[tense music]
♪ ♪
[birds chirping]
♪ ♪
[line rings]
[tense music]
♪ ♪
[line rings]
- [speaking Spanish]
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
Radio, looks like an individual in the car,
in the passenger seat.
I don't really have a decent visual on him.
I'm going to try and wake him up.
[knocking]
♪ ♪
- 5-13, code 22.
- Not responding to me knocking on the window.
♪ ♪
Door was unlocked.
Looks like male.
He's going to be laying in the passenger seat
upside down, head towards the ground.
A large pool of blood.
It'll be a obvious 48.
- [sighs]
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
narrator: For homicide detectives,
their chance of solving a murder
is cut in half
if they don't get a lead
within the first 48 hours.
♪ ♪
[clock ticking]
[insects chirping, indistinct chatter]
♪ ♪
[indistinct radio chatter]
- Morning.
- Truck has been here since 7:00 Monday morning.
- OK.
- Got the guy.
Tuesday afternoon, the family reports him missing.
Wife last seen him about 6:00 a.m. Monday morning.
- Right.
- What's today, Wednesday?
- Yeah. - A couple days, so...
- And his address is not too far from here.
- OK.
♪ ♪
- Guadalupe Garcia Rodriguez.
[somber music]
narrator: 39-year-old Guadalupe Garcia Rodriguez
was born and raised in Oaxaca, Mexico,
and moved to Georgia 12 years ago.
The youngest of eight,
he worked for a local tree service
and lived with his wife of ten years
and their two young children in a mobile-home park
two miles from where his truck was found.
♪ ♪
[footsteps crunching]
♪ ♪
- So you have him.
He's under this jacket, laying in a pool of blood.
♪ ♪
One projectile's in his leg.
♪ ♪
narrator: Guadalupe was shot twice,
once in his right thigh...
♪ ♪
And once in the chest.
- When I crawl over him to look down, I don't see a gun.
- Right.
♪ ♪
- We have one shell casing there.
- Mm-hmm.
♪ ♪
- Right there, you have that one.
♪ ♪
- You got a defect right here.
There's blood. You see that?
♪ ♪
- He's got an entry wound in his right leg, which--
there's a defect in the center console,
you know, from the passenger side,
going to the driver's side.
- So he was in the driver's seat
when he got shot in the leg. - Mm-hmm.
- Guy was in the passenger seat,
shot him in the leg,
and then dragged him over to the passenger side.
♪ ♪
- I think the guy pushed him down there
and then covered him with the jacket.
Like, he put it over him to conceal it.
- Yeah. - That's what it looks like.
♪ ♪
- Hold on.
♪ ♪
- Possibly pistol-whipped.
- So they choked him out.
♪ ♪
- No cell phone in the truck?
- Somebody wanted this guy dead.
- Why?
- That's the question.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
[clock ticking]
[indistinct chatter]
♪ ♪
- Yes?
- You might have a witness down here.
She said she reported it as a 1A.
narrator: The woman who called in the truck
as a suspicious vehicle arrives on scene.
- OK, I'll go talk to her.
Good morning.
Hey, my name is Corporal Blackburn.
I work with the Gwinnett County Police Department.
Can I ask you a couple questions?
You want to stand over here where the lights
are not blinding us?
Did you call to report the vehicle
on the side of the road?
- Right.
- Right, OK.
- Going southbound.
OK.
- Right.
- Then you already know the answer to that.
♪ ♪
- On Monday, did you ever hear a gunshot?
- No? Any commotion?
- No?
A short Hispanic male.
Do you remember what color shirt he was wearing?
- Black and gray, OK.
- OK.
- Could you put an age on the guy at all?
♪ ♪
- All right, I have your number.
There's no reason for you to hang around.
If I have any additional questions, I'll call you.
- Thank you, ma'am.
- Thank you. - [clears throat]
♪ ♪
A witness observed somebody walking away from the truck.
- It might be the suspect.
♪ ♪
- I mean, hopefully, we can get some good video
from across the street.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- You want to walk over and look at that business
and see if there's cameras in that parking lot or--
Just so we know. - Yeah.
