May 14, 2024 • 40 mins
Mercedes Vega is seen on video at 9:15 p.m. leaving her apartment complex in Tempe, Arizona.
In the video Vega is seen walking with her face looking down as if she was on Facetime. Mercedes Vegas is texting multiple people on the night of April 16. And looking at those messages as a whole, she is either going to meet friends for Sushi, meet other friends at "Dave&Busters," or, as she indicates in another text, go to work.
In one of her text messages Mercedes Vega says, "I just feel weird, like maybe I shouldn't go anywhere."
In the early morning hours of April 17, the Harquahala Fire Department responds to a report of a burning car on the “north hand shoulder” of the I-10 highway, west of Tonopah, Arizona. Firefighters find a 2018 Chevrolet Malibu on fire.
Once the fire is put out, a deceased human body is found in the rear passenger seat.
At 1:15 a.m. Maricopa County Sheriff's deputies are called to a scene to assist the Arizona Department of Public Safety on a death investigation. Investigators talk to the man who called law enforcement about the car on fire. Robert Miller tells officials he saw a person walking outside the vehicle.
Using fingerprints, investigators can identify the woman found inside the burning Malibu as 22-year-old Mercedes Vega. The 2018 Chevrolet Malibu in which her body was found, does not belong to Vega. The car has a Salvage Title vehicle registered to State Farm Insurance and the burning car is 60 miles from Vega's Tempe, Arizona apartment. Mercedes' 2019, White, Dodge Charger is found illegally parked near First Street and Farmer Avenue, 1.5 miles south of where she lives.
According to her mother, the car is parked while running with the keys in the ignition so it would be stolen or towed. The MCSO has video surveillance of Vega's Charger from the time it is left parked on the road until the time police recover it. Vega didn't park it where it was found.
Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s report states the cause of death was “conflagration, blunt force and ballistic injuries," and the Manner of Death is Homicide. The death report also states she has blunt force trauma and gunshot injuries that contributed to her death, and an odor of bleach within the larynx.
The report notes the presence of gloves and bleach found in front of the car and lighter fluid in the backseat.
JOINING NANCY TODAY:
- Tom and Erika Pillsbury - Mercedes Vega's parents, FB: Justice for Mercedes Marianna Vega
- Sarah Ford – Legal Director of South Carolina Victim Assistance Network, Former Prosecutor (focusing on crimes against women and children) & Host of “Stepping Toward Justice” podcast; X: @Sarahafordfordesq
- Robin Dreeke – Behavior Expert & Retired FBI Special Agent / Chief of the FBI Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program; Author: “Sizing People Up: A Veteran FBI Agents Manual for Behavior Prediction;” X: @rdreekeke
- Dr. Michelle DuPre – Former Forensic Pathologist, Medical Examiner and Detective: Lexington County Sheriff’s Department, Author: “Homicide Investigation Field Guide” & “Investigating Child Abuse Field Guide;” Forensic Consultant
- Bianca Buono – Reporter, 12 News (Phoenix, AZ), X: @BiancaBuono
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, breaking news tonight.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
A gorgeous, young and gifted dancer, just twenty two, found
dead in a burning car. The medical examiner discovers bleach
in her throat, lighter fluid, and gloves.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Found near her burning car.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Tonight, her family breaking their silence with a desperate plea
for justice. Who killed their daughter? Mercedes. Good evening, I'm
Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to thank
you for being with us.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
So hard to believe I'm never gonna see her again.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
They missed her so much.
Speaker 5 (00:52):
She was.
Speaker 6 (00:54):
So bright, she was such a beautiful, sweet, kind soul.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
She didn't deserve this, She didn't deserve what happened to her.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
You are hearing mercedes mother begging for justice. We have
an all star panel to make sense of what we
are learning tonight. But first, two very special guests joining us.
Mercedes parents are with us, Erica and Tom Pillsbury. To
both of you, thank you for being with us. Miss Pillsbury,
(01:34):
we were just hearing you begging for justice for your daughter,
who's absolutely beautiful and so young. Her life just starting.
Tell me how you learned Mercedes had.
Speaker 7 (01:50):
Been killed a year ago?
Speaker 8 (01:53):
We had a knock at the door and there were
two gentlemen standing outside and I shout it up to
my husband. We had just come back from a cruise
for my fiftieth birthday, and I said, it looks like
there's cops. And we kind of assumed it was probably
(02:14):
something going on with the neighbors or something going on
throughout the neighborhood, and they asked us. They asked me,
does Mercedes live here? And I said no, but I'm
her mom. Is she okay? And they said does she
live here? And I said is she okay? And I
just kept repeating is she okay? Is she okay? And
(02:36):
they said can we come in? And I said I
just want to know she's okay, and they said no,
we need to come in.
Speaker 7 (02:47):
And that's how we found out that she was dead.
Speaker 8 (02:51):
They told us that she was deceased. Those are the
words that she used, and that they didn't have any
other information beyond that.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Mister Bilsbury, thank you for being with us as well.
Do you remember that moment? What is your memory of
learning your twenty two year old girl was dead?
Speaker 9 (03:15):
Well, it was just really really hard because when we
come back from our trip, we drive by her place
that she lived, and one thing I would always do
is I would say to her, Oh, I love you
and I miss you. I'm thinking of you. As we
drove by, we did like we normally do, and in
(03:36):
my heart, it's like if I would have just called
her I, maybe things would have been different. So I
had a lot of because we were tired. We had
just lived and back from the Caribbean, so we're really tired,
and we were hungry, and we didn't and it just
it just broke my heart. I screamed, I yelled. I
didn't believe it was true. I still to this day
(03:59):
it's hard to believe that it's true. It just completely
shattered our lives in a moment.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
What were their exact words, Tom, What did they tell you,
just that she's deceased.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
I know you had to have questions.
Speaker 9 (04:14):
Yes, they said she was deceased, and we asked more questions,
but they wouldn't give me answers. How I actually found
out what happened to my daughter is I looked it
up on the internet. They told us where our daughter
was at was Intona, pa Arizona. But I looked it
up on the internet and it said body found in
(04:35):
burning car and Tonapa Arizona. That's how I found out
what actually happened to my daughter.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
When you would ask them Tom, what happened? What would
they say?
Speaker 10 (04:44):
We can't tell you that right now. It's an ongoing investigation.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Miss Pillsbury.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Do you remember asking over and over what happened to her?
What happened to her? And what did they say?
Speaker 8 (04:54):
I asked over and over and over and over again
and ny and then I said, I said, was she
in a car accident?
Speaker 7 (05:04):
Did she kill herself?
Speaker 5 (05:06):
Like?
Speaker 7 (05:06):
What?
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Why?
Speaker 6 (05:09):
Why?
Speaker 8 (05:10):
And they kept saying, we don't know, and we don't
have any answer. We're trying to figure that out. They
asked us three questions. Was she right or left handed?
Where was the address that she actually lived at? And
did she have any reason to be near Tona Pa, Arizona.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
How far was that from your home Tona Pa.
Speaker 8 (05:33):
From our homes, Probably about one hundred and twenty miles
from Mercedes house.
Speaker 7 (05:38):
It's probably about.
Speaker 10 (05:39):
Seventy sixty three in that ballpark, sixty three to seventy
miles from her house.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Would she have normally been there?
Speaker 11 (05:46):
No, No, it's in the middle of nowhere. It's if
you're not familiar with Arizona. It's one of the where
that she was found is on the interstate that is
like one of the busiest interstates because it connects Arizona
to La So there's a ton of traffic that are
driving on that highway twenty four to seven.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
When you saw that online, Tom, what went through your mind?
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Because why would she be there? Why would her car
be on fire with her in the car in the
back seat? As I've read the report, why would she
be that far away from.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Your home and her home.
