August 16, 2025 • 20 mins
Pasadena Police and LA County Sheriff's Detectives investigate the 1922 murder of 17-year-old Martin Telles, found bludgeoned in a reservoir at the Glenarm Power Plant.
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Alyse (00:00):
And we are back with another little old murder from
(00:29):
Pasadena. I'm the historian Alyse and I'm here with...
Victor (00:33):
Victor Cass, retired police sergeant with over 30
years experience, all with thePasadena, California Police
Department.
Alyse (00:41):
And today, we do come with a story from the roaring
20s, as we promised last week.
This is from 1922.
Victor (00:51):
Yes, and I think that a lot of our...
listeners, especially thosefrom Pasadena, will be
interested in where this takesplace.
Alyse (01:00):
Yeah, so this takes place at the Glenarm Power Plant, but
it was called somethingdifferent back then, I think.
Victor (01:08):
t Yeah, but I mean...
People who know the Pasadenaarea well, this is a power plant
that still exists today.
It's a large facility on oursouthern border between Pasadena
and South Pasadena.
It's bordered by...
Alyse (01:26):
It's right next to Blair High School.
Victor (01:27):
And the Metro A-Line train.
Yeah, interesting place.
And Alyse I think you have somefamily Connection.
I do.
Okay, my great-grandma's...
Father.
So my great-great-grandfatherworked on that big fancy art
deco fountain that's out front.
(01:49):
I think this was one of thefirst electric fountains that
was built, by the way.
This plant is also unique because it gives Pasadena
its own power source.
So we're not tied into any ofEdison's, any of the state's
grid system.
And those of us who are oldenough to remember the Y2K drama
(02:11):
on the eve of the year 2000,everybody was worried that power
grids would fail.
And we in Pasadena, I rememberthe police department at the
time, we were so much concernedbecause we knew that Pasadena
had its own power grid thatcould
Alyse (02:30):
But it's kind of the story of American history at
this time for Edison to like tryand control everyone else's
Inventions and then charge ashit ton of money for it f which
is what happened in PasadenaEdison was charging a lot for
the power and I guess theservice was pretty shitty anyway
(02:50):
so Pasadena residents decidedto pass a bond to build their
own power plant.
Victor (02:59):
Forget this, I'm not paying.
We're going to get our ownpower plant.
Alyse (03:01):
Yeah.
So it was built...
I think it was opened on the4th of July, 1907.
Victor (03:08):
Yeah, it's been in operation since.
And there was a young man whoworked there.
Alyse (03:14):
Yes, there was.
By the way, fun fact, they haveused this to film many
different things, like MichaelJackson and Janet Jackson filmed
music videos there, and theyfilmed Nightmare on Elm and
Criminal Minds.
Yes, so what's not fun is whathappened to poor Martin Tellez,
who was only 17.
(03:34):
In 1922.
Victor (03:37):
I guess his family lived near the plant?
Alyse (03:43):
I'm not sure if they lived near the plant or if they
lived in L.A.
at the time.
The newspapers say kind of twodifferent things.
But he did work at the plant.
They had a steam condensingreservoir for...
Victor (04:03):
Well, yeah, these power plants, they generate steam to
turn the turbine, but the waterhas to go somewhere, and it
fills these pools, basically.
And in 1922, I guess, youngMartin Telles started his day a
couple of days before, or howlong before?
Alyse (04:23):
So on March 4th, he left.
His mom gave him $1.50.
to go get a haircut and then togo watch a moving picture.
They didn't even call themmovies back then.
They were movie pictures.
Victor (04:41):
$1.50 can get you a lot of stuff back in 1922,
apparently.
And young 17-year-old Martinwanted to have a little day
outing on his own.
Who knows where he was going orwho he was going to meet.
But...
He never came home.
Alyse (04:57):
Yeah, that's just the thing.
He went off and we don't knowwhere he went.
He went missing for like twoweeks.
Victor (05:05):
Something like that, yeah.
Alyse (05:07):
He was missing.
And so the next day, well, thatnight that he's missing...
You know, they call the policeand let the police know that he
hasn't come home.
And the dad goes around thatnight and the next day searching
everywhere, like at therailroad depots, at the power
(05:28):
plant.
He even goes and looks insidethat steam condenser reservoir,
doesn't see his son.
He's looking everywhere andcannot find him
Victor (05:37):
h Right.
The initial report that thefamily made was to the Pasadena
Police Department, you know,Obviously, who knows what
efforts they had put into it orwhat searches they had made.
