S1: E3 – Abducted in Albuquerque

A young woman's body was discarded in the desert.

I mean, that's sick. That is definitely sick.

Who was responsible?

Everyone where Yolanda worked out, We're scared for their lives also.

And why were the police the ones being questioned?

I mean, what exactly is going on here?

In this podcast, we take you across the country to investigate some of America's deadliest crimes. We'll explore how these murders are shaped by their unique landscapes, and in turn, how these tragedies have shaped the fabric of these American communities forever. Today we're in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for the story of Yolanda Medina. My name is Sloane Glass and this is American Homicide. This podcast maintains subject matters which may not be suitable for all audiences. Discretion is advised.

On the east side of the Roal grand River, he saw what seemed to be like the human body.

Detective Tony Lopez investigated.

They immediately then called nine one one and we were dispassed.

Detective Lopez worked for the Bernolo Police Department, a small town about fifteen miles north of Albuquerque.

Very close knit town. Population at that time back in ninety one was approximately six thousand. I hate to say this, but they didn't like outsiders. At the time that I got hired with the towner ber Leo, there was three of us that were outsiders. The chief police, my captain, which was Greg Marcintell and myself. We didn't live in the towner bur Leos, who were considered outsiders. They want to keep everything within and keep outsiders out.

Berne Leo was a quiet town, so hearing about a body washing up along the river was terrifying.

Bertilio was not a dangerous place. They weren't used to that.

Detective Lobez headed to a place people in the southwest call and arroyo, which means an irrigation ditch.

I arrived and it was late at night. It was already getting dark. I grabbed my camera and walked down this ditch bank about two hundred yards where this tree was, and saw what appeared to be a female. She was stuck under some branches, which indicated to me that she had been hidden there. I also noticed that there was maggots coming out of every office of her body. Then I knew she had been there for a few days.

The young woman appeared to be Hispanic. She had a dark complexion and very long brown hair. Her body was found naked with bruises on her face and chest, which made it difficult to identify her.

The body was finally placed in a body bag and transported to Albuquerque to the corner's office a.

Few yards away. Officers noticed drag marks along the ditch, but there.

Was no physical evidence around the body.

Its own, so, as you can imagine, it was an awful scene for officers who were trying to make sense of what happened. And then they got word about a young woman who was reported missing four days earlier.

A missing person's case had been filed in Albuquerque. After the autopsy, we knew that this female was the same female that was missing out of Albuquerque.

It took dental records to confirm the body was Yolanda Medina, a twenty year old college student who worked and went to school in downtown Albuquerque, but lived with her parents in Bernolio. She was a child when her parents left the Mexican town of Vera Cruz in pursuit of the American dream.

Beautiful family, the whole entire family.

Yolanda was one of six. They warm and friendly, smile. It was always easy for her to make friends.

She was just a very outgoing young lady that had such a future ahead of her.

Even while taking college classes, Yolanda proudly wore her high school class ring with her name engraved on it. Her dream was to become a flight attendant, job her friends thought she was perfect for.

They were all telling us that all lovable Yolanda was in caring.

The last time anyone saw Yolanda live was on the eve of her birthday. She was about to turn twenty one.

Yolanda was working at this travel agency in Albuquerque, and on Columbus Day, there was a couple that had gone to her work and weren't looking for directions for a bank. Yolanda had explained to them that there was no banks opened that day.

The couple said they were college students from Veracruz, Mexico, which happened to be where Yolanda was born.

The couple a male and a female, being Mexican nationals, and Yolanda having been a Mexican herself. There was a connection there one they with Mexican nationals, especially being an estrange country, they want to help each other, give each other direction on anything that they need, and that's what Yolanda Medina was doing.

The three of them made small talk and just before Yolanda walked into work, the couple extended an invitation.

The couple felt that Yolanda was so kind with them that they invited her for lunch on the following day and said, you know, since you were so nice to us, we want to make you lunch tomorrow. We'd come pick you up. And that evening she was having dinner with her parents and she stated to her mom, I met this couple. They're from Vina Krunz. They want to take me to lunch tomorrow. I don't know what to do. I feel kind of nervous about it.

Yolanda accepted their invitation. The couple was friendly, they were all a similar age and they shared a hometown.

Parents told her that if they were very nice to her and that she should.

Accept, and so the next day, the couple from Vera Cruz returned to the travel agency and around noon the three left for lunch.

According to witnesses, a couple came in, picked her up and she never returned back to work.

