Cold and Missing: April Marie Sanchez

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The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts.

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All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

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Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages and is intended for a mature

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audience.

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Listener discretion is advised.

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Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold and Missing.

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I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski, and this is Cold and Missing, where we cover

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cold cases and unresolved missing person cases.

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I'm flying solo this week.

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My co-host, my husband, Eli Sulkowski, is busy with some work projects, so it's just

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me, but without further ado, let's get into this week's episode.

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Today I have for you a cold case.

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Now just as a content warning at the top, this case does involve a young person.

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Today I have the case of April Marie Sanchez in San Jose, California, and this case takes

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place in the month of April of 2003.

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But first, a little bit about April Marie Sanchez.

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April was 16 years old in 2003.

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She was born November 29, 1986, and she would be 36 years old today.

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Her family and friends describe her as a happy teen who worried about others more than herself.

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Her mother, Diana Ruiz, says, quote, she was so full of life, she wanted to live.

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She was spunky, vivacious.

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She was tough, but deep down inside, she had a good heart, end quote.

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April was a part of a gang, but she had begun to turn her life around.

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Her mother was in the hospital in early 2003, and once her mother is discharged, everybody

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notices a change in April.

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She was focused on her mother's healing.

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Her mother says, quote, she just realized if I give my mom a hard time, she's not

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going to be around much longer.

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She'd say, don't worry, mom, things are going to be different, end quote.

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She had just entered 10th grade at Foothill Continuation High School in San Jose, and

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she wanted to study cosmetology after high school.

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And now, a timeline of events.

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On Friday, April 18, 2003, April is hanging out at her boyfriend's house with friends.

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She calls her mom from her boyfriend's cell phone to let her know she's safe and she

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would be back later.

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Now, April hangs out at her boyfriend's house late Friday night into early Saturday morning.

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So Saturday, April 19, April leaves her boyfriend's house around 1230 a.m.

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The house was located near Keys Avenue and 6th Street, and she was headed to her mother's

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house, which was near McLaughlin Avenue and Story Road.

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It would take about 25 minutes to walk the 1.3 miles.

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To get home, April would have had to pass Roberts Avenue, where another large party

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was happening that evening.

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According to police, April was not seen at the party, but she never makes it home.

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Diana, her mother, starts to worry when April doesn't show up, and she calls the boyfriend's

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cell phone back.

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She says, quote, he told me she had left walking.

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I don't believe that.

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My daughter, if she was walking, she would have stopped at a payphone and told me.

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That didn't happen.

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My daughter hadn't called.

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I knew something was wrong.

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End quote.

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Diana calls April's friends to try to find her, and she'll eventually call Juvenile

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Hall, where an official there advises Diana to wait 24 hours before reporting April missing.

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So Diana takes that official's advice.

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But at around 830 a.m., a man was walking his dog near Phelan Avenue and Roberts Avenue

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when he finds April's partially clothed body on a creek bank.

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Her body is about halfway between her boyfriend's home and her mother's.

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Diana, after not hearing from April all day, calls police at 10 p.m. to report her missing.

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Within 10 minutes, police are at her door asking her to come downtown.

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On Monday, April 21st, family and friends gather at the spot where April's body was

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found and place a white cross and hold a memorial service.

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Her mother is there and says, quote, I'm trying to figure this out.

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To lose my daughter like this, I feel so empty.

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End quote.

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On Tuesday, April 22nd, police announced that they are investigating April's death as a

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homicide.

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And while there were no obvious wounds on the body, such as a bullet hole or a stab

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wound, other marks left on her body indicated a homicide, but they didn't go into detail

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about what those marks were.

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Sergeant Steve Dixon says, quote, it might be an acquaintance homicide or it might have

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been a stranger.

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We really don't know.

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End quote.

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Police do look at possible gang ties.

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The area that April was found in was in a rival gang's territory, and there was graffiti

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on trees of the rival gangs not far from where her body was found.

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But police do believe it was a crime of opportunity.

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On Wednesday, April 30th, April's funeral was held at the Cathedral of Faith in San

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Jose.

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And then this case goes really cold.

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I couldn't find really any updates, not even a lot of the cases we cover.

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They're usually, you know, yearly updates, especially when these things go unsolved,

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maybe at the five, the 10 mark.

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But really, you don't hear anything again until April 19th, 2022.

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So last year, local media run April story on the 19 year anniversary of her murder.

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The San Jose police said at that time, there were no significant updates on her case and

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it remains unsolved.

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So if you know anything about what happened to April Marie Sanchez on Saturday, April

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19th in 2003 in San Jose, California, you are encouraged to call the San Jose police

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at 408-277-8900.

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And her case number is 03-109-0320.

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And the sources for today's podcast come from the Oakland Tribune, the Enterprise Record,

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the SF gate, KRON4, and Mercury News.

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But that is the case of April Marie Sanchez.

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And I felt really sad about this.

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And I, you know, I feel like I do say that after a lot of the cases that I cover and

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research that I do feel bad that there isn't more coverage or more known on this case.

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I obviously have a lot of questions regarding this case, as I'm sure listeners do too.

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I wonder about the friends and the boyfriend.

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You know, she called her mom to let her know she was safe there, but she never called to

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say she was leaving, which, you know, based off of the quote from her mother, Diana, that

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does seem to be April's normal mode of operation is to update her mother and to let her know.

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But if she did leave the boyfriend's house and was walking home, you know, there was

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a big party that she kind of would have had to pass by according to police.

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And as I mentioned, she was not seen at the party.

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But that doesn't mean that somebody from the party didn't see her.

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I just really feel for April and her family because it seems like because she was kind

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of labeled as like a tough girl and like a tough kid that the time and care wasn't

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really given to her case.

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You know, I see, you know, the vast difference in what was available surrounding her case

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versus, you know, what was available for some of the other cases that I've covered.

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It was very remarkable to me.

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And just as a reminder, April is 16.

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She is a child in this story.

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And I think that is something that was lost in a lot of the original reporting.

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She is sometimes referenced as a teen, which is true.

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But a lot of times they kind of just mention her age as a one off, but then kind of treat

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her as an adult, which doesn't feel fair because she you know, she was a child.

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And even if she had been in trouble, that doesn't matter.

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There was a child who was murdered.

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I just feel really bad for April's family and that they haven't been supported by the

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media and you know, the local community and trying to or I'm sure they have been supported

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by their local community, their family, their friends, but like the local news, the local

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news outlets, you know, they haven't been supported by the larger community in bringing

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this case to a resolve to some closure and her family really deserves that and she deserves

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justice.

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So again, if you know anything about what happened to April Marie Sanchez in April of

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2003, please call the San Jose Police Department at 408-277-8900.

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Thank you for listening.

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Again, I say this all the time, but while you're in your podcast app getting ready to go to

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your next show, if you could go ahead and leave us a review if you're an Apple podcast

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or rate us five stars, thumbs up, whatever the metric is in your favorite podcast app,

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we would greatly appreciate it.

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If you want to follow us, I'll have some photos of April Marie Sanchez up on our Instagram

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that's at cold and missing and just search that in your Instagram and we'll pop right

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on up.

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And if you're enjoying this podcast, please tell your friends, your family, your coworkers

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about this podcast so we can get these names back out there and people can just be aware

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of these cases all around the world.

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So that's the goal of this podcast is just to keep these names active, keep these cases

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active and keep them active in the minds of as many people as possible.

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So thank you for being a part of that.

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It really means the world to me.

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Thank you for being here.

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I appreciate you.

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And I hope you have a good week and stay safe y'all.