Transcript of True Crime Vault: Killer on Campus

I found out my grandfather is Charles Manson.

A Hulu original true crime documentary.

I submitted my DNA to unlock my grandfather's sealed records.

This is all the phone calls that I had with Charles. She's the key. You're caught up in the biggest lie in the history of lies. To unlock Manson's untold secrets.

How could my blood do something so atrocious?

The Hulu original, My Grandfather Charles Manson. Now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ for bundle subscribers.

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Welcome to the 2020 True Crime Vault, where heart-stopping headlines come to life.

We were living in a bubble of happiness. Suddenly, our life just— changed forever. In one little second, everything was gone.

After 9 days, University of Florida freshman Christian Aguilar of Miami has not been found.

And now I really start to panic because I'm like, where was he all night?

Once a student is officially reported missing, all hell breaks loose.

It seems like you knew pretty early on that something terrible had happened to Christian.

Where do you think Christian is right now?

I just I really hope he is lost.

Christian!

We had been searching and searching and searching.

Any problems between him and Erica as far as their relationship goes?

As far as I know, I don't think so. I think they just started, so I don't think there would be problems right away.

This is a drawing of Erica?

Erica, yeah.

Has Erica seen this?

We were very happy, just the two of us. Everything was doing fine, and then all this chaos came forward.

And at that point, we saw a hitchhiker, just a random guy.

But this guy seemed— according to Pedro, seemed harmless.

My duct tape is missing.

That was the last time anybody had seen Christian alive.

They couldn't find a single hide nor hair of this man. He vanished.

Just doesn't feel real. I don't think the human mind can truly comprehend something that traumatic happening. With just a phone call, really.

University Police.

Yes, look, my name is Carlos Aguilar, and I'm the parent of Christian Aguilar, and he has not been answering our calls.

I started asking all my friends, have you seen Christian on campus? All of them like, no, no, no, I haven't seen him, I haven't seen him. And I'm getting, you know, more anxious.

His girlfriend just let us know that she hasn't seen him or talked to him since yesterday.

She asked me, "When was the last time that you talked to Christian?" I didn't understand what she said. Why you asking me that?

Immediately got a sense of urgency that I needed to get in contact with Christian. No answer.

The University of Florida student has been missing since Thursday. Christian, copy? Still no sign of the missing teen.

Search teams have been looking for Christian Aguilar for days now.

We do suspect foul play.

That feeling that you cannot do to anything that you don't know where he's at.

Police say time may be running out.

It's every parent's worst nightmare to send their kid to school, which they think is going to be a wonderful, happy experience, and then have them vanish without a trace.

What was Christian like as a kid?

Likes to read a lot, study, play music. Drawing.

He was very shy like me, but at the same time he was a very funny guy.

He used to make the family laugh.

A lot. He was pretty funny.

Christian was a very charismatic person. He loved to make people laugh, he loved to make people smile.

Christian was just absolutely brilliant, but most importantly always aspiring to be someone and looking out for his future.

Carlos and Claudia Aguilar made their way to the United States from Cali, Colombia, and they made a life for themselves in Miami. Christian was born in the United States in 1993. A few years later, his younger brother Alexander was born.

Were you guys close growing up?

Chris and I were absolutely close. Being the younger brother, obviously you want to hang out with the older brother as much as you can.

As an older brother, would Christian protect you more? Would he pick on you a little bit? Combination of both?

Yeah, Chris would definitely pick on me. But since you're brothers, you're allowed to kind of get away with it.

The Aguilar wanted the best for their sons, so they enrolled them at Doral Academy in Miami. Christian had a very tight-knit, close group of friends that included Erica Freeman and Pedro Bravo.

Pedro was somebody that Chris thought was just hilarious. And Pedro is a very funny person. In high school, he was quick with the jokes, very kind.

Mucho talent.

Very talented, very intelligent. I tell you, very intelligent, very responsible.

Pedro is very creative. He's into moss painting. He also journals a lot and really, really enjoys drawing and art.

What was Erika's relationship to Christian in high school?

They were just good friends. They participated in a lot of events together.

Both Pedro and Christian saw in Erica a smart, sweet, shy, kind, and beautiful woman who had goals for herself and was a really good friend to everyone around her.

We hung out a lot, and Christian had the car, so, you know, we would just hop in his car.

Christian hung out with his friends a lot. He would drive them around town on a regular basis, but he always found time for his studies, even making honor roll. This group went their separate ways for college. Christian was accepted to the University of Florida.

Florida was his dream school.

Why do you think being a Florida Gator was so important to him?

You know, we, we're kids of immigrants. He would have been one of the first cousins in our family to graduate from a university, and he wanted to challenge himself.

Did you ever get a sense early on with Christian that he was destined to do something great with his life?

He told us that he wanted to become a biomedical engineer because he wanted to help people to rehabilitate and to accommodate them to have a better life.

And he couldn't wait to move all the way up to North Florida and go to Gainesville.

After graduation, What was Pedro planning on doing?

He was planning on going to the FIU.

He was very, very smart.

He had a good future.

Erika Freeman wasn't a student at the University of Florida, but she was a student at the college nearby. And very often people will do a few years at Santa Fe and then transfer over maybe their junior year.

Do you remember how excited Christian was? Before going off to college?

You couldn't wipe the smile off that kid if you tried.

So he moved to Gainesville in the summer?

Yes. So Chris moved to Gainesville in the middle of June of 2012.

5 hours from Miami. That made you a little bit afraid that he was going to be a little farther away.

He was our first son. I was very proud, but at the same time, it was hard.

Latin families are very tight, especially in Miami. People don't necessarily move until they're married. So I can imagine Christian being nervous, but also feeling kind of relieved that a few of his friends, including Erica, were also going. Some familiar faces, you know, to see when you move, I think is comforting. Shortly after Christian moved to Gainesville, he started hanging out with Erica again. She was a little buffer against all the homesickness he was starting to feel. And before long, that relationship blossomed into a romantic one.

It was just something really strange. It's like when you have a crush on someone for so long, I guess, and then you find out, oh, they also have that huge crush on you.

Christian got accepted into his dream school and at the same time has this relationship. He was on top of the world.

Christian is doing so well in school. He has a girlfriend. Everything seems like it's perfect.

We were living in a bubble of happiness. Suddenly our life just changed forever.

It's been 3 days since Christian Aguilar was last seen.

After 9 days, University of Florida freshman Christian Aguilar of Miami has not been found.

In one little second, everything was gone.

Are you ready for some Gator football?

If you live in Florida, the University of Florida is the big dream school. The academics are great, the partying is great, the atmosphere is intense.

It's nothing but open field ahead.

There is a ton of University of Florida pride.

It's a sea of orange and blue.

The place comes absolutely alive on Saturdays for, uh, for football game days.

Let's go Gators!

Here we go!

In 2010, 2011, 2012, football was massive. One of my first stories for the Alligator was about whether Tim Tebow was going to be named a saint.

I think Chris was excited for a few things, like football season. He got his season tickets. That might have been a part of why he chose Florida, but I, I do think academically is kind of what drove him the most.

I was very proud, but at the At the same time, I was afraid because he was living far away from us.

We told him, "Every day you communicate with us.

Every day." Did he communicate with you guys every single day?

Yes.

Every single day.

Christian reconnects with Erica Freeman, who was one of his friends from high school and is now attending Santa Fe College, when they get up to Gainesville. By September, they were dating.

