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Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Brit. And in case you missed it, this is one of two stories I have for you today. Two stories of missing people where the reporting has long since run dry. And my hope is that we can begin to spark conversation again. So for this episode, it is a conversation about a young mother who walks out of her front door in the middle of the night and disappears without a trace.
leaving behind a mother of her own who has vowed to do anything to bring her daughter home. This is the story of Lucele Aramburro. It's early in the morning on June 2nd, 2007, and a woman named Lucele Zaldivar wakes up to the sound of her phone ringing. It's still dark outside, she's half asleep, but she rolls over and answers it anyway, and she's surprised to hear her daughter's fiancé, Christian Pacheco, on the other end.
Christian tells Lucelli that her daughter, Lucelli Aramburro, who goes by Lily, has been missing since the night before. He says that she walked out of the condo that they shared about 2 o'clock in the morning without any of her personal belongings, didn't bring her wallet, her keys, even her shoes, and she just hasn't returned. Christian says he's calling now because he just filed the missing persons report with the Miami-Dade police and he wanted to give her a heads up.
Now, you might think hearing this would send any mother spiraling, but Lily's mom is not immediately concerned. Lily isn't a child. She's 23. And she knows that Lily and Christian have had a pretty rocky relationship. They're known to fight quite a bit. And the police have even been called to their condo a few times. So Lucelli thinks that there's probably been an argument and Lily just walked to go cool off or whatever.
And Christian reporting her missing could have been his retaliation or even an over-exaggeration. Like maybe Lily just won't talk to him. But at this point, her mom hasn't even tried getting a hold of her, so she might not be gone at all. Has she left like this before? Well, that's the thing. She has. According to an episode of Disappear titled Midnight Walk, there have been times when Lily would leave home for days at a time and not have any contact with her family or friends.
And in that episode, her mom, Lucely, says that her daughter has been struggling with substance use disorder since she was in high school. And the previous times that she disappeared have all been related to her drug use. In fact, Lily had just left a rehab facility a few days ago after failing a drug test. So with all of this in mind, Lucely expects that Lily will probably show up in the next day or two and everything's going to be fine.
However, the next few days come and go with no word from her daughter, and she starts to get a little more worried. Because even though she has a history for leaving for a few days, Lily has always been really good about keeping in contact with her mom recently, especially because Lucelli has custody of Lily's nine-month-old son. Lily had lost custody when she went to rehab, but she's been in almost daily contact with her mom and son up to the day she went missing.
So that's starting to feel really off. And something else that strikes her as a little off is the fact that Christian hasn't even contacted her at all since he first told her that he reported Lily missing. And so she's thinking, like, if you're worried enough to file a missing persons report with the police...
you would think that he'd at least be checking in every day or so to see if her mom's heard from her. So the radio silence over those first few days becomes increasingly more frustrating. So she kind of gets to the point where she decides she's just going to go talk to Christian in person and try and get some more information from him.
One of Lily's friends named Janet actually goes with her. They go to his condo. And when they knock on the door, they're greeted by a very surprised Christian.
And he's surprised because, I mean, they didn't, like, give him a call and give him a heads up they were coming over. So when he opens the door and sees them, they notice that he is immediately pretty guarded. But he does let them come in. And Luceli and Janet get right to the point. They ask him, what happened that evening? Walk us through it. But even before he starts speaking, the two make note that he's not acting quite like they expected him to, I guess.
According to that disappeared episode, Janet says that he's acting, quote, very, very nervous and very energetic, end quote.
Like, he's not looking them in the eye. He's walking around, like, cleaning frantically while they're there. And even though they know that different people react to stressful situations differently, I mean, it just doesn't seem like he's acting how the fiancé of a missing woman should act or they want him to act. Right. I mean, they have him under a microscope right now. Yeah, so I don't know if it's just because they surprised him, if it's, like, having your mother-in-law just pop in your door, I mean, could make a lot of people nervous. Mm-hmm.
Also, though, they know that he has had issues with substance use, same as Lily. So they're thinking he potentially could be on drugs as well.
So they ask him to just walk them through what happened the day that Lily went missing. And he tells them that both he and Lily were under the influence at the time. So does he even remember the play-by-play? Well, he says he does. He says that earlier that day, the two had gone to buy drugs. They returned to their condo. Not alone, though. They actually were with two friends, someone named EJ and someone named Kelly.
And he says that at one point in the evening or maybe in like the early morning hours, Kelly left the living room to go lay down in Christian and Lily's bedroom. And according to Christian, this made Lily really upset. He says out of the blue, she accused him of wanting to be with Kelly instead of her and demanded to know if there was something going on between them.
