Original subtitles

[upbeat music playing]

[narrator] When a man is handed the chance to reinvent himself

in a tropical paradise by the sea...

[upbeat music ends]

[ominous music playing]

He inherited a huge amount of money.

...an elaborate con turns deadly.

[David] I'm sitting there thinking,

"There's something wrong with this guy."

And paradise found, quickly becomes paradise lost.

This wasn't a clinical kill.

This was somebody who was very, very upset.

[David] He thought he was gonna get away with it.

[Michelle] He had these two separate lives,

and they were on a crash course.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Shep] To have this violent, violent death...

...shocking.

Very shocking.

[ominous music playing]

[tense music playing]

Rosarito, Mexico,

just 35 miles south of San Diego.

A sun-soaked seaside resort town

where Americans go to escape their lives,

if only for a while.

Today, Jake Merendino is crossing the border

from Houston, Texas, buzzing with excitement.

He's on his way to pick up the keys

to his new waterfront condo.

Jake was so excited when he left Houston.

He couldn't leave Houston fast enough.

He wanted to be near the sea.

[tense music ends]

[gleeful guitar music]

[Lori] Rosarito is a beach town.

My husband, Dave, had a place here.

The first time I came,

I just fell in love with the place.

We're down there, usually three weekends a month.

A lot of people would come down and go surfing.

Our favorite tacos here are fish tacos,

which is what they're known for.

[merchant speaking Spanish] We've cilantro, salsa and guacamole.

-[in Spanish] All of it. -[merchant in English] Everything?

[in Spanish] All of it, but chili.

[merchant in Spanish] No chili.

[gleeful music ends]

[David] And then, we'd go out to the wine country...

The drive down to Ensenada is one of the most

beautiful coastlines you've ever seen.

[Shep] Jake was starting a new chapter in his life.

He was very excited about fixing everything up

with the new condo.

[ominous music stops]

And to be in Mexico is exciting.

[waves crashing]

As a kid, Jake loved the water.

You couldn't drag him off the Texas beaches

where he spent his summers.

[Barbara] Jake grew up in Beaumont,

but he spent a lot of time in Crystal Beach,

down near Galveston.

[Shep] And it was just such a great time of his childhood.

He came from a very tight family,

and his parents loved him very much.

He had a very close...

...closer than most, relationship with his parents.

[Barbara] Irene and Buster, his parents, adopted him.

They both worked for Exxon Mobil.

They definitely bought a lot of stock

and reinvested in Exxon Mobil.

Jake was adopted, at birth,

and he grew up as an only child.

He inherited a huge amount of money.

At the time Jake's mother died,

she had accumulated, at least, around $3 million.

[Shep] At the time, he was working for a bank.

And he was a bill collector.

[Barbara] Jake had no intentions of doing anything

after his mother died.

I think he felt that,

as the stock continued to go up, right?

If he was careful with it,

you know, it could last him for as long as he lived.

And so, he finally had an opportunity to,

you know, spend the money the way he wanted to spend it.

He wanted to enjoy that money before he died.

[Barbara] After he and John, his ex-partner, separated,

I think that Jake was anxious to have a relationship

of some sort.

[Shep] His relationship with John was a long time.

A full-blown partner relationship for years.

In his later years,

I don't think that Jake was ever lonely,

and I think he just wanted an established relationship.

Whether it was just going out to dinner

or traveling or...going to a party,

things like that.

[suspenseful music playing]

As Jake settles into his new life,

he decides to take the plunge

and buy a vacation home.

The allure of the West Coast beckons.

[Barbara] He really wanted a place down...

at the beach.

And so, at which time, I suggested to him,

"Well, just go down to Rosarito and take a look."

[Lori] And so, when Barbara told me

that Jake was actually getting serious

about looking for a place down here,

I was really excited.

[swift violin music playing]

After touring a handful of upscale condos,

Jake falls in love with a sleek two-bedroom unit

on the ninth floor of Palacio del Mar,

a luxury high-rise.

Next thing I knew, he was buying it.

And he would -- wanted me to fly down there and see it.

[Barbara] Jake bought his condo,

I believe, for around $270,000.

I work as an interior designer,

and it was a pleasure,

an absolute pleasure to work with Jake.

