March 14, 2023 • 30 mins
In 2022 – more than sixteen years later – we hear from Emmery’s entire family who gather and re-hash more than a decade’s worth of information when an investigator joins the case.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
After Emory's death, her aunt Becky kept calling the LAPD
detective after detective just to check in for over a decade.
There's no faith to have. It's like I said, if
she wouldn't call, we probably wouldn't know anything. This is
Emory's sister, Crystal. Again, we'd probably be thirty steps behind
where we actually are now. And you know, I know
(00:23):
they have big jobs, big cases they need to take
care of, but she, along with the other millions of
people that have been murdered, meant something to us. She
had a family and she was only fourteen. She had
a future of out of her. It's hard to have
faith and something that you see no potential in because
(00:44):
the people in charge they're not They're not giving you
any insights, they're not keeping you updated, they're not keeping
you in the loop. They kind of just brush it
off in a sense. And you know, like I feel,
if she was taken to from the beginning, we would
probably know something Bry now. So when I did get
new information on Emory's case, I immediately called her aunt Becky. Hello,
(01:10):
Hi Becky, Hi, how are you hi? Good? This is
Janis from Vice Vice N Yes, yes, how are you
I'm okay, I'm waiting for my mouth to doct disappointment. Okay,
how oh so so we're we got here early, so
we're waiting in the car for the time. They don't
(01:31):
have you right, Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we've been trying to
get a hold of anyone at Central Bureau Homicide UM
because they've just stopped been answering our phone calls, not
been like you know, not not not answering anything. We've
been living voicemails, and they've been kind of hard to
getting in contact with. Yeah, yeah, and yeah, we finally did.
(01:56):
They said that the case is currently considered fresh, which
means it's active because of information that was provided by
the by the family. We don't know what the family
lead was, and LABD won't share more specifics. The family
members we talked to don't seem to know either. I'm
not really sure what he meant by information that was
(02:18):
provided by the family, but it was. Yeah. Every time
we'll hear like a rumor or somebody calls one of
us with some seeing that they heard, we called right
away and we let them know. From I Heearts, Michael
(03:15):
du A, Podcast Network, Vice and Elia Studios, this is
party cruise the Untold Story. I'm Genus Amalca. In November
(03:57):
of twenty twenty one, LIPD told us that Emory's case
was fresh again, meaning that while it had been cold,
they were investigating new information related to the case. We
kept calling for updates but couldn't get more information than that.
But a few months later we did get a new contact. Okay,
(04:17):
I'll hear you this. Yes, okay, I was out of
the country visiting my family in Peru for a few weeks.
So this is senior producer Sophia Palissa Carr on the
phone with Becky. I ended up getting a call and
she had some information that I wanted to pass on
to you. The corner investigator we interviewed in a past
episode told us she wanted us to pass on to
(04:40):
Emory's family the name and number of an investigator she knew.
His name is Moiss Castillo. Moses Castillo is a former
LPD detective supervisor where he worked specifically on crimes against
children for fifteen years. After close to three decades, he
retired from the force and now he work for a
law firm as a chief investigator where he also does
(05:04):
pro bone or work and what he told me. I
called him and just talked to him, and he told
me that his priority would be to make sure that
the family could meet with the police department and just
make sure that where the case is at now. And
I don't really know what that means exactly, but I
know that he has a lot of contacts in LAPD,
(05:26):
like you should really talk to him and see what
you want to do. So what do you think do
you think you might would like? Yeah, I would like
to meet with him, you know, and uh, you know
my niece Crystal and my sister Maria, and I was
say her dad. They don't live together anymore with him
(05:48):
and my sister, but he's still in the picture. So
I mean, I don't know if you would like to
be there too. I would love to be there just
to see the process. And I think how hard it
to get information is important for people to know, and
you know, it's been so long. But whatever you're comfortable with,
I'll stop calling people today and see and then call
(06:11):
him too. Sophia is going to take it from here.
HI can help you. Hi, I'm going up to sweet
nineteen ninety. Are you here for Moses Castillo Um He's
part of the law for After I talked to Becky,
she did end up reaching out to Moses, and a
couple of days later she let me know that they
(06:33):
had set a time to meet. I was surprised because
about ten people showed up. This is Maria, Emory's mom.
Helloa Becky, Emory's aunt, was there as well as Emory's
mom and her dad, and her brother John. John's wife
and his two kids also came out, and a couple
(06:53):
of Emory's friends too, Alejandra, who we've spoken to, and
her other friend Madison. Since originally Emory's mom hadn't been
interested in speaking to us for this story, this was
the first time that any of us had heard from
either of Emory's parents before we met. We did ask
the entire family for permission, and they agreed to let
us record it. The meeting was at a law firm
(07:15):
in downtown Glendale on a Saturday morning in February. It
was this tall, glossy building and because it was the weekend,
the entire office was empty and quiet. Anybody want any coffee?
And there's a little next for the kids too, for
the dults to This is the former detective Moses Castillo,
(07:38):
His demeanor was low key. He had brought some pandu
and he joked as he put it on the table
that quote I heard there were some Latinos here. He
clearly understood it was going to be intense for the family. Well,
first of all, I want to say thank you for
ling me in this journey that you've been going through
(07:59):
for so long. And it's I have no word for relate.