Speaker 9 (06:24):
I honestly couldn't fathom why she was that far away
from her home, wasn't it? But she actually was not
in her own car.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
You're right, So I'm very curious why she had been
taken there to Robin Drieke joining me, behavior expert, former
FBI Special Agent, chief of the FBI Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis
Program and author of Sizing People Up, a veteran FBI
agent's manual for behavior prediction. Wow, Robin Drake, you and
(06:58):
I have seen similar scenarios, both of us have as
investigators and myself as a prosecutor, and there is typically
a reason a vehicle is as the Pillsbury said, out
in the middle of nowhere set on fire.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Explain.
Speaker 5 (07:15):
Yeah, obviously they were trying to whoever the assailant was,
the murderer was, was trying to get rid of the evidence,
trying to get rid of her. And it was this
whole thing just rings of sloppiness, potential stalker in here
and missing. You know, they found gloves in the car,
(07:36):
lighter fluid. I mean, just it just rings of a
lot of rough things gone sideways in a lot of
different ways.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Another thing, I don't know that I would say that
things are going sideways because I believe that is exactly
the killer's intention to take this girl look at her,
a gorgeous twenty two year old, gifted dancer, to take
her out in the middle of nowhere and burn that
car with a hopes and also in somebody else's car
(08:06):
so her car could be traced back to her through
the VEN number, which can endure a fire because if
they got that vin which is basically etched onto a car,
that could trace the VEN number on the car back
to the owner, which would be Mercedes. So in a
different car not belonging to her, out in the quote
(08:28):
middle of nowhere, and I guarantee you Robin Drake. The
killer hoped her body would be burned beyond recognition.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
Right, And I agree, Nancy, And what I went by
sideways on this one, I don't think it looked very sophisticated.
It looks like a potential serial stalker who's just setting
on his course of doing horrendous things in his life,
and she might want one of the earlier victims of his.
And that's why it's so imperative that the police get
off their brelets and find this guy, because it's going
(08:59):
to happen again unless they do.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Doctor Michelle Dupree, joining US renowned forensic pathologists, medical examiner
and author, Doctor Dupree, You can't just set a car
on fire and expect to get rid of DNA in bones.
That doesn't happen. What would it take in order to
(09:21):
totally destroy a human.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Body, Nancy?
Speaker 12 (09:24):
It takes a lot, a lot harder than a vehicle
fire can usually get. One thing that we've also found, though,
is if that car was driven there by someone else,
the soot and the interior side of that car can
actually still yield fingerprints if they touched that rear view Mira,
That soot can act like fingerprint powder and there may
have been fingerprints on the rear view Mirra or on
(09:46):
the seat lever that moved it up or down, So
there is still a lot to be done in this investigation.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Also joining us from twelve News Phoenix investigative reporter Bianca Bono.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Bianca, thank you for being with us.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Tell me what you can about the discovery of that car,
the discovery of Mercedes, twenty two year old Mercedes and
the car and apparently bleach and her throat.
Speaker 13 (10:27):
Yeah, Nancy, I think that's what's made this case so
difficult to grasp for our community and why it's reached
people nationwide is just the horrific nature in the way
that Mercedes was found.
Speaker 14 (10:39):
Because, yes, as you guys have mentioned, she was found in.
Speaker 13 (10:42):
A burning car on the Iten Freeway, a very busy
freeway that connects Phoenix to Los Angeles, so it didn't
take long for passerbys to report the burning.
Speaker 14 (10:51):
Vehicle to nine one one.
Speaker 13 (10:53):
But what's more disturbing is the torture that Mercedes endured
before she was found burned. The medical examiner reported that
they had found a bullet wound, a gunshot wound.
Speaker 14 (11:06):
She had bleach in her throat.
Speaker 13 (11:08):
Clearly, whoever did this to her, whether it was a
person or a group of people, they wanted to send
a clear message.
Speaker 14 (11:15):
And again, just.
Speaker 13 (11:16):
How brazen they were in doing this to her and
then lighting this car on fire on the Iten Freeway,
the busiest freeway that we have in Arizona. They were
trying to send a very clear message. So we were
aware that a body had been found that night, but
we were not aware that it was Mercedes Vega until
months later. Investigators have been keeping information very close to
(11:37):
vest to the best in this case, and here we
are over a year later, and there are still no
answers in terms of what happened to her and more importantly,
who's responsible.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Well put bian Cabono to Tom and Erica Pillsbury. Mercedes parents,
I can't even imagine you're suffering after you put all
your love, all your time, all your energy, all your.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Money, your hopes.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Really a lot of parents me, all the hopes I
once had.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Are all in my children.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Now I'm hoping for them and for their happiness and
their joy and their success and their fulfillment.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
And then to learn this about.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Your daughter, the fact the circumstance of bleach bleach in
your daughter's throat.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Who could do that to this beautiful girl? When did
you learn this?
Speaker 6 (12:42):
We learned about the bleach in her throat about six
months after she died. The day before they released her autopsy,
they told us they called and said, just to warn
you there was bleach in her throat. We've been told
(13:05):
virtually nothing. We've found things out, mainly from the Internet
and from the.
Speaker 8 (13:10):
Media about our child, everything from how she died she
died in a fire so that there was blake in
her throat, to seeing the last moments of her life
on video that someone had posted on TikTok or Twitter
(13:32):
or something.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
In the early morning hours of April seventeenth, the her
Qualifier Department responds to our report of a burning car
on the north hand shoulder of the Iten Highway west
of to Nopa, Arizona firefighters find a twenty eighteen Chevrolet
Malibu on fire. Once the fire is put out, a
deceased human body is found in the rear passenger seat.
At one fifteen am, Maricopa County Sheriff's Deputies are called
(13:56):
to a scene to assist the Arizona Department of Public
Safety on a death of investigation. Investigators are able to
talk to the man who called law enforcement about the
car on fire. Robert Miller tells officials he saw a
person walking around the outside of the vehicle.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
To Bianca Bono, joining US investigative reporter with twelve News Phoenix,
to me, that is studying the fact that we still
don't have the killer, and there is a witness that
spots walking around the car as Mercedes is inside and the.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Car is on fire.
Speaker 13 (14:30):
Not only is there a witness on the Iten Freeway,
but there are also video cameras all over mercedes apartment
complex in Tempe where she was last seen. There are
witnesses in surveillance footage from the area of Tempe where
her car was later found abandoned, parked illegally, and we
now know that it was not Mercedes, as we've suspected
(14:51):
all this time who left her vehicle there. So there
are cameras everywhere, and where Mercedes lived is not far
from ASU's campus as well, so there are so much
foot traffic, There are people everywhere, there are surveillance cameras,
and as you mentioned, yes, on the Iten Freeway, there
are cars passing by.
Speaker 14 (15:08):
It was called into nine to one one right away.
Speaker 13 (15:10):
So the fact that there's a lack of answers at
this point is just so troubling, not only for the community,
for ASU students in Tempe, but obviously for the Pillsbury's
family and all of Mercedes friends who have been handing
out flyers on a regular basis and have been doing
so much advocacy work on their own and really taken
matters in their own hands to try to get this
(15:32):
thing solved. Because yeah, I mean, the fact that somebody
or people that are capable of doing what they did
to Mercedes are still out there is very concerning for
everyone who's seen this case, all.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
That video surveillance.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Guys, Before I say one more thing, I've got to
give you a tip line for silent witness.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Repeat.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Silent witness line is for eight zero witness for eight
zero witness for eight zero nine four eight six three
seven seven repeat four eight zero nine four eight six
three seven seven. I want to go back to the
(16:13):
Pillsbury's and then to Sarah Ford joining us an expert.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Miss Pillsbury, you stated video.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Of the last moments of your daughter's life, to which video.
Speaker 15 (16:26):
Are you referring the video of her coming out of
the vestibule where there is one elevator into her Perkin garage, which.
Speaker 7 (16:40):
We did not we weren't aware of and had not seen.
