June 19, 2025 • 33 mins
In 2012, 16-year-old Bryan Herrera was murdered on his way to do homework at a friend’s house. Though he was killed in broad daylight, no witnesses came forward. And despite detectives’ best efforts, the case eventually grew cold. For years, Bryan’s family kept asking questions. After a decade of waiting, would they finally get that breakthrough they’d been hoping for?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
This show discusses cold case murders and the people who
spend their lives fighting for justice. We hope to raise
public awareness and invite witnesses to come forward with evidence
that could potentially be investigated by law enforcement. We also
remind listeners that everyone has pursued innocent until proven guilty
in a court of law, and that an arrest is
not a conviction. Nothing in the podcast is intended to
(00:22):
state or imply that anyone who has not been convicted
of a crime is guilty of any wrongdoing.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
So as a run, Christmas time and as usual, we're
all preparing for what we're going to do, what we're
going to buy, what we're going to eat.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Annabel Herrera still remembers the morning of December twenty two,
twenty twelve. It was the first weekend of her kid's
Christmas break, but her sixteen year old steps on, Brian,
wasn't totally free from schoolwork, not quite yet.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
They always give them a packet of homework to do,
so him and his friend, his best friend, they had decided, Okay,
I'll go over your house in the morning. We'll get
the package done really quick that day, and then we
can have the rest of the two weeks to just
hang out and play video games, so that was a plan.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
It was a pretty typical Saturday morning for the Jereta family,
partly sunny, high in the mid sixties, just another December
day in Miami, Florida. Brian's dad, William, was already at
work doing construction. His older sister was sleeping, So around
eleven am, Brian put on a baseball cap, grabbed his
bike and his backpack, and headed over to his friend's
place a few blocks away.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
So it was fairly close. A quick ride over and
about maybe two and a half blocks later, that's when
he was encountered by someone.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Later that day, Brian's father, William, got a phone call
from an unknown number.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
The detective called my husband and he asked him, where
are you to speak to you about Brian? Is that
your son?
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (02:03):
It is? Is he okay? Is he in trouble? We
just need to talk to you. They wouldn't say anything,
just said tell me where you are, we'll go to
you soon.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
An officer from the City of Miami Police Department arrived
at William's job site.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
They showed up there and that's when they told him
we found your son. They found him on the street.
He told him that they found him dead.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
William was in shock. He called his wife.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
The call was horrible. I replayed over in my head
all the time, and it was him just telling me
they killed my Brian. They killed my Brian. And that's
a phrase that I'll never forget again.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Their son, Brian, a good kid, a straight a student
who loved video games and hanging out with his friends,
was dead. It didn't make any sense, but nothing makes
sense in those early hours after a tragedy, your numb
with shock. The Hereras figured they know more soon. They
had no idea how long it would take to Finanswers
(03:15):
from School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. This is Cold
Case Files Miami. I'm your host Enriques Santos. Around eleven
am on Saturday, December twenty second, twenty twelve, the City
of Miami Police Department received several nine to one to
(03:36):
one calls from neighbors who'd heard gunshots. Someone reported seeing
a person on the ground. Minutes later, an officer arrived
at the intersection of Northwest eleventh Avenue and thirty ninth
Street in the neighborhood of Alapada. Sixteen year old Brian
Herera was lying near the street unconscious and bleeding. He
was rushed to Miami's main hospital, Jackson Memorial. Doctors tried
(04:00):
to save him, but there wasn't much they could do.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
He ended up succumbing to his injuries and he was
prononcecist at the hospital.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
That's Sergeant Nikolai Trifanoff. Sergeant Trivinoff has been with MIAMIPD
since two thousand and four and he's been heading up
the cold case unit since twenty twenty one.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
In cold case, we're really responsible for all open cases
that have little to know leads left. The leads have
been worked to exhaustion.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
But before he was on the cold case team, Sergeant
Trivenoff worked in homicide and one of the cases he
worked on was Brian Riras.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Brian was writing a bike two a friend's house, he
was approached by the offender. At that time, there was
a struggle between them and Brian was shot in the head.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
In any homicide investigation, there are standard procedures that take place.
The crime scene unit arrived to collect evidence, including Brian's
backpack which had been left on the ground filled with
his draw and schoolwork, and detectives tried to figure out who,
if anyone saw something.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
We do neighborhood canvases, knock on doors, tried to identify witnesses,
trying to determine how many suspects there are, what type
of weapon was used. Obviously, really that's the beginning of it.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
I know Sergeant triffinoff from mutual acquaintances at the Miami
Police Department, where he's a full time officer. I worked
there as a reserve officer. My full time job is
morning radio. I'm a proud Miami and the son of
human immigrants, and I host two shows that are broadcast
around the United States, the Endriquessanto's Morning Show in Spanish
and On the Move with Endrique Santos in English. A
(05:44):
lot of people who just know me from the radio
are surprised to hear that I am also a cop
that had wanted to be one since I was a kid,
and after high school I enrolled in the police Academy.
In nineteen ninety four, I had started my career with
the North Miami Police Department, and about four or five
years in a funny thing happened. I call the radio
station I was listening to and ended up becoming friends
with the guy who picked up the phone. Over the
(06:05):
next couple of years, the friendship led to me becoming
a DJ, and in two thousand, I traded my police
badge for a microphone and started a full time job
hosting a morning show. I've been doing that for almost
twenty five years now, half my life, and I love
working in radio. But listen, those years as a cop
taught me a lot. You learn so much you could
never get in any university. I don't mean how to
(06:28):
solve a crime. I mean the psychological stuff, learning to
de escalate violent and dangerous situations, the value of life,
and what it means to have a partner watching your back.
There's also a lot of firsts. First time you see
a dead body, the first time you need to knock
on a door and tell a mother that her son's
not coming home because he's been shot. Those are very,
(06:51):
very tough things to learn on the job. My work
as a police officer also taught me that across Miami,
most people really care about their neighbors. And their neighbor
you want to be safe, and they want their kids
to be safe. And when crimes do happen, especially horrible
ones like murders, everyone wants them to be solved and
the killers to be brought to justice. But in those
(07:13):
early hours after Brian's murder, the Herrera family wasn't even
thinking about justice. They were still incomplete and utter shock.
You just.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
You don't even know if you're living on alternate reality.
You don't even know if you're what's going on is real.
