have to make any calls while walking the dogs. So they borrowed one from somebody who was passing by. And after they called 911, Lauren's mom hiked back to the trail entrance. She wanted to meet the police when they arrived and show them exactly where to go to find the head. And Lauren stayed with it while her mom waited for the officials.
Soon, homicide detectives arrived with their cadaver dog. And this dog isn't super relevant to the case, but I have to note that the canine officer was named Indiana Bones. I honestly love that name. It is so beyond clever. Anyways, Indiana and the police scoured every inch of this trail. For three days, it was closed to hikers while they conducted their investigation. So the day after Ollie dug up the head, they uncovered two feet and a hand. Ollie's
all of which were from the same victim who'd lost his head. They were also wrapped in plastic grocery bags, just like the head had been. This latest discovery was actually key. Like we mentioned before, the head looked very fresh, barely decomposed at all, and the eyes were still open. That is incredible.
- So haunting. - It really is. And investigators could make out the victim's facial expression as well. - The hand and feet were still intact enough that the police could actually pull fingerprints off of them, which is how they actually identified the victim, Herve Medellin. - He was a 66-year-old retiree who loved to hike around the city, including on the very same trail where his head and limbs were found.
Years ago, Hervey had immigrated to the United States from Mexico. Now, he was divorced and had no children, but lived with his boyfriend. He loved art, doted on his dog, and he had an active social life.
Hervey had already been reported missing just one day earlier, except it seems he'd actually disappeared weeks ago. The last time that he was seen alive, he had dinner with a friend on December 26th, 2011, when the friend tried to call him the next day, and for the next few days after that, Hervey didn't answer.
They were supposed to go out together on New Year's Eve, but he was a no-show on December 31st. Eventually, the friend got a hold of Hervey's boyfriend, Gabriel Campos Martinez. Gabriel didn't seem too worried at the time, though. He said Hervey was out of the country in Mexico, but he also admitted that he hadn't heard from Hervey in a few days. Still, he was hesitant to notify the authorities.
Meanwhile, another of Herbie's friends was also getting worried. She kept calling too, and Gabriel told her the same thing, that Herbie was just in Mexico for a short while. He was fine. Honestly, if there's any time where a significant other is like, oh, I just didn't report a missing because X, Y, and Z, it's always a red flag. Always a red flag. So...
This other friend didn't buy the boyfriend's story and she dropped by Hervey's apartment to check in on him. Obviously he wasn't there, but while she looked around, she saw Hervey's prescription medicine. He took his pills every day. He couldn't leave them behind in LA, even if he was only going on a short trip, let alone to Mexico. So this was worrisome. Hervey's trip to Mexico wasn't what it seemed to be. An
And eventually one of Hervey's friends reported him missing. I'm not sure who exactly, but I do know it wasn't his boyfriend, Gabriel. It seemed he still believed Hervey was safe and sound living his best life south of the border.
However, at least one of Herbie's friends wasn't convinced. After all, this was very uncharacteristic for Herbie. He traveled a lot, but he hadn't mentioned anything about going to Mexico recently. And even if he was on a trip, he would still call people to check in. It wasn't like him to just withdraw from his social circle all of a sudden.
So yeah, he had a reputation for being super friendly and outgoing. He'd worked for Mexicana Airlines for 25 years, and his outgoing nature was really useful in that job. As a flight attendant, he had to deal with stressed out travelers every single day. And in his personal life, he had maintained a lot of close friendships with the people that he had met over the years. So generally, he was well-liked.
A nice, easygoing guy like Hervey doesn't tend to have a lot of enemies. So it was not the sort of person who would just turn up dismembered on a remote trail. So right from the get-go, the police were fairly stumped about how to proceed in their investigation. They questioned a, frankly, random assortment of people. They even talked to Brad Pitt's bodyguard. The actor and producer lived near Bronson Canyon, and I guess the police thought his security team may have seen something notable there.
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Sometimes after a particularly long day, I love to play games on my phone to get my mind off things and one game I have been loving is June's Journey. June's Journey is a hidden object mystery mobile game that puts your detective skills to the test. You play as June Parker and investigate beautifully detailed scenes of the 1920s while uncovering the mystery of her sister's murder. With hundreds of mind-teasing puzzles, the next clue is always within reach.
