October 14, 2025 • 20 mins
A quiet family home turned into a crime scene.
In the early hours of July 21, 2000, four members of the Flores family were found murdered inside their Pico Rivera house, and the mother was barely alive. Three daughters survived the night — but how? There was no forced entry, nothing stolen, and no clear reason for the slaughter.
Detectives searched for answers in a maze of family ties, teenage secrets, and mounting contradictions. What began as a hunt for intruders soon uncovered something far more unsettling within the walls of the Flores home.
This episode follows the investigation into one of Los Angeles County’s most shocking crimes — the Flores family murders — and the truth that would forever change everyone left behind.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/murder-u--6152042/support.
In the early hours of July 21, 2000, four members of the Flores family were found murdered inside their Pico Rivera house, and the mother was barely alive. Three daughters survived the night — but how? There was no forced entry, nothing stolen, and no clear reason for the slaughter.
Detectives searched for answers in a maze of family ties, teenage secrets, and mounting contradictions. What began as a hunt for intruders soon uncovered something far more unsettling within the walls of the Flores home.
This episode follows the investigation into one of Los Angeles County’s most shocking crimes — the Flores family murders — and the truth that would forever change everyone left behind.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/murder-u--6152042/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sheriff's deputies pushed through the front door of the Flora's
family home. The scene that greets them is nearly unspeakable.
The father lies in the hallway dead. Three children never
made it out of their bedrooms. Blood is splattered on
the walls and pulled on the hallway floor. An eerie
silence fills the house. In the master bedroom, they find
(00:21):
the mother barely alive, bleeding from a slash across her neck.
If she survives, investigators want to ask her who could
attack an entire family at nor be Hey, what's up everyone,
I'm your host, Mattie and this is murder You. Thanks
for listening last week and for checking out the new
(00:42):
murder U YouTube channel. If you haven't yet, smashed that
follow and subscribe button and share the show with your friends.
It's the best way to help us reach even more
true crime fans. Each week, the cases get darker, the
truth's more unsettling. This week's episode is so crazy. I
hope you enjoy The Flora's Family Master. Welcome to Murder You.
An Abnormia original. In the early hours of July twenty first,
(01:28):
two thousand, the Flora's house in Pico Rivera became the
scene of one of Los Angeles County's most infamous murders.
Four family members were killed. The family matriarch was clinging
to life. Meanwhile, three daughters, all teenagers or young adults,
managed to survive the night. Detectives needed to determine who
(01:51):
was responsible for the attack. Was it a family friend
with a grudge, a robbery gone wrong, or did one
of the survivors play a role in the brutal crime.
It would take time before the complete picture of what
happened inside the Flora's home began to emerge, and when
it did, the truth was even darker than imagined. Richard
(02:11):
and Sylvia Flores lived in Pico Rivera, a working class
suburb just southeast of Los Angeles. Their home was full
not just with their own children, but also with two
nieces who had been living there for years. Monica Diaz
and Laura Rita had moved into the Flora's house permanently
when Monica was eight after their mother died in nineteen
(02:32):
eighty seven. Although they were never formally adopted, Monica and
Laura were raised as sisters, sharing the same routines, bedrooms,
and family rules. The other siblings considered them more like sisters,
while Richard and Sylvia did their best to treat them
as their own. Eight people lived in the house. Richard Junior,
(02:53):
also known as Richie, was seventeen, Esperanza, the oldest, had
just finished her first year of college, Sylvia, named after
her mother, was thirteen, and Matthew, the youngest son, was ten.
With Monica, Laura and the parents, the Flora's household was
crowded but stable by all accounts. Richard Flores worked as
(03:13):
a machinist for an aerospace company, while his wife, Sylvia
was a licensed vocational nurse who worked nights at a
Los Angeles hospital. Together they were raising a full house
where the kids balanced school, church, and activities, with older
siblings often helping to look after the younger ones. Neighbors
described the family as strict but steady, and the flora
(03:36):
Ses were well known in Pico Rivera, But within that
busy household, not everything was smooth. Laura had a reputation
for getting into trouble. She pushed back against rules, and
police would later note that her name had come up
more than once in neighborhood complaints. That made her stand out,
and it was something detectives couldn't ignore. Still, On the
(03:58):
evening of July twentieth two, and nothing appeared unusual. The
family went about their usual routines. Young Sylvia and Monica
took the court for a summer league basketball game at
El Rancho High. Most of the Flora's family was in
the bleachers watching. Later that night, back at the house
in Pico Rivera, the two girls crawled into the bed
(04:20):
they shared. Esperanza came in last, saying good night to
her parents, before climbing into the bunk she shared with Laura.
