The Murder of Evelyn & Alex Hernandez in San Francisco

by Jessica

A "perfect victim" is someone who is the victim of a crime who doesn't have something "wrong" with them. A victim, the news, the police and communities don't view as being responsible for their crimes. These victims are often called "innocent" and society easily identifies with them.

One of the consequences of not being a "perfect victim" is less attention is paid to your case by the media and by communities and when you do get attention a lot of effort is put into finding ways the victim could have done better. Perhaps if they hadn't hitchhiked, or dressed a certain way they may not have become prey to a person who holds less responsibility for their murder. We've all heard phrases like, "they asked for it" far too many times.

In each of our upcoming episodes the idea of "perfect" and "imperfect" victims will come into play. It plays a big part in our bonus episode this week. In it we cover the murders of Evelyn and Alex Hernandez. This is a case that received little attention and is when does receive attention its usually connected with a more famous case. When we put together the episode we considered trying to rectify that issue by only giving details in the Hernandez case but the more we researched and saw first hand how little information was given in the case, and how much of it was reported as part of another case, we decided we'd tackle the subject head on.

You can find our episode on this case anywhere you listen to podcasts, on our home page and on Spreaker: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/28000626

Evelyn & Alex Hernandez

Evelyn Hernandez was years old and pregnant with her second child in April of 2002 when her and her five year old son, Alex, were last seen. In the days leading up to her disappearance, Evelyn spent time preparing for her baby's arrival on what doctors believed would be May 7th. She attended a doctors appointment, helped get her son set up with a new bed and talked with her sister about an upcoming baby shower. During that call her sister talked to her about how she would get to a baby shower in Richmond, CA from her San Francisco Amazon-Crocker neighborhood. Evelyn didn't have a car and had been experiencing pain with her pregnancy. She was on disability from her job at the The Clift Royal Sonesta Hotel on Geary Street in downtown San Francisco.

May 1, 2002 was the last time anyone saw or heard from Evelyn and her son Alex. The next day Alex was absent from school and people who tried to get in touch with Evelyn couldn't find her. On May 7, 2002, the two were reported missing by Herman Aguilar and Evelyn's sister. Aguilar was the father of Evelyn's child due on May 7th.

When police go to Evelyn's home they believe it may be possible she's left town to have her baby elsewhere. Family and friends believed this wasn't possible. Evelyn was a legal immigrant from El Salvador and just a week out from giving birth. Traveling would be difficult and her passports were still in her house. Police could not find her wallet.

Sometime after Evelyn went missing a person in South San Francisco found her wallet in a ditch near Colma Creek. The person who finds the wallet has no reason to think they've found anything other than a missing wallet and hoping to get it back to it's owner they try to get in touch with Evelyn. On May 30, 2002, they take the wallet to the police station hoping they might have more luck getting in  touch with Evelyn. To police this is important and telling evidence that something more has happened to Evelyn.

Inside the wallet the police find cash and Evelyn's disability check. They go to the area where the wallet was found and search thoroughly, even using dogs, hoping to find any other evidence. They don't find anything else. Police move Evelyn's case from missing persons to homicide and a press conference is held in the case.

Then on July 24, 2002, someone walking on the Embarcadero, near the Bay Bridge, in San Francisco sees a body in the ocean about 16 feet away from the sea wall. Police pull the body from the bay and find that it is only the lower half of a torso and legs. Maternity clothes is attached or nearby the body. The police check the DNA of the body with DNA from Evelyn's toothbrush. It was a match. Evelyn's unborn child and Alex are nowhere to be found. Police believe that both have also been murdered by the same person who murdered Evelyn.

Information in this case goes cold pretty fast and it's only later in 2002, when Laci Peterson goes missing in Modesto, CA and is found murdered in the San Francisco Bay that attention is paid by the press to Evelyn's case. During the Scott Peterson trial part of his defense was that his wife was killed by another person, the same person who killed Evelyn Hernandez.

While there are some similarities in the two cases, both women were pregnant and found in the bay, the police do not believe there is any evidence to connect the two cases. Scott Peterson was found guilty of murdering his wife Laci Peterson in a very high profile case.

While the two murders are not connected, there is one major difference. The news coverage of first the missing, and then murdered Laci Peterson was heavily covered around the world while the coverage for Evelyn was considerably less. In the local paper, the Hernandez case only garnered a handful of articles and none of them on the front page.