I dream he's the pain and that I want to
hear about Emory. I want you to tell me about Emory,
and I know that might be painful, but it still
be important because I want My ultimate goal is to
get you to me with the detectives on his case.
(08:28):
Before we ended up getting into the nitty gritty, Moses
asked to lead the room in prayer. Good God, I
thank you for your love and for you goodness, all right, grace,
that you would that Emory's family know that they are
not alone. During the prayer, Emory's mother started to get emotional.
(08:53):
Moses asked her to speak first, but she couldn't, so
he turned to Jose, Emory's dad. Because you want do
you want someone else to start or give you some time?
Who's it? Yes, sir, would you like to tell me
(09:14):
about I was not there. I was a father figure
and um but uh I would see them and give
them what they needed. As you know, they called me
and they tell me, and uh, you know, I just
I just I like I said, I was, I wasn't there,
(09:37):
you know, like the way I wish I would. I was.
And you know she was. She was a She was
a happy child. And I know she would cry and
say where's my dad? Where's my dad? Because I wasn't there.
But she, you know, I just she was. She was
a happy girl. When Maria was finally ready to talk,
(10:00):
she ended up echoing a lot of what Jose said.
She was wearing this silver chain necklace with two hearts,
which used to belong to Emory. So I shee was
a wonderful person. She was always singing, dancing. She's timing
that she wanted She had a lot of friends. She
wanted everybody to like her. She would put her brands
(10:22):
for her if they needed something. She was always copying
them out. And she was just a happy person. I
only told why somebody would want to hurt her. Maria
told Moses how Emory struggled at school, how there were
girls who wanted to jump her. We talked about this
in a previous episode about how the family recalls that
(10:43):
some girls showed up one day at the house and
harassed Emory with a baseball bat. So Maria had her
changed schools and then homeschooled her for two years, and
then she went to Francisco Bravo High School, where things
had seemed to be going well when she started going
to brav where her grace went back up. And I
guess said, maybe she's hang around with the wrong crowd
(11:06):
or because she wasn't having poulos though. It's like I
would ask her, is there anybody that wants to hurt true?
Is everybody wants you like tell you stuff? She's like, no, no, no,
they agreed to whatever. I guess it was just the
crowd she hanged around with that I don't know. The
other person that we haven't heard from directly, but whose
name had come up in other interviews was Emory's younger
(11:28):
brother John, any other questions, you want to share something
about your sister. John is the one who got in
a fight with her the day she disappeared. He was
sitting at the very end of the table and he
was wearing an La Rams jacket. Um, you know, I
was thirteen at the time, she was fourteen. I was,
(11:57):
I was all enough to know what was going on.
But we're too young to understand. My sister was involved
a lot. You know, she was too young to be
involved with the people that she hung around with, you know,
(12:20):
the party scene. She knew a lot for her aide um,
I'm at peace, you know, of what would occurred. I
came to peace with it. No matter what, you know,
doing justice or not, it doesn't I really, it doesn't
(12:42):
really matter to me. You know, I don't believe her
as well, and so I forgive the people or a
person that did the If we could find out what happened,
(13:08):
it'll be you know, from their mom. You know, she's
who will heard at it to the other part of
this meeting was creating a space to share tips and
theories that have come in over the years. As we've
mentioned in a previous episode, the family has a ton
of them. People have reached out from all over giving
(13:30):
them information after Emory's death, things they saw or things
they heard, and this is the type of information that
Becky would call LAPD detectives with whether they followed up
or not. The family doesn't know, but they would call
and relay everything that they heard. There are two theories
that we've heard that have come up again and again.
Like we said previously, given the total speculative nature of
(13:52):
these theories, we're only going to include first initials and
we're going to cut out full names in the tape
for privacy. So one of the theories was about Emory's
former boyfriend at the time of her death, who we
are calling r. He's currently in prison for a second
degree attempted murder. In the meeting, Emory's mom talked about
how a friend of the family ran into our after
(14:14):
Emory's death. They were talking to him through the window
and that she said that she hurled her out and
she's seen Emory's rings inside of struck. That was like
about six months she classed away. Oh my, yeah, we visit.
We mentioned this in episode four. But Emory was known
for wearing all these different rings, and when she was
(14:36):
found they were all gone, and there were tan lines
as well in her hands where they had been. Her
family never found those rings. The other theory is focused
on Emory's friend's ex boyfriend we're calling him. S Alejandra,
her high school friend, says he spoke to Emory the
day she disappeared, and I'm not sure what they talked about,
(14:57):
but I remember they were going to meet after school
and he was pretty upset about something that had happened.
She says that s got upset with Emory because he
felt that Emory got in between him and his ex girlfriend. Again,
We've tried to reach out to all of these people
numerous times. Maria. Emory's mom also said that they had
(15:18):
been told that the police did talk to s at
the time. They went to his house supposedly and he
got arrested to see the on guns in his house,
and he went in and they took him to jail
and then under clever cop pretending he was an inmate,
put him in the same sound to see if he
could get information from him, you know, brought up every
(15:41):
you know kime out and said, well, did you know,
did you hear what happened to that girl? They said that,
you know, to see if he would say anything, but
he never commented nothing. They never got nothing out of him.