The way he looked at me, I don't know how to explain it. Someone just gives you that much Just with their eyes, just with the way they looked at you, like, you know, "I don't need anyone else. I need you." And that's how he would describe it, and that's how I felt.

I think they loved each other in a way that an 18-year-old would fall in love over a summer. The fact that they were both in a new city was kind of an accelerant almost to the relationship.

But down in Miami, Pedro Bravo's parents say that he felt increasingly isolated. And that prompted him to move to Gainesville that August and enroll at Santa Fe College.

He saw his group of friends were going up there, so he decided from one day to the next, "Mom, I'm going to Gainesville." And I told him, "But how?" And he said, "No, because my friends are going." For Erica and Christian, it was just very normal to talk every single day, particularly at night.

Kind of checking in on each other. And on the night of September 20th, Erica wasn't able to get a hold of Christian.

My friends were like, you know, maybe his phone got wet. You know, maybe he fell asleep somewhere. There's a perfectly reasonable explanation for this.

She called him and texted him and called him and texted him over and over, and he never responded.

Erica decides to just go out there to his dorm to check in and see if she finds him.

He lived on the first floor, so I just go up to the window and I start knocking on the window. And his roommate comes out and I'm explaining to him, you know, like, Christian's not answering me. I'm really concerned. Like, I don't care what time he gets in. Just please, can you ask him to call me?

Christian was hanging out with Pedro all day, but he didn't touch base with Erica that night. And she got worried. So she started calling Pedro. And at one point Pedro picked up.

Around 4 o'clock, I called Pedro and it starts ringing. First thing I'm asking was like, where's Christian? And he's just like, you know, listen, you know, it's late. I'm sure he's— He made it home, he just didn't call you.

When she wakes up the next day, she calls the roommate again to find out where Christian is. He still hasn't seen him. Christian never came home.

He was like, oh yeah, Christian never came to the apartment. And now I really start to panic because I'm like, where was he all night?

I receive a phone call in my work, and it was Erika almost screaming.

What was she saying to you?

She asked me, when was the last time that you talked to Christian, because I'm trying to call him since yesterday. He's not answering me.

Carlos, what was it like getting that call from your wife telling you that his girlfriend can't find Christian?

I immediately hung up with her, called Christian.

No answer. No answer.

When Erica became concerned because she couldn't get in touch with Christian, she went to the university police department to report him missing, and she took Pedro Bravo with her.

At the same At the same time, Christian Aguilar's parents were calling our communications center.

His girlfriend has been trying to contact him since yesterday, and he's not responding. He normally responds to his girlfriend right away, and if she's so concerned about it, we are concerned right now. This is not his normal behavior.

Kids get reported missing on college campuses all the time. Sometimes it's just as simple as going to the classroom where he's supposed to be, seeing that he's in there, and saying, "Hey, can you please call home?" We had checked his residence hall on campus.

He wasn't there. Christian's roommate told police it wasn't strange that he didn't come home that night, but what was out of the ordinary was that he'd left his laptop on his desk. We had checked his classes. He never showed up to them.

I did advise the instructor that if he shows up to have him call the station.

We can't get a hold of him by cell phone. There's something really going on here.

The day before, he got in contact with Claudia.

It was a text message. He got the vaccine for the flu.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Nothing.

While at the campus police station, Pedro tells police that he'd been hanging out with Christian the day before.

Let's see if we can locate Christian and figure out where he may have been, please. When I first met with Pedro, I asked him to take me through his last meeting with Christian.

We went, he took his flu shots at campus, and then I'm like, "Oh, do you want to go get something to eat?" And he's like, "Oh, okay, sure." So we went to— we got in my car and we went to Zaxby's Chicken. And then he's like, "Oh, yeah, can we pull into the Best Buy?" And I was like, "Sure," because he wanted to get the new Kanye West CD. So we looked around and we found the the new Kanye West CD, and he got it, and then we left.

Pedro went on to tell me that as they were driving, he and Christian got into an argument. Pedro got upset with Christian, and Christian demanded to be let out of the vehicle.

So I stopped the car and I let him get off and I drove away because I was— I didn't want to deal with that anymore. But like, Well, as I was driving away, like, I really regret it now because I wish I could have gone back. I wish I could have kept driving and be like, no, screw you. We're going to— I don't care. You're not going to get off. Like, I wish I could have kept driving. And then, like, he'd be home right now, or he'd be doing something right now. And then that's the last I heard of him.

My whole intent on interviewing Pedro was give me some indication that, you know, some lead that we can follow up on. What do you know about What Christian was thinking, what his plans were. Do you think Chris would have been upset enough yesterday to hurt himself about you guys having an argument?

I really hope not. I don't think so.

Police also talked to Erica.

Hey, Dylan.

Close this case.

Somebody walks by.

I was telling them, no, no, no, we're doing just fine. We're doing great, actually. And he's not one to not even answer me. So it's been very strange. I don't know where he is.

Scrambling for any clues, police learned from Pedro about an impulsive decision he says he and Christian made. They picked up a hitchhiker along this road.

While they're in the course of driving around, Pedro tells me they pick up this hitchhiker.

It's two of us against one person. If anything happens, then I think he'd be in the back seat.

So we—

We'd overpower him if anything bad happens.

You can't help but think, could this third person have anything to do with Krishnan's disappearance?

I was in my AP English class at the RAL. It was around 10, 11 o'clock in the morning, and the PA system goes off. My father's there to pick me up. When I finally got to my father, who was waiting in the waiting area of the high school, he was in tears.

Had you ever seen your father in that state before?

No, I've never seen my father anywhere close to that. He didn't have the words to tell me anything. We just knew something had happened to Chris. We vaguely know that he's just missing. From there, we picked up my mother at her work, and it was a straight shot from Doral straight to Gainesville.

That's normally a 5-hour drive from Miami. How long did it take you to get there?

3 hours.

You were going fast.

That was going ballistic.

As Christian's family rushed to Gainesville, Pedro Bravo was here inside the University of Florida Police Department trying to help them find his missing friend.

Where do you think Christian is right now?

I don't know. I really hope— I, I have a feeling that maybe he's walking somewhere. Maybe, maybe he took a wrong direction because he doesn't— he like, he doesn't know the place as well as I do right now.

You spoke to Pedro on the way up to Gainesville. What did he tell you?

They, they got into an argument And Christian opened the door and got out of the car and he left it in there. So that made me feel, you know, peace. Say probably Christian got lost.

As Pedro is talking to police, he tells them that he and Christian decided to pick up a hitchhiker while driving around the day before.

Yeah, just thought, we're like, why not? Because it'd be an interesting experience to pick up someone like that on the road.

He's never done that before. But this guy seemed, according to Pedro, seemed harmless.

This guy just looked very tall and very like, like, like a sort of a gentle giant sort of thing.

Do you remember anything about, you said he had a hat?

Yeah, cowboy hat.

Pedro tells me they drove around, listened to this hitchhiker's story about what brought him to Gainesville for approximately 10 minutes.

He's like, just drop me off right over there. Then I pull into like this storage place, what looks like a storage place. I remember seeing storage somewhere. And I'm like, I pull in there, he gets off, and I do a U and leave there.

He sat in the back seat of Pedro's car and according to Pedro was playing with a roll of duct tape.

And I checked my car to see if there was like, if there was anything missing because I had a bunch of my art supplies in the back. My duct tape is missing.

