Hi, park enthusiasts. I'm your host, D'Ilya Diambra. And the case I'm going to tell you about today

takes place in a park we've been to before on this show, Indiana Dunes National Park in Northern Indiana.

Earlier this year, I told you the story of 15-year-old Janice China White, who was killed in this

exact same recreation space back in August of 1995.

Her case remains unsolved, and if you haven't listened to the episode about it, please do.

The FBI needs listeners like you who may be from Northern Indiana to help out.

The couple in today's story fell victim to a killer in the fall of 1997, just two years after

Johnis was killed. The crimes are not related as far as I can tell, mostly because they're very

different, and the perpetrator in today's case was identified. But like I emphasized before

when talking about this specific geographic region, it's right on the water.

The 1,500-acre park butts up to the southern end of Lake Michigan,

and there are more than 50 miles of trails that wind through sand dunes, wetlands, prairies, and wooded areas.

And it was along one of those paths that a man ambushed two unsuspecting young people who had their entire lives ahead of them.

Leaving their families with a form of justice, they weren't quite sure what to do with.

This is Park Predators.

Music I'm . I'm

. Shortly Shortly after 10.30 p.m., on Sunday, October 12, 1997, a woman named Olga Gomez was sitting in her family's home in Merrillville, Indiana, waiting for her daughter, 19-year-old Cynthia, to walk in the front door.

As Olga sat and watched the minutes tick by, she was growing more and more worried.

Cynthia, who sometimes went by the nickname Cindy, was late, much later than Olga expected her to be.

She'd been gone all weekend with her friend 24-year-old Stephen Jimenez to visit some folks in Bloomington at Stephen's alma mater, Indiana University.

They'd planned to go to a party that some of Stephen's friends were throwing at a Hispanic fraternity there and then spend the rest of their time just hanging out.

Cynthia and Stephen had left on Friday and were due to return any minute.

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