You're just going through the motions, you're not even thinking.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
It still felt like maybe this was all just a
terrible mistake.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
We were expecting him to walk through the door and
it was already like seven o'clock at night. My husband
kept saying, but are you sure it's him? Maybe it's
not him, And I kept saying, babe, but if not,
he would be home by now.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
The rest of the day was a blur. The next night,
the police called the Hereras with the request they needed
them to come in the day to officially identify Brian's body.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
My husband said, I don't want you to go.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
I'm going to go.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
So a friend went with him. It was Christmas Eve
and he had to go identify his son's body.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
That was rough.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
He says that they just show you like a picture,
and he says he fell, he collapsed, he had no energy.
That's when it all came down on him and he
just accepted he's gone, and he was just destroyed. We
had a little girl at that time, you know, she
was only five, so you know, she's still tomorrow. Santa's coming,
(08:40):
you know, and we're still like, yeah, Santa's coming, don't worry,
Sanna's coming, you know, and we still have to go
through with it, knowing that we're just in shambles.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
As the days and weeks passed, the police still didn't
have much news to share. No eyewitnesses had come forward,
even though Brian had been shot on a Saturday morning
and broad daylight. Detectives believed it was likely a robbery,
but there were no descriptions of any potential suspects.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
They felt it was something random. He was just chosen
for some reason, but that was pretty much about it.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
One of the few leads the police had was an
older gentleman who lived in the neighborhood. He told the
cops that the morning of Brian's death, he'd been approached
by a man in a car who asked him to
call nine one one and then drove away before police arrived.
The neighbor didn't know much more than that. Still, the
Heredras were hoping that he might be willing to talk
(09:37):
to them.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
We tried after talking to the elderly man, and we
just could never. You know, nobody would open the door
to us. We just could never get in contact with him.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
In fact, the Hereras liked the police struggled to speak
to anyone who might have seen something.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Someone told us at the beginning that the house across
the street where it happened, somebody was there, that it
was a child, and they would look through the window
when they heard the bang. We knocked many times there,
they never opened the door. I even mailed letters out
to every single house there explained their situation that they
can contact crime stoppers and they can give their information,
(10:17):
and you know, they didn't have to say who they were.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Nothing.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
We went to that block and we talked to some
of the neighbors. Most of the neighbors did not want
to talk to us, so, I mean, it was pretty
useless for us to even continue to talking to anybody
because nobody would talk.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Annabel came into Brian's world when he was around three
years old. She had recently started dating his father, William.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
I met William at the beach. You know, he was
walking and I was walking as well, and we just
started talking.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
They hit it off almost immediately. He was Venezuelan, she
was Cuban. He had children from his previous marriage. Annabel
had children too.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
We dated very shortly and moved in quickly. Brian was
four years old and he had two older sisters who
were I relieve thirteen and fourteen at the time, so
they came to live with me and my two children.
He was a very sweet, shy child, very quiet. His
dad used to call her chru Chito, the poppy. True
(11:28):
Chito is just a funny, little Hispanic thing. Chu Chito
is like, I don't know, like you would say sweety
Daddy's sweetye or something like that, just something cute.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
The family was living in Highlia Gardens, a suburb of Miami.
Annabel remembers those years with a lot of fondness and
how Brian, as the youngest, was kind of the center
of attention.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Oh he was the baby brother, so you know, his
older brother and sisters adored him. We have a lot
of sweet memory. I mean, he was a great video
game player. Everybody would go outside and play and he
would just stay inside and he was really good, and
he would teach his two other brothers what to play
and know, you got to do this and this is
a trick. And so they were always getting pointers for
(12:12):
him because even though he was the youngest, he was
the best at the games.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
In twenty twelve, Bryan's family moved to the neighborhood of Alapada,
northwest of downtown Miami. It's an area with families who've
lived there for generations, as well as newly arrived transplants
and immigrants from all over Latin America and the Caribbean.
In two thousand and three, a stretch of Alipada was
officially named Little Santo Domingo, and the Dominican influence is clear,
(12:40):
from seafood markets to Natine Bakery to the long standing
restaurant Glub Dipico Dominicano. Brian lived not too far from
Club Tipico, a couple of blocks from the one ninety
five Expressway that cuts through the city as it connects
drivers from the airport to Miami Beach.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
It's a lower income area where working hard people who
just can't afford the higher rents in Miami. That's where
they live. They keep their houses really nice and there's
a lot of good people.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
In twenty twelve, when Brian was there, Alapada also had
some of the highest assault and homicide rates in all
of Miami Dade County. In fact, from twenty ten to
twenty twelve, the homicide rate where Brian lived was nearly
five times the county average. But Dieredras didn't know that
when they moved in. They just knew it was affordable
and the apartment building itself seemed safe.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
The actual building was a gated building, and it was new.
It looked like a really nice building, and you know,
the rent was affordable and everything looked great. But unfortunately
we weren't aware of that area that fall.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Brian started his sophomore year at Miami Jackson High.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
He was a very good student. He was a straight
a student, very smart. His teachers loved him.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Brian was a specially drawn to science.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
One of our daughters she had a kidney issue and
she had robotic surgery. So he was talking a lot
with his dad that he would really like to get
into robotics. So he really thought that might be something
he was interested in pursuing.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
This is the same Brian who didn't come home that
one December evening. Brian, the baby brother, the video gamer,
the straight a student who wanted to get into robotics
to help people, the sweet, shy child his family adored.
He was only sixteen when he was murdered, just figuring
out who he was and the kind of person he
(14:40):
wanted to become. The News of what happened to Brian
spread in the days after his death. The Eddas were
especially touched when his school organized a walk in his honor.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
We all handed out flyers for hours. It was very
moving to see so many people come out for him.
Everybody would come up to us and tell us their
individual stories, the friendships that they had with him, even
the little interactions that they had. Everybody's stories were beautiful
and we were just we were crying because it was like, Wow,
(15:13):
he made such an impact and we didn't even know.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Neighbors also reached out to Annabelle and William with condolences.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
We encountered so many good people who came to us,
and you know, they brought us food, and everybody invited
us to their church. Everybody wanted to, you know, pray
for us and pray for Brian, and so we did.
We saw a lot of beautiful people in the area,
a lot.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
But they also saw people who were scared to talk
about Brian's murder and what they may or may not
have seen.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
The whole Snitches get stitches. Absolutely, that is very prominent
and everybody knows it. We were promoting see something, say something,
but they're used to No, you don't say anything, because
you say something, your mother gets killed, you say something,
your brother gets killed. They say something, they catch you
and they shoot you and they kill you.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
The Herenas didn't learn much from the police either, and
what they did here changed over time as weeks, months,
and even years passed after Brian's killing without him the rest.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
At the beginning, we heard, oh, there was several people involved,
several people ran from the scene. Then in the last
couple of years, we haven't heard that being said anymore.