She made a quick call to a cousin, talked for
a while, then finally set the phone down and drifted
off around one in the morning. None of them could
have imagined that within just a few hours, the ordinary
rhythms of that summer night would give way to unimaginable violence.
(04:44):
On that July morning, the Flora's house was still and
dark as the family slept peacefully in their beds. Around
three a m. That silence was broken. Esperanza, home from
college for the summer, was suddenly jolted awake. Esperanza heard
a commotion and stepped into the hallway. She saw her
father bleeding and ran to get help. Inside the bathroom,
(05:08):
Monica dialed nine one one and reported that her family
had been attacked. Despatchers then received a second call from
the neighbor's next door. Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies soon
arrived on the scene. What they discovered was a horrifying scene.
Richard Flores lay dead in the hallway. Three of the children, Ritchie,
(05:29):
young Sylvia, and little Matthew had been killed in their
beds in the master bedroom. Sylvia, the mother, was barely
clinging to life. The rest of the family, Esperanza, Monica,
and Laura, were alive and uninjured. But the scene left
detectives with more questions than answers. There was no sign
(05:50):
of forced entry, nothing had been stolen. It didn't seem
like a robbery gone wrong. Was it a targeted attack
from someone with a vendetta against the family? Detectives at
the Floris's residence faced a perplexing case. Four people were dead,
the mother seemed likely to die, and three others in
the house remained mysteriously unharmed. It appeared the killers had
(06:13):
slipped in, quietly, moving from room to room, slaughtering everyone
they came across. Investigators considered it might be a violent
break in. There had been several burglaries in Pico Rivera
that summer, but none involved brutal murders. Some wondered if
it was personal, maybe a family friend with a grudge
or someone connected to one of the parents. However, everyone
(06:37):
agreed that Richard and Sylvia were deeply loved by the
community and had no known enemies, but this was a large,
blended family. Attention soon shifted back inside the Flora's home.
Among the survivors was eighteen year old Laura Rita. Laura
was known in the neighborhood for testing boundaries. She skipped school,
(06:57):
broke curfew, and clashed with her parents. Some neighbors complained
about late night visitors and loud arguments, and deputies had
been called to the house before because of Laura's behavior.
In the aftermath of the murders, it wasn't far fetched
to wonder if Laura knew some dangerous people who played
a role in the murders. Investigators began reviewing Laura's story
(07:18):
to determine if it aligned with the evidence. They looked
for injuries on her that showed signs of a struggle.
They checked her clothing and shoes for blood. They compared
her fingerprints with items used during the attack. They also
assessed her account of the night against what Esperanza and
Monica had described. Laura's claim that she stayed in her
(07:39):
room was consistent with the lack of evidence against her.
For detectives, that meant looking elsewhere. As the crime lab
processed the forensic evidence, a different picture began to emerge.
Five combat style knives were left inside the house. In
the master bedroom where Sylvia was found invested, stigators recovered
(08:00):
duct tape on Sylvia's face, and in the bedroom just
outside the back door, they collected a backpack that did
not belong to the family. Inside were a blood soaked towel, batteries,
and other items that later became crucial evidence. Technicians lifted
several fingerprints from the duct tape, enough to compare with
those who had been inside the house that night. The backpack, meanwhile,
(08:23):
contained items that provided detectives with new leads to follow.
With the evidence bagged and documented, detectives shifted their focus
to interviewing the surviving daughters individually. Esperanza recounted the terror
of that night, her father collapsing in the hallway, her
mother's voice barely audible, and the frantic dash next door
(08:44):
for help. Laura admitted to sometimes skipping school or breaking curfew,
but denied any involvement in the murders. Monica told investigators
she had hidden in the bathroom during the attack, but
her story raised questions. She insisted she was too terrified
to leave the bathroom, yet when deputies searched that room,
(09:04):
they found two bloody knives used in the murders. Monica
told detectives the knives hadn't been there when she was hiding.