But Pasadena officers wereobviously unable to locate young
Martin at this time.
And then where does thisinteresting story go from there?
Alyse (06:00):
So Martin's dad, Savano, was walking around the streets
of Pasadena several days afterhis son went missing.
And he approaches this manwho's walking down the street
and he asks him for the time.
And he pulls out a gold pocketwatch.
(06:21):
And Sevano is like, that is myson's pocket watch.
And now that I look at you, theclothes that you're wearing are
my son's clothes.
Victor (06:32):
Yeah, so this stranger who he just asked for the time
has all of his missing son'sproperty.
I mean, again, this gold pocketwatch, the clothing.
He has no idea who this guy is.
And who knows if he confrontshim at that moment.
He may or may not have like...
Alyse (06:48):
Yeah, I'm not sure what that confrontation looked like.
But we do know that he goeshome and he tells his wife.
Victor (06:54):
Right.
Alyse (06:55):
And his wife...
for whatever reason, doesn't goto Pasadena police.
She goes to the LA districtattorney.
Victor (07:03):
Yeah, that's kind of unusual.
Who knows how the wife evenknew to go to the DA's office.
But she goes to the DA's officewith this new information.
Hey, my husband saw this guy.
He has our Missy and son'spocket watch.
He has his clothes.
And so the DA's office, being acounty office, they go to their
(07:25):
own police force, which is thethe Los Angeles County Sheriff's
Department, and they get DeputySheriffs Reyes and Sepulveda on
the case.
Alyse (07:35):
And so they go and they arrest this man who ends up
being 35-year-old Esiderio, hisname is kind of spelled
differently in differentarticles, might be Esiderio
Moreno.
As I said, he's 35 years old.
He's supposedly the head of hisfamily, And he lives right next
(07:59):
to the power plant.
Victor (08:00):
He doesn't live too far from there.
The deputy sheriffs, you know,in their investigation, come to
find out that his wife hadwashed the blood off of young
Martin's clothes before oldDesiderio was seen walking
around in his outfit.
Alyse (08:21):
Yes.
Victor (08:22):
Which doesn't look good.
Alyse (08:24):
No, not at all.
Victor (08:26):
You're wearing the clothes.
He got his bohat.
Your wife scrubbed the bloodout of these clothes.
What's going on, buddy?
Alyse (08:34):
And so I think just the fact that he lived so close to
the power plant where Martinworked led them to probably do
another search of thatreservoir.
And that is where they end upfinding poor Martin in the
reservoir.
If you remember, the dad lookedin there, but there was...
(08:54):
a northern area of that tankthat was like nine feet deep.
Victor (09:00):
Yeah, it's a little deeper.
I mean, this water's dark.
You know, these reservoirs, Imean, anybody who's ever seen
one of these types of reservoirsin any kind of canyon or bay
and dam or reservoir facility,the water's sometimes dark.
They sometimes have darkbottoms of these areas.
It could be hard to seesomebody who was deep under the
water.
But yes, they find the deceasedMartin Telles inside the
(09:22):
reservoir.
Alyse (09:23):
And he's nude.
Victor (09:24):
Yes.
He's nude and his face has allthe evidence of having been
bludgeoned.
Alyse (09:30):
Yeah.
They say that he was struck onhis face and head by a blunt
instrument, and his mouth,particularly, was very bruised.
Victor (09:40):
Yes.
Obviously, the deputies aregoing to interview people at the
plant, in the area, to get anywitness statements.
You know, hey, did you see thiskid here?
What was he doing?
But they weren't really able toget a lot of good information.
And kind of...
you know, on any kind of, like,suspicious death, you know,
(10:01):
they're going to call the L.A.
County Coroner's Office tocome, and in this case, it was
Coroner Nance.
And, of course, they also haveto notify a funeral home to
handle the remains.
And this is where the story,especially for purposes of our
podcast, gets a littleinteresting.
Alyse (10:18):
You know, I was wondering when this would happen.
I was thinking, like, it's onlya matter of time before we do a
case and the body is takento...
LAMB mortuary, and this is whathappened.
Poor Martin was taken to...
It wasn't even...
I think the building itself onOrange Grove was put there
(10:41):
years later...
1929, so sometime later in thatdecade.
But at the time, they werejust...
C.F.
Lamb and son undertaking.
This is
Victor (10:54):
This is the patriarch and founder of Lamb Funeral
Home, where poor Martin'sremains are taken.
