Angel #333 /// Part 1 /// 798

Summary

True Crime Garage Episode Summary

Episode: Angel #333 /// Part 1 /// 798
Release Date: November 6, 2024
Hosts: Nick and The Captain

---

Introduction to the Case

In episode 798 of True Crime Garage, hosts Nick and The Captain delve into the mysterious and tragic case of Mercedes Vega, a 22-year-old woman whose life was brutally cut short in April 2023. The episode meticulously breaks down the timeline, evidence, and ongoing investigations surrounding her abduction and murder, providing listeners with a comprehensive understanding of the case.

---

Timeline of Events

The story unfolds on the night of April 16, 2023, when Mercedes Vega was last seen alive. Surveillance footage from her Tempe apartment complex captures her entering the parking garage at 9:17 PM [37:13]. According to investigators, Mercedes was expected to meet friends for dinner or at a local Dave and Buster's, but she abruptly changed her plans to work that evening [43:17].

In the early morning hours of April 17, 2023, at approximately 12:30 AM, a 911 call was made reporting a vehicle on fire alongside potential occupants [06:12]. Firefighters responded to the scene near the I-10 freeway's 85-mile marker, finding a white 2018 Chevrolet Malibu engulfed in flames with a female occupant in the backseat, later identified as Mercedes Vega [06:12].

---

Details of the Crime Scene

Upon arrival, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office discovered Mercedes Vega deceased in the burning vehicle. The police determined that the fire was likely ignited from inside the vehicle, suggesting an attempt to destroy evidence [11:26]. Notably, gloves and a bleach container were found in the front of the car, and the medical examiner reported that Mercedes suffered blunt force injuries and a gunshot wound, along with the odor of bleach detected around her throat [11:26].

A critical point in the investigation was identifying that the Chevrolet Malibu did not belong to Mercedes Vega. The vehicle had a salvage title and was previously owned by a Ms. Case, who had reported it totaled in an accident and was last seen being towed [14:04]. This discrepancy raised suspicions about the vehicle's origin and its connection to the crime [16:20].

---

Background on the Victim

Mercedes Vega was portrayed as a confident and driven young woman from a blended family in Tempe, Arizona [18:22]. She worked as an exotic dancer, performing at a local club two nights a week to save money for her personal training certification. Mercedes had articulated clear goals for 2023, including picking up a new hobby, fostering meaningful relationships, and traveling—specifically expressing her desire to have her ashes spread in Hawaii, her favorite place [22:32].

Her parents, Tom and Erica Pillsbury, described her as having immense potential and a magnetic personality. They emphasized that Mercedes was in constant communication with them and would have expressed any safety concerns had she harbored any [25:03].

---

Investigation and Theories

The hosts discuss several intriguing aspects of the investigation:

• Prepared Perpetrator: The presence of gloves, bleach, and an intentional vehicle fire indicates premeditation aimed at destroying evidence [28:33]. This suggests that Mercedes was likely targeted rather than randomly victimized.

• Vehicle Origin: The Chevrolet Malibu's salvage title and its previous owner’s account point to a possible theft or unauthorized use. The vehicle's transition from a totaled state to being involved in a murder raises questions about how it ended up at the crime scene [16:20].

• Surveillance Footage: High-quality surveillance footage from the apartment complex captured Mercedes entering the parking garage, but it's unclear if there is additional footage of her movements post-entry or of the abduction itself [38:07].

• Potential Connections: The meticulous efforts to conceal the crime scene imply a potential connection between the victim and perpetrator, possibly stemming from Mercedes' workplace or personal relationships [48:02].

The hosts emphasize the limited time window between Mercedes being last seen alive and the discovery of her body, narrowing down the timeframe in which the abduction and murder occurred [41:07]. They speculate that the perpetrator may have waiting or stalking tactics, potentially linked to her occupation that might attract unsavory characters [26:48].

---

Concluding Remarks

Nick and The Captain highlight the importance of public awareness and assistance in solving such cases. They urge listeners to stay informed and vigilant, underscoring the need for community involvement in uncovering the truth behind Mercedes Vega's untimely death [49:33]. The episode sets the stage for further exploration in subsequent parts, promising deeper insights as the investigation progresses.

Notable Quotes:

• The Captain [06:06]: "Pretty quickly law enforcement's going to learn it's all hands on deck. This is a murder scene."
• Nick [25:17]: "Mercedes danced at a club two nights a week. She was saving money to accomplish her goals."
• The Captain [28:33]: "This individual came prepared... ready to destroy physical evidence."
• Nick [48:02]: "She was attacked right there in the parking garage, so they have some evidence that tells them a story."

---

Additional Resources Mentioned

• AZ Family News 3
• News 12
• KTAR News 92.3 FM

These outlets have been instrumental in covering the case, providing essential information and updates.

---

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this episode, where Nick and The Captain will continue to unravel the complexities of Mercedes Vega's case.