Police collect security video, and they're able to piece together much of Pedro and Christian's day. Although it doesn't capture that hitchhiker that Pedro claims they picked up, the footage largely matches Pedro's account.

The police got security camera footage from all over the place.

You see Pedro and Christian together on campus at the Hub. You also see them hit up a Best Buy.

They look like just a couple of guys hanging out. Nothing odd about that footage.

The next time security camera footage caught the two of them, it was in Pedro Bravo's car inside a nearby Walmart parking lot.

At almost 7 o'clock in the evening, the surveillance cameras catch the car leaving the Walmart parking lot.

That was the last time anybody had seen Christian alive.

Christian's mother and father, Claudia and Carlos Aguilar, raced up from Miami and arrived in Gainesville that same afternoon.

Did you start searching immediately?

Immediately.

Where did you go first?

We started walking around the trails, screaming Christian. Christian, we are here. Where are you? Ray Juan, please answer. Your mom is here.

We know Gainesville. Gainesville is full of swamps. It was a swamp. And we went inside, and it was an alligator nearby. And we were not scared at all. We just wanted to find Christian.

The last place that Christian was seen was in the Gainesville city limits. So we felt it was necessary to turn this over to the Gainesville Police Department.

I got a telephone call from our lieutenant, and he said that the University of Florida Police Department had a missing student and asked if I would respond to the University of Florida Police Department. University Police Department contacted us about, uh, Christian missing.

Yes.

And, uh, we're going to be taking over the investigation. Pedro seemed to be a young man who was A little bit meek and mild. How long have you known Christian?

For 4 years, all of high school. He's been, he's been one of my really good friends. I brought him with me into art class.

What high school do you go to?

Doral Academy Charter High School.

After interviewing Pedro for 15, 20, 30 minutes, he explains the, the relationship between Erika Freeman, Christian Aguilar, and himself. What's your relationship with Erika?

I dated her for 2 years, and from then I just became friends.

Erika Freeman dated Pedro Bravo while they were in high school.

Erika broke it off before she moved up to Gainesville. When she got up to Gainesville, she started dating Christian.

Has, uh, Christian been seen?

Christian's been dating her for From what I know, uh, from— for 3 weeks, a month, I guess.

How do you know that?

He's the one that told me.

And how'd you handle that?

At the beginning, it was kind of rough, but then after that, I'm like— I'm like— I'm— in a way, I was glad it was Chris and not someone I didn't know, because I— like, I knew Chris, and I knew what type of person he is, and I knew if anything happened, he could take care of her, sort of thing.

Pedro says he's happy for Erika and Christian.

It's very, like, soap opera-like.

But it turns out they had been keeping their relationship a secret. Erika shows me some text messages between her and Christian from the previous day about, "Don't tell him.

Are you going to tell him?" Everything was doing fine, and then all this chaos came forward, and we didn't— we didn't know how to handle it.

For 25 years, the Super Troopers pushed buttons.

Hey, you stop laughing right now!

Pushed limits.

Give me a liter of cola.

And pushed their luck.

You boys like Mexico?

But it's never too late to push things a little farther.

Oh!

Oh!

Barba, that's my mom!

On August 7th, the Super Troopers return. No new info on the guy who did it.

Oh, so it couldn't have been a woman?

Sexist! You ever see Ocean's 8?

Enough!

Super Troopers 3, only in theaters August 7th.

Rated R. Under 17, not admitted without a parent.

In a sunny Californian suburb, one family's home is unusually quiet.

When detectives walked into that house, they said that it was like time just stood still.

It's 2010 and the McStay family is nowhere to be found. Inside the home, no clear answer where the family could have gone.

Husband, wife, and two children, all gone, like poof, disappeared.

The search for the McStays quickly captures the nation. But for years, the search for answers only brings more questions.

Who's ever heard of an entire family going missing?

A family of 4 doesn't just drop off the face of the earth with no contact.

Is this a family on the run, or is the truth far more sinister? From ABC Audio and 20/20, this is What Happened to the McStays, coming August 11th wherever you get your podcasts. Or subscribe to 20/20 True Crime+ on Apple Podcasts for ad-free episodes early access to new episodes, and so much more.

Tonight, authorities in Gainesville are searching for a missing University of Florida student who could be in danger.

University of Florida student Christian Aguilar is still missing.

Aguilar was last seen by a Miami native, Pedro Bravo.

At a Best Buy in Gainesville.

Once a student is officially reported missing, all hell breaks loose.

In 2012, I was the university editor at the Independent Florida Alligator, which is the student-run newspaper that covers UF and the Gainesville community. The first notice that we got about Christian came from GPD. We got it up online as soon as possible. It was a student who was going missing, one of our own. We knew that we had to cover it immediately.

We had multiple detectives respond, start checking information on telephones, on apartments, just where, uh, if anybody's seen.

Upon speaking with Pedro, police learned that he and Erica dated in high school. Erica was now dating Christian.

And your friend's dating your ex-girlfriend?

Oh no, but I'm okay with that because I like I know he's a good guy.

You're okay with that?

Mm-hmm.

I didn't buy that at all. Just in the way that Pedro talked about it, you could tell that he was not real happy about it, but he was telling me he was happy.

It was crucial for the police to try to understand the dynamic between these friends, Christian, Pedro, and Erica.

Okay. So I understand that you and Pedro were dating all through high school.

Basically, yeah, it was going to be 3 years in October, so about 3 years.

Yeah, we would go out, we went on dates, we texted all the time. He was a little funny, he was very sarcastic, he was, he was kind of a class clown a little bit. He was able to make me laugh so easily.

In high school, Christian, Erica, and Pedro were all part of the same circle of friends. They even went to prom together. But as graduation approaches Erika and Pedro break up.

I started seeing problems in December of last year, of 2011. It was simple things, but they kept adding up, and I kept making up excuses for him, and I just— I didn't like the fact that I had to keep making up excuses that, "Oh, no, it's not his fault." Erika Freeman ended up breaking up with Pedro Bravo right before they graduated. He was very emotional about it. He cried a lot. He was very— I mean, it was not— What I was expecting at all when I broke up with him.

Not only do they break off this relationship, but they also part ways. Erica decides to go to Santa Fe College, and at the time, Pedro had a full ride at a university in Miami, and he decided to stay home.

As police try to learn more about Pedro and Erica's past, they bring in other friends from that tight-knit circle at Doral Academy.

Is he in love with Erica?

Yeah, they were— they were in a 3-year relationship. Almost 3-year relationship, and she broke up with him before the summer because she was gonna come up here. And so he came here kind of to like get her back.

Pedro couldn't accept their breakup. He couldn't accept that things were over, and that culminated in him driving up to Gainesville and going to school there so he could be closer to her.

He decided to move here 2 days before classes started because he was visiting, and he's like, hey, Erica lives here, I might as well stay to see if she'll take me back. What was the relationship with Christian and Erica, uh, as far as you know?

As far as I knew, they were just really close friends.

After moving to Gainesville, Erica Freeman runs into Christian and they develop a relationship, but they were keeping it secret because they didn't want to hurt Pedro.

Were you telling other people about this or were you hiding that?

No, we were keeping it quiet. We were trying to just We were just trying to keep it between us. I mean, not just— we didn't have a problem saying it. Like, we would walk around campus holding hands and stuff. We didn't have a problem with it. We knew people in Miami would not be comfortable with the idea of us dating because, again, I had just broken up with Pedro.

But Erica and Christian's relationship wouldn't stay quiet for long.