Those of the listeners who havebeen following our podcast know
that we did an episode on theLamb Funeral Home and all of
that notorious history with truecrime in Pasadena.
But,
Alyse (11:15):
you know, it...
We were talking about thatdocumentary, yeah, The
Mortician.
A
Victor (11:22):
As we found out from the documentary, David Sconce
learned this from his parents
Yeah, yeah, it wasn't somethingthat he had just come up with
himself.
It went back to, like, LawrenceLamb.
I think they were even hintingthat.
It goes back to the founders.
So who knows if poor MartinTelles is what's one of the ones
that they mass cremated and didtheir deeds with.
(11:44):
You can only speculate how.
How far back the Lamb slashSconce family was doing this
heinous business.
I know.
So that's a little side note tothis.
Alyse (11:55):
I hope not.
Like, enough bad things havehappened to this poor boy.
Yeah.
But yeah, that was crazy.
They took him to Lamb.
Yeah.
What a place to go.
Victor (12:05):
Yeah, so they're continuing their investigation.
And
Alyse (12:09):
there's also, like, this weird story that happens with
Martin's family.
Yeah,
Victor (12:17):
the dad, right?
Alyse (12:18):
Yeah, the dad.
Okay, on Fair Oaks and Pico,which is where you say that
Trader Joe's is.
Victor (12:25):
Well, Trader Joe's is on Pico, but on the Royal Parkway
side, so you're getting closerto Huntington Hospital, where
Huntington is today.
But yeah, so Pico, I think,would be today, Fair Oaks and
Pico, where the Burger King ison the corner.
Alyse (12:37):
Okay.
Victor (12:38):
So right there, that intersection, there was like a
restaurant?
Alyse (12:42):
It must, yeah, like a saloon or a bar or something
like that.
Because there's this man, PaulLee Harris, decides it's a great
idea to just like fire his gunin the air.
Or I don't know if he wastrying to scare the uncle of
Martin Tejas.
And his dad, Sivano, was thereduring this event and I guess
(13:05):
saw this Harris fire in the airthreateningly at the uncle of
Martin.
And so they went and chargedhim with assault with a deadly
weapon.
I don't know what came of that.
Who
Victor (13:17):
knows?
Maybe Martin's dad was theredrinking, trying to drown out
his sorrows for his missing anddeceased boy or who knows what.
But yeah, kind of odd littleside story.
I also wanted to point out thateven though Los Angeles County
Sheriff's deputies are on thiscase, they are being assisted by
the Pasadena Police Department.
And Pasadena PD has DetectiveSergeant Stanley Decker and P.J.
(13:43):
McNulty helping out the sheriffdetectives
Alyse (13:50):
so by the end of March the end of this month Moreno is
charged with murder in LA courtand his story is a little
ridiculous he says that hebasically found the clothes
Victor (14:08):
well it's not his first story because then another story
in murders where his son foundthe clothes and gave it to him
Alyse (14:15):
h Yeah.
And so I don't know if that's adiscrepancy in like what he was
saying or just in thenewspapers themselves.
Victor (14:22):
And it gets a little murkier and odder because when
the investigators are conductingtheir murder investigation and
they're interviewing, you know,what they call quote-unquote
local Mexicans, obviously theHispanic community in this area
is going to have, you know,maybe something to say about
this.
It comes to light that one ofthe workers says that Tejas was
(14:48):
found inside that tank were inswim trunks and that a towel a
bathing towel and soap was alsofound uh in the water and that
his clothes were found foldedoutside the tank as if young tas
was there to go for a swim
Alyse (15:06):
yeah and
Victor (15:07):
died in the reservoir
Alyse (15:09):
right and so then moreno's tail becomes Oh, my
son, my young son, Tomasio, Ithink his name was, was walking
home from school and saw theseclothes and just decided to take
them home.
And when he got home, he saidsomeone gave the clothes to him
as a gift.
Victor (15:28):
Yes, walking home from school through this power plant
and past this reservoir, youknow.
So that's a little shady.
Alyse (15:37):
But...
the strangest thing of this allis not like his bizarre tale of
like oh i just found theclothes and that my wife washed
the blood out of it's the factthat they they declared him
innocent
Victor (15:54):
Sounds like a typical Los Angeles jury, if you know
what I mean
What happened?
But this is not typical for thetime.
They're usually very eagerto...
A couple of our cases I remember in our podcast, these
people were getting off cutfrequently.
I guess so.