In the episode we talk at length about the reasons why some cases get more attention while others get very little, and sometimes none at all. In fact, most cases never receive the kind of attention famous cases we can all think of do. There doesn't seem to be one reason why a case would garner more attention than another but in Evelyn's case there were several factors that came into play. She was not, as the media would say, a "perfect victim," But no one really is.

Evelyn was a single mother who the papers repeatedly reminded the reader had become pregnant by a man who was married. The fact that she didn't know he was married when she dated him or became pregnant was mentioned once. Most of Evelyn's family lived overseas in El Salvador and though her sisters and friends advocate for her, including holding memorials and keeping hope that Alex is still alive, this hasn't seemed to bring a lot of attention. She wasn't rich, she didn't have a victim's organization advocating on her behalf, and information in the case did not continue to flow as it had in other cases.

But like every victim of murder, Evelyn mattered as much as anyone. Her and her child had a life ahead of them. She was only days away from having her second child who she planned to name Fernando. Lack of attention from the public did not mean that police weren't working hard to find the answers in this case. It also did not meant that the people who loved her didn't grieve and miss the family terribly. Everything that people in larger cases went through this family suffered. And while press may be a blessing for people looking for answers we've seen plenty of cases where it was a double edged sword when it wouldn't die down after answers were had, or when it assumed things about victims instead of treating them as the real people they were.

In this case the police are still investigating. What they need is someone who knows something or saw something to come forward. Over time someone might feel less scared about coming forward, or start to feel guilty about their role in the crime. Keeping Evelyn and Alex in the news means reminding people everyday that they were real, they deserved better and that three lives were taken.

If you have any information in this case please call police in San Francisco at 415-553-1071. If you wish to stay anonymous please call 415-575-4444.

You can find more information and a full list of our works cited for this episode here: https://sites.google.com/view/californiatruecrime/episodes-page/season-2/evelyn-alex-hernandez?authuser=0

We Recorded! It's harder than it sounds!

by Jessica

We did it! We recorded an episode this last Saturday. *crickets* I know it doesn't sound like a milestone but it really was for us. Since we haven't edited the episode it's hard to say how successful it was but each step forward feels big. Just two weeks ago we attempted to record our first remote episode and boy, did things go sideways fast. At the end of that night I really felt that we might not be able to pull this off. After a night of googling (rather than sleeping) and mining audacity's many question and answer threads we went back to the beginning, started over and figured it out.

We've all been here

On Saturday we started over with only a minor setback that might've gotten me to tear just a little bit of hair out. But we made it through. One episode down! Now comes the editing and fingers crossed you'll be able hear us clearly. Just like when we recorded our very first episodes there will be a learning curve to getting this Zoom thing down.

Let's just say we are cautiously optimistic this will work and we'll have episodes out to you soon. I'll be even happier when this episode is edited and we have, on our computers and ready to load up, a full episode with the three of us talking about things we care about, in this case a cold case that we know you'll be interested in and want to help get attention. That day we'll have a party! Hey, we should do it on a platform where we can do it together. You are, after all, a big reason we are doing this. Thank you for being the best listeners out there!

Of course, this small thing which feels so big to us, isn't as important as a lot of what's happening around the world. However, pieces of normalcy keep us all sane and talking with Sean and Charles, finding these two people who are interested in similar things while still challenging my own ideas and beliefs, well its become one of the most "normal" parts of my life this past two years. I guess I'm saying that I'm lucky, both to have them and all of you.

We hope that you are all staying safe and we're excited to be very close to starting our second season. Hopefully, you'll enjoy it as much as we've enjoyed putting it together. We can't wait to be able to talk to you about these cases and find out what you think. Thank you for being patient and being a part of the CaliTrueCrime community!

Murder of Mary London, Cold Case in Sacramento, Solved

by Jessica

Mary London
pic from Newsweek

Mary London was 17 years and a 10th grader when she went to school at Sacramento High School on January 14, 1981.  She attended all her classes that day and when school ended at 2:00 pm she stayed behind to help a teacher clean up their classroom from a lesson. Sometime after this a hall monitor would be the last person to see her alive. No one on campus saw her leave and when her stepmom came to pick her up at 2:30 pm she couldn't be found.