Pedro found out about Erica and Christian through mutual friends, some of whom from Doral Academy had also gone up to University of Florida in Santa Fe.

Christian talked to Nadia and said, yeah, Erica and I are dating, that, that we're like, she's my girlfriend. So then in turn, Nadia tells Alyssa what she heard from Chris, right?

So she goes and she tells Pedro. It's, it's, it's very like, uh, so proper. Like, we, we don't, we don't— like, me and Christian were very uncomfortable with all of it. We didn't want him to come to Gainesville. We were very happy just the two of us. Um, everything was doing fine, and then all this chaos came forward, and it was just— it was surprising, and we didn't— we didn't— we didn't know how to handle it.

Once the rumors got out that Christian and Erica were seeing each other, he would say that it would— like, that he was sad about it. This is the 34th Street Wall in Gainesville. It's a local landmark lined with graffiti. On September 7th, 2012, Pedro and Erica met here. He wanted to to confront her about dating Christian.

He showed me a picture of me standing next to Christian, and I was just like, listen, we're friends, you know, we're hanging out, you know, we're not dating, we're just hanging out.

But you lied to him.

I did lie to him, yes. I—

why did you lie?

I just felt like it wasn't the appropriate time to tell him that, you know. I don't want to push this kid at all. I don't want him to think anything, you know, that might throw him over the edge.

Pedro was okay with Erica at that point?

Yeah.

He didn't indicate to you he was angry or that she's lying or that, you know—

Not at all.

He believed it.

He really did.

He told me that he wanted to talk to Chris to, like, kind of clear the air.

His motivation was to get with Christian to talk to him about the relationship he started with Erica Freeman. So he had mutual friends call Christian to arrange this get-together.

Once Christian was with Pedro, I had not heard from him. The last thing he told me was, was, "Have a great day in class," and, and, um, "I'm gonna go talk to Pedro and act like we're not dating." That was the last time she would ever hear from him.

After they met up, Erica did not hear from Christian again.

I'm kind of hoping that he kind of got lost in the woods and that they'll find him because he got lost and couldn't get out. It's really traumatizing.

This whole situation. Yes, certainly, I understand that.

The location where Pedro Bravo was living had its own surveillance cameras at the very front, so we were able to see him come and go, which direction he turned.

Hoping to establish a timeline of his whereabouts after dropping off Christian, police talked to one of Pedro's roommates. He came in around 9. He stayed for—

he couldn't have been at home longer than 5 minutes before he left again.

I was able to see, like, the very last of, like, his shoulder to his head leaving.

He didn't look dirty. He didn't look sweaty.

Was he carrying anything?

Was he, you know—

I didn't.

I didn't notice him. I didn't notice anything in his hand.

And when he left was the last time I've seen Pedro.

With little evidence to go on, police asked Pedro for permission to search his car.

There were some suspicious items that were located in there.

And what they find fuels the investigation.

When Claudia and Carlos, Christian's parents, first got here, they were determined they weren't going home until they found their son.

The search for Christian Aguilar started small. Like most missing persons cases do. I distinctly remember Claudia and Carlos Aguilar, Christian's parents, coming up and walking through the woods looking for their son.

Christian!

Alex!

Christian!

On the search, Christian's family was on the front lines. I remember seeing their interviews pleading for help.

I'm looking for people's heart. They can come and help me. I'm looking for somebody that can walk with me.

That's the only thing that I'm asking.

You were never going to leave Gainesville without Christian.

No, I told my wife, we're not leaving. We don't care if we lose the house. We don't care if we lose everything. You know, Christian is missing. We're going to find Christian.

You go out every day. My son is missing. I don't know what's happened to him. I don't know where he's at. I can't imagine how I would deal with that. I don't know that anybody could.

The search efforts continue, and police are encouraging more people to volunteer to help find Chris Aguilar.

Once word started getting around Gainesville, the outpouring of support from the Gainesville community and the University of Florida was completely mind-blowing.

The family needs help out here. We need volunteers.

Community volunteers on foot fanning through the woods of Gainesville. Why do you think the community responded to Christian's disappearance the way they did?

I don't know what about it just kind of sparked something in the people.

University of Florida freshman Christian Aguilar of Miami has not been found, dead or alive.

The problem is we didn't know where to search. There was really no boundary of where our search was because we didn't know what we didn't know. So we sat and looked at everything. Matt Gackel was our digital forensics expert detective at the Gainesville Police Department at the time.

Pedro did consent to a search of his phone initially. It just seemed that he was very worried about Christian, where he might be, what might have happened. The initial review of the data was to, you know, reconcile the phone data with Pedro's statements to then hopefully be able to find where Christian may have been.

Matt Gekkel was able to determine that the two of them were together for a long period of time, directions they went.

As we continue our coverage of the missing 18-year-old University of Florida student, it's been 3 days since Christian Aguilar was last seen.

The search for Christian was one of the biggest searches in Florida for any missing person.

Hundreds of volunteers this weekend combing through the woods of Gainesville. Still no sign of the missing teen.

There was dogs, helicopters, horses, 4x4s. There were law enforcement from all over the state helping to assist in the search.

We had people from Miami, we had people from We had people from South Florida. We had people from their home in Colombia coming to Gainesville to look for Christian.

How involved was Erica in the search and how was she holding up during this time?

Erica was extremely involved. I do feel like we felt like we had to stick by each other. She is such a sweet person, so sincere, and she was with us from the very beginning.

We had been searching and searching and searching, you know, screaming out his name every forest we got to, every road we got to, every river we passed.

There were tips that were coming in, people claiming to have seen Christian. What did you make of them?

Every time that somebody says, "We saw Christian in this area," doesn't matter if they were right or wrong, we immediately dispatch a search group to that area to search from there. Area and report back to us.

We're going to run everything down. We're going to investigate everything.

There were some tips, but nothing that led to anything that would help in locating Christian.

I think the most difficult part for me was seeing every day the faces of my family completely in pain, crying with no hope, and I couldn't do anything about it.

Hundreds of people combing the woods every day, looking everywhere, and they couldn't find a single "Heidner hair" of this man. It's like he vanished.

I asked Pedro at the time, "Would you mind if we went through your vehicle to see if Christian maybe left anything that might give us an indication where he might be?" And Pedro volunteered to allow us to take a look inside his vehicle.

Pedro's blue Chevy Blazer is a mess. There are wrappers, bottles, and old paint cans all over the place. And on the floor in the back of the SUV, police find a bunch of crumpled up receipts, including this one for a late-night Big Mac. I ended up finding a McDonald's receipt that was dated when he had told Sergeant Wilder he was in bed passed out because he had taken sleeping pills.

Mr. Bravo has told the investigators that he is in his apartment from 7:00 the evening before until he leaves to accompany Erica to the Gainesville Police Department in the early morning hours of the next day.

That kind of blows his alibi of being at home at that period. Out of the water. And why didn't you tell me that the first time?

I forgot. Honestly, I'm sorry, but I forgot.

You forgot?

I, like, I might have been drowsy from the pills, and I don't remember.

So Pedro changed his version because of the receipt. And every time that we would ask him questions and go through, it seemed the version would change a little bit.

As Pedro's story evolves, there are more and more red flags for detectives.

There's one thing that's bugging me that I have to tell you, that if I don't tell you, it's going to—

You're right.

I can't keep everything from you. And I have to tell you one thing.

What detectives would eventually find would crack this case wide open.

When police found that journal, they thought that was as good a motive as you could get for what happened to Christian.