So we have no idea if it was just one
person or it was several people.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
To the Heredras, it seemed like the police couldn't really
share much at all.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
It was just very little bits and pieces of information.
They couldn't tell us if everything that was in his
book pack was there, if they had taken anything. We've
never seen the book back again, or the bike or
any of the stuff inside. We've asked, can we have
the bike back? Nope, it's evidence, you know. Can we
(16:55):
know at least what was inside the book back?
Speaker 3 (16:57):
No.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Annabelle knew Brian and would have had his phone on him,
a simple phone his dad bought him to play video
games on. It didn't even have service, it only worked
over Wi Fi. But had the cops found it, she
didn't know. Still, Annabel and the police had a theory
about what could have happened.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
I think somebody approached him. We don't know if he
was still riding bike, or he was off his bike.
Maybe he was looking his phone. I have no idea.
Somebody just approached him. There was some kind of altercation,
we don't know why, and then somehow in that altercation
he was shocked.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
But a theory, especially when without witnesses or even a suspect,
wasn't enough to go on. And as the years passed,
Annabel stopped receiving any updates on Brian's case.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
So about maybe two years into the investigation, I stopped
hearing from the detective. I got really concerned, so I
left messages at the homicide department. If I kept messaging
and messaging no call back, nobody would message me back.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
By this point, Annabel understood that solving Brian's case wasn't
going to be simple, but she wanted to know he
hadn't been forgotten.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
We wanted them to call us back, to give us information,
even if it's just to say I have no new information,
you know, but at least let us know that you're
listening to us, that you know we're still here, that
you're working on our kid's case. Because a lot of
these mothers say, oh, it's been seventy years, I haven't
heard from my detective. That wasn't going to happen to me.
(18:36):
I was going to keep fighting and I was going
to get in their face.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Frustrated with the lack of response, Annabel turned to the
Internet for help.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
I read somewhere find an activist, and so I did.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Annabel came across an organization called Florida Parents of Murdered Children,
which had been founded by a Miami woman named Tangela Sears.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
I called her on the phone and she immediately picked up.
She just started, you know, hooking me up. Okay, you
need to talk like a you're going to talk to
the mayor, A you're going to talk to the chief
of police, you're gonna talk to the homicide department. I'm
going to get you in with the commander. So little
by little, that's what we did.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
I can see very very well. How you know, family
members can say, oh, well, nothing's being done in my case.
It's just forgotten about.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Sergeant Triffinoff is sympathetic to Annibal's frustration.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
We tell the families, look, have patience with us. You know,
we're doing our best. We're following those leads. We're constantly
switching gears. We're constantly let's get that case, let's get
this case. Okay, there's something moving on this case, let's
go there. But as a family, I can understand after
years go by, it's like, are they just blowing smoke?
(19:47):
Are they just giving me unwarranted hope? But there are times,
you know, like in this case, where we had our
hands tied at moments where there just wasn't wasn't anything
that was able to go.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
In twenty sixteen, Sergeant Trivinoff was named lead detective on
Brian's case, and he immediately began looking into it.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
I start looking at if there's any DNA on the case,
anything that needed to go to the lab, that hadn't
been sent to the lab, all these things, and I
noticed that there was some evidence on the case that
needed to be looked at. We incorporate familial DNA genealogy,
(20:32):
additional testing on the DNA. I started looking into it
and interview several people, possible suspects, witnesses, stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Unfortunately, none of this new information was enough to make
an arrest.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
There were little leads throughout the years. There's always been
something that we've been able to work on and look into,
but nothing stolid that pointed to a specific individual.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
With all leads exhausted, the department needed an outside tip
to move the case along.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
At that point, it's just hoping that somebody that saw
something comes forward with whatever they saw, you know, anything
they heard, even if they think it's trivial and they
didn't really hear or see anything. Any little piece of
information is very important for us. We can always use
that and it may turn into something bigger and better
(21:30):
that we can use.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
In twenty eighteen, Triffonoff was promoted to sergeant and the
case was reassigned to another detective, but Triffonoff never forgot
about Brian.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
And I had told annabel when I first met her
that will never give up on this. I had an
attachment to the case. It was a sixteen year old
high school student that was just going to do his
homework at a friend's house. So I kept working it
even though I had left the unit.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Meanwhile, Annabelle was also still fighting for her son. Try
to keep focus on his case and gather any information
she could. She posted regularly on the Facebook page she'd
set up Justice for Brian Rera. She talked to anyone
who would listen, the press, the police, the public. She
was open to anything that might lead to that much
(22:16):
needed tip.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
I need someone to come forward and say what happened
that day, say the truth what you saw. This is
my child and I want closure. But if this was
your child, you would want to know who did this
to them. No one deserves this. Let's put this guy away,
Let's close this case.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
In twenty twenty two, she applied for a grant from
Season of Justice, a nonprofit that funds efforts to solve
code cases nationwide. With the money she received, she put
up a billboard in Alapada, near where Brian was killed.
The organization also paid for signs for the family to
set up around the area.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Unfortunately, nothing came out of that. But you got to
keep trying until you get something, and we're gonna keep trying.
We're gonna keep pushing.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
But by early twenty twenty four, despite everything Annabelle had done,
despite the work by the City of Miami police, Bran's
case was completely cold.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
We hit a standstill. There were no leads available to us.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
It had been over a decade since Brian's murder, and
solving his case felt further away than ever. The emotional
toll this had taken on the Heretra family was immense.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Honestly, there's been certain points in time where I'm like,
maybe we should just let it go, because maybe it's
tormenting us too much, and maybe we just need to
just concentrate on grieving and living and forget about all
this justice or revenge or whatever it is you want
(23:52):
to call it. Every time I would say, you know,
maybe I'm just going to back off, I would ask
my husband. I would say, do you want me to
stop and just let this go? He was like, no,
do you want to stop. I'm like, no, I just
want to make sure we want to keep fighting. He's no,
I'll go for it, keep fighting. So then I was like,
that's it. I'm going to keep fighting.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
And then in December twenty twenty four, a full twelve
years after Brian's death, seemingly out of the blue, the
Ereras get an update.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
All throughout these years, it's just me following back up
with the detectives and they're still working on this and
we're working on that, but there's never been a person
of interest. There had never been anything. And then that's
when we received a phone call that we've been waiting
for for a very long time.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
In December twenty twenty four, while we were making this episode,
Annabelle and William Herrera received a call from the Miami Police.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
They let us know that there was a witness they
came forward and they were going to be arresting someone.
