[drill buzzing]
[suspenseful music playing]
[Matthew]
I knew something was wrong.
Something happened to her.
Her k*ller thought
he was gonna get away with it.
[Dean] He formulated a plan.
Like some sort
of Vegas magic act,
he made the body disappear.
[Pamela] It's like finding
a needle in a haystack.
There's such a vast expanse
of where it could be.
[Parker]
No one would have believed
that anyone would have gone
to such lengths
to hide a body.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Dean] On May 31st, 2019,
Esmeralda Gonzalez
was reported missing
to the Las Vegas metropolitan
police department.
Esmeralda was last seen
by her family
on May 26th, 2019.
After two days,
her brother responded
to Esmeralda's address
to check up on her.
When he got there,
he found her not there.
Her brother called me
and told me
that she's missing.
I was in denial.
Esmeralda was a very driven
young woman.
She was born in Mexico
and she came to Las Vegas
at a very young age.
And she was able
to finish up college,
she bought her first house,
she ended up
buying a second house
and turned it
into a rental property.
She became Instagram famous.
She had thousands
and thousands of followers.
Why would this girl,
who is 100% independent,
go missing?
And I knew
something was wrong.
[somber music playing]
[Pamela] Her family told us
Esmeralda was living
in a pretty nice neighborhood
and making pretty good money.
But we found she suffered
from mental health problems.
When she was
on her medication,
she was fine.
But if the medication
stopped working for her,
then she would have episodes.
[Matthew] A week
before she went missing,
her brother called me
and he told me
that her mental disorder
is acting up again
and something's going on
with her medicine.
[Cinthia]
My news assignment editor
said there's this report
of a missing Latina.
She was in a very,
very fragile state of mind.
To me, it hit home
a little more
for the simple fact
that her parents had come
to the United States
for the same reason
my parents came here.
Her family just wanted
a better life.
That just makes you feel sick
to your stomach.
[Matthew]
"What was her mental state?"
is, uh, the reason why
something happened to her.
I didn't know how to react.
It was all like
a complete mystery
what really happened.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Pamela] For me, all cases
are kind of like a puzzle.
When the police detectives
first came and spoke to us
about the case,
they described it
as a missing persons case.
But there's no indication,
really, that anything criminal
has happened to her.
[Dean]
We went to Esmeralda's house
to see if the disappearance
was a result of something
that happened there.
[Pamela] There wasn't a lot
of disturbance at her house.
But she left her phone,
her car was there.
[Dean] We did find
that she had video cameras
on her door
and within the house as well.
And we're able to obtain
video footage from the cameras
in Esmeralda's house.
[doorbell rings]
[Dean] This video footage
shows her behavior
around her house
in the days leading up
to her disappearance.
She's acting erratic,
strange.
She's heard muttering
nonsense, phrases
and jumping at nothing.
[Esmeralda yells]
You can see that Esmeralda
is essentially
not in a right mind
during that period of time.
Even though
she's clearly having
kind of a mental breakdown.
Nothing in the house
ends up helping
as far as where she went.
The fact that she left items
that could be tracked.
Her cell phone,
her debit card, credit cards,
and even her vehicle
at her residence,
questions also arise
on whether or not
she was trying
to escape from someone.
We conducted interviews
with family members
and others friends
that showed that Esmeralda
had a boyfriend, John.
[Matthew]
Last time that I'd seen her
six to eight weeks
before she went missing,
I went to her house
and she instantly stopped me
and she said,
"You cannot come in here.
I have a new man.
He's extremely jealous.
He's controlling.
He watches my cameras.
He doesn't want you
around here."
I was like,
"This is very odd."
We look into John to see
what his criminal history was,
and discovered that
there had been a report
of a domestic dispute
between Esmeralda and John
on the 29th of May.
She is ultimately reported
as missing on the 31st.
So we become concerned.
[drill buzzing]
[Parker] John ends up
being rather forthcoming
with information
and his own whereabouts.
He turns over a cell phone.
He allows detectives
to essentially
go through social media.
Stuff like that.
[Dean]
We used cell phone records
with location data
to determine that John
was not with Esmeralda
since May 29th
in the days leading up
to her disappearance.
