Unsolved: Semper Fidelis (Rocky Padilla)
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Hi, I'm Ashley Flowers, creator and host of the number one true crime podcast, Crime Junkie. Every Monday, me and my best friend Britt break down a new case, but not in the way you've heard before, and not the cases you've heard before. You'll hear stories on Crime Junkie that haven't been told anywhere else. I'll tell you what you can do to help victims and their families get justice.

Join us for new episodes of Crime Junkie every Monday. Already waiting for you by searching for Crime Junkie wherever you listen to podcasts. You know, they say time makes it easier. I think it hasn't made it easier for me. It's just made it more acceptable that he's been gone this long. But it doesn't make it any easier. I still miss him and I'm devastated about what happened to him. I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff.

I'm Anastasia Nicolazzi, former New York City homicide prosecutor and host of Investigation Discovery's True Conviction. And this is Anatomy of Murmur.

Today's episode is taking us to the Aloha State, but not to discuss fun in the sun or Hawaii's tropical climate. Instead, the murders of two active Marines over 40 years ago. And it's a case that still remains unsolved today. This is another opportunity for Ana Siga, myself, and this podcast to be able to talk to you about a case where we all have an opportunity to potentially get involved.

It's about getting a message out because a family is still waiting for answers. And you all know how important that is to us to help as much as we can, whether it's in our former professions or as podcasters. It's an opportunity for us all to help out.

I'm hoping that somebody's gonna sit in here and say, you know, I remember that incident. Or maybe even somebody saying, you know, I remember driving by that park that night and I saw somebody there. I saw these guys there. You know, I never thought it was important, but maybe it is. Maybe I'll just call and give the information. So that's what I'm hoping for. The voice you just heard is retired Denver Police Captain Joe Padilla. I spoke with Joe about an unsolved double murder that occurred in Hawaii back in September of 1980.

This is a case that has haunted Joe for nearly 43 years. And not just because it claimed the life of two U.S. Marines, but because one of those victims was his brother, 21-year-old Lance Corporal Rodney, or as he was called, Rocky Padilla.

Joe was just starting out his career in law enforcement when he received the news that the body of his youngest brother, Rocky, and that of fellow Marine 19-year-old Larry Martins, had been found on an empty stretch of beach outside Honolulu. Since then, he has spent every day of his career and retirement searching for the truth and the person that killed his brother.

It's my firm belief that there are people out there that know something. And I'm hoping with the passage of time that old loyalties have changed. And maybe somebody just wants to help our families and just come forward with what happened or who was involved. Now, hearing that the events of this case occurred more than 40 years ago, well, that may sound like an almost insurmountable amount of time to pass if you want to solve this crime.

But as a homicide prosecutor, I can for sure tell you that it is never too long or too late for a murder to be solved. Over that long period of time, witnesses disappear, investigators retire, and even evidence can grow legs. And eventually, as is often the case, hope starts to fade.

Fortunately, that is not the case here. Because of Joe's tireless dedication to his brother and his skills as a police officer, the details of this case that he was able to recount are as fresh as the day he learned them. And the story starts not on Hawaii, but on mainland Denver, Colorado, where Joe and Rocky grew up.

I'm the second in line and my brother right behind me, he's about a year behind me, is Rick. And then Rocky was the baby. So Rocky was four years younger than me and three years younger than Rick. Since Rocky was so much younger, we were protective of him. He was always trying to hang out with us because he wanted to hang out with his older brothers.

And like a lot of little brothers, perhaps even in your own family, Rocky was always looking for ways to impress his older siblings. And as Joe tells it, he did just that.

He was an excellent athlete. We all played Little League football, and neither Rick or I were the star that Rocky was. Rocky was in great shape. He was outgoing, very enthusiastic, positive, prankster, and he was always pulling jokes on people, and he's always laughing. The majority of the photos that we have of him as a child, he's got a big smile on his face, and he's always happy.

In speaking with Joe, it became abundantly clear that for Rocky and Joe and all their siblings, they were super close and that family was really important to them. And as he described it, this family didn't have much when it came to finances, but they did have one another.

My mother was born in New Mexico and what's strange is we talk now and she was born in a home with a dirt floor, no electricity, no plumbing, and they were perfectly happy. They moved up to Denver and they settled here and we lived in Northwest Denver. It was my single mother with my grandmother raising four children. Well, we didn't have a lot. We didn't realize we didn't have a lot, but that caused us kids to become a little closer.

Joe and Rocky's mom worked two jobs to keep food on the table. And when the Denver neighborhood where she was raising her family was becoming too dangerous, she knew it was time to make a move. And she was willing to do what it took to keep her family safe. Where we lived when we were younger, up until I was 11 years old,

It was inner city Denver and we lived in a duplex housing. We didn't have our own home. The neighborhood really started changing. It went downhill. By the time I was 11, I had two friends who were killed.

