The Murder of Teen Esther Gonzalez: Solved

Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan

CrimeOnline and iHeartPodcasts

True Crime

4.8 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 11 December 2024

⏱️ 51 minutes

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Summary

17-year-old Esther Gonzalez is walking from her parents house to her sister's house, and she never arrives. The next day her body is found in a snowpack on the side of the road. She has been raped and bludgeoned to death. The man who finds the body, Randy Williamson, talks to police and is described as argumentative. He ends up taking a polygraph and passes. With the only person of interest eliminated, the case goes cold. Joseph Scott Morgan explains what happens to a body over time and how the evidence gathered by detectives in 1979, made it possible to solve a cold case 44-years later. To learn about the incredible work being done by Othram labs take a look at www.othram.com. Othram: A revolution in Cold Case Resolution.

Transcript Highlight

00:01.65 Introduction
02:58.10 Geography of California
05:00.02 Snow and Surf on the same day
09:56.34 No surveillance cameras, easy dumping ground
15:01.25 Body of Esther found in snowbank
20:00.88 Why was "the finder" arguing with police?
25:18.98 Esther Gonzalez was raped and bludgeoned to death
30:00.11 The "finder" passes a polygraph test
35:44.63 Hairs that co-mingle
40:09.99 Detectives never gave up, kept investigating
44:59.73 Othram got a match to Randy Williamson.

He was the killer. He died in 2014.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Once upon a time, Amazon Music met audiobooks and listeners everywhere rejoiced.
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0:29.2	Terms apply.
0:31.5	Body facts with Joseph Scott Moore.
0:35.7	Some have said over the years that geographically, and I'm only speaking about geography here,
0:44.9	that California can be all things to all people.
1:00.0	I've heard it said over the years as well that, you know, in the same day you can go snow skiing,
1:10.0	and then later on that same day, you can find yourself in the Pacific Ocean riding a surfboard.
1:12.9	That's pretty amazing when you think about it.
1:17.4	But just think for a moment.
1:22.0	You live inland back toward those beautiful mountains that if you've not paid attention to before
1:25.7	when you fly into L.A., they're snow capped.
1:29.4	That's pretty amazing, isn't it?
1:31.5	There's snow capped many times year-round, those high elevations.
1:36.3	But just imagine you're tooling along the road outside of Banning, California.
1:46.0	And you find a girl in 1979, of course.
	...

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