The search for Christian Aguilar continues today.

Police say time may be running out.

The University of Florida student has been missing since Thursday. You're just walking around a wooded area screaming your brother's name.

We know that he's not coming back. I know when somebody's coming back, when they ain't coming back.

Says essentially to him, I don't want his parents to find a pile of bombs.

Inside the car, we found a journal.

It sounds like the mind of a sociopath.

Wanted to orchestrate more murders of more students in Gainesville, make it seem like there was a serial killer.

It was just mind-blowing.

Remember, Chris has to disappear. Chris has to go missing. This is the plan.

You believe that he lured Christian to his death? A eyewitness has come forward, verifies that Christian got up and walked away. Now you're speaking out for the first time. Did you kill Christian Aguilar? Throughout the day, as Pedro Bravo was questioned, His story wasn't adding up to investigators. Then a McDonald's receipt is found in Pedro's vehicle, and that raises more questions about exactly what he was doing late the night before.

One of the other things that we located was some security footage from Scrub's Car Wash of Pedro at 1 in the morning power washing the underside of his Blazer. I like a clean car like anybody, but I'm not sure that 1 o'clock in in the morning is going to be the time that I'm going to get out and spend 10 minutes washing the underside of my blazer.

At some point, I had to confront him and say, look, this doesn't make any sense whatsoever. What really happened?

There's one thing that's bugging me that I have to tell you, that if I don't tell you, it's gonna— I don't know, it's one thing I have to tell you because, uh, it's— you're right, I can't keep everything from you, and I have to tell you one thing.

He said He didn't ask me to let him out. I told him to get out because he said something nasty to me.

At one point, I made the comment about his— the girl that he has a crush on, and he got angry at that. But then he came back with, maybe you should just, like, maybe you should just fucking kill yourself. And that's when I turned around and punched him straight in the face. And that's what I told— like, he want— like, he got up, but I told him, get out.

—of the car. And then it changed to, well, I got out and we had a fight and I beat him up and then I left him there.

I stopped the car, I got out, and then I started a small fight with him. OK. And then I left.

That evolved to, well, I beat him there, but he was still alive. Was he breathing? Yeah, but barely. Pedro. What really happened to Christian? And then I finally confronted him. I was like, Christian's not coming back, is he? If that's all that happened, he would have went somewhere, called the police to get his phone and to get his stuff. No. We know that he's not coming back, okay? I know he's not coming back. I've been doing this for too long. I've been doing this for 30 years. I know when somebody's coming back, when they ain't coming back. He ain't coming back. You know, you know he's not coming back. He just kind of moved his head. He didn't say anything. He didn't say no. He didn't say yes.

He's pressed by Detective Randy Roberts, who says essentially to him, I don't want his parents to find a pile of bones. Can you show me where he is?

Why don't we do this, okay? I'm helpless. Why don't me and you and somebody take a ride? Let's go see if he's still there. Okay. Okay. You're gonna be honest?

Show me where exactly where he is. Exactly where he was.

We drove the route with Pedro for him to show us where did you pick up the hitchhiker, where did you drop off the hitchhiker, where did you leave Christian.

After hours of searching for Christian, we still didn't find anything.

Police don't find any sign of Christian, but they do find something interesting in Pedro's apartment.

The search of Pedro's apartment produced a lot. It produced a journal.

Pedro was an avid artist and journaler. He kept a lot of notes and quotes about his life. His life and his thoughts in a diary, and he wrote very often about how sad he was, about how he was— wanted to hurt himself, he wanted to die.

Pedro's journal provided a glimpse into his mind and a glimpse into what he was thinking and planning.

The drawings and statements made inside this journal clearly indicated that Pedro was struggling with dealing with his breakup with Erica and loss of communications with his friends and showed a mindset on his part of being very determined to win Erica back, to remove any obstacles that would prevent him from doing that.

Your friend's dating your ex-girlfriend.

Oh no, but I'm okay with that because I, like, I know he's a good guy.

He's telling me he's happy for Erica. He's happy for Christian. And this journal is completely opposite. He was totally obsessed with her.

At this point in the investigation, we're doing everything we can to try and find Christian. As part of that, I requested his cell site records. Unfortunately, his records stopped on the day that he disappeared.

One of the things that Detective Gekel was able to find is that Pedro's phone was put into airplane mode for quite a bit of time on the day that Christian went missing. That told us a lot of things.

The other big piece of information— that we discovered on the device was the app usage log. It's a log that an iOS device keeps that shows the amount of time that particular applications were used.

He was able to determine that the flashlight mode was used for 40-some-odd minutes in the middle of the night.

And police say that running a forensic search of Pedro's computer hard drive yields chilling results.

We analyzed that computer for evidence of the crime. It had searches all related to getting away with murder, giving people sleeping pills. How would you kill people with sleeping pills? He at some point viewed a meme of someone asking Siri, where can I hide my roommate?

The evidence is indicating that something bad has happened to Christian. He hasn't called. He hasn't been seen.

How concerning was it when you learned that he'd purchased a shovel? 3 decades ago, a young woman named Angie Dodge is found brutally murdered in her bedroom in Idaho Falls. It was probably the worst case I've ever seen. It is the one that sticks with me.

Police zero in on a suspect and put a man behind bars.

I don't know what the hell you guys want.

Do you think we'd be wasting our time and wasting your time if we didn't think you're involved?

But as the years pass, doubts emerge about whether the real killer was ever caught.

That's when Angie's own mother embarks on a decades-long mission to uncover the truth.

23 years I've been trying to put this puzzle together, and the center's missing. I've always been told the truth will come out.

You can't hide the truth.

Listen to The Snare, a new series from ABC Audio.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app, and ad-free on Amazon Music. Stassi is back.

Most people know me from Vanderpump Rules, but I'm a mom, a wife, a podcaster.

I'm traumatized by reality TV, but I can't stay away from it.

It's like, if they're not on your payroll, they don't get to be in your life. Wow.

Reality has never been this real. Real. Not everyone is built for this. I'm not here to ice anyone out.

But when you said that— Don't cut me off.

This time I get to do it on my terms.

I showed up for you.

What could go wrong?

Uh, House of Stassi, July 29th on Freeform and next day on Hulu.

Now a South Florida family is searching for their loved one, and police say Time may be running out. The University of Florida student has been missing since Thursday. Christian! As the search continues for Christian, authorities are conducting a search of their own at Pedro's apartment, looking for clues that might help in the investigation.

In his bedroom, there was a closet, and in the closet, there was a suitcase. Suitcase, sort of like Russian nesting dolls. Inside the suitcase, there was another suitcase, and inside that suitcase was a backpack. Inside the backpack was Christian Aguilar's wallet, his Florida driver's license, his University of Florida identification card.

The backpack wasn't the only thing that you guys found inside Pedro's apartment, right?

Correct. We actually did 3 search warrants at his apartment. We ended up finding receipt from Lowe's.

The accompanying security footage there of Pedro purchasing a shovel, some insecticide, and a bottle of Gatorade.

How concerning was it when you learned that he'd purchased a shovel?

Well, it was very concerning because I knew that he would probably only use that to hide evidence or a body.

One of the first charges that was brought against Pedro was the failure to render aid. Under his own admission, he got into a physical altercation with Christian, injured him, and left him on the side of the road.

And the car was impounded at Gainesville the local police department in town, where we got a search warrant for Eric. And inside the car, we found a journal. There's blood with paint poured on it. And the evidence is indicating that something bad has happened to Chris. He hasn't called. He hasn't been seen. He's not where Pedro said he left him.