He wanted a sense of style,

a certain amount of sophistication, always,

not only how he dressed,

but how he lived.

[dramatic music playing]

Jake crosses the border on May 1st, 2015,

eager to check in on the progress

of his condo renovations.

By evening, he pulls into Bobby's by the Sea,

a charmingly unremarkable local hotel.

[dramatic music ends]

[Barbara] Jake and I were talking

and texting back and forth.

And then, his last message to me,

on this, was, "Well, I have to tell you,

I haven't been this excited in years."

[Shep] It was a new beginning.

But as we all well know, that did not last long.

[tense music playing]

It's just about 3:00 AM.

Roughly, 15 miles away from Bobby's by the Sea,

Sergeant Jose Correa is making his usual rounds,

when something catches his eye --

a Range Rover,

seemingly abandoned on the side of the road.

[Alexandra] Early in the morning on May 2nd,

there were two municipal police officers

who were just driving past.

They saw a car that was on the side of the road,

with its lights on.

[door slams]

[tense music continues]

[Alexandra] It was a Range Rover,

and so...

that was noticeable to them

because...that is not a place where people park.

There's no reason for a car to be parked there.

[indistinct chatter over radio]

[Sgt. Correa speaking Spanish]

[speaking Spanish]

This wasn't a clinical kill, right?

This wasn't a paid assassin.

This was somebody who was very, very upset.

[tense music playing]

Within 24 hours,

we became aware that a passport was found in the car,

that the victim was, likely, a man named Jake Merendino.

[Shep] It's a cliché,

but how could it happen to a nicer guy?

And to have this violent, violent death...

Shocking.

Very shocking.

[tense music ends]

It's just after three in the morning,

on May 2nd, 2015,

and local police are working their way

through a gruesome scene in a ravine,

roughly 15 miles from Rosarito, Mexico.

Jake Merendino's body has been discovered

at the bottom, lifeless.

[birds cawing]

When daylight creeps in,

it paints a picture even grimmer

than they imagined.

[speaking Spanish]

[Alexandra] When two municipal police officers walked over

to the Range Rover to investigate,

they saw blood on the side of the car,

or what they suspected was blood.

[tense music playing]

There was a large puddle of blood

at the back of the vehicle.

And then, a blood trail

up to the edge of the cliff.

[Sgt. Correa speaking Spanish]

[Michelle] He was stabbed,

approximately, 24 times.

He had a large cut at his throat.

Some of his intestines were discovered alongside the road.

[Alexandra] I just remember the medical examiner

explaining that...

this didn't need to be this bad, right?

That he didn't need to be killed three times over,

that the death could've occurred in a...

in...just a couple of knife wounds.

[tense music playing]

There was no phone,

and yes, there was no wallet,

in the car or on the body.

[speaking Spanish]

[tense music ends]

[solemn music playing]

Well...

It was probably around 6:00 AM, and, um,

I got a call from my sister,

who was living in Rosarito at that time.

And she said, "I have some bad news."

She said, "Jake is dead."

[solemn music playing]

I said,

"No, that can't be."

And she said, "No, they found his car

"and it was his Range Rover,

and he's dead."

And I just couldn't believe it.

You know, when you just

don't wanna believe something, at all?

[tense music playing]

The first words out of my mouth were,

"Oh my god, who did it?"

[tense music playing]

Those closest to Jake are at a complete loss.

Who could have done this?

And more importantly, why?

He had no enemies,

nothing that points to a motive.

All they can do is wonder

if this is just another senseless act of violence.

Sadly, in a place like Rosarito,

with Tijuana only 12 miles away,

tragedies like this aren't unheard of.

[Lori] There is an underside to Rosarito.

There are murders, robberies, break-ins,

auto theft.

It was scary to think that

here is somebody that we knew, that we cared for,

you know, was murdered so viciously.

[siren wailing]

[Alexandra] Unfortunately, there are a lot of murders

in Tijuana.

And I suspect law enforcement is strapped,

because of just the sheer number of...

murders that occur in and around Tijuana.

[David] 95% or a higher percentage

of murders in Mexico go unsolved.