We were very emotional, but we really try to hold
it together so we can get all the information and
not say that there crying. Then once we hung up,
as when we you know, we melted down and we
started crying and hugging.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
The news came almost twelve years to the day since
Brian was killed.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
A murder mystery solved.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
It was the focus of a news conference Wednesday afternoon.
Speaker 5 (25:27):
It no longer remains a cold case, the Miami Dade
State Attorney talking about the twenty twelve murder of sixteen
year old Brian Herrera and the arrest that was made
in the case.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
More than a decade later.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
A suspect had been arrested in Brian's murder. According to police,
a tip had come in from a witness, one they
had been looking for but hadn't been able to find.
It was the man in the car, the man who
asked the neighbor to call nine one one.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
The witness. He was driving by and saw the defendant
with Brian. He saw like an argument going on, and
he started rolling up. He was in his car, and
he rolled up slowly next to them, and he told him,
come on, guys, it's Christmas. What are we fighting about?
And then he saw Brian whisper, I'm being robbed. And
he saw that the defendant had a gun in his hand,
(26:18):
pointed at Brian, and so he decided to just move
forward and go on because he was scared for his life.
And then he saw Brian break loose and then he
heard a gunshot.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Here was the evidence to the theory the police and
the Hereras had all along. Brian was killed in a
robbery over a cell phone. A cell phone that was
never found, a cell phone that didn't even work without
Wi Fi. That crucial tip had come in just six
months earlier, in June twenty twenty four, when he called
(26:52):
the driver said he had information on a murder that
had happened just before Christmas twenty twelve.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
We were advised of the tip and we followed up
on it. We sit down and interview that individual. They're
ultimately able to identify the person that they saw robbing
our victim of mister Perreira, and sitting with our state
Attorney's office and discussing everything, we're able to arrest the offender,
(27:21):
whose name is Adrian Grimes.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Adrian Grimes is now thirty years old. Back in December
twenty twelve, when Brian was killed, he'd have just turned eighteen.
The witness said he'd known the suspect from the neighborhood
and he had a defining characteristic. Grimes only has one eye.
He lost it in an unrelated shooting that took place
after Brian's murder. After his arrest, a grand jury indicted
(27:46):
Adrian Grimes on charges of first degree murder and robbery
with a firearm on January twenty second, twenty twenty five.
Grimes's lawyer pleaded not guilty on behalf of his client.
The prosecutor later told the judge the state would be
seeking the death penalty. It's important to remember that an
arrest is not a conviction. Eyewitness testimony can be unreliable
(28:08):
and it doesn't always stand up in court. Agent Grimes,
like everyone else, deserves due process.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
This is not the end of the road here. We
still have a long way to go. This is kind
of like an ending to a chapter. We've made an arrest,
but now we have trial or any type of core proceedings,
however they may go.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
It will now be up to a jury to decide
if the evidence proves Rhymes killed Brian.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
In any case, even with a great case, you don't
have any guarantees that you're going to be able to
get a conviction. So it's a very very long journey
and it's very unsure Diras understand this well.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
It doesn't feel like justice yet until he's been convicted
and then it's not really justice. But at least we
can move on with our with our lives without that
added issue on our backs that this guy is just
out there living his life while ourso lost his.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Because in the end, nothing can replace what theras lost.
It's Brian they miss and Brian they think about.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
We're constantly talking about him and the funny little stories,
and he's He's always there.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
You know.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
You wake up every morning, you open your eyes at
some point and put time during that day you're thinking
about him. It's not always, you know, about the murder.
It's more about the cute things he did, the smart
things he did, things that he said. I have a
lot of times the last time I saw him, you
(29:47):
know what he said to me, and the image of
him sitting on the couch and he was playing video
games on his phone. He's watching TV and scrolling and
I can remember, I swear it's like yesterday I was
sitting here and he was sitting there and I was
black and forth looking at him, and I remember his
hair was outgrown, and you know, I told him, you
(30:07):
gotta get a haircut. Oh, my girlfriend likes it like this,
you know, So those are the little things that every
day pop up.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
At a press conference after Grime's arraiement, Miami Police Chief
Manny Morales said he remembered how Annabel had told him
she'd felt abandoned by the detectives on Brian's case. He said,
theredra has lit a fire under his team, and that's
exactly what Annabel says. Anyone in her shoes should do.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Keep fighting that detective doesn't call you, show up at
the Hobbitside department as to speak to the commander. If
the commander doesn't figure it out, as to speak to
the chief of police, make yourself known to them, let
them know your face, let them know your name. And
every single time I would go to visit someone, I
(30:56):
would take them their picture. This picture is for you.
I want you to keep Brian's pace. I want you
to look at his picture and remember him every single day.
And every time I go to their offices, they have
his pictures pinned up. That's exactly what I want. I
wanted to remember who he is. And that's exactly what
all parents have to do. They have to keep fighting,
they have to keep pushing.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
On.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
This season of Cold Case Files, Miami we'll be speaking
directly to those most deeply involved in this heartbreaking work.
We'll hear from the detectives investigating these cases on the ground.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Once I went back to really take a look at him,
to all the statements, reading reports, I realize, Man, I
feel like we got a case here.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
From the families of victims desperate for answers.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
If we can concentrate this information throughout the states to
hear Mark Crai.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
To know that George's death was not in vague.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Or searching for justice I said over six hundred emails
I did.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
I had to go out to trust the police, but
you gotta help make sure there be a held accountable tool.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
And from the prosecutors looking to convict those.
Speaker 5 (32:07):
Responsible, they will do whatever it takes on behalf of
these victims to go to court and fight for them,
fight for the voiceless and for the powerless.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
I'm Endrique Santos. Join me as we examine some of
Miami's cold cases and talk to the people these tragedies
affect most. Join us next week for cold case files Miami.
Anyone with information regarding the case is asked to call
crime Stoppers anonymously at three zero five four seven to
(32:39):
one tips that's three zero five four seven one eight
four seven seven, or visit the website at Crimestoppers three
zero five dot com and select give a tip in
(33:00):
case Files. Miami is a production of Iheart's Michael Tura
podcast Network and School of Humans. I'm your host, Enbriquasantos.
This show was written and researched by Marissa Brown. Our
lead producer is Josh Thain. He Delis Perees is our
senior producer. Sound design and mixed by Josh Thain, factchecking
by Savannah Hugley. Our production manager is Daisy Church. Special
(33:23):
thanks to Julia Ramirez from my production team. Our iHeart
Radio executive producers including me Endrique Santos, carl Cadel and
Arlene Santana, and Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr and Elsie Crowley
from School of Humans. For more podcasts, listen to the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your
(33:43):
favorite shows.
