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Snapped Killer Couples S18E16 - Christina Araujo and Zach Abell engsubtitle fullfilm🍿
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00:11They were sort of joined at the hip in everything they did in life, being business partners,
00:16romantic partners. I remember he said to me, he's like, she likes girls too. They had been
00:21in a relationship and then she had joined into that relationship. They partied like there was
00:27no tomorrow. The three of them were sexually adventurous. There was no question about it.
00:33But you've got three people involved. The potential is there for one of those parties to get jealous.
00:39They want to be together, just them and leave her in the rear view. There was blood all over that
00:46room.
00:47I have been working here for almost 16 years and I'd never seen anything like it.
00:51They were partners to the bitter end of this horrible tragedy.
00:56It was just toxic. It was obvious it was going to end up in a horror show.
01:16April 23rd, 2018. It's just past 2pm when April Russell and her husband Chris pull into an abandoned
01:26development in Franklin County, Florida. My husband suggested that we go fishing out in this little
01:33honey hole I found because it had big warm mouth and brim in it. They'd been down there previously,
01:38knew there was a little pond at the end of that cul-de-sac. It's a secluded area.
01:42So we turned in there and we made the roundabout and we seen what I thought was a trash bag.
01:54We ended up stopping. I looked in my mirror because he's screaming when he first gets out
02:01and going, call 911, call 911. I get out in the car to see what's going on and then we
02:07see the
02:08person laying there. I could tell just the coloration of her body, just the way it was she was dead
02:15on
02:15arrival. And to be honest with you, it's the most gruesome thing I've ever seen.
02:21So we proceeded to call the police. I responded to the area and to the scene.
02:28It appeared to be a Caucasian female. She was laying in the ditch area. She had bruising from
02:34her head all the way down to her feet. This was definitely a homicide and it was a brutal beating
02:41from what I could see. At that point in time, they called in the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
02:47FDLE just has a lot more resources than the small county sheriff departments have.
02:54Upon my arrival, I'd observed the body and I could tell that she had been through something
03:00horrible. It's very rare to get a homicide in Franklin County. So my first thought is,
03:06who is this young lady and how'd she get here? She was approximately mid-30s, I guessed, you
03:15know, based off her looks.
03:18She was wearing black tight-fitting pants like leggings and a black shirt. Her pants were
03:23on inside out and backwards, as if someone had just sort of thrown clothes on her.
03:30Her clothing was rolled up toward the head of the body like someone drug her to the side
03:34of the road.
03:36There was a slight onset of lividity, but rigor mortis had not set in, so we knew we had a
03:42time frame window of approximately about eight hours. Her abdomen was exposed and you could
03:49see bruising all over the abdomen. And then she had bruising on her face and arms. We canvassed
03:57the area, we processed the scene. There was nothing located to identify who this female was, how she
04:04got there, so we listed her as Jane Doe. We placed the body in a body bag and we turned
04:11the body over
04:12to the medical examiner's office. There's no houses, there's no surveillance camera, there's no video of
04:21cars going in and out. There's nothing that would give us any evidentiary value to who might have
04:28done this.
04:32The following morning, an autopsy is performed on their Jane Doe.
04:37The autopsy revealed incredible amounts of blunt force trauma to the body, essentially from head to toe.
04:44And it wasn't consistent with like one big solid bruise, like if you would receive from a seat belt of
04:51a car
04:51crash, it was more consistent with spots from a cheetah all over the abdomen.
04:57It wasn't like she took one hit or two hits. It was multiple over and over and over again.
05:04Even down to her feet were bruised. Her internal organs were damaged significantly from the beating.
05:10It was just a brutal, brutal beating.
05:14I've been in law enforcement for approximately 18 years, and this is the most violent homicide I've ever worked.
05:23Detective Ronnie Jones and myself had just finished up the autopsy of our Jane Doe, and he received a phone
05:30call from patrol.
05:33They were advising me that the Sportsman's Lodge Motel had called in with what appeared to be a crime scene
05:39in room 15 on the property.