Moses was taking notes the whole time, and after about
an hour an hour and a half John's baby started
to get fussy, and the family seemed pretty wiped and
the meeting ended. And if you are thinking of reaching
(16:04):
out to you at any point, don't hesitate you call them. Okay,
let me a little pick up. I'll pick up my cat.
I'll call you when I'm able to, because my knees
didn't very busy sometimes. But on the way out, I
caught up with Becky in the parking garage. I wanted
to know how she felt. Did you feel like your
(16:24):
expectations in the beginning changed over the course of the
meeting or are either the same or hown't you know?
My expectations are high. I love the way the detector
talked to us. I love that he began with a prayer,
thanking God like we should always. I felt that he's, uh, okay,
(16:45):
thank you, nice me you so you're welcome, thank you.
I feel this sincecere in in his voice and his heart.
After the family left, I asked Moses what he thought
about what he heard in the meeting. After hearing them
speak and giving me some insights as to what happened.
(17:08):
I do believe there's additional investigation that needs to be conducted,
such as interviewing ex boyfriends and someone who was considered
a person of interest. Revisit that person because now things
have changed and time has gone by, and sometimes people
(17:30):
can't add things that maybe they were afraid to say
back then. But now if this person's are reading cars,
maybe he says, you know what, I I have anything else
to gain or lose him, I would just tell the truth.
Somebody out there has information about what happened to Emory
that night. Somebody knows, somebody told someone, somebody confided in someone.
(17:51):
Moses told me that he reached out to Assistant Chief
Alfred Lebrata, who's part of Central Bureau where Emory's cases currently. Again,
he's doing this pro bo. He says he's taken on
a few cases since he retired from LAPD. The request
I made to him was a request that he assigned
a new set of detectives that would give it another look,
(18:14):
and then also requested that those detectives meet with the
family under what we call Marcy's Law, fit them build
of rights. He asked LAPD to meet with the family
and go over the case. Again. It's like this reminder
to LAPD that someone is paying attention and also to
get any more information that the family might not already have.
(18:35):
If you remember, they told us that the case was
fresh or active again, but they didn't clarify any more
than that. And there used to be a fifty thousand
dollars reward for any information in Emory's case. It was
approved by La City Council in two thousand and six,
two thousand and seven, and then again in twenty eleven,
but since then it's expired, so it's possible that the
(18:57):
reward could get renewed again. And the family is also
trying to raise awareness on Instagram. They made an account
called Justice for Emery Munyos. And that's where we left
off with the meeting. Hello, I think blame hi. How
are you? When I got back from Peru after visiting
(19:21):
my family for a few weeks, I called Becky and
she gave me some news. M okay, yes, overwhelmed them.
It seems like a lot kind of happens right in
the last two weeks. Yeah, it did. That's after the break.
(20:05):
Two weeks after Emory's family met in that conference room,
I got on the phone with Becky who told me
some news. They're happening, and that makes me feel good.
It makes me feel nervous. LPD agreed to meet with
a family. The former detective, Moses Castillo said that LPD
(20:25):
had Emory's file and had been looking at it for
a month and a half already, and so they're ready
to meet with the family and they're ready to do
it soon. This is big news. They haven't sat down
with a detective in years, and when we started reporting
the story, they were having trouble even finding the contact
for her case since it's been passed around so much
(20:48):
all emotions. Overwhelmed said, you know, all the things that
happened sixteen years ago, are the feelings, the thoughts and
everything come back, the emotions. But I'm glad you know
this is happening. That I guess is normal for us
(21:09):
to relive everything again. So but I'm glad they're happening,
and so thank you. The family meets with LAPD on
their own and then afterward we joined them. How did
the how did the meeting go? So they said they're
going to do everything they can, you know, and it's
(21:30):
gonna take a while on us as long as it's
not sixteen more years. Do you remember the feeling in
the room was it m was it just them talking
or it was emotional. Yeah, it was emotional because I
m I mentioned that all the detectives that she had,
you know, it's like, I don't feel like they care.
(21:51):
And I told him, I said, I know, to you
guys in new cases, just another number. And he's sitting
on all of us. Maria, Emory's mom is in the room.
It's the first time I'm meeting her. I can immediately
see where Emory inherited her big brown eyes. I feel
(22:15):
that I'm gonna get answers this time, I really do,
you see. And we never got none of this before. Never,
it was just like detectives. She wouldn't call. It even
messages and they wouldn't call, and we've never gotten this far.
They don't return calls, you any messages, and and then
(22:37):
when you call, it's like, oh, everything's the same, like
no big deal, you know, there's no leads. And I'm like,
so it's like sometimes I used to tell her, why
am I even gonna call? It's always the same thing, nothing, nothing,
and it just like it gets a mad, you know,
it's like it hurts. One of the reasons I was
hesitant to do the series is that Inherently looking at
(22:58):
someone's death means that the family has to revisit trauma,
and it's not always clear if making families revisit the
past is worth it. It hurts to know what they
did to her, but I want to know what did
to her. I need to know. It's like they just hurt.
