08x02 - The Rent Check

[bunniefuu]

[conversation over telephone]

[theme music playing]

[dramatic music playing]

[narrator] 36-year-old
army veteran and grad student,

Maribel Ramos, is treating
her niece, Giselle.

- Ta-da!
- It's so pretty.

[Giselle] My aunt Maribel
was like a big sister to me.

She taught me
how to play softball.

We would read books together,
we would have sleepovers

and I would do
face masks to her.

She was really funny.

You look like a model.

With her, I would kind of
clown around a bit more.

Let's go get it.

Whenever we needed her,
she was a call away

or maybe like ten minutes
away from our house.

Maribel and I were
extremely close.

You know,
I was her little sister,

Mom was at work,

so Maribel had to take me
with her everywhere.

She definitely was goal-driven

and she had her map of what
she wanted to do with her life.

As a young girl,

Maribel wanted to be
actually a police officer.

At some point she decided that the
m*llitary would be a good route for her.

She was in the m*llitary
for eight years.

With two deployments
to Iraq and Afghanistan...

she decided to come back home,

finish up her school,
graduate college

and then focus
on this other part of life

which hopefully included
a husband and then children.

[narrator] In a few weeks,

Maribel is due to receive
a degree in Criminal Justice

from Cal State University.

Graduating for Maribel
was not only the end of,

I would say, this chapter
of school and work.

This was the moment where she
was gonna start just really enjoying life.

I mean, everything looked
amazing, a beautiful future.

[dial tone]

[conversation over telephone]

KC and Maribel were roommates
for about two years

and he was also Giselle's
math tutor.

[cell rings]

KC texted me saying, you know,

"Your sister, Maribel,
didn't come home."

I just told KC that

Maribel had a lot of things
going on

and she's a grown woman.

So I didn't worry, you know,
about her not coming home.

But Maribel did not show up
to her baseball game

and my cousin said, "Can you
please drive to Maribel's house?"

We are at her house now.

Her car is outside. Parked.

The light in her room is on.

But no one's home.

That's when I... I just got
this horrible feeling.

[narrator]
Lucy's cousin calls Orange PD

to report that Maribel
is still missing.

[siren wailing]

[Investigator] Patrol officers were
dispatched to Maribel's apartment.

They knocked on the door.
They talked to some neighbors.

They didn't see
anything suspicious.

No broken windows,
no forced entry into the door.

The roommate's nowhere
to be found.

The officers made a choice to
force entry into the apartment.

Police. Anyone here?

It's a typical two-bedroom,
small apartment.

Nothing looked disheveled
or really out of place at all.

[narrator] Maribel's sister,
Lucy, arrives at the apartment.

I walked straight into her room

and Maribel's bed was undone,
there were sheets on top of it

and her pillow was like
didn't have the pillow case.

It was like, her bed not being
done was such a big deal to me.

That's not Maribel.

I didn't see anything that
indicated that Maribel took a trip.

I was like what?
You know, something was wrong.

[Haydon] Lucy indicates
to the officers

that her wallet, her cell phone,

all these items
were typically with Maribel

and they weren't
in the apartment.

So that kind of raised
our suspicions.

[suspenseful music playing]

A Patrol Supervisor
makes a decision

to call homicide.

It was after hours, I was home.

I got a call from the office
to come in.

We had a suspicious
missing person's case.

[Ramirez] The fact that
Maribel was 36 years old,

and the fact that she had
some m*llitary training,

she was the type of person
that was very punctual,

she just disappeared
with no trace.

That made everybody feel like
she was in trouble.

[Haydon] Lucy has indicated
her car was still there

and parked in her normal
parking spot.

For her wallet or her cell phone

all to be missing
and her vehicle still there,

that was definitely strange
and out-of-character.

What's going on?

Her roommate, KC Joy,
shows up unannounced.

When was the last time
you saw Maribel?

Thursday, about 9:00.

