True Crime Vault: Killer on Campus

Summary

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20/20 True Crime Vault: Killer on Campus

Podcast: 20/20
Host: ABC News
Date: July 28, 2026
Episode Theme: The disappearance and murder of University of Florida freshman Christian Aguilar in 2012—an intimate examination of love, jealousy, family, and evidence that culminated in a national media frenzy and a decades-long search for answers.

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Episode Overview

This gripping episode of the 20/20 True Crime Vault revisits the harrowing disappearance of Christian Aguilar, an 18-year-old University of Florida student, whose vanishing shocked the Gainesville community and made waves across the nation. Told through firsthand interviews, investigative insights, and courtroom drama, the episode explores the close-knit relationships that quickly unraveled into suspicion and ultimately, murder. The podcast not only investigates the facts of Christian's disappearance and the subsequent search, but also explores the emotional toll on families, the unrelenting search for justice, and the legacy of grief, hope, and unanswered questions—even as the convicted killer seeks a new trial more than a decade later.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Christian Aguilar: Background and Relationships

• Christian was described as brilliant, caring, and a dreamer, the son of Colombian immigrants, and the first in his family to attend a university in the U.S.
• Close friends included Erica Freeman (girlfriend at the time of his disappearance) and Pedro Bravo (the main suspect and an old friend).
• Christian and Erica’s friendship blossomed into a romance upon arrival in Gainesville; their relationship was kept secret from Pedro due to his history as Erica’s ex-boyfriend and his emotional ties to her.

Notable Quote:

• "We were living in a bubble of happiness. Suddenly, our life just changed forever." – Carlos Aguilar (Christian's father) [00:46 & 08:29]
• "He told us that he wanted to become a biomedic engineer because he wanted to help people." – Carlos Aguilar [06:33]

2. The Disappearance and Initial Search

• Christian went missing after spending the day with Pedro Bravo. Erica grew concerned when he didn’t contact her, initiating a frantic search that engaged family, friends, and law enforcement.
• Pedro’s shifting story included driving with Christian, picking up a “hitchhiker,” and having an argument that led to Christian leaving the vehicle.
• Police uncovered discrepancies in Pedro's accounts and found evidence contradicting his timeline, including security camera footage and suspicious items in his car and apartment.

Notable Quotes:

• “Once a student is officially reported missing, all hell breaks loose.” – Narrator [00:12 & 25:01]
• “That feeling that you cannot do anything, that you don’t know where he’s at.” – Carlos Aguilar [03:14]

Timestamps:

• Discovery of disappearance: [01:00–03:06], [11:11–12:59]
• Police interviews with Pedro and Erica: [13:08–16:24], [21:43–23:29]

3. Suspicion Falls on Pedro Bravo

• Pedro’s background with Erica—having dated her in high school—and his sudden move to Gainesville to be near her were raised as red flags.
• Journal entries revealed Pedro’s obsession and inability to move past the break-up with Erica, laying a possible motive.
• Analysis of digital forensics found Google searches related to murder, use of sleeping pills, and hiding bodies.

Notable Quotes:

• “This journal is completely opposite. He was totally obsessed with it.” – Detective Randy Roberts [44:50]
• “He starts collecting the items to commit the murder and really engages in the planning…” – Narrator [57:10]

Timestamps:

• Pedro's evolving story: [38:11–41:16]
• Details from Pedro's journal and digital forensics: [43:40–47:06]

4. Break in the Case and Evidence Gathering

• A found McDonald’s receipt contradicted Pedro’s claim of being home all night, placing him out late.
• Further investigation found Christian’s wallet, ID, and backpack hidden in Pedro’s closet inside nested suitcases.
• Pedro purchased a shovel, insecticide, sleeping pills, and Gatorade—the timeline and receipts suggest premeditation.
• Surveillance footage showed Pedro cleaning the underside of his car late at night.

Notable Quotes:

• “It was very concerning because I knew that he would probably only use that to hide evidence or a body.” – Detective Randy Roberts (on Pedro buying a shovel) [48:57]
• “He destroyed two families. His and ours. Nobody won that day.” – Carlos Aguilar [70:49]

Timestamps:

• Evidence gathering and breaking points: [30:30–33:11], [35:01–35:37], [47:52–49:05]

5. The Search, Discovery, and Funeral

• Volunteers from across Florida joined the exhaustive, emotional search for Christian.
• After three weeks, two hunters discovered Christian’s remains in a remote, shallow grave a county west of Gainesville. Forensic evidence at the scene included duct tape matching tape found in Pedro’s car.
• The community and family mourned together; the University of Florida posthumously awarded Christian a degree in biomedical engineering.

Notable Quotes:

• “You go days without taking a shower. You go to bed exhausted. But nerves and anxiety keeps you going.” – Alexander Aguilar (Christian’s brother) [51:46]
• “One of the most beautiful things is a smile.” – Carlos Aguilar [84:25]

Timestamps:

• The discovery: [52:13–53:45]
• The funeral and mourning: [54:06–56:05], [84:12–84:48]

6. The Trial: Justice and Betrayal

• Pedro Bravo was charged with first-degree premeditated murder, despite Christian’s body not initially being found.
• The trial drew national attention; major evidence included forensic findings, internet search history, surveillance footage, and Pedro’s shifting stories.
• Key testimony came from Pedro’s jailhouse cellmate, Michelangelo, who claimed Pedro confessed to killing Christian, detailing the method and premeditation.
• On the stand, Pedro insisted his purchases and actions were intended for suicide, not homicide, and that he merely left Christian injured, not dead.

Notable Quotes:

• “It’s not a victory. You won the case, but Chris is still gone… We were reminded why we’re there in the first place.” – Alexander Aguilar [70:11]
• “It sounds like the mind of a sociopath.” – Erica Freeman (on Pedro’s journal) [60:27]

Timestamps:

• Testimony of Michelangelo: [63:06–66:12]
• Pedro’s trial testimony and cross-examination: [67:04–69:12]
• Verdict: [69:41–70:06]

7. New Evidence, Appeals, and Persistent Doubt

• Over a decade later, new witnesses and recanted testimony from Michelangelo surfaced, prompting Pedro’s attempt at a new trial.
• While Pedro’s defense maintains his innocence, Christian’s family and investigators remain convinced of his guilt due to overwhelming circumstantial and forensic evidence.
• The motions for post-conviction relief are exceedingly rarely granted; the state emphasizes the thoroughness of the original case.
• Emotional interviews reflect the enduring weight of loss on Christian’s family and the legacy he leaves behind.

Notable Quotes:

• “I can't come close to understanding what it feels like to lose a son... That pain should stay there. Because at least when you have that pain, that person's still in your life.” – Pedro Bravo [81:22]
• “We didn’t ask for revenge, which is different. Justice.” – Carlos Aguilar [55:01]

Timestamps:

• New witnesses and appeal developments: [71:27–78:14]
• Reflections from family: [81:52–84:48]

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• “We were living in a bubble of happiness. Suddenly our life just changed forever.” – Carlos Aguilar [00:46]
• “My duct tape is missing.” – Pedro Bravo [01:56]
• “I think they loved each other in a way that an 18-year-old would fall in love over a summer.” – Alexander Aguilar [10:33]
• “It’s every parent’s worst nightmare to send their kid to school, and then have them vanish without a trace.” – Prosecutor [03:20]
• “The evidence is indicating that something bad has happened to Christian. He hasn’t called. He hasn’t been seen.” – Detective Randy Roberts [46:18]
• “There’s no words for it. You’re betrayed. I mean, this is somebody that’s been to your house, this is somebody whose house you’ve been to. It doesn’t process as real.” – Alexander Aguilar [56:32]
• “He destroyed two families. His and ours. Nobody won that day.” – Carlos Aguilar [70:49]

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Important Timestamps

• [00:46] – Carlos Aguilar describes their happy life before Christian disappeared
• [08:29] – A “bubble of happiness” shattered by the disappearance
• [13:15] – Family reporting Christian missing
• [21:43] – Gainesville Investigators take over; Pedro interviewed about his relationship with Erica/Christian
• [30:30] – Security and timeline reconstructed with video evidence
• [42:50] – Pedro pressed to help locate Christian’s body
• [48:05] – Discovery of Christian’s belongings in Pedro’s apartment
• [52:13–53:45] – Discovery and identification of Christian’s remains
• [55:01] – Carlos Aguilar on seeking justice, not revenge
• [56:32] – Family’s sense of betrayal at Pedro’s trial
• [63:06–66:12] – Key witness Michelangelo’s jailhouse confession testimony
• [70:11] – Alexander Aguilar reflects on the verdict
• [71:27–78:14] – New witnesses, Michelangelo’s recantation, and ongoing appeals
• [81:22] – Pedro’s message to Christian’s family
• [84:12–84:48] – Reflections on Christian’s legacy

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Family and Community Impact

• The Aguilar family endured profound suffering, holding on to hope then learning to live with the devastation of loss; Christian's brother speaks to the shattering emotional cost.
• The University of Florida and the wider Miami and Gainesville communities rallied, offering immense assistance in search, support, and ongoing memorials.
• The family treasures Christian’s belongings, holding them as sacred mementos.

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Closing Reflections

Christian Aguilar's story is ultimately about the devastating consequences of jealousy and obsession, but also about the resilience and unity of a family and community in the face of tragedy. The case—painfully unresolved in the emotional sense, despite legal closure—reminds listeners that true crime stories go far beyond headlines, forever changing the lives at their center.

