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In 2020, in a small California mountain town, five women disappeared. I found out what happened to all of them, except one. A woman known as Dia, whose estate is worth millions of dollars. I'm Lucy Sheriff. Over the past four years, I've spoken with Dia's family and friends, and I've discovered that everyone has a different version of events.
Hear the story on Where's Dear? Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Voices for Justice is a podcast that uses adult language and discusses sensitive and potentially triggering topics, including violence, abuse, and murder.
This podcast may not be appropriate for younger audiences. All parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Some names have been changed or omitted per their request or for safety purposes. Listener discretion is advised. My name is Sarah Turney, and this is Voices for Justice. It's the end of 2022, and there have been a lot of updates in the cases I covered this year.
there have been multiple arrests police departments announcing that video footage does not exist where they once said it did and so much more now this is my first updates episode for you guys so let me explain how it's going to work i'm going to go in chronological order of when i covered these cases for each case i'll give you a tiny summary followed by the update
You guys know me, I'm pretty straightforward when it comes to true crime, so let's dig right into it. These are the Voices for Justice case updates for 2022.
The first case is Margarita Sandoval. I covered her case back in January of this year. Margarita was only 19 when she went missing in 2018. Her body was found in May 2021. Her body was found in a box that belonged to her brother, Octavio Sanchez. It was located in a basement in Norman, Oklahoma. When the episode premiered, that was really it.
Her brother and his wife had been looked into, their home had been searched, but no charges for Margarita's death had been filed. Well, in early July 2022, Margarita's autopsy results came back.
The medical examiner's office was not able to determine Margarita's cause of death, but the manner was homicide. Not long after, on July 21st, 35-year-old Octavio Sanchez and his wife, 27-year-old Desiree Sanchez, were charged with first-degree murder and unlawful removal of a dead body. They were also charged in federal court with taking Margarita's disability checks.
According to an arrest affidavit, when investigators interviewed the Sanchez couple, they gave, quote, multiple conflicting stories, end quote. Ultimately, they were able to prove that the couple's stories were lies. Authorities found suspicious text messages between Octavio and Desiree, including, quote, wrapping the body with plastic, end quote, end quote.
They also texted each other about how Margarita was haunting them. And that's not all. On July 25th, 43-year-old Miguel Munoz, the owner of the home Margarita's body was found in, was charged with being an accessory to murder in the first degree.
Miguel told detectives that he and Octavio put Margarita's body into his car. Then Miguel took the body into the house. I ran a search on Oklahoma court dockets and found that on July 27th, Desiree had a bond hearing. Her bond was denied. She has a preliminary hearing on January 19th, 2023.
On the same day, Miguel also had a bond hearing. His bond was set at $1 million. He also has a preliminary hearing on January 19th, 2023. On November 18th, Octavio had an arraignment hearing. His bond was set at $50 million. Like Desiree and Miguel, he also has a preliminary hearing on January 19th, 2023. The next case I want to talk about is Naomi Erion.
I talked about this case back at the end of March when this case was really brand new. On the morning of Saturday, March 12th, 2022, 18-year-old Naomi Arion drove her car to the Walmart parking lot in Fernley, Nevada. While Naomi was sitting in her car waiting for a shuttle to arrive that would take her to work, a man approached her car, said or did something that made her slide over to the passenger seat, then the man entered the driver's seat and abducted Naomi.
Now, I remember exactly when this update came out. I literally hit publish on this episode, went to grab some food, and while I was waiting, I saw the break in the case. 41-year-old Troy Driver was arrested on kidnapping charges. According to CNN, her body was found in a remote part of Churchill County after authorities received a tip. Then, on April 5th, Troy Driver was charged with first-degree murder.
According to a criminal complaint, he kidnapped Naomi, raped her, shot her in the head and chest, then buried her body. He hid or destroyed Naomi's cell phone and disposed of the tires on his truck. Prosecutors say that they may seek the death penalty. In July, he was also charged with sexual assault and one count of illegal firearm possession since he was a felon.
An indictment alleged that all the other crimes involved in Naomi's murder were committed with intent to facilitate and or to conceal the sexual assault. Now, there was a long legal battle about whether or not he would be deemed competent to stand trial. But on November 15th, it was announced that Troy Driver was found competent to stand trial. Now, we wait.
Our next update is in the Harmony Montgomery case. I released two episodes on her case back in May. The last confirmed sighting of Harmony was in October 2019, when the Manchester Police Department in New Hampshire responded to a call at her home. She was only five at the time. She had been bouncing between living with a foster family and her mother, Crystal Story, for most of her life.
