All language subtitles for Homicide.City.S03E02.Shattered.Dreams.720p.ID.WEBRip.AAC2.0.x264-BOOP[eztv.io]

Anjeanette was
on her way to school

and never made it.

My son kept telling me,
"look for Angie.

She's in the basement.
She's hiding."

I told him,
"no, she wasn't in there."

She never came home.

It was a murder.

What are you doing? Stop!
Let me go!

It was this
cold-blooded murder.

Aah!

I've been on murder scenes
in my career,

I don't remember having one
like this one.

I think of a young girl who had
her whole life ahead of her,

was trying to find her place
in this world,

and it was cut short
for no good reason.

No!

This is somebody's daughter.

It had to be a nightmare
for Anjeanette's mom.

There's no doubt in my mind
that this was somebody evil.

This is all a dream,
a bad dream.

You want her back

through all these years,

you're still dreaming
that you can just find her.

Captions by vitac --
www.vitac.com

captions paid for by
discovery communications

Smith:
Angie was really special.

She would light up her room
when she'll come in.

Hey, mama.
So what are we doing today?

Are you really gonna
do this to me?

Yes, why not?

Anjeanette was a 17-year-old
whose life was full of hope

and dreams and promise.

All right, well,
this is grandma's recipe.

Yes.

I'm just gonna put this
right here

so I can be in it with you.

Great, you get to
be in it with me.

I'll help.

Angie was trying to finish out
high school

in good form for this year
so she could graduate.

She had been filling out

all these applications
to go to college.

She had so much energy.

Hi.
-Hello, beautiful.

She was gonna make it happen.

Narrator: On Monday,
September 30th, 1996,

Paulette, Anjeanette's mother,

is concerned when her daughter
doesn't come home from school.

Hello?

In the afternoon, about 5:00,
I got a call.

A automated system
that the school district had

that said that my daughter
didn't show up at school.

That was unusual because
she always showed to school.

Always.

During the afternoon,
I called all her friends

to see if they had heard
from her.

Narrator: One of the first
people Paulette contacts is

Anjeanette's boyfriend,
Christian.

Hello.
-Hello, Christian?

Hi, it's Paulette,
Angie's mom.

Is she with you?

No, I haven't seen her
since last night.

All right,
well, if you hear from her,

have her call me, okay?

Okay, I will.
-All right, thanks.

No one had seen her that day.

No, she's not at my house.

No, I don't know
where Angie is.

Narrator: When Anjeanette's
10:30 P.M. curfew

comes and goes,

Paulette's concern grows
to full blown panic.

Smith: So I called the police
and let them know

about my daughter
that she hadn't come home.

Hi, my name is Paulette Smith.

I'd like to report
my daughter is missing.

The police took down
my information,

what she was wearing.

She's got brown hair,
brown eyes.

She's about 5-foot-4.

She was wearing a maroon jacket,
white top.

She has a really colorful
school bag.

She's only 17.

And they told me that

they would have to give it
a 48-hour wait

because that's the policy
that was in place.

They waited 48 hours.

Thank you, officer.

One of the first things
that you would think of

as police officers
is did she run away

or is she somewhere

that she may have
communicated with the mother,

the mother didn't
get the message.

The officer that was
investigating the missing

persons report believed
that she was with friends

and that she would be
eventually be returning home.

Smith: But she didn't have
anything with her.

This was not planned.

All her money was upstairs.

It didn't make sense
that she would leave everything.

So that night, I stayed up.

She never came home.

Narrator: The next morning,
Angie's mom, Paulette,

takes matters
into her own hands.

I started calling
the hospitals, the prisons.

Her name
is Anjeanette maldonado.

Did anyone have someone
that showed up,

they didn't have a name for?

No. Okay, thank you.

There were no leads.

So I made a flier.

Missing flier.

And some of her friends,
Christian included,

put the fliers up
over the neighborhood.

At that time in Philadelphia,
in the area she lived in,

it was a high crime area.

It was during the height
of the crack addiction.

All right, this is good.

So it was kind of dangerous

going back and forth
in those streets.

Woman:
Look around the sides.

Some of her friends
went looking around to see

if they could find her
because there were

a lot of abandoned lots.

That's where we thought
she might be.

But we couldn't find her.

My son kept telling me,
look for Angie,

she's in the basement,
she's hiding.