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Listen for: Candid family memories, step-by-step investigation, explosive courtroom moments, and a haunting look at how a story of friendship can become the unthinkable.

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End of summary.

Transcript

[Narrator/Host]

This show is sponsored by Murder in the Heartland, a podcast from I D. Murder in the Heartland explores real crimes across small town America, towns that might look a lot like your own. Every week, uncover shocking stories of murder and betrayal. From a suspicious hunting accident to a

[Interviewer/Reporter]

college student who disappears after her shift

[Narrator/Host]

at the local bar. Hear from investigators, witnesses and family members as they share the chilling details behind each case.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

If you're interested in true crime with

[Narrator/Host]

a small town twist, you might love this podcast.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Listen to Murder in the Heartland wherever

[Narrator/Host]

you get your podcasts.

[Narrator/Commentator]

Welcome to the 2020 True Crime Vault, where heart stopping headlines come to life.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

We were living in a bubble of happiness. Suddenly our changed forever. In one little second, everything was gone.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

After nine days, University of Florida freshman Christian Aguilar of Miami has not been found.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

And I really start to panic because I'm like, where was he all night?

[Narrator/Commentator]

Once a student is officially reported missing, all hell breaks loose.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

It seems like you knew pretty early on that something terrible had happened to Christian.

[Detective/Investigator]

Where do you think Christian is right now?

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

I just really hope he is lost.

[Narrator/Commentator]

Christian.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

We had been searching and searching and searching.

[Detective/Investigator]

Any problems between him and Erica as far as their relationship goes?

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

As far as I know, I don't think so. I think they just started, so I don't think there would be problems right away.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

This is a drawing of Erica.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

Erica? Yeah.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Has Erica seen this?

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

We were very happy, just the two of us. Everything was doing fine. And then all this chaos came forward.

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

And at that point we saw a hitchhiker, just a random guy.

[Detective/Investigator]

But this guy seemed, according to Pedro, seemed harmless.

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

My duct tape is missing.

[Detective/Investigator]

That was the last time anybody had seen Christian alive.

[Narrator/Commentator]

They couldn't find a single hide in her hair of this man. He vanished.

[Alexander Aguilar (Christian's Brother)]

Just doesn't feel real. I don't think the human mind can truly comprehend something that traumatic happening with just a phone call.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Really? University, please.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

Yes, look, my name is Carlos Aguilar and I'm the parent of Christian Aguilar. And he has not been answering our calls.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

I started asking all my friends, have you seen Christian on campus? I'm like, no, no, no, I haven't seen him, I haven't seen him. And I'm getting more anxious.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

His girlfriend just let us know that she hasn't seen him or talked to him since yesterday.

[Claudia Aguilar (Christian's Mother)]

She asked me, when was the last time that you talked to Christian? I didn't understand what she said. Why you asking me that?

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

Immediately got a sense of urgency that I needed to get in contact with Christian. No answer.

[Detective/Investigator]

The University of Florida student has been missing since Thursday.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Still no sign of the missing teen.

[Narrator/Commentator]

Search teams have been looking for Christian

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Aguilar for days now. We do suspect foul play.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

That feeling that you cannot do anything, that you don't know where he's at.

[Narrator/Host]

Police say time may be running out.

[Prosecutor]

It's every parent's worst nightmare to send their kid to school, which they think is gonna be a wonderful, happy experience, and then have them vanish without a trace.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

What was Christian like as a kid?

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

Likes to read a lot, study, play music, drawing.

[Claudia Aguilar (Christian's Mother)]

He was very shy, like me, but at the same time, he was a very funny guy.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

He used to make the family laugh a lot.

[Claudia Aguilar (Christian's Mother)]

He was pretty funny.

[Narrator/Commentator]

Christian was a very charismatic person. He loved to make people laugh. He loved to make people smile.

[Friend/Commentator]

Christian was just absolutely brilliant, but most importantly, always aspiring to be someone and looking out for his future.

[Narrator/Commentator]

Carlos and Claudia Aguilar made their way to the United States from Cali, Colombia, and they made a life for themselves in Miami. Christian was born in the United States in 1993. A few years later, his younger brother Alexander was born.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Were you guys close growing up?

[Alexander Aguilar (Christian's Brother)]

Chris and I were absolutely close. Being the younger brother, obviously you want to hang out with the older brother as much as you can as an older brother.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Would Christian protect you more? Would he pick on you a little bit? Combination of both, yeah.

[Alexander Aguilar (Christian's Brother)]

Chris would definitely pick on me. But since you're brothers, you're allowed to kind of get away with it.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

The Aguilars wanted the best for their sons, so they enrolled them at Doral Academy in Miami. Christian had a very tight knit, close group of friends that included Erika Freeman and Pedro. Bravo.

[Alexander Aguilar (Christian's Brother)]

Pedro was somebody that Chris thought was just hilarious. And Pedro is a very funny person. In high school, he was quick with the jokes, very kind,

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

very talented, very

[Narrator/Commentator]

intelligent, I tell you, very intelligent, very responsible.

[Friend/Commentator]

Pedro is very creative. He's into moss painting. He also journals a lot and really, really enjoys drawing and art.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

What was Erika's relationship to Christian in high school?

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

They were just good friends. They participated in a lot of events together.

[Narrator/Commentator]

Both Pedro and Christian saw in Erika a smart, sweet, shy, kind and beautiful woman who had goals for herself and was a really good friend to everyone around her.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

We hung out a lot and Christian had the car, so, you know, we would just hop in his car.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Christian hung out with his friends. He would drive them around town on a regular basis, but he always found time for his studies, even making honor roll. This group went their separate ways for college. Christian was accepted to the University of Florida

[Alexander Aguilar (Christian's Brother)]

Florida was his dream school.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Why do you think being a Florida gator was so important to him?

[Alexander Aguilar (Christian's Brother)]

You know, we're kids of immigrants. He would have been one of the first cousins in our family to graduate from.

[Prosecutor]

From a university.

[Alexander Aguilar (Christian's Brother)]

And he wanted to challenge himself.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Did you ever get a sense early on with Christian that he was destined to do something great with his life?

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

He told us that he wanted to become a biomedic engineer because he wanted to help people, to rehabilitate and to accommodate them, to have a better life.

[Narrator/Commentator]

And he couldn't wait to move all the way up to North Florida and

[Interviewer/Reporter]

go to Gainesville after graduation. What was Pedro planning on doing?

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

He was planning on going to the fiu.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

He was very, very smart. He had a good future.

[Narrator/Commentator]

Erica Freeman wasn't a student at the University of Florida, but she was a student at the college nearby. And very often people will do a few years at Santa Fe and then transfer over maybe their junior year.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Do you remember how excited Christian was before going off to college?

[Alexander Aguilar (Christian's Brother)]

You couldn't wipe the smile off that kid if you tried.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

So he moved to Gainesville in the summer.

[Alexander Aguilar (Christian's Brother)]

Yes. So Chris moved to Gainesville in the

[Interviewer/Reporter]

middle of June of 2012, five hours from Miami. That made you a little bit afraid that he was going to be a little farther away.

[Claudia Aguilar (Christian's Mother)]

He was our first son. I was very proud, but at the same time, it was hard.

[Narrator/Commentator]

Latin families are very tight, especially in Miami. People don't necessarily move until they're married. So I can imagine Christian being nervous, but also feeling kind of relieved that a few of his friends, including Erica, were also going. Some familiar faces, you know, to see when you move, I think is comforting. Shortly after Christian moved to Gainesville, he started hanging out with Erica again. She was a little buffer against all the homesickness he was starting to feel. And before long, that relationship blossomed into a romantic one.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

It was just something really strange. It's like when you have a crush on someone for so long, I guess, and then you find out, oh, they also have that huge crush on you.

[Friend/Commentator]

Christian got accepted into his dream school and at the same time has this relationship. He was on top of the world.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Christian is doing so well in school. He has a girlfriend. Everything seems like it's perfect.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

We were living in a bubble of happiness. Suddenly, our life just changed forever.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

It's been three days since Christian Aguilar was last seen.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

After nine days, University of Florida freshman Christian Aguilar of Miami has not been found.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

In one little second, everything was gone.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

Are you ready for some Gator football.

[Narrator/Commentator]

If you live in Florida, the University of Florida is the big dream school. The academics are great. The partying is great. The atmosphere is intense.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

It's nothing but open field.

[Prosecutor]

Ahead, there is a ton of University of Florida pride.

[Alexander Aguilar (Christian's Brother)]

It's a sea of orange and blue.

[Prosecutor]

The place comes absolutely alive on Saturdays for football game days.

[Narrator/Commentator]

Let's go, games.

[Friend/Commentator]

Here we go.

[Matt Gecko (Digital Forensics Expert)]

In 2010, 2011, 2012, football was more massive. One of my first stories for the Alligator was about whether Tim Tebow was going to be named a saint.

[Alexander Aguilar (Christian's Brother)]

I think Chris was excited for a few things, like football season. He got his season tickets. That might have been a part of why he chose Florida, but I do think academically is kind of what drove him the most.

[Claudia Aguilar (Christian's Mother)]

I was very proud, but at the same time, I was afraid because he was living far away from us.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

We told him every day, you communicate with us every day.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Did he communicate with you guys every single day?

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

Every single day.