[clock ticking]
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- We did a quick canvass.
There is a business across the street
that has three surveillance cameras
that are facing Paden Drive.
And going down Lawrenceville Highway,
we have a bunch of residential houses on the street.
So we'll come back out in the morning,
and we'll try to make contact with these people
and try to get video footage of the suspect walking away.
♪ ♪
Right now we need to get in contact with the wife.
Who did he pick up? Where did he go?
♪ ♪
- She know where he was going that morning?
♪ ♪
- OK, I'll go talk to her.
- It's right up the street. - Six-minute drive.
♪ ♪
- Ready?
[somber music]
[clock ticking]
♪ ♪
[indistinct radio chatter]
All right, let's do this.
[knocks on door]
[speaking Spanish]
[clattering]
- Hello.
- [speaking Spanish]
[somber music]
[clock ticking]
♪ ♪
So we gave her the death notification.
She didn't really have much information to provide us.
The victim wasn't into drugs, wasn't into gambling,
came home every night.
And she said the victim had a backpack with his work stuff.
Witness described the person that she observed
walking away from the truck with a backpack.
Also, she did have video from Monday morning
from the next-door neighbors...
♪ ♪
A suspicious person leaning up against a tree.
And that was around 6:15.
♪ ♪
- Yeah.
♪ ♪
[clock ticking]
- The wife says she found it strange
that he hadn't answered her all day Monday,
so she went to the neighbor's house.
narrator: Detectives pull up the video
from Guadalupe's next-door neighbor.
- That suspicious male was seen on camera
standing right outside the house,
like, 15 minutes before the wife says
her husband left for work.
♪ ♪
Her husband doesn't give anybody a ride,
doesn't have any coworkers or anything he normally picks up,
doesn't really bring anybody to the house.
They had no idea who the guy was.
Camera doesn't catch that male getting in the car,
doesn't catch the truck driving by.
But it looks like he's wearing long sleeves.
- Yeah. - Black. Like a hoodie.
- The jacket had a hood on it.
♪ ♪
- Takes his jacket off. He, like, covers him.
- Oh, that's him.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
[clock ticking]
♪ ♪
- Victim's family doesn't know who this person is.
We don't have him on camera walking into the trailer park.
But he's waiting for him to come out,
knowing that he leaves around 6:00, 6:30
to travel to his job.
So it kind of shows me that, you know,
these two know each other, you know?
We have a good timeline.
It's a very short window.
So, ultimately, we need to get the surveillance footage
from nearby businesses and the nearby trailers
where the victim was living at to get a good idea on this guy
and, you know, where he came from
and where he went after the homicide.
♪ ♪
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
narrator: The team fans out...
[knocks on door]
- Hey. How are you?
narrator: Canvassing the victim's neighborhood...
- Do you have access to your home surveillance cameras?
♪ ♪
narrator: And along the highway,
where they believe the suspect fled after the murder.
♪ ♪
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
[clock ticking]
- Hi.
Do you have cameras on the roadway?
- Check them real quick.
♪ ♪
[clock ticking]
We did collect video from businesses
and the victim's trailer park
from before and after the homicide.
There was no video of the suspect walking up
to Guadalupe's trailer from before the homicide,
but we do have video footage of a vehicle.
A green Honda CR-V entered the trailer park at 6:03,
right before the suspect is captured
leaning against the tree in front of Guadalupe's trailer.
Shortly after, the CR-V is exiting
the trailer park at 6:08.
So I believe that the CR-V
is how the suspect arrived that morning.
♪ ♪
So that's why we don't have him on camera
walking into the trailer park.
Somebody dropped him off.
He was on foot. - That's what I was thinking.
narrator: In the video captured after the murder...
♪ ♪
- Right here.
♪ ♪
narrator: The suspect can be seen walking away
from the crime scene.
- You see him carrying the black book bag.
That belongs to the victim.
♪ ♪
And let me just show you this video real quick.
♪ ♪
- It's, like, so close to seeing his face.