Speaker 8 (16:46):
I w had gone to her apartment, and it was
three or three days, I believe, after she had died,
and there was still blood on the ground from where
she was hit.
Speaker 7 (17:01):
And I saw this weird.
Speaker 8 (17:02):
Swirl pattern and the blood, and I was wearing her
baby hat, and you know, as a mama when they're born,
sometimes they put those little things on.
Speaker 16 (17:16):
Their heads, and there's a little bit of her blood
in there. And I laid in her blood in that
apartment complex, and.
Speaker 8 (17:31):
I looked at that weird swirl and I said, oh
my god, she's wearing ten shoes. And she never wore
tennis shoes. And I asked the police if she was
wearing tennis shoes, and they didn't tell me. And then
that video was released of her walking out and she's
wearing tennis shoes, and it just there's no video that
(18:01):
we had somebody who lived there, they took as they
walked out of that vestibule in that elevator and walked
all the way over to her actual parking spot and
that it's thirty seconds. We know that's where she was
hit because we were they didn't clean it up and
(18:24):
we were able to see her her blood.
Speaker 7 (18:29):
And then when that video was released, it was very.
Speaker 8 (18:34):
Strange for me as a mom to be like, Wow,
my kid never wears tennis shoes, but she was wearing
tend of shoes.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Why does that?
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Why is that fact so important Erica, that she was
wearing tennis shoes.
Speaker 17 (18:54):
I asked what she was wearing. I didn't get to
her at all after she died. I didn't get a
lock of her hair. I didn't I wanted just to
hold her hand. I just wanted something in the last
(19:17):
moments of her life. Seeing that video.
Speaker 7 (19:23):
Was oh, that's so horrible.
Speaker 18 (19:28):
But seeing her another time, what last time?
Speaker 7 (19:38):
It was also a gift.
Speaker 17 (19:40):
But I just found it very strange that she was
wearing ten of shoes, just.
Speaker 18 (19:46):
Because I'm her mom.
Speaker 17 (19:47):
And my husband will tell you she used to lay
out her clothes every morning, so.
Speaker 7 (19:53):
She like would choose an outfit before.
Speaker 18 (19:56):
She went anywhere, and she just never more tennis shoes,
which is why we were like, she's going to David
Busters because she wouldn't have been going out to sushi.
Speaker 17 (20:09):
She wouldn't have been.
Speaker 8 (20:11):
Going anywhere that we could imagine other than daven Busters
wearing tennis shoes, because she was.
Speaker 7 (20:21):
You know, ready to play, ready to.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Go have fun.
Speaker 7 (20:27):
And you could see her face in that still shot
that she's smiling and she has no idea what's about
to happen to her.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Miss Pillsbury, you stated that you did not see her
again after she died.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
Is that right?
Speaker 7 (20:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 8 (20:49):
They let me walk into a room and she was
in a body bed with the zipper on the back
of it so we weren't able to access it, with
a heavy blanket on top of her. I've never seen
a photo of.
Speaker 7 (21:13):
Her deceased.
Speaker 8 (21:17):
I know that sounds strange, but as a mom, it
makes me think, well, maybe she's still here. I mean,
because all I can do in this world that I
found myself in is wish that I wasn't in this place.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Miss Pillsbury. I've got to tell you something.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
I understand what you're saying because when my fiance was murdered,
he was shot so many times and his face, his head,
his snack, his back. I didn't at that young age,
you know, I didn't want to see him, So my
last memory of him it's when he drove away that morning.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
And since that time, it's been many many.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Years ago, to this day, I still have dreams that
he's alive, about the black body bag, about being zipped open,
but then there's nothing in there, just all sorts of bizarre,
horrible nightmares because I never saw him dead. So your
(22:28):
desire to have seen her is justified.
Speaker 7 (22:33):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
I get it.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
And I want to ask, mister Pillsbury, as your wife
is recounting what she has lived through, what does it
do to you as you hear her tell this horrible
story again?
Speaker 10 (22:47):
It hurts me deeply.
Speaker 11 (22:50):
Because I'm here for my family, my other children and
my wife, and to see us to.
Speaker 10 (22:56):
Go through this, and we're living a nightmare every single day.
Speaker 9 (23:01):
You know, a lot of people are moving on with their.
Speaker 11 (23:05):
Lives and doing what they have to do. But we,
as a husband and wife, this is all we focus on.
What I'm at the age in my life that all
that matters to me is my wife, my children, and
my granddaughter.
Speaker 6 (23:17):
That's it.
Speaker 11 (23:18):
That's all I really care about. And to lose one
of my children and see what it's doing to my wife.
Speaker 9 (23:23):
It just it tears me apart. It's like that video
that you showed. It's just to sit there and watch it.
It's so hard to know that my daughter didn't have
a care in the world and she just and then
literally thirty seconds later, she was taken from us. And
I just it's hard to put into words of what
(23:47):
my heart is lost and what my wife is heart
is lost, because it's just like she said, it's hard
to realize that she's not here.
Speaker 10 (23:59):
Because she is.
Speaker 9 (24:00):
You know, she's only twenty two and she was just
starting her journey in life, and for someone to take
her away from us at the nature of what they did,
it just doesn't make any sense. And back to the
gentleman's statement earlier where he said it was sloppy, it
was done very sloppily.
Speaker 10 (24:20):
I agree one hundred percent.
Speaker 19 (24:22):
Using fingerprints, investigators are able to identify the woman found
inside the burning Malibu as twenty two year old Mercedes Vega.
The twenty eighteen Chevrolet Malibu in which her body was
found does not belong to Vega. That car has a
salvage title, vehicle registered to State Farm Insurance, and the
burning car is sixty miles from Vegas Tempe, Arizona apartment.
(24:44):
Mercedes twenty nineteen white Dodge Charger is found illegally parked
near First Street and Farmer Avenue, one and a half
miles south of where she lives. According to her mother,
the car is parked while running with the keys in
the ignition, so it would be stolen or the MCSO
has video surveillance of Vegas charger from the time it
(25:04):
is left parked on the road until the time it
is recovered by police. Vega did not park it where
it was found.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
So if they've got video of it from the time
it was parked till it was found by police, who
parked it, who got out of the car, it's not
self driving, it's not a tesla, So who parked the
car obviously connected to who killed who murdered Mercedes joining
me Mercedes parents. But I want to go out to
(25:33):
Sarah Ford, a legal director of South Carolina Victim Assistant Network,
former prosecutor of Crimes on Women and Children.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Sarah, thank you for being with us. Sarah.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
The burning aspect leaving her by the side of the interstate,
burning her like it burned, trash out in the front
yard ditch, just treating her like she's less than a person.
Speaker 20 (25:56):
It's absolutely awful, Nancy. It's devastating for these for mister
and missus Pillsbury, but even worse is how they appear
to have been treated by law enforcement throughout the investigation.
It's certainly understandable for investigators to want to keep information
close to the best, but for survivors of homicide to
find out information from the internet, for the media, for
(26:18):
the public to have information before mister missus Pillsbury is
absolutely inexcusable.
Speaker 7 (26:25):
Absolutely, you know, I'm curious.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Back to Bianca Bono joining us investigative reporter twelve News
in Phoenix, Bianca, you mentioned earlier and I'm hearing it
again from our reporters at Crime Online that there's video,
and we were just hearing Dave Matt reporting that there's
video of her Mercedes car from the time it was
(26:52):
parked till the time police found it.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
So who parked it, that's not in the video. There's
everything in the video but the perp right.
Speaker 13 (27:00):
And we have so many questions about this video, and
we only recently got confirmation from the Maricopa County Sheriff's
Office that that surveillance video even exists months ago. The
Pillsbury's were asking publicly when they finally started speaking out,
because to their credit, they remain quiet relatively about this case,
(27:21):
giving investigators time to put all the pieces together. But
for months they've been asking where's the surveillance footage?
Speaker 14 (27:29):
Where are the cameras? There are cameras everywhere.