[Matt Gecko (Digital Forensics Expert)]

Christian reconnects with Erica Freeman, who was one of his friends from high school and is now attending Santa Fe College. When they get up to Gainesville, by September, they were dating.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

The way he looked at me, I don't know how to explain it. Someone just gives you that much, just with their eyes, just with the way they looked at you, like, you know, I don't need anyone else, I need you. And that's how he would describe it. And that's how I felt.

[Alexander Aguilar (Christian's Brother)]

I think they loved each other in a way that an 18 year old would fall in love over a summer. The fact that they were both in a new city was kind of an accelerant almost to the relationship.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

But down in Miami, Pedro Bravo's parents say that he felt increasingly isolated, and that prompted him to move to Gainesville that August and enroll at Santa Fe College.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

He saw his group of friends were going up there, so he decided from one day to the next, mom, I'm going to Gainesville. And I told him, but how? And he said, no, because my friends are going.

[Friend/Commentator]

For Erica and Christian, it was just very normal to talk every single day, particularly at night, kind of checking in on each other. And on the night of September 20th, Erica wasn't able to get ahold of Christian.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

My friends were like, you know, maybe his phone got wet, you know, maybe he fell asleep somewhere. There's a perfectly reasonable explanation for this.

[Narrator/Commentator]

She called him and texted him and called him and texted him over and over, and he never responded.

[Friend/Commentator]

Erica decides to just go out there to his dorm to check in and see if she Finds him.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

He lived on the first floor. So I just go up to the window and I start knocking on the window. And his roommate comes out. And I'm explaining to him, you know, like, Christian's not answering me. I'm really concerned. Like, I don't care what time he gets in. Just please, can you ask him to call me?

[Narrator/Commentator]

Christian was hanging out with Pedro all day, but he didn't touch base with Erika that night. And she got worried, so she started calling Pedro. And at one point, Pedro picked up.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

Around 4 o', clock, I call Pedro and it starts ringing. First thing I'm asking was like, where's Christian? And he's just like, no, listen, you know, it's late. I'm sure he made it home. He just didn't call you?

[Matt Gecko (Digital Forensics Expert)]

When she wakes up the next day, she calls the roommate again to find out where Christian is. He still hasn't seen him. Christian never came home.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

He was like, oh, yeah, Christian never came to the apartment. And now I really start to panic because I'm like, where was he all night?

[Claudia Aguilar (Christian's Mother)]

I received a phone call in my work and was Erica almost screaming?

[Interviewer/Reporter]

What was she saying to you?

[Claudia Aguilar (Christian's Mother)]

She asked me, when was the last time that you talked to? Because I'm trying to call him since yesterday. He's not answering me.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Carlos, what was it like getting that call from your wife, telling you that his girlfriend can't find Christian?

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

I immediately hung up with her, called Christian, no answer, no answer.

[Matt Gecko (Digital Forensics Expert)]

When Erika became concerned because she couldn't get in touch with Christian, she went to the university police department to report him missing, and she took Pedro Bravo with her.

[Detective/Investigator]

At the same time, Christian Aguilar's parents were calling our communications center.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

His girlfriend has been trying to contact him since yesterday and he's not responding. He normally responds to his girlfriend right away. And if he's so concerned about it, we are concerned right now. This is not his normal behavior.

[Narrator/Host]

Kids get reported missing on college campuses all the time. Sometimes it's just as simple as going to the classroom where he's supposed to be, seeing that he's in there and saying, hey, can you please call home?

[Interviewer/Reporter]

We had checked his residence hall on campus. He wasn't there. Christian's roommate told police it wasn't strange that he didn't come home that night. But what was out of the ordinary was that he'd left his laptop on his desk. We had checked his classes. He never showed up to them. I did advise the instructor that if

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

he shows up to have him call and stay him.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

We can't get ahold of him by cell phone. There's something really going on here.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

The day before he got in contact

[Claudia Aguilar (Christian's Mother)]

with Claudia, it was a text message. He got the vaccine for the flu.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

[Claudia Aguilar (Christian's Mother)]

Nothing.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

While at the campus police station, Pedro tells police that he'd been hanging out with Christian the day before.

[Detective/Investigator]

Let's see if we can locate Christian and figure out where he may have been pleased. When I first met with Pedro, I asked him to take me through his last meeting with Christian.

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

We went. He took his flu shots at campus. And then I'm like, oh, do you want to go get something to eat? And he's like, okay, sure. So we went to. We got in my car, and we went to Zaxby's Chicken. And then he's like, oh, can we pull him to the Best Buy? And I was like, sure. Because he wanted to get the new Kanye West.

[Narrator/Host]

He.

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

So we looked around, and we found the. The new Kanye west cd, and he got it, and then we left.

[Detective/Investigator]

Pedro went on to tell me that as they were driving, he and Christian got into an argument. Pedro got upset with Christian, and Christian demanded to be let out of the vehicle.

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

So I stopped the car, and I let him get off, and I drove away because I was. I didn't want to deal with that anymore. But, like, as I was driving away, like, I really regret it now because I wish I could have gone back. I wish I could have kept driving and be like, no, screw you. We're gonna. I don't care. You're not gonna get off. Like, I wish I could have kept driving. And then, like, he'd be home right now, or he'd be doing something right now. That's the last I heard of him.

[Detective/Investigator]

My whole intent on interviewing Pedro was give me some indication that, you know, some lead that we can follow up on. What do you know about what Christian was thinking, what his plans were? Do you think Chris would have been upset enough yesterday to hurt himself about you guys having an argument?

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

I really hope not. I don't think so.

[Matt Gecko (Digital Forensics Expert)]

Police also talked to Erica.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

How you doing?

[Claudia Aguilar (Christian's Mother)]

Close.

[Alexander Aguilar (Christian's Brother)]

In case somebody walks by.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

I was telling them, no, no, no, we're doing just fine. We're doing great, actually. And he's not one to not even answer me. So it's been very strange. I don't know where he is.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Scrambling for any clues, police learn from Pedro about an impulsive decision he says he and Christian made. They picked up a hitchhiker along this

[Detective/Investigator]

road while they're in the course of driving around, Pedro tells me they pick up this hitchhiker.

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

It's two of us against one person. If anything happens, anything, he'd be in the back seat, so we, we'd overpower him. If anything bad happens, you can't help

[Friend/Commentator]

but think, could this third person have anything to do with Krishna's disappearance?

[Alexander Aguilar (Christian's Brother)]

I was in my AP English class at the Row. It was around 10, 11 o' clock in the morning and the PA system goes off. My father's there to pick me up. When I finally got to my father, who was waiting in the waiting area of the high school, he was in tears.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Had you ever seen your father in that state before?

[Alexander Aguilar (Christian's Brother)]

No, I've never seen my father anywhere close to that. He didn't have the words to tell me anything. We just knew something had happened to Chris. We vaguely know that he's just missing from there. We picked up my mother at her work and it was a straight shot from Doral straight to Gainesville.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

That's normally a five hour drive from Miami. How long did it take you to get there?

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

Three hours.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

You were going fast.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

That was going ballistic.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

As Christian's family rushed to Gainesville, Pedro Bravo was here inside the University of Florida Police Department trying to help them find. Find his missing friend.

[Detective/Investigator]

Where do you think Christian is right now?

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

I don't know. I really hope. I. I have a feeling that maybe he's walking somewhere. Maybe, maybe he took a wrong direction because he doesn't. He, like he doesn't know the place as well as I do right now.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

You spoke to Pedro on the way up to Gainesville. What did he tell you?

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

They, they got into an argument and Christian opened the door and got out of the car and he left it in there. So that made me feel, you know, peace, say, probably Christian got lost.

[Matt Gecko (Digital Forensics Expert)]

As Pedro is talking to police, he tells them that he and Christian decided to pick up a hitchhiker while driving around the day before.

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

Yeah, it's dumb. And we're like, why not? Because it'd be an interesting experience to pick up someone like that on the road.

[Detective/Investigator]

He's never done that before. But this guy seemed cordy to Pedro, seemed harmless.

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

This guy just looked very tall and very like sort of a gentle giant sort of thing.

[Detective/Investigator]

Do you remember anything about. He said he had a hat.

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

Yeah, a cowboy hat.

[Detective/Investigator]

Pedro tells me they drove around, listened to this hitchhiker story about what brought him to Gainesville for approximately 10 minutes.

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

He's like, just drop me off right over there. And I pull into like this storage place, which, what looks like a storage place. I remember seeing storage somewhere and I'm like, I pull in there. He gets off and I do a U and leaves there.

[Detective/Investigator]

He sat in the back seat of Pedro's car and according to Pedro was playing with a roll of duct tape.

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

And I checked my car to see if there was, like, if there was anything missing because I had a bunch of my art supplies in the back. My duct tape is missing.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Police collect security video and they're able to piece together much of Pedro and Christian's day. Although it doesn't capture that hidden hitchhiker that Pedro claims they picked up, the footage largely matches Pedro's account.

[Narrator/Commentator]

The police got security camera footage from all over the place.

[Friend/Commentator]

You see Pedro and Christian together on campus at the Hub. You also see them hit up a Best Buy.

[Prosecutor]

They look like just a couple of guys hanging out. Nothing odd about that footage.

[Narrator/Commentator]

The next time security camera footage caught the two of them, it was in Pedro Bravo's car inside a nearby Walmart parking lot.

[Friend/Commentator]

At almost 7 o' clock in the evening, the surveillance cameras catch the car leaving the Walmart parking lot.