We weren't aware of the problems in the neighborhood, but as we got older, my mom said, I'm getting my kids out of here. So we moved up to the suburbs in Adams County, which was a leave-it-to-beaver type neighborhood. We had kids in just about every house, and it was really a great place to grow up and go to high school. It's definitely fair to say that growing up without a lot of financial security can obviously have detrimental impact and effects on everyone, certainly kids.

But in Joe and Rocky's case, the challenges they faced growing up instilled in them a deep sense of responsibility. Within their family, Rocky took on the role of protector.

There were some times when my dad would come back and be the disciplinarian when we were young. Rocky would get very, very angry about my dad striking us and trying to keep us in line. I think the impact it had on Rocky is he became a protector. He was a little tiny kid just trying to protect us, and he was always trying to tag along. So I think a lot of Rocky's

Initial observations were to be a protector. He wanted to help and he was in outstanding shape. He worked out all the time, very popular, always had rules chasing him. He had a very dynamic, outgoing personality.

And outside the home, both brothers always wanted to help. Rocky was also a child who had ambitions and big dreams of leaving his mark on the world. And while Joe was making plans to enter the police academy, his little brother, Rocky, had other ideas.

My mother remarried when we were teenagers, and the person she married was an alcoholic. He was abusive, just not a kind person. And he told Rocky and all of us these Atlanta stories that he was in the Marines in Vietnam, got a field promotion to lieutenant. He was a black belt in Sabat, French foot fighting, and all these dramatic stories. And Rocky was young enough, he believed it.

As it turned out, this man, he did join the Marine Corps, but failed out of basic training and was never essentially in the service. I think Rocky heard these romantic stories about the Marine Corps, about how dramatic it was and how fun it was. And Rocky did excel in the Marine Corps, but I think that that's how he initially got his interest in joining the service and going to the Marines was through this guy.

After high school, Rocky moved in with his brother Joe and Joe's young family. But it was pretty clear that Rocky was eager to start his own career in the military. I think he thought it was a noble calling being a Marine. And I agree, it is an outstanding profession. But he just wanted to do something. He wanted to see the world. And just like law enforcement, he thought it was more of a helping profession. He could help people around the world.

You know, it was so heartwarming, Anastasia, to hear Joe talk about the stories about how he wanted to influence his brother. And, you know, Rocky followed a solid path. He was beginning to work. His courage, talent, and ambition made Rocky uniquely qualified for a long, successful career in the Marine Corps. But Rocky's career in the Marines would be cut short on the dark shores of a distant island. Not in battle.

but by the hand of an unknown killer.

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Rocky Pedia was just 19 years old when he began the notoriously grueling 13 weeks of boot camp at Camp Pendleton, just outside of San Diego. But it's safe to say he was definitely up to the challenge. And Rocky excelled in more than just friendships. He graduated top of his class, basic training as a Lance Corporal. He was at Camp Pendleton, and then they sent him to K-Bay, which is a Marine Corps base in Hawaii.

I mean, just think about this kid from Colorado, which is beautiful with the mountains, but it's also landlocked. So I would imagine, Scott, that being stationed in Hawaii would be pretty exciting. I mean, I think it would be for almost all of us. Think about anyone going from Denver to Hawaii. What a change of world, change of pace. Seeing his brother go through the police academy was a really big deal for Rocky. So now he was going to have his own opportunity to sort of cut his teeth in his own path.

You know, as a field training officer for the Sheriff's Office, several of my trainees or boots, as we call them, came to the department with military experience and they were usually

really squared away, not only in a physical sense, but in a mental sense. They were hungry to learn, and that's a great way to walk into a new job. And I'll also add, the armed forces is not a bad way to see the world, and to add those skills and that training, the camaraderie, the sense of mission and purpose was perfect for Rocky. He called my mother, and my mother called me to tell me Rocky's going to Hawaii. He was pretty excited about it.

because it was a desired location. And it's a large base. Pearl Harbor is there, and there's a lot of history there. And Rocky was looking forward to just seeing Hawaii. As we were raised, we never really got to experience other locations. You know, we didn't have the traditional family vacations. My mother couldn't afford it. She worked two jobs. That was normal life for us. She had to work, and that's kind of how it was. It is a work ethic that her children, including Rocky, seem to share.

He always sought responsibility. He was never one to shirk anything. One thing that happened while Rocky was at the base, the Russians invaded Afghanistan so that they were activated. And he was on a troop ship accompanying the USS Nimitz for almost six months off the coast of Pakistan while all that was going on out there. And the Marines are always first in and driving the amphibious assault vehicle. He would be the tip of the spear, one of the first ones in there.

But fortunately, those skills worked really well for Rocky, and he made it out safely. And by the summer of 1980, Joe Padilla had established himself as an effective and decorated police officer in Denver. And his little brother, Rocky, was poised to earn some stripes of his own.