[tense music ends]

Ten years ago,

it was just downright dangerous

to go to anywhere in Mexico.

And if you wanna go, you better have a hotel...

and be with somebody.

[ominous music playing]

[Shep] Jack would've made the poster child target.

He was always very nicely dressed.

[Barbara] I thought about the fact that he wore a gold watch

and he had an expensive car.

And those scammers down there...

they can eye out someone who's nicely dressed

with Italian shoes.

You know, they could take him down

in five minutes.

And so, the thought was that it was a robbery.

[Shep] That's one of the reasons

it was never surprising to any of us

that he got murdered in Mexico.

While local law enforcement isn't dismissing the idea

of a robbery gone wrong,

their focus shifts

to the unsettling details at the crime scene

and the tangled timeline of events leading up to it.

Still doesn't make sense to me

that he would be out at that time of night.

[David] Jake did not like to drive at night.

And it was very unusual for him to do that --

to go out late at night.

Why was Jake out

on a desolate part of the highway,

after midnight?

And more importantly,

who was the last person to see him alive?

I assisted with Mexican law enforcement.

We conducted interviews of employees at the hotel,

and they indicated to us

that Jake checked in to Bobby's by the Sea

with another male.

[Alexandra] Somebody saw Merendino having dinner

with another man,

and went back upstairs at about 10 o'clock that night.

[Michelle] We interviewed the security guard,

and he talked about the fact that...

that person left the hotel on a motorcycle,

around 11:00 PM.

Which is particularly noticeable

for the folks at Bobby's by the Sea,

because that's not the norm.

Typically, when you come

and you park, you stay the night.

[tense music fades]

[swift violin music playing]

[Michelle] The security guard said that,

eventually, Jake left the hotel.

And he said he was going to pick up his friend,

who had broken down.

Interviewing the man

who had left on the motorcycle mattered,

because this was, potentially, the last person

who had seen Jake Merendino alive that night.

[suspenseful music playing]

Investigators have a hunch.

The last person to see Jake Merendino alive?

A mysterious man on a motorcycle.

Hotel staff at Bobby's by the Sea

noticed him pull out of the parking lot,

just three hours before Jake's mutilated body

was discovered in that ravine.

The question now...

where is he?

And what exactly was he doing with Jake that night?

[Alexandra] The motorcycle man, then,

the next day went to Bobby's by the Sea

to collect some items, which he said, belonged to him.

[pensive music playing]

He attempted to retrieve some of his items

from the hotel room that he'd been in with Jake.

[Alexandra] And the manager informed the motorcyclist

that his friend Jake Merendino was dead.

[suspenseful chord strike]

The folks at Bobby's by the Sea said,

"We can't just give you things that are potentially

part of a criminal investigation."

[Michelle] The hotel staff told him

that he would need to talk to law enforcement

before he could retrieve his items.

What does this guy really know?

And why does he seem so distressed?

Local cops haven't forgotten him.

He walked straight out of the hotel

and into the police station,

wide-eyed with concern,

just to check in,

and see what more he could learn about

his friend's tragic death.

[Sgt. Correa speaking Spanish]

[Alexandra] Mexican law enforcement asked for an ID,

and they were able to link the individual on the motorcycle

with the man on the ID,

who was David Meza.

[suspenseful music playing]

So, Jake and I were having dinner one night,

and he just said,

"Oh, I've got...I've got someone new in my life."

He said, "His name is David Enrique Meza.

He's from Mexico. He's from Southern California."

Jake and I had a love for Mexico.

And also, uh, if I might say so,

um, Mexican men.

I just like a Latin lover.

You know, beautiful dark hair.

Just that Mexican aura.

[Barbara] 'Cause he said he had met some nice guy.

The sex was great, the guy was young...

hot.

Jake didn't really go into detail

as to how they met,

but I assumed it was online.

A "hookup," shall we say.

[ominous music playing]

[Lori] David was...

very buff at that time.

Clearly, he worked out.

[Shep] And we were all shocked

that...this hunky guy was still hanging around with Jake.

[Barbara] There was a Christmas party.

And Jake took out some pictures of David.

And he showed them to...

some friends of mine.

And one of them recognized David.

He said to me,

"He's a porn star."