[Haydon] He indicated that he'd
left around 9 PM and gone on a drive.

Later on, around 10:00,

he responds back to the
apartment and Maribel's not there.

If there's anything you know,
please let us know.

Thank you.

[Simmons]
So, it's very important,

who was the last person that saw
the victim or the missing person?

Because that sets the timeline.

This is the last day
Maribel was last seen alive.

And then they can work
from that point forward.

[intense music playing]

Because Maribel lived in a
large apartment community...

they typically have surveillance
footage of the grounds.

That was one of the first things we
looked at when we were on-scene.

We try to find cameras

to help us either see her leaving
or coming to the apartment.

[narrator] The apartment
manager gives detectives a copy

of the surveillance footage.

[dramatic music playing]

[Ramirez] There was one camera
that covered the gate to the complex.

You would hope that we'd be
able to see either Maribel's car

or KC's car going
in and out of there.

But they didn't need to go
into the complex

because they could park right
outside their front door on the street.

So, the camera videos that we
were examining were not helpful.

We were able to locate one that
was above the manager's office

and that camera focuses on
anybody that's walking up to the door.

Try Thursday around 8 PM.

[Haydon] We were hoping that,
you know, we'd find her

exactly where she was or it
leads us in a certain direction.

At this point,
this was all we had.

[music intensifies]

[Investigator] Punch in.

Play it again.

I think that's her.

Residents would leave
their checks or their rent,

they'd put it through a slot
in the manager's office.

When we first see Maribel,

she appears to be in kind of
casual pajamas, almost.

She dropped off an envelope
in the slot and then walked off.

She is not scared.

She doesn't look like she's
looking over her shoulder.

She's not hurrying.

She looks like she just put on
some sandals to walk outside

and put the mail in
and just go to bed.

It shows her alive the day
before she went missing

on May 2nd about 8:30 PM.

[narrator]
After a sleepless night,

Lucy turns to social media
to help find Maribel.

I posted a picture of my sister,

and I asked friends
to contact me

if they've talked to her,
seen her.

You know, share...
share the information.

I was extremely upset.
I was so mad.

On many levels, you know,

because I don't know
where my sister is.

I did cry a lot.

But nothing mattered.

You know, so it was just
I had to just keep going

and get things done.

[dramatic music playing]

[Haydon] Any time you're
working a missing person's case,

one of the main things to
kind of consider is victimology.

We want to know
about the victim,

we want to know
what her life was like,

who she spoke with.

What kind of boyfriends,
dating habits.

We pulled initial
cell phone data.

It showed that Maribel's cell
phone was either off or inoperable.

Most people take their cell
phones with them everywhere.

Now, if she was abducted,

or someone had taken her,

she may not have had time
to take her cell phone,

but we knew that her cell
phone wasn't at the apartment.

So, the fact that it wasn't
pinging was very suspicious.

- Shaun.
- Hm?

Come have a look at this.

[suspenseful music playing]

Paul Lopez was a boyfriend

or was dating Maribel Ramos.

[Ramirez] It is very important

to talk to the last person
that talked with Maribel.

And Paul was the last person
to talk to her on the phone.

[narrator] Paul is asked to
come to the PD for questioning.

[Haydon] He was very cavalier

and just, "Hey, we were very early
on in the stage of our relationship...

we were free to kind of
date on our own."

[narrator] Paul confirms that he
last spoke to Maribel by phone

on the Thursday
she went missing.

[Ramirez] Just because
he's very cooperative

doesn't mean he couldn't have
hurt Maribel.

The truck he drove was GPS.

We could find out
exactly where he went,

almost like on
a minute-by-minute basis.

[narrator] The conversation turns
to Maribel's roommate, KC Joy.

Paul tells detectives that when
he spoke to Maribel on Thursday,

she was arguing with KC.

[Ramirez] He asked Maribel
if he needs to come over,

she says, "No, I'm fine,
I'm just gonna go to sleep."