05:42The Sportsman's Lodge is on the Apalachicola River. It is the place where you can take a boat out.
05:48You can just stroll the property. Very unassuming, very warm and friendly.
05:54Cleaning staff advised they went in to clean the room and began cleaning the room when they noticed one of
06:00the beds was covered with blood.
06:03The Sportsman's Lodge is located approximately seven miles from the area where the deceased was located.
06:09So I'm thinking in my mind that this possibly could be the crime scene of our victim.
06:15While en route, I immediately contacted Special Agent Wheeler and advised him of the situation, and he started heading toward
06:22Franklin County to assist.
06:24Upon getting to the Sportsman's Lodge, I made contact with Detective Ronnie Jones.
06:29We enter into room 15. The room completely smelled of vinegar. The bed in the right-hand corner of the
06:35room was completely covered in a brownish-red stain, which appeared to be blood.
06:39And my first thought was, somebody's tried to clean this scene up.
06:44So we immediately secured the scene and waited for the crime scene unit to arrive.
06:50When the crime scene unit arrives, they immediately get to work collecting evidence in room 15.
06:57Our crime scene technicians are the best of the best. They have all different kinds of forensic methods to process
07:05crime scenes, and one of the methods they use is luminol.
07:10It's a substance that, when you turn a black light on, it reveals areas of potential blood. That was used
07:17in the room.
07:18They used the luminol in the room, and once they hit it with the black light, the room lit up
07:25like Christmas lights.
07:30It gave the appearance that there was blood splatter all over the room.
07:34My first thoughts were, something brutal happened in this room, because the splatters weren't just here and there. They were
07:44everywhere.
07:46Several shards of wood was located underneath. The bed was also photographed and taken into evidence.
07:52The bathroom was also in disarray.
07:56The shower curtain rod was down and missing. The curtain was gone.
08:01The shower rod was actually located in the closet, and it was bent as if it was forcefully bent by
08:08someone.
08:09The curtain rod appeared to have a bloody stain and appeared to be a possible hand print.
08:16Every bit of the evidence was submitted to the FDLE lab and processed through our DNA to try and determine
08:22who the blood belongs to and if it matches our possible victim.
08:29Once the motel room is fully processed, investigators span out in search of witnesses.
08:34We basically canvassed everybody that was there and asked them who was staying in room 15.
08:41They basically said we had a male and a female that were staying there with another female.
08:46They had seen them out there hanging out, grilling food on the grills that are there, drinking alcohol,
08:52and appeared to be, by the staff's estimation, having a good time and enjoying themselves.
09:01So, per the hotel, they checked in on the 21st, stayed a night, and were going to check out on
09:07the morning of the 22nd,
09:09but they decided to stay another night.
09:13It's a couple of different buildings at the Sportsman's Lodge,
09:16but nobody could say that they were alarmed at screams or thumps or anything else going on at room 15.
09:25The management of the hotel, they were able to provide us with a credit card receipt
09:30that came back to the person that paid for the room,
09:34and the name on the credit card receipt was Christina Arojo.
09:38We don't know if that's the victim.
09:41We don't know who that is.
09:43We just know we got an unknown body in a ditch,
09:45a hotel room in complete disarray of some tragic event that we don't know what occurred.
09:54We automatically run the name once we received it from the Sportsman's Lodge credit card receipt
10:00through national databases, and at that time, nothing came back.
10:05All we knew was that was the person that paid for the room.
10:09There was a lot of still unanswered questions.
10:11How are these people associated?
10:13Are they victims themselves?
10:15Are they suspects?
10:17Where are they?
10:19The Sheriff's Office doesn't know what the connection is,
10:22but they have to get to the bottom of it.
10:27Coming up, authorities identify their victim.
10:31I got a phone call.
10:32I just, I didn't have any words.
10:34It was very surreal.
10:37And investigators uncover a volatile situation among a trio of lovers.
10:44Reading those text messages shined a picture of just how unstable this relationship was.