[Parker]
At that point in time,
we don't have enough
to move on John.
[eerie music playing]
[Dean]
The Missing Persons Unit
then did a canvas
of the neighborhood
where Esmeralda lived.
They contacted
several neighbors.
A lot of people
have ring doorbells
that capture video
not only at their front porch
or sometimes even out
in the front yard
or the street.
[Parker]
One of the neighbors says,
"Oh, hey, I have video footage
of a girl
knocking on my door."
[Dean] We did retrieve
that security footage.
They're kind of taken aback.
The video footage
showed Esmeralda dressed
in her lingerie
and high heels.
She appears very confused.
When a person
is reported missing
and you know that they have
a history of mental illness,
then we do become concerned
about their welfare.
[doorbell rings]
The fear would be that
they could become
a danger to themselves
or a danger to someone else
in the community.
The longer a missing person
goes missing,
the colder the case gets,
the harder it is
to put things together.
[dog barking]
[Dean] Now we have a question,
what has happened to her?
[man speaking]
[man speaking]
And you can see that
at 2:33 a.m. timeframe
is the last time
she can be seen alive
when she's walking
down the street.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Dean] Where did she go?
She's leaving
on her own volition
from her house,
but her behavior
is very erratic,
and she just disappears
from that moment.
We were concerned,
will this missing
persons investigation
ultimately become
a homicide investigation?
[tense music playing]
[Pamela] When people
are missing for us
for a certain amount of time,
we assume
it's gonna ultimately end
in a homicide case.
But we need a body.
Without a body,
you have trouble proving
that someone's dead
or that a crime has occurred.
[Parker] It's frustrating
because you kind of know
that Esmeralda's family
must be suffering,
and this family
wants some closure.
And we can't give it
because we can't definitely
say what happened.
We can't essentially tell
that family to give up hope.
[Matthew] The hardest part
is just not knowing
what really happened.
I was afraid somebody
was doing harm to her.
And then you're just searching
all over town,
going everywhere that you know
that she normally goes.
Where she gets
her nails done,
the gas station.
Is all her friends
and family.
You're going everywhere
you can think
that she possibly went to,
putting flyers up
all over town.
[Dean] Then approximately
six weeks later
on July 18th, 2019,
Metro PD's homicide unit
receives an anonymous tip
via a phone call.
The information
in the anonymous tip
was that a prost*tute
came to be in the company
of a person
called Christopher Prestipino
and that she had been held
against her will
for a couple days
and was ultimately m*rder*d
by Christopher Prestipino.
[Parker] We had doubts
about whether or not
Esmeralda is the girl
that was discussed in the
In the tip.
However,
that gets me interested.
This was the first real
significant break in the
This investigation.
And the investigation
has turned upside-down.
There was investigation done
into what was going on
in Esmeralda's social life,
given that she was
a social media influencer.
[Pamela]
But we learned she had ties
to quasi-adult entertainment.
[Matthew] She worked
as one of those showgirls
on the strip
where you wear the feathers
and you take pictures
with tourists.
And I told her
that it was not safe.
Like you're
You don't have security,
you're vulnerable.
So she agreed
that she would work
at a gentleman's club.
And she worked, worked,
worked, and worked
and saved every penny
she possibly could
and that's why she was able
to be successful
and invest in real estate.
There were definitely
adult entertainment
aspects of her life,
kind of loosely fitting
what the anonymous tipster
had said.
So, it seemed like
a pretty valid tip,
but for us as prosecutors,
we need a crime scene
or we need a body.
I mean,
we need something to go on
if we're gonna charge
a homicide
much more than this person
is missing.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Dean] The first thing done
with this information
is try to identify
the person named in the tip.
In this case,
they were able to identify
Christopher Prestipino
because his last name
is very unusual.
[Parker] We learned
that Christopher worked
here in Las Vegas.
He dealt
with production lighting.
[Pamela] He was sort of
a behind-the-scenes worker,
and they're able to find out
that around the time
Esmeralda goes missing,
he doesn't show up for work,
which is unusual for him.
[Dean] He had criminal history
involving possession
and sales of narcotics.