And I told him no,

I had already looked
in the basement

she wasn't in there.

Narrator: By Tuesday night,

Anjeanette has been missing
for nearly 48 hours.

Smith: I was a mess,
I didn't know what was going on.

I'm thinking something
seriously happened to her.

Mcdermott: On October 2, 1996,
at around 2:45 A.M...

...a homeless male flagged down
a patrol wagon.

And inform them
that there was a female

who appeared to be dead
inside an abandoned house.

It was about the only row home
left on that block

that wasn't torn down.

The front was boarded up
and sealed.

In the back,
the wood was torn away

from the kitchen window,

allowing entry
into the property.

That abandoned house
was frequently used

by all types of individuals

for drug activity
and for prostitution.

Once inside,
there was trash everywhere.

There were numerous old tires
in the front room,

empty cases of beer,
and crack vials laying around,

strewn throughout
the property.

It was a mess.

Narrator: When patrol officers
discovered the body,

they immediately alert
the homicide unit.

Detective dilacqua
responds to the call.

I went in there and made
a quick survey of the scene

and I saw a dead body

on the ground.

The body was
that of a young female,

16, 17 years old,

she was lying on her back,

naked except for socks,

and she had facial injuries that
were apparent of her right eye.

One of the first things
I said was,

there ain't no way in a world
this is a hooker.

Because we had
a lot of prostitutes.

And the arrest we make
to keep them off the streets,

we got to know a lot of them
out there, a majority of them.

So when I looked
at that young lady on the floor,

I knew she wasn't one of them.

Because the body was naked
and the way it was positioned,

we considered that it was
a real possibility

that a sexual assault
had occurred.

When I left the building,

just looking around
for any evidence,

I remember seeing an ID card
from her school ID.

And they were able

to identify the body
of Anjeanette maldonado

at that time.

There was
no doubt in my mind

that anybody wouldn't think

that we had some sort of
a murder here.

At 4:00 in the morning,
someone rang my doorbell.

I went downstairs

and opened the door

and it was the cops.

Ms. Smith, can we come in?
-Yes, please. Come in.

And that's when they told me
they had Angie

and that she was dead.

What? No!

Ms. Smith, I know this is
a lot to take right now.

No, no, no.

No.

It feels like all of this
is happening

and you're off to the side
just watching.

My god!

You have nothing to
tell me except that she's dead.

It's very hard as a parent.

No, I can't believe
this is happening.

It's just unreal.

The whole thing is unreal.

Dilacqua: I've been on
murder scenes in my career.

I don't remember having one
like this one.

Looking at her face
looking up

how young she was,
it kind of affected me.

I'm thinking to myself,
this is somebody's daughter,

some parent has just lost
this young, beautiful girl.

There are some things
you don't forget

and this was one of them.

Narrator: Paulette's
17-year-old daughter,

Anjeanette, has been found
brutally murdered

in an abandoned building
on north hope street.

The first thing we do in
a homicide investigation

is to secure the scene,

don't touch anything,
don't move anything,

don't touch her,
her clothing, anything.

In Philadelphia,

we had a full-time
crime scene unit.

They would document, collect,
and preserve the evidence.

I can tell you that they
methodically go over the scene

looking for any type
of trace evidence,

such as hairs, fibers, blood.

And in a sexual assault,

obviously, that would be
bodily fluids and semen.

So it's crucial that
the evidence is preserved

and collected the proper way.

Narrator:
In hopes of finding possible

eyewitnesses
to Anjeanette's death,

police canvass
the neighborhood.

Vega: In any homicide
investigation,

a lot of people
are hesitant to talk.

You know, they're afraid
that here's a murder,

if I give you information
on a murder will the murderer

come after me?

Officers did knock on doors
looking for any witnesses,

but there weren't
a lot of people to talk to.

They did find the one neighbor,
one Anjeanette's street.

Hi, ma'am,
sorry to bother you.

I just wanted to know
if you knew your neighbor,

Anjeanette maldonado?

Yeah,
that's Paulette's daughter.

Do you know, when's the last
time you've seen her?

I saw her on Monday morning.

I think she was
on her way to school.

It was about 8, 10
in the morning.

After that,
we have no idea where she went.

And was she by herself
or with anyone else?

No, she was by herself.

Latty:
The community had no tips.