To make matters worse, she admitted to owning a butterfly
knife like the one found in the bathroom. For investigators,
the contradictions were piling up, and as the lab results
came in, the scope of the case widened, pointing not
(09:26):
only to Monica but someone she was seeing against her
parents' wishes, her seventeen year old boyfriend, Michael Naranjo. Monica
Diaz was sixteen years old in the summer of two thousand.
To neighbors, she seemed like a typical teenager in Pico Rivera,
walking to school with friends, playing basketball in the summer league,
(09:47):
hanging out with her cousins, But inside the Flora's household,
Monica felt like an outsider. Monica later told reporters that
she was often teased about her weight while growing up
in a family of athletes and overachievers. They called me
chubby Checkers. Monica told the La Times the Floricies did
(10:07):
their best to raise their nieces as if they were
their own. However, Monica often felt caught between two worlds
and was especially resentful about the strict rules of the house.
Teachers remembered her as bright and capable of excelling, although
she was easily distracted. Friends said she could be moody,
with flashes of rebellion that set her apart from her
(10:29):
cousins and siblings. By sixteen, Monica was experimenting with independence,
sneaking phone calls late at night, testing boundaries at home,
and spending more time with her boyfriend, Michael Naranjo than
with the family who had taken her in. Michael Naranjo
was a junior in high school. On the surface, he
(10:50):
seemed like any other teenager trying to find his place.
To friends, he came across as quiet, even awkward. He
drifted between junior r t see drills and long afternoons
sketching in notebooks. However, detectives soon discovered another side to Michael.
The Floreses had welcomed Michael into the family meals, birthdays,
(11:14):
but Richard later grew uneasy for starters. He was obsessed
with knives, and not just any knives. He liked combat
style weapons, butterfly knives, throwing knives, daggers. He studied and
practiced with them constantly, and he didn't just admire the craftsmanship.
He wrote about using them in spiral bound notebooks later
(11:37):
seized by investigators. He described violent fantasies and even drafted
a piece he titled My Confession, in which he laid
out in chilling detail, how he would kill. If. People
still wonder why no one ever woke up, Naranjo wrote,
it was because my first attacks to the victims were
directed to the throat and lungs, thus enabling no sound
(12:00):
from them other than deep grunts. Wow, it's just so
creepy and shows an absolute detachment and lack of empathy
for the victims. For detectives, the picture was becoming clearer
Monica's contradictions, Michael's fascination with death, and all the evidence
pointing to the possibility of a killer couple. The items
(12:22):
found inside the backpack now made more sense. The blood
soaked towel, the batteries, and the tools linked to Michael.
When crime lab results came back, they revealed his fingerprints
on a flashlight in the house and on the weapons
used in the murders. But before they could make an arrest,
investigators needed to hear what Monica and Michael had to say.
(12:45):
Detectives brought the teens in for questioning. At first, Monica
Diaz clung to her story. She claimed she had hidden
in the bathroom and knew nothing about how the knives
ended up beside her, but detectives confronted her with the evidence,
her finger prints on duct tape, her knife among the weapons,
and the inconsistencies in her account. Monica told detectives she
(13:08):
had gotten up to use the bathroom and while there
heard footsteps in the hallway. She said she stayed in
the bathroom, too afraid to come out until she heard
her sister's voices. After the attack. She said she never
saw the assailant and denied letting anyone into the house
or knowing how an intruder got inside. When shown crime
(13:28):
scene photos. She acknowledged recognizing a butterfly knife like the
one she owned, but insisted the knives in the bathroom
were not there while she was hiding. Hours into her interview,
the facade started to crack. Monica's story began to shift.
She admitted she hadn't been alone that night she had
let Michael into the house, but when detectives pressed her
(13:52):
on what happened next, her answers wavered. At one point,
she claimed she had been hiding in the bathroom the
entire time. At another time, she admitted to hearing Michael
go after her father. She denied participating in the killings,
yet her fingerprints and the knives in the bathroom indicated otherwise.
(14:13):
Detectives left the room convinced she wasn't being honest. Michael
meanwhile provided investigators with insight into his disturbed mindset. He
described the murders as if they had been rehearsed, mentioning targets, strategy,
and execution. Detectives observed his lack of emotion, using the
same detached tone found in the writings in his notebooks.