Transcript

[Nick]

High5 casino lets you play your favorite slot and live table games like Blackjack with the chance to redeem for real cash prizes. High Five Casino has a giant selection of over 1200 games, including hundreds of exclusive games only found on High Five Casino. It's always free to play and free coins are given out every four hours. Ready to have your own High five moment? Visit high5casino.com that's high the number five casino.com no purchase necessary. Void where prohibited by law. Must be 21 years or older. Terms and conditions apply. I never know what the day will bring so I use Microsoft 365 to stay on schedule, get organized and collaborate on plans with family and friends.

[The Captain]

It helps me tackle to dos, track projects and focus on what's important.

[Nick]

Click or tap the banner to learn.

[The Captain]

More about Microsoft 365.

[Nick]

Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks for listening. I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who knows that if you ain't got Mojo Nixon, then your store could use some fixing. Ladies and gentlemen, the Captain.

[The Captain]

That's right, you better call someone who cares. It's good to be seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend.

[Nick]

Today we are very happy and excited to be featuring Ghoulish Delights from the great people over at Stone Brewing in beautiful Escondido, California. This is a seasonal beer so don't hit the snooze button. Ghoulish Delights is actually what Stone calls a one batch dispatch. Ghoulish Delights is a dark lager with maple syrup and Oak ABV 8.7%. This is a beer of the highest quality. The brewers at Stone used bourbon, oak chips and Vermont maple syrup. Garage grade 5 out of 5 bottle caps. And let's give some thanks and praise to our good garage friends who are of the highest quality themselves. First up, a shout out to Skyler Gorski in Denver, Colorado.

[The Captain]

And a big shout out to Rachel on Asheville, North Carolina.

[Nick]

And here's a shout out to Reggie Forbes in Grand is Nebraska. And we also have a shout out to Marion in Springfield, Virginia. And last but certainly not least we have Katie and Maddox. A double fisted cheers to our friends Katie and Maddox and Aurora and everyone we just mentioned they went to truecrimegarage.com clicked on the pint glass helped us fill up the fridge for this week's set of shows and for that we thank you.

[The Captain]

Yeah bw er you in beer run. Make sure you go to truecrimegarage.com and sign up on the mailing list. So you're in the know we love to send out promo codes to the store page. So treat [e-mail] and Colonel, that's enough of the business.

[Nick]

All right, thank you, Captain. Everybody gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime. He was like down in the bushes, but I saw a plane inside the vehicle. Okay, see they're on the westbound by 10. Yes. Yeah, just north of the highway. I don't really know what it is. I can tell you. Okay. Unknown vehicle. Okay. Anyone? You said there's people outside the vehicle? I believe I saw at least one person outside. Yet you heard it there in the 911 call this was received about a vehicle on fire. The call comes in, this is the early morning hours of April 17, 2023. According to police, the 911 call was received at about 12:30am on April 17. The fire department responded, but while they were there extinguishing the flames, the firefighters noticed someone in the back seat of this vehicle. The Department of Public safety at approximately 1:40am notified and dispatched several sheriff patrol cars to this scene. So we have the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, they're at the scene now and they're responding shortly after 2:00am they we have about five cars there, five officers and patrol cars on the scene. By 2:12am at the very latest. The vehicle was located sitting on the north shoulder of I10. This is a freeway right around the 85 mile marker. The vehicle that is found in flames is a white 2018 Chevrolet Malibu. Now we don't get a very detailed description of the scene here, Captain, but we, we have that vehicle information and we have a pretty basic description of a female occupant in the backseat of the vehicle who appear to be deceased when first responders arrive on the scene.

[The Captain]

Yeah. So pretty quickly law enforcement's going to learn it's all hands on deck. This is a murder scene.

[Nick]