- Hispanic male, early 40s.
- I think 30 to 40 is a good range.
But you see his head?
Like, it's shaved off. You see that?
Or, like, balding or something?
- Yeah. - Mm-hmm.
♪ ♪
There's a camera on the Chevron...
♪ ♪
Straight across.
- Right there, yeah.
narrator: The suspect continues walking southbound
on Lawrenceville Highway...
but then turns off.
♪ ♪
- Looks like we got him
cutting through a neighborhood.
- Where is this? - Amberwood.
- Yeah.
All black with a book bag.
♪ ♪
[clock ticking]
- All right, so we have a direction of travel.
Try to get additional video.
Continue down and figure out where he went
and go from there.
[suspenseful music]
[clock ticking]
♪ ♪
narrator: Over the next several days,
the team continues to hunt for video...
- Hey, sir, do you have any cameras that face the roadway?
narrator: In hopes of tracking the suspect.
♪ ♪
- They got a camera right there.
- Hey, how are you?
We're trying to access cameras in this neighborhood.
All right.
♪ ♪
- That camera there is pointing this way.
- Yep.
♪ ♪
- Hola.
Do you have access to the Ring cameras?
♪ ♪
- See, this is where it gets tricky.
- Gracias. Thank you.
♪ ♪
- I guess he doesn't walk this way--
or doesn't walk past this location.
So now we're trying to pick him back up.
And there's these little side streets
where he could have turned down.
And that's where it gets a little bit tougher.
♪ ♪
Any luck down here?
- Nothing yet, no.
♪ ♪
- They don't got nothing up here on the right side.
♪ ♪
- Here goes nothing.
Hey, how are you?
- OK. Well, thank you for checking.
♪ ♪
Where the [bleep] does he go, man?
That's the question.
This is my 17th homicide.
Past homicides have been all solved.
So, you know, we're going to try to keep that trend.
And this one will get solved.
- You're going to be 17-0, brother.
I promise. We'll figure it out.
We just got to find out where he [bleep] up at.
♪ ♪
narrator: Nine days in...
- The last camera we lose him at is at Hillwood Drive.
We checked these houses right here,
and we don't have anybody captured walking past them.
So we're just going to go knock on some residential houses,
show them the picture of the suspect,
see if he possibly lives in the area,
if they observed him walking in the neighborhood.
♪ ♪
All righty.
♪ ♪
[car door closes]
Just going door to door to see if you recognize this person,
possibly a neighbor or--
♪ ♪
[knocks on door]
- You guys recognize this person?
Hispanic male, 5'5", 5'6", carrying a book bag.
- OK.
narrator: Then...
[phone rings]
- Hey.
narrator: Blackburn gets a call
from Detective Tyler Daniel,
who is canvassing several blocks away.
♪ ♪
- Araya. Hey, we might've got something.
Hop in. - Yep.
- Let's see.
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
All right.
♪ ♪
- I showed him a picture,
and immediately, he goes, oh, I know that guy.
He walks up and down the street all the time.
Says he has seen him with longer hair.
But recently he thinks he's gotten a haircut.
- The one up here.
- He's seen him, too? - Yeah.
- I had a guy who said the same thing.
Said he'd seen that guy walk around with a backpack before.
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
- It's looking good.
I mean, he--most likely living in this neighborhood.
We just got to figure out what house now.
So we're just going to keep pushing.
Unfortunately, this is a pretty big neighborhood.
So just keep knocking.
♪ ♪
[knocks on door]
We're just going door to door to see
if anybody in the neighborhood recognizes this individual.
- Hey, man.
How are you?
Good. Have you ever seen this gentleman?
[sighs]
- No one this way has seen him. - OK.
♪ ♪
narrator: After two weeks of canvassing...
- So my instinct is that he lives
somewhere in the neighborhood.
We just got to figure out where.
So we do a media release and go from there.
It's kind of like the last resort.
- Throwing spaghetti at a wall...
- Uh-huh. - Hoping it sticks.
♪ ♪
- [sighs]
♪ ♪
- We are about two miles
from where that father's body was found.