(14:36):
The motive, as prosecutors later explained, was based on teenage
rebellion and forbidden love. Monica disliked her parents' strict rules
and their disapproval of her relationship with Michael. They make
it sound like the Brady Bunch, but it wasn't, Monica
later said. For his part, Michael wanted to earn Monica's
(14:57):
love and respect, and he would do anything to me
make her happy, even if it meant killing. Prosecutors argued
that the two infatuated teens decided to eliminate the very
people who stood in their way, Monica's own family. In
two thousand and two, both teens were tried as adults
in Los Angeles County courtrooms filled with reporters and family
(15:18):
members as the horror of that July night was laid bare. Survivors,
including Esperanza and Sylvia the mother, gave emotional testimony about
what had happened in their home and the scars it
left behind. When she took the stand, Sylvia Floris described
the moment she was attacked in her own bedroom. She
(15:39):
told jurors she woke to the weight of someone pressing
a pillow over her face and felt the blade of
a knife slash across her neck. She remembered the struggle,
the blood, the feeling of slipping in and out of consciousness,
but she could not identify who had attacked her in
the darkness. Her testimony underscored the brutality of the crime,
(16:00):
even if it did not directly tie either teenager to
the blows she endured. The prosecution leaned heavily on Michael's
writings and the forensic evidence tying both teenagers to the crime.
They painted the picture of a couple who had planned, prepared,
and executed a calculated attack, not a crime of passion,
but a blueprint carried out in cold blood. At Monica's trial,
(16:24):
prosecutors used her own words against her. The best job
is to kill people professionally, Monica wrote in a letter
to Michael, Imagine how many victims I would have if
I lived to be eight hundred years old. Aside from
resenting the strict rules at home, Monica appeared to share
Michael's fascination with violence. When it was her turn to testify,
(16:45):
Monica painted a very different picture. She told jurors she
thought a burglary was underway that night, and insisted she
never harmed anyone in the house. She claimed she hid
in the bathroom out of fear, only learning the full
scope of the murders. Afterwards, her attorneys argued she was
a frightened teenager caught up in Michael's violence, not a
willing participant, but her shifting accounts, the knives found in
(17:10):
the bathroom, and the letters she had written to Michael
made it difficult for the jury to accept her version
of events. The writings from both teenagers became compelling evidence
that revealed the premeditated nature of the murders. In separate trials,
Monica and Michael were convicted of multiple counts of first
degree murder an attempted murder. On October twenty three, two
(17:32):
thousand and three, Michael Naranjo was sentenced to five life
terms in prison. In two thousand and four, Monica Diaz
received the same sentence. For the jury, the decision was clear.
One juror later explained how overwhelming the evidence felt in
the deliberation room. It was a very strong case against her.
(17:52):
I didn't see too much of a defense, to be
honest with you, and even if you took her defense,
we still would have found her guilty. James Frank later said,
for the surviving Flor's family, justice had been delivered, but
nothing could undo the devastation. However, the legal story didn't
end with the two thousand and four convictions. The following year,
(18:15):
an appellate panel overturned part of Monica's verdict. Judges struck
down her conviction for the attempted murder of Sylvia Flores
and threw out a special circumstance finding of multiple murder.
That ruling meant the harshest penalty on the table, life
without the possibility of parole, could no longer stand. Back
(18:35):
in Norwalk's Superior Court, Sylvia Flores once again faced her
niece in the courtroom. She pleaded with the judge for
a life without parole sentence, telling him I need to
live a life sentence without them. Why can't she live
a life sentence for them? Judge John Terribio explained that
the appellate decision tied his hands. Instead, he re sentenced
(18:58):
Monica Diaz to four turn of twenty five years to life,
ordered to run consecutively, effectively a one hundred year sentence
for Sylvia. The resentancing was another painful reminder that justice
can feel incomplete, she told reporters afterward. The sentence I
felt wasn't enough, but something that can't be overturned. I
(19:21):
know my life didn't count because I survived. My life
didn't count, which I'm okay with. The Flora's family massacre
shocked an entire community. It was one of the most
disturbing crimes Los Angeles County has ever experienced, not just
because of its brutality, but because two teenagers committed it.
For the surviving members of the Floras family, life means
(19:44):
moving forward without four loved ones Esperanza and her mother
carry scars, both physical and emotional, showing strength in the
face of unimaginable loss. Years later, Sylvia Flores still carries
those wounds. For a long time, she avoided the word itself,
telling people her children died in an accident, but as
(20:05):
she finally admitted, my kids were murdered. It wasn't an accident.