Christian says that he denied the accusation and went to go ask Kelly to just leave their bedroom in order to appease Lily. But when he came back, Lily had already walked out the front door. And at the time, Christian says that he thought that she was like leaving to go walk around a bit to calm down after their argument. But as the hours went by with no sign of her, he started getting more and more worried.
So eventually Christian says that he went looking around the condo. I don't know to see maybe if she's taken anything or whatever. But he says that's when he noticed that a few bungee cords were missing.
And he says when he realizes that those are gone, he thinks that Lily could have taken them with her. Okay, but why? I mean, yeah, right? I honestly can't even tell you if we own bungee cords, let alone where they would be and if we would notice if they were missing. I know. It just seems like this really specifically odd thing to clock as missing in the first place, let alone assume that Lily took them.
took them kind of in the middle of the night for whatever reason. But for why? Yeah. I don't know if they were something that he used regularly or if they're like always out in a place where it's really noticeable and then all of a sudden they're gone. But it's even stranger because he says that he not only noticed that they were gone, but he says that he has good reason for thinking that Lily was the one that took them because Lily
I guess Lily had recently been struggling with her mental health. She had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression. And even though she had been prescribed medications to help manage them, Christian said that she had actually stopped taking them. He also said that just a few weeks ago, Lily had tried to take her own life. He says that in that incident, she was really drunk at the time. And when he found her, he was able to stop her.
But in this point, like when he sees the bungee cords are missing, he is immediately kind of like taken back to that, wondering if she took them intending to harm herself in some way. Does her mom know about any of this? Well, Luceli knew that Lily had been having a rough time recently, but she had no idea about the suicide attempt or the fact that she had stopped taking her medication. So...
I think the answer is no, but like she at least knew her daughter was struggling. But even with this context about what he says happened like leading up to this, there's reporting in the South Florida Sun Sentinel by David Ovalle that says that both Lucy and Janet think that Lily wouldn't harm herself and leave her son behind.
I mean, she adored her baby. She was looking forward to trying to regain custody of him in the future. So, I mean, they're pretty dead set on the fact that, like, there's no way she would leave him behind. So have the police been doing anything at this point to try to find Lily? Like, they have that missing persons report, right? So they do, but there's not...
actually a lot of information in our source material about the police's investigation in the days and weeks following Lily's disappearance. All I know is that at some point, they do conduct thorough searches of the area surrounding the condo, including a pretty densely wooded area and a canal. But I know that they don't find any signs of her. Okay, but if it's been weeks and they've done these searches, then...
To me, that means that she most likely didn't harm herself that night. I mean, if she had, her body, it would have been found by now, right? That is what Luceli is thinking. She's convinced that Lily is still alive. But at this point, it's been over a week. And so she's not just going to sit still and wait for her daughter to show up, hopefully, like crossing her fingers.
So she decides to take things into her own hands and to go out and look for Lily on her own. And she starts by going to all of the places where she knows that Lily would purchase drugs. And when she doesn't find her there, she searches parks and bus stops, drives up and down the streets looking for her. But despite her best efforts, there is no sign of her anywhere.
And after a few more weeks pass with no word from Lily, Janet and Lucelli start to worry that something truly terrible happened to her. But just as they're starting to lose hope, Lucelli gets an unexpected call from Christian, who says that someone has just spotted Lily alive and well.
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Christian tells Lucelli that two of his friends just called him and said that they saw Lily while they were in downtown Miami.
Now, mind you, this is the first time she's heard from Christian since she and Janet showed up to the condo. But she is over the moon to have something concrete to go on. She gets in touch with one of those friends that supposedly saw her. And she asked this guy, like, are you 100% sure it was Lily you saw? Did you get close to her? Did you talk to her? And the friend's like, yeah, I am 100% sure it is her. I talked to her in everything.
So now that there's been a confirmed sighting, Lucelli asked Janet to help her search downtown. But they do this for days, and neither of them can find Lily. Do they contact the police with this information? No.
I'm not sure. Again, we don't have a lot of information about what the police were doing at this point. But I know that this sighting is mentioned in an article by Francisco Alvarado for the Miami New Times. So we do know that they become aware of it at some point, though I don't know what they do with the information or if they even follow up on it or whatever. I just know mom and Janet are out there looking for sure.
But they look and they look. No sign of her. A few more months goes by after the sighting and there's still no movement in her case, which is becoming increasingly more frustrating to Luceli and Janet. Because not only is there no movement, but they're saying that in this whole time, there's really a lack of communication from police about even what's happening.
