Voices for Justice is a podcast that uses adult language and discusses sensitive and potentially triggering topics, including violence, abuse, and murder.

This podcast may not be appropriate for younger audiences.

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

Some names have been changed or omitted per their request or for safety

purposes. Listener discretion is advised. My name is Sarah Turney and this is Voices for Justice.

Today I'm discussing the cases of Esther, Lizette Galaz, and Karen Grahada.

We're going to step back to the mid-1990s in Tucson, Arizona, to examine two cases that have

haunted the city's south side for three decades.

In December 1994, six-year-old Lizette went missing from her apartment complex.

About 13 months later, 7-year-old Karen Grejada went missing from her apartment complex just 8 miles away.

On the surface, these may seem like isolated incidents, but as local investigators and the FBI began to look deeper, they

discovered a disturbing pattern, and they were soon linked to three additional abductions of

young girls in the same area between 1993 and 1994. These are the cases of Esther Lizette Galaz

and Karen Grahada.

It's about 6 p.m. on Monday, December 19, 1994 in Tucson, Arizona, and 6-year-old Esther Galaaz,

affectionately known as Lizette, is playing with friends at her apartment complex, the Rea Verdi

apartments. She and her family had recently

moved to the area, and while she was enrolled in school as a first grade student, they were out

for the holiday break. Around dusk, Lizette returned to her second-story apartment. But of course,

she's six, so not long after, she asked her mom if she could go back outside and play with her

friends. Her mom said no and asked her to if she could go back outside and play with her friends.

Her mom said no and asked her to stay in the apartment while she ran to a nearby store.

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