This show discusses cold case murders and the people who
spend their lives fighting for justice. We hope to raise
public awareness and invite witnesses to come forward with evidence
that could potentially be investigated by law enforcement. We also
remind listeners that everyone has pursued innocent until proven guilty
in a court of law, and that an arrest is
not a conviction. Nothing in the podcast is intended to
(00:22):
state or imply that anyone who has not been convicted
of a crime is guilty of any wrongdoing.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
So as a run, Christmas time and as usual, we're
all preparing for what we're going to do, what we're
going to buy, what we're going to eat.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Annabel Herrera still remembers the morning of December twenty two,
twenty twelve. It was the first weekend of her kid's
Christmas break, but her sixteen year old steps on, Brian,
wasn't totally free from schoolwork, not quite yet.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
They always give them a packet of homework to do,
so him and his friend, his best friend, they had decided, Okay,
I'll go over your house in the morning. We'll get
the package done really quick that day, and then we
can have the rest of the two weeks to just
hang out and play video games, so that was a plan.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
It was a pretty typical Saturday morning for the Jereta family,
partly sunny, high in the mid sixties, just another December
day in Miami, Florida. Brian's dad, William, was already at
work doing construction. His older sister was sleeping, So around
eleven am, Brian put on a baseball cap, grabbed his
bike and his backpack, and headed over to his friend's
place a few blocks away.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
So it was fairly close. A quick ride over and
about maybe two and a half blocks later, that's when
he was encountered by someone.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Later that day, Brian's father, William, got a phone call
from an unknown number.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
The detective called my husband and he asked him, where
are you to speak to you about Brian? Is that
your son?
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (02:03):
It is? Is he okay? Is he in trouble? We
just need to talk to you. They wouldn't say anything,
just said tell me where you are, we'll go to
you soon.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
An officer from the City of Miami Police Department arrived
at William's job site.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
They showed up there and that's when they told him
we found your son. They found him on the street.
He told him that they found him dead.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
William was in shock. He called his wife.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
The call was horrible. I replayed over in my head
all the time, and it was him just telling me
they killed my Brian. They killed my Brian. And that's
a phrase that I'll never forget again.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Their son, Brian, a good kid, a straight a student
who loved video games and hanging out with his friends,
was dead. It didn't make any sense, but nothing makes
sense in those early hours after a tragedy, your numb
with shock. The Hereras figured they know more soon. They
had no idea how long it would take to Finanswers
(03:15):
from School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. This is Cold
Case Files Miami. I'm your host Enriques Santos. Around eleven
am on Saturday, December twenty second, twenty twelve, the City
of Miami Police Department received several nine to one to
(03:36):
one calls from neighbors who'd heard gunshots. Someone reported seeing
a person on the ground. Minutes later, an officer arrived
at the intersection of Northwest eleventh Avenue and thirty ninth
Street in the neighborhood of Alapada. Sixteen year old Brian
Herera was lying near the street unconscious and bleeding. He
was rushed to Miami's main hospital, Jackson Memorial. Doctors tried
(04:00):
to save him, but there wasn't much they could do.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
He ended up succumbing to his injuries and he was
prononcecist at the hospital.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
That's Sergeant Nikolai Trifanoff. Sergeant Trivinoff has been with MIAMIPD
since two thousand and four and he's been heading up
the cold case unit since twenty twenty one.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
In cold case, we're really responsible for all open cases
that have little to know leads left. The leads have
been worked to exhaustion.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
But before he was on the cold case team, Sergeant
Trivenoff worked in homicide and one of the cases he
worked on was Brian Riras.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Brian was writing a bike two a friend's house, he
was approached by the offender. At that time, there was
a struggle between them and Brian was shot in the head.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
In any homicide investigation, there are standard procedures that take place.
The crime scene unit arrived to collect evidence, including Brian's
backpack which had been left on the ground filled with
his draw and schoolwork, and detectives tried to figure out who,
if anyone saw something.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
We do neighborhood canvases, knock on doors, tried to identify witnesses,
trying to determine how many suspects there are, what type
of weapon was used. Obviously, really that's the beginning of it.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
I know Sergeant triffinoff from mutual acquaintances at the Miami
Police Department, where he's a full time officer. I worked
there as a reserve officer. My full time job is
morning radio. I'm a proud Miami and the son of
human immigrants, and I host two shows that are broadcast
around the United States, the Endriquessanto's Morning Show in Spanish
and On the Move with Endrique Santos in English. A
(05:44):
lot of people who just know me from the radio
are surprised to hear that I am also a cop
that had wanted to be one since I was a kid,
and after high school I enrolled in the police Academy.
In nineteen ninety four, I had started my career with
the North Miami Police Department, and about four or five
years in a funny thing happened. I call the radio
station I was listening to and ended up becoming friends
with the guy who picked up the phone. Over the
(06:05):
next couple of years, the friendship led to me becoming
a DJ, and in two thousand, I traded my police
badge for a microphone and started a full time job
hosting a morning show. I've been doing that for almost
twenty five years now, half my life, and I love
working in radio. But listen, those years as a cop
taught me a lot. You learn so much you could
never get in any university. I don't mean how to
(06:28):
solve a crime. I mean the psychological stuff, learning to
de escalate violent and dangerous situations, the value of life,
and what it means to have a partner watching your back.
There's also a lot of firsts. First time you see
a dead body, the first time you need to knock
on a door and tell a mother that her son's
not coming home because he's been shot. Those are very,
(06:51):
very tough things to learn on the job. My work
as a police officer also taught me that across Miami,
most people really care about their neighbors. And their neighbor
you want to be safe, and they want their kids
to be safe. And when crimes do happen, especially horrible
ones like murders, everyone wants them to be solved and
the killers to be brought to justice. But in those
(07:13):
early hours after Brian's murder, the Herrera family wasn't even
thinking about justice. They were still incomplete and utter shock.
You just.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
You don't even know if you're living on alternate reality.
You don't even know if you're what's going on is real.
You're just going through the motions, you're not even thinking.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
It still felt like maybe this was all just a
terrible mistake.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
We were expecting him to walk through the door and
it was already like seven o'clock at night. My husband
kept saying, but are you sure it's him? Maybe it's
not him, And I kept saying, babe, but if not,
he would be home by now.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
The rest of the day was a blur. The next night,
the police called the Hereras with the request they needed
them to come in the day to officially identify Brian's body.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
My husband said, I don't want you to go.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
I'm going to go.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
So a friend went with him. It was Christmas Eve
and he had to go identify his son's body.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
That was rough.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
He says that they just show you like a picture,
and he says he fell, he collapsed, he had no energy.