Eric went to jail and visited Pedro. And she thought he had done it, and he knew where Christian was. So she just kept pushing him.

I need your help because we have nothing.

Do you understand? Nothing. How? How is that possible? How did he just vanish?

But the whole time, Pedro just denied it.

Erica, I don't know what happened after I left him.

Friends and former classmates, teachers all came out to Miami's North Trail Park. They were all praying and hoping that young man will be found safe soon. So far, absolutely no sign of him.

About 8 days into the search, we had enough evidence and we had enough reason to believe that this was making a turn from a missing persons investigation into a murder investigation.

The evidence continues to mount in the murder case of missing UF student and Christian Aguilar of Miami. His friend Pedro Bravo wearing the suicide protection vest while making his first court appearance Saturday on the charge now of first-degree premeditated murder in the case.

I think when Pedro was arrested, there is some level of disbelief, like, no, this can't be Pedro, because this is one of Chris's close friends.

At the time that the decision was made to place Pedro Bravo under arrest for the murder of Christian Aguilar. Christian Aguilar's body had not been found.

As Christian's parents, how did you manage to cope with the stress, the uncertainty during the search?

Only God can answer you that question. You see your family members crying and you cannot do nothing about it.

Over a period of time, they came to realize that they may not get him back alive, but they were going to get him home.

The search itself, it felt eternal. You forget to eat, you forget to drink, you don't know when's the last time you used the bathroom, you don't even know if you have to use the bathroom. It's such a weird feeling. Personally, I dropped I lost like £20 just because of how little I ate. You go days without taking a shower. You go to bed exhausted, but nerves and anxiety keeps you going.

On October 12th, Christian had been missing for 3 weeks.

Two hunters are out in the woods, and they come across what they think is a dead deer.

Maybe just a dead animal, but as they got closer, they realized it was a human skull.

I got a telephone call that they believe they found a body in Levy County, and that from the preliminary information of the clothing that was found, they believed it may be Christian.

About almost an hour's drive west of Gainesville, so it is very remote, very heavily wooded. The forensic team and medical examiner were on the scene trying to exhume these remains from a shallow grave.

So that conversation with Randy Roberts where he tells you that they found a body, I asked him, Randy, in your experience, you know, the body that you guys found in there matches the clothing, everything that Christian was wearing? And he says, 100%. So, you know, at that moment we all start crying.

Claudia, you wanted to go see the body after it was recovered. Why?

Because I didn't believe that he was— he passed. He was murdered. Even that Randy said that he found the Christian Bible, I didn't believe that.

It's hard to do a death notification for anybody. It's hard to tell them that their loved one's not coming home. For me, it's been 30 years I've been doing it, and that was the only time that I ever probably broke down with the family. That was the hardest one I ever did.

You just spent more than 3 weeks searching for your son. You must have been exhausted physically and mentally. What was it like when you had to bury him?

My brain was not there. My heart was not there. My physical presence, yes. But, you know, I don't remember everything clearly.

There was a huge outpouring of grief. Once Christian was finally discovered, this case ended like we— like nobody wanted.

What touched me about the funeral was just seeing, like, how many people loved him. Everyone was crying.

Did your focus shift to now getting justice for Christian?

Somebody has to done a wrongdoing and you know it and it's really bad, that person is to be brought to justice. We asked for justice. We didn't ask for revenge, which is different. Justice.

What was it like when you finally saw Pedro walk into the courtroom?

There's no words for it. You're betrayed.

I have to have this monster, you know, staring at me while I'm on the stand. I don't want him to look at me.

The investigation into Christian Aguilar's disappearance and murder only lasted a few weeks, but it would be almost 2 years before Pedro Bravo would finally go on trial here, charged charged with killing his best friend. With the case making national headlines, all eyes were on this courthouse in Gainesville.

Now underway in the trial of Santa Fe student Pedro Bravo. Bravo is charged with premeditated murder.

The trial itself was just such a huge deal in Gainesville, and every single day Christian's parents were there, his brother was there. They sat right up in the front.

For us, this was our way of representing Chris in all this, 'cause he didn't have a voice anymore, so we had to be there for him.

What was it like when you finally saw Pedro walk into the courtroom?

There's no words for it. You're betrayed. I mean, this is somebody that's been to your house. This is somebody whose house you've been to. It doesn't process as real.

All right, you may proceed. My strategy in the opening statement in this case is to really tell the jury exactly what happened.

When you piece all of the evidence together, all of the statements together, it gives a pretty good picture of what happened. Pedro was jealous of Christian and developed a plan to kill him.

He starts collecting the items to commit the murder and really engages in the planning that leads up to his contacting Chris, asking for the meeting, Chris pushing it off, him continuing to ask for the meeting, and finally agreeing to the meeting. They travel around Gainesville and eventually end up in the parking lot of a Walmart. The vehicle is observed under closed-circuit camera surveillance parked there for about 2.5 hours.

Based on the medical examiner's information and the autopsy, I think that what they did was surmise that he had probably drugged Christian by giving him a laced drink, waited for him to lose consciousness, and then climbed into the back seat while Christian was unconscious. Unconscious in the front seat.

And then we have evidence that Pedro strangled Christian while they were in the car with a moving strap.

Police say that Pedro drove all the way out to the woods in Levy County, dug a shallow grave, and left his friend there with his body tied with duct tape.

Remember, Chris has to disappear. Chris has to go missing. This is the plan. Can't get Erica back. Chris is here. I'm going to tell them that from the standpoint of someone who saw it all, right? To give them that bird's-eye view. Then I'm gonna go back and I'm going to tell them, how are we going to prove that all of these things happened?

In his opening statement, Pedro's lawyer argued that Pedro may have hurt Christian, but he did not kill him.

He did hit his friend. They did get in a fight, and he left his friend. That is what he did not want to tell the police. The first few days in this trial were all about statements from people who have had contact with Pedro Bravo.

Today, it is all about the evidence.

We had so many pieces of evidence, uh, that we believe proved, uh, Pedro was responsible for this. From the McDonald's receipt to the Scrubs Car Wash footage to the low-security footage to the Best Buy security footage. We had a timeline of where Pedro was.

Prosecutors unveiling in court Thursday pieces of evidence they say were found in searches of Pedro Bravo's car and apartment in the days after his friend went missing.

The forensic evidence from the burial site includes the duct tape that is around Christian Aguilar's ankles, his hands hands and his mouth. That duct tape will be forensically matched back to the duct tape that was in the car.

The prosecution calls a parade of witnesses to the stand, presenting evidence they say they collected over the course of the investigation and recounting Pedro's interactions with police.

And with my hand, I just go at his face.

I go with an open bomb to his face.

Erica also took the stand. Erica provides us a lot of context. She provides a lot of background. She provides a lot of time frames and communications.

I don't know why you read this far. You're the greatest person on this bloody earth. I won't let you fall. Where he took down the time to write down his his plan and his, you know, what he was thinking of me or what he was thinking of Kris. It sounds like the mind of a sociopath.

She had to take multiple breaks. And at one point, she had to identify items from Christian's backpack. She just couldn't hold it together and started crying, and they had to take a break.

And now I have to have this person, this monster, you know, staring at me. While I'm on the stand. I don't want him to look at me. I don't want him to see me ever again.

I did lock eyes with Pedro once, and there was nothing there. It's just kind of a dark emptiness in his eyes.