10:49It was hot and cold.
10:51Ultimately, a matter of time before something tragic happened.
11:09Less than 24 hours after finding the body of an unidentified woman,
11:15Franklin County investigators suspect they have discovered the crime scene at a hotel room seven miles away.
11:22We had a lot of evidence that suggested that something horrific occurred in there,
11:27but we didn't know what went on in that room.
11:30That same day, a statewide bolo reaches Franklin County investigators
11:35from more than 450 miles away in southern Florida.
11:40The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office is seeking information
11:44regarding a possible female victim located in the Panhill area of Florida.
11:49It was a very vague description of basically an all call of,
11:56hey, has anybody got anything going on that could possibly fit this?
12:00Of a female, lower to mid-30s, located anywhere in that area,
12:05possibly missing or possible deceased.
12:09Detective Ronnie Jones and I go, is this our girl?
12:14So we immediately called the detective that sent out the bolo to seek more information.
12:19And he provided us that he had an individual by the name of Michael Pickabit come in
12:26and basically said that his friend was possibly dead in the area of North Florida.
12:32At that time, we got a possible name of Eileen Sidon.
12:37We were able to pull her driver's license photo from a driver's license database system,
12:43and we were able to roughly identify her as our decedent as Eileen Sidon.
12:52She was a resident of the Miami-Dade Broward County area.
12:56So less than 24 hours later, we finally have a victim identification.
13:02Finally getting a name with a face was somewhat of a relief
13:06because it gave us a small token to go on.
13:10But we're still trying to put the puzzle pieces together.
13:13What happened in room 15?
13:17I did the notification to her sister.
13:20She lived in California, so I had to do the death notification by phone.
13:24It's very blurry, but I just remember I got a phone call.
13:29I immediately found out it was a homicide.
13:31I just, I didn't have any words.
13:33It was very surreal.
13:36The youngest of three daughters, Eileen Sidon, was born and raised in Miami, Florida.
13:42My parents were both in business.
13:45My mom was the interior designer.
13:47My dad owned the wholesale company that furnished every hotel for a long time.
13:53By the time Eileen came, I was eight years old.
13:56So I kind of was her babysitter as well as, you know, her sister.
14:01Eileen was a very sweet girl.
14:05She's a huge animal lover, and she was really playful.
14:08At the age of nine, Eileen's carefree childhood came to an abrupt end.
14:15My mom was diagnosed with a pretty advanced stage of colon cancer.
14:22It was only six months.
14:23When my mom passed, to lose our mom when I was 16 and she was nine at the time, she
14:32internalized
14:33it because she was so young and doesn't know how to really process.
14:37And then my dad passed six years later.
14:41It was sudden-ish.
14:43But my dad was also 75 years old with some health problems.
14:48So I became her legal guardian.
14:51To me, that wasn't like a burden.
14:53When you live in survival mode, you're just kind of going.
14:57There's no time to think.
14:58It's just doing.
15:00It's hard, but at the same time, it was kind of normal.
15:03Like, I bought a house, so we lived in that house.
15:06There's a 22-year-old and a 14-year-old growing up in one house.
15:11We were together, and we had such a close-knit group of friends, her friends, her friend's
15:17family, my friends, my friend's family, that it somehow kind of filled the void.
15:24She was just a fun, funny girl who enjoyed hanging out with her friends, going to school,
15:29and it was just that.
15:32After high school, Eileen moved out of the house and got her own apartment.
15:37She enrolled in community college and began working in property management.
15:42She started working her way up.
15:44She was just going in this path, and it just was very natural to her.
15:48She was really good at it, and I was really proud of her.
15:52Eventually, Francesca relocated to California, and Eileen joined her in 2016.
16:00She lived with me in Los Angeles for six months.
16:03She was looking for work here, but she couldn't find anything here, and I think she kind of
16:09missed Miami and her friends, so she went back.
16:13Eventually, she was going to get into real estate, but that unfortunately didn't happen.