(23:18):
It brings anger to me because when they were picking
her at the school, it's like I would go with
her everywhere because she was afraid to go into the
story wherever she wanted to go, and I was always
going with her. I went to school, I sat with her,
and it was like I protected her from nobody touching her.
Now we get into arguments, you know, when moms, you know,
to tell their daughter and name my z alone. And
(23:42):
when they killed her, it's like I was like, may
maybe I know she was yelling for me. I know
she was. She needn't be the most. It wasn't there
for her, and I would I need to know why.
What was the reason, because because you didn't like her,
did she do something that I don't know? And I
(24:06):
just like I told a detective, you know, with God's help,
when you guys find out, I don't give me names
all to see faces. I believe that we're gonna get
some answers. Now this is Emory's dad, We'll say again.
Because when I when this happened, I used to go.
(24:28):
I never called the LAPD. I just went down there.
And that will just sent me in the room the
first two times and leave me in there, you know,
like if somebody's gonna come and talk to him. But
they didn't, you know, so commanded. There's nothing to say
because we haven't found out nothing. So I used to
get mad, and I used to raise my voice out them,
you know, and say, if you guys ain't gonna do anything,
(24:49):
I'm gonna do something about it, you know, because I
mean I looked for answers or I got up, you know,
and I used to in other words, I was out there.
It's homeless. Three years they where they found her, you know,
and I was trying to find something, you know, and
nothing and nothing, and I started drinking and I became
(25:11):
an alcoholic for three years, you know, and all but
I was always trying to do something, and I iced
to go down to LAPD and just race. Somehow we
did ask LAPD about this, and they acknowledged that Emory's
case had gone through a lot of hands, but they
said every time they receive a tip from them, they
investigated it, and the detectives don't always share information because
(25:35):
they don't want to give families false hope or compromise
the investigation. While we were talking, there was a family
album on the table and we were flipping through pictures
of Emory with her siblings and every at them all,
and then Maria told us a story about her. She
(25:58):
used to talk my dad wish she's to him sugar daddy,
Mama daddy, mister mister baby, she should call my dad.
Mister baby was Emory's grandfather who has now passed away.
She used to go and sit in my dad's lap,
which mister mister baby. She says, you love me, and
he's like, yeah, she does. You want to buy me
a pizza or where she wanted to go McDonald's. What
(26:21):
do you want? You know? And they're like he was like, okay,
go ahead, order it whatever. But then he caught out
and she's like, do you love me? He's like no,
She's like, yeah you do, and she's like we're gonna
get pizza, and I'm like, how do you do that
what do you do? Yeah, doesn't she say? I have?
I got it? Like that? I love hearing the story.
(26:44):
It's like a little family inside joke, and Maria just
lights up with a smile on her face. It meant
a lot to hear Maria talk about emory outside of
her murder case. A word that's been coming to mind
is the sugar recently, especially in these times. I've heard
(27:05):
this word a lot from my father when it comes
to grief and pain. I don't know how to describe
it in English. It's like when you're literally drowning in
your emotions and you have to let it all out.
You have to lighten the load, bent unburdening yourself. Even
if it's not positive, it doesn't matter. Sometimes you just
(27:26):
have to yell at someone or cry to find some
way to keep going. Whatever happens with the investigation, which
is now active. According to Lapd, at least the family
had this moment to confront Lapd about how they were treated.
To release, but to the sugar is also an act
(27:47):
of survival, a way to cope when there isn't a solution,
when the reality of the world is just too heavy
to bear. But it's the world you have to live in,
and in the absence of an answer, what I heard
emerge in this intense conversation was a lot of guilt
(28:08):
and blame, and I can't help but feel reminded of
my own guilt, A guilt that I didn't feel when
I was a kid sneaking out at night without my
parents knowing, but as grown and groan since then, and
that I think I finally understand. In our final episode,
I talked to my mom and we follow up an
(28:30):
emory story that's next time. This episode was written, reported,
and hosted by me Janemocha. Our show is produced and
reported by Sofia Polissa, car Victoria Lejandro, and Kyle Chang,
and edited by Antonio Seihido. Additional editing by Carolina and
(28:56):
any Abulis, fact checking by Nidia about sound design and
original music composition by Kyle Murdoch. Our supervising producer is
Janet Lee, art by Julie Ruiz and Victoria Kollon. Our
executive producer from Vice Audio is Kate Osborne. Our executive
(29:16):
producers from Elias Studios are Antonia Seido and leog Our
Vice president of Podcasts from Elias Studios is Shanea Naomi
Krocmo special thanks to the UCLA Department of Communication Archive
for access to their news collection. Party Cruise The Untold
Story is a production of Elias Studios and Vice Audio
(29:38):
in partnership with Ihearts Michael Fluda podcast Network. For more podcasts,
listen to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows, and Hey, were you and
a party crew? Send us your party flyers or photos.
I'd love to see them, even a voice message about
your memories anything. You can send us a message or
a picture at Party Cruise app at Elliot studios dot com.