And now police need the public's help
to find a killer.
- The pictured suspect is the suspect
that's seen exiting the victim's vehicle.
- Anyone who might recognize the suspect
is urged to call Gwinnett County Police,
where they can remain anonymous.
♪ ♪
narrator: One month into the investigation...
♪ ♪
[phone rings]
- I'm the lead investigator.
narrator: Blackburn gets a call
from an anonymous source who knew the victim.
- Any information regarding the investigation?
- Araya.
- [speaking Spanish]
narrator: The source says, 15 years ago,
Guadalupe had bought some land
from the father of his ex-girlfriend.
- OK.
narrator: The source says that the father and another man
went to Guadalupe's home to pressure him to sell.
[speaking Spanish]
♪ ♪
narrator: The ex's address is on the same block
where neighbors saw the suspect walking.
♪ ♪
- We got a motive now as well. - Possibly.
We got a house.
♪ ♪
This can't be a coincidence.
The plan is to do some recon at the ex's house
to see who was coming and leaving
and to obtain some license-plate numbers
of the vehicles at the residence.
- All right.
♪ ♪
narrator: One hour later...
- We went to the ex's residence,
conducting surveillance.
- The house had a Honda CR-V parked in the driveway.
And we distinctly remember seeing a CR-V in the video
from the victim's trailer home coming in that morning.
So this is what they took today.
And this is the surveillance footage
from the day of the murder, the morning of the murder.
- We need to get the registered owner of this car.
- Right.
♪ ♪
- Let's see.
[indistinct chatter]
[tense music]
This is going to be the registered owner.
narrator: The CR-V is registered to the husband
of Guadalupe's ex.
♪ ♪
- I mean, we have this guy walking in the direction.
We have ties from the victim over property dispute.
I mean, I feel like we have enough for a search warrant
to hit the house.
♪ ♪
About to execute the search warrant.
♪ ♪
That's the house right there.
♪ ♪
[radio beeps]
10-7 with CID 120 and units.
♪ ♪
- [speaking Spanish]
narrator: Guadalupe's ex is outside.
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
- Go inside and talk? Gracias.
♪ ♪
Gracias. - OK.
narrator: Guadalupe's ex says her husband is a manager
at an underground cable installation company
and often travels for work.
narrator: Detectives show a surveillance picture
of the suspect.
♪ ♪
- OK.
narrator: Outside...
- Hey, man.
My name is Corporal Blackburn.
What is your name?
narrator: One of the sons of Guadalupe and his ex
returns home from school.
- Can we talk down here, bud?
- Yeah. - Cool.
It's very important that you're honest with me
because, you know, I got to figure out
who killed your father, OK?
- All right.
Do you remember this person?
♪ ♪
- You need to be 100% honest with me, OK?
I already know that he was staying here.
That's why we are here, OK?
There's no reason to cover up for this person.
This person that was staying with you, what does he go by?
♪ ♪
- Is that his first name?
- How long was Gavino living here?
- A year?
- So you think he's been living here for one year.
- So why do you think Gavino killed your father for?
- No, it was him. That's why we're here.
I have video of him leaving the murder scene
and coming to this neighborhood and coming to this house.
OK?
So we have to figure out,
you know, who this Gavino is, OK?
'Cause he's a bad person, OK?
He killed your father.
So that's why I need you to be 100% honest with me
and help me figure out how I can find Gavino
before he kills somebody else.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- When did Gavino finally leave this house
and didn't come back?
narrator: It was around the same time police released
the suspect's photo to the media.
- Do you know how he left this place?
No?
All right. We're gonna go back up here.
♪ ♪
narrator: The team executes their search warrant
for the house.
♪ ♪
- There was a 9-millimeter live round of ammunition.
- The victim was shot with a 9 millimeter.
- There's a folder of paperwork.
♪ ♪
We took pictures of it.
- Dude, the paperwork has his name.
♪ ♪
Oh, man.
That is a freaking burden off my chest now.
Got him identified.
Finally. Finally, finally, finally.