16:21Now, at just 31 years old, Eileen Seiden has been found murdered nearly 500 miles away from her home.
16:30I've been around a lot of homicides in my career.
16:34This was the most brutal beating I've ever seen in my life.
16:42After speaking with Eileen's sister, investigators turned their attention to Mike Pickovett, the individual who had come forward about Eileen.
16:51We had received from Palm Beach County that Michael Pickovett had walked in and gave them information identifying Eileen Seiden.
16:58I immediately contacted our Miami Regional Operations Center and spoke to agents down there.
17:05They got in contact with Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office and set in motion the things to get Mike Pickovett
17:13interviewed.
17:15We were able to conduct an interview with Mike Pickovett and obtain first-hand information from him.
17:23It took me a long time to kind of process and come to terms with it, but knowing what I
17:30knew, I went in to talk to the police.
17:4624 hours into the murder investigation of 31-year-old Eileen Seiden, a man named Mike Pickovett has come forward
17:55claiming to have pertinent information in the case.
17:59When I talked to the police, they were pretty much just asking what I knew, and I told them.
18:05The night before, I heard the knock on the door, and then I went to the door and opened it.
18:13It was around 9 or 10 o'clock in the evening, and he answers the door, and it's Zachary Abel
18:17and Christina Araujo.
18:20Christina Araujo matched with the information they received from the motel receipt.
18:25Mike Pickovett was friends with Zachary Abel and Christina Araujo, and he'd met Eileen Seiden through that relationship with the
18:33two of them.
18:34He invites them in the house. He immediately asks where Eileen is because he knew they were always together.
18:42Christina right away said, oh, she ran away. I said, bull because her and Zach were connected so much. I
18:49said, what happened?
18:49And Zach started choking up crying, and he goes, she's dead.
18:55Mike tells investigators that he first met the couple at a local marina six years earlier.
19:01Zach approached me at the bar. He goes, I do porn for a production company down in Miami.
19:07Then Christina came up to us sitting at the bar, and she's backing up his whole porn thing.
19:12And it was funny. Back then, I was, like, really reserved, and they're so extrovert, and I'm so introverted.
19:18And I wanted to learn more about them.
19:22Zach had grown up in Miami. He was a pretty flamboyant, vivacious character.
19:31I originally met Zach in middle school. We've been friends since, I believe, 2002.
19:37We were both into, like, muscle cars and sport bikes, and we kind of hit it off.
19:42He was funny. Always funny, entertaining. Just a delight to be around.
19:49Him and his dad were very close.
19:51He was, like, best friends with his father, working on cars and stuff and engines.
19:55He really enjoyed that.
19:57Shortly after high school, Zach suffered a devastating blow.
20:02Zach lost his father. I believe it was a traffic accident.
20:07Zach was a completely different person after his father died.
20:12When his father passed away, Zach started drinking a lot. A lot. Grill heavy. I mean, straight liquor, too.
20:22Christina and Zach met shortly after his dad died.
20:28They met at a Christmas party of a neighbor.
20:31He was actually a little bit excited because Christine was an older woman.
20:37She was 28 years old, and Zach was almost 19.
20:42Christina Araujo was from Palm Beach County, the daughter of a prominent member of the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office, who
20:51had come over as a young boy from Cuba.
20:54Christina, she was a feisty chick.
20:57You know, dad being, I believe from what she told me, a former Marine and growing up with a bunch
21:01of brothers and law enforcement and being out in the Loxahatchee, West Palm Beach area, which is pretty, like, rough
21:08country area.
21:10She can definitely get pretty spicy, you know, with some of this passion, you know, that she had.
21:16She had been married to a deputy in the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office and later divorced.
21:23And then she meets Zach Abel.
21:27I remember the first thing he said to me is, like, oh, she likes girls, too.
21:33They would let all different people into their relationship, more like one-night stands.
21:39People in at night, out the next morning.
21:43I guess it was working for them.
21:45Zach and Christina were together for about nine or ten years.