[Cinthia] But based on
what I saw on social media,
this guy was perverted.
He had so many posts,
inappropriate posts
about women,
things he would do to women.
I remember seeing
that he liked a lot
of like nasty groups
on Facebook.
He's a sicko walking around
in our community.
He's a predator.
[Matthew] I never met him,
this guy,
but there's so many thoughts
going through your mind.
You can't help
but to think like,
"Are these things connected?"
[Pamela]
Was there some connection
between Esmeralda Gonzalez
and Christopher Prestipino?
[tense music playing]
[Dean] Detectives were looking
for a connection
between Esmeralda Gonzalez
and Christopher Prestipino.
We map out
Esmeralda's address
and Christopher's address
and find
that they're less than
one-tenth of a mile apart.
The street that Prestipino's
cul-de-sac empties out onto
is in fact the same street
that Esmeralda
is seen walking towards
when she leaves
that neighbor's house
at 2:30 a.m. on May 31st.
[Pamela]
Because of the proximity
of Esmeralda Gonzalez's house
and also the
Kind of the description
of her loosely fitting
what the anonymous tipster
had said,
we were able to put together
that she was likely
the person
in the anonymous tip.
[Dean] Up until this moment,
there's been a bunch
of dead ends
in the Esmeralda Gonzalez
investigation.
Now it seems
that there's been
a huge break in the case.
Christopher Prestipino
ends up being the suspect.
Prestipino is playing game
of cat and mouse.
If you don't have a body,
one of the main elements
of a human being k*lled,
you have to prove m*rder
through at least
circumstantial evidence.
[Pamela] We subpoenaed
Christopher's banking records
and we could see
where his card was used.
We pulled
the video surveillance,
you see trips
to the hardware store.
The hardware purchases
start occurring on June 2nd
after Esmeralda went missing.
[Pamela] All of the purchases
were highly suspicious,
like a rope, and cement,
and wheelbarrow,
and all these things
that you would need
in order to move a body.
But all of the little pieces
of evidence
is circumstantial evidence.
So it was helpful
but not definitive
that a crime has occurred.
[Parker] We also learn
Christopher Prestipino
does three
different truck rentals
from June 8th to June 10th.
Esmeralda has reported missing
on the 31st.
If Christopher Prestipino
did k*ll Esmeralda
and did not dispose
of the body
until the 10th,
that he had a long period
of time
to formulate and enact a plan
to dispose of that body.
[Pamela]
There's like 200 miles
put on the rental truck,
but Las Vegas,
there's a lot of desert
surrounding it.
There's such a vast expanse
of where the remains
of Esmeralda Gonzalez
could be,
but we needed to try to piece
together where she was.
So it's like finding a needle
in a haystack.
[Parker]
If he k*lled Esmeralda,
I think Prestipino thinks
he can outsmart detectives
because if you don't
have a body,
we can't just go arrest him.
If he's playing a game
of cat and mouse,
you gotta keep going.
Now, this is roughly
in this August
to September time period.
We get the cell phone records
of Prestipino
and a number is called
really frequently
during this May 31st
to, let's say,
June 10th timeframe.
And Casandra Garrett
is the name of the person
who's using this other phone.
So detectives start
following up on that.
[Dean] Casandra
was kind of a dr*fter.
She lived in various places
in Las Vegas,
sometimes not staying
at one place too long.
Casandra's cell phone
is tracked.
Sometime in the evening
of June 10th,
Casandra leaves Las Vegas.
Casandra ultimately ends up
in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
We were really trying to get
as much evidence as possible.
There's a little bit
of strategy to that.
We don't wanna talk
to Christopher
because then obviously
he realizes
that he is being looked
at for a homicide,
but we needed something.
So the detectives traveled
to Milwaukee
to speak
with Casandra Garrett
to see if she would talk
about anything that happened
in Las Vegas.
Detectives respond
to Milwaukee
to interview Casandra Garrett.
We know that Casandra
and our suspect
Christopher Prestipino
were friends,
so it's very important
to speak with her
to see what her
involvement was.