Yes, sadly, the female occupant in the backseat of the vehicle who appeared to be deceased, sadly, that was the actual case and unfortunately this is already a situation where they did not need to. There was no reason to attempt to perform life saving measures in that moment. So later the sheriff's office would determine that the deceased female occupant found in the backseat of this vehicle was 22 year old Mercedes Vega. She's pronounced dead at the scene. From my understanding, this vehicle is found just west of Tonopah, this is desert. There is nothing out there. Tonopah is approximately 50 a 50 mile drive west of the great city of Phoenix. And this is about 10 miles further west than that little city. This is the most common route that one would take when driving from Phoenix out to Los Angeles. The 911 caller was identified and he has cooperated extensively in this investigation. To be perfectly clear here, he didn't see the body in the backseat of the car, he just saw flames. He called this in via his cell phone as he was driving on the 10 and continued along his journey while on the phone and after the 911 call ended. So this is just somebody saw something and they're saying something, phoning it in, hey, this is what I see. I'm driving out here on i10 and there's a vehicle on fire. Now one thing that I find interesting, there's a few things that are interesting about this 911 call. The first is his description. Now, keep in mind, he's traveling at a, at a, at a rate of speed here down the highway. So we can't say with great certainty how good of a look he got at what he's reporting. But based off of his words on the 911 call here, Captain, one thing he says is, he says I can see a flame or he says I can see flames inside the vehicle as he's driving past it. So that's not clarification if the outside of the vehicle were on fire too. But based off of reports that we would later have the opportunity to review, it sounds like the vehicle fire was started from inside. And that is what our witness is seeing when he calls. Hey, there's this vehicle on the side of the road and I can see flames inside. He also notes and says that I can see somebody down there. That's exactly what he says down there by the bushes. I find this incredibly interesting. The 911 person responding to the call, the answering the call, they're called the 911 operator. Dumbass says to him, you can see two people. And he says, no, just one. Keep in mind what's going on here. If you're the driver, if you're this guy driving along, you see this vehicle on fire, he's doing the right thing by calling 911, notifying them. It doesn't sound like this is a vehicle that's just blazing, right? A fire that's just blazing and flames and flames and flames. It sounds like an isolated fire inside the vehicle that he's seeing and reporting. But if you're the, if you're this guy traveling along, you're probably assuming, look, vehicle, vehicle fires happen. They, you know, a vehicle can malfunction, something goes wrong with it. What was the port, what was the old thing that they were saying? For years they were calling Ford Explorers, Ford Exploders because they had some terrible recall they had to do because the Explorers kept catching on fire. All of us, most of us who have traveled the freeways frequently, eventually you'll see a vehicle either on fire or one that has been recently put out by the good people of the fire department. So this is not uncommon. And I'm guessing that he's under the assumption that, well, the person I saw outside of the vehicle, probably it was the driver of said car, had to get out of the vehicle because it was on fire. So he probably thought, hey, I'm calling this in to not just get this fire put out, but to help this person that I spotted near the vehicle as I was driving along. Unfortunately, what we don't get, Captain, is a great description of the person that he saw near the vehicle. Because what we would later learn is this vehicle doesn't belong to the victim who was found in it. And it also clearly does not belong to the person that was seen on the side of the road.

[The Captain]

Yeah, and if you're law enforcement, this gets difficult because what do we know about evidence being destroyed? Water can destroy evidence pretty well and so can fire. Now, not only do you have a murder scene, a murdered victim, but somebody that obviously was trying to cover it up.

[Nick]

Make no mistake about it, this wasn't a situation where this person died in the vehicle from the vehicle fire. No, this was an attempt, like the captain's pointing out, to destroy physical evidence at a scene and leave the victim there inside of this vehicle. Let's continue through the known details of the crime scene before we get into some other pertinent information. A medical examiner's report revealed the evil that the victim faced before passing before the murder. She had blunt force injuries, a gunshot wound, and the odor of bleach was detected in her or around the larynx of the victim. Again, this is 22 year old Mercedes Vega. She lived in Tempe. She lived nearby. Gloves and bleach were found in the front of this vehicle. Let's talk about these blunt force injuries and the gunshot wound a bit here before moving on. So the gunshot wound is primarily reported to have being as she was shot in the arm. There is one report out there that says that she was shot in the head. But I don't think that that was the case here, Captain. I think that was just a typo or some bad information because every other report that we were able to review say that she was shot in the arm. The blunt force injuries seem to be primarily on the head of our victim here. It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to deduce the situation of, if you're, if you have this bleach odor coming from the throat of the victim, per the medical examiner's report. Yeah, well, bleach, A bleach container, bottle was found in the front portion of this vehicle. Gloves too. Right. So we have somebody here who, who likely used gloves at the, in the commission of this crime and probably just took them off or bought an excessive amount of gloves. We've seen that in several cases and left, left these gloves along with the bleach inside this vehicle. Who belongs to who knows who. We have this poor victim that's found in the back.

[The Captain]

And like you stated, it's not her car. We don't know who owns this car. But what we always say, it's easier to find a car. So if you have the car, you can find out who it's connected to.

[Nick]

And her father. So Mercedes Vegas father. And I'm sure the, her mother believes this as well and feels the same. He feels strongly that the car could be the key to unlocking this mystery.

[The Captain]

Yeah, I would agree.

[Nick]

So what we have here, this, this is what we do know. The vehicle that Mercedes is found in. This is. We cannot stress this enough. It's a very big part of this mystery. The vehicle was not hers. This is the white Chevy Malibu. It did not belong to Mercedes Vega. The vehicle had a salvaged title. Now we have AZ Family News 3 Arizona Family News, who working with the police. And look, the police already did this work behind the scenes, but for this portion of the story to reach to the public, it had to be the news station that uncovered this information. They figured out who this vehicle once belonged to. It once belonged to a. And I'm just gonna, I'm gonna simplify her name a bit. It is public record, but it's not, it's not super out there. But the vehicle used to belong to a Ms. Case, and she openly spoke to the news about what she knew about the vehicle that she once owned. So this vehicle was involved in an accident and it was totaled at the scene of that accident. So the. Technically we have a salvage title, but technically the vehicle no longer belongs to this missed case. In fact, if you review some of the reports on this case, the actual owner at this point would appear to have been State Farm Insurance Agency, which makes complete sense based off of what this woman is saying about the vehicle. She says, I had the vehicle for a short period of time. I was involved in a terrible accident. The vehicle was totaled by the insurance company. And the last time I saw it was being towed off to a lot, it was on the back of a tow truck.