And the problem they really feel is maybe that nothing is happening because they don't feel like any effort is being put into finding Lily. I mean, as far as they know, the search area of the space around the condo back in June is the only thing that they've done to even try and find her.
And they're kind of shocked that at this point, the police haven't even looked into Christian as a possible suspect because to them, like Luceli and Janet, his behavior has been suspicious since day one. I mean, he hasn't been talking to her family. He's not helping search for her, which...
makes Lucelli think that he must know more than he's letting on. So even, sure, if you don't want to call him a suspect, fine, but she doesn't feel like police are really, like, getting the info from him that he has. Mm-hmm. And the more Lucelli thinks about that initial call that she got from Christian, the more unsettling it is to her because...
She's like, why would anyone jump straight to filing a missing persons report before calling one of Lily's other friends or family members to ask if they've even heard from her or knew where she was? Yeah, I guess...
If that was Justin, like, that would be my first call. Check with his parents, his siblings, friends, work, places he spends time, like coffee shops. I mean, just to make sure I'm not... You literally called me once. To make sure I'm not overreacting, I called you to search my house when I thought he left without his car a couple years ago.
Yeah, it makes sense to at least make a call before a missing persons report with the police. And, you know, he might argue that he was especially worried because of the bungee cords and he thought maybe she was going to harm herself.
But to me, that doesn't add up either because if he's so worried about Lily that he felt he had to get police involved right away, then why do you wait 24 hours to do that? And then not do any of the searches after that or follow up with anyone to see if they've seen her and see if she's shown up. Like, it's not adding up. Right. Kind of like both things can't be true. Mm-hmm.
Now, Christian kind of comments on the fact that no one else was called in an interview for the Disappeared episode. And he said that he thought either Kelly or EJ had already called Luceli to ask if she heard from Lily. So in his mind, like all the bases were covered. And he also says that he tried to call the police and file a missing persons report earlier, but he was told that he had to wait at least 24 to 48 hours.
Now, at some point, Janet and Lucelli end up going to the police with their suspicions about Christian. But again, unfortunately, it's not clear if they do anything with this information. And so that's how Lily's case stays for over a year. There is no communication from police or Christian, and Lucelli and Janet feel like their concerns and complaints are just being ignored.
So in September of 2008, Janet decides to launch a social media campaign to try and bring more awareness to Lily's disappearance. She actually starts a blog, sets up a Twitter account and a Facebook page to share information and to direct people to keep an eye out for her. And that campaign catches the attention of a reporter who interviews her and Lucelli for an article in the Miami New Times.
And in that article, the reporter spotlights how the Miami-Dade police have completely dropped the ball in this investigation. Or it'd be better to say a lack of an investigation altogether. Because the article alleges that when Lily was reported missing, her case file sat on the lead investigator's desk for two weeks while he was on vacation. And that nothing was done to search for her until he got back.
It is also revealed that the police have never formally interviewed Christian or any of the others who were in the condo that night. And when Lily's information was finally listed on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's missing persons website, details like her height make something easy. We're completely incorrect. I'm sorry. I need you to back up a second.
The missing persons report just sat there for two weeks. Two weeks. With no one following up on it. Isn't that wild? Listen, I get it. I know understaffing is a huge issue, especially in law enforcement. But like, if you go on vacation...
Shouldn't you at least assign someone to like sift through the files on your desk while you're gone? Yeah. Just to make sure nothing pressing like a freaking missing persons case isn't getting like ignored. Yeah, I thought you like caught new cases based on like whose turn it was. And I don't know if like if maybe it's supposed to go to this guy and he like disperses them. But to your point, I thought you were supposed to like assign a buddy for like.
some of your immediate tasks when you're on vacation. Yeah, when I'm gone, I'm like, hey, this stuff needs to be done, guys. And I'm not dealing with life and death, missing persons, people. Like, what is happening over there? Oh, my God.
We're going to have to move on, but I am real hung up on this. Well, we can move on, but like the public was just as furious as we are. And the publication of this article actually ends up being a turning point for Lily's case because the backlash that ensues after people learn about how little was done slash is being done to find Lily ends up being the push police need to renew their search efforts. Renew? Start. Gosh. Start. Start their search efforts. Thank you.
So that's when they finally bring Christian in and administer a polygraph. But to Lacelli's surprise, she is told that he passed the polygraph. But she's not discouraged by that because the article also catches the attention of two private investigators. Those two are named Joe Carrillo and Anna Lanuza, and they offer their services pro bono.