He was notified that he was going to make a drill instructor and go back to Southern California. He even been issued the sergeant's stripes and everything. Sergeants essentially are the first really supervisory rank and so to be a drill instructor, you're the one that are training the new recruits in boot camp. You're pretty much their big brother and you get them up and have them run and just turn them into Marines.

The younger brother that always tagged along behind Joe, who saw himself as a protector, would finally get to act as a mentor for future Marines. But in September of 1980, just weeks before his expected transfer to California, Joe Padilla received a phone call that would forever change his life. I was with the Westminster Police Department, and I remember where I was sitting. I remember the phone call when I was sitting at my desk.

It was mid-morning, probably around 9.30, 10 o'clock. Pick up the phone, and I didn't recognize my mother's voice at first. She's screaming into the phone, crying. She's saying, it's Rocky, it's Rocky. He's been killed. I said, what? She said, I don't know what happened. They found his remains. I don't know what they did to him. I don't know if they beat him, but they killed him. And I said, who? She goes, I don't know. The police just called and said they found Rocky. I don't know what to do.

But before he could think of himself, Joe needed to first care for their mom. I tried to calm her down and I said, OK, mom, let me see what I can find out. And you could just imagine, I mean, Joe was a police officer who had been dealing in these horrible situations for years by this point and really calming other families down and being there for them. But now this was his own.

And this was his mom, and this was his brother. So he kept a brave face on the outside, but on the inside, Joe was really hurting. But my thoughts were, my world just like came crashing in. All I remember is just leaving the office, going down the steps, and the chief of police was walking up because I worked out of the chief's office. I couldn't even recognize him from my tears. I just bolted out the door, and I had to get home. I had to get out of there.

As Rocky's family processed the devastating news, police in Hawaii were trying to piece together what had happened. And at that point, there was little information about what had occurred. But the known facts were these. In the early hours of September 7th, a local fisherman had spotted a car that was parked near the water's edge. It was in a remote park near the southeastern tip of Oahu.

Sensing something was amiss, or even call it curiosity, the fisherman approached the car, a blue 1971 Buick Coupe, which appeared to be at the time abandoned. But as he walked to the passenger side of the car, he made a terrible discovery. A fisherman saw the car there right before sunrise and went and saw there were two bodies next to it.

They were both laying next to each other on the passenger side of the car. He's the one that notified the police. And so I think they got there around 6 a.m. On initial observation, it appeared that both men had been severely beaten. It was immediately clear to Honolulu police that this was definitely a crime scene. But in the early hours of the investigation, the identity of these two young men was still unknown.

I found out a little bit later after the crime that they didn't have their wallets on them. So they were unable to find any identification on them. I think that might have delayed the identification process initially because I don't think they knew they were Marines.

It wasn't until the police were able to trace the car's registration back to the local Marine base that the two victims were identified as 21-year-old Rodney Rocky Padilla and fellow Marine Lance Corporal Lawrence Larry Martins. The headlines in the next day's Honolulu Star Bulletin would read, and I quote, "...two Marines found dead at Beach Park."

And it quoted local police as saying that the men had been fatally beaten. But as Joe would soon find out, there was more. They were shot from behind. There were some injuries consistent with a beating. I'm not sure if it occurred then or if it occurred earlier in the night. I don't know, but the ultimate cause of death was gunshot wound to the head for both of them.

So, here your crime scene is in an area surrounding the vehicle where the bodies were found. You also would process inside the vehicle to determine that if the killer or killers arrived with the victims and then opened fire. So, what's your first thought, Anasig, about the fact that they were both shot at close range?

Of course, we haven't seen the actual crime scene photographs because this is an ongoing investigation. So obviously investigators have not and should not make those available. But, you know, Scott, just based on the things that you're talking about and that we have read, this does appear like an execution style murder. So that is either going to be personal or, again, they don't necessarily need to have known each other before because unfortunately things like that also sometimes happen in robberies.

Yeah, it's likely both men were shot within moments of each other. But this double murder does seem deliberate, clinical, perhaps even professional, and which on the surface could imply all sorts of things.

about a list of potential suspects. And if someone's saying like, well, we get that it could be personal, right? You can understand the rage and these type of wounds, but how could that then equal robbery? And really how that happens in these type of execution style cases is that, again, there is a robbery going on and sometimes they think, oh, I've been

recognize or they find out something about their would-be victim and they think that could cause them a problem. Remember here, they may have found out, who knows, that these guys were Marines and then they decide rather than be identified, they're going to kill them. And unfortunately, we've seen cases just like this, but it could certainly go either way.

So what may be some of the likely theories that investigators will be looking at? I know for me, I'd like to know if both Larry and Rocky knew the assailants. And what would bring them to that spot? What would bring these people together in that vehicle or right outside the car?

