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This is Jessica Knoll, host of the new series Back in Crime. If you're a follower of true crime, you're probably familiar with some of the most shocking stories from our history. Horrific tragedies like the Columbine Massacre. He turned the gun straight at us and shot. Oh my God, the window went out. And the kid standing there with me, I think he got hit. Okay. Oh God. And notorious criminals like cult leader Charles Manson.
In a scene described by one investigator as reminiscent of a weird religious rite, five persons, including actress Sharon Tate, were found dead at the home of Miss Tate and her husband, screen director Roman Poliansky. But what if we were to turn back the hands of time and relive these events as they unfolded? Follow along each week as we take a fresh look at crimes from the past. Back in Crime is available now.
Hey guys, Voices for Justice will be back next week with a brand new episode. In the meantime, I wanted to share a preview of a new series from my friends at The Fall Line podcast. Starting January 11th, The Fall Line begins a three-part series covering the cold case of Chairo Garibay-Ferreira. On December 11th, 2005, 20-year-old Chairo disappeared. She planned on attending church with her family in Olivehurst, California, but she never showed.
Her family was immediately concerned. This wasn't like the responsible young adult they knew. She kept busy with work, family obligations, and preparation for college, which she planned to start in the new year. She was also looking forward to a family trip back to Mexico where she'd been born. She hadn't been back since they moved to the States, and she was excited. But Chairo wouldn't have that chance.
Chyra was reported missing to the Yuba County Sheriff, and both her family and law enforcement began an exhaustive five-week search that ended in the tragic discovery of her body in a drainage area near her own home. Though there would eventually be a $50,000 reward authorized in Chyra's case, no one has been arrested for her murder.
Right now, I'm going to play you a clip from the first episode in the series. Head over to the Fall Line to follow Tyra's story and hear from her family, and what they and investigators hope can be done today. Find the Fall Line, a true crime podcast, anywhere you listen. And I'll see you next week for a brand new episode of Voices for Justice.
This is a three-part series that will be released over three weeks. Please be sure to begin with episode one. This series discusses crime scenes and murder. Listener discretion is advised. This is The Fall Line. In Olivers, California, in the last days of 2005, a 20-year-old named Chido Garibay-Ferreira failed to arrive at church.
Her family had gone on ahead and expected her to appear later. With some family members singing in the choir and a special program planned to celebrate the Virgin of Guadalupe, whose namesake feast fell on the next day, December 12th, Chido's mother, Magdalena, and her stepfather, Leonel Sr., and her little brother and sister, Leonel Jr., called Junie by the family, and Marisol, all had to leave the house by 5.30 a.m.
They piled into Lionel Sr.'s Dodge Ram for the trip. But Chido had her own car, paid for by her job at the local video store. So she could sleep in a little and meet her family later. They'd be performing at two different Masses that morning. Chido would catch up in her 2002 Mercury Cougar. It was a vehicle her little brother and sister and cousins all loved. But Chido Garibay never met her family at Mass.
When her mother and father arrived home, her brother and sister had gone to their cousin's house to play, Chido wasn't there either. But her purse and cell phone were still in her room, and her Mercury Cougar was still parked outside. Instead, the family's third car, a Toyota Camry that Magdalena drove, was gone. Something was wrong.
Magdalena began to make calls. Their family was large and close-knit. The Ferrara side was stretched across the little towns near Yuba City, like Oliverst and Marysville, where most of the siblings and their grandmother and grandfather, Magdalena's parents, had settled. Call to call, person to person, then to Chido's friends. She had many. The question was asked again and again. Where is she?
They didn't have time to call the Yuba County Sheriff's Office. Deputies arrived at the family's door, but they hadn't found Chido. According to the Appeal Democrat, the family's Toyota Camry had been discovered, quote, "submerged in the Bear River next to a train trestle a half mile east of Highway 70." That was an area a few miles from the family's home. That's right at the Yuba County and Sutter County lines.
The car had been spotted, per the Democrat, by, quote, a nature photographer. It was just chance that the Camry had been found so soon. They'd followed the registration to Magdalena and Lionel's home. But there was no sign of Charo, and there wouldn't be, not for days and days. Even with exhaustive ground searches, endless flyering by her family, sleepless nights, she had entirely disappeared.