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I have always loved good scavenger hunts and puzzles, and of course, we all know I love a good murder mystery, and this is just the perfect marriage of the two. Right now, I'm on chapter two. I've been trying so hard not to use the light bulb feature to help me search for clues. I seriously look forward to playing it every night. Discover your inner detective when you download June's Journey for free today on iOS and Android. In
Instead, they made what little progress they did by following a standard forensic procedure. The coroner determined that Hervey had most likely died of strangulation. Then he was dismembered after he was already dead. The medical examiner also estimated that he was killed around December 27, 2011. So...
That would have been the day after he had dinner with his friend who last saw him. And that's a full four weeks before his head, hand, and feet were found. But remember, the limbs were all fresh with minimal deterioration. That's because whoever killed Herbie presumably didn't dump his body parts right away.
they had been refrigerated. So eerie. So with that unnerving information on hand, the police secured a warrant to search his apartment in case there might be some clues there. And what they found didn't point at a killer exactly, but it was very strange. According to People Magazine, Herbie owned a ton of extremely valuable fine art. He
He lived in a pretty modest one-bedroom apartment, but every inch of every single wall had a framed painting on it. These pieces were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. They were completely out of sync with his otherwise humble lifestyle. And there was no way he could afford all of this on a flight attendant's salary.
which left investigators wondering, where were these paintings coming from? What secrets was Hervey hiding behind his friendly facade?
They issued a general call for information, asking the public for tips, and one key individual saw the call and recognized Hervey's name. This person was a retired narcotics detective who'd met Hervey a few times in the 1980s for one of his cases. He called the homicide detectives to share what he knew.
Hervey had ties to a drug cartel called the Cali Cartel. It all went back to his work with Mexicana Airlines. The cops knew that the cartels used this particular air service to transport their product all over the world. And somehow, while Hervey was a flight attendant, he also began working for the drug runners on the side. So to be clear, Hervey wasn't transporting or dealing controlled substances himself so far as anyone knew.
you know, he'd do favors for high ranking kingpins or their friends. If say a drug Lord's girlfriend wanted a shopping trip on Rodeo drive, Hervey would recommend restaurants, book the hotel room and help them work out which stores were the best ones to visit.
Sometimes he'd even hit the shops with them, keeping them company. Again, Hervey was a very social guy. He might even reserve tickets to a show or arrange a spa day for one of his contacts. Just use his knowledge and his network in Los Angeles to show these dangerous criminals a good time. It was a fairly low risk way to make some extra money. He wasn't breaking any laws or hurting anyone.
It's unclear if the cartels paid him with fine art or if he used the illicit funds to buy the paintings himself.
But Harvey had still gotten rich by surrounding himself with some very dangerous people. They might have reacted violently if he tried to get out of the game at some point, maybe after retiring from Mexicana Airlines. After all, it's fairly common for drug cartel enforcers to decapitate their victims, and the state of Harvey's body, or what police could find of it, might have been a clue pointing toward the real culprit.
But beyond that one similarity, there wasn't any hard evidence connecting Herbie's murder to the drug runners. And it's not like a beheading is so highly specific that the cartels were the only possible killers here. I mean, this is really hard because if you have someone who turns up beheaded, half of their body still missing, and then you find out that they are maybe in cahoots with some drug runners or the cartels,
I mean, your mind automatically goes there. You're going to 1 plus 1 equals 2, like he was around dangerous people, right? But.
But if you have no other signs pointing to that, it's like, where do you go? Right. So in fact, the Colombian government busted most of the Cali cartels leadership back in the mid 1990s. So the criminal enterprise was largely defunct by 2011 when Harvey died. At this point, it really didn't make sense for the Calis or their enemies to go after a small time concierge.
a man who'd made some reservations and done some shopping, but otherwise wasn't an active part of the operation.
So the police kept digging, and they found another suspect pretty quickly. See, since March 2011, so for about nine months, Herbie had been dating Gabriel Campos Martinez, which was a problem because when Herbie and Gabriel first met, Gabriel was already in a serious relationship with somebody else. We've got motive everywhere, people. People Magazine investigates described the love triangle like this...