That's when it all came down on him and he
just accepted he's gone, and he was just destroyed. We
had a little girl at that time, you know, she
was only five, so you know, she's still tomorrow. Santa's coming,
(08:40):
you know, and we're still like, yeah, Santa's coming, don't worry,
Sanna's coming, you know, and we still have to go
through with it, knowing that we're just in shambles.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
As the days and weeks passed, the police still didn't
have much news to share. No eyewitnesses had come forward,
even though Brian had been shot on a Saturday morning
and broad daylight. Detectives believed it was likely a robbery,
but there were no descriptions of any potential suspects.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
They felt it was something random. He was just chosen
for some reason, but that was pretty much about it.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
One of the few leads the police had was an
older gentleman who lived in the neighborhood. He told the
cops that the morning of Brian's death, he'd been approached
by a man in a car who asked him to
call nine one one and then drove away before police arrived.
The neighbor didn't know much more than that. Still, the
Heredras were hoping that he might be willing to talk
(09:37):
to them.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
We tried after talking to the elderly man, and we
just could never. You know, nobody would open the door
to us. We just could never get in contact with him.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
In fact, the Hereras liked the police struggled to speak
to anyone who might have seen something.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Someone told us at the beginning that the house across
the street where it happened, somebody was there, that it
was a child, and they would look through the window
when they heard the bang. We knocked many times there,
they never opened the door. I even mailed letters out
to every single house there explained their situation that they
can contact crime stoppers and they can give their information,
(10:17):
and you know, they didn't have to say who they were.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Nothing.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
We went to that block and we talked to some
of the neighbors. Most of the neighbors did not want
to talk to us, so, I mean, it was pretty
useless for us to even continue to talking to anybody
because nobody would talk.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Annabel came into Brian's world when he was around three
years old. She had recently started dating his father, William.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
I met William at the beach. You know, he was
walking and I was walking as well, and we just
started talking.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
They hit it off almost immediately. He was Venezuelan, she
was Cuban. He had children from his previous marriage. Annabel
had children too.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
We dated very shortly and moved in quickly. Brian was
four years old and he had two older sisters who
were I relieve thirteen and fourteen at the time, so
they came to live with me and my two children.
He was a very sweet, shy child, very quiet. His
dad used to call her chru Chito, the poppy. True
(11:28):
Chito is just a funny, little Hispanic thing. Chu Chito
is like, I don't know, like you would say sweety
Daddy's sweetye or something like that, just something cute.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
The family was living in Highlia Gardens, a suburb of Miami.
Annabel remembers those years with a lot of fondness and
how Brian, as the youngest, was kind of the center
of attention.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Oh he was the baby brother, so you know, his
older brother and sisters adored him. We have a lot
of sweet memory. I mean, he was a great video
game player. Everybody would go outside and play and he
would just stay inside and he was really good, and
he would teach his two other brothers what to play
and know, you got to do this and this is
a trick. And so they were always getting pointers for
(12:12):
him because even though he was the youngest, he was
the best at the games.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
In twenty twelve, Bryan's family moved to the neighborhood of Alapada,
northwest of downtown Miami. It's an area with families who've
lived there for generations, as well as newly arrived transplants
and immigrants from all over Latin America and the Caribbean.
In two thousand and three, a stretch of Alipada was
officially named Little Santo Domingo, and the Dominican influence is clear,
(12:40):
from seafood markets to Natine Bakery to the long standing
restaurant Glub Dipico Dominicano. Brian lived not too far from
Club Tipico, a couple of blocks from the one ninety
five Expressway that cuts through the city as it connects
drivers from the airport to Miami Beach.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
It's a lower income area where working hard people who
just can't afford the higher rents in Miami. That's where
they live. They keep their houses really nice and there's
a lot of good people.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
In twenty twelve, when Brian was there, Alapada also had
some of the highest assault and homicide rates in all
of Miami Dade County. In fact, from twenty ten to
twenty twelve, the homicide rate where Brian lived was nearly
five times the county average. But Dieredras didn't know that
when they moved in. They just knew it was affordable
and the apartment building itself seemed safe.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
The actual building was a gated building, and it was new.
It looked like a really nice building, and you know,
the rent was affordable and everything looked great. But unfortunately
we weren't aware of that area that fall.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Brian started his sophomore year at Miami Jackson High.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
He was a very good student. He was a straight
a student, very smart. His teachers loved him.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Brian was a specially drawn to science.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
One of our daughters she had a kidney issue and
she had robotic surgery. So he was talking a lot
with his dad that he would really like to get
into robotics. So he really thought that might be something
he was interested in pursuing.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
This is the same Brian who didn't come home that
one December evening. Brian, the baby brother, the video gamer,
the straight a student who wanted to get into robotics
to help people, the sweet, shy child his family adored.
He was only sixteen when he was murdered, just figuring
out who he was and the kind of person he
(14:40):
wanted to become. The News of what happened to Brian
spread in the days after his death. The Eddas were
especially touched when his school organized a walk in his honor.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
We all handed out flyers for hours. It was very
moving to see so many people come out for him.
Everybody would come up to us and tell us their
individual stories, the friendships that they had with him, even
the little interactions that they had. Everybody's stories were beautiful
and we were just we were crying because it was like, Wow,
(15:13):
he made such an impact and we didn't even know.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Neighbors also reached out to Annabelle and William with condolences.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
We encountered so many good people who came to us,
and you know, they brought us food, and everybody invited
us to their church. Everybody wanted to, you know, pray
for us and pray for Brian, and so we did.
We saw a lot of beautiful people in the area,
a lot.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
But they also saw people who were scared to talk
about Brian's murder and what they may or may not
have seen.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
The whole Snitches get stitches. Absolutely, that is very prominent
and everybody knows it. We were promoting see something, say something,
but they're used to No, you don't say anything, because
you say something, your mother gets killed, you say something,
your brother gets killed. They say something, they catch you
and they shoot you and they kill you.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
The Herenas didn't learn much from the police either, and
what they did here changed over time as weeks, months,
and even years passed after Brian's killing without him the rest.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
At the beginning, we heard, oh, there was several people involved,
several people ran from the scene. Then in the last
couple of years, we haven't heard that being said anymore.
So we have no idea if it was just one
person or it was several people.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
To the Heredras, it seemed like the police couldn't really
share much at all.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
It was just very little bits and pieces of information.
