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I feel like my life I'm like, what did I ever do to deserve my son not ever being here? My son was 16. What did I ever deserve?

I mean, when I had him, I was 16. And his life was ended when he was 16. I don't. Everybody says, this happens for a reason, but what would be the reason that my son was taken so young? There's no justification for it at all.

16 year old Enrique Rios disappeared on the evening of October 17, 2016. That evening, he said goodnight to his mom and later snuck out of his home in Asparto, California to go meet with some friends.

The following morning, his mom received text messages from Enrique they didn't sound like they were written by him. Enrique was initially assumed to be a runaway, but then something strange happened. His friend and classmate, 17 year old Elijah Moore, disappeared just a little over two weeks later on November 4, 2016.

Their families believed that the two cases had to be connected and they also felt as though their sons wouldn't have just run away. On June 11, 2018, the news came that there was finally arrests for the murders of Enrique and Elijah.

Any hope that the families had of seeing their boys return alive was now gone, but they had been right all along, their cases were connected.

What allegedly happened to Enrique and Elijah is more horrific than any of us could have imagined.

Amarissa and from Wondery, this is episode 138 of The Vanished, an update on Enrique and Elijah's stories.

Well done. You've sorted through the embarrassment of riches that is the modern podcast landscape and found me Rob Briden on my podcast.

In this series of Briden and I talk to among others, Harry Hill, Ben Elton, Charlotte Church, Steve Cougan and Dame Harriet Walter.

And that's just a few. We tend to chat for about 45 minutes to an hour never longer. It's terrific conversation, reminiscent where appropriate and exchange of anecdotes.

So do join me Rob Briden wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes of Briden and are available early and ad free on Amazon Music or by subscribing to Wondery Plus in Apple podcasts or the Wondery app.

Back on October 25th, 2016, I was contacted by a listener about a teenager who would just gone missing eight days earlier.

He was looking for advice because he was friends with the family and they were having trouble getting help.

The police were labeling this missing teen as a runaway and not investigating his disappearance. That teenager was Enrique Rios.

I offered to cover Enrique but I had other episodes in the work so I couldn't get to it immediately.

Then just a few weeks later I got another email stating that one of Enrique's friends Elijah Moore had gone missing too.

I felt a sense of urgency to help in any way that I could and I fit their stories in as soon as possible.

I spoke to both of their mothers who were desperate to find their sons. They felt as though something was seriously wrong. Their boys wouldn't have just run away but they didn't feel like law enforcement was treating their cases with any sense of urgency.

I followed their cases ever since that time. Since the first episode aired I've been hearing rumors that all sounded similar and certain names were consistently coming up.

But as with every case there's always rumors and you just never know if there's any truth to those rumors.

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