Speaker 13 (27:32):
And also, you know, for them to find out that
there's surveillance footage from the apartment complex via social media,
somebody at the apartment complex choosing to record this video
and posted online and not from investigators is just really troubling.
But yes, we know that there is surveillance footage out there.
We've put in records requests, as have several other investigative
reporters to try to get our own hands on this
(27:54):
footage to see what work we can do to try
to track down individuals. We haven't received any of that yet.
We're hoping to get it soon. But yeah, no question,
there is video evidence in this case. What is in
those video images that's just.
Speaker 7 (28:08):
Unknown at this.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
Crime stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
To Erica Pillsbury joining us.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
This is Mercedes mom along with her dad Tom Erica.
Have you asked La law enforcement? Where's the video? Can
I see the video?
Speaker 7 (28:36):
Of course, I asked for all of the evidence.
Speaker 8 (28:40):
I've asked. I've asked, why won't you show it to us?
Maybe we can identify the people in the video. Why
haven't you brought us in and questioned.
Speaker 21 (28:51):
Us a A Why Why are we finding all of
this out via other avenues besides law enforcement?
Speaker 3 (29:03):
What in the hey is going on?
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Bianca?
Speaker 3 (29:07):
Why that's not right?
Speaker 14 (29:09):
It's not and it's not how cases should go.
Speaker 13 (29:12):
Ever, and unfortunately it's been an issue with this case
from the beginning, as they mentioned, and now it's to
the point where you know, I'll get information from the
Sheriff's office and I'll reach out to Tom and Erica
and let them know what I'm hearing, just to confirm
that they've heard it too, because the last thing as
a journalist I would ever want is for the victims,
(29:32):
family and friends to be finding out information when they
turn on the evening news.
Speaker 14 (29:37):
It's completely unacceptable.
Speaker 13 (29:39):
And we've been asking why are authorities keeping this information
so private? Why are they releasing it in the way
that they are. We know that the Sheriff's office is
now working with federal partners it's unclear exactly who, but
we know they're not working alone in this case. But again,
to go over twelve months without any answers, any really
(30:00):
semblance of closure for these family and friends, it's just
really disheartening. And we're hoping that things changes, they move forward,
but at this point, the fact that the Pillsburys are
still learning new information to this moment is really troubling.
Speaker 11 (30:14):
Mercedes Father, I want to thank silent Witness. I want
to thank all agencies that are involved in trying to
solve this case and bring me peace for my wife
and my other children. I want to thank the media
for being here. I understand it's been kept quiet. We
kept it quiet because we wanted the justice system to.
Speaker 10 (30:40):
Run its course.
Speaker 11 (30:42):
And now I think it's time that you all know
what's going on and we need to get these people caught.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Straight back out to mister and missus Pillsbury. You are
hearing mister Pearlsbury speaking begging for justice, begging for his
daughter's killer to be caught. Miss Pillsbury, I see you
breaking down in tears. Is it because you're learning new information?
Speaker 3 (31:12):
What is it?
Speaker 1 (31:14):
I miss my.
Speaker 7 (31:14):
Little girl that frustrated. I'm I feel alone, miss. I
feel that there's so much more that could.
Speaker 16 (31:32):
Be done that hasn't been done.
Speaker 7 (31:37):
I miss Merceding.
Speaker 17 (31:40):
So much, and I'm.
Speaker 18 (31:45):
Just can't understand why and how we are being told.
Speaker 8 (31:52):
If things were being told, and we're how, I'm worried about.
Speaker 17 (31:58):
My little girl, how she died.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
I'm trying to make sense of what we are learning.
To doctor Michelle Dupre joining, US renowned pathologist and medical examiner,
what is conflagration?
Speaker 3 (32:15):
What is that?
Speaker 12 (32:16):
It's actually thermal injuries from fire. This unfortunate young lady
was in the fire, was in a car that was burning,
and she was still alive during part of that time.
This is torture, no matter how you look at it.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
So when you say thermal injuries, what are you talking about.
Speaker 12 (32:35):
I'm talking about actually heat. Heat can cause damage as
well as actually fire burning the body. This person was
on fire part of the time.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
It's my understanding that she died of smoke inhalation. Would
that be consistent with conflagration.
Speaker 12 (32:53):
Yes, it would. She was not alive for very long
because there was no discussion of soot in her lungs,
but there was in her nasal passages, so she would
have died from the carbon dioxide carbon monoxide rather from
the smoke.
Speaker 14 (33:11):
She would have died relatively quickly.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
From that, guys, I'm trying to piece together what happened
just before Mercedes Vega was kidnapped and murdered.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Listen.
Speaker 22 (33:23):
Mercedes Vega talks to her mom and dad. On April sixteen.
Erica and Tom Pillsbury are on the last day of
their vacation in the Caribbean. Mercedes tells her mom she
has plans to meet friends at David Buster's for dinner.
Erica and Tom Pillsbury returned to Santane Valley, Arizona the
next day, April seventeen.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Straight back out to Mercedes parents were what was your
understanding of what she was doing that day?
Speaker 3 (33:51):
That evening.
Speaker 8 (33:53):
We knew she had gone to Chipotle and gotten food
and gone back up to her apartment, and we believed
at that point, or I believe at that point, she
was probably just considering stately in for the night, but
there were several people asking her to come out and
(34:15):
meet them, and ultimately she made the worst decision to
leave her apartment, and I believe that there was someone
there waiting for her and.
Speaker 9 (34:35):
They took her right, is that statement that we had
talked to her and said that she was going to
We did not talk to her. We were flying when
all this took place, so we weren't even in We
were probably still in Miami at the time, so we
actually physically never talked to her and knew she was
showing to David. Butser's at all. That's just what we
(34:56):
have found out. It's through information. I just wanted to
clarify this was that via text we didn't talk to Yeah,
she was talking to someone via text, not us.
Speaker 10 (35:05):
We were not involved in that text. She knew we
were out of the country.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
I see.
Speaker 10 (35:09):
Yeah. I just wanted to make that clear.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
We did not to Robin Drake joining us, a former
FBI special agent. I want to talk to you about
the forensic evidence because I can see video surveillance a
Mercedes coming out from the elevator going to her car
that is where she was attacked. I don't believe she
(35:31):
was dead at that time because later bleach was poured
into her mouth.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
Okay, so if.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
She had already been dead at that time, I don't
think the bleach would have occurred. That said, her car
is caught on video surveillance. Remember, she's not taken in
her car. Her car is taken there, and it's left
far away, still running keys in ignition, hoping somebody would
(36:00):
steal it and they would be pinned with a murder.
But the car should be full of forensic evidence, such
as fingerprints or even DNA.
Speaker 5 (36:10):
I totally agree, Nancy, it's the fuddling that we don't
know more at this point. I think the victim assistance
program has failed miserably, has been pointed out, and the
amount of evidence DNA evidence, video evidence, fingerprint evidence, I
think should be overwhelming. It leads me to think that
(36:31):
again I'm still caught on the stalker side of this thing,
the serial potential serial stalker, but also potentially someone is
either so isolated that we can't find them, or they're
being protected by someone and potentially someone undocumented, so there's
no footprint to follow up on, or gross incompetence of
the investigators.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
Now let me understand from you.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Bianca Bono, joining US investigative reporter twelve News, explain to
me one more time. Her car, her car that she owned,
was taken from where to where.
Speaker 13 (37:03):
It's unclear exactly where it was taken but we know
where it was found. It was found in Tempe, Arizona,
not far from Mill Avenue, which is the busiest street
in Tempe. It's essentially on Arizona State University's campus, and
it was outside of a very popular restaurant. So authorities
tell us that they found the car on April eighteenth.