(30:02):
Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and
Donna Crawford, who believed that quality journalism makes Los Angeles
a better place to live. This program is made possible
in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private
corporation funded by the American people.
After Emory's death, her aunt Becky kept calling the LAPD
detective after detective just to check in for over a decade.
There's no faith to have. It's like I said, if
she wouldn't call, we probably wouldn't know anything. This is
Emory's sister, Crystal. Again, we'd probably be thirty steps behind
where we actually are now. And you know, I know
(00:23):
they have big jobs, big cases they need to take
care of, but she, along with the other millions of
people that have been murdered, meant something to us. She
had a family and she was only fourteen. She had
a future of out of her. It's hard to have
faith and something that you see no potential in because
(00:44):
the people in charge they're not They're not giving you
any insights, they're not keeping you updated, they're not keeping
you in the loop. They kind of just brush it
off in a sense. And you know, like I feel,
if she was taken to from the beginning, we would
probably know something Bry now. So when I did get
new information on Emory's case, I immediately called her aunt Becky. Hello,
(01:10):
Hi Becky, Hi, how are you hi? Good? This is
Janis from Vice Vice N Yes, yes, how are you
I'm okay, I'm waiting for my mouth to doct disappointment. Okay,
how oh so so we're we got here early, so
we're waiting in the car for the time. They don't
(01:31):
have you right, Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we've been trying to
get a hold of anyone at Central Bureau Homicide UM
because they've just stopped been answering our phone calls, not
been like you know, not not not answering anything. We've
been living voicemails, and they've been kind of hard to
getting in contact with. Yeah, yeah, and yeah, we finally did.
(01:56):
They said that the case is currently considered fresh, which
means it's active because of information that was provided by
the by the family. We don't know what the family
lead was, and LABD won't share more specifics. The family
members we talked to don't seem to know either. I'm
not really sure what he meant by information that was
(02:18):
provided by the family, but it was. Yeah. Every time
we'll hear like a rumor or somebody calls one of
us with some seeing that they heard, we called right
away and we let them know. From I Heearts, Michael
(03:15):
du A, Podcast Network, Vice and Elia Studios, this is
party cruise the Untold Story. I'm Genus Amalca. In November
(03:57):
of twenty twenty one, LIPD told us that Emory's case
was fresh again, meaning that while it had been cold,
they were investigating new information related to the case. We
kept calling for updates but couldn't get more information than that.
But a few months later we did get a new contact. Okay,
(04:17):
I'll hear you this. Yes, okay, I was out of
the country visiting my family in Peru for a few weeks.
So this is senior producer Sophia Palissa Carr on the
phone with Becky. I ended up getting a call and
she had some information that I wanted to pass on
to you. The corner investigator we interviewed in a past
episode told us she wanted us to pass on to
(04:40):
Emory's family the name and number of an investigator she knew.
His name is Moiss Castillo. Moses Castillo is a former
LPD detective supervisor where he worked specifically on crimes against
children for fifteen years. After close to three decades, he
retired from the force and now he work for a
law firm as a chief investigator where he also does
(05:04):
pro bone or work and what he told me. I
called him and just talked to him, and he told
me that his priority would be to make sure that
the family could meet with the police department and just
make sure that where the case is at now. And
I don't really know what that means exactly, but I
know that he has a lot of contacts in LAPD,
(05:26):
like you should really talk to him and see what
you want to do. So what do you think do
you think you might would like? Yeah, I would like
to meet with him, you know, and uh, you know
my niece Crystal and my sister Maria, and I was
say her dad. They don't live together anymore with him
(05:48):
and my sister, but he's still in the picture. So
I mean, I don't know if you would like to
be there too. I would love to be there just
to see the process. And I think how hard it
to get information is important for people to know, and
you know, it's been so long. But whatever you're comfortable with,
I'll stop calling people today and see and then call
(06:11):
him too. Sophia is going to take it from here.
HI can help you. Hi, I'm going up to sweet
nineteen ninety. Are you here for Moses Castillo Um He's
part of the law for After I talked to Becky,
she did end up reaching out to Moses, and a
couple of days later she let me know that they
(06:33):
had set a time to meet. I was surprised because
about ten people showed up. This is Maria, Emory's mom.
Helloa Becky, Emory's aunt, was there as well as Emory's
mom and her dad, and her brother John. John's wife
and his two kids also came out, and a couple
(06:53):
of Emory's friends too, Alejandra, who we've spoken to, and
her other friend Madison. Since originally Emory's mom hadn't been
interested in speaking to us for this story, this was
the first time that any of us had heard from
either of Emory's parents before we met. We did ask
the entire family for permission, and they agreed to let
us record it. The meeting was at a law firm
(07:15):
in downtown Glendale on a Saturday morning in February. It
was this tall, glossy building and because it was the weekend,
the entire office was empty and quiet. Anybody want any coffee?
And there's a little next for the kids too, for
the dults to This is the former detective Moses Castillo,
(07:38):
His demeanor was low key. He had brought some pandu
and he joked as he put it on the table
that quote I heard there were some Latinos here. He
clearly understood it was going to be intense for the family. Well,
first of all, I want to say thank you for
ling me in this journey that you've been going through
(07:59):
for so long. And it's I have no word for relate.