[The Captain]

So possibly somebody stole it from that lot.

[Nick]

That has to be what happened. I would like to know what I. What we don't know is if it's totaled there. I would think there would have to have been some repairs or considerable repairs to this vehicle at some point. And then what is the condition of the vehicle? How does it appear to law enforcement that this vehicle was stolen? Right. Does it look as simple as, well, somebody got the keys, hopped in it, started it up and drove it off the salvage lot, or, you know, did somebody bust out a window and have to. Have to jimmy rig this thing so that they could, they could take it off of the lot, which could be fairly easy given the state of the vehicle. We don't know what condition this vehicle was in, but that makes you wonder.

[The Captain]

If the, the lot has any cameras. And can we figure out who stole this vehicle? But I do know that you can buy a car off of somebody with a salvage title.

[Nick]

Yes, you absolutely can. And so I don't know if the lot purchased it from State Farm or how that all worked itself out. Sometimes it can be a situation where if a vehicle is determined to be abandoned, which can happen with total vehicles or vehicles that have been in an accident and they're towed off to a lot, sometimes insurance companies will leave them there, sometimes people will leave them there. And then at some point the vehicle becomes the property of the lot or junkyard owner. Very mysterious, this whole vehicle. But this adds a little background information for the vehicle of who it once belonged to and how it may have gotten to be involved in this horrific murder. While we're at it here, Captain, I want to make sure we mentioned AZ Family News 3. We also have News 12 and KTAR News, that's a radio station, 92.3 FM, have all done great work covering this case since the beginning.

[The Captain]

Yeah.

[Nick]

So we want to give them a shout out because most of our source materials coming from, from those three outlets, specifically with a Brianna Whitney from AZ Family in particular, having done a great job with this very difficult story.

[The Captain]

We don't know how Mercedes got There. We don't know why she's there. We don't know whose car this is or who was controlling the car. We don't know who's leaving the scene. But what do we know about the victim? Who is Mercedes?

[Nick]

Yes, let's hit some background information. What do we know about the victim? What do we know about this area in particular? So Mercedes, Mariana Vega was only 22 years old when she was abducted and killed. And we, we know this is an abduction because of how she's found. And we know that right away because she's found in a vehicle not belonging to her. From a young age. Her parents say that she was a confident and driven girl. Her personality was magnetic. Her parents say that she was going to be an amazing mom someday. She came from a blended family. This is a bit of a Brady Bunch type situation, if you will.

[The Captain]

The one in curls.

[Nick]

Yes. When, when her parents get married, they're each bringing children to the, to this new formed family. Mercedes, she went to middle school and high school in the East Valley area and eventually moved into her own apartment, this in Tempe, Arizona. Now, Tempe, Arizona is a city located in Maricopa County, Arizona. The Census Bureau reporting that the 2020 population was over 180,000 people. It's located in the East Valley, like we said, section of metropolitan Phoenix, which is big and sprawling.

[The Captain]

That's what she said.

[Nick]

It's bordered by Phoenix and Guadalupe on the west, Scottsdale on the north, Chandler on the south, and Mesa on the east. The one thing that may play a factor here in this case is Tempe is the location of the main campus of ASU Arizona State University. And I say the reason why that might play a factor here is unfortunately, Arizona State University at this time and in the year prior were reporting higher than normal crime rates. And it's. We're not saying that these crimes are being committed by students of the university, but this is something that I think is somewhat familiar to people that have awareness and good knowledge of these larger universities that are spread out through this great country, that sometimes you get this influx of people and population in a certain area and therefore crime can sometimes. And crime trends can follow that.

[The Captain]

Yeah, the university and the surrounding areas are occupied, but not by all students. It's actually a small percentage of the students that live in that area and they're actually more occupied by just people of that similar age not going to school.

[Nick]

Mercedes danced at a club. She was an exotic dancer. She danced at a club two nights a week. And she had Done so for a little bit of time. And we'll go back in time here in her timeline for reasons that will be obvious when we get to it, but she, at the time of her murder, she was dancing at a club two nights a week. She was saving money to accomplish her goals. She was working to get her personal training, her personal trainer certification. Mercedes listed out her goals for 2023 as follows. So she listed this out, and this is when somebody passes away. You always have that moment or in most cases where people are going through your loved ones are going through your belongings. And remember, she lived out on her own.