[tense music playing]

[Shep] Some of us called him "Enrique,"

because he was such a rock star.

It was all about the...

eroticism and the beauty

of Enrique David Meza.

[chuckles]

[Shep] So Jake, he very... casually mentioned

that Enrique has done porn.

But Jake never elaborated on that

because he did not want to be known as,

"Jake Merendino dating a porn star."

But we all knew it, we all knew it.

[Barbara] The age difference was considerable.

Jake was, you know, 50,

and David was like 24, 25.

[Shep] I told Jake,

"I'm a little worried about you.

I'm afraid that he's just gonna drop you like a hot potato."

And he shook his head and smiled.

He said,

"Don't you worry.

Daddy's got the upper hand."

[Michelle] Jake and David's relationship

seems like it was kind of a sugar daddy,

sugar baby relationship.

Jake was paying for expensive gifts,

expensive dinners and trips for David.

[Shep] He would say something like...

"Oh, yeah!

My baby and I went shopping today.

And believe me, he --

he left there with a smile on his face."

[Alexandra] It felt to me

like Jake Merendino was spending money on David,

because he cared for David.

[David] Jake had put David as the beneficiary

on the condominium.

When you buy property in Mexico,

you designate, you know, in the title itself,

who you name as a beneficiary.

[Michelle] Jake had been paid tuition

for David to go to school

to get a nursing degree.

That was more than two years ago.

And now, David is distraught and confused

by the shocking turn of events.

Mexican law enforcement also found a birthday card

in Jake Merendino's car.

And it read, "Happy late birthday.

"I wish I would have been able to spend it with you,

and I hope that we are together for a long, long time."

Clearly, this note mattered to Jake Merendino.

He had kept it.

It mattered to him.

David is happy to chat with the police.

He answers their questions and gives a formal statement

before heading back to San Diego, his hometown.

[suspenseful music playing]

With the FBI and Mexican authorities knee-deep

in their investigation,

Jake's will is finally heading into probate.

No one could have predicted how the proceedings would end.

[Alexandra] We received contact

from the probate attorney

to let us know that he had received a...

note in the mail.

It was a handwritten note,

one page, small,

from the Hercor Hotel.

When Jake Merendino would come to San Diego,

he would always stay there.

[tense music playing]

I was retained by one of Jake Merendino's friends,

who was named as the executor in a will that was prepared,

sometime before his death.

A week or two after we filed Merendino's will for probate,

we got an opposition to the probate of our will.

Attached to the application to probate the will was a...

what they call a holographic will.

It was on hotel stationery.

So we sent a copy to the FBI.

It was just simple white paper with dark ink over it,

giving everything to a fellow named David Meza.

[tense music playing]

A holographic will just means that the will was handwritten.

[Michael] That will would've been recognized as a valid...

will, passing property to Meza,

in the state of Texas.

I laughed. I mean,

I said, "What a joke!

Jake wrote that?"

I mean, I saw pictures of the will.

First of all, I could hardly recognize Jake's handwriting.

I mean, I had numerous checks from Jake,

and the signature didn't even look right.

[tense music playing]

[Michelle] The FBI conducted handwriting analysis

on the holographic will,

and the results were inconclusive.

[Shep] Well, everybody had the same conclusion --

that Jake had been drinking,

and then Enrique said,

"I don't think you really love me."

And Jake said,

"Well, of course, baby. I love you."

And then Enrique said,

"Well, if you really love me, prove it."

I had had a very interesting conversation with Jake

in February.

And Jake made it very clear

that he was going to leave the majority of his estate

to animals and horses, etc.

There wasn't one word mentioned

of David getting anything, whatsoever.

And then, when I saw the written piece of paper

that this was on...

Jake wasn't stupid.

You know?

I mean, he could be when he was...drunk.

[Alexandra] If David Meza believed

that he was going to inherit everything,

it created a motive...

to kill Jake Merendino.

[dramatic music playing]

[dramatic music playing]

Jake Merendino's friends always knew

he had a soft spot for David Meza.

But no one thought he'd actually leave

his entire fortune to David,

the guy who used to flaunt himself as a porn star.

Even now, Jake's inner circle swears there was a moment,

just before everything went down,

where they all felt David wasn't

who they thought he was.