Yeah, I mean, who knows if theevidence wasn't that great or
they just didn't find enoughinformation, you know, but
(16:19):
whether this guy Moreno was thekiller...
of young Martin or not, or, Imean, Alyse and I were talking
about this case.
We can only speculate as towhat possibly could have
happened.
I mean, yes, could MartinTelles have gone to that?
He worked there, so he'sfamiliar with the grounds.
Could he have gone after hishaircut in the movie to go for a
(16:41):
swim?
Alyse (16:42):
I mean, maybe.
Yeah, maybe he just got ahaircut.
Why not, like, get all nice andclean?
You never know.
Y
Victor (16:48):
You never know.
I mean, could Martin Taiz haveknown this guy Moreno?
And they met up there forsomething?
Maybe.
Alyse (16:55):
And my other question, and I didn't get to find this
guy, but I was trying to look upTomasio, the young son of
Moreno, wondering if maybe he'sactually the same age as Tejas,
who was only 17.
T
Victor (17:09):
They got into some little scrape, or there was bad
blood, or...
I mean, there's so manytheories that you're going to
throw out regarding this case.
You know, could it have beenlike...
you know, some relationshipgone bad.
I mean, we talked about robberybeing a motive, and Martin
Telles didn't have any money onhim.
(17:30):
He just has his gold watch andhis
Alyse (17:33):
clothing.
Victor (17:34):
You'd have to know that this kid, I guarantee you he
wasn't murdered somewhere else,and then someone walked down
Fair Oaks with the body andwent to the reservoir and dumped
him there.
This happened either rightthere at the reservoir or really
close to the reservoir, wherehe was beaten to death for who
knows what reason, and thendumped in that reservoir to hide
the body, and then they takehis clothes and the watch.
Alyse (17:54):
Yeah.
Victor (17:55):
So, again, lots of different things
Alyse (17:57):
things.
And I'm pretty sure it happenedthere at the reservoir
At the reservoir, for sure.
You know, he didn't drown,because you're not going to go
in swimming and panic and drownand have a bludgeoned face.
Yeah, and it also seemed, the way they described the
wounds, it was too much to belike, oh, he fell and hit his
head.
It really sounded like he wasbeaten and murdered.
Victor (18:16):
Yeah, for sure
Alyse (18:16):
And plus, the blood all over his clothes.
How did the blood get on hisclothes if he was naked in the
tank.
Victor (18:22):
I'm pretty sure this guy was bludgeoned to death with
his clothing still on him.
Alyse (18:27):
Yeah.
Victor (18:28):
Stripped, dumped in the tank and whoever murdered him
kept the clothing and the watchand like called it a day.
Could it have been Moreno?
It could have been Moreno.
Could it have been his son ifhis son was a little older than
Martin's age?
Could it have been both ofthem, the son and the dad
together?
Yeah.
Who knows?
We also have so littleinformation.
Like, if this was a white dudethat was killed, we would have
(18:50):
so many more details of this.
But we really don't know.
Yeah even though there were some articles, some
significant articles in a lot ofpapers from around the country.
One paper in Texas had anarticle about this story because
it was so bizarre.
Alyse (19:05):
Yeah, but...
It was like the AP, it was thesame article that they just ran
across.
So it really could have beenanyone.
Victor (19:14):
It could have been anyone.
It could have been the guysthat they figured for it, and
they just got off because theyjust didn't have enough evidence
against them.
Always a case in thissituation.
You know, the power plant downthere, it's kind of isolated.
There aren't going to be a lotof eyewitnesses, and as we know,
eyewitnesses make murder cases.
So, yeah.
One of those really bizarre,unsolved...
Murders from past history,
Alyse (19:38):
right?
Yeah, bet you never knew thatthere was a murder at the power
plant reservoir, huh?
Yeah.
I'm sure that next time one ofour listeners is driving past
that plant on Glenarm, they'regoing to think a little
differently about it.
I look at Pasadena very differently since starting this
podcast.
I'm like, oh, there was amurder there.
There was a murder there.
Victor (19:56):
Yeah, I mean, every different neighborhood you can
imagine.
It's not all the same area.
And I know that this podcast,normally we release our new
episodes on Friday.
We're a little late.
In fact, one of my listenerfriends was like, hey, I'm
looking forward to your podcast.
I was like, what happened?
Alyse (20:10):
We are sorry.
We were very overwhelmed
Victor (20:12):
yesterday.
We're going to post thismorning with this and get back
on this and we will return toour regular Friday podcast.
new episode dropping schedule.