The only sign at the house that was unusual, law enforcement noted to the Democrat, was that there was an open window and a screen to the window was laying outside on the ground, and it was unclear whether this had anything to do with her disappearance. Chido vanished from her Northern California home, from her small town, on December 11th, 2005.
In a community of roughly 13,000 people who, per the Appeal Democrat, at one point formed a hand-to-hand chain to search for her, it was difficult to imagine what could have happened. Chido was a busy, well-liked, family-focused young adult with plans to attend college on the horizon. She'd graduated from the local high school. She was a popular staple at the counter at the local video store. She was well-known in her church community
In the Spanish language youth group, she had friends and people everywhere knew her. But no one came forward to say that they'd seen anything. No one ever entertained the idea that Chaito Garibay had run away or left her life behind.
She's a good girl. That's what every news story echoed. The sheriff's investigators, her family, friends, the church, they all knew something had occurred. Chido's parents had been home by 10.30 a.m. that Sunday, and in five hours, she was gone without a trace.
On Wednesday, December 14th, three days after Chido's disappearance, then-Undersheriff Steve Durfer told the Sacramento Bee, quote, The circumstances are highly suspicious. We're not ruling out the possibility of foul play. We're not discounting any theory at this point. And soon, the word kidnapped began to appear in local news reports.
It took a few days, but authorities were eventually able to narrow down what Chido was likely wearing when she disappeared. Cowboy boots, jeans, a zip-up hoodie. She might have had on her favorite jewelry.
Within a few days, the Appeal Democrat reported that the Yuba County Sheriff had set up a 24-hour tip line asking for any information pertaining to Chaito's disappearance. On December 15th, the paper described an extensive search with scent dogs along the banks of the river, and quotes from volunteers who joined in to aid the mission were included.
Uriel Chavez, Chato's cousin, told the Democrat, quote, I don't know why she's missing. She didn't have any enemies. And there were quotes from Chato's boyfriend, her cousins, her aunts and uncles, and friends. So many people were worried.
By the 20th of December, the paper reported that the same areas had been searched and searched again, especially, quote, along the Bear and Feather Rivers, on foot and horse and all-terrain vehicles. Dogs had again been brought in.
The force was largely volunteer and had help coming in from across the region, including outside Yuba County. Chido's parents' house had become a home base for neighbors and volunteers and their large extended family who met to help with firing and searches, anything that was needed. And in the afternoons, Magdalena, Chido's mother, would sit and wait for news.
But there was no news. Christmas passed. Relatives from other towns sent presents for Chido, hoping she'd be home to open them. She missed the trip to Mexico that she'd planned on making with her family. It would have been the first time she had a chance to visit since she'd immigrated as a child. We first heard of Chido Garibay when a listener of the show contacted us and asked us if we'd cover her case.
Anna told us that Chido was her partner's cousin. She told us that he and his family had been waiting for answers for a long time. As we messaged over Instagram, it soon became apparent how many people who love Chido would be willing to speak about her.
Her cousins, Hansel and America, and Gracia. Her mother, Magdalena, and her aunt Carmen, who interviewed with Brooke with the translation help of our special continent visor and translator, Guadalupe Lopez. Chido's brother, Leonel, nicknamed Junie, and her sister, Marisol. Chido's high school friends, Ophelia and Ashley.
There is a lot you need to know about Chido. Her life didn't begin and end that day in December in Northern California when she promised to meet her family at church, but never made it there. And there's more to tell you about her case. But first, you need to know more about her. And then you'll discover what her family needs from you. Now, more than 17 years after police stood on their front porch telling them their family car had been discovered in the river.
Chairo.
That was Magdalena, Chairo's mother, talking about how she chose Chairo's name. She told us that she liked the name Chairo because it was gender neutral, and she first heard it as the name of a Mexican artist.
She told us, quote,
Today, many of her friends that I keep in touch with have told me they named their children after her, and it makes me very happy. Unlike her younger brother and sister, Chido was born in Mexico. She moved with her mother and several other family members to California when she was young. She hadn't seen her biological father since then, and there were plans for her to meet with him when the family took their Christmas trip in 2005. But, of course, with her disappearance, that trip never came.
No one wanted to leave, not even the city, to see family close by. They needed to be on hand to find her.