21:48They opened a used car dealership, and they were very successful with it.
21:53They were making a lot of money.
21:55Because Zach didn't have a Florida driver's license, he couldn't have it in his name.
21:59Christina owned it.
22:00It was referred to as Abel Automotive.
22:02They kind of bought and sold, flipped cars, would go to auctions, maybe buy vehicles, and then sell them on
22:07their lot.
22:09Investigators ask Mike how Eileen fits in with the couple.
22:14Zach and Eileen apparently went to some prep school when they were kids.
22:19Zach liked Eileen back in high school.
22:22She didn't really give him too much time back then.
22:25They were friendly.
22:26They talked.
22:28Zach and Eileen reconnected when she came to buy a car.
22:32One thing that her and Zach bonded over was he really missed his dad.
22:36So she really missed her parents, and so they had a common kind of sorrow.
22:42And that's one thing I'm pretty sure that Zach really liked was that he could talk to somebody that understood.
22:48As Mike walks investigators through Eileen's connection to Zach and Christina, he drops a bombshell.
22:56I told them Zach and Christina were together, but then they were each sharing Eileen.
23:01According to Mike Pigovett, Zachary Abel and Christina had been in a relationship for approximately nine to ten years, and
23:09then Eileen had joined into that relationship.
23:11Mike says the thruple began less than four months prior.
23:16You've got three people involved.
23:18The potential is there for one of those parties to get jealous.
23:21The three way that Zach, Eileen and Christina had gone, in my view, there was no way it was going
23:26to work out.
23:27It's like just a cocktail of disaster.
23:41In South Florida, Mike Pigovett has come forward with information about Eileen Sidon's murder and her connection to 30-year
23:50-old Zach Abel and his girlfriend, 38-year-old Christina Araujo.
23:55Eileen had become involved with Zach and Christina, and it was a fully active thruple.
24:07Investigators asked Mike how the three-way relationship began.
24:13Zachary Abel and Christina Araujo owned and managed a car lot in South Florida together, and Zach had ended up
24:21hiring Eileen to work at the car lot.
24:24Zach hired her to be the new salesgirl slash secretary of the business.
24:30Christina didn't really realize this, but Zach had been running around her back with Eileen.
24:36It became an emotional involvement, and Zach thought he could control it.
24:44In the beginning, it seemed like he was trying to keep Eileen a secret from Christina.
24:49But then December 2017 was when Zach all of a sudden shows up to my house with Christina and Eileen,
24:55and I'm just like, what the heck's going on?
24:57He's like, Christina found out everything, and she's agreed for us all to be in a relationship.
25:04I got the sense that she was afraid to lose Zach if she didn't attempt it.
25:09Eileen moved in with them into a house that they got.
25:13They partied like there was no tomorrow.
25:16The three of them were sexually adventurous. There was no question about it.
25:22The girls would have sex with each other. Zach would have sex with both of them.
25:27So there was a sexual relationship going on between all three parties.
25:32You know, they were sort of joined at the hip in everything they did in life, being business partners, romantic
25:37partners.
25:38Christina was definitely attracted to Eileen, but I also believe that Christina was very intimidated by Eileen.
25:44The energy and the lust between Zach and Eileen was out of this world.
25:56According to Mike, by February, the three-way relationship began to sour.
26:03Zach and Christina's relationship, there was a toxicity with it.
26:08They'd get drunk, and he'd be calling her fat and stuff, and then Eileen started doing it, too.
26:13They would taunt each other, but there were some things that Eileen said to Christina that really was very painful.
26:28Fights would erupt, and it would get even worse when there was alcohol involved.
26:33There were instances of violence, and it was the girls as well as Zach involved in it.
26:38So sometimes the girls would fight, sometimes Zach would be involved.
26:42But then the next day they were happy as heck.
26:44It was just toxic.
26:45It was obvious it was going to end up in a horror show.
26:51Despite the tumultuous relationship, Mike tells investigators he was still shocked when Zach and Christina showed up at his house
26:59and told him Eileen was dead.