[The Captain]

My family would be very disappointed in me.

[Nick]

Her family finds that she had listed out her goals, her short term goals for the year of 2023. Yeah. And they were listed as follows. She wrote, pick up a new hobby, be open to relationships that are meaningful, and travel great goals. Her mother, Erica Pillsbury, goes on to say, quote, she was just starting to realize that she had so much potential. End quote. One month before she was killed, this was for her birthday, she went and visited Hawaii, which was her favorite place. This was open and known to people that knew her best that Hawaii was her favorite place. She had been there several times before. Unfortunately, nobody knew that this was going to be her last visit to Hawaii. She comes back, captain, and she tells her mom, like, how special the trip was and how much she loves that place. And she says, mom, I want my kids to cremate me and spread my ashes in Hawaii because that's where my soul belongs.

[The Captain]

I have some experience with this because I have been to Hawaii. It's, it's hard to explain to people. Anytime somebody says, I want to go to Hawaii, I go, you have to go. But also there's this, there's something spiritual or it feels spiritual. While you're there, you feel like your, your soul is awakening in some capacity.

[Nick]

Yes, I, I'm a big proponent of go and cleanse your, your soul and your existence and your reality in the oceans of this beautiful world that we live in. Like, whether it be Hawaii off the west coast or off the East Coast. Like, there's something to me, and I know you're talking Hawaii specific, I've not been there. But to me, anytime I get to go to the ocean, there's something that's like, mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually healing to me about being in, in the ocean. And I can't speak for, for Ms. Vega, obviously, but clearly she felt that that is where her soul belongs. I mean, for someone to say that at her young age of 22. And to have that, I mean, that's almost a brilliant observation by a young person to tell parents one day I want my kids to spread my ashes there because that's where my soul belongs.

[The Captain]

Yeah, like I said, I, I agree with her, but it could have been the Mojitos or it could have been the shirtless, buff male hula dancers, but I felt awakening, my friend.

[Nick]

That's right. Well, this thing, this portion seems a bit trite here, but I think this is important to the case as well because this gives us a little bit of insight into the dynamics of her family and Mercedes parents. This is Tom and Erica Pillsbury. They said that, look, we, we are very close to our daughter, we are very close to our kids, but very close to Mercedes in particular. And furthermore, they say we were in constant communication with her, adding that if there had been any safety concerns, if Mercedes had any safety concerns or people that she was suspicious of, they said Mercedes would have told them this. So.

[The Captain]

Yeah, and I'm not victim blaming, quote, I am not victim blaming, but the, the profession that she was in, those clubs attract some bad stuff. But I'd also say that just about any bars, when I played in a cover band, those bars didn't always just attract people that were going out for a good time over the weekend.

[Nick]

No, they can certainly attract some unsavory characters, to put it politely. And look, there is a reason why these clubs escort the women to their vehicles. Yeah, after their, after the shift is. Yeah, after their shift is over. And look, we're going to see things in her timeline. We're going to see actions by our victim to. That will notify us and make us understand that she was concerned about her safety and she wasn't dumb. She was, I would wager, Franklin on this. And I feel very confident here, Captain. She would not have worked at a club that she felt unsafe. I feel that very strongly. Now, is there a connection between her murder, her abduction and where she worked? Very. That's certainly a possibility.

[The Captain]

It would be a possibility. Also, if you're a bartender, female or male, there are people that get the wrong impression because you're just giving them friendly service. And you, you start getting regulars that show up and have infatuation with you. And that also happens at strip clubs?

[Nick]

Oh, absolutely.

[The Captain]

I mean, probably more so. But even like I said, going back to the COVID band thing, we had women that would show up and that would have an infatuation with the COVID band. So I'm not victim blaming at all. It's just a part of the equation that we have to look at if we want to solve this crime.

[Nick]

Yeah, and there are men, unfortunately, I don't know any of them personally, but there are men that will spend their entire paychecks at these types of establishments. So if you flinch at the word infatuation, don't. Because one would only spend their entire paycheck if they were infatuated, even if it's just fleeting. Now, as we pointed out, arriving on the scene on the side of i10 immediately, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, they have to understand, as soon as they figure out just two simple things, this poor woman that was found in the back of this vehicle, she didn't own this vehicle then. Secondly, the vehicle has a salvage title, so it's rightful to believe that nobody, technically no individual anyway, owned this vehicle. So immediately, if you're an investigator or even just a deputy, you're going, this poor young woman was abducted somewhere and killed and then brought to the scene. Now we have to go and figure out where was she abducted from? When was she last alive and well?

[The Captain]

Me.

[Nick]

Hey there, it's Steve Fishman and this is my trailer for my new podcast release, the Director's Cut of Empire on Blood. If you gotta kill a few people to get what you want in life, so be it. You can build an Empire on Blood. Whatever.

[The Captain]

Whatever it takes to get the information I need.