Alyse (20:22):
Yes.
And we will be back withanother little murder from
Pasadena next Friday.
And we are back with another little old murder from
(00:29):
Pasadena. I'm the historian Alyse and I'm here with...
Victor (00:33):
Victor Cass, retired police sergeant with over 30
years experience, all with thePasadena, California Police
Department.
Alyse (00:41):
And today, we do come with a story from the roaring
20s, as we promised last week.
This is from 1922.
Victor (00:51):
Yes, and I think that a lot of our...
listeners, especially thosefrom Pasadena, will be
interested in where this takesplace.
Alyse (01:00):
Yeah, so this takes place at the Glenarm Power Plant, but
it was called somethingdifferent back then, I think.
Victor (01:08):
t Yeah, but I mean...
People who know the Pasadenaarea well, this is a power plant
that still exists today.
It's a large facility on oursouthern border between Pasadena
and South Pasadena.
It's bordered by...
Alyse (01:26):
It's right next to Blair High School.
Victor (01:27):
And the Metro A-Line train.
Yeah, interesting place.
And Alyse I think you have somefamily Connection.
I do.
Okay, my great-grandma's...
Father.
So my great-great-grandfatherworked on that big fancy art
deco fountain that's out front.
(01:49):
I think this was one of thefirst electric fountains that
was built, by the way.
This plant is also unique because it gives Pasadena
its own power source.
So we're not tied into any ofEdison's, any of the state's
grid system.
And those of us who are oldenough to remember the Y2K drama
(02:11):
on the eve of the year 2000,everybody was worried that power
grids would fail.
And we in Pasadena, I rememberthe police department at the
time, we were so much concernedbecause we knew that Pasadena
had its own power grid thatcould
Alyse (02:30):
But it's kind of the story of American history at
this time for Edison to like tryand control everyone else's
Inventions and then charge ashit ton of money for it f which
is what happened in PasadenaEdison was charging a lot for
the power and I guess theservice was pretty shitty anyway
(02:50):
so Pasadena residents decidedto pass a bond to build their
own power plant.
Victor (02:59):
Forget this, I'm not paying.
We're going to get our ownpower plant.
Alyse (03:01):
Yeah.
So it was built...
I think it was opened on the4th of July, 1907.
Victor (03:08):
Yeah, it's been in operation since.
And there was a young man whoworked there.
Alyse (03:14):
Yes, there was.
By the way, fun fact, they haveused this to film many
different things, like MichaelJackson and Janet Jackson filmed
music videos there, and theyfilmed Nightmare on Elm and
Criminal Minds.
Yes, so what's not fun is whathappened to poor Martin Tellez,
who was only 17.
(03:34):
In 1922.
Victor (03:37):
I guess his family lived near the plant?
Alyse (03:43):
I'm not sure if they lived near the plant or if they
lived in L.A.
at the time.
The newspapers say kind of twodifferent things.
But he did work at the plant.
They had a steam condensingreservoir for...
Victor (04:03):
Well, yeah, these power plants, they generate steam to
turn the turbine, but the waterhas to go somewhere, and it
fills these pools, basically.
And in 1922, I guess, youngMartin Telles started his day a
couple of days before, or howlong before?
Alyse (04:23):
So on March 4th, he left.
His mom gave him $1.50.
to go get a haircut and then togo watch a moving picture.
They didn't even call themmovies back then.
They were movie pictures.
Victor (04:41):
$1.50 can get you a lot of stuff back in 1922,
apparently.
And young 17-year-old Martinwanted to have a little day
outing on his own.
Who knows where he was going orwho he was going to meet.
But...
He never came home.
Alyse (04:57):
Yeah, that's just the thing.
He went off and we don't knowwhere he went.
He went missing for like twoweeks.
Victor (05:05):
Something like that, yeah.
Alyse (05:07):
He was missing.
And so the next day, well, thatnight that he's missing...
You know, they call the policeand let the police know that he
hasn't come home.
And the dad goes around thatnight and the next day searching
everywhere, like at therailroad depots, at the power
(05:28):
plant.
He even goes and looks insidethat steam condenser reservoir,
doesn't see his son.
He's looking everywhere andcannot find him
Victor (05:37):
h Right.
The initial report that thefamily made was to the Pasadena
Police Department, you know,Obviously, who knows what
efforts they had put into it orwhat searches they had made.
But Pasadena officers wereobviously unable to locate young
Martin at this time.
And then where does thisinteresting story go from there?