[Detective/Investigator]

That was the last time anybody had seen Christian alive.

[Matt Gecko (Digital Forensics Expert)]

Christian's mother and father, Claudia and Carlos Aguilar, raced up from Miami and arrived in Gainesville that same afternoon.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Did you start searching immediately?

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

Immediately.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Where did you go?

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

First?

[Claudia Aguilar (Christian's Mother)]

We started walking around the trails. The trails, screaming, christian, Christian, we are here. Where are you? Raise your hand, please answer. Your mom is here.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

We know Gainesville. Gainesville is full of swamps. It was a swamp and we went inside and it was an alligator nearby. And we were not scared at all. We just wanted to find Christian.

[Detective/Investigator]

The last place that Christian was seen was in the Gainesville city limits. So we felt it was necessary to turn this over to the Gainesville Police Department.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

I got a telephone call from our lieutenant and he said that the University of Florida Police Department had a missing student and asked if I would respond to University of Florida Police Department. University Police Department contacted us about Christian missing. Yes. And we're going to be taking over the investigation. Pedro seemed to be a young man who was a little bit meek and mild. How long have you known Christian?

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

For four years, all of high school. He's been. He's been one of my really good friends. I brought him with me into art class.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

What high school do you want to go to?

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

Doral Academy Charter High School.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

After interviewing Pedro for 15, 20, 30 minutes, he explains the relationship between Erica Freeman, Christian Aguilar and himself. What's Your relationship with Erica?

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

I dated her for two years and then I just became friends.

[Narrator/Commentator]

Erika Freeman dated Pedro Bravo while they were in high school.

[Matt Gecko (Digital Forensics Expert)]

Erica broke it off before she moved up to Gainesville. When she got up to Gainesville, she started dating Christian.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

Has Christian been seen?

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

Christian's been dating her for. From what I know, from. For three weeks, a month, I guess.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

How do you know that?

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

He's the one that told me.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

How did you handle that?

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

At the beginning, it was kind of rough, but then after that, I'm like. I'm like. In a way, I was glad it was Chris and not someone I didn't know because I knew Chris and I knew what type of person he is and I knew if anything happened, he could take care of her sort of thing.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Pedro says he's happy for Erica and Christian.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

It's very like soap opera like.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

But it turns out they had been keeping their relationship a secret. Erica shows me some text messages between her and Christian from the previous day about, don't tell him. Are you going to tell him?

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

Everything was doing fine and then all this chaos came forward and we didn't, we didn't, we didn't know how to handle it.

[Narrator/Commentator]

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[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

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[Narrator/Commentator]

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[Interviewer/Reporter]

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[Narrator/Host]

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[Interviewer/Reporter]

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[Narrator/Host]

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[Interviewer/Reporter]

Tonight.

[Narrator/Commentator]

Authorities in Gainesville are searching for a missing University of Florida State who could be in danger. University of Florida student Christian Aguilar is still missing. Aguilar was last seen by Miami native

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

Pedro Bravo at a Best Buy in Gainesville.

[Narrator/Commentator]

Once a student is officially reported missing, all hell breaks loose.

[Matt Gecko (Digital Forensics Expert)]

In 2012, I was the university editor at the independent Florida Alligator, which is the student run newspaper that covers UF and the Gainesville community. The first notice that we got about Christian came from gpd. We got it up online as soon as possible. It was a student who was going missing. One of our own. We knew that we had to cover it immediately.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

We had multiple detectives respond, start checking information on telephones, on apartments, just where, if anybody's seen.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Upon speaking with Pedro, police learned that he and Erica dated in high school. Erica was now dating Christian.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

And your friends dating your ex girlfriend.

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

Oh, no. But I'm okay with that because I like. I know he's a good guy.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

You're okay with that? Mm, I didn't buy that at all. Just in the way that Pedro talked about it, you could tell that he was not real happy about it, but he was telling me he was happy.

[Matt Gecko (Digital Forensics Expert)]

It was crucial for the police to try to understand the dynamic between these friends. Christian, Pedro and Erica.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

Okay, so I understand that you and

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Pedro were dating all through high school.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

Basically.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

It was gonna be three years in October, so.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

About three years, yeah.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

We would go out, we went on dates, we texted all the time. He was a little funny. He was very sarcastic. He was kind of a class clown a little bit. He was able to make me laugh so easily.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

In high school, Christian, Erika and Pedro were all part of the same circle of friends. They even went to prom together. But as graduation approaches, Erica and Pedro break up.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

I started seeing problems in December of last year of 2011. It was simple things, but they kept adding up, and I kept making up excuses for him, and I just. I didn't like the fact that I had to keep making up excuses that, oh, no, it's not his fault.

[Narrator/Commentator]

Erika Freeman ended up breaking up with Pedro Bravo right before they graduated.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

He was very emotional about it. He cried a lot. He was very. I mean, it was not what I was expecting at all when I broke up with him.

[Friend/Commentator]

Not only do they break off this relationship, but they also part ways. Erica decides to go to Santa Fe College, and at the time, Pedro had a full ride at a university in Miami and he decided to stay home.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

As police try to learn more about Pedro and Erica's past, they bring in other friends from that tight knit circle at Doral Academy.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

Is he in love with Erica?

[Narrator/Commentator]

Yeah, they were.

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

They.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

They were in a three year relationship, almost three year relationship. And she broke up with him before the summer because she was going to come up here. And so he came here kind of to, like, get her back.

[Narrator/Commentator]

Pedro couldn't accept their breakup. He couldn't accept that things were over. And that culminated in him driving up to Gainesville and going to school there so he could be closer to her.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

He decided to move here two days before classes started because he was visiting, and he's like, hey, Erica lives here. I might as well stay to see if she'll take me back. What was the relationship with Kristen and Erica as far as.

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

You know?

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

As far as I knew, they were just really close friends.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

After moving to Gainesville, Erica Freeman runs into Christian, and they develop a relationship, but they were keeping it secret because they didn't want to hurt Pedro.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Were you telling other people about this, or were you hiding that?

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

No, we were keeping it quiet. We were trying to just. We were just trying to keep it between us. I mean, that just. We didn't have a problem saying it. Like, we. We would walk around campus holding hands and stuff. We didn't have a problem with it. We knew people in Miami would not be comfortable with the idea of us dating, because, again, I had just broken up with Pedro.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

But Erica and Christian's relationship wouldn't stay quiet for long.

[Narrator/Commentator]

Pedro found out about Erica and Christian through mutual friends, some of whom from Doral Academy had also gone up to University of Florida in Santa Fe.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Christian talked to Nadia and said, yeah,

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

Erica and I are dating. That we're like, she's my girlfriend.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

So then in turn, Nadia tells Alyssa what she heard from Chris.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

Right? So she goes and she tells Pedro. It's. It's. It's very, like, so proper. Like, we. We don't. We don't like. Me and Christian were very uncomfortable with all of it. We didn't want him to come to Gainesville. We were very happy, just the two of us. Everything was doing fine. And then all this chaos came forward,

[Narrator/Commentator]

and it was just.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

It was surprising. And we didn't. We didn't. We didn't know how to handle it.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Once the rumors got out that Christian and Erica were seeing each other, he would say that it would like that he was sad about it. This is the 34th street wall in Gainesville. It's a local landmark lined with graffiti. On September 7, 2012, Pedro and Erica met here. He wanted to confront her about dating Christian.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

He showed me a picture of me standing next to Christian, and I was just like, listen, we're friends. You know, we're hanging out. We know we're not dating. We're just hanging out.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

But you lied to him.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

I did lie to him, yes. I.

[Narrator/Host]

Why did you lie?

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

I just felt like it wasn't the appropriate time to tell him that, you know, I don't want to push this kid at all. I don't want him to think anything, you Know, that might throw him over the edge.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Pedro was okay with Erica at that point?

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

Yeah, he was.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

He didn't indicate to you he was angry or that she's lying or that,

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

you know, not at all.

[Alexander Aguilar (Christian's Brother)]

He believed it.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

He really did. He told me that he wanted to talk to Chris to, like, kind of clear the air.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

His motivation was to get with Christian to talk to him about the relationship he started with Erica Freeman. So he had mutual friends call Christian to arrange this get together.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

Once Christian was with Pedro, I had not heard from him. The last thing he told me was, have a great day in class, and I'm gonna go talk to and act like we're not dating.

[Matt Gecko (Digital Forensics Expert)]

That was the last time she would ever hear from him. After they met up, Erica did not hear from Christian again.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

I'm kind of hoping that he kind of got lost in the woods and that they'll find him because he got lost and couldn't get out. It's really traumatizing, this whole situation.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

Yes, certainly.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

I understand that.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

The location where Pedro Bravo was living had its own surveillance cameras at the very front. So we were able to see him come and go which direction he turned.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Hoping to establish a timeline of his whereabouts. After dropping off Christian, police talked to one of Pedro's roommates. He came in around

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

nine.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

He stayed for. He couldn't have been home longer than five minutes before he left again. I was able to see, like, the very last of, like, his shoulder to his head, leaving. He didn't look dirty. He didn't look sweaty.

[Detective/Investigator]

Was he carrying anything?

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

Was he.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

You know, I didn't. I didn't notice him. I didn't notice anything in his hand. And when he left was the last time I've seen Pedro. With little evidence to go on, police asked Pedro for permission to search his car.