A car didn't hit them. They were murdered. To Sylvia,
the Monica she once helped raise no longer exists. I
don't know the killer Monica. She said that Monica died
the same day as the others. Cases like this leave
(20:26):
more questions than answers. How do two teenagers reach the
point of turning on their own family, and how does
a community move forward from such violence. Drop your thoughts
on our social sites and let us know what you think.
That's it for this episode. Make sure to like and
follow on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram for the latest true
crime stories.
Sheriff's deputies pushed through the front door of the Flora's
family home. The scene that greets them is nearly unspeakable.
The father lies in the hallway dead. Three children never
made it out of their bedrooms. Blood is splattered on
the walls and pulled on the hallway floor. An eerie
silence fills the house. In the master bedroom, they find
(00:21):
the mother barely alive, bleeding from a slash across her neck.
If she survives, investigators want to ask her who could
attack an entire family at nor be Hey, what's up everyone,
I'm your host, Mattie and this is murder You. Thanks
for listening last week and for checking out the new
(00:42):
murder U YouTube channel. If you haven't yet, smashed that
follow and subscribe button and share the show with your friends.
It's the best way to help us reach even more
true crime fans. Each week, the cases get darker, the
truth's more unsettling. This week's episode is so crazy. I
hope you enjoy The Flora's Family Master. Welcome to Murder You.
An Abnormia original. In the early hours of July twenty first,
(01:28):
two thousand, the Flora's house in Pico Rivera became the
scene of one of Los Angeles County's most infamous murders.
Four family members were killed. The family matriarch was clinging
to life. Meanwhile, three daughters, all teenagers or young adults,
managed to survive the night. Detectives needed to determine who
(01:51):
was responsible for the attack. Was it a family friend
with a grudge, a robbery gone wrong, or did one
of the survivors play a role in the brutal crime.
It would take time before the complete picture of what
happened inside the Flora's home began to emerge, and when
it did, the truth was even darker than imagined. Richard
(02:11):
and Sylvia Flores lived in Pico Rivera, a working class
suburb just southeast of Los Angeles. Their home was full
not just with their own children, but also with two
nieces who had been living there for years. Monica Diaz
and Laura Rita had moved into the Flora's house permanently
when Monica was eight after their mother died in nineteen
(02:32):
eighty seven. Although they were never formally adopted, Monica and
Laura were raised as sisters, sharing the same routines, bedrooms,
and family rules. The other siblings considered them more like sisters,
while Richard and Sylvia did their best to treat them
as their own. Eight people lived in the house. Richard Junior,
(02:53):
also known as Richie, was seventeen, Esperanza, the oldest, had
just finished her first year of college, Sylvia, named after
her mother, was thirteen, and Matthew, the youngest son, was ten.
With Monica, Laura and the parents, the Flora's household was
crowded but stable by all accounts. Richard Flores worked as
(03:13):
a machinist for an aerospace company, while his wife, Sylvia
was a licensed vocational nurse who worked nights at a
Los Angeles hospital. Together they were raising a full house
where the kids balanced school, church, and activities, with older
siblings often helping to look after the younger ones. Neighbors
described the family as strict but steady, and the flora
(03:36):
Ses were well known in Pico Rivera, But within that
busy household, not everything was smooth. Laura had a reputation
for getting into trouble. She pushed back against rules, and
police would later note that her name had come up
more than once in neighborhood complaints. That made her stand out,
and it was something detectives couldn't ignore. Still, On the
(03:58):
evening of July twentieth two, and nothing appeared unusual. The
family went about their usual routines. Young Sylvia and Monica
took the court for a summer league basketball game at
El Rancho High. Most of the Flora's family was in
the bleachers watching. Later that night, back at the house
in Pico Rivera, the two girls crawled into the bed
(04:20):
they shared. Esperanza came in last, saying good night to
her parents, before climbing into the bunk she shared with Laura.
She made a quick call to a cousin, talked for
a while, then finally set the phone down and drifted
off around one in the morning. None of them could
have imagined that within just a few hours, the ordinary
rhythms of that summer night would give way to unimaginable violence.