Sacramento Charter High School via Google Maps

In 1981, Mary London was living with her father and stepmom in Sacramento on U Street. Her father owned a shoe shine parlor at 9th Street and J Street in the heart of downtown Sacramento. In December 1980, Mary had moved in with her father and transferred from McClatchy High School to Sacramento High School. Though she had yet to make new friends she was described by people as a "nice kid" and "bubbly." In the Sacramento Bee article titled, "Foul Play: High School Girl Found Murdered," a friend of the family said of Mary, "She was just beginning to live. Her father was so proud of her. If I was her father, I'd have been proud, too. She was a pretty girl."

When Mary went missing she was described as 4 feet 11 inches tall, 110 pounds and wearing rust colored corduroy pants and a sweater that was maroon. No one at the school came forward to say they saw her leave campus, or get a ride from someone else. To them she simply disappeared from the face of the earth. The only possible clue released to the public was that an eye witness came forward to say they thought they saw her get into a vehicle near 8th and K Streets in Sacramento. The possible witness believed there were three men in the vehicle and that they saw this happen between 4:00 and 5:00 pm that day. This area is almost 3 miles north-west of the school. According to google maps it would have taken her an hour walking to reach this distance. If she was seen in this area she would have been only a mile away from her house and just a few minutes from her father's business on 9th Street and J Street. Police shared the witness information with the public but did not say whether it was considered accurate or if anyone else saw what this witness saw.

Map Showing Mary's possible path walking home via google maps
U Street is her house, 8th & K Street where a witness may have seen her

The next day, Thursday, January 15, 1981 at 7:00 am, a Pacific Telephone Employee was out checking phone lines on San Juan Rd in Sacramento when they found the body of Mary London. The area she was found was rural and on a stretch of road with I-5 to the East and I-880 to the South. Mary London's body was found nude except for socks and one brown shoe. On her right wrist she had a piece of twine tied. Police did not know if she had at one point after she went missing been tied up but the piece of twine indicated that may have been possible. Mary was stabbed several times in the chest. Police didn't know at the time if she was sexually assaulted and if that changed that information was never printed in the newspaper.

Approximate area Mary London was found via google maps

Investigators began to put together a timeline of Mary's last day but with little information and DNA testing yet to come, her case quickly became cold. The Sacramento Bee, the newspaper of record for the area, added the murder of Mary London to their Secret Witness Program and offered $2,500 dollars to anyone with information that would lead to answers in this case. Under the Secret Witness program, tipsters are allowed to remain anonymous and it doesn't impact whether or not they receive the money.

In April of 2020, 39 years after Mary was murdered, Sacramento police announced that they had found the sole suspect in Mary London's murder. Using genetic genealogy, the police were able to match DNA found on the victim with a man named Vernon Parker.

Parker was 17 in 1981, when Mary went missing and was murdered. While finding this connection meant Mary's case was now solved and closed it was announced that Vernon Parker would not face a courtroom. Unfortunately, Parker was murdered only a year after it's believed he murdered Mary.

In August of 1982, one of Parker's friends got into a fight with another man at the Hof Brau Bar near 7th and L Street in Sacramento. Two hours after the fight took place, Vernon Parker walked back into the bar, told the people inside he had been stabbed and collapsed. The man who stabbed Parker, was also the man involved in the earlier fights, told police that Parker and his friend had attacked him on 10th and L Streets. He said that he stabbed Parker in self defense.

Vernon Parker was killed in the stabbing and his murderer was sentenced to five years in state prison.

The Sacramento Bee, December 18, 1982

While Vernon Parker won't be handed a jail sentence for the crime of murdering Mary London the hard work by investigators does provide answers for those who loved her. Nothing can repair the crime Parker committed in 1981 and the loss for everyone who knew Mary.

A younger Mary London
pic from Newsweek

On January 21, 1981, a funeral was held for Mary Cathy London at Thompson Funeral Home.


For More Information:

Maharidge, Dale & Alex Miller. (1981 Jan 16). "Foul Play, High School Girl Found Murdered." The Sacramento Bee, B1.

"Capital Teen's Slaying Joins Secret Witness List." (1981 Jan 29). The Sacramento Bee, B3.

Mary C. London Funeral Notice. (1981 Jan 21). The Sacramento Bee, A21.

Mary London Secret Witness Information. (1981 Apr 23). The Sacramento Bee, AA6.