Now, again, both these young men didn't have their wallets on them. And Joe did say to me that his brother, even though he had cash in him, he didn't have his wallet and that his brother would always carry his wallet. But again, let's just table speculation for now, because in those early hours after his death, Rocky's family had just one thing on their mind, and that was to bring Rocky's body home. And bring him home, they did. We arranged the church service. We organized

arranged a funeral. What I remember is when Rocky came home, we got the mortuary. I just remember that he was in the basement for this mortuary and it just seemed alone. He looked great. He was in his dress blues. Didn't want to leave him alone, so I would lay on the floor of this castle for hours and that smell has never left me. The smell of Christmas and formaldehyde and just something that sticks with you.

You know, we have to pause here because that story, it's an incredible description of grief, loss, and love. You know, Scott, just like think about it. He knows his brother's dead, but that his body is in this cold, dark basement. And Joe just doesn't want him there alone. So he lays on the hard floor in that room so that his brother won't be by himself. And I just found it incredibly moving as he recounted those days.

I did as well. I mean, his brother in his dress blues, dressed in the uniform of the career that he dreamed of, of service to his country. He had already spent time serving his country. And it was a very sad moment during your interview with him, Manaseka, and I could just picture that scene and the devastation that he felt with the loss of his brother.

Rocky was given a hero's funeral, but the shock of his passing and the mystery surrounding his murder cast a cloud over his services. He looked like he was sleeping. He was wearing his Lance Corporal dress blues. We buried him with my grandmother. His casket is with hers in the same plot because they were very close. Since Rocky was the youngest, my grandma lived with us. He was her baby.

So the graveside service was well attended. I remember the uniforms there, but I just remember feeling a lot of support and proud. The Marine Corps was there. They had the honor guard. They did taps and 21 gun salute. And I still can't hear that to this day. I've been to many funerals that's happened to law enforcement officers and military personnel, and it's still choking me up just hearing taps.

Back in Hawaii, investigators were working to gather their resources and trying to piece together a timeline of events leading up to Rocky and Larry's murders. But as you can imagine, with two U.S. servicemen being killed, this investigation was bound to attract a lot of attention. So Honolulu police were playing their cards really close to the vest. But Joe could try to be helpful in certain ways.

I ended up being contacted by the Marine Corps, the captain that was assigned here. And he didn't have a lot of information, but what he did have is a point of contact and why. So I was able to reach out out there and I talked to the detective assigned to the case, Detective Juman Yu. Very, very nice man, very honorable man. And he couldn't really give me details of the case. I'll tell you, one of the difficult parts of this whole thing is I was a police officer.

And I'm calling another police agency, and I felt I was on the outside. I asked for a copy of the case, and Jamon said, well, I can't give it to you. And I understand that now. It was an active investigation, active homicide investigation. No law enforcement agency would release an active case just to somebody, even though I was a police officer, because I had no authority in the case, so...

One of the hardest parts of this whole thing has been the fact that I was law enforcement, but I couldn't help Rocky. I couldn't help his case. I felt so frustrated from the outside. So what I did is I started making a plan with Jim on and he said, when you get Rocky's property back, go through it and send me copies of everything. So that's what happened. All of Rocky's personal effects were shipped to the

So thinking about the investigation, Anasika, what did Honolulu cops really know? I mean, there was no murder weapon found at the scene, no ballistics, and presumably, besides the fishermen that discovered the bodies, no witnesses. The next one for investigators was an attempt to build out the all-important timeline. And I think that's where the investigation started.

What were the victims doing in the hours leading up to this double murder and this deadly confrontation? Well, it was well known that Marines from the base would often go into Honolulu. It was full of bars and nightclubs that catered in part to the servicemen. And while it wasn't unheard of for police to respond to incidents involving rowdy Marines or scuffles between Marines and the locals, it was nothing like that here.

And so what baffled police was the location of where Rocky and Lance were found. It was this remote stretch of beach on the far side of Honolulu, nowhere near the bars.

The location where they were killed, that wasn't a normal place for Marines to be. It was on the opposite side of the island where the Marine Corps base was, and there wasn't really any bars and restaurants around there. So all the clubs that they went to were on another part of the island. They were trying to determine what they were doing in that area.

Investigators would go to the map and look at this location to determine what does it represent to them. And clearly, it was not a spot that these two Marines would have just passed through on their way back to the base. There had had to have been a reason why they were there.

So the question is, could they have been out there meeting someone? Or maybe they just stopped to finish a six-pack on the beach because they were able to confirm that they had bought a six-pack somewhere along their night. But it is likely that being on the beach at that hour of the night, that it was most likely not an accident, which could mean neither was their murder. And investigators were beginning to develop multiple theories, going down several different avenues.

It's a pretty large park. It was dark. There were no street lights or anything within the park.