(04:44):
On that July morning, the Flora's house was still and
dark as the family slept peacefully in their beds. Around
three a m. That silence was broken. Esperanza, home from
college for the summer, was suddenly jolted awake. Esperanza heard
a commotion and stepped into the hallway. She saw her
father bleeding and ran to get help. Inside the bathroom,
(05:08):
Monica dialed nine one one and reported that her family
had been attacked. Despatchers then received a second call from
the neighbor's next door. Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies soon
arrived on the scene. What they discovered was a horrifying scene.
Richard Flores lay dead in the hallway. Three of the children, Ritchie,
(05:29):
young Sylvia, and little Matthew had been killed in their
beds in the master bedroom. Sylvia, the mother, was barely
clinging to life. The rest of the family, Esperanza, Monica,
and Laura, were alive and uninjured. But the scene left
detectives with more questions than answers. There was no sign
(05:50):
of forced entry, nothing had been stolen. It didn't seem
like a robbery gone wrong. Was it a targeted attack
from someone with a vendetta against the family? Detectives at
the Floris's residence faced a perplexing case. Four people were dead,
the mother seemed likely to die, and three others in
the house remained mysteriously unharmed. It appeared the killers had
(06:13):
slipped in, quietly, moving from room to room, slaughtering everyone
they came across. Investigators considered it might be a violent
break in. There had been several burglaries in Pico Rivera
that summer, but none involved brutal murders. Some wondered if
it was personal, maybe a family friend with a grudge
or someone connected to one of the parents. However, everyone
(06:37):
agreed that Richard and Sylvia were deeply loved by the
community and had no known enemies, but this was a large,
blended family. Attention soon shifted back inside the Flora's home.
Among the survivors was eighteen year old Laura Rita. Laura
was known in the neighborhood for testing boundaries. She skipped school,
(06:57):
broke curfew, and clashed with her parents. Some neighbors complained
about late night visitors and loud arguments, and deputies had
been called to the house before because of Laura's behavior.
In the aftermath of the murders, it wasn't far fetched
to wonder if Laura knew some dangerous people who played
a role in the murders. Investigators began reviewing Laura's story
(07:18):
to determine if it aligned with the evidence. They looked
for injuries on her that showed signs of a struggle.
They checked her clothing and shoes for blood. They compared
her fingerprints with items used during the attack. They also
assessed her account of the night against what Esperanza and
Monica had described. Laura's claim that she stayed in her
(07:39):
room was consistent with the lack of evidence against her.
For detectives, that meant looking elsewhere. As the crime lab
processed the forensic evidence, a different picture began to emerge.
Five combat style knives were left inside the house. In
the master bedroom where Sylvia was found invested, stigators recovered
(08:00):
duct tape on Sylvia's face, and in the bedroom just
outside the back door, they collected a backpack that did
not belong to the family. Inside were a blood soaked towel, batteries,
and other items that later became crucial evidence. Technicians lifted
several fingerprints from the duct tape, enough to compare with
those who had been inside the house that night. The backpack, meanwhile,
(08:23):
contained items that provided detectives with new leads to follow.
With the evidence bagged and documented, detectives shifted their focus
to interviewing the surviving daughters individually. Esperanza recounted the terror
of that night, her father collapsing in the hallway, her
mother's voice barely audible, and the frantic dash next door
(08:44):
for help. Laura admitted to sometimes skipping school or breaking curfew,
but denied any involvement in the murders. Monica told investigators
she had hidden in the bathroom during the attack, but
her story raised questions. She insisted she was too terrified
to leave the bathroom, yet when deputies searched that room,
(09:04):
they found two bloody knives used in the murders. Monica
told detectives the knives hadn't been there when she was hiding.
To make matters worse, she admitted to owning a butterfly
knife like the one found in the bathroom. For investigators,
the contradictions were piling up, and as the lab results
came in, the scope of the case widened, pointing not
(09:26):
only to Monica but someone she was seeing against her
parents' wishes, her seventeen year old boyfriend, Michael Naranjo. Monica
Diaz was sixteen years old in the summer of two thousand.
To neighbors, she seemed like a typical teenager in Pico Rivera,
walking to school with friends, playing basketball in the summer league,
(09:47):
hanging out with her cousins, But inside the Flora's household,
Monica felt like an outsider. Monica later told reporters that
she was often teased about her weight while growing up
in a family of athletes and overachievers. They called me
chubby Checkers. Monica told the La Times the Floricies did
(10:07):
their best to raise their nieces as if they were
their own. However, Monica often felt caught between two worlds
and was especially resentful about the strict rules of the house.