[Nick]

You lied. Yeah, I do. I'm honest about it, so I knew it was all bull.

[The Captain]

It's time to go.

[Nick]

The story begins with two young drug dealers who wear mink and stack cash under their beds. Their relationship frays and Calvin Buari goes to prison for two murders he insists he did not do.

[The Captain]

You're not gonna give.

[Nick]

Hello, kid. I can't.

[The Captain]

I can't.

[Nick]

From the creators of the Burden and my friend the serial killer comes Empire on Blood, the Director's Cut. With three brand new episodes on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever, wherever you get your podcasts, check out Empire on Blood. It is a great binge. Listen. Empire on Blood is an almost unbelievable true crime story about a fascinating case filled with plenty of WTF moments. Go and listen to Empire on Blood podcast tonight.

[The Captain]

It's spooky season, so it's time for me to be sipping on my pumpkin spice lattes and slipping into my cozy sweater from Quint. Quince is known for their Mongolian cashmere sweaters from $50. And it's not just that. All Quint Items are priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. That includes beautiful leather jackets, cotton cardigans, soft denim and so much more. How are they able to do that? By partnering directly with top factories and cutting out the costs of the middleman which passes on the savings to us. And Quince only works with factories that use safe, ethical and responsible manufacturing practices. And of course, premium fabrics and finishes for that luxury feel in every piece. I absolutely love Quince. I have treated myself to the Mongolian cashmere sweater and not just one and not just two and not just three. But I also love my cozy cotton cardigans. I love the fall time and I love the fall fashion. So get cozy with Quince. Get Cozy and Quinces high quality wardrobe essentials. Go to quince.comgarage for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's Q U I N C E dot com garage to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.comgarage get cozy with Quints and enjoy the spooky season. Check out quince.com garage today.

[Nick]

With big wireless providers, what you see is never what you get. Somewhere between the store and your first month's bill, the price magically skyrockets. With Mint Mobile, you'll never have to worry about Gotchas again. When mint mobile says $15 a month when you purchase a three month plan, they mean it. Not to name names, but I have had mobile providers in the past that have a less than reliable service that I have paid much more than Mint Mobile. Like you, I was tired of complicated bills that included new fees and upcharges that made absolutely no sense. Mint Mobile is straight up great reliable service at a great and fair price. All Mint Mobile plans come with high speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest 5G network. You can use your own phone, your own phone number and all of your existing contacts. Ditch overpriced wireless with Mint Mobile's deal and get three months of premium wireless service for 15 bucks a month. To get this new customer offer and your new three month premium wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to mint mobile.com tcg that's mintmobile.com tcg cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com tcg $45 upfront payment required equivalent to $15 per month new customers on first three month plan only speed slower above 40 gigabytes on unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees and restrictions apply. Cement Mobile for details if you are ever worried about the safety of Your home and family. There's no better time to act. Many of our listeners, many True Crime Garage Listene, have been using Simplisafe to protect their homes, their families and their businesses for years now. But there are several who have not gone to the website and have not got that peace of mind right now. True Crime Garage listeners can get 60% off today just by visiting SimpliSafe.com garage SimpliSafe is a new way to protect your home that stops intruders before they break into your home. Old school systems only take action once someone is already inside your home. That's too late. Simplisafe's Active Guard outdoor protection changes the game by preventing crime before it even happens. If someone's lurking around or acting suspiciously, those agents can see them in real time, talk to them directly, set off your spotlights, and even call the police before they've had a chance to break in. Plus, there are no long term contracts, no cancellation fees, and it's around $1 a day for all of this protection. I love Simplisafe. Why? Because it simply makes me feel safe. It's the best way to protect your home, your business, your family, your belongings. I was just talking with someone yesterday who said, I do not feel comfortable in my home at night alone. I said, you got to check out Simplisafe. You go to simplisafe.com and you protect your home, protect yourself and get peace of mind. Quit worrying about what goes bump in the night with Simplisafe. Simplisafe is offering my listeners exclusive early access to their Black Friday sale this week only. You can get 60% off any new system with a select professional monitoring plan. This is their best offer of the year. Head to simplisafe.com garage that's simplisafe.com garage. There's no safe like Simplisafe.

[The Captain]

All right, we are back, you filthy animals. Tall cans in the air. Party to the people. Hotel, motel, Holiday Inn. Cheers to you, Colonel.

[Nick]

Cheers to you. Stay thirsty, my friends, and stay filthy. April 16th. Right. Unfortunately, our victim is found in the very early morning hours of April 17th. And it's not going to take a whole team of bloodhounds to figure out where Ms. Vega was abducted from. So we go to the prior just hours prior. Mercedes Vega is last seen alive and well the night of April 16, 2023 on surveillance camera footage from her Tempe apartment complex.

[The Captain]

Hold on. I might be the dumbest boy in school, but does she have identification on her? Is that how they're Able to figure out who our victim is.