(37:25):
We know that Mercedes was last seen leaving her Tempe
apartment complex late on April sixteenth, So where it was,
you know, taken from, exactly when it was dropped off
yet that information has not been publicly released. But again,
investigators confirmed that they do have surveillance footage showing the
(37:45):
car being dropped off at that spot in Tempe, where
again it was left running with the keys inside.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
To the Pillsbury's Tom and Erica Pillsbury speaking out for justice,
what is your message tonight?
Speaker 8 (38:00):
The most important thing that I can say is to
anyone here in Arizona. Any child, any mother, any father, anyone,
Please just be aware.
Speaker 18 (38:18):
I just look around, share your location, tell.
Speaker 7 (38:24):
People where you're going.
Speaker 8 (38:29):
Make it a habit to say mom, dad, friend, brother, sister.
I don't care who I'm heading out down to my car.
I'll text you when I get there. Just give accountability
(38:50):
to yourself that you're gonna share your location and where
you're at, because the people that did this to my
child are less than human and they're still there, They're
still out in walking around.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
Let me remind everyone that there is a reward for
information leading to the discovery of the person that murdered
the Pillsbury's little girl Mercedes Vega the tip line for
eight zero witness four eight zero nine four eight six
(39:37):
three seven seven. We stopped to remember American hero police
officer Luis Weska, just thirty years old. Officer Jusca shot
multiple times before having his badge, gun and vehicle stolen,
leaving behind grieving brother Emiliano, mother Edith so Lily. American
(40:02):
hero police Officer Luis Huesca. I want to thank all
of our guests, especially the Pillsbury's for being with us tonight,
but especially also to you for joining us. Easy grace,
signing off good night,
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, breaking news tonight.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
A gorgeous, young and gifted dancer, just twenty two, found
dead in a burning car. The medical examiner discovers bleach
in her throat, lighter fluid, and gloves.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Found near her burning car.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Tonight, her family breaking their silence with a desperate plea
for justice. Who killed their daughter? Mercedes. Good evening, I'm
Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to thank
you for being with us.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
So hard to believe I'm never gonna see her again.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
They missed her so much.
Speaker 5 (00:52):
She was.
Speaker 6 (00:54):
So bright, she was such a beautiful, sweet, kind soul.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
She didn't deserve this, She didn't deserve what happened to her.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
You are hearing mercedes mother begging for justice. We have
an all star panel to make sense of what we
are learning tonight. But first, two very special guests joining us.
Mercedes parents are with us, Erica and Tom Pillsbury. To
both of you, thank you for being with us. Miss Pillsbury,
(01:34):
we were just hearing you begging for justice for your daughter,
who's absolutely beautiful and so young. Her life just starting.
Tell me how you learned Mercedes had.
Speaker 7 (01:50):
Been killed a year ago?
Speaker 8 (01:53):
We had a knock at the door and there were
two gentlemen standing outside and I shout it up to
my husband. We had just come back from a cruise
for my fiftieth birthday, and I said, it looks like
there's cops. And we kind of assumed it was probably
(02:14):
something going on with the neighbors or something going on
throughout the neighborhood, and they asked us. They asked me,
does Mercedes live here? And I said no, but I'm
her mom. Is she okay? And they said does she
live here? And I said is she okay? And I
just kept repeating is she okay? Is she okay? And
(02:36):
they said can we come in? And I said I
just want to know she's okay, and they said no,
we need to come in.
Speaker 7 (02:47):
And that's how we found out that she was dead.
Speaker 8 (02:51):
They told us that she was deceased. Those are the
words that she used, and that they didn't have any
other information beyond that.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Mister Bilsbury, thank you for being with us as well.
Do you remember that moment? What is your memory of
learning your twenty two year old girl was dead?
Speaker 9 (03:15):
Well, it was just really really hard because when we
come back from our trip, we drive by her place
that she lived, and one thing I would always do
is I would say to her, Oh, I love you
and I miss you. I'm thinking of you. As we
drove by, we did like we normally do, and in
(03:36):
my heart, it's like if I would have just called
her I, maybe things would have been different. So I
had a lot of because we were tired. We had
just lived and back from the Caribbean, so we're really tired,
and we were hungry, and we didn't and it just
it just broke my heart. I screamed, I yelled. I
didn't believe it was true. I still to this day
(03:59):
it's hard to believe that it's true. It just completely
shattered our lives in a moment.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
What were their exact words, Tom, What did they tell you,
just that she's deceased.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
I know you had to have questions.
Speaker 9 (04:14):
Yes, they said she was deceased, and we asked more questions,
but they wouldn't give me answers. How I actually found
out what happened to my daughter is I looked it
up on the internet. They told us where our daughter
was at was Intona, pa Arizona. But I looked it
up on the internet and it said body found in
(04:35):
burning car and Tonapa Arizona. That's how I found out
what actually happened to my daughter.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
When you would ask them Tom, what happened? What would
they say?
Speaker 10 (04:44):
We can't tell you that right now. It's an ongoing investigation.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Miss Pillsbury.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Do you remember asking over and over what happened to her?
What happened to her? And what did they say?
Speaker 8 (04:54):
I asked over and over and over and over again
and ny and then I said, I said, was she
in a car accident?
Speaker 7 (05:04):
Did she kill herself?
Speaker 5 (05:06):
Like?
Speaker 7 (05:06):
What?
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Why?
Speaker 6 (05:09):
Why?
Speaker 8 (05:10):
And they kept saying, we don't know, and we don't
have any answer. We're trying to figure that out. They
asked us three questions. Was she right or left handed?
Where was the address that she actually lived at? And
did she have any reason to be near Tona Pa, Arizona.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
How far was that from your home Tona Pa.
Speaker 8 (05:33):
From our homes, Probably about one hundred and twenty miles
from Mercedes house.
Speaker 7 (05:38):
It's probably about.
Speaker 10 (05:39):
Seventy sixty three in that ballpark, sixty three to seventy
miles from her house.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Would she have normally been there?
Speaker 11 (05:46):
No, No, it's in the middle of nowhere. It's if
you're not familiar with Arizona. It's one of the where
that she was found is on the interstate that is
like one of the busiest interstates because it connects Arizona
to La So there's a ton of traffic that are
driving on that highway twenty four to seven.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
When you saw that online, Tom, what went through your mind?
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Because why would she be there? Why would her car
be on fire with her in the car in the
back seat? As I've read the report, why would she
be that far away from.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Your home and her home.
Speaker 9 (06:24):
I honestly couldn't fathom why she was that far away
from her home, wasn't it? But she actually was not
in her own car.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
You're right, So I'm very curious why she had been
taken there to Robin Drieke joining me, behavior expert, former
FBI Special Agent, chief of the FBI Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis
Program and author of Sizing People Up, a veteran FBI
agent's manual for behavior prediction. Wow, Robin Drake, you and
(06:58):
I have seen similar scenarios, both of us have as
investigators and myself as a prosecutor, and there is typically
a reason a vehicle is as the Pillsbury said, out
in the middle of nowhere set on fire.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Explain.
Speaker 5 (07:15):
Yeah, obviously they were trying to whoever the assailant was,
the murderer was, was trying to get rid of the evidence,
trying to get rid of her. And it was this
whole thing just rings of sloppiness, potential stalker in here
and missing. You know, they found gloves in the car,
(07:36):
lighter fluid. I mean, just it just rings of a
lot of rough things gone sideways in a lot of
different ways.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Another thing, I don't know that I would say that
things are going sideways because I believe that is exactly
the killer's intention to take this girl look at her,
a gorgeous twenty two year old, gifted dancer, to take
her out in the middle of nowhere and burn that
car with a hopes and also in somebody else's car
(08:06):
so her car could be traced back to her through
the VEN number, which can endure a fire because if
they got that vin which is basically etched onto a car,
that could trace the VEN number on the car back
to the owner, which would be Mercedes. So in a
different car not belonging to her, out in the quote
(08:28):
middle of nowhere, and I guarantee you Robin Drake. The
killer hoped her body would be burned beyond recognition.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
Right, And I agree, Nancy, And what I went by
sideways on this one, I don't think it looked very sophisticated.