27:03Zach started choking up crying, and he was just totally disoriented.
27:07You could see it in his eyes.
27:08According to Mike, he had spoke to Zach by himself while Christina was not around.
27:14And he was sobbing, I mean, like, distraught sobbing.
27:18And he just said, Christina killed her.
27:22Zach telling me that Christina killed Eileen, he was scared.
27:25He was like, he just didn't know what to do.
27:28Mike says that's when Christina rejoined the conversation.
27:33I asked Christina, I said, what happened?
27:36Zach says you killed her.
27:38And Christina just like, her eyes just big and the whites of her eyes all over the place and didn't
27:43deny it, didn't say nothing but denying it, nothing.
27:46And I was like, well, where's her body?
27:48Is somebody going to find it?
27:50I'm just thinking, play devil's advocate and just work with it.
27:54And she just said, oh, she's in a ditch.
28:00Mr. Abel had disclosed to him that they had discarded the body somewhere along the highway in the Panhandle area.
28:10I said, what about the hotel room?
28:12Are you going to, is anybody going to know that something happened there?
28:14Oh, no, there's a little bit of blood there, you know, on the mattress.
28:17I cleaned everything else up with vinegar.
28:19I was like, I've never heard that before.
28:20It made me bleach, but vinegar?
28:22They talked a little more.
28:24At one point, they talked about using Mike's boat.
28:28They went there because Mike had a boat.
28:31And there was discussions about potentially taking them on the boat out of the country.
28:38Mr. Pickabit decided quickly that he was not going to be a part of that and tried to control the
28:43situation as best he could until they fall asleep.
28:47Mike waited until they were asleep and exited the residence and was able to get away from them for a
28:54while and make a phone call.
28:56To speak with was Christina's father, who is in law enforcement.
29:02I gave him a call and just said, I got to tell you, it's something very important about your daughter.
29:08They ended up meeting at a gas station, and he was able to provide that information that he received from
29:14Zach to him.
29:17Mr. Araujo arranged for him to go to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.
29:22He is ultimately interviewed by a detective there, and that detective is the same one that sent out the BOLO.
29:29They were able to determine that these people were most likely still at Mike Pickabit's house.
29:34At this time, it's time to go into overdrive and speed up everything as fast as we can to make
29:39sure that these people do not get out of sight or flee.
29:44As the interview with Mike wraps up, FDLE agents arrive outside his house to get eyes on Zach and Christina.
29:53Shortly after that, I received a phone call notifying me that the agents on surveillance observed Zachary and Christina load
30:01luggage into the back of the car and proceed to leave the residence.
30:04Mike told us that Zach had made the comments of wanting to leave the country.
30:09We had to make sure that didn't happen.
30:2324 hours into the investigation of Eileen Seiden's murder, authorities have just spotted their primary suspects, Christina Araujo and Zach
30:34Abel fleeing Mike Pickabit's home.
30:37They observed the two suspects leave and exit the house, get into that Honda Civic and leave the witness's house.
30:47So the agents that were conducting the surveillance pulled out on the vehicle.
30:52They were forced at that time to conduct a felony stop on the car where they were able to take
30:58Zachary and Christina into custody.
31:01They were transported to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in South Florida for an interview.
31:08Zachary Abel refused to give a statement.
31:10They essentially went in, gave him his Miranda warnings, asked him if he wanted to talk and he told him
31:14he wanted a lawyer and that ended the interview.
31:18Christina is more willing to cooperate.
31:21When asked about Eileen, she tells FDLE investigators that she, Zach and Eileen had recently had a major falling out.
31:30She informed agents that several weeks prior, her and Zachary got in an altercation at the house.
31:37And Eileen and Zachary got in the vehicle and left.
31:41Christina apparently just thought they were going to go to a bar and just chill at the bar to defuse
31:45the situation.
31:46But she didn't hear from them for several days and she kept texting them.