They couldn't tell us if everything that was in his
book pack was there, if they had taken anything. We've
never seen the book back again, or the bike or
any of the stuff inside. We've asked, can we have
the bike back? Nope, it's evidence, you know. Can we
(16:55):
know at least what was inside the book back?
Speaker 3 (16:57):
No.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Annabelle knew Brian and would have had his phone on him,
a simple phone his dad bought him to play video
games on. It didn't even have service, it only worked
over Wi Fi. But had the cops found it, she
didn't know. Still, Annabel and the police had a theory
about what could have happened.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
I think somebody approached him. We don't know if he
was still riding bike, or he was off his bike.
Maybe he was looking his phone. I have no idea.
Somebody just approached him. There was some kind of altercation,
we don't know why, and then somehow in that altercation
he was shocked.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
But a theory, especially when without witnesses or even a suspect,
wasn't enough to go on. And as the years passed,
Annabel stopped receiving any updates on Brian's case.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
So about maybe two years into the investigation, I stopped
hearing from the detective. I got really concerned, so I
left messages at the homicide department. If I kept messaging
and messaging no call back, nobody would message me back.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
By this point, Annabel understood that solving Brian's case wasn't
going to be simple, but she wanted to know he
hadn't been forgotten.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
We wanted them to call us back, to give us information,
even if it's just to say I have no new information,
you know, but at least let us know that you're
listening to us, that you know we're still here, that
you're working on our kid's case. Because a lot of
these mothers say, oh, it's been seventy years, I haven't
heard from my detective. That wasn't going to happen to me.
(18:36):
I was going to keep fighting and I was going
to get in their face.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Frustrated with the lack of response, Annabel turned to the
Internet for help.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
I read somewhere find an activist, and so I did.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Annabel came across an organization called Florida Parents of Murdered Children,
which had been founded by a Miami woman named Tangela Sears.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
I called her on the phone and she immediately picked up.
She just started, you know, hooking me up. Okay, you
need to talk like a you're going to talk to
the mayor, A you're going to talk to the chief
of police, you're gonna talk to the homicide department. I'm
going to get you in with the commander. So little
by little, that's what we did.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
I can see very very well. How you know, family
members can say, oh, well, nothing's being done in my case.
It's just forgotten about.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Sergeant Triffinoff is sympathetic to Annibal's frustration.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
We tell the families, look, have patience with us. You know,
we're doing our best. We're following those leads. We're constantly
switching gears. We're constantly let's get that case, let's get
this case. Okay, there's something moving on this case, let's
go there. But as a family, I can understand after
years go by, it's like, are they just blowing smoke?
(19:47):
Are they just giving me unwarranted hope? But there are times,
you know, like in this case, where we had our
hands tied at moments where there just wasn't wasn't anything
that was able to go.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
In twenty sixteen, Sergeant Trivinoff was named lead detective on
Brian's case, and he immediately began looking into it.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
I start looking at if there's any DNA on the case,
anything that needed to go to the lab, that hadn't
been sent to the lab, all these things, and I
noticed that there was some evidence on the case that
needed to be looked at. We incorporate familial DNA genealogy,
(20:32):
additional testing on the DNA. I started looking into it
and interview several people, possible suspects, witnesses, stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Unfortunately, none of this new information was enough to make
an arrest.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
There were little leads throughout the years. There's always been
something that we've been able to work on and look into,
but nothing stolid that pointed to a specific individual.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
With all leads exhausted, the department needed an outside tip
to move the case along.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
At that point, it's just hoping that somebody that saw
something comes forward with whatever they saw, you know, anything
they heard, even if they think it's trivial and they
didn't really hear or see anything. Any little piece of
information is very important for us. We can always use
that and it may turn into something bigger and better
(21:30):
that we can use.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
In twenty eighteen, Triffonoff was promoted to sergeant and the
case was reassigned to another detective, but Triffonoff never forgot
about Brian.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
And I had told annabel when I first met her
that will never give up on this. I had an
attachment to the case. It was a sixteen year old
high school student that was just going to do his
homework at a friend's house. So I kept working it
even though I had left the unit.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Meanwhile, Annabelle was also still fighting for her son. Try
to keep focus on his case and gather any information
she could. She posted regularly on the Facebook page she'd
set up Justice for Brian Rera. She talked to anyone
who would listen, the press, the police, the public. She
was open to anything that might lead to that much
(22:16):
needed tip.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
I need someone to come forward and say what happened
that day, say the truth what you saw. This is
my child and I want closure. But if this was
your child, you would want to know who did this
to them. No one deserves this. Let's put this guy away,
Let's close this case.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
In twenty twenty two, she applied for a grant from
Season of Justice, a nonprofit that funds efforts to solve
code cases nationwide. With the money she received, she put
up a billboard in Alapada, near where Brian was killed.
The organization also paid for signs for the family to
set up around the area.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Unfortunately, nothing came out of that. But you got to
keep trying until you get something, and we're gonna keep trying.
We're gonna keep pushing.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
But by early twenty twenty four, despite everything Annabelle had done,
despite the work by the City of Miami police, Bran's
case was completely cold.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
We hit a standstill. There were no leads available to us.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
It had been over a decade since Brian's murder, and
solving his case felt further away than ever. The emotional
toll this had taken on the Heretra family was immense.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Honestly, there's been certain points in time where I'm like,
maybe we should just let it go, because maybe it's
tormenting us too much, and maybe we just need to
just concentrate on grieving and living and forget about all
this justice or revenge or whatever it is you want
(23:52):
to call it. Every time I would say, you know,
maybe I'm just going to back off, I would ask
my husband. I would say, do you want me to
stop and just let this go? He was like, no,
do you want to stop. I'm like, no, I just
want to make sure we want to keep fighting. He's no,
I'll go for it, keep fighting. So then I was like,
that's it. I'm going to keep fighting.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
And then in December twenty twenty four, a full twelve
years after Brian's death, seemingly out of the blue, the
Ereras get an update.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
All throughout these years, it's just me following back up
with the detectives and they're still working on this and
we're working on that, but there's never been a person
of interest. There had never been anything. And then that's
when we received a phone call that we've been waiting
for for a very long time.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
In December twenty twenty four, while we were making this episode,
Annabelle and William Herrera received a call from the Miami Police.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
They let us know that there was a witness they
came forward and they were going to be arresting someone.
We were very emotional, but we really try to hold
it together so we can get all the information and
not say that there crying. Then once we hung up,
as when we you know, we melted down and we
started crying and hugging.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
The news came almost twelve years to the day since
Brian was killed.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
A murder mystery solved.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
It was the focus of a news conference Wednesday afternoon.