Alyse (06:00):
So Martin's dad, Savano, was walking around the streets
of Pasadena several days afterhis son went missing.
And he approaches this manwho's walking down the street
and he asks him for the time.
And he pulls out a gold pocketwatch.
(06:21):
And Sevano is like, that is myson's pocket watch.
And now that I look at you, theclothes that you're wearing are
my son's clothes.
Victor (06:32):
Yeah, so this stranger who he just asked for the time
has all of his missing son'sproperty.
I mean, again, this gold pocketwatch, the clothing.
He has no idea who this guy is.
And who knows if he confrontshim at that moment.
He may or may not have like...
Alyse (06:48):
Yeah, I'm not sure what that confrontation looked like.
But we do know that he goeshome and he tells his wife.
Victor (06:54):
Right.
Alyse (06:55):
And his wife...
for whatever reason, doesn't goto Pasadena police.
She goes to the LA districtattorney.
Victor (07:03):
Yeah, that's kind of unusual.
Who knows how the wife evenknew to go to the DA's office.
But she goes to the DA's officewith this new information.
Hey, my husband saw this guy.
He has our Missy and son'spocket watch.
He has his clothes.
And so the DA's office, being acounty office, they go to their
(07:25):
own police force, which is thethe Los Angeles County Sheriff's
Department, and they get DeputySheriffs Reyes and Sepulveda on
the case.
Alyse (07:35):
And so they go and they arrest this man who ends up
being 35-year-old Esiderio, hisname is kind of spelled
differently in differentarticles, might be Esiderio
Moreno.
As I said, he's 35 years old.
He's supposedly the head of hisfamily, And he lives right next
(07:59):
to the power plant.
Victor (08:00):
He doesn't live too far from there.
The deputy sheriffs, you know,in their investigation, come to
find out that his wife hadwashed the blood off of young
Martin's clothes before oldDesiderio was seen walking
around in his outfit.
Alyse (08:21):
Yes.
Victor (08:22):
Which doesn't look good.
Alyse (08:24):
No, not at all.
Victor (08:26):
You're wearing the clothes.
He got his bohat.
Your wife scrubbed the bloodout of these clothes.
What's going on, buddy?
Alyse (08:34):
And so I think just the fact that he lived so close to
the power plant where Martinworked led them to probably do
another search of thatreservoir.
And that is where they end upfinding poor Martin in the
reservoir.
If you remember, the dad lookedin there, but there was...
(08:54):
a northern area of that tankthat was like nine feet deep.
Victor (09:00):
Yeah, it's a little deeper.
I mean, this water's dark.
You know, these reservoirs, Imean, anybody who's ever seen
one of these types of reservoirsin any kind of canyon or bay
and dam or reservoir facility,the water's sometimes dark.
They sometimes have darkbottoms of these areas.
It could be hard to seesomebody who was deep under the
water.
But yes, they find the deceasedMartin Telles inside the
(09:22):
reservoir.
Alyse (09:23):
And he's nude.
Victor (09:24):
Yes.
He's nude and his face has allthe evidence of having been
bludgeoned.
Alyse (09:30):
Yeah.
They say that he was struck onhis face and head by a blunt
instrument, and his mouth,particularly, was very bruised.
Victor (09:40):
Yes.
Obviously, the deputies aregoing to interview people at the
plant, in the area, to get anywitness statements.
You know, hey, did you see thiskid here?
What was he doing?
But they weren't really able toget a lot of good information.
And kind of...
you know, on any kind of, like,suspicious death, you know,
(10:01):
they're going to call the L.A.
County Coroner's Office tocome, and in this case, it was
Coroner Nance.
And, of course, they also haveto notify a funeral home to
handle the remains.
And this is where the story,especially for purposes of our
podcast, gets a littleinteresting.
Alyse (10:18):
You know, I was wondering when this would happen.
I was thinking, like, it's onlya matter of time before we do a
case and the body is takento...
LAMB mortuary, and this is whathappened.
Poor Martin was taken to...
It wasn't even...
I think the building itself onOrange Grove was put there
(10:41):
years later...
1929, so sometime later in thatdecade.
But at the time, they werejust...
C.F.
Lamb and son undertaking.
This is
Victor (10:54):
This is the patriarch and founder of Lamb Funeral
Home, where poor Martin'sremains are taken.
Those of the listeners who havebeen following our podcast know
that we did an episode on theLamb Funeral Home and all of
that notorious history with truecrime in Pasadena.