Jake, David, and myself went to a restaurant,

down in Rosarito

and met Lori and David Britton.

[Lori] I learned that David was going to nursing school.

I understood from Barbara

that Jake was paying for him to go to school.

I've a background in nursing.

He couldn't tell me what school he was going to,

if it was a one-year LVN program

or a registered nurse program.

He had no understanding

of what I was even talking about.

[Barbara] He acted like a pool boy.

He could not make eye contact.

Asking him a question was enough for him to barely answer

or look the other way.

[Lori] He couldn't even answer simple questions like

what was the name of the school?

Have you learned how to take a blood pressure?

I'm sitting there thinking,

"There's something wrong with this guy.

This guy's a phony."

[Barbara] Jake was having a good time with the four of us,

and he was not paying any attention to David.

[suspenseful music playing]

David Meza may think he's about to cash in

on Jake Merendino's estate,

but the FBI has other ideas.

We conducted extensive analysis

of Jake and David's social media.

[Alexandra] We determined, based on a review,

David was in communication

with a woman named Taylor Langston.

Taylor and David lived together,

whenever David was not with Jake Merendino.

We learned from a review

of Taylor Langston's Facebook page

that she was engaged to David.

And that she was very visibly pregnant with his child.

In fact, she was about to give birth.

[ominous music playing]

[Barbara] Well, I was shocked and, you know,

I knew that there was something,

you know, really radically wrong.

[Michelle] As far as we could tell,

Jake didn't know anything about Taylor

or the fact that she was pregnant with David's baby.

Early in the morning,

the FBI arrives with calculated efficiency

to a modest apartment in San Diego.

They're here for David Meza and Taylor Langston,

two people who know more than they'd like to admit

about how Jake Merendino ended up dead

on the side of a Mexican highway.

Agents got David Meza and Taylor Langston comfortable

in separate cars.

They asked the two individuals questions.

At the top of the list, what exactly does Taylor know

about Jake Merendino?

It's difficult to know

the extent of what Taylor knew about Jake.

We know that David told Taylor that he worked for Jake.

Um, he referenced him as "George."

[Alexandra] Taylor never met or spoke to George,

according to her.

From my point of view,

David Meza decides,

months ahead of time,

that he needs to lay the groundwork

for George's death.

[Michelle] David had told family, friends, and Taylor Langston

that his boss George was not in very good health

and would likely die at some point in the future.

[Alexandra] David knew that

he would be the next person in line

for this condominium in Rosarito.

So that is why David Meza waited until

after the documents were signed,

to kill Jake Merendino.

And the reason that matters for us as prosecutors is that

we have to show this was premeditated for months.

If David had been planning this for months,

was Taylor in on the long con,

or simply naive?

I don't think that Taylor Langston was aware

of that part of his life,

or it didn't seem that way.

I'm not sure how one would define

what David Meza did.

He had made it clear that he would do anything for money.

And the reason that mattered is

because our running theory at that point was

that David Meza was faking a loving relationship

with Jake Merendino, for money.

[suspenseful chord strike]

[Michelle] You'd have instances where David would text Jake

something about the workout that he had done that day,

and then he would turn around and text Taylor

something very similar.

So David had these two lives, these two separate lives

with two separate individuals...

and they were on a crash course.

[suspenseful chord strike]

[ominous music playing]

When footage emerges from the night Jake died,

it reveals a lot more than

David would ever want to admit.

David Meza told the agents

that he was in Rosarito

with Jake Merendino on May 1st.

That they had dinner, and then they'd had a fight.

So he got on his motorcycle and left.

When David was interviewed by Detective Brown,

who was a task force officer

with the San Diego Police Department,

David said that he was up in San Diego with Taylor

around the time of the murder.

[on recording] OK, so you cross...

[Michelle] That was inconsistent with his phone data,

which showed that he was in the area of the crime scene

around the time of the murder.

CCTV places him crossing the border

at 3:57 in the morning.

Just 24 minutes

after Jake's body was discovered by police.

It was very fishy, right?

I mean, it just didn't...

the story didn't make sense.

So for us as prosecutors, that is good news

because that's indicative that they are lying to you.