[Detective/Investigator]

There were some suspicious objects, items that were located in there.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

And what they find fuels the investigation.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

When Claudia and Carlos, Christian's parents, first got here, they were determined they weren't going home until they found their son.

[Prosecutor]

The search for Christian Aguilar started small, like most missing persons cases do. I distinctly remember Claudia and Carlos Aguilar, Christian's parents, coming up and walking through the woods looking for their son, Cristian.

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

Alex.

[Narrator/Commentator]

On the search, Christian's family was on the front lines. I remember seeing their interviews, pleading for help.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

I'm looking for people's heart that can come and help me and looking for

[Interviewer/Reporter]

somebody that can walk with me.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

That's the only thing that I ask.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

You were never going to leave Gainesville No.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

I told my wife we're not living. We don't care if we lose the house. We don't care if we lose everything. You know, Christian is missing. We're going to find Christian.

[Detective/Investigator]

You go out every day. My son is missing. I don't know what's happened to him. I don't know where he's at. I can't imagine how I would deal with that. I don't know that anybody could.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

The search efforts continue and police are encouraging more people to volunteer to help find Chris Aguilar.

[Prosecutor]

Once word started getting around Gainesville, the outpouring of support from the Gainesville community and the University of Florida was completely mind blowing.

[Matt Gecko (Digital Forensics Expert)]

The family needs help out here. We need volunteers.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Community volunteers on foot fanning through the woods of Gainesville. Why do you think the community responded to Christian's disappearance the way they did?

[Alexander Aguilar (Christian's Brother)]

I don't know what about it just kind of sparked something in the people.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

University of Florida freshman Christian Aguilar of Miami has not been found dead or alive.

[Prosecutor]

The problem is we didn't know where to search. There was really no boundary of where our search was because we didn't know what we didn't know. So we sat and looked at everything. Matt Gecko was our digital forensics expert detective at the Gainesville Police Department at the time.

[Narrator/Host]

Pedro did consent to a search of his phone Initially it just seemed that he was very worried about Christian, where he might be, what might have happened. The initial review of the data was to reconcile the phone data with Pedro's statements to then hopefully be able to find where Christian may have been.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

Matt Geckl was able to determine that the two of them were together for a long period of time. Directions they went.

[Matt Gecko (Digital Forensics Expert)]

As we continue our coverage of the

[Interviewer/Reporter]

missing 18 year old University of Florida student.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

It's been three days since Christian Aguilar was last seen.

[Narrator/Commentator]

The search for Christian was one of the biggest searches in Florida for any missing person.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Hundreds of volunteers this weekend combing through the woods of Gainesville. Still no sign of the missing team.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

There was dogs, helicopters, horses, four by fours. There were law enforcement from all over the state helping to assist in the search.

[Prosecutor]

We had people from Miami, we had people from south Florida, we had people from their home in Columbia coming to Gainesville to look for Christian.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

How involved was Erica in the search and how was she holding up during this time?

[Alexander Aguilar (Christian's Brother)]

Erica was extremely involved. I do feel like we felt like we had to stick by each other. She is such a sweet person, so sincere and she was with us from

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

the very beginning, we had been searching and searching and searching, you know, screaming out his name. Every forest we got to, every road we got to, every river we passed,

[Interviewer/Reporter]

there were tips that were coming in, people claiming to have seen Christian. What did you make of them?

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

Every time that somebody says we saw Christian in this area, doesn't matter if they were right or wrong, we immediately dispatch a searching group to that area to search for another area and report back to us.

[Prosecutor]

We're going to run everything down. We're going to investigate everything.

[Detective/Investigator]

There were some tips, but nothing that led to anything that would help in locating Christian.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

I think the most difficult part for me was seeing every day the faces of my family completely in pain, crying, with no hope, and I couldn't do anything about it.

[Narrator/Commentator]

Hundreds of people combing the woods every day, looking everywhere, and they couldn't find a single hide in her hair of this man. It's like he vanished.

[Detective/Investigator]

I asked Pedro at the time, would you mind if we went through your vehicle to see if Christian maybe left anything that might give us an indication of where he might be? And Pedro volunteered to allow us to take a look inside his vehicle.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Pedro's blue Chevy Blazer is a mess. There are wrappers, bottles, and old paint cans all over the place. And on the floor in the back of the suv, police find a bunch of crumpled up receipts, including this one for a late night Big Mac.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

I ended up finding a McDonald's receipt

[Interviewer/Reporter]

that was dated when he had told Sergeant Wilder he was in bed, passed out because he had taken sleeping pills.

[Narrator/Host]

Mr. Bravo has told the investigators that he is in his apartment from 7 o' clock the evening before until he leaves to accompany Erica to the Gainesville Police Department in the early morning hours of the next day.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

That kind of blows his alibi, being at home at that period, out of the water. And why didn't you tell me that the first time?

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

I forgot. Honestly, I'm sorry, but I forgot.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

You forgot?

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

I might have been drowsy from the pills and I don't remember.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

So Pedro changed his version because of the receipt. And every time that we would ask him questions and go through, it seemed the version would change a little bit.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

As Pedro's story evolves, there are more and more red flags for detectives.

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

There's one thing that's bugging me that I have to tell you, that if I don't tell you, it's going to work.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

You're right.

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

I can't keep everything from you. And I have to tell you one thing.

[Prosecutor]

What detectives would eventually find would crack this case wide open.

[Narrator/Commentator]

When police found that journal, they thought that was as good a motive as you could get for what happened to Christian.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

The search for Christian Aguilar continues today.

[Narrator/Host]

Police say time may be running out.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

The University of Florida student has been missing since Thursday. You're just walking around a wooded area screaming your brother's name.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

We know that he's not coming back. I know when somebody's coming back, when they ain't coming back.

[Narrator/Host]

Says essentially to him, I don't want his parents to find a pile of bumps inside the car.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

We found a journal.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

It sounds like the mind of a

[Narrator/Commentator]

sociopath, wanted to orchestrate more murders of more students in Gainesville, make it seem like there was a serial killer.

[Friend/Commentator]

It was just mind blowing.

[Narrator/Host]

Remember, Chris has to disappear. Chris has to go missing. This is the plan.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

You believe that he lured Christian to his death. An eyewitness has come forward, verifies that Christian got up and walked away. Now you're speaking out for the first time. Did you kill Christian Aguilar? Throughout the day, as Pedro Bravo was questioned, his story wasn't adding up to investigators. Then a McDonald's receipt is found in Pedro's vehicle. And that raises more questions about exactly what he was doing late the night before.

[Prosecutor]

One of the other things that we located was some security footage from Scrub's Car Wash of Pedro at one in the morning power washing the underside of his Blazer. I like a clean car like anybody, but I'm not sure that one o' clock in the morning, morning is going to be the time that I'm going to get out and spend 10 minutes washing the underside of my Blazer.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

At some point I had to confront him and say, look, this doesn't make any sense whatsoever. What really happened.

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

There's one thing that's bugging me that I have to tell you, that if I don't tell you, it's going to. It's one thing I have to tell you because it's. You're right, I can't keep everything from you. And I have to tell you one thing.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

He said he didn't ask me to let him out. I told him to get out because he said something nasty to me.

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

At one point I made the comment about his. The girl that he has a crush on. And he got angry at that. But then he came back with, maybe you should just like, maybe you should just kill yourself. And that's when I turned around and punched him straight in the face. And that's what I told like he want. Like, he got up, and I told him, get out of the car.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

And then it changed to, well, I got out and we had a fight, and I beat him up, and then I left him there.

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

I stopped the car, I got out, and then I started a small fight with him, and then I left.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

That evolved to, Well, I beat him there, but he was still alive. Was he breathing? Yeah, but barely. Pedro, what really happened to Christian? And then I finally confronted him. I was like, christian's not coming back, is he? If that's all that happened, he would have went somewhere, called the police to get his phone and to get his stuff. We know that he's not coming back, okay? I know he's not coming back. I've been doing this for too long. I've been doing this for 30 years. I know when somebody's coming back when they ain't coming back. He ain't coming back. You know he's not coming back. He just kind of moved his head. He didn't say anything. He didn't say no. He didn't say yes.

[Narrator/Host]

He's pressed by Detective Randy Roberts, who says essentially to him, I don't want his parents to find a pile of bones. Can you show me where he is?

[Detective Randy Roberts]

Why don't we do this? Okay? Why don't me and you and somebody take a ride? Let's go see if he's still there.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

Okay.

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

Okay.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

You gonna be honest?

[Alexander Aguilar (Christian's Brother)]

Show me where.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Exactly where he left.

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

Yes, exactly where he was.

[Detective/Investigator]

We drove the route with Pedro for him to show us. Where did you pick up the hitchhiker? Where did you drop off the hitchhiker? Where did you leave Christian?

[Detective Randy Roberts]

After hours of searching for. For Christian, we still didn't find anything.

[Matt Gecko (Digital Forensics Expert)]

Police don't find any sign of Christian, but they do find something interesting in Pedro's apartment.

[Narrator/Host]

The search of Pedro's apartment produced a lot. It produced a journal.

[Narrator/Commentator]

Pedro was an avid artist and journaler. He kept a lot of notes and quotes about his life and his thoughts in a diary. And he wrote very often about how sad he was, about how he wanted to hurt himself. He wanted to die.

[Prosecutor]

Pedro's journal provided a glimpse into his mind and a glimpse into what he was thinking and planning.