They were all very sad
about Anjeanette

and what had happened,

but they had nothing to offer.

And that was very frustrating.

On a case like this
where there are no witnesses,

it makes it very difficult.

Thank you.
-No problem.

You know, we have to rely
on physical evidence...

...for the most part.

Narrator: Later that morning,
Anjeanette's remains are taken

to the medical
examiner's office,

where a full autopsy is
performed.

During the autopsy,

she was found to have
one fracture to her skull.

There was apparent
ligature strangulation

and there was bruising
on her face.

So it just appeared that
she was punched repeatedly.

The cause of death was found
to be strangulation

and blunt force trauma.

During the medical exam,
semen was collected.

Back in '96,
they were using cotton swabs.

And these were packaged into
either a plastic tube

or a glass tube
kept refrigerated,

submitted to the laboratory
for testing.

Narrator: In hopes
of gathering clues

about Anjeanette's
final hours,

detectives go back to talk to
Anjeanette's mother, Paulette.

A starting point for
an investigation like this

would be to try to find out
where she might have been going,

who she'd normally
associate with.

I'm sorry, miss Smith, I know
this is a difficult time,

but what can you
tell US about Angie?

Did she have a boyfriend?

She had a boyfriend.

And who was that?

Christian.

Paulette Smith reported that
Anjeanette had a boyfriend

by the name
of Christian vrabec.

He had been dating
Anjeanette maldonado

for about one year.

They had a volatile relationship
for the last few months

and she was concerned
that Christian

may have something to do
with her disappearance.

I don't know.

I mean, he's got
a terrible temper.

I didn't have anything
to prove it,

but that's how I felt.

This was the only person
I thought it was.

I don't know,
maybe he got really upset.

I don't know.

Chris and Anjeanette's
typical routine every day

would be him meeting her
and him walking her to school.

And then,
she gets out of school,

he walks her
either home or to her job.

The night before she
went missing, they had a fight.

Paulette Smith tells US
about a fight

that Christian vrabec
and Anjeanette had

the previous night outside
her residence on the block.

I could hear them screaming
in the street.

I didn't see it,
but my neighbor said

that Anjeanette smacked them,

that they were arguing
about his lack of ambition,

that he doesn't want
to get a job.

She said
she was fed up with him

and things couldn't keep going
the way they were going.

Christian vrabec definitely
becomes a person of interest,

so speaking to him
was critical at that point.

He's a person
that we wanted to talk to.

Narrator: Detectives bring
Anjeanette's boyfriend,

Christian, into the station
for questioning.

Christian said that he was
willing to cooperate

and do anything that we needed
to help in this case.

Thank you for coming in today,
Christian.

I'm gonna ask you
a few questions.

Just need simple answers,
all right?

Okay.

What's your relationship
to the victim?

She was my girlfriend.

And how long have you
two been together?

I don't know about --
about a year now,

since November 3rd
of last year.

So the morning
of September 30th,

did you walk Angie
to school that morning?

I did not.

Mcdermott:
He said that most mornings

he would meet Anjeanette
and go to school with her.

This morning,
he claims that she paged him

and he failed to see the page
and he slept through that.

And how would you describe
your relationship?

You know,
kind of like a roller coaster.

Narrator: Christian admits
to having fought with Anjeanette

the night
before her disappearance.

Do these fights
ever get physical?

Narrator: But he claims they
made up before he returned home.

We make up after
and everything's okay.

When was the last time you
and Angie were intimate?

He tells detectives that he had
a sexual encounter

with Anjeanette either
the previous Thursday or Friday,

which should've have been
several days

before she was found.

We also asked if he knew
whether she was intimate

with anybody else,
which he says no,

I thought
she was only with me.

Narrator: Detectives then
checked Christian

for defensive wounds.

Homicide detectives had him
take off his shirt

and everything to check
his arms, his back,

his chest, his neck to see
if there were any injuries.

And we think with
how we found her body

that she had fought the person
who had done this to her.

All right, can I get you
to turn around?

He would've had some injury,

maybe a bite Mark, a scratch
or something like that.

It was obvious he had absolutely
no injuries on him.

All right, keep your arms up
and turn around.

Mcdermott: But even though there
were no apparent injuries,

Christian could not be
ruled out.

He had no real alibi as to
where he was that morning

except he says he was asleep
in his apartment.