31:51They were ignoring Christina and Christina was suffering emotional betrayal and feeling abandoned and hurt.
32:00My husband called Zach and talked to Zach, told him that he needs to like stop this whole truple thing
32:08and make things right with Christina.
32:11It wasn't until later that she was able to get in touch with them and they said that they were
32:16in Texas.
32:16She then got on a plane and flew to Texas where she met them.
32:21They then began to drive east to go back to Miami and took a road trip with an undercurrent of
32:29tension and landed up in Franklin County.
32:34Christina claims the trio were enjoying their stay at the Sportsman's Lodge in room 15 until the night of April
32:4222nd.
32:43Christina said she fell asleep and ultimately heard, woke up to a commotion in the bathroom.
32:49And when she walked into the bathroom, she could see that Zach was in a physical altercation with Eileen.
32:58She tried to intervene and Zachary told her, this doesn't pertain to you, go back to bed.
33:03And she just went back to bed.
33:06Eventually a very bloody and bruised Eileen was brought back to the bed, laid down.
33:13And then when she woke up the next morning, Eileen was dead.
33:18Christina Arroyo minimized her involvement in this homicide as just helping dispose of the body.
33:26Christina stated that she didn't want to help Zachary, but he grabbed her wrist and twisted it and forced her
33:33to help him.
33:35She actually drove the vehicle to a location that Zachary told her to go to, and that's where they dumped
33:42the body.
33:43Then they drove straight through to Mike Pickovich's house, only stopping for food.
33:50Shortly after stating that, an attorney arrived on scene and ended the interview with Christina.
33:58It was a brief statement, and we don't know if her statement was truthful.
34:02Zach immediately lawyered up, so we have nothing from him.
34:06So we had a situation where Zach is telling Mr. Pickovich that this was Christina.
34:11Christina's telling law enforcement this was Zach.
34:13At that point in time, they're taken into custody on an open count of murder.
34:19Ultimately, we obtained a search warrant for the vehicle and then searched the vehicle.
34:24We found some substantial items of evidentiary value.
34:27We were able to find blood in the backseat of the vehicle that came back to our victim, Eileen Sidon.
34:34We were able to find a broken-off walking stick.
34:38We were able to find DNA on the portion of the walking stick that contained Zach Abel's DNA, as well
34:45as the DNA of Eileen Sidon.
34:49And that also led us back to those fragments of wood that were found in the hotel room that appeared
34:55to be consistent with the piece that was found in the vehicle.
34:59Their phones were seized at the time that the arrest was made, and there were search warrants executed to obtain
35:05information off of their cell phones.
35:09Florida Department of Law Enforcement dumped the information that was on the phone.
35:12It included website searches they'd been to, potentially text messages, emails, phone logs, that sort of thing.
35:19There were no text messages that said, I did it or you did it.
35:23There were no discussions of how we're going to cover this up or anything of that nature.
35:29But the texts provide valuable insight into Christina's headspace in the days leading up to the murder.
35:36The text messages were all over the place.
35:39First, you could see she was angry, and she wanted them injured and hurt and dead.
35:46Eventually, she softened her tone, and all those messages changed from, you know, I'll get you arrested, I'll kill you.
35:52They changed into, I love you, we can work this out, please come home.
35:57Reading those text messages shined a picture of just how unstable this relationship was.
36:02It was very volatile, hot and cold, ultimately a matter of time before something tragic happened.
36:09I honestly wish Christina would have called me.
36:12Maybe if she called me, I could talk to her and just calm her down and just work things out,
36:19come up with a plan.
36:20We had a lot of evidence.
36:22Three people went into that hotel room and two came out.
36:26They're both culpable.
36:27They left the hotel room, they dumped the body.
36:30They didn't do anything to get her medical help.
36:33They didn't do anything to call the authorities to notify anyone.
36:39Initially, they were charged with second-degree murder.
36:42At some point in time, there was a grand jury convened here in Franklin County,
36:45and they returned an indictment for first-degree murder on both individuals.