Gabriel and his partner of three years, William Ludwig, were out on a stroll together when they bumped into Hervey, who was walking his dog. Gabriel and Hervey were kind of instantly smitten, and William knew Hervey was a threat to his relationship right away. So
So when Gabriel broke up with William, two months later, William must have blamed Hervey. And even worse, Gabriel and Hervey became very serious very quickly. They moved in together right after they started dating. On the surface, Gabriel and Hervey's romance seemed like something out of a fairy tale.
But for William, it was an absolute nightmare, especially as he became alarmingly possessive and threatening. He refused to acknowledge that Hervey and Gabriel were really together. In fact, William referred to Hervey as Gabriel's roommate. He threatened to hurt both Gabriel and Hervey, leaving voicemail after unnerving voicemail until Hervey had to actually change his number. And on one occasion, he said both Hervey and his dog would be sorry.
Another time he left horse droppings on Herbie's front porch alongside a threatening note that said he'd never leave Gabriel alone, not for the rest of his life. This is just upsetting, unhealthy, toxic ex-boyfriend behavior. Yes, please don't ever leave horse poo on somebody's property. I have to say there was literally poop on my doorstep and I stepped in it and I don't, it wasn't Daisy's.
Oh my gosh, so there was like a wild animal. Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Oh my gosh, that's freaking me out. So Herbie and Gabriel actually took out a restraining order against William. Unfortunately though, law enforcement officers couldn't find him to serve him with the paperwork, so the order wasn't active. Either way, given his history of aggressive behavior, it wasn't difficult to imagine that William could have easily killed Herbie in a jealous fit.
Even Williams seemed to realize how damning this all looked for him. When police brought him in for an interrogation, he freely admitted that he'd overreacted to the breakup. He said it was because Gabriel was, as he put it, the love of my life. But he insisted he didn't kill Hervey. He didn't even want to hurt Hervey. He didn't know anything about the murder and he'd take a lie detector test to prove it.
The investigators took him up on that offer, and then they examined the findings. But the polygraph results were inconclusive. Now, these kind of tests aren't particularly accurate. They can't actually measure if a person is being honest, only if they're really nervous. The assumption is that your discomfort increases when you're lying. And honestly, if I was hooked up to a lie detector test, I would fail because I would be so nervous. Same. I think, I mean, that has to be why they're inadmissible in court. Because everybody, I feel like, there's no way to tell. Yeah.
So it's not like William's results could have proved he was the killer or exonerated him either. Even if they weren't inconclusive, they'd be fairly meaningless. But luckily for William, he had a super solid alibi. The night that Hervey was murdered, William was at work. So inconclusive polygraph or not, the police had to rule him out.
So that made for two theories that seemed good from the start, kind of both fell apart after a little bit of digging. Once again, the police didn't have any good leads, but they knew who to talk to next. Hervey's boyfriend, Gabriel. He lived with Hervey and must have known him better than anyone. So if Hervey had any other enemies, Gabriel would know.
However, when the detectives talked to Gabriel, he had a hard time answering their questions. He contradicted himself a few times, like he wasn't totally being honest. They gave him a polygraph test too, and it suggested that he was lying. But again, lie detector tests are not reliable, so this wasn't strong evidence in and of itself.
However, the police knew Gabriel had handled Hervey's disappearance oddly prior to that point. Like we said before, Hervey was reported missing a few weeks after his murder, but Gabriel didn't say a word to authorities the whole time he was out of contact with him. You'd think that he'd notice if the man who lived with him had disappeared.
As a reminder, Hervey was reported missing on January 16th, and his head was found on the 17th. Well, on the 16th, before the detectives knew Hervey was dead, they sat down with Gabriel and asked him what he knew. Gabriel said Hervey was on a trip to Mexico, the same thing he told his friends when they called to ask about Hervey's whereabouts.
According to Gabriel, the trip had been totally spontaneous. One morning, Hervey woke him up to announce he was leaving the country. Gabriel was surprised by the news, but he went back to sleep. When he got up again later, Hervey was gone, but he'd left behind his car and his phone.
By this point, Gabriel had no way to reach Hervey and let him know he'd forgotten them. All he could do was wait for Hervey to come home. Except there was no record of Hervey crossing the border. The police already knew that he'd never made it out of the United States. But Gabriel told the police that Hervey had called him internationally a few times from a landline in Mexico, which was why he hadn't reported his boyfriend missing.