Well, some of the theories that they were going there to see if there was girls there is one of them. One of the theories that they were looking to buy marijuana. Another theory was that they were traveling because the bar area where a lot of Marines went, it was a bar called Lucky Pierre's. That's one of the routes to head back to the base. And so there's a theory that they might have been driving by and saw somebody, somebody they might have known. It was all conjecture. There was speculation. They had no idea what they were doing there.

But even without knowing exactly why the two Marines had ended up in the park, police were able to start to use the process of elimination to zero in on at least a possible motive for their murders.

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Yeah, Rocky was a flashy guy. He always had, you know, like this chain that I have around my neck. His watch was a brand new Casio at the time. It had all the little push buttons on it with calculators and everything. And even his manner of dress that night, he had, I think, a red belt on and, you know, a fancy shirt, a Hawaiian shirt and everything.

And so in some circumstances, you might say here's a guy that may have attracted the wrong type of attention. What I mean by that is if someone was looking to be up to no good, i.e. take his property or robbery, well, maybe all his flash would have attracted that. But Joe did say that when his brother's body was found, even though Rocky's wallet was missing, he still had his watch, jewelry and some cash.

As a matter of fact, Rocky was wearing a silver necklace when he was killed. And I was fortunate to get it back and I'm wearing it now. I wear it every day. I have his watch also, which he was wearing that night. So just based on those items being left on the victim's body, in the fact that his car wasn't taken, doesn't really fit the profile of a crime of robbery. And potentially eliminating that as a possible motive could make some sense. But it's still early.

And again, could it have been that it was an attempted robbery and they found out these two guys were Marines or they started to fight back? Who knows? But again, while nothing is ever off the table in an unsolved case, you can start to look at other possible motives. Were they maybe involved in a fight that had spilled out and then escalated? Was maybe one of them the type of person to attract violence or trouble?

Did either of the two men have any ongoing feuds or enemies that just might have ended up with them being murdered? Again, listen to how Joe describes his brother.

Rocky was just very unique and he was always busy doing something. He enrolled in the Columbia School of Broadcasting in Honolulu because he liked music. And so he wanted to see about being a DJ. You know, he volunteered for Big Brothers organization out there. He was just one of those guys that would never sit still. He was always doing something. And it was always something good. It was never anything bad. He never got in trouble. He never did anything negative. He wasn't a fighter.

He's just always kind of like a happy-go-lucky, busy guy. And that is why victimology is also an important portion of your investigation. Know your victim. Because that could give you a sense of a potential motive. It didn't appear that Rocky was like someone who's going to either attract trouble or violence or the kinds of people that perpetuate that violence. And because we're talking about two Marines here, neither man physically perpetrated

would have looked like easy targets. Makes a lot of sense. They were both big and strong, and they were both men. And really the same thing went for Larry as far as was he someone, the type that would attract trouble? Because we haven't really talked much about him, but just a little bit about him. He was a native of Wisconsin. He'd wanted to be a race car driver like his dad. And that was one of the things that actually led him to the Marines. Now, his family had served before, his dad and his uncles served.

But when he went into the Marines, he ended up becoming an auto mechanic in motor transport because he would get experience there. But he was described by all as a well-liked and a happy-go-lucky kind of guy. He signed up for the Marine Corps when he was only 16 and went to active duty at 17, making that commitment so early in life.

Rocky and Larry didn't really know each other. They didn't go in the same circles. They were assigned to different barracks since they had different jobs. But back then, they would have Marines work the missile.

you know, prepare food and everything. Now they have contract employees, you know, locals that will work the food services. But back then they had Marines do it. Part of being a Marine is, you know, you had to do KP duty for a month. And so Rocky and Larry met there because they're both doing KP duty. All they know is that Larry was asking around if anybody wanted to go out that night. And he asked Rocky and Rocky had nothing to do. And Rocky agreed to go out with him. And that's all I know.

Honolulu police were able to coordinate with the Marine base to interview anyone who may have known more about the two men's plans. But information was limited a few weeks after the murder and police still had not a single strong lead or suspect.

I'm not sure who the witnesses were, but I know that they did talk to some people, but they weren't very forthcoming on information with me. It was still active at that point. It was being worked. I assumed they had some good leads that were running down, so I didn't pressure them. I just wanted to make sure that they were doing something.

When I spoke with Joe Padilla, beyond the obvious tragedy of what had happened to Rocky and Larry, one of the things that I thought was really interesting about the story and what made the case unique was that, remember, Joe is not just a victim's family member. He comes out of a law enforcement career, and that was one of the things that he admittedly found so frustrating that he was never able to assist the investigation in a way that he had been

trained to do. And he didn't have jurisdiction in Hawaii, but obviously even if he did, he could never become involved because that could jeopardize his brother's case. And you know, Scott, I thought of you right away when I was thinking about it, because I really think you could speak to that, that dichotomy that you are trained for one thing, but if you're in the role of another, that the two just can't mix.