[detective speaking]
[Casandra speaking]
[detective speaking]
[Casandra speaking]
[detective speaking]
[Casandra speaking]
[detective speaking]
[Casandra speaking]
[detective speaking]
-[Casandra speaking]
-[detective speaking]
[Casandra speaking]
She basically tells them
to pound sand
and doesn't really give them
much to follow up on.
[Pamela] She's not
too forthcoming.
So it's really challenging.
I think Christopher Prestipino
was clearly involved
in Esmeralda's disappearance,
but we didn't have
anything else to go on.
[Dean] But we do
become concerned.
If he and Casandra
begin discussing the case,
they may start covering up
their crime
and disposing of the evidence.
[Pamela] We had to figure out
where the crime scene is.
So we got
search warrants served
in Christopher Prestipino's
house
in order
to find more evidence
that would
substantiate a homicide
and help us find
Esmeralda's body.
[somber music playing]
[Dean] This search
was conducted
on September 20th.
SWAT is used
in these circumstances
is because the subject matter
of the investigation
is a violent act
where someone
is ultimately k*lled.
[Pamela] When the detectives
served the search warrant,
Christopher Prestipino
was home
and cooperated
with the police.
When the detectives
showed Mr. Prestipino
a picture
of Esmeralda Gonzalez
and he denied ever seeing her
or ever meeting her.
So we searched his residence.
[door creaking]
[Pamela] There wasn't
a whole lot of evidence
that indicated violence
in the house.
There wasn't
an obvious weapon,
there wasn't blood,
but there were things
that suggested
that something could've
happened in the house.
The garage floor was redone.
There were new carpets.
Those things
would be consistent
with someone who's trying
to hide evidence of a crime.
But there's no way to say
that something bad happened
to her in the house.
We were concerned
if we never find this body,
are we gonna be able
to put a case on?
[Parker]
Maybe Prestipino thinks
he can outsmart everyone,
but we didn't stop.
[somber music playing]
[Pamela] Several months
into the investigation,
a witness comes forward
and it was pretty big.
One of Casandra Garrett's
friends
ends up talking to us.
According to the friend,
Casandra had talked
about this young woman
being tied up
in the house of Prestipino
for several days.
That she was drugged
and that she was prevented
from leaving the house.
[Parker]
And so because of that,
we decided to take another run
at Casandra.
[Pamela] We told her
that if she did tell us
what happened to Esmeralda,
that her liability
would be lessened
if she could implicate
someone else
versus having most
of the responsibility laid
at her doorstep.
Casandra decided
that she would cooperate
with the detective's
investigation
and Casandra agreed
to come back to Las Vegas
from Wisconsin
on October 4th.
She admitted
that she was with Christopher
when they dumped the body.
Then she led the detectives
to a remote desert area,
approximately 47 miles
north of Las Vegas.
[Pamela] And once they got out
to that desert location,
what we found
was really shocking.
[Parker] Early October,
Pam and I are alerted,
hey, the body's
likely been found.
It's a tomb.
And Casandra Garrett ends up
being the person
who shows us where the body
is in tomb
and disposed of in the middle
of the desert.
It's so heavy.
A tow truck
with kind of a crane gets out
in the middle of the desert.
It picks up the tomb
and it's brought back
to the CSI lab
here in Las Vegas.
[Pamela] They had
to drill it open
and it was a really,
really heavy structure.
[Parker] They were able
to find portions of bones
and there is a watch
that Esmeralda was wearing
in some of her
social media posts
that is in that tomb
that she was buried with.
And so that's one
of the initial ways
that she's identified.
But eventually, DNA confirms
that's Esmeralda's body.
It was shock,
shock but kind of awe
in the sense of,
hey, someone really build
this thing.
The amount of thought
that it took
to essentially enclosed this
into a tomb,
no one would have believed
that anyone would've gone
to such lengths
to hide a body.
[reporter 1] Prosecutors
suspected a body
that was recently found
in the desert
is missing woman 24-year-old,
Esmeralda Gonzalez.
[reporter 2] Detectives
located it in the desert,
encased
in a homemade concrete
and a wooden structure.
[Matthew] I just remember
when her friend called me
and told me
if they ended up k*lling her,
I was actually
mentally prepared for it
when they did find her.