And that's the last
conversation we know of

between Maribel and Paul.

This led us in the direction
of KC

because there was some contention
between KC Joy and Maribel Ramos

because of him not paying rent.

KC Joy had come here from Korea

and when he was like a teenager,

he went to school in Tennessee

and was a chemist of some sort.

There was nothing to indicate
that he had any criminal record.

[narrator] A scan of KC's
social media accounts

reveals a close relationship
with Maribel.

KC Joy took Maribel
on an Alaskan cruise.

There were photographs of that
in his phone and on his computer.

One day when KC called me,

he started telling me that,
"Oh, I'm in love with your sister,"

and you know, "I would really like
to be that man she has a family with."

So, I'm like, "Oh dear,"

because, you know,
he's a great guy

but I know that KC

is not the type of man
that my sister's looking for.

At some point, he started
acting different.

He did lose his job.

He didn't give her money
for the rent.

So, that's where
the problem started.

Hey, Joey,
come take a look at this.

[Ramirez] Officers had done a
background check on Maribel's apartment

Listen to this.

It shows that approximately
a week prior,

there was a 911 call from there.

[conversation over telephone]

She was combat-trained,

so for her to be
fearful of this guy...

was a real red flag.

[Maribel crying on phone,
talking]

The fact that Maribel
was in the m*llitary,

and possibly suffered some
mental health issues because of it,

is an important fact.

Our veterans nowadays
go through a lot overseas

and bring some of that back

and have trouble dealing
with everyday life.

It certainly paints a picture

that things could have
gotten pretty ugly.

[narrator] Investigators
immediately call in KC for questioning.

He's a very friendly man.

He loves to talk.

But then, when you hear
the phone call,

you gotta wonder,
how does this guy

make her feel so scared?

[Ramirez] He cares about her.

So, when things
started going bad,

it really upset him.

He says, yeah, they were
having issues with the rent,

because he lost his job
and couldn't pay the rent.

He makes a statement that,

maybe we should be looking
at Paul a little closer.

Because, you know,
Paul had threatened him.

KC Joy had indicated
that he had gone on a drive

to get out of the situation
to kind of cool off.

[Simmons] That is very
difficult to corroborate

because it wasn't like he
stopped at a McDonald's

or got gas to corroborate
that he left or where he went.

He's wearing a very tight,
black, short-sleeved shirt

and I could see these scratches

and they're obviously fresh.

He says that the ducks,

they get this fishing line
wrapped around them

and so he feels like he
needs to get rid of all that

and when he does that, he says
there's thorns in those bushes

and so, that's how
he got these marks.

We're looking for signs
of a struggle.

I wasn't sure what kind of
foliage they have there at the park,

and I needed him
to show it to me.

[narrator] KC meets
investigators at Eisenhower Park.

One of the officers
is wearing a covert wire.

[KC and officer talking]

So, when we got to the park,

one of the first things he
said, he points to this duck,

and sure enough, its back foot
is tied up in a fishing line

and I'm like,
"Oh my God, it's true!"

[KC and officer continues
talking]

So it was like, "Wow," those
thorns could make those marks.

You absolutely could lose
your balance and fall into them

and you would come up with
some pretty vicious scratches.

[narrator] Detectives return their
attention to Maribel's boyfriend,

Paul Lopez.

As a homicide detective,

it's very important
to be open-minded.

You have to follow every lead.

Paul was the last person
to talk to her on the phone

and then Maribel
just disappeared.

This is Detective Ramirez
from Orange PD.

I need some information
on one of your employees.

[Ramirez] When we followed up
on Paul's alibi,

we were able to prove

that he was an employee
of the gas company,

he was working at that time.

[Haydon] We were able to identify
the truck that he'd used that day

and those trucks
have GPS on them,

and find out exactly
where he went

almost like on
a minute-by-minute basis.

And he was nowhere near
the city of Orange

or near Maribel at the time.