[Nick]

She very likely did. I, I, the, the problem with this case is they've kept some of the information and I, I, I need to rephrase that. I shouldn't say the problem, the problem for the storytelling angle of this case is that law enforcement has kept some of this information very hush hush on the details. My assumption is that she would have had some form of identification on her. We know that she is identified rather quickly.

[The Captain]

Yes. And then we have an address. So then we can go to her, we can go to our apartment complex. Then we can ask them. Oh, and she lives in a nice place. So she has, the place that she lives in has security and they have video. So now we can see that it's working. Yeah, yeah. Surprise, surprise. Which is working.

[Nick]

Let's give this place, let's give this place a thumbs up. We don't, we don't know how great.

[The Captain]

The place is, but I give it three thumbs up.

[Nick]

Three thumbs up because cameras are working. If this is your first garage show. We've reviewed hundreds of cases and it feels like 75 to 80% of the time the surveillance camera cameras are not operating properly, whether it be from an apartment or from a gas station or a school.

[The Captain]

Sometimes they're working, but there's, it's such bad quality that it doesn't really matter. Or they're working but the timestamp isn't correct.

[Nick]

Yeah, well, these ones were working and I, they released, police released a very small snippet of security camera footage. Now we say released a small snippet. We do, we don't know, we just don't know how much they have. This could be all that they have. I don't know the positioning of these cameras, but to, to do my best to try to describe it for everyone. The camera footage comes from the parking garage of her apartment complex. So she's seen walk, walking into the parking garage and her apartment is not on the first floor. You can see her entering the parking garage and it appears that she's entering via like a staircase or a stairwell. This is at 9:17pm remember the 911 call comes in at, it was about 12:30am we only have about a missing three hours here. We talked about the distance between Tempe and where the vehicle was eventually found. It's every bit of, of 50 minutes, 5, 0 minutes to maybe closer to an hour. So if she's alive and well at 9:17pm and found in this vehicle that's spotted by an eyewitness at 12:30. And that's three hours and 15 minutes roughly. Well, so we have an hour.

[The Captain]

Yeah. So we have a small time window in which she was abducted, attached and abducted.

[Nick]

Let's think about the, the. Let's try to crawl inside the mind of the abductor here, because what I. When you have this small of a window of time that's in question, we don't know everything that took place during that three hours and 13 minutes roughly. But it would seem, it would stand to reason to me anyway, that if you're finding gloves and a bleach container and flames inside a vehicle that nobody with a salvage title, this individual arrived not just willing, but ready. Yeah, ready. Ready with a vehicle that could be dumped ready to start a fire, ready to use bleach to destroy physical evidence and gloves to hide detection. And so I can't imagine for the life of me that within that little window of time and one hour of that has to be spent driving out to the location where she's found that in two hours time after the abduction that those items were purchased. I don't think so, not for a second. I think this person showed up ready to go. And that would indicate to me that a high probability. I think that she was targeted.

[The Captain]

Well, here, here's. I have so many questions. One, do we know what her schedule was supposed to be that night?

[Nick]

Well, that's very interesting too, because she originally she was due to meet friends for. A lot of reports say she was meeting friends for dinner, but it's pretty late, right? Yeah, but here's the thing.

[The Captain]

She's younger, so.

[Nick]

Well, but once you hear the whole story, you may change your mind on the details of this. A lot of the reports said she was meeting friends for dinner, but also there are reports that says she was meeting friends at a local Dave and Busters. So you can. One could have dinner at Dave and Buster's. One could also just go there and play video games and have a few cocktails.

[The Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

But what we do know now is police later determined that yes, she, while she had these plans, she changed her plans. And they, they say abruptly, that's the word that they chose to use. She changed her plans abrupt, and she decided to go into work that night. Well, anybody that's worked in any service industry knows that if somebody doesn't show up or they're short staffed or whatever, you could get a call that says, hey, Nick, could you come in and bartend for this evening? And she chose to go into work that night. Now, when they say Change her plans abruptly. I would like what we don't know what's not. The clarification that's not provided on that is, did she notify her friends that she wasn't going to meet up with them? Or was it a situation where friends are hanging out and they go, yeah, Mercedes was supposed to show up, wonder what happened, you know, and then. But. But they speak to her employer, right? Investigators speak to her employer, and they're like, yeah, we spoke to her on the phone and she was coming into work tonight or last night or the day before, whenever they speak to them. And you can see her on this surveillance footage. So the surveillance footage is, is quite good. It's not grainy like you can, you can see her and she's wearing a casual outfit. She appears to have a large handbag with her. I know given the occupation, sometimes you're bringing outfits or makeup or things of that nature with you. So she's wearing, like a black T shirt and jeans. And she doesn't appear to be stressed out or worried or in fear that something's about to happen. Right now we crawl inside the mind of the victim and we go, this poor young woman was probably ambushed. And like, go back to what her parents said, if she were in danger or if she was in fear or suspicious of anybody. We feel very confident telling all of you, the public and the news, that she would have communicated that to us.