I totally get it. I mean, Joe doesn't want to interfere with his brother's murder investigation. But based on his own training, he would have so many questions that he needed answers for. Answers that investigators needed to keep within their own agency. And by the way, they're right, but it still hurts. I was involved in homicide investigations. I'd seen a lot of deaths.

And I was able to have an insider's knowledge on cases. And so I was able to discuss cases and maybe have some thoughts and some ideas on what to do. But in Rocky's case, I couldn't get involved in anything. And there's a lot of sleepless nights laying there, just anxious, thinking, this is what needs to be done. I know, have they done this? But I was being held at arm's length.

Now, obviously, Honolulu police recognize that beyond being a homicide victim's family member, that Joe was a fellow member of law enforcement. But again, investigators are trained to limit what they share with families, and they had to put Joe in that camp, both for reasons of investigative integrity and also out of sensitivity. I wasn't being allowed to obtain any information. It was pretty much hands off. OK, yeah, we'll let you know if we hear something.

Unfortunately, there was very little news to report and Rocky's unsolved murder went from the front page of the newspaper to the back.

And, you know, we all think of Hawaii as this beach paradise, and it is for sure. But Honolulu is also a fairly large city. And even in the 1980s, it was large back then. And that also meant that it had, like every other city, its fair share of crime, even homicides. And at that time, they had been particularly on the rise. And with that, cases can begin to pile up.

And what that means is that there are less resources to keep focusing on something, especially once they're hitting roadblocks and not getting anywhere in the investigation. They have to balance then and shift to whatever new is coming in. I thought that being Marines, it would have been very high profile. I'm not diminishing the efforts of Jumaaneu. He's a good man, dedicated man, but I just think that they were inundated with crime. And I wish Rocky's case would have been worked more.

Unfortunately, weeks turned into months and months turned into years. There was no new information. My younger brother, a year younger than me, Rick, he got infuriated and wrote a letter to the editor to our local newspaper in Honolulu and was just ripping apart HPD for the lack of progress on the case. And that became an issue. They got ahold of me and asked me, what is this about? I said, well, he's upset. There's been no progress on this case.

As years went by and Joe rose up in the ranks of the Denver Police Department, his brother's case continued to grow colder. But Joe did everything he could to keep that case alive, doing research, calling up friends of Rocky's, and even writing letters to Honolulu police in an effort to spark interest in the case and get it reopened.

I didn't give up my efforts at that point. Through the years, every time something would happen, the Crime Stoppers program first came into being probably the early 80s. I sent all the information to HPD. By this time, people were starting to retire and moving on, so the people that I knew at Honolulu PD were no longer assigned to homicide or no longer assigned to the case. People changed.

And so I would just send everything to the chief of police. And so I would get these form letters back. Thank you for your information. Yes, your brother's case is being actively worked. We'll keep you in mind. And if anything progresses with this. But it was just more like just a boilerplate letter back to me. Just, okay, well, thank you for your information. But every time things would happen, any advances in law enforcement, since I was in law enforcement, I'd send it to him.

After researching other crimes that had occurred in Oahu close in time to Rocky and Larry's death, he began to detect what looked to him like a pattern.

There was a lot of death involving service personnel during that period. I was told by some of Rocky's friends out there that there was animosity between the local population and the military. You know, a lot of the locals felt that the military guys would come in and take their women or that they just didn't belong. So, I don't know if that has to do something with a lot of the homicides that occurred during that time. There was another double homicide involving two airmen that occurred before Rocky was killed.

According to Joe, Honolulu police had resigned themselves to the theory that Rocky and Larry's murders were random and a robbery gone bad, a fight that turned fatal. But if there was any connection between their murders and any of the other violent crimes happening on the island, especially those involving servicemen, Joe believed that the connections were worth investigating. But at least for now, those connections have never been developed.

But yet as family, Joe continued to write letters. In 1990, 10 years after the homicide, I did write to a little PD. I did tell them that, you know, I'm a fellow police officer and that shouldn't have any bearing on the homicide case. But I do know that advances have occurred in forensics and everything within that time. So is there something you can do to reopen this case? It's a double homicide that's gone unsolved. And I think it deserves another look. And they agreed with me and they opened it up.

So continuing to look at this investigative picture, remember there was very little evidence collected at Rocky's crime scene. No weapon, no ballistics, no fingerprints.

But as we've seen before, if you can prove any kind of connection to another crime, evidence from that crime scene can be used to solve the other. But in this case, those connections were never found. And in speaking to Joe, it was clear that his brother's unsolved homicide was taking a heavy toll on him, not only as a brother, but also as a police officer.