Speaker 5 (25:27):
It no longer remains a cold case, the Miami Dade
State Attorney talking about the twenty twelve murder of sixteen
year old Brian Herrera and the arrest that was made
in the case.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
More than a decade later.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
A suspect had been arrested in Brian's murder. According to police,
a tip had come in from a witness, one they
had been looking for but hadn't been able to find.
It was the man in the car, the man who
asked the neighbor to call nine one one.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
The witness. He was driving by and saw the defendant
with Brian. He saw like an argument going on, and
he started rolling up. He was in his car, and
he rolled up slowly next to them, and he told him,
come on, guys, it's Christmas. What are we fighting about?
And then he saw Brian whisper, I'm being robbed. And
he saw that the defendant had a gun in his hand,
(26:18):
pointed at Brian, and so he decided to just move
forward and go on because he was scared for his life.
And then he saw Brian break loose and then he
heard a gunshot.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Here was the evidence to the theory the police and
the Hereras had all along. Brian was killed in a
robbery over a cell phone. A cell phone that was
never found, a cell phone that didn't even work without
Wi Fi. That crucial tip had come in just six
months earlier, in June twenty twenty four, when he called
(26:52):
the driver said he had information on a murder that
had happened just before Christmas twenty twelve.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
We were advised of the tip and we followed up
on it. We sit down and interview that individual. They're
ultimately able to identify the person that they saw robbing
our victim of mister Perreira, and sitting with our state
Attorney's office and discussing everything, we're able to arrest the offender,
(27:21):
whose name is Adrian Grimes.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Adrian Grimes is now thirty years old. Back in December
twenty twelve, when Brian was killed, he'd have just turned eighteen.
The witness said he'd known the suspect from the neighborhood
and he had a defining characteristic. Grimes only has one eye.
He lost it in an unrelated shooting that took place
after Brian's murder. After his arrest, a grand jury indicted
(27:46):
Adrian Grimes on charges of first degree murder and robbery
with a firearm on January twenty second, twenty twenty five.
Grimes's lawyer pleaded not guilty on behalf of his client.
The prosecutor later told the judge the state would be
seeking the death penalty. It's important to remember that an
arrest is not a conviction. Eyewitness testimony can be unreliable
(28:08):
and it doesn't always stand up in court. Agent Grimes,
like everyone else, deserves due process.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
This is not the end of the road here. We
still have a long way to go. This is kind
of like an ending to a chapter. We've made an arrest,
but now we have trial or any type of core proceedings,
however they may go.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
It will now be up to a jury to decide
if the evidence proves Rhymes killed Brian.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
In any case, even with a great case, you don't
have any guarantees that you're going to be able to
get a conviction. So it's a very very long journey
and it's very unsure Diras understand this well.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
It doesn't feel like justice yet until he's been convicted
and then it's not really justice. But at least we
can move on with our with our lives without that
added issue on our backs that this guy is just
out there living his life while ourso lost his.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Because in the end, nothing can replace what theras lost.
It's Brian they miss and Brian they think about.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
We're constantly talking about him and the funny little stories,
and he's He's always there.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
You know.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
You wake up every morning, you open your eyes at
some point and put time during that day you're thinking
about him. It's not always, you know, about the murder.
It's more about the cute things he did, the smart
things he did, things that he said. I have a
lot of times the last time I saw him, you
(29:47):
know what he said to me, and the image of
him sitting on the couch and he was playing video
games on his phone. He's watching TV and scrolling and
I can remember, I swear it's like yesterday I was
sitting here and he was sitting there and I was
black and forth looking at him, and I remember his
hair was outgrown, and you know, I told him, you
(30:07):
gotta get a haircut. Oh, my girlfriend likes it like this,
you know, So those are the little things that every
day pop up.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
At a press conference after Grime's arraiement, Miami Police Chief
Manny Morales said he remembered how Annabel had told him
she'd felt abandoned by the detectives on Brian's case. He said,
theredra has lit a fire under his team, and that's
exactly what Annabel says. Anyone in her shoes should do.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Keep fighting that detective doesn't call you, show up at
the Hobbitside department as to speak to the commander. If
the commander doesn't figure it out, as to speak to
the chief of police, make yourself known to them, let
them know your face, let them know your name. And
every single time I would go to visit someone, I
(30:56):
would take them their picture. This picture is for you.
I want you to keep Brian's pace. I want you
to look at his picture and remember him every single day.
And every time I go to their offices, they have
his pictures pinned up. That's exactly what I want. I
wanted to remember who he is. And that's exactly what
all parents have to do. They have to keep fighting,
they have to keep pushing.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
On.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
This season of Cold Case Files, Miami we'll be speaking
directly to those most deeply involved in this heartbreaking work.
We'll hear from the detectives investigating these cases on the ground.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Once I went back to really take a look at him,
to all the statements, reading reports, I realize, Man, I
feel like we got a case here.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
From the families of victims desperate for answers.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
If we can concentrate this information throughout the states to
hear Mark Crai.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
To know that George's death was not in vague.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Or searching for justice I said over six hundred emails
I did.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
I had to go out to trust the police, but
you gotta help make sure there be a held accountable tool.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
And from the prosecutors looking to convict those.
Speaker 5 (32:07):
Responsible, they will do whatever it takes on behalf of
these victims to go to court and fight for them,
fight for the voiceless and for the powerless.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
I'm Endrique Santos. Join me as we examine some of
Miami's cold cases and talk to the people these tragedies
affect most. Join us next week for cold case files Miami.
Anyone with information regarding the case is asked to call
crime Stoppers anonymously at three zero five four seven to
(32:39):
one tips that's three zero five four seven one eight
four seven seven, or visit the website at Crimestoppers three
zero five dot com and select give a tip in
(33:00):
case Files. Miami is a production of Iheart's Michael Tura
podcast Network and School of Humans. I'm your host, Enbriquasantos.
This show was written and researched by Marissa Brown. Our
lead producer is Josh Thain. He Delis Perees is our
senior producer. Sound design and mixed by Josh Thain, factchecking
by Savannah Hugley. Our production manager is Daisy Church. Special
(33:23):
thanks to Julia Ramirez from my production team. Our iHeart
Radio executive producers including me Endrique Santos, carl Cadel and
Arlene Santana, and Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr and Elsie Crowley
from School of Humans. For more podcasts, listen to the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your
(33:43):
favorite shows.
Host
Enrique Santos
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