Four days later, Yolanda's Bonnie turned up in a ditch.

The circumstances of this whole case of an un couple coming in and had taking her to lunch never returning back was very suspicious.

The couple was the last to see Yolanda alive, so the first order of business was to find that.

One of the witnesses, who was also an employee at where Yolanda worked, they give a description of the male and the female. We put those sketches on television and we started asking the public for help.

By then, the disturbing details of Yolanda's death had already spread throughout the town. The pathologists determined that Yolanda was beaten and sexually assaulted, but ultimately died after choking on a rag.

There was a red chop rag which they put in her mouth, and as Yolana Medina was fighting for her life with all she had and trying to breathe, that rag ended up killing her. And that's what exphyiciator.

The rag was found launched in her throat. Can you imagine.

I've never forgotten that, never will. I mean, the town was scared, didn't know if there was a killer or killers on the loose. It wasn't something that occurred every day. Everyone where Yolanda worked out were scared for their lives. Also, they didn't know if she was targeted or it was just just a thing that happened.

For a small police department in the suburbs of Albuquerque, the case took precedence. For Detective Tony Lopez. It became personal.

It was my first homicide, and being that it was a very young girl, my goal was I was not going to stop till I caught the people who were responsible for this. So when I hit it, I hit it. I wanted to make sure that I got closure for the family. I knew it was not going to bring Yolanda Medina back to them, but we were going to find out who did it, and we were going to catch them and they were going to pay for it.

Detective Lopez was determined to solve this crime, which makes it all the more mind boggling that by the end of the investigation, Lopez himself would be a suspect. On the eve of her twenty first birthday, Yolanda Medina left her office in busy downtown Albuquerque for lunch but never returned. Four days later, her Bonnie turned up in a ditch some fifteen miles north in Bernaleo, New Mexico.

That was the last time I got a full day's sleep.

It was the first homicide Detective Tony Lope has ever investigated for the Bernaleo Police Department.

I basically went home for an hour a day, just to go shower, put on some clean clothes, and I was back at it. I was going to do everything I could in my power to make sure that we brought justice.

Yolanda was last seen leaving her office with a couple she had just met. Now police needed to find them.

A tip came up of an individual who had stated to us that he had picked up a couple walking from Berno Leo towards Albuquerque and had given him a ride to a church in Albuquerue.

Not only did the couple fit the description of the sketch the police had, but they told the guy who picked them up they were college students from Vera, Cruz who had been robbed and needed a place to stay.

One thing with Mexican nationals, they look for churches for immunity.

Back in nineteen ninety one and even today, most churches in Albuquerque offer sanctuary to migrants.

So they referred this couple to another church where they might be able to stay and would get help. I went to the church, talked to that pastor to try to find out if he knew anything about a couple that were staying there.

The pastor took one look at the sketch and knew exactly who this couple was.

Mario Torres and Catalina Tarin. They were staying in a basement at this church.

Now stick with me here, because there are a few reasons. Out of all the people who have gone through his church, this pastor remembered the couple for starters, They had conflicting stories on whether they were married. It was clear that they were trying to change their identity, and there was more.

He had scratches on his face.

So we have Mario, whose facebooks very suspicious since it's covered in scratches, and then we have this partner, Catalina, who's also raising eyebrows because she's just started wearing colored contacts.

They wanted to get some IDs since they were here illegally in the United States. So the word got around that this couple needed help. I discovered from this pastor that there was a lady who had been helping them.

So the priest directs Detective Lopez to a woman named Tina Unali, who readily told detectives she helped Mario and Catalina get fake identification cards. She wanted to help. She's stopped by the couple's room at the church, but after having a glass of water, she felt something was wrong.

They wanted her to drink this glass of water, and tenaian Nelli's telling him she didn't want any water.

She was on Thursday, but they were pushy and Tina eventually took a set. She said the water was warm and tasted.

Weird, and they're still trying to convince her to drink this water.

Katalina left the room and closed the door behind her. This left Tina alone with Mario.

Mario Torres then starts putting moves on Tenaianelli, coming onto her, tries to hug her and tries to kiss her. Chenaian Elli then cusses hit him in Spanish. She goes, I'm married, and he says I'm married too.

And in the basement of the church, Mario suggested a wife swap.

She told him, well, you better back away because if you don't, I'm going to kick your ass. She's a a Spanic woman loves to be around motorcycles, so she's been around tough guys and she's a tough girl.