But,
Alyse (11:15):
you know, it...
We were talking about thatdocumentary, yeah, The
Mortician.
A
Victor (11:22):
As we found out from the documentary, David Sconce
learned this from his parents
Yeah, yeah, it wasn't somethingthat he had just come up with
himself.
It went back to, like, LawrenceLamb.
I think they were even hintingthat.
It goes back to the founders.
So who knows if poor MartinTelles is what's one of the ones
that they mass cremated and didtheir deeds with.
(11:44):
You can only speculate how.
How far back the Lamb slashSconce family was doing this
heinous business.
I know.
So that's a little side note tothis.
Alyse (11:55):
I hope not.
Like, enough bad things havehappened to this poor boy.
Yeah.
But yeah, that was crazy.
They took him to Lamb.
Yeah.
What a place to go.
Victor (12:05):
Yeah, so they're continuing their investigation.
And
Alyse (12:09):
there's also, like, this weird story that happens with
Martin's family.
Yeah,
Victor (12:17):
the dad, right?
Alyse (12:18):
Yeah, the dad.
Okay, on Fair Oaks and Pico,which is where you say that
Trader Joe's is.
Victor (12:25):
Well, Trader Joe's is on Pico, but on the Royal Parkway
side, so you're getting closerto Huntington Hospital, where
Huntington is today.
But yeah, so Pico, I think,would be today, Fair Oaks and
Pico, where the Burger King ison the corner.
Alyse (12:37):
Okay.
Victor (12:38):
So right there, that intersection, there was like a
restaurant?
Alyse (12:42):
It must, yeah, like a saloon or a bar or something
like that.
Because there's this man, PaulLee Harris, decides it's a great
idea to just like fire his gunin the air.
Or I don't know if he wastrying to scare the uncle of
Martin Tejas.
And his dad, Sivano, was thereduring this event and I guess
(13:05):
saw this Harris fire in the airthreateningly at the uncle of
Martin.
And so they went and chargedhim with assault with a deadly
weapon.
I don't know what came of that.
Who
Victor (13:17):
knows?
Maybe Martin's dad was theredrinking, trying to drown out
his sorrows for his missing anddeceased boy or who knows what.
But yeah, kind of odd littleside story.
I also wanted to point out thateven though Los Angeles County
Sheriff's deputies are on thiscase, they are being assisted by
the Pasadena Police Department.
And Pasadena PD has DetectiveSergeant Stanley Decker and P.J.
(13:43):
McNulty helping out the sheriffdetectives
Alyse (13:50):
so by the end of March the end of this month Moreno is
charged with murder in LA courtand his story is a little
ridiculous he says that hebasically found the clothes
Victor (14:08):
well it's not his first story because then another story
in murders where his son foundthe clothes and gave it to him
Alyse (14:15):
h Yeah.
And so I don't know if that's adiscrepancy in like what he was
saying or just in thenewspapers themselves.
Victor (14:22):
And it gets a little murkier and odder because when
the investigators are conductingtheir murder investigation and
they're interviewing, you know,what they call quote-unquote
local Mexicans, obviously theHispanic community in this area
is going to have, you know,maybe something to say about
this.
It comes to light that one ofthe workers says that Tejas was
(14:48):
found inside that tank were inswim trunks and that a towel a
bathing towel and soap was alsofound uh in the water and that
his clothes were found foldedoutside the tank as if young tas
was there to go for a swim
Alyse (15:06):
yeah and
Victor (15:07):
died in the reservoir
Alyse (15:09):
right and so then moreno's tail becomes Oh, my
son, my young son, Tomasio, Ithink his name was, was walking
home from school and saw theseclothes and just decided to take
them home.
And when he got home, he saidsomeone gave the clothes to him
as a gift.
Victor (15:28):
Yes, walking home from school through this power plant
and past this reservoir, youknow.
So that's a little shady.
Alyse (15:37):
But...
the strangest thing of this allis not like his bizarre tale of
like oh i just found theclothes and that my wife washed
the blood out of it's the factthat they they declared him
innocent
Victor (15:54):
Sounds like a typical Los Angeles jury, if you know
what I mean
What happened?
But this is not typical for thetime.
They're usually very eagerto...
A couple of our cases I remember in our podcast, these
people were getting off cutfrequently.
I guess so.
Yeah, I mean, who knows if theevidence wasn't that great or
they just didn't find enoughinformation, you know, but
(16:19):
whether this guy Moreno was thekiller...
of young Martin or not, or, Imean, Alyse and I were talking
about this case.