I'm motivated by a sense of love for my brother and also by a sense of guilt. I felt guilty that I didn't do more when he was first killed when I was a policeman when I was young. You know, I didn't have jurisdiction, didn't have the funding. I still felt like that. Here I was a cop and I wasn't able to do anything. And I just felt like I should have and I could have done more.

But years, decades ticked by, no answers. And the case just stayed cold until one day, 35 years after Rocky and his fellow Marine were killed, Joe got a very unexpected phone call. You know the saying that time heals all wounds. What Joe was really hoping was that time would also help solve his brother's murder. So I retired from the Denver Police Department in 2015.

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That's 50% off unlimited access to 25 language courses for the rest of your life. Redeem your 50% off at rosettastone.com slash anatomy. That's rosettastone.com slash N-A-T-O-M-Y. Joe had been campaigning to have his brother's murder case reopened for decades. And there were those days that he'd even begun to give up hope.

But in 2015, hope came in the form of a phone call, not from Honolulu PD, but from the NCIS, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. I kept sending information out there, but I was going through HPD, Honolulu PD, because I know they had primary jurisdiction.

But NCIS was involved because Rocky and Larry are both active duty Marines. So they did have the authority to look into it. Although they didn't have primary jurisdiction since it occurred within the city of Honolulu, they were able to look into it. And so he told me that they had reopened Rocky's case a year prior to that. And he said that in reviewing cold cases, they were their new cold case unit, reviewing cold cases.

It stuck with him because he had family members that were Marines and he really wanted to see if he can do something with this. So they had been working on it for a year before they contacted me. He asked me if I'd be willing to fly to Hawaii to do a joint press conference with NCIS and HPD.

You know, Scott, just imagine it's been decades and then to get that phone call that you hadn't even been, you know, campaigning for at that time and to hear that there was something new in the case and so they were reopening it. Yeah, I mean, the fact that the service is coming in and the NCIS investigators will come in and take a fresh look is a great opportunity for movement in this case and really push it towards where Joe feels it's getting a full, fresh redo.

And what Joe found when he arrived was a large number of investigators, both from NCIS and the Honolulu Police Department, and they were all working on his brother's case.

It just must have been such an overwhelming feeling for him to see this rejuvenated, renewed effort. It wasn't even just a single investigator out of a cold case unit, but combined resources of Honolulu Police and NCIS. That's a pretty good indication to me that there was either new evidence in the case, the unsolved double murder of two U.S. servicemen. All of that had finally paid off.

They didn't provide a lot of information, but they treated me very well. And, you know, being out of law enforcement for a year at that point, I felt like I belonged again. I can't tell you the feeling that I had that I was being included in a Rocky's case. It was something out of a dream. I'm sitting here and talking to the law enforcement professionals that are investigating my brother's case, and they're talking to me. After 36 years, nobody had done this. And as it turned out, this was not just some symbolic gesture, but

A statement from the major out of Honolulu Police read that while he couldn't go into the evidence and new leads, that they had received a tip within the past year. And they were reexamining the evidence from the scene from the night of the murders with the hope that advances in DNA testing just might lead to a break in this case. And now with NCIS stepping in, I'm sure there was a lot of hope that some press attention could jog the memory of someone who may know something about the double murder.

You're putting it out there again. You're shifting the narrative to where this case is now reopened. Lots of people are getting involved and somebody knows something and hopefully will come forward.

One of the most intriguing things here was the NCIS special agent in charge was quoted as saying, there are many people of potential interest in this investigation, which I am sure was just music to Joe's ears. But there is something else to keep in mind. This was Joe's first trip to Hawaii, a place he had always resisted going after his brother was killed.

I didn't do any touristy things there. I was there for four days. I didn't go to the beach. I tried to have as much time with the investigators as I could. It's not my chance to go out and go to any nightclubs or go out and go to any restaurants. It's my chance to work on Rocky's case, and I took it very serious. I'm sure being on the ground in Hawaii, he wanted to keep that professional relationship alive.

letting them do their job, even though he was a trained member of law enforcement. But being there, being on the ground, being with those agents, I'm sure was a very heartwarming thing for Joe, seeing actual work being done on the ground. And Joe did say that the reception that he received from all the agents and the officers was so sincere and accommodating.

that it meant everything to him, and it really made him feel like law enforcement taking part in some way in this investigation. But more importantly for him is that the guilty feelings of not being able to help his brother over the years during this investigation were starting to fade.

It's just amazing, is the only way I can put it. So I spent about four days out there, and the second to last day, we had a joint press conference at the site where Rocky was killed. It was tough. I didn't want to face it at first. That's why I would never go back to Hawaii. Just seeing where, you know, like I said, it's been paved over, but the spot was there. I got to see where Rocky died, you know. On the left is Diamond Head that you always see, like, in Hawaii 5-0 and everything. And on the right is...