I dream he's the pain and that I want to
hear about Emory. I want you to tell me about Emory,
and I know that might be painful, but it still
be important because I want My ultimate goal is to
get you to me with the detectives on his case.
(08:28):
Before we ended up getting into the nitty gritty, Moses
asked to lead the room in prayer. Good God, I
thank you for your love and for you goodness, all right, grace,
that you would that Emory's family know that they are
not alone. During the prayer, Emory's mother started to get emotional.
(08:53):
Moses asked her to speak first, but she couldn't, so
he turned to Jose, Emory's dad. Because you want do
you want someone else to start or give you some time?
Who's it? Yes, sir, would you like to tell me
(09:14):
about I was not there. I was a father figure
and um but uh I would see them and give
them what they needed. As you know, they called me
and they tell me, and uh, you know, I just
I just I like I said, I was, I wasn't there,
(09:37):
you know, like the way I wish I would. I was.
And you know she was. She was a She was
a happy child. And I know she would cry and
say where's my dad? Where's my dad? Because I wasn't there.
But she, you know, I just she was. She was
a happy girl. When Maria was finally ready to talk,
(10:00):
she ended up echoing a lot of what Jose said.
She was wearing this silver chain necklace with two hearts,
which used to belong to Emory. So I shee was
a wonderful person. She was always singing, dancing. She's timing
that she wanted She had a lot of friends. She
wanted everybody to like her. She would put her brands
(10:22):
for her if they needed something. She was always copying
them out. And she was just a happy person. I
only told why somebody would want to hurt her. Maria
told Moses how Emory struggled at school, how there were
girls who wanted to jump her. We talked about this
in a previous episode about how the family recalls that
(10:43):
some girls showed up one day at the house and
harassed Emory with a baseball bat. So Maria had her
changed schools and then homeschooled her for two years, and
then she went to Francisco Bravo High School, where things
had seemed to be going well when she started going
to brav where her grace went back up. And I
guess said, maybe she's hang around with the wrong crowd
(11:06):
or because she wasn't having poulos though. It's like I
would ask her, is there anybody that wants to hurt true?
Is everybody wants you like tell you stuff? She's like, no, no, no,
they agreed to whatever. I guess it was just the
crowd she hanged around with that I don't know. The
other person that we haven't heard from directly, but whose
name had come up in other interviews was Emory's younger
(11:28):
brother John, any other questions, you want to share something
about your sister. John is the one who got in
a fight with her the day she disappeared. He was
sitting at the very end of the table and he
was wearing an La Rams jacket. Um, you know, I
was thirteen at the time, she was fourteen. I was,
(11:57):
I was all enough to know what was going on.
But we're too young to understand. My sister was involved
a lot. You know, she was too young to be
involved with the people that she hung around with, you know,
(12:20):
the party scene. She knew a lot for her aide um,
I'm at peace, you know, of what would occurred. I
came to peace with it. No matter what, you know,
doing justice or not, it doesn't I really, it doesn't
(12:42):
really matter to me. You know, I don't believe her
as well, and so I forgive the people or a
person that did the If we could find out what happened,
(13:08):
it'll be you know, from their mom. You know, she's
who will heard at it to the other part of
this meeting was creating a space to share tips and
theories that have come in over the years. As we've
mentioned in a previous episode, the family has a ton
of them. People have reached out from all over giving
(13:30):
them information after Emory's death, things they saw or things
they heard, and this is the type of information that
Becky would call LAPD detectives with whether they followed up
or not. The family doesn't know, but they would call
and relay everything that they heard. There are two theories
that we've heard that have come up again and again.
Like we said previously, given the total speculative nature of
(13:52):
these theories, we're only going to include first initials and
we're going to cut out full names in the tape
for privacy. So one of the theories was about Emory's
former boyfriend at the time of her death, who we
are calling r. He's currently in prison for a second
degree attempted murder. In the meeting, Emory's mom talked about
how a friend of the family ran into our after
(14:14):
Emory's death. They were talking to him through the window
and that she said that she hurled her out and
she's seen Emory's rings inside of struck. That was like
about six months she classed away. Oh my, yeah, we visit.
We mentioned this in episode four. But Emory was known
for wearing all these different rings, and when she was
(14:36):
found they were all gone, and there were tan lines
as well in her hands where they had been. Her
family never found those rings. The other theory is focused
on Emory's friend's ex boyfriend we're calling him. S Alejandra,
her high school friend, says he spoke to Emory the
day she disappeared, and I'm not sure what they talked about,
(14:57):
but I remember they were going to meet after school
and he was pretty upset about something that had happened.
She says that s got upset with Emory because he
felt that Emory got in between him and his ex girlfriend. Again,
We've tried to reach out to all of these people
numerous times. Maria. Emory's mom also said that they had
(15:18):
been told that the police did talk to s at
the time. They went to his house supposedly and he
got arrested to see the on guns in his house,
and he went in and they took him to jail
and then under clever cop pretending he was an inmate,
put him in the same sound to see if he
could get information from him, you know, brought up every
(15:41):
you know kime out and said, well, did you know,
did you hear what happened to that girl? They said that,
you know, to see if he would say anything, but
he never commented nothing. They never got nothing out of him.