Teachers remembered her as bright and capable of excelling, although
she was easily distracted. Friends said she could be moody,
with flashes of rebellion that set her apart from her
(10:29):
cousins and siblings. By sixteen, Monica was experimenting with independence,
sneaking phone calls late at night, testing boundaries at home,
and spending more time with her boyfriend, Michael Naranjo than
with the family who had taken her in. Michael Naranjo
was a junior in high school. On the surface, he
(10:50):
seemed like any other teenager trying to find his place.
To friends, he came across as quiet, even awkward. He
drifted between junior r t see drills and long afternoons
sketching in notebooks. However, detectives soon discovered another side to Michael.
The Floreses had welcomed Michael into the family meals, birthdays,
(11:14):
but Richard later grew uneasy for starters. He was obsessed
with knives, and not just any knives. He liked combat
style weapons, butterfly knives, throwing knives, daggers. He studied and
practiced with them constantly, and he didn't just admire the craftsmanship.
He wrote about using them in spiral bound notebooks later
(11:37):
seized by investigators. He described violent fantasies and even drafted
a piece he titled My Confession, in which he laid
out in chilling detail, how he would kill. If. People
still wonder why no one ever woke up, Naranjo wrote,
it was because my first attacks to the victims were
directed to the throat and lungs, thus enabling no sound
(12:00):
from them other than deep grunts. Wow, it's just so
creepy and shows an absolute detachment and lack of empathy
for the victims. For detectives, the picture was becoming clearer
Monica's contradictions, Michael's fascination with death, and all the evidence
pointing to the possibility of a killer couple. The items
(12:22):
found inside the backpack now made more sense. The blood
soaked towel, the batteries, and the tools linked to Michael.
When crime lab results came back, they revealed his fingerprints
on a flashlight in the house and on the weapons
used in the murders. But before they could make an arrest,
investigators needed to hear what Monica and Michael had to say.
(12:45):
Detectives brought the teens in for questioning. At first, Monica
Diaz clung to her story. She claimed she had hidden
in the bathroom and knew nothing about how the knives
ended up beside her, but detectives confronted her with the evidence,
her finger prints on duct tape, her knife among the weapons,
and the inconsistencies in her account. Monica told detectives she
(13:08):
had gotten up to use the bathroom and while there
heard footsteps in the hallway. She said she stayed in
the bathroom, too afraid to come out until she heard
her sister's voices. After the attack. She said she never
saw the assailant and denied letting anyone into the house
or knowing how an intruder got inside. When shown crime
(13:28):
scene photos. She acknowledged recognizing a butterfly knife like the
one she owned, but insisted the knives in the bathroom
were not there while she was hiding. Hours into her interview,
the facade started to crack. Monica's story began to shift.
She admitted she hadn't been alone that night she had
let Michael into the house, but when detectives pressed her
(13:52):
on what happened next, her answers wavered. At one point,
she claimed she had been hiding in the bathroom the
entire time. At another time, she admitted to hearing Michael
go after her father. She denied participating in the killings,
yet her fingerprints and the knives in the bathroom indicated otherwise.
(14:13):
Detectives left the room convinced she wasn't being honest. Michael
meanwhile provided investigators with insight into his disturbed mindset. He
described the murders as if they had been rehearsed, mentioning targets, strategy,
and execution. Detectives observed his lack of emotion, using the
same detached tone found in the writings in his notebooks.
(14:36):
The motive, as prosecutors later explained, was based on teenage
rebellion and forbidden love. Monica disliked her parents' strict rules
and their disapproval of her relationship with Michael. They make
it sound like the Brady Bunch, but it wasn't, Monica
later said. For his part, Michael wanted to earn Monica's
(14:57):
love and respect, and he would do anything to me
make her happy, even if it meant killing. Prosecutors argued
that the two infatuated teens decided to eliminate the very
people who stood in their way, Monica's own family. In
two thousand and two, both teens were tried as adults
in Los Angeles County courtrooms filled with reporters and family
(15:18):
members as the horror of that July night was laid bare. Survivors,
including Esperanza and Sylvia the mother, gave emotional testimony about
what had happened in their home and the scars it
left behind. When she took the stand, Sylvia Floris described
the moment she was attacked in her own bedroom. She
(15:39):
told jurors she woke to the weight of someone pressing
a pillow over her face and felt the blade of
a knife slash across her neck. She remembered the struggle,
the blood, the feeling of slipping in and out of consciousness,
but she could not identify who had attacked her in
the darkness. Her testimony underscored the brutality of the crime,
(16:00):
even if it did not directly tie either teenager to
the blows she endured. The prosecution leaned heavily on Michael's
writings and the forensic evidence tying both teenagers to the crime.