But then, and I go deep into how exactly this happened, a judge awarded her father, Adam Montgomery, full custody of her despite never verifying his employment or safety of the home, among many other things. And just months after he was awarded custody, Harmony went missing. But as we all know, the investigation into her disappearance wouldn't begin until nearly two years later.
And then, finally, there was a break in this case. On June 3rd, Harmony's stepmother, Kayla Montgomery, was arrested on two counts of perjury after she lied to a grand jury in May about working at a donut shop on November 30th, 2019.
That's the day she claimed to have last seen Harmony. During an interview with police, Kayla told them that her husband, Adam Montgomery, killed Harmony in December 2019 by, quote, repeatedly striking her in the head with a closed fist, end quote.
In June, investigators searched the Montgomery's former home. They took away a fridge and they checked the plumbing. Authorities have not announced what was found. But this wasn't known to the media yet. It wasn't until August that the New Hampshire Attorney General announced that they now believe Harmony was killed in early December 2019. They said they know Harmony is dead due to, quote, biological evidence, end quote, and the investigation was now a homicide.
Then it happened. On October 24th, 32-year-old Adam Montgomery was charged with one count of falsifying physical evidence by allegedly destroying evidence when he hid or destroyed his daughter's body. This was to prevent the investigation from moving forward. He was also charged with abuse of a corpse for allegedly, purposefully, and unlawfully moving or concealing the corpse of Harmony Montgomery.
or any part thereof, and tampering with a witness for allegedly attempting to have his wife Kayla testify falsely. Adam has pleaded not guilty. Basically, Kayla and authorities came up with a plea deal where she would plead guilty to two counts of perjury and all other charges would be dropped.
She would then serve less than two years in prison, and she would have to testify against Adam at his trial. On November 18th, 32-year-old Kayla went to court and pled guilty as a part of the plea deal. She was sentenced to serve a year and a half in state prison. On November 22nd, it was reported that Adam will have two years in prison.
two trials in 2023. The first will be for weapons charges. This is in connection to thefts of a rifle and a shotgun in 2019. The second is for the murder of Harmony. The next case is Leah Croucher from Milton Keynes. On February 15th, 2019, Leah Croucher was living with her parents and got up for work like she usually did. After her shift ended, her parents got a call from her employer, letting them know that Leah never made it to work.
Now, this was definitely one of the more puzzling cases. The investigation left us with so many questions. Did Leah leave on her own accord? Was she in a secret, forbidden relationship with someone who needed her to disappear? Or was she just in the wrong place at the wrong time? Well, it seems like the latter is what happened. On October 10th, investigators started searching a home on Locks Bear Drive in Furston.
This is following a tip from a member of the public. According to the BBC, the house is less than half a mile from where Leah was last seen on Buzzcott Lane. On October 12th, Leah's body and her bag containing personal belongings were found in the loft of the home.
Her cause of death could not be determined. But on the 14th, investigators named their main suspect in Leah's death, 49-year-old Neil Maxwell. He is a convicted sex offender, with offenses dating back to 1998. Neil apparently worked as a handyman for the owner of the house where Leah's body was found. The owner was living abroad, and Neil was the only one who had keys to the house at the time of Leah's disappearance.
Apparently prior to the tip-off on October 10th, Neil was not even on investigators' radar. There was no evidence connecting Neil to Leah, or Leah to the house her body was found in.
Neil was on the run from police when Leah went missing. He was apparently wanted for a sexual assault in November 2018. They tried to arrest him on at least 18 occasions, but were unable to track him down. Then, on April 20th, 2019, Neil was found dead in Milton Keynes. He had apparently completed suicide. Investigators are still looking into Neil, but they haven't ruled out the possibility that someone else was involved in Leah's death.
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The next update is in the case of Michael Vaughn. I covered his case back in July. Now, Michael was only 5 when he went missing from his neighborhood in Fruitland, Idaho on July 27th, 2021. There were months of intense searches, a ton of scrutiny over whether or not an Amber Alert should have been issued, and there was new legislation sparked by the case.
In November, investigators received a tip that led them to a home a short distance from where Michael disappeared. KMVT reported that the tip came from one of the home's occupants. On November 12th, investigators brought in cadaver dogs and began digging in the backyard of the home. On November 14th, it was reported that one of the occupants of the home, 35-year-old Sarah Wondra, was arrested in connection with the disappearance of Michael.
She was charged with failure to report a death to the coroner, a felony. Sarah has no direct connection to the Vaughn family. Investigators said, quote, We do not believe she is the only person that has knowledge of this, and we will be seeking out those people who could possibly be connected, end quote.