You know what was the worst part of that trial? Seeing Pedro sitting in front, seeing somebody so sarcastic, no regret. No remorse.

Was there a particular testimony that was difficult for you to sit through?

Michael Angelo's.

Michael Angelo was a jailhouse snitch who was crucial for the prosecution in this case.

The story he tells, prosecutors say, illustrates just how far Pedro Bravo would go to get away with murder.

The Hulu original series Furious, now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.

There are 3 victims we know of.

The suspect is female, white, late 20s.

Female serial killers kill for power, control.

I believe there's a deeper motivation here.

You have no idea who you're dealing with, and you are going I end up dead. I've been waiting for you. Watch the Hulu original series Furious now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ for bundle subscribers.

Terms apply.

No one really knows what happened on September 20th, 2012, the night that Christian Aguilar disappeared. However, one witness testifies his side of the story as told to him by Pedro Bravo, the suspect in this case.

Next witness.

Michelangelo was Pedro Bravo's assigned cellmate, and Mr. Bravo opened up to him about what he had done and how he had done it.

How would you describe him as a witness? It definitely feels like he was by far the most unexpected witness.

Yeah, he was unexpected because we knew nothing about him until his lawyer disclosed to us that he had information about the Pedro Bravo case.

Did he cut some kind of deal? Did he get a more lenient sentence?

Michelangelo's agreement with us was that he would testify truthfully and that we would then appear at his sentencing hearing and provide the court information about the help that he had provided in the case. And as a result of that, what would have been a life sentence was reduced to 25 years.

I think originally he said that he was going to try to poison him with a mixture of sleeping pills and pesticide and mixed with soda or something like that. His main plan was to choke him with a moving strap.

He even provided minute details— what time was on the clock, how long it took Mr. Bravo to murder Christian.

He, you know, basically put a moving strap around the kid's neck and braced himself against the seat.

And, you know, he said that he remembers watching the radio, the clock on the radio, and said it took like 13 minutes for the kid to, you know, I guess, die. But perhaps the most alarming part of Michelangelo's testimony, recounting what he said was Pedro's plan to redirect suspicion for Christian's death.

That plan was that Michelangelo, who Pedro Bravo believed had the ability to procure murders of additional UF students on the outside— they were both incarcerated— those murders would look similar to the murder of Christian Aguilar, and then it would appear that the actual killer was some serial killer who was on the loose. Was it ever brought up about the shovel and what you would need to do with the shovel as part of the plan? Yes.

What was that? Have somebody go get the shovel to, I guess, copycat that murder to make it look like somebody else had did it.

And in order for you to do that, would you have to know where the shovel was then currently located? Yes, sir.

We went out there to the location he said that Pedro left the shovel. We found the shovel hidden underneath the boardwalk.

Finding the shovel was a big deal, principally because it verified what Michelangelo was saying, that he actually had obtained this information from Pedro Bravo.

On cross-examination, Pedro's lawyer argued that Michelangelo was getting a deal to tell testify and attacked his credibility.

And the deal you are seeking is to get that life mandatory sentence off your back.

That's the least that you wanted then? Yes, sir.

State rest.

State would rest.

Gainesville hadn't seen a case like this in a very, very long time. You didn't just have the local local media covering this as a story, but, you know, you had national media. It was huge.

The young man on trial for allegedly killing his best friend, driven by jealousy, taking the stand in his own defense. Today we're hearing what Pedro Bravo says happened the day his friend and UF student Christian Aguilar was last seen alive.

It was just mind-blowing. What is he possibly gonna say?

Pedro testifies as to why he says he bought the Gatorade, ZzzQuil, and shovel.

You bought all those things?

Yes. And for what purpose?

It was to kill myself. And why he says his flashlight was on for so long.

I get out the car. I'm— it's pitch black outside. I can't see anything. So I turn on the flashlight and I go to a certain tree. I find it.

I'm okay with it.

I put Pedro Andres Brown, 9-20-12.

And what did you mean that to be? Uh, the last day that I was alive.

He admits that he hit Christian repeatedly.

I strike him with my, with my open palm in the face, and then I strike him again.

So as I watched him testify His answers seemed contrived. They seemed to be styled to charm the people who were on the jury. What is Chris's condition when you leave?

From what I remember, I can't— I can't give an accurate statement because I'm not a doctor or anything like that. So I can't tell you if he was— if he was unconscious or he was knocked out, but that he was still moving.

And as for For buying the shovel, Pedro had an answer for that as well. Tell the jury why you bought a shovel.

It was going to be part of my idea to kill myself. In a way, I was going to go find a spot and I was going to mark my tomb and I was going to dig it.

All right, thank you.

Cross. Mr. Bravo, I want to start by asking about your timeline that you described to Mr. Rupert. When you start to cross-examine someone You catch them in lies, and you catch them in things that can't possibly be true. Now, you're on your way to kill yourself, right? Correct. But you got to get gas first, right? Correct. Okay, because you can't kill yourself without a tank of gas, correct? Correct. You point out contradictions that ultimately they can't get out of.

All right, we'll be adjourned for the evening. All rise. Pedro seemed to have an explanation for everything. The question was, would the jury believe him?

I think Christian's family was very nervous, and I think that they believed in the jury, but I don't know how you get into the mind of a parent who's had their child murdered. You know, the doubt, the worry.

It was a 2-week trial, and only a few hours for the jury to come back with a verdict.

We, the jury, finds as follows: as the defendant Pedro Andreas Bravo, in this case, the defendant is guilty of first-degree murder, felony murder, first-degree.

What was your reaction when you heard the verdict? Guilty.

It's not a victory. You won the case, but Chris is still gone. I think all of us unanimously just got hit with sadness. We were happy the case went the way it did, but we were then reminded why we're there in the first place.

It was just this sense of relief. I kept thinking, you know, this is the last time I ever have to see him. I don't have to think about him. I don't have to even worry about him.

What was your reaction?

As his mother, I cried seeing what was happening to him.

He destroyed two families, his and ours. Nobody won that day.

Pedro was ultimately sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. You have to sit back and ask yourself why. You know, it just— it's so senseless. What could possibly drive this young man to bend his abilities and his talent and his motivation in such a negative direction?

It's early in the morning in Central Florida. I'm heading to prison to speak with Pedro Bravo, where he's been behind bars for a decade. Now a new witness for the defense has come forward with a bombshell claim that could turn the case upside down. And Pedro's old cellmate is talking again.

You know, I decided to just tell the truth.

Did you kill Christian Aguilar? Pedro Bravo is currently being housed at a prison here in Okeechobee, Florida. He's serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. To date, all of his appeals have been denied, but there are new developments in the case that could move the needle in Pedro's favor. I recently sat down with Pedro for an exclusive interview to talk about the case. You've been behind bars for more than 10 years, imprisoned for murder of your best friend. Now you're speaking out for the first time.

Why? It's easy to lose hope. It's easy to go through appeal after appeal and not get a chance to be heard in the courts. And after all this time, we almost gave up, but we decided to give everything a last chance.

Have these new developments given you hope? I've never lost hope. An eyewitness has come forward who specifically supports Pedro's version of what happened between him and Christian, the fight. And also most importantly verifies that Christian got up and walked away. According to an affidavit signed by this witness in 2012, she was in town trying to get tickets to a University of Florida football game and was supposed to meet someone in this parking lot. While waiting, she says that she saw two young men having a fight. She insists it was Pedro and Christian. What was your reaction When you heard about this new witness, I couldn't believe it.