They painted the picture of a couple who had planned, prepared,
and executed a calculated attack, not a crime of passion,
but a blueprint carried out in cold blood. At Monica's trial,
(16:24):
prosecutors used her own words against her. The best job
is to kill people professionally, Monica wrote in a letter
to Michael, Imagine how many victims I would have if
I lived to be eight hundred years old. Aside from
resenting the strict rules at home, Monica appeared to share
Michael's fascination with violence. When it was her turn to testify,
(16:45):
Monica painted a very different picture. She told jurors she
thought a burglary was underway that night, and insisted she
never harmed anyone in the house. She claimed she hid
in the bathroom out of fear, only learning the full
scope of the murders. Afterwards, her attorneys argued she was
a frightened teenager caught up in Michael's violence, not a
willing participant, but her shifting accounts, the knives found in
(17:10):
the bathroom, and the letters she had written to Michael
made it difficult for the jury to accept her version
of events. The writings from both teenagers became compelling evidence
that revealed the premeditated nature of the murders. In separate trials,
Monica and Michael were convicted of multiple counts of first
degree murder an attempted murder. On October twenty three, two
(17:32):
thousand and three, Michael Naranjo was sentenced to five life
terms in prison. In two thousand and four, Monica Diaz
received the same sentence. For the jury, the decision was clear.
One juror later explained how overwhelming the evidence felt in
the deliberation room. It was a very strong case against her.
(17:52):
I didn't see too much of a defense, to be
honest with you, and even if you took her defense,
we still would have found her guilty. James Frank later said,
for the surviving Flor's family, justice had been delivered, but
nothing could undo the devastation. However, the legal story didn't
end with the two thousand and four convictions. The following year,
(18:15):
an appellate panel overturned part of Monica's verdict. Judges struck
down her conviction for the attempted murder of Sylvia Flores
and threw out a special circumstance finding of multiple murder.
That ruling meant the harshest penalty on the table, life
without the possibility of parole, could no longer stand. Back
(18:35):
in Norwalk's Superior Court, Sylvia Flores once again faced her
niece in the courtroom. She pleaded with the judge for
a life without parole sentence, telling him I need to
live a life sentence without them. Why can't she live
a life sentence for them? Judge John Terribio explained that
the appellate decision tied his hands. Instead, he re sentenced
(18:58):
Monica Diaz to four turn of twenty five years to life,
ordered to run consecutively, effectively a one hundred year sentence
for Sylvia. The resentancing was another painful reminder that justice
can feel incomplete, she told reporters afterward. The sentence I
felt wasn't enough, but something that can't be overturned. I
(19:21):
know my life didn't count because I survived. My life
didn't count, which I'm okay with. The Flora's family massacre
shocked an entire community. It was one of the most
disturbing crimes Los Angeles County has ever experienced, not just
because of its brutality, but because two teenagers committed it.
For the surviving members of the Floras family, life means
(19:44):
moving forward without four loved ones Esperanza and her mother
carry scars, both physical and emotional, showing strength in the
face of unimaginable loss. Years later, Sylvia Flores still carries
those wounds. For a long time, she avoided the word itself,
telling people her children died in an accident, but as
(20:05):
she finally admitted, my kids were murdered. It wasn't an accident.
A car didn't hit them. They were murdered. To Sylvia,
the Monica she once helped raise no longer exists. I
don't know the killer Monica. She said that Monica died
the same day as the others. Cases like this leave
(20:26):
more questions than answers. How do two teenagers reach the
point of turning on their own family, and how does
a community move forward from such violence. Drop your thoughts
on our social sites and let us know what you think.
That's it for this episode. Make sure to like and
follow on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram for the latest true
crime stories.
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