So Joe and Anna agree that the police haven't done nearly enough to find Lily. So they're going to see what they can start digging up. And they begin on working to establish a timeline for the night that Lily disappeared, verifying people's stories, like, again, stuff that you would have hoped was done by now. But specifically, they want to talk to EJ and Kelly to see if Christian's story lines up. Now, they're not able to get in contact with EJ, but they do track Kelly down. And she tells them pretty much the exact same story that Christian had stuck to.
They also ask her if she has any idea where Lily might have gone. And according to another article by Francisco Alvarado for the Miami New Times, Kelly mentions a specific house that's known to be a hotspot for a variety of illegal activity, including drug sales and sex work. Now, even though there's no evidence that Lily went there, they figure it's at least worth looking into.
And when they do, they find out that one of the people associated with that house has an extensive violent criminal history, including a conviction for second degree murder. So they're able to get in touch with the man who actually owns the home. They tell him, look, we're not the police, but we believe that something might have gone down here. Someone actually might have gotten killed in this house and we need to know if you know anything. Wait, back up. Did I miss something? Why are they jumping to murder?
No, I don't know that they got, like, more specific info. You didn't miss anything. I haven't seen anything. It might just be the fact that, I mean, at this point, it's over a year out. She still hasn't been seen. She hasn't talked to her mom or seen her kid. I think that that's kind of the assumption at this point. And they could just be escalating the questioning to kind of scare the guy into answering, too. That's true. Yeah, maybe. Anyways, the man, though, won't tell them anything.
But Joe and Anna still pass this information about the house on to police, who do end up taking a look at the house too, but they also don't find anything either that could be connected to Lily. So it seems like things were really happening, though they didn't lead anywhere. But then after that kind of initial push from the article, everything dies down. And soon, Luceli and Janet are back to feeling like they're being ignored by the police.
Though they're still hard at work at their social media campaign. But now we're at like two years without any sign of Lily and they're feeling really desperate. So in November of 2009, they decided to do something extreme to try and bring public attention back to the case.
They go on a public hunger strike for a week in downtown Miami, passing out flyers and talking to anyone they can about Lily's case. And those efforts, like them being out on the street, that actually gets covered by a few Spanish-speaking media outlets. But unfortunately, no one comes forward with any real or useful information. So Lily's case stays cold for another year before another major turning point comes.
That's when a man named Ray Holdley learns about Lily's disappearance and decides to take on the case himself. He's a Miami-Dade homicide detective, and he agrees that there hasn't been nearly enough done to try and find her. So the first thing he does is he goes in and he reviews all of the information that the police have already collected over the last three years. And while he notes that there is a lot to go through...
The problem he sees is that it doesn't look like most of the stuff there has actually been verified. He also thinks that the story given by Christian in the initial police report doesn't make a lot of sense. Even if Lily was under the influence when she left, it strikes him as odd that she left without any of her personal belongings or even her shoes, but still somehow decides to take bungee cords? But that's not the most surprising thing he finds.
In the case file, he comes across something that somehow everyone missed. It's the results of the polygraph that Christian took, and this discovery changes his entire outlook on Lily's case.
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When Detective Holdley finds the polygraph results, he is shocked to find that Christian had actually failed. What? Which is infuriating to him because everyone involved in the case over the last few years, from private investigators to Lucelli, even the former lead investigator, everyone was operating under the assumption that he had passed. Had no one, like, double-checked the results? I'm confused as to if anyone...
actually knows what their actual job is at this point. And how frustrating for the family. I know. And we know polygraphs can be kind of subjective, right? I mean, you have humans who are reading them, humans who are taking them. They are not perfect. And here's the one thing I'll say, like the one thing if I could like
upon every person investigating a cold case or just where work has already been done is that they wouldn't just assume everything on the page is right. I have seen it over and over again where like I'll ask a question and they're like, oh, they point to like someone's old work or whatever. And I'm like, yeah, but like actually that doesn't make sense. And they'll agree and they'll be like, oh, it doesn't.
Again, I don't know if you trust the person before you. Like, I understand having, like, a camaraderie and believing that your teammates are doing good work. But, like, humans are going to human. Humans are going to human. Even the ones that are in charge of the case. And I see this so much. So to all of our law enforcement out there, just, like, just double check some of the things because not everything is as it seems.
But anyways, however he finds out, he's, you know, asking questions, he's double checking. And apparently the results on Christian's polygraph show that deception was detected when the examiner asked, do you know what happened to Lily? To which Christian responded, no.
So with this new information, Detective Holdley feels like he has to completely start from scratch with the investigation because he's thinking, I mean, if a detail this crucial was missed, there could be other really important missing pieces of the investigation that are either completely wrong or even missing altogether.