So while in homicide
that morning,

a DNA sample was taken from
Christian vrabec.

Back at that time,

blood had to be drawn
in order to do a DNA comparison.

Narrator: Christian's DNA
will be compared to the DNA

found on Anjeanette's body.

Christian vrabec was still
considered a person of interest,

but he could not be arrested
at that point.

Narrator:
Desperate for information...

James, thanks for coming in.

Narrator:
...Detectives question

a close friend
of Christian's, James Moses.

How do you know
Anjeanette maldonado?

My friend Chris
was her boyfriend.

And how would you describe
their relationship?

Mcdermott:
According to what he told US,

Anjeanette and Christian
were in love with each other.

Do you think Chris had anything
to do with Angie's murder?

Absolutely not.

If you think it's Chris,
you have the wrong guy.

That they argued, but they
always got back together again.

I know he really cared
about her.

He wouldn't have wanted anything
like this to happen to Angie.

It was frustrating
and annoying at that point

because we didn't know
what to believe.

Narrator:
According to James Moses,

Christian vrabec had
nothing to do with girlfriend

Anjeanette maldonado's murder.

If you think it's Chris,
you have the wrong guy.

James talked about them,
he said they were loving.

I know he really
cared about her.

No way would Christian
have been involved in this,

but also were aware that
he's friends were Christian

so he would have a reason
to cover up for his friend.

Before you go,
will you voluntarily give US

a blood sample?

Yeah, no problem,
absolutely.

I don't have anything
to hide.

Narrator:
On December 19, 1996,

nearly three months
after Anjeanette's

violent rape and murder.

The DNA results are finally in.

Detective mcdermott.

The DNA that was collected
during the autopsy,

turned out to be
two separate individuals.

One came back
to Christian vrabec,

the other source
was unknown.

Narrator: But the presence of
Christian's DNA

doesn't necessarily prove

that he's the killer.

We knew the Christian vrabec
very intimate relationship

with Anjeanette,

so that would account
for the semen being present.

The fact
that his DNA was there,

it's not uncommon to have semen,
you know, still be discovered

a day, two days, three days
after the sexual act occurred.

Mcdermott: The second DNA
profile that was found

was absolutely unknown.

We could not determine
who it was.

We needed to identify
the second source of DNA

before we could move forward
with any arrest.

So we also considered
his friend,

James Moses,
could've been involved.

We took this DNA sample
from James

and it was compared against
the DNA that was recovered

and he was excluded.

It wasn't him.

So who is this second male?
We don't know who it is.

Have you heard of anything
from any surrounding precincts?

Narrator: A chilling
and sinister possibility

dawns on the detectives
investigating

Anjeanette's murder.

On a case like this
with the brutality

and the fact that she was
sexually assaulted,

the possibility that
a serial rapist was in the area

or committed this crime
had to be considered.

Was this a violent rapist

who has nothing to do
with her world,

who just grabbed
this little girl off the street

and did this to her?

Police department
arrest records are checked

and we checked into other
convicted sexual offenders

who live in the area with
no success up to that point.

Calling detectives
in other units

and other districts saying,
have you heard of anything,

this will happen to my victim.

You got any victims

with the same type of injuries
or style of rape.

Any similar cases?
Young girls.

Just looking for anything

that might help US
get a few leads.

We had a good team of detectives
who did their work.

Can't really tie
anyone down to this.

But at that time,

they were having trouble
finding a possible suspect.

Bye.

Nothing.

And they're kind
of hitting a dead end.

Narrator: After months
with no new leads,

the daily news
and Anjeanette neighbors

pooled funds to offer
an $8,000 reward

for any information leading
to the arrest

of Anjeanette's killer.

I was really hopeful that
the reward would help solve it.

I was so excited
that they did that.

And I said, wow,
$8,000 is a lot of money,

especially back then

and especially
in that community.

Maybe this would be
the trigger that somebody

would come forward,
but that didn't happen.

Once a week past, a month,
I kind of lost hope

that they were gonna catch
the person who did it.

Narrator: With her killer
still on the loose

Anjeanette's mother,
Paulette Smith,

makes a difficult decision.

She leaves the family home.

We moved out.
We couldn't stay in that house.

We didn't know
who you could trust.

Latty: She was afraid.

She wanted to keep herself
and her family safe.