And it felt vindicating to finally have someone that can corroborate what I said.

And at the end of that fight, Pedro gets in the car and leaves Christian. And she goes to approach Christian, who basically tells her to move on. He's okay.

I couldn't imagine why 10 years later, when there was such a huge media frenzy around this, someone would just pop in and say that they saw something new.

The witness's reason for not saying anything about the trial, I would attribute that to her age at the time. She was 19 years old, just traveled up to Gainesville for this one game and had no reason to think that this would be something significant for a murder trial. Maybe something can come out of it. I don't— we don't know. I don't know. I— Are you hopeful?

I have learned not to be hopeful.

Anything that you can say is going to happen, you never know. What are your thoughts on this new witness that has come forward? What was your reaction when you heard what she had to say?

In order for it to be something that would concern me, it would have to somehow lead to the conclusion that it isn't possible that Pedro Bravo is the person who committed this murder, and the evidence that he did is overwhelming. I don't know what's happening with this new witness. I haven't had an opportunity to speak with the witness. This case is closed, right? So my authority to start subpoenaing witnesses, it doesn't exist in this case.

We've reached out to this new witness, but she has declined to comment. The second piece of newly discovered evidence is the recantation testimony of Michelangelo. 20/20 spoke with Michelangelo, who's still incarcerated, to ask him why he's recanting his testimony.

It's always been in the back of my head and kind of ate at me about everything that happened that during that trial and that investigation. And I was contacted by a woman who was looking into certain things about this trial. She told me, you know, if I had anything that I wanted to get off my chest that I could write her. And so after thinking about it for a little bit, uh, you know, I did decided to just tell the truth.

Your former cellmate Michelangelo gave very specific testimony. How do you explain that letter, that note that he came forward with?

He brought me in a corner cell and he had me on the ground crying, and he told me, you're going to write this. And I, I was going to kill myself anyway. I was going to take my life, so it didn't matter to me more.

I had, you know, to come up with something to give the detectives so that they would help me out in my case. And that's when I pretty much put pressure on, uh, David.

And, you know, I had came up with a little—

just some crazy letter that I made him rewrite.

More than a decade later, now Michelangelo is recanting his testimony. What do you make of that?

There are many reasons why people recant. The problem for Michael Angelo and that recantation is that we proved what he said was true.

Without Michael Angelo, would you guys have ever found that shovel?

Maybe not. We may not have found the shovel. I mean, he still would have been convicted regardless of Michael Angelo.

The prosecution highlighted some of your internet search history, things like murder and kidnapping. How do you explain that?

I was a kid watching television shows, reading books, and the prosecution decided to highlight a handful of things.

Do you understand why those things were chosen? Because you looked up murder and kidnapping, and then one of your best friends goes missing.

I understand, but they didn't have to do anything with Christian. To me, I was watching a show and made a search.

I was looking up something. Based on the witness statement and Michelangelo's recanted testimony, Pedro has filed a new motion for post-conviction relief, the first step of many in the hopes of getting a new trial. What are the next steps in this case?

When do you have to respond to this motion? Whether or not the state has to respond to the motion is up to the court. First, the court would have to determine that the motion on its face is valid and meets the legal standards for post-conviction relief. And right now, the court hasn't made that determination.

What's the likelihood that it would be granted?

This is a motion for successive post-conviction relief. That motion is granted less than 1/10 of 1% of the time.

Do you think Pedro has enough to reopen the case?

Hard to say, um, especially 10 years removed, knowing the, you know, if any of this even holds true.

One person saying, "I was there and he was still alive," that's not gonna cut it.

Did you kill Christian Aguilar? No. I did not kill Christian. Pedro, if you didn't kill Christian Aguilar, who did? Who would have wanted him dead?

If I would have known those answers, then there would have been 12 years that I would have spent in prison.

There's just— an overwhelming amount of evidence that Pedro did this.

The blood and DNA that was found in Pedro's car that he tried to cover up with paint, the dirt on the bottom of Pedro's car that matches the region of Florida where Christian's body was found, and then the shovel in the apartment complex, right? When you put all of that together, there's no question as to whether or not Pedro is culpable for, for Christian's death.

I remember getting home late that night and thinking to myself, I'm looking at this kid and there's no remorse in this kid whatsoever. No feelings, no culpability, no guilt. And I'm confident that what the state's attorney presented were the true facts of the case.

Erica, Christian's parents, they think you are a monster, that you have no remorse. What do you say to them now?

So, what is this? This is Christian's sketchbook.

That's gator. That's a Florida gator.

We think this is Erica.

We think that this is a Drawing of Erica. Erica, yeah. Has Erica seen this?

We don't know. That was brought up to us when we recuperate, um, all his belongings from the police.

Christian's belongings, once seized by police as evidence in his murder investigation, they are now prized possessions for his parents. That's Christian's iPod?

iPod, yeah. We recorded. This is the case where Christian went to get with Pedro.

And you wanted to keep that?

Everything that belongs to my son belongs to me. Those items are precious to us.

It's sad when I think about how much Carlos treasures that CD, which Christian so excitedly purchased with his best friend turned killer. The video from the store, now the last images the Aguilar have of their son alive. Erica, Christian's parents, they think you are a monster, that you have no remorse. What do you say to them now?

I can't. Come close to understanding what it feels like to lose a son. There's no words that I could offer to try and make things better or make that pain go away because it— maybe that pain shouldn't go away. That pain should stay there because at least when you have that pain, that person's still in your life.

Do you have any doubt that Pedro killed Christian?

No. No, at this point, no. No. He did kill my son.

I wish he can repent. I wish he can realize that he destroyed his family and my family and be able to once say the truth and accept what he did.

I always pray for the soul of their son. That's very painful for the parents to lose a child. I know as a mother how painful it is, me with my son. Look, her pain is harder because she lost her son.

Is it too painful to think about?

It is too painful for me.

What his future might have been?

Yeah. Especially when I saw the pictures of Christian friends having his lives with the new careers, with the families. I prefer do not think too much about it.

How do you want Christian to be remembered?

I want Chris to be remembered by how sweet and kind and genuine of a person he was.

He just had like so much potential for like anything that he wanted to do.

Although Christian was only a student for a couple of months, the University of Florida presented his family with a posthumous degree in biomedical engineering, symbolic of a promising future cut too short. If Christian were still with us, what do you think he'd be doing today?

That's a question that we ask every day. If we were going to be having grandkids, if he was going to be with Erica and happy.

I think we would have gotten married eventually. I feel like He was not going to stop loving me. I think about David now.

It's only right.

I can't imagine where his life would have ended up kind of leading him to, but I know it would have been great things.

How did you choose this photo?

Because he looks so happy there. Was that on prom night?

Yeah, it was prom night. Prom. We want him—

people to remember him smiling. I think one of the most beautiful things is his smile.

That signature smile of his.

And, you know, deciding to follow in Christian's footsteps, his brother Alex also went to the University of Florida, Christian's dream school.

And you can find all new broadcast episodes of 20/20 Friday nights at 9 on ABC.

In 2023, a source sent me a tip. It tied baseball's biggest star to a vast illegal sports betting operation. Shohei Ohtani! But then someone surprising confessed to me, his best friend.

I'm Ippei Mizuhara, and you do have permission to record me.

From 30 for 30 Podcasts, this is The Betrayal of Shohei Ohtani.

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