CBS 2 News reported that as of November 21st, Sarah's case has been postponed because she's been found unfit to continue in court. She has been committed to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare until she is deemed competent. Now, investigators have been very upfront, saying that they do expect to find Michael's remains in Sarah's backyard. But,
but it appears that in all the searches, that hasn't happened yet. The last thing that I could find is that they believe Michael's remains have been moved. This next update comes from August, and this is in the case of Kylie Rodney. This is another one of those cases I covered when it was pretty brand new. I was just trying to raise awareness at that time Kylie was still missing, but shortly after publishing the episode, we got an update.
But for those of you not familiar, just before 1am on August 6th, 2022, 16-year-old Kylie Rodney and her vehicle went missing from a party in the woods in Truckee, California. It was basically this huge senior send-off type party with a lot of kids and many adults. And it seemed like nobody knew what happened to Kylie, which drove the internet crazy. How does somebody disappear from a party with hundreds of people and no one saw anything?
Well, it does seem that Kylie was in a car accident. On August 23rd, Kylie's car was found upside down in around 14 feet of water in a Northern California reservoir. Her body was inside her car. Kylie's death was ruled an accident.
The sheriff's office said, quote, this ruling is based off the pathologist finding that her death was the result of drowning, and there was no other information to suggest she was the victim of foul play, end quote. Now, it appears that the California Highway Patrol is still investigating exactly how Kylie's car ended up in the water, but that seems to be about it, just a tragic accident.
The next case is Lucian Munguia. This is from September. And another case I covered when it was pretty brand new. On September 12th, 2022, four-year-old Lucian Munguia was with his family at Sarge Hubbard Park in Yakima, Washington. But his younger sister needed a diaper change. So Lucian's father, Juan Munguia, turned his back for a minute to change the baby. When he was done, Lucian was gone. In October, News Nation reported that, quote,
"'The Yakima Police Department and sheriff's detectives "'say there is no evidence of foul play "'and that they do not believe "'the parents did anything to Lucian.'" End quote.
Now, that's not really the biggest update. I'm really glad they made that statement, but the biggest update came at the end of October. Now, you guys, I don't even really know how to begin to explain this. Basically, one of the biggest things in Lucian's case was that there was video evidence of him leaving the park alone.
Again, one of the cornerstone things in this case was that Lucian was seen on video leaving this park alone. But then, on October 27th, Chief Matt Murray with the Yakima Police Department made this video. Good afternoon. It's October 27th.
And as you're all aware, we have continually stated that we would provide updates on the missing Lucien Muniga case should we get any new information. Unfortunately, after 47 days, six weeks, we just have no new information.
In a recent meeting with the family, because we are in constant contact with the family, they did ask that we could clarify some information and I'm happy to do so. Early in the investigation, when we were providing updates to the community immediately after Lucian's disappearance, I was told that there was video of Lucian at the park. And after six weeks, I can tell you that an exhaustive search, there is no video of Lucian.
In fact, what video evidence we have found and we have video evidence is where he wasn't. Basically, it's video where you don't see Lucian. So the best the video can tell us is where he didn't go. We have very strong reason to believe Lucian was in the park and then he wasn't. And unfortunately, at this time, we still don't know where Lucian is, where he went.
how he's gone. It's an awful situation. It's unique in that he's just gone. We have made extreme efforts. I think the community is well aware of that. We continue to do that. We continue to investigate. But we have no evidence of any kind that tells us what happened to Lucian, where he went, how he disappeared.
I will tell you that we have said all along and I continue to make it very clear that we have absolutely no evidence of foul play. Nothing has come to light to indicate that anybody is responsible for Lucien's disappearance. Obviously, should we get information of that type, we will immediately follow up on it. And if we're able, we will inform the public of that information as well.
I do want to tell folks that there's a lot of curiosity about this case and interest, which is good. But the flip side is there's a lot of things in law enforcement that we just can't share. We have an investigation. We have to protect that investigation. Anything that we get at this point until there's some resolution, we're not able to share. And that's to protect the potential case, to protect the privacy of the family, to do the best we can to serve the community.
And I realize that for some people that's frustrating because they want to know more. But what I can tell you is we will share what we're able to share when we can share it.
Finally, I just want to again say that the family asked us to do this video and I'm happy to do that for them. It's just a horrible situation and it's also extremely disappointing and saddening what they've had to endure. Attacks from around the country, people who don't know them or know anything about the case. I again will say what I said the very first day and the second day is let's wrap ourselves around this family and support this family.
because it's just an awful situation. And of course, we all would like to have a resolution. Unfortunately, at this point, there's no way to know whether there will be a resolution. So I would ask anyone who has any information, call 509-575-6200. You can also email us at ypd at yakamawa.gov. That'll be on this post as well.