We can only speculate as towhat possibly could have
happened.
I mean, yes, could MartinTelles have gone to that?
He worked there, so he'sfamiliar with the grounds.
Could he have gone after hishaircut in the movie to go for a
(16:41):
swim?
Alyse (16:42):
I mean, maybe.
Yeah, maybe he just got ahaircut.
Why not, like, get all nice andclean?
You never know.
Y
Victor (16:48):
You never know.
I mean, could Martin Taiz haveknown this guy Moreno?
And they met up there forsomething?
Maybe.
Alyse (16:55):
And my other question, and I didn't get to find this
guy, but I was trying to look upTomasio, the young son of
Moreno, wondering if maybe he'sactually the same age as Tejas,
who was only 17.
T
Victor (17:09):
They got into some little scrape, or there was bad
blood, or...
I mean, there's so manytheories that you're going to
throw out regarding this case.
You know, could it have beenlike...
you know, some relationshipgone bad.
I mean, we talked about robberybeing a motive, and Martin
Telles didn't have any money onhim.
(17:30):
He just has his gold watch andhis
Alyse (17:33):
clothing.
Victor (17:34):
You'd have to know that this kid, I guarantee you he
wasn't murdered somewhere else,and then someone walked down
Fair Oaks with the body andwent to the reservoir and dumped
him there.
This happened either rightthere at the reservoir or really
close to the reservoir, wherehe was beaten to death for who
knows what reason, and thendumped in that reservoir to hide
the body, and then they takehis clothes and the watch.
Alyse (17:54):
Yeah.
Victor (17:55):
So, again, lots of different things
Alyse (17:57):
things.
And I'm pretty sure it happenedthere at the reservoir
At the reservoir, for sure.
You know, he didn't drown,because you're not going to go
in swimming and panic and drownand have a bludgeoned face.
Yeah, and it also seemed, the way they described the
wounds, it was too much to belike, oh, he fell and hit his
head.
It really sounded like he wasbeaten and murdered.
Victor (18:16):
Yeah, for sure
Alyse (18:16):
And plus, the blood all over his clothes.
How did the blood get on hisclothes if he was naked in the
tank.
Victor (18:22):
I'm pretty sure this guy was bludgeoned to death with
his clothing still on him.
Alyse (18:27):
Yeah.
Victor (18:28):
Stripped, dumped in the tank and whoever murdered him
kept the clothing and the watchand like called it a day.
Could it have been Moreno?
It could have been Moreno.
Could it have been his son ifhis son was a little older than
Martin's age?
Could it have been both ofthem, the son and the dad
together?
Yeah.
Who knows?
We also have so littleinformation.
Like, if this was a white dudethat was killed, we would have
(18:50):
so many more details of this.
But we really don't know.
Yeah even though there were some articles, some
significant articles in a lot ofpapers from around the country.
One paper in Texas had anarticle about this story because
it was so bizarre.
Alyse (19:05):
Yeah, but...
It was like the AP, it was thesame article that they just ran
across.
So it really could have beenanyone.
Victor (19:14):
It could have been anyone.
It could have been the guysthat they figured for it, and
they just got off because theyjust didn't have enough evidence
against them.
Always a case in thissituation.
You know, the power plant downthere, it's kind of isolated.
There aren't going to be a lotof eyewitnesses, and as we know,
eyewitnesses make murder cases.
So, yeah.
One of those really bizarre,unsolved...
Murders from past history,
Alyse (19:38):
right?
Yeah, bet you never knew thatthere was a murder at the power
plant reservoir, huh?
Yeah.
I'm sure that next time one ofour listeners is driving past
that plant on Glenarm, they'regoing to think a little
differently about it.
I look at Pasadena very differently since starting this
podcast.
I'm like, oh, there was amurder there.
There was a murder there.
Victor (19:56):
Yeah, I mean, every different neighborhood you can
imagine.
It's not all the same area.
And I know that this podcast,normally we release our new
episodes on Friday.
We're a little late.
In fact, one of my listenerfriends was like, hey, I'm
looking forward to your podcast.
I was like, what happened?
Alyse (20:10):
We are sorry.
We were very overwhelmed
Victor (20:12):
yesterday.
We're going to post thismorning with this and get back
on this and we will return toour regular Friday podcast.
new episode dropping schedule.
Alyse (20:22):
Yes.
And we will be back withanother little murder from
Pasadena next Friday.
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