The fact that it was
an unknown perpetrator

wasn't allowing her
to have any peace.

Latty: God knows where he is
or if he's after her,

who the hell knows?

It just must have felt
like a Boulder on her back.

Narrator: One year after
Anjeanette maldonado's

gruesome murder,
investigators hit a wall.

At the end of 1997,

we weren't getting any
new information at that point.

We had no new physical evidence
to connect the perpetrator.

And I think some of the problems
with the early investigation

was that DNA technology
was still evolving.

So the case kind of came
to a standstill.

You have to realize,

in addition
to this murder happening,

we're forgetting that this city
is being ravaged by drug wars

and other violence.

So every day
there's another murder

and these detectives
not only concentrate on hers,

but there are new murders
coming in that

they have to investigate.

Narrator: Still, there are
people on the Philly

police force who will not
give up on the case.

If there was just one detective

who wouldn't let it go,

there was gonna be hope.

Mcdermott:
When we first got the case,

we knew that Christian vrabec
was a person of interest,

but he could not be arrested
at that point

because his DNA was present.

We knew that they had
an intimate relationship.

And that could account
for why the DNA

was present
during the autopsy.

We needed to get that
other source of DNA identified

and talk to that person

before we could make
any arrest in this case.

We decided to start from
square one and go back

and try to reinterview everyone
that we've spoken to previously.

We were hoping that one of
these individuals that we spoke

to would have
some new good information.

Sometimes people were hesitant
to come forward initially.

With the passage of time
might feel guilty

or they're in
a different neighborhood now

or have a different
life circumstance

that they feel more safe
to cooperate with the police.

So there's always that hope

that maybe someone
who didn't step forward

might tell everything
they know.

Narrator: On July 1st, 1998,

detectives again reach out
to Christian's friend,

James Moses.

We took him up
to the homicide unit,

which is on the first floor
of the police administration

building in interview room d.

James, thanks for coming back
in to speak with US.

We're still looking
into this case, you know,

the Anjeanette maldonado case.

We're still looking
for answers.

Is there anything else you can
remember from that night?

He tells US that he lied
during his initial interview.

Nothing I told the detectives
that day was true.

I was too scared to say
who really did it.

He tells US
that Christian vrabec

told him after the murder
that he did it.

Narrator: If true,

it's a shocking
and unnerving revelation.

When was the last time
you saw her?

Last time I saw her,
they were arguing on the street.

He was calling out to her.

He was yelling
at her to come back.

He tells US that they argued
over a previous boyfriend

Anjeanette had.

And then the next time
I saw him,

he just said
that he got rid of her.

He tells US that
Christian vrabec told him

that he got rid of her,
meaning Anjeanette.

That he killed her
in the abandoned house

on hope street.

I didn't believe him at first

until he began
telling me how he did it.

Christian vrabec told him
that he choked Anjeanette,

hit her with a hammer,

and had forcible sex
with her inside that house.

Did you witness any of this
or he just told you this?

He told me.

He said he left her book bags
and her clothes in the house.

You know, it's kind of shocking
all of a sudden

after all this time that,

you know, he's coming forward
with this information.

He pointed to the abandoned
house on hope street

and he asked me
if I wanted to see it.

And I said no.

The account that
James Moses gave US at the time

seemed credible
and trustworthy

because of the amount of detail
he was able to go into.

Why didn't you call
the police then?

I was scared.

And for him to come in
and tell US

that Christian did this

and give US details of how
the murder supposedly happened,

at that point, we had no reason
not to believe James Moses.

Our next step was to try
to corroborate

what James Moses told US,

and we went out there initially
to speak to his family members

to see
if he said anything to them

about what he was told
by Christian vrabec.

He's good friends
with Christian,

do you know him by chance?

I've met Christian before,
yeah.

Narrator:
James said he had told

his mother
about Christian's confession.

Yeah, I actually don't know
what you're talking about.

The fact that we couldn't
corroborate through his family

lended me to pause
and proceed cautiously

because he had told US

that he told his mother
that Christian did it

and she denied having
any knowledge of that.

Later on that day, we reached
out to Christian vrabec

and asked him if he was willing
to come back in and speak to US.

He indicated that he was,
we picked them up,

we drove them into homicide,
and spoke to him.

Narrator: Detectives do not tell
Christian about his friend

James Moses' allegations.