Once again, investigators couldn't find any record of these calls. And after his conversation with the detectives, that is when Gabriel filed a missing persons report on Hervey. When he showed up at the police department, he was crying and acting highly emotional, which again was weird for someone who seemed so unconcerned in the earlier conversation. Now it's possible that he genuinely thought that Hervey was out of the country and largely out of contact.
that he didn't think to be worried until those detectives showed up. Maybe they said something that helped him realize Herbie wasn't just in Mexico after all. Except...
Why would he report his boyfriend missing at that point if he already knew the police were investigating his disappearance because the friends had already said something? It almost seemed like he was going through the motions, pretending to be worried about Hervey's well-being, especially because he kept asking to see the missing person's reports other people had already filed. Like he wanted to gauge how much the police already knew.
Then, just one day after Gabriel's conversation with the police, Hervey's head was discovered, proving he was not in Mexico, and he hadn't called Gabriel on his trip because Hervey couldn't call him if he was dead, and Gabriel had been lying.
Now, Gabriel had several compelling motives to kill Hervey. According to some of their friends, they'd been going through a rocky patch recently. The man who lived in the apartment below theirs heard them fighting one night around the day that Hervey went missing. It was about 3 a.m. The neighbor heard shouting and then scraping like someone was moving furniture around.
Perhaps they had a domestic disturbance that got out of hand. But Herbie and Gabriel also shared a bank account, which was where Herbie's social security checks were deposited. They opened their joint account on December 13, 2011, just two weeks before Herbie's murder. Now, prior to that point, Gabriel had no way of accessing Herbie's money. Maybe Gabriel decided to kill his boyfriend, so the funds they shared would become his alone.
After all, Gabriel used Hervey's debit card after he died, and he pawned some of Hervey's valuables for cash. Okay, most beauty brands don't understand fine color treated hair, but Proz does. They have a formula that can address my specific type of hair needs, which makes sense because it's based on me. If you're wondering whether custom hair care is worth the hype, let me tell you it is, and that's why I'm obsessed with Proz.
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Even though Gabriel was looking more suspicious with each new discovery, the police didn't know for sure that he had anything to do with Herbie's murder. After all, William and the Cali cartel also both had looked guilty at one point, and those appearances had been deceiving. So maybe Gabriel was innocent too. And after all, the police scoured Gabriel and Herbie's apartment and only found a tiny amount of blood in Herbie's bedroom. It was not enough to prove that he'd
been murdered there and there wasn't any other obvious location where Gabriel could have killed him. Likewise, there was no sign of blood in Hervey's car. The lack of evidence could mean that Hervey died somewhere else and at someone else's hands. So it's pretty safe to say the police needed a smoking gun. Without one, they just couldn't charge Gabriel or anyone else with Hervey's murder. And while they kept digging, Gabriel moved out of the state.
Again, this could be a sign of his guilt, but it's just as easy to believe that Gabriel was traumatized by his boyfriend's gruesome homicide and wanted a fresh start somewhere else. The investigators kept tabs on him while he settled in Texas, but they couldn't do anything else without more evidence. It took
two years of investigating. At one point, the detectives accessed the browsing history on Gabriel's laptop. They suspected that Gabriel had pawned even more of Hervey's jewelry and they wanted evidence that he'd stolen from his boyfriend after his death. Instead,
they found something much stranger. Around the time of Hervey's murder, Gabriel had looked at the Church of Euthanasia's webpage. That's a movement that tried to raise awareness of climate change and overpopulation. They encouraged people not to have children and to kill themselves.
We can debate about whether they really wanted to promote suicide or if it was just a dramatic way to get people's attention. But their website did include detailed instructions on how a person could take their own life. It stands to reason that someone planning to commit murder
might also find that information useful. He had also Googled things like sausage-making equipment and butchering tools. And Gabriel had clicked on an article that was titled, Butcher a Human Carcass for Consumption.
He had made these searches over the course of several days, beginning the same day that Hervey went missing. I just want to know who created the website and do they need a check-in? 100%.
Now, he may have been researching butchering methods to help him dispose of Hervey's corpse, but the sausage-making tools, you don't need those to dump body parts in a canyon. It's suggested Gabriel had another motive beyond the money. Perhaps he killed Hervey so he could eat him? Maybe to get rid of the evidence? I don't know. It's sick.