It looks like a potential serial stalker who's just setting
on his course of doing horrendous things in his life,
and she might want one of the earlier victims of his.
And that's why it's so imperative that the police get
off their brelets and find this guy, because it's going
(08:59):
to happen again unless they do.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Doctor Michelle Dupree, joining US renowned forensic pathologists, medical examiner
and author, Doctor Dupree, You can't just set a car
on fire and expect to get rid of DNA in bones.
That doesn't happen. What would it take in order to
(09:21):
totally destroy a human.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Body, Nancy?
Speaker 12 (09:24):
It takes a lot, a lot harder than a vehicle
fire can usually get. One thing that we've also found, though,
is if that car was driven there by someone else,
the soot and the interior side of that car can
actually still yield fingerprints if they touched that rear view Mira,
That soot can act like fingerprint powder and there may
have been fingerprints on the rear view Mirra or on
(09:46):
the seat lever that moved it up or down, So
there is still a lot to be done in this investigation.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Also joining us from twelve News Phoenix investigative reporter Bianca Bono.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Bianca, thank you for being with us.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Tell me what you can about the discovery of that car,
the discovery of Mercedes, twenty two year old Mercedes and
the car and apparently bleach and her throat.
Speaker 13 (10:27):
Yeah, Nancy, I think that's what's made this case so
difficult to grasp for our community and why it's reached
people nationwide is just the horrific nature in the way
that Mercedes was found.
Speaker 14 (10:39):
Because, yes, as you guys have mentioned, she was found in.
Speaker 13 (10:42):
A burning car on the Iten Freeway, a very busy
freeway that connects Phoenix to Los Angeles, so it didn't
take long for passerbys to report the burning.
Speaker 14 (10:51):
Vehicle to nine one one.
Speaker 13 (10:53):
But what's more disturbing is the torture that Mercedes endured
before she was found burned. The medical examiner reported that
they had found a bullet wound, a gunshot wound.
Speaker 14 (11:06):
She had bleach in her throat.
Speaker 13 (11:08):
Clearly, whoever did this to her, whether it was a
person or a group of people, they wanted to send
a clear message.
Speaker 14 (11:15):
And again, just.
Speaker 13 (11:16):
How brazen they were in doing this to her and
then lighting this car on fire on the Iten Freeway,
the busiest freeway that we have in Arizona. They were
trying to send a very clear message. So we were
aware that a body had been found that night, but
we were not aware that it was Mercedes Vega until
months later. Investigators have been keeping information very close to
(11:37):
vest to the best in this case, and here we
are over a year later, and there are still no
answers in terms of what happened to her and more importantly,
who's responsible.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Well put bian Cabono to Tom and Erica Pillsbury. Mercedes parents,
I can't even imagine you're suffering after you put all
your love, all your time, all your energy, all your.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Money, your hopes.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Really a lot of parents me, all the hopes I
once had.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Are all in my children.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Now I'm hoping for them and for their happiness and
their joy and their success and their fulfillment.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
And then to learn this about.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Your daughter, the fact the circumstance of bleach bleach in
your daughter's throat.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Who could do that to this beautiful girl? When did
you learn this?
Speaker 6 (12:42):
We learned about the bleach in her throat about six
months after she died. The day before they released her autopsy,
they told us they called and said, just to warn
you there was bleach in her throat. We've been told
(13:05):
virtually nothing. We've found things out, mainly from the Internet
and from the.
Speaker 8 (13:10):
Media about our child, everything from how she died she
died in a fire so that there was blake in
her throat, to seeing the last moments of her life
on video that someone had posted on TikTok or Twitter
(13:32):
or something.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
In the early morning hours of April seventeenth, the her
Qualifier Department responds to our report of a burning car
on the north hand shoulder of the Iten Highway west
of to Nopa, Arizona firefighters find a twenty eighteen Chevrolet
Malibu on fire. Once the fire is put out, a
deceased human body is found in the rear passenger seat.
At one fifteen am, Maricopa County Sheriff's Deputies are called
(13:56):
to a scene to assist the Arizona Department of Public
Safety on a death of investigation. Investigators are able to
talk to the man who called law enforcement about the
car on fire. Robert Miller tells officials he saw a
person walking around the outside of the vehicle.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
To Bianca Bono, joining US investigative reporter with twelve News Phoenix,
to me, that is studying the fact that we still
don't have the killer, and there is a witness that
spots walking around the car as Mercedes is inside and the.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Car is on fire.
Speaker 13 (14:30):
Not only is there a witness on the Iten Freeway,
but there are also video cameras all over mercedes apartment
complex in Tempe where she was last seen. There are
witnesses in surveillance footage from the area of Tempe where
her car was later found abandoned, parked illegally, and we
now know that it was not Mercedes, as we've suspected
(14:51):
all this time who left her vehicle there. So there
are cameras everywhere, and where Mercedes lived is not far
from ASU's campus as well, so there are so much
foot traffic, There are people everywhere, there are surveillance cameras,
and as you mentioned, yes, on the Iten Freeway, there
are cars passing by.
Speaker 14 (15:08):
It was called into nine to one one right away.
Speaker 13 (15:10):
So the fact that there's a lack of answers at
this point is just so troubling, not only for the community,
for ASU students in Tempe, but obviously for the Pillsbury's
family and all of Mercedes friends who have been handing
out flyers on a regular basis and have been doing
so much advocacy work on their own and really taken
matters in their own hands to try to get this
(15:32):
thing solved. Because yeah, I mean, the fact that somebody
or people that are capable of doing what they did
to Mercedes are still out there is very concerning for
everyone who's seen this case, all.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
That video surveillance.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Guys, Before I say one more thing, I've got to
give you a tip line for silent witness.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Repeat.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Silent witness line is for eight zero witness for eight
zero witness for eight zero nine four eight six three
seven seven repeat four eight zero nine four eight six
three seven seven. I want to go back to the
(16:13):
Pillsbury's and then to Sarah Ford joining us an expert.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Miss Pillsbury, you stated video.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Of the last moments of your daughter's life, to which video.
Speaker 15 (16:26):
Are you referring the video of her coming out of
the vestibule where there is one elevator into her Perkin garage, which.
Speaker 7 (16:40):
We did not we weren't aware of and had not seen.
Speaker 8 (16:46):
I w had gone to her apartment, and it was
three or three days, I believe, after she had died,
and there was still blood on the ground from where
she was hit.
Speaker 7 (17:01):
And I saw this weird.
Speaker 8 (17:02):
Swirl pattern and the blood, and I was wearing her
baby hat, and you know, as a mama when they're born,
sometimes they put those little things on.
Speaker 16 (17:16):
Their heads, and there's a little bit of her blood
in there. And I laid in her blood in that
apartment complex, and.
Speaker 8 (17:31):
I looked at that weird swirl and I said, oh
my god, she's wearing ten shoes. And she never wore
tennis shoes. And I asked the police if she was
wearing tennis shoes, and they didn't tell me. And then
that video was released of her walking out and she's
wearing tennis shoes, and it just there's no video that
(18:01):
we had somebody who lived there, they took as they
walked out of that vestibule in that elevator and walked
all the way over to her actual parking spot and
that it's thirty seconds. We know that's where she was
hit because we were they didn't clean it up and
(18:24):
we were able to see her her blood.
Speaker 7 (18:29):
And then when that video was released, it was very.
Speaker 8 (18:34):
Strange for me as a mom to be like, Wow,
my kid never wears tennis shoes, but she was wearing
tend of shoes.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Why does that?
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Why is that fact so important Erica, that she was
wearing tennis shoes.
Speaker 17 (18:54):
I asked what she was wearing. I didn't get to
her at all after she died. I didn't get a
lock of her hair. I didn't I wanted just to
hold her hand. I just wanted something in the last
(19:17):
moments of her life. Seeing that video.