And I will say one more time, we will update the community if we have information that's new that we can share. We have no interest in hiding information. That's not what we're trying to do. We feel an obligation to be transparent. I feel an obligation to be transparent. Unfortunately, there's just no information right now to share. So thanks for your support and understanding. So it appears that there was no footage of Lucian leaving the park alone.
And I don't even know how to begin to explain that. All I can say is that the search for illusion continues. This episode of Voices for Justice is sponsored by Ibotta. Are you planning your dream vacation but dreading the cost?
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The next case is local to me, Jesse Wilson. This episode is from October. But basically, 10-year-old Jesse Wilson was reported missing from his Buckeye, Arizona home by his adoptive mother, Crystal Wilson, on July 17th, 2016. Now, if you guys remember, Crystal basically calls the non-emergency line and says that she thinks her son left out of his bedroom window in the middle of the night like he had several times before. But this time, he didn't come home.
Now, this was another one of those just heartbreaking episodes when you find out how Jesse was actually treated. Eventually, Jesse's body was found, but no action was taken, even though it seemed like everything was pointing to Crystal Wilson.
Well, earlier this month, on December 13th, Crystal Wilson was arrested in Gainesville, Georgia. She was charged with abandonment or concealment of a dead body, a Class 5 felony. Chief Larry Hall from the Buckeye Police Department told reporters, "...through the course of this investigation, it was a blessing and a curse that it was a high-profile case, because we got a lot of leads on this case."
But all of our leads led back to Crystal being responsible. It's a tough case. She knows what happened. She's not telling us. End quote. It seems that through DNA collected from Crystal's Jeep and what they are calling, quote, visual evidence, end quote, placing her near where Jesse was found, they were able to make this arrest. Now, they haven't been able to charge Crystal Wilson with Jesse's homicide just yet, but it seems that they are inching that way.
The last update comes from a case I covered in two episodes in October. And that is the case of Abby... Oh, you guys, I can't even make it through without crying. That is the case of Abby Williams and Libby German. I promise I'm going to try to keep it together. Now, on Monday, February 13th, 2017, 14-year-old Libby German and her 13-year-old best friend, Abby Williams, wanted to take advantage of the nice weather while it lasted...
So they asked Libby's older sister, Kelsey German, to drive them to the Delphi Historic Trail so they could go hiking.
And I think most of us know what happens next. Unfortunately, the girls were never able to meet back at the trailhead to meet Libby's dad, Derek German, to pick them up. He got there, and they were nowhere to be found. The police were called, and official searches began. The next morning, within hours, Abby and Libby's bodies were found.
Now, we know that this case was instantly huge in the media and people have been demanding answers for years. Well, this was another one of those cases, just like Naomi Erion. Right after I pushed publish on this episode, there was a major break in the case. 50-year-old Richard Allen was arrested and later formally charged with the murders of Abby and Libby. He has pleaded not guilty.
Allen's next court date is February 17th, 2023 for a bond hearing. Now, I do also want to say that while Allen has been arrested, the Indiana State Police is still seeking any information the public may have on Abby and Libby's murders. But that's it for our 2022 case updates.
It is truly incredible to see answers come for some of these cases. Some definitely had results that I think we were all kind of expecting, but some also came completely out of left field. It's exactly why I say even if we think we know exactly what happened in these cases, anything could happen.
Now, I will never say that I or this show solved a case. I won't even say that for my sister's case. These solves and convictions are, nine times out of ten in my experience, a huge collective effort.
So it's incredibly difficult to trace to a single person. One, because the public often doesn't have access to an entire case file to see exactly where the solve came. And two, because there are so many hands in these cases. The clerk filing the paperwork, the volunteers reviewing video surveillance, the detectives working long nights on the case, the expert weighing in on criminal behavior.
journalists sharing the facts, podcasts, YouTube videos, and advocates, and of course, true crime consumers sharing these flyers and these stories. It's a giant snowball effect.
But I will say that I hope Voices for Justice was at least a small part in these snowballs that ultimately can lead to justice. I also want to tell you guys just how grateful I am for each and every one of you out there listening. We have been on a long journey together over these past three years, and it's all thanks to you. Thank you so much for listening, and here's to more shows and solves in 2023.
But as always, thank you again, I love you, and I'll talk to you next year.
Voices for Justice is hosted and produced by me, Sarah Turney, and is a Voices for Justice media original. This episode contains writing and research assistance by Haley Gray. If you love what we do here, please don't forget to follow, rate, and review the show in your podcast player. It's an easy and free way to help us and help more people find these cases in need of justice. And for even more content, check out my other podcast, Disappearances, only on Spotify.