It's really hard to say because parts of Herbie's corpse were never recovered. Now remember, when the police initially searched Bronson Canyon, they only found his head, feet, and one hand.
So for three years afterward, they were unable to locate any more of Hervey's remains. But in March of 2014, a crew was doing some construction work near the Bronson Caves. Those are the caverns we referenced earlier. TV makers used them as the Bat Cave entrance back in the 60s. So while the team was digging near the Bat Cave, they found more body parts. And specifically, they found skin. Like, long, sharp,
Investigators were able to test the DNA and identify this additional flesh as Herbie's.
But that's the last time that anyone found any of his remains. As of this recording, Herbie's torso is still missing, along with his legs, arms, and other hand. We can't say for sure if Gabriel ate some of it or all of it. Maybe they were dumped elsewhere in Bronson Canyon, just like the other body parts are.
It's been more than 12 years since the homicide. And Bronson Canyon is home to wild animals like snakes, coyotes, and mountain lions. They could have easily dragged off or eaten parts of Hervey before the police could have recovered them. Each day that passes, it becomes increasingly unlikely that we will ever uncover any other traces of him. So unless Gabriel starts talking, we might not ever know for sure.
And, well, he hasn't been chatty about the murder. Like we mentioned before, it took a long time for the police to gather enough evidence to arrest Gabriel. Hervey was murdered in late December 2011. His head, hand, and feet were discovered in mid-January of the following year, 2012.
They didn't bring Gabriel into custody, though, until March 2014, so two years later. By that point, he was fully settled down in Texas and married with a wife.
But San Antonio police took him into custody and set his bail at $1 million. Then he returned to Los Angeles to face his charges. When he went to trial in 2015, Gabriel denied everything. He said he still didn't know who had killed Hervey or why. Not that the jury found his arguments particularly persuasive, though, especially when prosecutors proved that he took Hervey's money and possessions.
possessions after the murder and shared that disturbing browsing history. They also got to talk about the skin in the bag, which was found near the Batcave. It was discovered just in time to be admitted into evidence. And that, plus the fact that Hervey's body was refrigerated, suggested that Gabriel had shown a callous disregard for Hervey after his death.
It's not like Gabriel killed him on impulse and then panicked. He was methodical, cold-blooded even.
Ultimately, Gabriel was convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life. But for almost two years, Gabriel nearly got away with murder. He moved to a new city where nobody knew him, and he played the part of a devoted husband and an upstanding citizen. So yet again, you get these layers of artifice that you have to peel back. Gabriel pretended to be thoughtful and loving. In reality, he was a con artist, a killer, and maybe possibly a cannibal.
Likewise, Hervey's friends and family all saw him as a friendly, approachable retiree. They were unaware of his history with the cartels and the potentially dangerous games that he was playing. It all seems like a fitting Hollywood story, right? You get glitz, glamour, and glory, all of which almost always hide the darkness underneath.
That story definitely took some turns and thank you Annie for going into the dark with me, so to speak. Thank you, I was so happy to be here. Well, that's the case everyone. Do you think there was enough evidence to convict?
I mean, honestly, it was pretty circumstantial at best. I don't think there was. I think you could have argued it if he had a really good defense attorney. I think so, too. Yeah. Even though the Google history searches and him with the missing persons file, like there's nothing concrete that ties into him forensically. It definitely probably just depends on the jury. Like, are they going to read into the circumstantial evidence or not? I mean, you could say the same thing about Casey Anthony, right? Right. Yeah.
And it's crazy case like, yeah, as long as you don't. I mean, I hate to say this, but as long as they don't plead guilty and there's nothing like forensically tying them. Yeah.
- It's like any case could be up in the air or it could be argued at that point. - Absolutely, you just need like a shrivel of reasonable doubt to convince them and give them another possible suspect, which here the cartel could have easily been somebody to pin it on. - Or the ex-boyfriend who had made threats before. - I know, it's a crazy case. - It is, it's insane.
All right, you guys, that was our case for this week. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Thank you, Annie, so much for coming and make sure to go check out on her channel. The links will be everywhere in the description. I'm going to be doing a case with her. So if you want to go listen, go do it now and we will see you next time with another episode. Goodbye. Bye.