At this point,
he was not a suspect.

As days went by, it was
getting more frustrating

because we just weren't
coming up with something solid.

You know,
there was no smoking g*n.

The more time that went by,

the less likely we were
looking for a missing person,

and the more likely we were
looking into a death investigation.

[narrator] Detectives conduct a
forensic search of Maribel's apartment.

[Ramirez] KC allowed our crime
scene people to come in

and they used
all this high-tech stuff

to try and see stuff that we
can't see with the naked eye.

They take DNA, get fingerprints,

photographs, everything,

he was 100% volunteering

to help the investigation

and we weren't finding anything.

[Haydon] He had a car
at the time that was rented

through a local rental company.

And we had searched it,

we had got
a cadaver dog in there

and unfortunately,
there was no information

that we were able to gather
from there,

so that was another dead end.

[Simmons] In the closet,
they notice a pajama top

with a blood smear on it.

[suspenseful music playing]

And they also notice

the pajama bottoms
are consistent

with the pajama bottoms that she was
wearing when she dropped of her check.

That could be her blood combined
with somebody else's blood.

[narrator]
Forensics results come back

on the bloodstains
on Maribel's pajamas.

[Ramirez] That blood came
back to Maribel and Maribel only.

The fact that there was no
one else's blood on her pajamas

was also an important fact
as well.

[Simmons] She could have
cut herself.

They're not sure
where that blood came from.

Everybody had high hopes.

They were hoping it would
kind of break open this case

and unfortunately, when it
came back to Maribel Ramos

and Maribel Ramos alone,

another kind of disappointing
moment in the case, if you will.

[news reporter] No matter who
you ask, the response is the same...

[narrator] The local news
pick up the story.

Roommate of a missing
Cal State Fullerton student

is now speaking out
about her disappearance.

Maribel Ramos has been
missing since last Thursday.

She's the only family I have.

She's my best friend and I
want her to come back, that's all.

KC would always tell them that

he loves her, you know,
he's trying to find her himself.

[Haydon] He's talking to any
reporter that'll talk to him.

I'm volunteering,
they want a DNA sample,

they took pictures of my body,

they already searched the
house without a search warrant

and I gave them
permission to do it,

go ahead, go for it.

[Haydon] He has this contentious
relationship with Maribel at the time.

Nothing to prove that
he did something bad to her,

so right now we were kind
of... kind of at a stalemate.

[intense music playing]

[Ramirez] Even though there's
no evidence on KC...

you just couldn't help but
keep... continue to look at him.

And for that reason,

he was under 24-hour
surveillance.

[Haydon] We were hoping
that he would slip up,

that he would take us somewhere
that would be noteworthy.

The fact that he had given us
his phone and laptop

made him have
to go to the library

to be able to go on
to the Internet.

[narrator]
To see what KC is doing,

detectives pull footage from
the library surveillance cameras.

[Simmons] We see him
walk in casually.

He's wearing a backpack.

Doesn't seem to be suspicious
of anything.

He then goes to the desk
to check out a computer.

[Haydon] It's important to note
what he's doing, where he's looking.

Is he trying to hide evidence?

Is he, you know,
switching bank accounts?

[Simmons] He actually walks
to the back of the library

at a desk where
he positions himself

in a way that he would know
if somebody were behind him

observing what he's looking at.

We got any cameras at the back?

[Haydon] The library doesn't have
a camera that we're able to zoom in

and see what he's doing or
which computer he's on specifically.

[suspenseful music playing]

[narrator]
Two hours later, KC leaves.

Detectives attempt to check
his search history.

After each person
uses the computer,

it's turned back in
to the librarian

and the software is applied and it wipes
out everything that was on that computer

and every search that
that person has done.

Okay, thank you.

We were coming up empty-handed
over and over and over again.

[narrator]
Maribel's family hold a vigil

to keep the search
for her alive.

[Lucy] We really need
everyone's help, please.

We need to find Maribel.