The story was,
it was all over the news,
like you couldn't
even get away from it.
I try not to hear
all the details.
If I hear the details,
like I can imagine
exactly how she would react.
And that type of thought
just kind of, like, sticks
in your mind,
so I just try not
to hear the specifics.
I was in complete shock.
[Parker]
So that's the point in time
when you can go forward
with an arrest warrant
for Christopher Prestipino.
Detectives become aware
that he's gonna fly back
from vacation on this flight.
It's gonna land here
in McCarran Airport.
I'm at the airport
with the detectives.
Detectives circle around him,
hook him under each arm.
We say we found the body.
Prestipino goes limp
and, kind of, collapses
into the arms
of the detectives.
[Pamela] He is arrested
at that point,
but he obtained counsel
and he refused to talk.
It's then that
Casandra lays out actually
what occurred on May 31st
in those early morning hours.
[detective speaking]
[Casandra speaking]
[Dean] Casandra said
she and Christopher
were at Christopher's house
the night
of May 30th
into the morning of May 31st.
Esmeralda is in lingerie
walking down the street.
That street leads real close
to Christopher
Prestipino's house.
[woman] She was walking around
knocking on people's doors,
and this guy took advantage
of the situation.
Esmeralda was having
a mental health episode,
but I think he probably
thought we can party
with her
and have sex with her.
[Casandra speaking]
[detective speaking]
[Casandra speaking]
Christopher appears
to become kind of paranoid.
[Casandra speaking]
[Dean] So they make the
determination to k*ll her.
He starts beating
on Esmeralda
and chokes her out.
[Casandra speaking]
[detective speaking]
[Casandra speaking]
Christopher then injects
Esmeralda with muriatic acid,
which is used
in cleaning swimming pools,
which ultimately
kills Esmeralda.
And he's trying to use that
to throw the investigators
off the scent
in the disposal of the body.
[Parker] Christopher
then built an entire tomb
full of concrete
with various screws and jacks.
He actually entombs
that body.
Ultimately, Christopher
and Casandra
drove the rented moving truck
with the concrete in the back
to an area approximately
47 miles north of Las Vegas
and were able to dump
the complete structure,
wood, concrete, and all
out of the back of the truck
into a remote desert area.
There's like a point of really
dehumanizing someone,
but it's really shocking
I think to know,
like literally what he had
to do to accomplish this,
like moving
a young woman's body,
just pouring cement on
with the hopes
that no one ever finds her.
I think Prestipino
does everything in his power
to just kind of erase her.
[Parker] If not
for how aggressive we were
at continuing to follow up
and the investigation
going through
the various search warrants,
the social media
and the cell phone mapping,
this probably would
never have been solved.
[Pamela] For Casandra Garrett,
we felt like we had
to give her some credit
or some benefit for assisting
with locating the body.
And so she got
a 20-year sentence
with parole eligibility
after eight years.
[Parker] Christopher
Prestipino eventually pleads
to second degree m*rder
and first degree kidnapping
and receives a sentence
of 10 to 25 years
combined.
It's really shocking,
I think, to know
like literally what he had
to do to accomplish this
with the hopes
that no one ever finds her.
That's pretty dark
to be able to do that.
I've prosecuted homicides
for 20 years
and the thing
that I always think about
in this case
is how she's preyed upon
when she's in
this really vulnerable state.
So that's always
the part for me
that makes it really sad.
[Matthew]
Her brother called me
to come get her dog Bonita.
As soon as I picked her up,
she stayed by my side.
She was
my emotional support animal.
So she traveled with me,
I took care of her
for quite a while.
And she went
to Esmeralda's funeral
with me and everything.
I put her down October
of 2021.
So until this day she
Her ashes are next
to her mom's ashes
in her room.
It doesn't make sense to me.
Literally,
you could've just let her go
and said
she's not mentally well.
Why did you have to k*ll her?
[ominous music playing]
This case is Dracula meets
The Sons of Anarchy .
I've never seen anybody go to
this length to dispose
of a body.
At that point we had got
a ladder, and I went down.
We were thinking,
is Keith down there?
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