Honolulu, all the high-rise hotels and everything. The park is pretty much situated right between those two things. It was a beautiful spot, and that's what was so conflicting for me, is looking at this beautiful spot, knowing my brother died here. They held a news conference there on Monday, December 19th, 2016, and there was a large turnout of law enforcement, the family members, and Marines, and even a couple of local media reporters did show up to cover it.

The purpose of the press conference was to advise the public that the case has been reopened and ask for any witnesses or any public assistance come forward with any information they may have. They released pictures of Rocky, released pictures of the crime scene, Crime Stoppers was involved, Rain Corps was there and they spoke and just said, "Hey folks, this is a terrible tragedy.

If anybody has any information, please come forward. You've got a family member here. So I spoke and talked about the effect that it had on my family, the loss of Rocky, and that we've never gotten over it, never gotten past it. An increased reward was also announced for any information that could lead to an arrest in this case.

That was partially due to my family, my mom contributing $5,000 to increase the reward. She told me that when she passes away, she's got a little special fund set up. It's called Rocky's Fund. As of 2023, Rocky Padilla's case remains open. But even after 43 years, his brother Joe remains hopeful and ever vigilant in his pursuit of justice.

This case is somewhat unique in that the victim's brother was in law enforcement. But Joe talks to us here as a homicide victim's family member. And I think it's important to point out for any listener out there who may also be a family member surviving, searching for answers in an unsolved case, that just like Joe did and continues to do, that all the type of things that he has done and that he believes that one day might help this case are things that any one of you can do too.

I've written politicians, written the White House. I've written a lot of people just in Colorado. I've written my local representatives, federal representatives. I've written...

representatives in Hawaii. You know, I was told that the people in Honolulu, in the Hawaiian Islands, they like Facebook a lot. So that's why I did the Justice for Rocky Padilla Facebook page. There's an actual picture of the crime scene there. There's pictures of Rocky and Larry. Rocky's upbringing as a child. I've shared articles on there. And there are the phone numbers for the NCIS tip line and Honolulu Crime Stoppers phone numbers. They're both there.

It is an incredible display of devotion and perseverance from a man who's not just a police officer, but a brother and a survivor. I think my biggest source of support this whole time has been my wife and my family, my children, who are little. I know, they're grown. You know, I don't think I could have made it without Yvonne.

You know, Scott, it really made me think when Joe was talking about how fortunate he has been to have this incredible support from his wife throughout. You know, we have heard, unfortunately, too often that sometimes in deep grief,

Families, relationships don't survive that type of trauma. But yet here, not only did it survive, but it sounds like it has and continues to thrive. Having that support from his wife, Yvonne, and her being there for him, not only throughout the years,

But when these developments occurred, and still with him today, waiting for that next call, waiting for that opportunity for someone to come forward with information that could solve this double murder. It's my firm belief that there are people out there that know something, and I'm hoping with the passage of time that old loyalties have changed, and maybe somebody just wants to help our families and just come forward with what happened or who was involved.

We chose to bring you this story now because on June 24th, it would have been Rocky's birthday. And what better time to try and help bring awareness to this case and to help solve these unsolved crimes? I'd say help me.

Help me help Rocky and Larry. They didn't deserve to die. A couple of young guys that have been gone for 43 years, and we'd be so grateful to my family and I just to have some closure on Rocky's case. So I'm sure you'd want the same thing if it was your family. Anyone with any tips or information about the 1980 murder of Rocky Padilla and Larry Martins, they can contact Crime Stoppers at 808-961-8300.

And NCIS is also available for you to send them information. Text NCIS and your tip to crimes, which is 274-637. You can also call the NCIS hotline at 1-877-579-3648. And as always, all of this information is going to be on our AOM website.

We cover unsolves because they are a category of homicide that needs whatever help any of us can give. Whether it is this AOM platform that brings it to all of you, or one of you that just might hold the key to solving this case, it does take a village. And Joe, to you and to Larry's family, we here at AOM, and really all of our listeners, we are your village.

And I hope that we are able to help. But regardless, we want you to know from all of us that Rocky and Larry are not forgotten.

Joe Padilla is now a consultant for Team Adam, a specialized unit of retired law enforcement officers working at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. And that organization works nationwide to find missing children. And Joe continues to make a difference within the law enforcement community. His call to us is our call to you. Somebody knows something. Reach out. ♪

Anatomy of Murder is an AudioChuck original. Produced and created by Weinberger Media and Frasetti Media. Ashley Flowers is executive producer. So, what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?

Hi, I'm Ashley Flowers, creator and host of the number one true crime podcast, Crime Junkie. Every Monday, me and my best friend Britt break down a new case, but not in the way you've heard before, and not the cases you've heard before. You'll hear stories on Crime Junkie that haven't been told anywhere else. I'll tell you what you can do to help victims and their families get justice.

Join us for new episodes of Crime Junkie every Monday. Already waiting for you by searching for Crime Junkie wherever you listen to podcasts.