There were a lot of people
that didn't know her personally

but they were just trying to
be there for us and my family

and do anything they could
to help us find her.

She fought for us,
our family, our country.

[trembles into microphone]

Everybody was...

like, just together,
very united.

Even a lot of strangers.

My cousin at some point said,

you know, "What's her favorite
hike?" I told him Peter's Canyon.

And the word got out

that we were going to do an
awareness walk at Peter's Canyon.

[narrator] At Orange PD, a call
from KC's car rental company

provides a fresh lead.

We learned through
the rental car company

that he had just swapped
a car from a previous car.

So, any time you turn in
a rental car

and then get another one
assigned to you right away,

it's a little suspicious.

Was there something
he was trying to hide?

We were able to go back
to the rental car company,

we were able to find the car
that he had.

We also had a cadaver dog
search the car

and he did alert
to the back area of the car.

It's still not great
physical evidence,

but it's a big moment for us

because it tells us that we
are going down the right road.

So, it was very important

to keep 24-hour surveillance
on KC

being the person of interest
number one.

But KC ends up calling me

and he says, "Hey, Joey, can you
tell the guys to quit following me?"

I immediately called
the guys and said,

"Hey, we gotta back off
a little. He b*rned us."

[narrator] With KC continuing
to visit the public library,

detectives come up with a plan.

So, one of the guys says, "Hey,

we can monitor his computer

from a whole other building
remotely."

He just needed to receive
the right computer

that we're monitoring.

So, library staff
was brought on board

that, "Hey, if this man
comes in,

here's his computer."

[dramatic music playing]

[Ramirez] Sure enough,
he came in,

checked out the computer.

We could watch exactly
what he was accessing,

each key stroke,

and we actually recorded it
and watched it live.

[Haydon] He's filling out job
applications,

he's on some social media sites,

I think he's on Facebook
posting some stuff.

There was a Maribel Ramos
Facebook page at the time.

Nothing really stood out.

KC writes in a search bar,

"How long does a body
take to decay?"

That's important,

but could it be that he's, you know,
looking to see if she was left somewhere?

You know, what state her body
would be in?

[Ramirez] He ends up
seeing on Facebook

that the family was having
an awareness walk

at Peter's Canyon Park.

And he's kind of like pausing
and thinking

and I have to assume he was thinking, you
know, "Should I or shouldn't I do this?"

Well, he chose to do it.

[Haydon] He gets that address
to Peter's Canyon,

places the address into
a Google Maps search bar,

zooms in on it.

He looks at where they were gonna
meet to do this awareness walk.

Then he backed out,

and he navigated eight miles
into Modjeska Canyon

and he zooms in
to this big tree.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Simmons] And he gets as close
as he can with the software.

And then he goes to his history

and deletes the search history.

And so, the guys monitoring it

are like, "Did he just do
that, oh my God!"

[intense music playing]

This is way off
in the middle of nowhere.

No houses or trails
anywhere around here.

So it was kind of an odd place,
we didn't know what to expect.

When you get there and there's
barbed wire fence on this like large berm

next to this tree which is kind of
the center of where he zoomed in at,

in order to get through the fence we had
to kind of tuck through the barbed wire.

While we were out here
kind of walking in the brush,

there absolutely was a smell
of... of death.

I don't know how else
to describe it.

We kind of looked over
and saw...

kind of a shallow gravesite

and what appeared to be
a body underneath some rocks.

Whether that was Maribel's
body, we didn't know at this point.

She had a tattoo that
you can vaguely make out

so that coupled
with everything else,

I had a very strong suspicion
that it was her at the time.

[dramatic music playing]

We brought KC Joy in
to really hit him hard

with some strong questioning

to hopefully listen
to his side of the story,

get some information
as to how this came about.

KC was very confident

that, you know,
he was smarter than us.

When somebody continues to lie

and kind of point us
in the direction

of, "I didn't have anything
to do with this,"

it's frustrating.