[Detective/Investigator]

Drawings and statements made inside this journal clearly indicated that Pedro was struggling with dealing with his breakup with Erica and loss of communications with his friends and showed a mindset on his part of being very determined to win Erica back, to remove any obstacles that would prevent him from doing that.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

Your friends dating your ex girlfriend?

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

Oh, no. But I'M okay with that because I like. I know he's a good guy.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

He's telling me he's happy for Erica, he's happy for Christian. And this journal is completely opposite. He was totally obsessed with it.

[Narrator/Host]

At this point in the investigation, we're doing everything we can to try and find Christian. As part of that, I requested his cell site records. Unfortunately, his records stopped on the day that he disappeared.

[Prosecutor]

One of the things that Detective Gecko was able to find is that Pedro's phone was put into airplane mode for quite a bit of time on the day that Christian went missing. That told us a lot of things.

[Narrator/Host]

The other big piece of information that we discovered on the device was the app usage log. It's a log that an iOS device keeps that shows the amount of time that particular applications were used.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

He was able to determine that the flashlight mode was used for 40 some odd minutes in the middle of the night.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

And police say that running a forensic search of Pedro's computer hard drive yields chilling results.

[Narrator/Host]

We analyzed that computer for evidence of the crime. It had searches all related to getting away with murder, giving people sleeping pills. How would you kill people with sleeping pills? He at some point viewed a meme of someone asking Siri, where can I hide my roommate?

[Detective Randy Roberts]

The evidence is indicating that something bad has happened to Christian. He hasn't called. He hasn't been seen.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

How concerning was it when he learned that he'd purchased a shovel?

[Narrator/Commentator]

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[Interviewer/Reporter]

Now, a South Florida family is searching for their loved one.

[Narrator/Host]

And police say time may be running out.

[Detective/Investigator]

The University of Florida student has been missing since Thursday.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

As the search continues for Christian, authorities are conducting a search of their own at Pedro's apartment, looking for clues that might help in the investigation.

[Narrator/Host]

In his bedroom, there was a closet. And in the closet there was a suitcase, sort of like Russian nesting dolls. Inside the suitcase, there was another suitcase. And inside. Inside that suitcase was a backpack. Inside the backpack was Christian Aguilar's wallet, his Florida driver's license, his University of Florida identification card.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

The backpack wasn't the only thing that you guys found inside Pedro's apartment, right? Correct.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

We actually did three search warrants at his apartment. We ended up finding receipt from blows.

[Prosecutor]

The accompanying security footage there of Pedro purchasing a shovel, some insecticide, and a bottle of Gatorade.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

How concerning was it when he learned that he'd purchased a shovel?

[Detective Randy Roberts]

It was very concerning because I knew that he would probably only use that to hide evidence or a body.

[Detective/Investigator]

One of the first charges that was brought against Pedro was the failure to render aid under his own admission. He got into a physical altercation with Christian, injured him, and left him on the side of the road.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

And the car was impounded at the Gainesville Police Department in Pound Lot, where we got a search warrant for it. And inside the car, we found a journal, his blood with paint poured on it. The evidence is indicating that something. Something bad has happened to Chris. He hasn't called, he hasn't been seen. He's not where Pedro said he left him.

[Narrator/Commentator]

Eric went to jail and visited Pedro, and she thought she. He had done it, and he knew where Christian was, so she just kept pushing him.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

I need your help because we have nothing.

[Narrator/Commentator]

Do you understand?

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

Nothing.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

How.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

How is that possible?

[Interviewer/Reporter]

How did you understand this?

[Narrator/Commentator]

But the whole time, Pedro just denied it.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

Erica, I don't know what happened.

[Detective/Investigator]

After I left him, friends and former

[Interviewer/Reporter]

classmates, teachers all came out to Miami's North Trail Park. They were all praying and hoping that young man will be found safe soon. So far, absolutely no sign of him.

[Prosecutor]

About eight days into the search, we had enough evidence and we had enough reason to believe that this was making a turn from a missing person's investigation into a murder investigation.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

The evidence continues to mount in the murder case of missing UF student Christian Aguilar of Miami. His friend, Pedro Bravo, wearing the suicide protection vest while making his first.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

First court appearance Saturday on the charge

[Interviewer/Reporter]

now of first degree premeditated murder in the case.

[Alexander Aguilar (Christian's Brother)]

I think when Pedro was arrested, there is some level of disbelief like, no, this can't be Pedro, because this is one of Chris's close friends at the

[Narrator/Host]

time that the decision was made to place Pedro Bravo under arrest for the murder of Christian Aguilar. Christian Aguilar's body had not been found.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

As Christian's parents, how did you manage to cope with the stress, the uncertainty during the search?

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

Only God can answer you that question. You see your family members crying, and you cannot do nothing about it.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

Over a period of time, they came to realize that they may not get him back alive, but they were going to get him home.

[Alexander Aguilar (Christian's Brother)]

The search itself, it felt eternal. You forget to eat. You forget to drink. You don't know when's the last time you used the bathroom. You don't even know if you have to use the bathroom. It's such a weird feeling. Personally, I dropped like 20 pounds just because of how little I ate. You go days without taking a shower. You go to bed exhausted. But nerves and anxiety keeps you going.

[Narrator/Commentator]

On October 12th, Christian been missing for three weeks.

[Friend/Commentator]

Two hunters are out in the woods, and they come across what they think is a dead deer.

[Narrator/Commentator]

They saw bones and thought, oh, maybe just a dead animal. But as they got closer, they realized it was a human skull.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

I got a telephone call that they believed they found a body in Levy county and that from the preliminary information of the clothing that was found, they believed it may be Christian.

[Detective/Investigator]

About almost an hour's drive west of Gainesville. It is very remote, very heavily wooded. The forensics team, the medical examiner, were on the scene trying to exhume these remains from a shallow grave.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

So that conversation with Randy Roberts, where he tells you that they found a

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

body, I asked him, Randy, in your experience, you know, the body that you guys found in there matches the clothing, everything that Christian was wearing. And he says 100%. So, you know, at that moment, we all start crying.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Claudia, you wanted to go see the body after it was recovered. Why?

[Claudia Aguilar (Christian's Mother)]

Because I didn't believe that he was. He was. He passed. He. He was murdered. Even that Randy said that he found the Christian body. I didn't believe that.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

It's hard to do a death notification for anybody. It's hard to tell them that their loved one's not coming home. For me, it's been 30 years I've been doing it. And that was the only time that I ever probably broke down with the family. That was the hardest one I ever did.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

You just spent more than three weeks searching for your son. You must have been exhausted, physically and mentally. What was it like when you had to bury him?

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

My brain was not there. My heart was not There, my physical presence, yes. But, you know, I don't remember everything clearly.

[Prosecutor]

There was a huge outpouring of grief once Christian was finally discovered. This case ended like we, like nobody wanted.

[Narrator/Commentator]

What touched me about the funeral was just seeing, like, how many people loved him. Everyone was crying.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Did your focus shift to now getting justice for Christian?

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

Somebody has done a wrongdoing and you know it, and it's really bad. That person needs to be brought to justice. We ask for justice. We didn't ask for revenge, which is different. Justice.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

What was it like when you finally saw Pedro walk into the courtroom?

[Alexander Aguilar (Christian's Brother)]

There's no words for it. You're betrayed.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

I have to have this monster, you know, staring at me while I'm on the stand. I don't want him to look at me.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

The investigation into Christian Aguilar's disappearance and murder only lasted a few weeks. But it would be almost two years before Pedro Bravo would finally go on trial here, charged with killing his best friend. With the case making national headlines, all eyes were on this courthouse in Gainesville,

[Narrator/Commentator]

now under one in the trial of

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

Santa Fe student Pedro Bravo.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

Bravo is charged with premeditated murder.

[Narrator/Commentator]

The trial itself was just such a huge deal in Gainesville, and every single day, Christian's parents were there, his brother was there. They sat right up in the front for us.

[Alexander Aguilar (Christian's Brother)]

This was our way of representing Chris in all this because he didn't have a voice anymore, so we had to be there for him.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

What was it like when you finally saw Pedro walk into the courtroom?

[Alexander Aguilar (Christian's Brother)]

There's no words for you're betrayed. I mean, this is somebody that's been to your house, this is somebody whose house you've been to. It doesn't process as real.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

All right, you may proceed.

[Narrator/Host]

My strategy in the opening statement in this case is to really tell the jury exactly what happened.

[Prosecutor]

When you piece all of the evidence together, all of the statements together, it gives a pretty good picture of what happened. Pedro was jealous of Christian and developed a plan to kill him.

[Narrator/Host]

He starts collecting the items to commit the murder and really engages in the planning that leads up to his contacting Chris, asking for the meeting, Chris pushing it off him, continuing to ask for the meeting, and finally agreeing to the meeting. They travel around Gainesville and eventually end up in the parking lot of a Walmart. The vehicle is observed under closed circuit camera surveillance, parked there for about two and a half hours.

[Detective/Investigator]

Based on the medical examiner's information and the autopsy, I think that what they did was surmise that he had probably drugged Christian by giving him A laced drink, waited for him to lose consciousness, and then climbed into the back seat while Christian was unconscious in the front seat.

[Prosecutor]

And then we have evidence that Pedro strangled Christian while they were in the car with a moving strap.

[Narrator/Commentator]

Police say that Pedro drove all the way out to the in Levy county, dug a shallow grave, and left his friend there with his body tied with duct tape.