Moses was taking notes the whole time, and after about
an hour an hour and a half John's baby started
to get fussy, and the family seemed pretty wiped and
the meeting ended. And if you are thinking of reaching
(16:04):
out to you at any point, don't hesitate you call them. Okay,
let me a little pick up. I'll pick up my cat.
I'll call you when I'm able to, because my knees
didn't very busy sometimes. But on the way out, I
caught up with Becky in the parking garage. I wanted
to know how she felt. Did you feel like your
(16:24):
expectations in the beginning changed over the course of the
meeting or are either the same or hown't you know?
My expectations are high. I love the way the detector
talked to us. I love that he began with a prayer,
thanking God like we should always. I felt that he's, uh, okay,
(16:45):
thank you, nice me you so you're welcome, thank you.
I feel this sincecere in in his voice and his heart.
After the family left, I asked Moses what he thought
about what he heard in the meeting. After hearing them
speak and giving me some insights as to what happened.
(17:08):
I do believe there's additional investigation that needs to be conducted,
such as interviewing ex boyfriends and someone who was considered
a person of interest. Revisit that person because now things
have changed and time has gone by, and sometimes people
(17:30):
can't add things that maybe they were afraid to say
back then. But now if this person's are reading cars,
maybe he says, you know what, I I have anything else
to gain or lose him, I would just tell the truth.
Somebody out there has information about what happened to Emory
that night. Somebody knows, somebody told someone, somebody confided in someone.
(17:51):
Moses told me that he reached out to Assistant Chief
Alfred Lebrata, who's part of Central Bureau where Emory's cases currently. Again,
he's doing this pro bo. He says he's taken on
a few cases since he retired from LAPD. The request
I made to him was a request that he assigned
a new set of detectives that would give it another look,
(18:14):
and then also requested that those detectives meet with the
family under what we call Marcy's Law, fit them build
of rights. He asked LAPD to meet with the family
and go over the case. Again. It's like this reminder
to LAPD that someone is paying attention and also to
get any more information that the family might not already have.
(18:35):
If you remember, they told us that the case was
fresh or active again, but they didn't clarify any more
than that. And there used to be a fifty thousand
dollars reward for any information in Emory's case. It was
approved by La City Council in two thousand and six,
two thousand and seven, and then again in twenty eleven,
but since then it's expired, so it's possible that the
(18:57):
reward could get renewed again. And the family is also
trying to raise awareness on Instagram. They made an account
called Justice for Emery Munyos. And that's where we left
off with the meeting. Hello, I think blame hi. How
are you? When I got back from Peru after visiting
(19:21):
my family for a few weeks, I called Becky and
she gave me some news. M okay, yes, overwhelmed them.
It seems like a lot kind of happens right in
the last two weeks. Yeah, it did. That's after the break.
(20:05):
Two weeks after Emory's family met in that conference room,
I got on the phone with Becky who told me
some news. They're happening, and that makes me feel good.
It makes me feel nervous. LPD agreed to meet with
a family. The former detective, Moses Castillo said that LPD
(20:25):
had Emory's file and had been looking at it for
a month and a half already, and so they're ready
to meet with the family and they're ready to do
it soon. This is big news. They haven't sat down
with a detective in years, and when we started reporting
the story, they were having trouble even finding the contact
for her case since it's been passed around so much
(20:48):
all emotions. Overwhelmed said, you know, all the things that
happened sixteen years ago, are the feelings, the thoughts and
everything come back, the emotions. But I'm glad you know
this is happening. That I guess is normal for us
(21:09):
to relive everything again. So but I'm glad they're happening,
and so thank you. The family meets with LAPD on
their own and then afterward we joined them. How did
the how did the meeting go? So they said they're
going to do everything they can, you know, and it's
(21:30):
gonna take a while on us as long as it's
not sixteen more years. Do you remember the feeling in
the room was it m was it just them talking
or it was emotional. Yeah, it was emotional because I
m I mentioned that all the detectives that she had,
you know, it's like, I don't feel like they care.
(21:51):
And I told him, I said, I know, to you
guys in new cases, just another number. And he's sitting
on all of us. Maria, Emory's mom is in the room.
It's the first time I'm meeting her. I can immediately
see where Emory inherited her big brown eyes. I feel
(22:15):
that I'm gonna get answers this time, I really do,
you see. And we never got none of this before. Never,
it was just like detectives. She wouldn't call. It even
messages and they wouldn't call, and we've never gotten this far.
They don't return calls, you any messages, and and then
(22:37):
when you call, it's like, oh, everything's the same, like
no big deal, you know, there's no leads. And I'm like,
so it's like sometimes I used to tell her, why
am I even gonna call? It's always the same thing, nothing, nothing,
and it just like it gets a mad, you know,
it's like it hurts. One of the reasons I was
hesitant to do the series is that Inherently looking at
(22:58):
someone's death means that the family has to revisit trauma,
and it's not always clear if making families revisit the
past is worth it. It hurts to know what they
did to her, but I want to know what did
to her. I need to know. It's like they just hurt.