It didn't feel like I had to tell
him that we'd found the body.

And pretty much gave him
just a last chance

to put the truth down.

[suspenseful music playing]

He got up,
he walked out the door,

we let him and there were some
patrolmen waiting outside for him

and they took him into custody.

[music intensifies]

[mellow music playing]

[narrator] Dental records confirm
that the body found in the canyon

is Maribel Ramos.

KC Joy is charged
with her m*rder.

[Ramirez] Based on the decomp
and the weather and the animal activity,

we couldn't find
a cause of death.

It seemed most probable

that she was suffocated.

That a pillow was probably
put over her head.

It's bitter-sweet

you know, because you always
hope,

someway somehow she shows up.

Channel 5 was delivering
the news

that they found the corpse.

I didn't cry, I just sat there.

And...

I just like, knew it was her.

I just think I was just...

just kind of numb.

It just didn't make sense to me

that this is what happened
to her

or whoever had done it
would do that

when she was about to do
so much for herself.

So it was just very
heartbreaking.

I was very close to her

so, me going through that,
it was very hard.

And especially
at the age that I was at.

[narrator] Over a year later
in July 2014,

Maribel's case goes to trial.

The prosecution put forward
their version of events.

Maribel had harmless intentions

spending time with KC

and just do some things
that friends do together.

He took these gestures
as a little more

and kept building
on a relationship

that he wanted to happen.

[Haydon] He was maybe
rejected by Maribel.

He recently lost his job,

he was refusing
to leave the apartment.

[Simmons] Paul Lopez
on the phone told KC Joy,

"Look, if you don't get out,
I'll get you out."

[Ramirez] I believe he... as
soon as he hung up with Paul,

they probably had
some sort of argument again.

When you see that video, she might
be a little bit, you know, perturbed

but she'd already told Paul
that she was going to bed

that she was going to be fine.

[tense music playing]

I believe she went to bed.

He came in and...

a pillow was probably
put over her head.

And she suffocated.

I think if she was awake,

she would've been able
to defend herself

and there would've been
a lot more in the room

as far as evidence goes
of a struggle.

[Simmons] KC has to carry
the body to the car

and then to that
remote location.

And then he has to get through
the barbed wire fence.

That's when he makes all these
cuts on his arms

they were consistent
with barbed wire.

[Ramirez] On the day that KC
walked into the library,

learns about the awareness
walk out at Peter's Canyon,

puts in into Google Maps,

sees that there's no way they're
gonna walk and find the body,

but he just showed us
where he put her.

He did a virtual drive-by
of his crime scene.

Surveillance from computers

is always helpful
for law enforcement.

The fact that he thinks

he's doing something
completely in private,

led to his demise.

[narrator] A jury finds Kwang
Choi Joy guilty

of second-degree m*rder.

[TV reporter] Ramos' family trying
to hold back tears in the courtroom

before the judge sentenced
Joy to 15 years to life in prison.

When they found KC guilty,

I was really happy, of course

because I knew in my heart

that it was him.

There was no other way

that someone else
could've done this.

[Simmons] He maintained he was
innocent to the bitter end,

he said he was not guilty

and to this day, maintains
that he's not good for this crime.

The fact that he led us
to her body

and still didn't...

take any responsibility

for Maribel's disappearance
just made me believe

what a sociopath he really is.

[Giselle] It kind of
made no sense

because he was just so
passionate

about my aunt

and being her best friend.

I mean, he was
an honest person then,

so I was just thinking, like
"Why can't you be honest now?"

[Lucy] Maribel did complete
her Bachelor's in Criminal Justice

but she wasn't there
to graduate.

I was the one
that received her degree.

I felt honored,
but at the same time,

I was kind of upset

that it was robbed
from my aunt Maribel.

I've lost, you know,

a big sister, a best friend...

you know, another role model,

another mother figure
in my life.

I just want people to know

that she was a beautiful soul.