So do you know why
we brought you back in here?

I'm assuming
to talk about Angie again.

Even though I keep telling
you guys that

I had nothing to do with it.

Mcdermott: Again, he completely
denied any involvement,

again, said how much
he loved Anjeanette

and would never
do anything to hurt her.

We had no physical evidence
linking him to this.

Vega: Christian is still
a person of interest.

And with what James said,
you know,

we're really focusing on him.

But other than James' word,

which we really
can't corroborate,

we don't have enough
to arrest him.

I don't know what all
these questions are.

I want to find out
who the killer is

just as much as you do,
but I'm innocent.

As the years passed, I continue
to monitor Christian vrabec's

whereabouts
and James Moses' whereabouts.

We continue to monitor
any arrest in that area,

especially sexual assaults.

We continue to check
for sexual offenders.

We spoke to people that were
under arrest and in some cases

have their DNA profile
checked against the evidence

that we had with
no success up to that point.

The longer it took,

I knew that it was gonna get
really hard to solve this case.

I mean, it had to be a nightmare
for Anjeanette's mom.

I knew they were looking,

it just helped reassure me

that they were doing
everything they could.

But all these other crimes
are getting solved,

and you're wondering
why yours is not.

I was a mess.

Narrator:
After Anjeanette maldonado's
gruesome murder,

10 long years pass,

her boyfriend,
Christian vrabec,

remains a person of interest
the entire time.

Mcdermott: I had to still
consider him until otherwise.

And as the years passed,
became frustrating

that we weren't able to make
any real headway in this case.

We were basically
at a standstill.

Narrator: Then in 2009,

the Philadelphia
police department

receives a federal Grant

to reinvestigate
unsolved cases using DNA.

One of the first cases I thought
of when we received this Grant

was the Anjeanette maldonado
case.

So I chose that case for review
because the DNA was collected,

turned out to be a mix
of two separate individuals,

one being Christian vrabec,
the other source was unknown.

I actually thought
that eventually someone

would come to our attention

and we'd be able to check
their DNA against that profile

and we would get
a positive identification.

Narrator: The Philly p.D.
Uses the Grant

to run the 13-year-old

unidentified DNA profile
through codis.

The codis database is really
just an additional tool

you know, they have
in their toolbox now

that they didn't have in '96.

Codis is the DNA system
where we can upload samples,

upload profiles
and compare it to samples

from across the nation.

Pfleegor: So anytime somebody
is convicted of a felony,

they're required
to give a sample

to go into the DNA database.

And every state in the u.S.
Does this.

Narrator: Finally,
a DNA match is made.

The results shocked everyone
involved with the case.

The actual codis hit came back
to match a male identified

as Raphael crespo.

Raphael crespo.

Who was found to be serving
a 15-year sentence

for sexual assault on a minor

who turned out to be
a stepdaughter down in Florida.

After all this time,
it passed that a DNA hit

and that unknown profile
was finally identified,

I was very much surprised.

Narrator: Detectives fly over
a thousand miles to Florida

to confront Raphael crespo,
who was set to be released

from the Hardy correctional
institution in three years.

Mcdermott: When we arrived
at the prison in Florida,

the warden provided US
with a room for the interview.

I'm detective mcdermott
with the Philadelphia p.D.

And we're here to talk to you
about a case.

I didn't know what to expect,

but I was surprised
when we went into the room

to speak to him,
he was soft-spoken.

He was wearing glasses.

He didn't look much like
a threatening person.

People have this thought
that a rapist murderer

has a certain look and they look
horrible and like monsters.

Now they look like you and me.

I told Mr. Crespo

we were there investigating
the murder of a girl

named Anjeanette maldonado
in 1996

and that his DNA matched
evidence from that case.

Then I showed him a picture
of Anjeanette.

Do you recognize this girl?

She looks vaguely familiar.

You don't recognize her
at all?

You're asking me
to go back to 1996?

Yeah, she looks familiar.

She looks like someone
I had sex with

maybe back then.

Mr. Crespo told US
that he had been in Philadelphia

for a 10-day period
with his wife

visiting
his wife's relatives.

He said that he had
an argument with his wife

and went out drinking at several
bars in the Kensington area.

After the bar's closed,

he went out looking for
a prostitute on front street,

was not successful.