♪ ♪
narrator: 38-year-old Mario René López-Jolon
is originally from Guatemala,
where he worked in agriculture.
He came to the U.S. two years ago
in search of job opportunities to pay off debt
and send money back home to his wife and eight children.
♪ ♪
- Let's just ask her real quick if this is Gallo.
- Yeah.
- Is that Gavino?
- Uh-huh.
narrator: Guadalupe's ex now admits that her husband
took Gavino with him on his work trip...
narrator: To Huntsville, Alabama.
- There's enough for warrants, yeah.
Let's head back to 35.
I'm going to make some phone calls.
I'm going to get arrest warrants.
[pensive music]
♪ ♪
So I obtained arrest warrants against the suspect
for felony murder, malice murder.
I made contact with a U.S. Marshal in Alabama.
They're going to set up on this house
where we believe that suspect is staying at
right now for the night.
Myself and Corporal Araya are about to head out
and then link up with Huntsville PD
once we get there.
♪ ♪
[phone chimes]
Corporal Blackburn.
narrator: Huntsville police find Mario López-Jolon
and take him into custody.
- All right. I appreciate the help, man.
All right, thank you. Bye. Bye.
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
[car doors close]
Hopefully, we kind of get a full rundown
of, you know, why this all occurred.
♪ ♪
- Yeah.
♪ ♪
- Hey. How's it going? - Hey. Good. How are you?
♪ ♪
- Mario.
- Hola. - Hola.
My name is Corporal Blackburn.
I'm with the Gwinnett County Police Department.
- Come a long ways.
You want to stand up? Get the handcuffs off?
♪ ♪
- So we work for the Gwinnett County Police Department.
I was--on July 1st, I was the lead detective
for a homicide investigation for Guadalupe Rodriguez, OK?
♪ ♪
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
narrator: Mario says on the morning of the murder,
he went to Guadalupe's house to ask for his money back...
narrator: And that he then walked to a nearby gas station
to play their slot machines.
♪ ♪
- So, during the investigation, I learned a lot, OK?
And I kind of got an idea why this happened.
We want to talk to you to discuss
everything that happened and get your side of the story, OK?
♪ ♪
[suspenseful music]
- OK.
- He said, I think I want to get a lawyer
because it's going to be-- it's really difficult
for me to understand. - OK.
And that's your right, OK?
But I just want you to know that after--
you know, during the investigation,
there's video footage of you leaving the homicide scene, OK?
So I'm just going to leave it as that, OK?
♪ ♪
So you'll be extradited to the Gwinnett County Jail.
♪ ♪
- OK. [sniffs] - OK?
♪ ♪
I mean, it'd be nice to get
the suspect's side of the story and figure out, you know, why.
♪ ♪
I mean, was it something that he was given money
to kill this guy over land,
over Guadalupe's refusal for not selling the land back
to the ex's father in Mexico?
But it feels good.
This was one of my toughest cases that I've had.
And, ultimately, got the suspect arrested.
This was my 17th homicide.
So still 17-0.
♪ ♪
narrator: Two days later...
- OK.
narrator: Blackburn gets ahold
of Guadalupe's ex-girlfriend's father.
♪ ♪
- He says he doesn't know why, you know, Mario killed Lupe.
But I learned that Guadalupe's land will go
to Guadalupe's eldest son with the ex.
So that means the land will stay with the ex's family.
So I believe there's a possibility
that the land dispute was the motive for the homicide.
There's also, to me, you know, if Mario did get
the green light to kill Lupe, why didn't Mario get a cut?
And why is he still in the country?
You know, when he was arrested, he only had 2 phones
and $10 on him.
So it's kind of still, you know, the what-if.
But something that we just won't know.
♪ ♪
Guadalupe's death was very tragic.
From the victim's wife,
Guadalupe was a hardworking man.
He was a family man,
loving husband, devoted father.
So this is very tragic.
And, basically, now his children
will no longer have a father to raise them.
But hopefully, for his family, it's a good sense of relief
knowing that a suspect has been identified and captured,
giving the family closure from this investigation.
♪ ♪