[Narrator/Host]

Remember, Chris has to disappear. Chris has to go missing. This is the plan. Can't get Erica back. Chris is here. I'm going to tell them that from the standpoint of someone who saw it, all right, to give them that bird's eye view. Then I'm going to go back and I'm going to tell them. How are we going to prove that all of these things happen?

[Matt Gecko (Digital Forensics Expert)]

In his opening statement, Pedro's lawyer argued that Pedro may have hurt Christian, but he did not kill him.

[Narrator/Host]

He did hit his friend. They did get in a fight, and he left his friend. That is what he did not want to tell the police. The first few days in this trial were all about statements from people who have had contact with Pedro, police, Bravo.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

Today, it is all about the evidence.

[Prosecutor]

We had so many pieces of evidence that we believe proved Pedro was responsible for this. From the McDonald's receipt to the Scrubs car wash footage to the low security footage to the Best Buy security footage. We had a timeline of where Pedro was.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

Prosecutors unveiling in court Thursday pieces of evidence. They were found in searches of Pedro

[Narrator/Commentator]

Bravo's car and apartment in the days

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

after his friend went missing.

[Narrator/Host]

The forensic evidence from the burial site includes the duct tape that is around Christian Aguilar's ankles, his hands, and his mouth. That duct tape will be forensically matched back to duct tape that was in the car.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

The prosecution calls a police parade of witnesses to the stand, presenting evidence they say they collected over the course of the investigation and recounting Pedro's interactions with police.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

And with my hand, I just go

[Interviewer/Reporter]

at his face like I open an

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

open palm to his face.

[Narrator/Commentator]

Erica also took the stand.

[Narrator/Host]

Erica provides us a lot of context. She provides a lot of background. She provides a lot of time for frames and communications.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

I don't know why you read this far. You're the greatest person on this bloody earth. I won't let you fall. Where he took down the time to write down his plan and his, you know, what he was thinking of me or what he was thinking of Chris. It sounds like the mind of a sociopath.

[Narrator/Commentator]

She had to take multiple breaks, and at one point, she had to identify items from Christian's backpack. She just couldn't hold it together and started crying, and they had to take a break.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

And now I have to have this person, this. This monster, you know, staring at me while I'm on the stand. I don't want him to look at me. I don't want him to see me ever again.

[Prosecutor]

I did lock eyes with Pedro once, and there was nothing there. It's just kind of a dark emptiness in his eyes.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

You know what? It was the worst part of that trial, seeing Pedro sitting in front, seeing somebody so sarcastic, no regret, no remorse.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Was there a particular testimony that was difficult for you to sit through?

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

Michelangelo's

[Friend/Commentator]

Michelangelo was a jailhouse who was crucial for the prosecution in this case.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

The story he tells, prosecutors say, illustrates just how far Pedro Bravo would go to get away with murder.

[Narrator/Commentator]

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[Interviewer/Reporter]

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[Friend/Commentator]

No one really knows what happened on September 20, 2012, the night that Christian Aguilar disappeared. However, one witness testifies his side of the story as told to him by Pedro Bravo, the suspect in this case.

[Narrator/Host]

Next witness. Michelangelo was Pedro Bravo's assigned cellmate, and Mr. Bravo opened up to him about what he had done and how he had done it.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

How would you describe him as a woman? It definitely feels like he was by far the most unexpected witness.

[Narrator/Host]

Yeah, he was unexpected because we knew nothing about him until his lawyer disclosed to us that he had information about the Pedro Bravo case.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Did he cut some Kind of deal. Did he get a more lenient sentence?

[Narrator/Host]

Michelangelo's agreement with us was that he would testify truthfully and that we would then appear at his sentencing hearing and provide the court information about the help that. That he had provided in the case. And as a result of that, what would have been a life sentence was reduced to 25 years.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

I think originally he said that he was going to try to poison him with a mixture of sleeping pills and pesticide and mixed with soda or something like that. His main plan was to choke him

[Interviewer/Reporter]

with a moving strap.

[Narrator/Host]

He even provided minute details. What time was on the clock, how long it took Mr. Bravo to murder Christian.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

He, you know, basically put a moving strap around the kid's neck and braced himself against the seat. And, you know, he said that he remembers watching the radio. The clock on the radio said it took like, 13 minutes for the kid

[Interviewer/Reporter]

to, you know, I guess, die. But perhaps the most alarming part of Michelangelo's testimony, recounting what he said, was Pedro's plan to redirect suspicion for Christian's death.

[Narrator/Host]

That plan was that Michelangelo, who Pedro Bravo believed had the ability to procure murders of additional UF students on the outside. They were both incarcerated. Those murders would look similar to the murder of Christian Aguilar. And then it would appear that the actual killer was some serial killer who was on the loose. Was it ever brought up about the shovel and what you would need to do with the shovel as part of the plan?

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

Yes.

[Narrator/Host]

What was that?

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

Have somebody go get the shovel to, I guess, copycat that murder to make it look like somebody else had did it.

[Narrator/Host]

And in order for you to do that, would you have to know where the shovel was then currently located?

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Yes, sir.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

We went out there to the location. He said that Pedro left the shovel. We found the shovel hidden underneath the boardwalk.

[Narrator/Host]

Finding the shovel was a big deal, principally because it verified what Michelangelo was saying, that he actually had obtained this information from Pedro Bravo.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

On cross examination, Pedro's lawyer argued that Michael and Angelo was getting a deal to testify and attacked his credibility. And the deal you are seeking is

[Detective Randy Roberts]

to get that life, mandatory sentence off your back.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

That's the least that you wanted, then?

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

Yes, sir.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

State address,

[Friend/Commentator]

Gainesville. Hadn't seen a case like this in a very, very long time. You didn't just have the local media covering this as a story, but, you know, you had national media.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

It was huge. The young man on trial for allegedly killing his best friend, driven by jealousy, taking the stand in his own defense. Today we're hearing What Pedro Bravo says happened the day his friend and UF student Christian Aguilar was last seen alive.

[Friend/Commentator]

It was just mind blowing. What is he possibly going to say?

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Pedro testifies as to why he says he bought the Gatorade, Zquil and shovel.

[Narrator/Host]

You bought all those things?

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

Yes. And for what purpose it was to kill myself.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

And why he says his flashlight was on for so long.

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

I get out the car, it's pitch black outside. I can't see anything. So I turn on the flashlight and I go to a certain tree. I find it. I'm okay with it. I put Pedro Andres Brown 9, 2012.

[Narrator/Host]

And what did you mean that to

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

be the last day that I was alive?

[Interviewer/Reporter]

He admits that he hit Christian repeatedly.

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

I strike him with my open palm in the face, and then I strike him again.

[Narrator/Host]

So as I watched him testify, his answers seem contrived. They seem to be styled to charm the people who were on the jury.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

What is Chris's condition when you leave?

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

From what I remember, I can't give an accurate statement because I. I'm not a doctor or anything like that. So I can't tell you if he was. If he was unconscious or he was knocked out, but that he was still moving.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

And as for buying the shovel, Pedro had an answer for that as well.

[Narrator/Host]

Tell the jury why you bought a shovel.

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

It was gonna be part of my idea to kill myself, in a way. I was gonna go find a spot and I was gonna mark my tomb and I was gonna dig it. All right, thank you.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Cross.

[Narrator/Host]

Mr. Bravo, I want to start by asking you about your timeline that you described to Mr. Rupert. When you start to cross examine someone, you catch them in lies and you catch them in things that can't possibly be true. Now you're on your way to kill yourself, right?

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

Correct.

[Narrator/Host]

But you gotta get gas first, right?

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

Correct.

[Narrator/Host]

Okay. Cause you can't kill yourself without a tank of gas, correct?

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

Correct.

[Narrator/Host]

You point out contradictions that ultimately they can't get out of.

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

All right, we'll be adjourned.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

For even

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Pedro seemed to have an explanation for. For everything. The question was, would the jury believe him?

[Narrator/Host]

I think Christian's family was very nervous and I think that they believed in the jury. But I don't know how you get into the mind of a parent who's had their child murdered. You know, doubt the worry.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

It was a two week trial and only a few hours for the jury to come back with a verdict.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

The way the jury finds his follows

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

is the defendant, Pedro Andreas Bravo. In this case, the defendant is guilty

[Narrator/Commentator]

of first degree murder.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

Felony murder, first degree.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

What was your reaction when you heard the verdict? Guilty.

[Alexander Aguilar (Christian's Brother)]

It's not a victory. You won the case, but Chris is still gone. I think all of us unanimously just got hit with sadness. We were happy the case went the way it did, but we were then reminded why we're there in the first place.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

It was just this sense of relief. I kept thinking, you know, this is the last time I ever have to see him. I don't have to think about him. I don't have to even worry about him.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

What was your reaction

[Narrator/Commentator]

as his mother?

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

I cried seeing what was happening to him.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

He destroyed two families. His and ours. Nobody won that day.

[Detective/Investigator]

Pedro was ultimately sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. You have to sit back and ask yourself why. You know, it just. It's so senseless. What could possibly drive this young man to bend his abilities and his talent and his motivation in such a negative direction?