So he starts by doing another thorough search of the areas surrounding the condo. He brings in even dive teams to search a nearby canal. He's got cadaver dogs to search on land, helicopters to do aerial views of the places that haven't been searched yet. But even this time, no signs of Lily.
And like Lucille and Janet, the fact that they can't find her body or any remains reinforces for him that she likely didn't leave with the intention to harm herself because they would have found something by now.
So his next step is he decides to try and verify the sighting of Lily from Christian's friend in downtown Miami. And it's actually two friends, Dario and Elvis. And fortunately, Dario still lives in the Miami area. So Detective Hoadley goes to meet with him. And when he asks him about the sighting, Dario says that he hadn't seen Lily at all after her disappearance. Had not seen her. But why would he lie about that? Dario won't give an explanation.
But Detective Hoadley does get an answer because a couple of days later, he gets in contact with Elvis, who, again, also is like, nope, didn't see Lily back in 2007. So Hoadley's like, okay, then why did you say you did? And Elvis says that the only reason he lied and said he did see her was because Christian told him that it would make Lucille feel better. Dude. And not worry as much. Not cool. Mm-hmm.
So with this, all of Detective Hoadley's attention turns squarely to Christian. He thinks that Christian told the two men to lie in order to deflect suspicion away from him, which indicates that he might have something to hide. Yeah. So finally, after three years, Christian is brought in for a formal interview.
During that interview, Detective Hoadley tells Christian that Lily walking out the door with nothing but a few bungee cords and just not returning doesn't make any sense. Christian, you know, tries to reiterate that he was worried for her safety because of her prior suicide attempt. But while he's describing those events, there's a detail that actually changes that catches Detective Hoadley's attention.
Apparently, the first time Christian told Lucelli about all of this, he said that Lily had tried to hang herself with one of his ties. But now, in this interview, he says that Lily used a bungee cord instead. And to Detective Hoadley, this change is significant.
Even though people's memories of certain details can be fuzzy, especially during a traumatic event, he doesn't believe that that kind of detail would be easily forgotten. Especially in connection with, like, the bungee cords being missing now. Exactly. To him, it makes him think that Christian could have possibly made the whole thing up to just mislead people. So he asked Christian to take another polygraph. And according to a CBS News article, he fails this one, too.
After Christian fails the polygraph, police search a specific wooded area near the condo again. It's not clear what made them focus on this particular location, but if they found anything during that search, it has never been made public. And unfortunately, that is where this story ends, at least for now.
There has never been an arrest, and even though Christian has been arrested for several drug charges since 2007, he has never been officially named as a person of interest in Lily's case. So does Detective Holdley, or anyone really, have any idea what might have happened to her? There were two other people at the condo that night. If Christian did something to Lily, I personally highly doubt he would have harmed her with two potential witnesses right there.
Yeah, he believes something happened at that condo as opposed to like saying that it happened outside of the condo somewhere. But if he has any theories about what that is or who saw what or knew what or whatever, like he's never made his theories public. You know, I have to wonder, like, what are the odds that, you know, she could have left on her own? No shoes, phone, wallet, nothing. And been met with foul play recently.
while she was out. I mean, it's not likely, but we know it's happened before. It has. I mean, it's a terrifying thought, and I know people say, what are the odds? But people can just get snatched off the street. If she truly did walk out that door on her own, any number of things could have happened.
I know, at least according to the Women's Fund, which is an organization dedicated to advocating for and supporting women in Miami-Dade County, Miami is a top city in Florida for human trafficking. And that doesn't mean she necessarily got snatched off the street. She could have. Someone could have found her trafficking or not trafficking. It
It also, again, we know she was relapsing at some point. A lot of the ways that trafficking works is giving people a place to stay or drugs or whatever, like finding them when they're like in a time of need. You know what I mean? And if she left her fiance and she's in a vulnerable place, literally out on the street with no shoes. But the question is, did she leave that condo on her own without her shoes and with bungee cords? I don't know.
her mother is still waiting for answers. She doesn't know if Lily is still alive, but after fighting for years to keep pressure on police, the only thing she wants is to know what happened to her daughter so she can have closure. And I can't really help but wonder if we might already have those answers if police had taken this case seriously from the very beginning.
So if you have any information on Lily's disappearance, call the Miami-Dade Crimestoppers at 305-471-8477. Or you can submit a tip anonymously online.
If you haven't already, be sure to listen to the second episode we dropped today about another mother who went missing along with her son. That episode is titled Missing Alex Hernandez. You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, CrimeJunkiePodcast.com. And be sure to follow us on Instagram at Crime Junkie Podcast. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Crime Junkie is an Audiochuck production.
So, what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?
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