(23:18):
It brings anger to me because when they were picking
her at the school, it's like I would go with
her everywhere because she was afraid to go into the
story wherever she wanted to go, and I was always
going with her. I went to school, I sat with her,
and it was like I protected her from nobody touching her.
Now we get into arguments, you know, when moms, you know,
to tell their daughter and name my z alone. And
(23:42):
when they killed her, it's like I was like, may
maybe I know she was yelling for me. I know
she was. She needn't be the most. It wasn't there
for her, and I would I need to know why.
What was the reason, because because you didn't like her,
did she do something that I don't know? And I
(24:06):
just like I told a detective, you know, with God's help,
when you guys find out, I don't give me names
all to see faces. I believe that we're gonna get
some answers. Now this is Emory's dad, We'll say again.
Because when I when this happened, I used to go.
(24:28):
I never called the LAPD. I just went down there.
And that will just sent me in the room the
first two times and leave me in there, you know,
like if somebody's gonna come and talk to him. But
they didn't, you know, so commanded. There's nothing to say
because we haven't found out nothing. So I used to
get mad, and I used to raise my voice out them,
you know, and say, if you guys ain't gonna do anything,
(24:49):
I'm gonna do something about it, you know, because I
mean I looked for answers or I got up, you know,
and I used to in other words, I was out there.
It's homeless. Three years they where they found her, you know,
and I was trying to find something, you know, and
nothing and nothing, and I started drinking and I became
(25:11):
an alcoholic for three years, you know, and all but
I was always trying to do something, and I iced
to go down to LAPD and just race. Somehow we
did ask LAPD about this, and they acknowledged that Emory's
case had gone through a lot of hands, but they
said every time they receive a tip from them, they
investigated it, and the detectives don't always share information because
(25:35):
they don't want to give families false hope or compromise
the investigation. While we were talking, there was a family
album on the table and we were flipping through pictures
of Emory with her siblings and every at them all,
and then Maria told us a story about her. She
(25:58):
used to talk my dad wish she's to him sugar daddy,
Mama daddy, mister mister baby, she should call my dad.
Mister baby was Emory's grandfather who has now passed away.
She used to go and sit in my dad's lap,
which mister mister baby. She says, you love me, and
he's like, yeah, she does. You want to buy me
a pizza or where she wanted to go McDonald's. What
(26:21):
do you want? You know? And they're like he was like, okay,
go ahead, order it whatever. But then he caught out
and she's like, do you love me? He's like no,
She's like, yeah you do, and she's like we're gonna
get pizza, and I'm like, how do you do that
what do you do? Yeah, doesn't she say? I have?
I got it? Like that? I love hearing the story.
(26:44):
It's like a little family inside joke, and Maria just
lights up with a smile on her face. It meant
a lot to hear Maria talk about emory outside of
her murder case. A word that's been coming to mind
is the sugar recently, especially in these times. I've heard
(27:05):
this word a lot from my father when it comes
to grief and pain. I don't know how to describe
it in English. It's like when you're literally drowning in
your emotions and you have to let it all out.
You have to lighten the load, bent unburdening yourself. Even
if it's not positive, it doesn't matter. Sometimes you just
(27:26):
have to yell at someone or cry to find some
way to keep going. Whatever happens with the investigation, which
is now active. According to Lapd, at least the family
had this moment to confront Lapd about how they were treated.
To release, but to the sugar is also an act
(27:47):
of survival, a way to cope when there isn't a solution,
when the reality of the world is just too heavy
to bear. But it's the world you have to live in,
and in the absence of an answer, what I heard
emerge in this intense conversation was a lot of guilt
(28:08):
and blame, and I can't help but feel reminded of
my own guilt, A guilt that I didn't feel when
I was a kid sneaking out at night without my
parents knowing, but as grown and groan since then, and
that I think I finally understand. In our final episode,
I talked to my mom and we follow up an
(28:30):
emory story that's next time. This episode was written, reported,
and hosted by me Janemocha. Our show is produced and
reported by Sofia Polissa, car Victoria Lejandro, and Kyle Chang,
and edited by Antonio Seihido. Additional editing by Carolina and
(28:56):
any Abulis, fact checking by Nidia about sound design and
original music composition by Kyle Murdoch. Our supervising producer is
Janet Lee, art by Julie Ruiz and Victoria Kollon. Our
executive producer from Vice Audio is Kate Osborne. Our executive
(29:16):
producers from Elias Studios are Antonia Seido and leog Our
Vice president of Podcasts from Elias Studios is Shanea Naomi
Krocmo special thanks to the UCLA Department of Communication Archive
for access to their news collection. Party Cruise The Untold
Story is a production of Elias Studios and Vice Audio
(29:38):
in partnership with Ihearts Michael Fluda podcast Network. For more podcasts,
listen to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows, and Hey, were you and
a party crew? Send us your party flyers or photos.
I'd love to see them, even a voice message about
your memories anything. You can send us a message or
a picture at Party Cruise app at Elliot studios dot com.
(30:02):
Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and
Donna Crawford, who believed that quality journalism makes Los Angeles
a better place to live. This program is made possible
in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private
corporation funded by the American people.
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