Speaker 7 (19:23):
Was oh, that's so horrible.
Speaker 18 (19:28):
But seeing her another time, what last time?
Speaker 7 (19:38):
It was also a gift.
Speaker 17 (19:40):
But I just found it very strange that she was
wearing ten of shoes, just.
Speaker 18 (19:46):
Because I'm her mom.
Speaker 17 (19:47):
And my husband will tell you she used to lay
out her clothes every morning, so.
Speaker 7 (19:53):
She like would choose an outfit before.
Speaker 18 (19:56):
She went anywhere, and she just never more tennis shoes,
which is why we were like, she's going to David
Busters because she wouldn't have been going out to sushi.
Speaker 17 (20:09):
She wouldn't have been.
Speaker 8 (20:11):
Going anywhere that we could imagine other than daven Busters
wearing tennis shoes, because she was.
Speaker 7 (20:21):
You know, ready to play, ready to.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Go have fun.
Speaker 7 (20:27):
And you could see her face in that still shot
that she's smiling and she has no idea what's about
to happen to her.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Miss Pillsbury, you stated that you did not see her
again after she died.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
Is that right?
Speaker 7 (20:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 8 (20:49):
They let me walk into a room and she was
in a body bed with the zipper on the back
of it so we weren't able to access it, with
a heavy blanket on top of her. I've never seen
a photo of.
Speaker 7 (21:13):
Her deceased.
Speaker 8 (21:17):
I know that sounds strange, but as a mom, it
makes me think, well, maybe she's still here. I mean,
because all I can do in this world that I
found myself in is wish that I wasn't in this place.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Miss Pillsbury. I've got to tell you something.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
I understand what you're saying because when my fiance was murdered,
he was shot so many times and his face, his head,
his snack, his back. I didn't at that young age,
you know, I didn't want to see him, So my
last memory of him it's when he drove away that morning.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
And since that time, it's been many many.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Years ago, to this day, I still have dreams that
he's alive, about the black body bag, about being zipped open,
but then there's nothing in there, just all sorts of bizarre,
horrible nightmares because I never saw him dead. So your
(22:28):
desire to have seen her is justified.
Speaker 7 (22:33):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
I get it.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
And I want to ask, mister Pillsbury, as your wife
is recounting what she has lived through, what does it
do to you as you hear her tell this horrible
story again?
Speaker 10 (22:47):
It hurts me deeply.
Speaker 11 (22:50):
Because I'm here for my family, my other children and
my wife, and to see us to.
Speaker 10 (22:56):
Go through this, and we're living a nightmare every single day.
Speaker 9 (23:01):
You know, a lot of people are moving on with their.
Speaker 11 (23:05):
Lives and doing what they have to do. But we,
as a husband and wife, this is all we focus on.
What I'm at the age in my life that all
that matters to me is my wife, my children, and
my granddaughter.
Speaker 6 (23:17):
That's it.
Speaker 11 (23:18):
That's all I really care about. And to lose one
of my children and see what it's doing to my wife.
Speaker 9 (23:23):
It just it tears me apart. It's like that video
that you showed. It's just to sit there and watch it.
It's so hard to know that my daughter didn't have
a care in the world and she just and then
literally thirty seconds later, she was taken from us. And
I just it's hard to put into words of what
(23:47):
my heart is lost and what my wife is heart
is lost, because it's just like she said, it's hard
to realize that she's not here.
Speaker 10 (23:59):
Because she is.
Speaker 9 (24:00):
You know, she's only twenty two and she was just
starting her journey in life, and for someone to take
her away from us at the nature of what they did,
it just doesn't make any sense. And back to the
gentleman's statement earlier where he said it was sloppy, it
was done very sloppily.
Speaker 10 (24:20):
I agree one hundred percent.
Speaker 19 (24:22):
Using fingerprints, investigators are able to identify the woman found
inside the burning Malibu as twenty two year old Mercedes Vega.
The twenty eighteen Chevrolet Malibu in which her body was
found does not belong to Vega. That car has a
salvage title, vehicle registered to State Farm Insurance, and the
burning car is sixty miles from Vegas Tempe, Arizona apartment.
(24:44):
Mercedes twenty nineteen white Dodge Charger is found illegally parked
near First Street and Farmer Avenue, one and a half
miles south of where she lives. According to her mother,
the car is parked while running with the keys in
the ignition, so it would be stolen or the MCSO
has video surveillance of Vegas charger from the time it
(25:04):
is left parked on the road until the time it
is recovered by police. Vega did not park it where
it was found.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
So if they've got video of it from the time
it was parked till it was found by police, who
parked it, who got out of the car, it's not
self driving, it's not a tesla, So who parked the
car obviously connected to who killed who murdered Mercedes joining
me Mercedes parents. But I want to go out to
(25:33):
Sarah Ford, a legal director of South Carolina Victim Assistant Network,
former prosecutor of Crimes on Women and Children.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Sarah, thank you for being with us. Sarah.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
The burning aspect leaving her by the side of the interstate,
burning her like it burned, trash out in the front
yard ditch, just treating her like she's less than a person.
Speaker 20 (25:56):
It's absolutely awful, Nancy. It's devastating for these for mister
and missus Pillsbury, but even worse is how they appear
to have been treated by law enforcement throughout the investigation.
It's certainly understandable for investigators to want to keep information
close to the best, but for survivors of homicide to
find out information from the internet, for the media, for
(26:18):
the public to have information before mister missus Pillsbury is
absolutely inexcusable.
Speaker 7 (26:25):
Absolutely, you know, I'm curious.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Back to Bianca Bono joining us investigative reporter twelve News
in Phoenix, Bianca, you mentioned earlier and I'm hearing it
again from our reporters at Crime Online that there's video,
and we were just hearing Dave Matt reporting that there's
video of her Mercedes car from the time it was
(26:52):
parked till the time police found it.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
So who parked it, that's not in the video. There's
everything in the video but the perp right.
Speaker 13 (27:00):
And we have so many questions about this video, and
we only recently got confirmation from the Maricopa County Sheriff's
Office that that surveillance video even exists months ago. The
Pillsbury's were asking publicly when they finally started speaking out,
because to their credit, they remain quiet relatively about this case,
(27:21):
giving investigators time to put all the pieces together. But
for months they've been asking where's the surveillance footage?
Speaker 14 (27:29):
Where are the cameras? There are cameras everywhere.
Speaker 13 (27:32):
And also, you know, for them to find out that
there's surveillance footage from the apartment complex via social media,
somebody at the apartment complex choosing to record this video
and posted online and not from investigators is just really troubling.
But yes, we know that there is surveillance footage out there.
We've put in records requests, as have several other investigative
reporters to try to get our own hands on this
(27:54):
footage to see what work we can do to try
to track down individuals. We haven't received any of that yet.
We're hoping to get it soon. But yeah, no question,
there is video evidence in this case. What is in
those video images that's just.
Speaker 7 (28:08):
Unknown at this.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
Crime stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
To Erica Pillsbury joining us.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
This is Mercedes mom along with her dad Tom Erica.
Have you asked La law enforcement? Where's the video? Can
I see the video?
Speaker 7 (28:36):
Of course, I asked for all of the evidence.
Speaker 8 (28:40):
I've asked. I've asked, why won't you show it to us?
Maybe we can identify the people in the video. Why
haven't you brought us in and questioned.
Speaker 21 (28:51):
Us a A Why Why are we finding all of
this out via other avenues besides law enforcement?
Speaker 3 (29:03):
What in the hey is going on?
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Bianca?
Speaker 3 (29:07):
Why that's not right?
Speaker 14 (29:09):
It's not and it's not how cases should go.