"Stabbing Victim." (1982 Aug 25). The Sacramento Bee, B2.

"Killer Draws Prison." (1982 Aug 18). The Sacramento Bee, E5.

McGough, Michael. (2020 Apr 23). "DNA links suspect to 1981 cold case murder of disabled Sacramento teen, police say." The Sacramento Bee; available at: https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article242230826.html

Murdock, Jason. (2020 Apr 24). "DNA Breakthrough Identifies Suspect In Cold Case Murder of California Teen Unsolved For Nearly 40 Years." Newsweek; available at https://www.newsweek.com/california-sacramento-police-cold-case-mary-london-dna-genetic-genealogy-testing-1499951

Unsolved Murder of Veronica Martinez (1992)

Written by: Jessica

About halfway through our first season we realized that the cases we had covered had also been cases that were, for the most part, covered in depth by the media. While researching we came across thousands of cases that we had never heard of, and also had received far less media attention. Many of these cases were unsolved and in most loved ones or police were asking the public for help. This is when we decided to end our episodes with a cold case to highlight in some small way the victims of these unsolved crimes.

One of the first cases we came across while researching the murders perpetrated by Cary Stayner was the murder of Veronica Martinez near Cool, CA in 1992. After Stayner was captured police around the state looked through their cold case files to see if the possibility that these unsolved cases might involve Stayner. Several cases popped out as possibilities. They tended to be cases where the victim was murdered, or found murdered in the wilderness, and in the general vicinity of places that Stayner was known to have been or traveled. While none of these cases have ever been linked to Stayner through any direct evidence they do highlight how little attention the victims received, especially in contrast to the murders of Carole Sund, Juli Sund, Silvina Pelosso and Joie Armstrong. 

Conversely, there were only a handful of articles on the murder of Veronica Martinez and we were unable to find a photo of her. She hasn't been forgotten by the people who love and miss her and police need information from the public to help solve this awful crime.

Veronica Martinez was only 19 years old when she was last seen in Sacramento, CA on January 27, 1992. On that day, Veronica had her friend drop her off at a Pak N'Save grocery store on Florin Rd and told them she would have her brother pick her up when she was done. Martinez never returned. Her family filed a missing persons report on January 30, 1992 in Cool, CA, a small town 40 miles outside Sacramento.

At the time Veronica Martinez was a mother of two, with one on the way. In 1992 her children were 2 and 4 years old and were not with her when she disappeared. When she was last seen she was wearing a white sweater and red pants. She is of Hispanic descent, 5 feet 4 inches tall and 130 pounds.

On March 7, 1992, 11 days after disappearing, Veronica Martinez' body was found off Hwy 49 between Auburn and Placerville in El Dorado County. Depending on where the body was found this was anywhere from 35-60 minutes away from where she was last seen. Her body was found by a man who was collecting bottles on the side of Hwy 49, a mainly rural road throughout the area. Martinez was placed near "Cool Cave" and at the bottom of a steep ravine in heavy brush. She was nude, except for a bra, wrapped in plastic and her head had been decapitated.

Veronica Martinez was found along Hwy 49 between Placerville & Auburn
via Google Maps

Police believe that Veronica Martinez may have been alive and held for a period of time before being found. Her autopsy showed she had been deceased for 7-10 days and her body was badly decomposed. It is not believed she was sexually assaulted. Police do not know what Veronica Martinez' cause of death was.

The search for whomever murdered Veronica Martinez is ongoing. As this case wasn't widely covered, we know very little about Martinez. She was a mother of two and was pregnant with her third child. She worked as a waitress in Sacramento to provide for her family. She and her loved ones deserve answers and justice.

If you have any information about the murder of Veronica Martinez please contact the El Dorado County Cold Case Task Force by phone at 530-621-4590 or by email at coldcasetaskforce@ecdgov.us

For more information:

"Sheriff Looking into Link in Women's Murders." (1992 Mar 15). The Press Tribune, A-2.

"Autopsy on Headless Body Inconclusive (Police Digest)." (1992 June 16). The Press Tribune, A-2.

KXTV Staff. (2017 Sept 27). "Cold Case Homicides that Haunt the Greater Sacramento Area." ABC 10; available at: https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/cold-case-homicides-that-haunt-the-greater-sacramento-area/477359931