[The Captain]

Well, it makes you wonder if her destination was leave my apartment, go right to work. But we also know, like, when you're getting called into work because somebody didn't show up or whatever, you don't always have to be in a hurry to get there. So is, is there a possibility that she had a. Another stop before she was going to go to work?

[Nick]

Well, stop or no stop, it doesn't matter because we get told by law enforcement that she was abducted right there in the parking garage.

[The Captain]

I wonder if they have any footage of that.

[Nick]

That's a great question, because like with so many other cases, you know, the Delphi cases in trial right now, and so many people had eyeballs and earballs on that for years. And one of the big. One of the points of contention with that amongst the masses was always, well, do they. We have this little, this little video clip here and we have this audio, but do they have any video or audio prior to that or. Or after what we've been shown?

[The Captain]

Well, then it also makes you wonder, is this just random? Oh, here's this pretty girl walking in the parking garage. Here's an opportunity or is it somebody that was laying and waiting for her? I know where she lives. If she has a stalker or if she has again somebody that is infatuated with her. Oh, I figured out where she lives. I know what her car is. I just now have to go and wait for her.

[Nick]

Yeah. It's very troubling because I can't say with any great level of certainty that I'm correct here, but everything about it tells me that I think she was, I think she was targeted simply for the fact that I think that somebody went to great lengths to hide evidence, to destroy evidence and to convolute the scene and the movements of the victim and the movements of the perpetrator. And I think that to me, in most cases here, Captain, one only goes to all of those efforts if there's some kind of connection between the victim and the perpetrator. Because if it's completely random, then you don't need to distance yourself so much from the victim.

[The Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

Or really stage the scene or really confusing.

[The Captain]

Destroy evidence.

[Nick]

Yeah, because, because there's really no ties to you now. I guess something if the perpetrator in this situation would have become aware or new in advance. I shouldn't say become aware, we should say new in advance because again, this killer appears to have shown up at the site of the abduction prepared to do what the result was.

[The Captain]

And again, which I think so maybe.

[Nick]

They did went to those efforts simply because they knew that there were. There would be surveillance footage.

[The Captain]

Yeah, very possible. But I, I lean towards what you were saying. This individual comes prepared. And so how would you, why would you come prepared? Well, no, I guess that makes sense though too. If you're just looking for a victim.

[Nick]

You would become prepared, you would come prepared. Yeah, but, but, but, but to conceal and destroy evidence and confuse the scene implies that there's either a connection between the perpetrator and the victim or you knew that there's going to be things like surveillance footage that you would have to. These are hurdles that you have to overcome to get away with this.

[The Captain]

I mean do we have law enforcement telling us whether we should be looking for one killer or two killers when.

[Nick]

We go through the deed? Some more of the details to come. I think many will have a shared suspicion that it, it took two to, to do this.

[The Captain]

These are, these are not just monsters, these are animals. This is so vicious. And I don't understand and I'm sure that this case was suggested by some listeners, but we live in a messed up society where we're this has not been talked about enough. This case has not been talked about enough in the sense of we, we have information to give out to the public that they could help us. And I think it just simply goes back to what it always is. Oh, well, this, this individual, she was a dancer, so I guess she doesn't matter as much.

[Nick]

Yeah, the case has been a, a rather big case in the area there. I did see some reports that it's gone out nationwide, but, but this one is fairly new to us. Now in, in the grand scheme of things, it's unfortunately a fairly recent case. You know, she was, she was killed last year. Yeah, and, but here's the thing, Captain. We're told that the, she's attacked in the parking garage, right? So they have some evidence. They have something that tells them that they don't just say that on a hunch. But here's, here's the bitch of this. The car that she's found in is not hers. And then her car is not found where it would be parked in the parking garage. Her, she's, she's found dead in a car on the highway. And her car, her vehicle is mia.

[The Captain]

Then on top of that, don't, don't law enforcement find, I think they find some blood evidence in the garage. And that kind of is what I'm guessing is the evidence. Unless like you said, they have the attack on film.

[Nick]

Exactly. We just don't know what they do and do not have on film. They've been tight lipped about that. They have shared a small snippet of the surveillance footage. That's the one that I described, where you can see her going about her business, carrying out her day, walking towards her car, getting ready to head off to work. And she doesn't look concerned about what might be around the corner. What we have here, Captain, is they do find the vehicle and as you suggested, maybe they found some blood evidence or evidence at the scene in the parking garage that is telling them a story. But they're also going to find this vehicle and once they locate the vehicle, they're going to find evidence with the vehicle that is going to start to tell them a portion of the story as well.

[The Captain]

Join us back here in the garage. Same bat time, same bat channel.

[Nick]

And until then, be good, be kind and don't litter.