36:50We were at that point in time going to try both of them together.
37:04In Franklin County, Florida, authorities are preparing to take Christina Araujo and Zach Abel to trial for the murder of
37:12Eileen Sidon.
37:14On the eve of trial, essentially, Christina's attorneys approached me that she wanted to enter a plea and cooperate with
37:22the investigation and testify.
37:26She entered what we call a straight-up plea to second-degree murder.
37:29Straight-up plea means that the sentencing was left completely up to the judge.
37:35Finally, in January of 2024, nearly six years after Eileen's murder, Zach Abel's trial begins.
37:46Christina took the stand and told her side of the events that took place in room 15 that night.
37:55They like to party. We determined that.
37:57They like to drink alcohol together.
38:00And that would be what led to the violence most times.
38:04Christina said that Eileen was sitting on the bed.
38:07And Eileen stated,
38:10Christina, guess what?
38:12As if she was about to give a secret.
38:16She says, guess what? And you say, what? And then what happens?
38:19She never had a chance to say anything to me.
38:22Then why not?
38:23So, Zach got up immediately and went over to her and was in her face, hitting her.
38:33He was just yelling at her, telling her, you always start problems. You always got to start problems.
38:41Eileen and Zach wanted to be together, just them and leave Christina in the rear view.
38:46Christina was the money backer for the car dealership.
38:50And if Eileen had something to disclose that would make her want to leave and take over the dealership and
38:56stop the money for Zach to have,
38:58the only way to shut her up would be to shut her up permanently.
39:02On the stand, Christina admits that she joined in on the assault.
39:11And where'd you hit her?
39:13I hit her in the face.
39:20I hit her in her face.
39:22And Zaya pushed me away from her.
39:26And yelled at me.
39:29And I got so frustrated, I just went, I left the room.
39:37After a few minutes outside, she goes back into the hotel room.
39:40And she says at that point, she finds Zach and Eileen are in the bathroom.
39:46He had something white in his hand, like if he was poking on her.
39:51So then what happens?
39:53He gets up and he swoops her up with his arms.
39:57And underneath her arms, he gets her up and lays her down on the bed.
40:05Christina mentioned that Zachary had hit Eileen with a walking stick and actually broke the walking stick.
40:13According to Christina, she wakes up the next morning.
40:17And at that point is when she says that she realizes that Eileen's dead.
40:24There is no way that you can tell me or make me believe that you went to sleep that night
40:28thinking that everything was going to be OK.
40:38Zach's defense was in a nutshell that Christina did it, he didn't.
40:41That he was only involved in the aftermath.
40:46The threatening text messages were a big part of it that, you know, Christina was the one who would threaten
40:50to kill Eileen, not Zach.
40:55I think they both knew exactly what they were doing.
40:58They were beating this poor girl until she was unconscious.
41:02Unfortunately, nobody was there to stop them.
41:06I don't know that they were trying to kill her, but they did.
41:13The jury found Zach to be guilty of second-degree murder.
41:18Before he was sentenced, Zach tried to tell the court that he had, in fact, proposed to Eileen, that they
41:24were trying to get away from Christina, and he loved her, and that he would not have done this to
41:29her.
41:29That's the only time he actually said that, so it appeared he was trying to perceive a lesser sentence.
41:35I think we were both in on it. I think they both were just as guilty.
41:40Zach received a life sentence in the Florida Department of Corrections.
41:43Ultimately, Christina was sentenced to 25 years in the Florida Department of Corrections.
41:53It's just, like, no respect for life, no respect for themselves, no respect for anything.
42:00I think they were so committed to each other and so dependent upon each other, again, for business, for love,
42:08for relationship, for companionship.
42:10There was just something in that that made them such partners that they were partners to the bitter end of
42:16this horrible tragedy.
42:23Eileen was a bright star in the universe who was too good to be on this earth and went through
42:35so much that she had to burst out into the heavens and be in the cosmos to watch all of
42:42us.
42:53The End
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