[Alexandra] We felt that we had all of the pieces to the puzzle

to show that David Meza stabbed Jake Merendino to death

and rolled him down that ravine.

Was it a slam dunk? No.

[David] I'm fairly convinced

that he thought he was gonna get away with it.

[suspenseful music playing]

It's been just over a month

since Jake Merendino's mutilated body was found,

dumped on the side of a desolate highway in Mexico.

American agents are close to cracking the case,

but they need that one crucial piece of evidence

to pull it all together.

So they're combing through laptops and cellphone records,

hoping to find a motive.

The FBI conducted a search warrant

on Taylor Langston's cellphone,

and we found a voicemail that was deleted from the phone,

after the murder,

and he sounded very distraught.

What was striking to me was

that he felt like he had to do it.

He didn't have to do it.

He chose to do it.

To think that Jake would be stabbed

by the very person that he was giving money to

and was bringing him into his life,

and to stab him so viciously.

Any time you have a homicide

where somebody is stabbed that horrifically,

that has to be a lot of anger and resentment and fear.

[tense music playing]

[Michelle] There was no one single piece of evidence

that proved to us that David committed this murder.

There was a lot of smaller pieces of evidence

that, when taken together, painted the picture

that David was involved in Jake's murder.

Seven months after Jake Merendino's body was discovered,

David Meza and Taylor Langston are arrested.

And yet,

the people closest to them are still trying to piece together

how it all spiraled out of control.

[Barbara] I think Jake was desperately seeking

somebody to be with.

And David Meza absolutely said the right things

at the right time.

[Alexandra] David Meza was really good

at compartmentalizing his life.

The fact that he had this whole other life...

is quite amazing.

It does not seem to me

that David Meza ever loved Jake Merendino.

This was always about money.

[Michelle] He even paid tuition for David to go to school

to get a nursing degree,

and David didn't attend courses,

pulled out of the school and asked for the money back,

so that he could use it himself.

Ultimately, David Meza was convicted

of committing domestic violence in a foreign country,

resulting in death,

and was sentenced to life in prison.

[Alexandra] The death of Jake Merendino was very sad for his friends

and his family, and was devastating to them.

What oftentimes doesn't really get considered is

what happens to David Meza's family?

And it...

undoubtedly made Taylor Langston's life very difficult.

In September 2016,

a year after giving birth to their baby

and marrying David Meza,

a judge indicts Taylor Langston

for conspiracy to obstruct justice.

Taylor Langston pled guilty to the obstruction count.

She was incarcerated with a small baby out,

being cared for by others.

[dramatic music playing]

And then, there's the matter of Jake's estate.

When a verdict is handed down,

his legacy's fate is finally sealed.

[Michael] Once you're convicted of the decedent's death,

you can no longer inherit under a will.

At the end, we reached a settlement

where Jake Merendino's estate was divided.

A portion of it going to his family members,

and then a portion of it going to Merendino's ex-boyfriend,

John.

[solemn music playing]

[Shep] The thing I miss most about him is our conversations.

I don't have anybody in my life now

that I can talk to like that.

We would tell each other everything, and laugh.

Mainly, I just downright miss him.

[Barbara] Jake really enjoyed the slower pace,

the beautiful ocean,

the beaches.

But also, I think he got to a point where

he wanted to spend more time with David.

That's kind of why I thought

maybe Rosarito wouldn't be a bad idea.

I have not been back since Jake's death.

It was horribly sad.

He was nothing but a good guy and he was generous.

And David didn't have to kill him

to get what he wanted.

[sentimental music playing]

This season on Fatal Destination...

They didn't dock in Bimini,

and they're also not responding to any messages.

They started calling it "The Ghost Ship."

It was the spring break destination.

He was a evil predator that

stalked the streets of Myrtle Beach.

He was the embodiment of evil.

She was pretty excited to live the van life.

They left and bad things happened.

I was trying to crawl away from him screaming for help.

It's just basically a big camping trip.

Why are there so many people missing from this event?

New Orleans, it's got a good side, it's got a dark side.

It looked satanic.

He held him under the water shouting "I am your God!"

These people were plotting. They were predators.

Anything can happen on vacation.