Speaker 13 (29:12):
Ever, and unfortunately it's been an issue with this case
from the beginning, as they mentioned, and now it's to
the point where you know, I'll get information from the
Sheriff's office and I'll reach out to Tom and Erica
and let them know what I'm hearing, just to confirm
that they've heard it too, because the last thing as
a journalist I would ever want is for the victims,
(29:32):
family and friends to be finding out information when they
turn on the evening news.
Speaker 14 (29:37):
It's completely unacceptable.
Speaker 13 (29:39):
And we've been asking why are authorities keeping this information
so private? Why are they releasing it in the way
that they are. We know that the Sheriff's office is
now working with federal partners it's unclear exactly who, but
we know they're not working alone in this case. But again,
to go over twelve months without any answers, any really
(30:00):
semblance of closure for these family and friends, it's just
really disheartening. And we're hoping that things changes, they move forward,
but at this point, the fact that the Pillsburys are
still learning new information to this moment is really troubling.
Speaker 11 (30:14):
Mercedes Father, I want to thank silent Witness. I want
to thank all agencies that are involved in trying to
solve this case and bring me peace for my wife
and my other children. I want to thank the media
for being here. I understand it's been kept quiet. We
kept it quiet because we wanted the justice system to.
Speaker 10 (30:40):
Run its course.
Speaker 11 (30:42):
And now I think it's time that you all know
what's going on and we need to get these people caught.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Straight back out to mister and missus Pillsbury. You are
hearing mister Pearlsbury speaking begging for justice, begging for his
daughter's killer to be caught. Miss Pillsbury, I see you
breaking down in tears. Is it because you're learning new information?
Speaker 3 (31:12):
What is it?
Speaker 1 (31:14):
I miss my.
Speaker 7 (31:14):
Little girl that frustrated. I'm I feel alone, miss. I
feel that there's so much more that could.
Speaker 16 (31:32):
Be done that hasn't been done.
Speaker 7 (31:37):
I miss Merceding.
Speaker 17 (31:40):
So much, and I'm.
Speaker 18 (31:45):
Just can't understand why and how we are being told.
Speaker 8 (31:52):
If things were being told, and we're how, I'm worried about.
Speaker 17 (31:58):
My little girl, how she died.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
I'm trying to make sense of what we are learning.
To doctor Michelle Dupre joining, US renowned pathologist and medical examiner,
what is conflagration?
Speaker 3 (32:15):
What is that?
Speaker 12 (32:16):
It's actually thermal injuries from fire. This unfortunate young lady
was in the fire, was in a car that was burning,
and she was still alive during part of that time.
This is torture, no matter how you look at it.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
So when you say thermal injuries, what are you talking about.
Speaker 12 (32:35):
I'm talking about actually heat. Heat can cause damage as
well as actually fire burning the body. This person was
on fire part of the time.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
It's my understanding that she died of smoke inhalation. Would
that be consistent with conflagration.
Speaker 12 (32:53):
Yes, it would. She was not alive for very long
because there was no discussion of soot in her lungs,
but there was in her nasal passages, so she would
have died from the carbon dioxide carbon monoxide rather from
the smoke.
Speaker 14 (33:11):
She would have died relatively quickly.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
From that, guys, I'm trying to piece together what happened
just before Mercedes Vega was kidnapped and murdered.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Listen.
Speaker 22 (33:23):
Mercedes Vega talks to her mom and dad. On April sixteen.
Erica and Tom Pillsbury are on the last day of
their vacation in the Caribbean. Mercedes tells her mom she
has plans to meet friends at David Buster's for dinner.
Erica and Tom Pillsbury returned to Santane Valley, Arizona the
next day, April seventeen.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Straight back out to Mercedes parents were what was your
understanding of what she was doing that day?
Speaker 3 (33:51):
That evening.
Speaker 8 (33:53):
We knew she had gone to Chipotle and gotten food
and gone back up to her apartment, and we believed
at that point, or I believe at that point, she
was probably just considering stately in for the night, but
there were several people asking her to come out and
(34:15):
meet them, and ultimately she made the worst decision to
leave her apartment, and I believe that there was someone
there waiting for her and.
Speaker 9 (34:35):
They took her right, is that statement that we had
talked to her and said that she was going to
We did not talk to her. We were flying when
all this took place, so we weren't even in We
were probably still in Miami at the time, so we
actually physically never talked to her and knew she was
showing to David. Butser's at all. That's just what we
(34:56):
have found out. It's through information. I just wanted to
clarify this was that via text we didn't talk to Yeah,
she was talking to someone via text, not us.
Speaker 10 (35:05):
We were not involved in that text. She knew we
were out of the country.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
I see.
Speaker 10 (35:09):
Yeah. I just wanted to make that clear.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
We did not to Robin Drake joining us, a former
FBI special agent. I want to talk to you about
the forensic evidence because I can see video surveillance a
Mercedes coming out from the elevator going to her car
that is where she was attacked. I don't believe she
(35:31):
was dead at that time because later bleach was poured
into her mouth.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
Okay, so if.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
She had already been dead at that time, I don't
think the bleach would have occurred. That said, her car
is caught on video surveillance. Remember, she's not taken in
her car. Her car is taken there, and it's left
far away, still running keys in ignition, hoping somebody would
(36:00):
steal it and they would be pinned with a murder.
But the car should be full of forensic evidence, such
as fingerprints or even DNA.
Speaker 5 (36:10):
I totally agree, Nancy, it's the fuddling that we don't
know more at this point. I think the victim assistance
program has failed miserably, has been pointed out, and the
amount of evidence DNA evidence, video evidence, fingerprint evidence, I
think should be overwhelming. It leads me to think that
(36:31):
again I'm still caught on the stalker side of this thing,
the serial potential serial stalker, but also potentially someone is
either so isolated that we can't find them, or they're
being protected by someone and potentially someone undocumented, so there's
no footprint to follow up on, or gross incompetence of
the investigators.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
Now let me understand from you.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Bianca Bono, joining US investigative reporter twelve News, explain to
me one more time. Her car, her car that she owned,
was taken from where to where.
Speaker 13 (37:03):
It's unclear exactly where it was taken but we know
where it was found. It was found in Tempe, Arizona,
not far from Mill Avenue, which is the busiest street
in Tempe. It's essentially on Arizona State University's campus, and
it was outside of a very popular restaurant. So authorities
tell us that they found the car on April eighteenth.
(37:25):
We know that Mercedes was last seen leaving her Tempe
apartment complex late on April sixteenth, So where it was,
you know, taken from, exactly when it was dropped off
yet that information has not been publicly released. But again,
investigators confirmed that they do have surveillance footage showing the
(37:45):
car being dropped off at that spot in Tempe, where
again it was left running with the keys inside.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
To the Pillsbury's Tom and Erica Pillsbury speaking out for justice,
what is your message tonight?
Speaker 8 (38:00):
The most important thing that I can say is to
anyone here in Arizona. Any child, any mother, any father, anyone,
Please just be aware.
Speaker 18 (38:18):
I just look around, share your location, tell.
Speaker 7 (38:24):
People where you're going.
Speaker 8 (38:29):
Make it a habit to say mom, dad, friend, brother, sister.
I don't care who I'm heading out down to my car.
I'll text you when I get there. Just give accountability
(38:50):
to yourself that you're gonna share your location and where
you're at, because the people that did this to my
child are less than human and they're still there, They're
still out in walking around.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
Let me remind everyone that there is a reward for
information leading to the discovery of the person that murdered
the Pillsbury's little girl Mercedes Vega the tip line for
eight zero witness four eight zero nine four eight six
(39:37):
three seven seven. We stopped to remember American hero police
officer Luis Weska, just thirty years old. Officer Jusca shot
multiple times before having his badge, gun and vehicle stolen,
leaving behind grieving brother Emiliano, mother Edith so Lily. American
(40:02):
hero police Officer Luis Huesca. I want to thank all
of our guests, especially the Pillsbury's for being with us tonight,
but especially also to you for joining us. Easy grace,
signing off good night,
Host
Nancy Grace
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