Thankfully, Tina was able to escape Mario. Her instincts were right. On police believe that weird tasting water was drugged and the couple had intended to sexually assault her.

She felt so blessed and lucky to get away and I'll become a victim.

Tina's escape happened only a few days before Yolando Medina went missing. Up being the urgency for detectives to find this couple. They were clever and dangerous. Detective Lopez knew it wasn't going to be easy to catch them.

I part across the street from this church, and I saw a vehicle with sped a couple in the vehicle leaving with a priest, and I saw that the priest had pulled over about a quarter mile away at a video store. The couple got out stood in front of that VIGI store for a little while, and as I'm doing surveillance, they're walking right in front of my vehicle.

Now standing with a priest just a few feet away.

For Mario and Catalina, same picture from the sketch that we had, I mean identical. So I immediately approached them and asked them for their names. The male told me that his name was Mario Torres and the lady was Catalina Tarin the male was trying to be very cooperative, and the lady had a very mean look, giving me dirty looks, mumbling to the gentleman. She didn't look happy at all.

The couple had fraudulent social Security cards, so Detective Lopez called for ions.

Irons took detention of them, which at that time, it allowed us to obtain a search. Weren't for the room that they were living in there at the church.

During their search of the couple's room, detectives were they were actually shocked by what they found.

During our search. Weren't. We discovered a class room with Yolanda's name engraved on the inside. The jacket that she was least seen in was also discovered in that room.

Police also found fake IDs, and then there was this a gold necklace and bracelet that belonged to Yolanda. Suddenly, all the missing pieces of the puzzle came together for detectives.

At that time, when we had this evidence against this couple, I mean, you would think there would be some excitement, but there really wasn't because it was far from over.

At this point, the District Attorney's office entered the investigation and the church where all of this happened was very familiar to Deputy DA Michael Cox.

Oddly enough, if I looked out my way, no I could see the church, so it probably happened across the street.

From where I was.

This church was actually across the street from the District Attorney's office.

That was the place that they had been offered as a sanctuary. That's where we believe the crime was committed. This was a tough case for a defense attorney. There was a lot of evidence. There was blood, there was a drag mark that appeared to be a body that had been pushed or moved.

They also found the most damning evidence, and it's the most disturbing, a piece of the rag that was found inside of Hulanga's throat.

Well, the rag was actually used to help kill her. She was partially asphyxiated with a rag torn red shop rag, and a piece in her throat was matched to the piece that was found in the church basement.

The most unholy act happening in such a secret place.

I was troubled by the fact that the used churches. That seemed to me to be one of the worst things. That they killed her in a church where they were given sanctuary and used it for not just kill her, but try to kidnap and rape another woman. And then they went from there and took all of the stuff they got from the crimes and went to another church that was giving them sanctuary.

It was a behavior the deputy district attorney had never seen before.

They prayed on people who were helping them, and that seemed particularly evil. Frankly, because every one of the victims, especially the women, the one who was killed and the one who escaped became victims because they were trying to help these two people. That seemed particularly awful to me.

Mario and Catalina were deadly con artists. They were dangerous people.

I think the pair of them were so deadly because no one expected them.

Police finally made an arrest. Mario and Catalina were charged with first degree murder along with the sexual assault and kidnapping of Yolanda Mendina. Despite the evidence, prosecutors were facing an uphill battle. Bernolino police arrested Mario Torres and Catalina Tarene for the murder of Yolanda Medina. If convicted, the couple faced the death penalty.

In nineteen ninety one, in New Mexico prosecutors were asking for the death penalty, particularly in cases that involved any kind of kidnapping or rape.

Attorney Gary Mitchell was assigned to represent Catalina Taurine.

I found it very pleasant, very nice, very meek. This is not somebody that I would ever envision doing harm to anybody. She was not the person in my mind that would have been.

The leader of that.

Not only that, but he also felt the case against his client was entirely circumstantial. I guess it never occurred to him that all that charm came from a psychopath.

They turned into a homicide case after they said, well wait a second, Miss Medina mentions they're going out with these people TODA and track that and follow that up, and then she never comes back and the last people she supposed you with are in jail. And let's see if we can tie all this stuff together, and some of these detectives tie this stuff together. I mean, I know these guys have great respect for him, but I thought this was pretty flimsy. Actually, it seemed to me

Catalina and Mario's trial was set to begin in mid May of nineteen ninety two, but on the morning of Sinco de Mayo, Catalina's lawyer received some shocking news.