[Interviewer/Reporter]

It's early in the morning in central Florida. I'm heading to prison to speak with Pedro Bravo, where he's been behind bars for a decade now. A new witness for the defense has come forward with a bombshell claim that could turn the case upside down. And Pedro's old cellmate is talking again.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

You know, I decided to just tell the truth.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Did you kill Christian Aguilar? Pedro Bravo is currently being housed at a prison here in Okeechobee, Florida. He's serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. To date, all of his appeals have been denied. But there are new developments in the case that could move the needle in Pedro's favor. I recently sat down with Pedro for an exclusive interview to talk about the case. You've been behind bars for more than 10 years in prison for murder of your best friend. Now you're speaking out for the first time. Why?

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

It's easy to lose hope. It's easy to go through appeal after appeal and not get a chance to be heard in the courts. And after all this time, we almost gave up. But we decided to give everything a last chance.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Have these new developments given you hope?

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

I never lost hope.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

An eyewitness has come forward who specifically supports Pedro's version of what happened between him and Christian.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

The fight.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

And also, most importantly, verifies that Christian got up and walked away. According to an affidavit signed by this witness, in 2012, she was in town trying to get tickets to a University of Florida football game and was supposed to meet someone in this parking lot. While waiting, she says that she saw two Young men having a fight. She insists it was Pedro and Christian. What was your reaction when you heard about this new witness?

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

I couldn't believe it. And it felt vindicating to finally have someone that can corroborate what I said.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

And at the end of that fight, Pedro gets in the car and leaves Christian. And she goes to approach Christian, who basically tells her to move on. He's okay.

[Narrator/Commentator]

I couldn't imagine why 10 years later, when there was such a huge media frenzy around this, someone would just pop in and say that they saw something new.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

The witness reason for not seeing anything about the trial. I would attribute that to her age at the time. She was 19 years old. Just traveled up to Gainesville for this one game.

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

I had no reason to think that

[Interviewer/Reporter]

this would be something significant for a murder trial.

[Narrator/Host]

Maybe something can come out of it.

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

I don't know.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

I.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Are you hopeful?

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

I have learned not to be hopeful.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Anything that you can say is going to happen. You never know. What are your thoughts on this new witness that has come forward? What was your reaction when you heard what she had to say?

[Narrator/Host]

In order for it to be something that would concern me, it would have to somehow lead to the conclusion that it isn't possible that Pedro Bravo is the person who committed this murder. And the evidence that he did is overwhelming. I don't know what's happening with this new witness. I haven't had an opportunity to speak with the witness. This case is closed.

[Detective/Investigator]

Right.

[Narrator/Host]

So my authority to start subpoenaing witnesses, it doesn't exist in this case.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

We've reached out to this new witness, but she has declined to comment.

[Detective/Investigator]

The second piece of newly discovered evidence

[Interviewer/Reporter]

is the recantation testimony of Michelangelo 2020 spoke with Michelangelo, who's still incarcerated, to ask him why. Why he's recanting his testimony.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

It's always been in the back of my head and kind of ate at me about everything that happened, that during

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

that trial and that investigation.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

And I was contacted by a woman who was looking into certain things about this trial.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

She told me, you know, if I had anything that I wanted to get off my chest, that I could write her. And so after thinking about it for a little bit, you know, I just decided to just tell the truth.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Your former cellmate, Michelangelo, gave very specific testimony. How do you explain that letter, that note that he came forward with?

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

He brought me in a corner cell, and he had me on the ground crying. And he told me, you're gonna write this, and I was gonna kill myself anyway. I was gonna take My life. So it didn't matter to me anymore.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

I had, you know, to come up with something to give the detectives so

[Detective Randy Roberts]

that they would help me out in my case. And that's when I pretty much put pressure on Facebook. And, you know, I had came up with a little.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

Just some crazy letter that I made him rewrite.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

More than a decade later, now, Michelangelo is recanting his testimony. What do you make of that?

[Narrator/Host]

There are many reasons why people recant. A problem for Michael Angelo and that recantation is that we proved what he said was true.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Without Michelangelo, would you guys have ever found that shovel?

[Detective Randy Roberts]

Maybe not. We may not have found the shovel. I mean, he still would have been convicted regardless of Michelangelo.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

The prosecution highlighted some of your Internet search history. Things like murder and kidnapping. How do you explain that?

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

And I was a kid watching television shows, reading books, and the prosecution decided to highlight a handful of things.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Do you understand why those things were chosen? Because you looked up murder and kidnapping, and then one of your best friends goes missing.

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

I understand, but they didn't have to do anything with Christian. To me, I was watching a show and made a search. I was looking up something.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Based on the witness statement and Michelangelo's recanted testimony, Pedro has filed a new motion for post conviction relief, the first step of many in the hopes of getting a new trial. What are the next steps in this case? When do you have to respond to this motion?

[Narrator/Host]

Whether or not the state has to respond to the motion is up to the court. First, the court would have to determine that the motion on its face is valid and meets the legal standards for post conviction relief. And right now, the court hasn't made that determination.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

What's the likelihood that it would be granted?

[Narrator/Host]

This is a motion for successive post conviction relief. That motion is granted less than 1/10 of 1% of the time.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Do you think Pedro has enough to reopen the case?

[Alexander Aguilar (Christian's Brother)]

Hard to say, especially 10 years removed, knowing the, you know, if any of this even holds true.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

There's one person saying, I was there and he was still alive. That's not going to cut it.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Did you kill Christian Aguilar?

[Detective/Investigator]

No,

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

I did not kill Christian Pedro.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

If you didn't kill Christian Aguilar, who did? Who would have wanted him dead?

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

If I would have known those answers, then there would have been 12 years that I would have spent in prison.

[Detective Randy Roberts]

There's just an overwhelming amount of evidence that Pedro did this.

[Narrator/Host]

The blood and DNA that was found in Pedro's car, that he tried to cover up with paint, the dirt on the bottom of Pedro's car. That matches the region of Florida where Christian's body was found. And then the shovel in the apartment complex.

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

Right.

[Narrator/Host]

When you put all of that together, there's no question as to whether or not Pedro is culpable for Christian's death.

[Detective/Investigator]

I remember getting home late that night and thinking to myself, I'm looking at this kid and there's no remorse in this kid whatsoever. No feelings, no culpability, no guilt. And I'm confident that what the state's attorney presented are the true facts of the case.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Erica, Christian's parents, they think you are a monster, that you have no remorse. What do you say to them now? So what is this?

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

This is Christian sketchbook. That's gator.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

That's a Florida gator.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

We think this is Erica.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

We think that this is a drawing of Erica.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

Erica, yeah.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Has Erica seen this?

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

We don't know that. That was brought it up to us when we recuperate all his belongings from the police.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Christian's belongings, once seized by police as evidence in his murder investigation, they are now prized possessions for his parents. That's Christian's ipod.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

Ipod? Yeah. We recorded. This is the case where Christian went to get with Pedro.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

And you wanted to keep that.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

Everything that belongs to my son belongs to me. Those items are precious to us.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

It's sad when I think about how much Carlos treasures that CD which Christian so excitedly purchased with his best friend turned killer. The video from the store now the last images the Aguilars have of their son alive. Erica, Christian's parents, they think you are a monster, that you have no remorse. What do you say to them now?

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

I can't come close to understanding what it feels like to lose a son. There's no words that I could offer to try and make things better, make that pain go away. Because maybe that pain shouldn't go away. That pain should stay there. Because at least when you have that pain, that person's still in your life.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Do you have any doubt that Pedro killed Christian?

[Matt Gecko (Digital Forensics Expert)]

No.

[Claudia Aguilar (Christian's Mother)]

No. At this point, no.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

No. He did kill my son. I wish he can repent. I wish he can realize that he destroyed his family and my family. I've been able to once say the truth and accept what.

[Narrator/Commentator]

I always pray for the soul of their son.

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

That's very painful for the parents to lose a child. I know as a mother how painful it is me with my son.

[Narrator/Commentator]

Look, her pain is harder because she lost her son.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Is it too painful to think about?

[Claudia Aguilar (Christian's Mother)]

It is too painful.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

What his future might have been.

[Claudia Aguilar (Christian's Mother)]

Yeah. Especially when I saw the pictures of Christian Freyj having his life with the new careers, with the families. I prefer to not think too much about it.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

How do you want Christian to be remembered?

[Alexander Aguilar (Christian's Brother)]

I want Christian remembered by how sweet and kind and genuine of a person he was.

[Narrator/Commentator]

He just had, like, so much potential for, like, anything that he wanted to do.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Although Christian was only a student for a couple of months, the University of Florida presented his family with a posthumous degree in biomedical engineering, symbolic of a promising future cut too short. If Christian were still with us, what do you think he'd be doing today?

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

That's a question that we ask every day. If we were going to be having grandkids, if he was going to be with Eric and happy,

[Erica Freeman (Christian's Girlfriend)]

I think we would have gotten married eventually. I think, like, he was not going to stop loving me.

[Pedro Bravo (Friend and Suspect)]

I think about dating now.

[Alexander Aguilar (Christian's Brother)]

It's only that I can't imagine where his life would have ended up kind of leading him to, but I know it would have been great things.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

How did you choose this photo? Because he looks so happy. There was that on prom night.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

Prom night, Prom night. We want him, but people to remember him.

[Narrator/Host]

Is smiling.

[Carlos Aguilar (Christian's Father)]

One of the most beautiful things is a smile,

[Interviewer/Reporter]

That signature smile of his. And, you know, deciding to follow in Christian's footsteps. His brother Alex also went to the University of Florida, Christian's dream school.

[Narrator/Commentator]

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