Unsolved with Steve Gregory

We speak with Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Claudia Apolinar. In September of 2020, Apolinar and her partner were shot point blank range as they sat in their patrol SUV at a Metro station in Compton. While they were rushed to a hospital, the department’s homicide bureau immediately began working to find the shooter. It was one of the largest manhunts in the department’s history. We’ll talk about the investigation, and for the first time ever, deputy Apolinar speaks publicly about the shooting and about her road to recovery.

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January 15th, 1947, the body of Elizabeth Short was found mutilated. Someone had performed an hemicorporectomy, the act of cutting a body in half at a specific point of the body. The woman who first spotted the body in a vacant lot thought it was a mannequin, mostly because the skin color was so pale, a result of Short’s fluids and blood being completely drained from her body. In this episode we speak with Steve Hodel, a retired detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. Not only is Hodel fascinated by the case, he also has a personal connection.

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In 2008, Mark Leonard was shot and killed in the parking lot of the car wash he and his wife owned in Compton, California. Detectives say it’s a possible drug cartel revenge hit. But Leonard had been out of the drug dealing business for years. His wife, who was pregnant with their child, helped him clean up his life, buy his own business, and welcome God into his life. Detectives say they know the ‘what and the ‘why’’, now they need to grab the ‘who’. Leonard was killed just a few hours before he was to watch his son, Kawhi, play in a high school basketball tournament. Kawhi would go on to play for the LA Clippers and become one of the finest players in the NBA.

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In 2019, 19-year-old Erin Lavender and 17-year-old Dalelaja Hearn were in the city of Carson attending the memorial of a friend who had died from a drug overdose. They, along with 3 other friends, were sitting in the front of a car across the street from the memorial when 2 people in hoodies walked up and opened fire. Hearn and Lavender later died at a hospital. We also speak with the Fontana Police Department about the murder of Angel Martinez, an apartment building owner from Cypress who was killed in Southern California and buried in Arizona. The case from 1988 has a lot of players and no suspects.

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19-year-old Cesar Rodriguez had been an LA County Sheriff’s Explorer since he was 15 years old. On August 28th, 2011, Rodriguez and his friend Larry Villegas were gunned down following a party in Whittier – 2 weeks prior, Rodriguez had just applied to become a deputy. We also highlight the shooting death of Jason Cortez, a photographer who was visiting LA from Virginia when he was shot in the back while hiking in Debs Park in Montecito Heights.

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In 2010, Minerva Gonzalez walked her kids to school as usual. But, by the time her kids got home from school, Gonzalez had been beaten beyond recognition. Gonzalez’ home had been broken into twice before and Fontana Police say there had been a rash of ‘panty thefts’ from homes in the area. Also, we explore the tragic death of Diego Reza, an 18-year-old who was shot and killed while driving home from a 4th of July Party – it’s a case from the LA County Sheriff’s Department. And an update on the case of El Mencho, the head of the largest cartel in North America. Our first profile of El Mencho prompted a spike in calls to the DEA.

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For at least 16 years a man had been terrorizing girls and women in the city of Los Angeles. He would target them, rape or assault them, and then disappear. We speak with detectives Sharlene Johnson and Danetta Menifee from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery Homicide Division. They tell us about efforts past and present to find the man they say could have attacked at least 39 women, the youngest being 14 years old.

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‘Man in a Box’ is a case from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. Detective Art Alvarado tells us about the challenge to identify the ‘Man in a Box’ and try to figure out how the man ended up buried alive in a metal container along a dirt road. Also, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Detective Theo Baljet tells us about the shooting death of a young man in 2020. No clues, no witnesses, no apparent motive.

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Steve speaks with DEA Agent Kyle Mori about 'El Mencho', the Kingpin behind one of the largest drug cartels in North America, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or CJNG. The cartel is behind most of the drug trafficking in Southern California. Detective Eric Ogaz with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department talks to Steve about Scott Echols, an 8-year-old boy who, in 1992, answered the door at his home late one night and was never seen again.

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Anthony Velasquez and his father, Manuel, are arrested by the LA County Sheriff's Cold Case Unit in connection with the deaths of 3 people over a 4-year period in the East LA area. Also in this episode, a tragic case from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Cold Case unit – the discovery of a newborn at a trash sorting facility. Detectives are trying to find the identity of Baby Jane Doe #45 and the mother who dumped her into a trash bin.

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