And then in the morning,

he encounters
Anjeanette maldonado.

This girl was there
and she took me to this

abandoned house.

And we had sex.

So she took you
to go have sex?

Yes and we both took
our clothes off.

And, you know,
we just went to it.

He was basically,
matter of fact,

that he had sex with this girl,

that she agreed
it was consensual.

And that he claims that

she asked him to choke her
during the sex act.

And how did you choke her?

She asked me to use her shirt.

So I started choking her
and it's kind of hot,

I don't know
this is new for me,

but I'm choking her and...

She went limp.

I guess she passed out.
I mean, it scared me.

I just thought, come on,

this is -- I don't know
what to do here, so I left.

So you didn't know if she was
alive or dead at that point?

She was alive.
Come on, man. She was alive.

She just passed out.

So he left her on the floor
but didn't think he killed her.

Never saw on the news and he
claims he forgot about it.

Narrator:
Crespo weaves a bizarre

and very disturbing story.

She asked me.

She asked me to choke her.

He tried to say
it was Anjeanette's fault

that she was in that house
and ended up dead

and also that he was drunk,
that it wasn't really his fault.

I find that oftentimes

when people make statements
of admission,

they try to deflect some of
the blame and blame the victim

for a lot of
what happened to them.

In this case, Raphael crespo,
he tried to do that.

Hello? Hello, detective.

The detectives did call me
and told me

that the man's name
was Raphael crespo

and that we didn't
have to worry.

You don't have to look for him.
He's already in jail.

It would have to be a monster
to do something like that.

Thank you, detective.

It was a shock.

I just never could understand

why he would even
do anything like that.

Never.

Narrator:
After more than a decade,

detectives can officially
rule out Christian vrabec.

When we spoke
to Christian vrabec,

he told me that
he still loved Anjeanette

and he thought about her
every day and he was happy

that we were finally able
to give the family some closure.

Narrator:
And as for why James Moses'

accused his friend,
Christian vrabec of murder...

For reasons unknown,

he admitted he had lied
to US in 1998

and that kind of
cleared up that aspect.

Narrator: Now, detectives
can finally piece together

the tragic murder
of 17-year-old,

Anjeanette maldonado.

On September 30, 1996,

Anjeanette maldonado left for
school shortly after 8:00 A.M.

We know that she paged
Christian vrabec,

her boyfriend,

and he failed
to return her page.

Narrator: Meanwhile,
Raphael crespo is in town

from Florida.

The night before
he had had an argument

or something with his wife,
went out drinking,

and when all the bars closed
in Philly and he was drunk,

he decided to walk around
and he wanted a prostitute.

Narrator: Instead, he finds
Anjeanette on her way to school.

Mcdermott: She was followed

and somehow
forced into that house.

Let me go! Please.

Help! No!

Don't hurt me!

We know based
on what her body's telling US

and what that crime scene
is saying

is that he attacked her...

No, please. No!

...he ripped her clothes off...

Don't do this, please.

Aah!
-Shh.

All right, come on.

...and he raped
and strangled her.

Shut up, shut up, shut up!

Mcdermott:
After this assault,

I think Raphael crespo
left that house

as soon as possible

because that abandoned house

was being used
by homeless people,

by drug addicts, and that's
how the body was found.

So I think that he didn't want
to be found in there

with Anjeanette's body
and he left.

Narrator:
On September 10, 2015,

Raphael crespo is convicted
of first-degree murder,

rape, and abuse of a corpse

in the death
of Anjeanette maldonado.

He is sentenced to life
in prison.

In Pennsylvania,
life is life, and fortunately,

Mr. Crespo
will never be getting out.

Dilacqua:
I had a feeling that someday

that justice would be served.

Just looking at that girl,

I could never get it
out of my mind.

This was a combination
of hard work

by the police,
technology advancing,

and pure luck.

Anjeanette maldonado had her
whole life ahead of her,

was trying to find her place
in this world,

and it was cut short by
a predator like Raphael crespo

for no good reason
other than his own satisfaction.

There's not a doubt in my mind
that had she lived,

she would have done
great things with her life,

despite growing up
in a community

that could have forced her
to do everything wrong.

Smith: I think of Angie
every day.

She has a very strong spirit.

Her smile, her energy.

She plays a big part
in my life.

Angie's there.

We know she's still with US.