I get a call informing me that my client was deceased. Both of them committed suicide on the same night in the same manner at the detention center in Bernlihoa County. I mean, what exactly is going on here?

Heard that right? Mario and Kadalina overdosed on their antidepressant medication on the same day, despite being in solitary confinement on two different floors. How does that even happen? Well, law enforcement speculates the two may have passed notes to.

Each other they said up all their medications, watted up and kept them in a ball or whatever, and then took them all at one time. I mean, it had to be a big ball, bigger than a golf ball of medications that they took. You know, they never took them all those weeks, and we're being prescribed these medications that's what they died from. Wow, what is going on here. This is not what I thought when I first got

Obviously, it's a big story that the Medina suspects had taken their own lives.

Cecilia Nimchek was the assistant district attorney, and this is where the story takes another turn. Mario left behind two handwritten suicide notes, and those notes left more questions than answers.

Very lengthy, very long, written by him, denying that they had committed the murders, saying that somebody else had done it.

In these letters, Mario claimed he and Catalina could no longer take the mistreatment in solitary confinement because, according to Mario, he and Catalina were innocent of Yolana Medina's murder, but.

Was a denial of killing Yolando Medina, but admitting to killing two other women in Mexico, so that was very unusual.

Mario claimed he did murder two women in Mexico, and in chilling detail, outlined who they were and how he did it.

It was his lover that was the victim. She was angry because she found out that he was married, and he had no choice but to shut her up by strangling her. And then, sadly, another woman walked by and witnessed this, and he had no choice but to strangle her because she would tell.

So police immediately contacted the authorities in Mexico, who confirmed these murders had taken place and they had a suspect in custody, Mario's brother.

His brother was arrested in Mexico for these murders. Some people could say he didn't do this and the only reason he was confessing to those two homicides was to get his brother off.

I didn't put a lot of faith or married into the letter that he wrote. I just figured for another part of whatever manipulation was taking.

Place, and neither did the Mexican police. There was no evidence the Mexican police ever took Mario's confession seriously. And in these long and sometimes rambling letters, Mario claimed he used a fake name while he was in the United States, and then there was this bombshell. Mario claimed he and Catalina were set up by the police, and that the police were actually responsible for the murders.

You know, that would maybe cause you pause to think whether or not they really did this. But when you have all of the physical evidence that was connected with Yolanda Medina found in the places that they had stayed, and then on top of it, rereading the long letter, there's some huge holes in that because he's going through

Now that would have been five to six weeks before Yolanda's murder occurred, making his story hard to believe. Still, determined to find the truth, police investigated two of their own.

In this letter, he blamed Captain Greg Marcintell and myself.

Detective Tony Lopez worth the case with his boss, Greg Marcintell.

Greg Marcintell and myself did not commit that murder.

Captain Greg Marcintell also denied the allegations, and eventually he and Detective Lopez were cleared.

The couple that killed Elana Medina are very evil. They never showed any remorse whatsoever, you know, blaming someone else other than themselves for sick individuals. Here you have a husband and wife raping. He was raping and she's holding them down. I mean, that's sick. That is definitely sick.

Detective Tony Lopez's homicide investigation ended with the accused taking their our own lives and blaming him and his partner for the murder of Yolanda Medina.

Part of me felt as if justice was done because they were leaving this earth and no one else was going to have to go through why Yolanda Medina did or what Tino Yanelli almost went through.

But before Detective Lopez could turn the page and just file this away, he felt the sense of being unsettled. The two suspects were dead, but for him, it just wasn't over.

I went to the autopsy of these suspects, So why go.

To the autopsy?

Well one enclosure, seeing two bodies that are laid blaming their lifeless, I had to say it, I'm human, But that's where I got my satisfaction because we were going for the death penalty on them that didn't.

Occurred, and at that autopsy, they found one more piece of evidence, and this was kind of gross, kind of weird, but boy, it was the smoking gun.

When they did perform as autopsy, they found that she was wearing contact lenses that belonged to Yolanda Medina. Those were still in her eyes. I physically remember them taking those out, and she had been wearing these since the day of the murder murder curt in October of nineteen ninety one, and they committed suicide May of nineteen ninety two, and she held on to that. Still wearing those contact lenses was just not right. That had a big impact

Next time on American Homicide, a mobster wanted in a triple murder engages in a game of catt review Ken and before it's over, Redden's a hit on the prosecution. Star Witness. Join us next week for the latest episode of American Homicide. You can contact the American Homicide Team by emailing us at American Homicide Pod at gmail dot com.