transcript
Speaker 1:
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Speaker 2:
[00:23] A Vegas showgirl is a girl who has beauty, who has talent, who can be seductive.
Speaker 3:
[00:29] You have so many women with their unique talents, and they're bringing them to this city.
Speaker 4:
[00:34] A Vegas showgirl is glamorous. She's beautiful. She's sexy. She is Las Vegas.
Speaker 5:
[00:41] Debbie breathes dancing.
Speaker 6:
[00:43] She landed a spot on one of the scripts of biggest shows called Fantasy.
Speaker 3:
[00:49] Sometimes being pretty puts you at risk. I can tell you from personal experience how scary Vegas can be.
Speaker 7:
[00:59] Debbie was never late to practice. She was always on time. But then the last practice before the opening act, Debbie didn't show up. Red flags immediately started popping off.
Speaker 8:
[01:14] We have an employee that's been missing for about 24 hours now.
Speaker 9:
[01:19] We have to find her. Could she have been taken? Could she have been kidnapped?
Speaker 10:
[01:23] Everyone knows that she would not have missed the final dress rehearsal.
Speaker 2:
[01:28] This was her dream, and for her to not show up to rehearsal that day, it just wasn't right. It wasn't going to turn out good.
Speaker 7:
[01:43] My name is Celeste Flores Narvaez. My sister's name is Deborah Flores Narvaez. She loved dancing, it was her passion. She loved being in the spotlight. She loved performing, and she loved showcasing her ability and her creativity. Debbie decided that I'm going to pursue my dream of dancing and acting and modeling. And she moved to Las Vegas.
Speaker 2:
[02:37] Wow, Las Vegas is a city of lights, and spectacle, and major entertainment.
Speaker 5:
[02:45] Debbie wanted to conquer the world. I remember right when she moved to Vegas, she was posting auditions, she was posting tryouts.
Speaker 3:
[02:53] She could do jazz, she could do hip hop, ballet. She was so graceful, but she had so much personality in her movement.
Speaker 2:
[03:01] Debbie's ultimate goal in Las Vegas was just like the rest of us, to star in a big Las Vegas show.
Speaker 11:
[03:09] She wanted to learn ballroom, theatrical arts, and also a Vegas showgirl style. She looked good in her costume, in a real tight bikini, a real sexy body. Sex sells in Las Vegas. If you're not sexy, you're not going to get hired.
Speaker 6:
[03:28] Debbie had that Vegas showgirl quality, and she was a hard worker. So, when Debbie Landsai coveted role as a background dancer on Fantasy, it is a dream come true.
Speaker 12:
[03:38] When Debbie got a part in Fantasy at the Luxor, she called all of us. She was so excited. She couldn't stop talking about it.
Speaker 6:
[03:46] Fantasy is an institution in Vegas. It's one of the strip's most popular burlesque shows. It's lasted decades, and it features dance performances with top musical artists.
Speaker 2:
[03:58] I was so proud of her, so proud of her, just because she just felt as if she was now on the same playing field as many of us featured in major productions in Las Vegas.
Speaker 6:
[04:10] Debbie's ambition doesn't stop at fantasy. When she starts out as a background dancer, Debbie quickly earns her way to the front of the dance line and lands a solo alongside Grammy-nominated artist Cisco.
Speaker 12:
[04:25] Debbie called and told me she was excited because she was going to be doing a show with Cisco.
Speaker 3:
[04:30] And we all know Cisco as this dynamic entertainer. He's so talented, so popular. And his song, the thong song, was everywhere.
Speaker 7:
[04:50] The thong song was the biggest hit, top 100.
Speaker 6:
[04:57] Dancing is a soloist with the Pops Hercisco is the biggest break of Debbie's career. Debbie and Cisco, shown here, practice for weeks to perfect their routine.
Speaker 7:
[05:10] They practice to make sure that they got the roll down. There's a part where I think he has to like smack her on her butt. He kind of like patted it and she was like, no, no, no, no, no. You got to smack it. They had practiced that day, and then they took a break. Everyone went home, and they were to reunite back that night so they could have a final practice before the red carpet opening.
Speaker 4:
[05:49] The final rehearsal is going to be at midnight. Very, very normal for a Las Vegas show.
Speaker 7:
[05:57] And Debbie didn't show up.
Speaker 2:
[06:05] I'm like, this is not right, it's not right at all. There's no way she's going to give up her dream opportunity and not show up for rehearsals.
Speaker 3:
[06:14] It was just so surprising, because Debbie is a very timely and professional person.
Speaker 11:
[06:19] Everybody was looking for her, all the dancers.
Speaker 6:
[06:22] Debbie doesn't just miss midnight rehearsal. She can't be found. And when she doesn't show up to the premiere, the show has to replace her.
Speaker 7:
[06:31] I get a call from my mom, and she says, hey, I'm worried. I haven't heard from your sister. I've been trying to call her. I immediately called my sister, and it went straight to voicemail. And I sent her a Facebook message, and I said, hey, mom and dad are looking for you. Just please call them back.
Speaker 4:
[06:57] As fantasy goes on without her, Debbie has not been heard from for 24 hours.
Speaker 7:
[07:02] Nobody knew anything. I decided to call her roommate, who then told me, I put a missing report out on your sister. I haven't heard from her. This is serious.
Speaker 8:
[07:14] Hi, I need to file a missing person report.
Speaker 13:
[07:17] And who is the person you need to file it on? My roommate. Okay. How long has it been since you saw this person? Two minutes.
Speaker 10:
[07:26] I had it on like seven o'clock, because I was coming home.
Speaker 14:
[07:30] And what is this person's name?
Speaker 13:
[07:34] Um, Deborah, Debbie, Flores, S-L-O-R-E-S.
Speaker 7:
[07:42] I started getting anxious. I went on her Facebook, and I put a message out saying, if anybody's heard from my sister, just let me know. Debbie went out of her phone or her social media, was unheard of.
Speaker 3:
[07:59] She was so very active on social media. She had a Facebook account with so many fans, and she took pictures every night. And that was a dangerous thing to do because you're letting thousands of people know where you work.
Speaker 2:
[08:15] It can be very, very, very dangerous for many showgirls in Las Vegas. These women are exposing themselves physically, to much of male audiences.
Speaker 3:
[08:28] I was certain that someone had snatched her. One of her fans, maybe someone was rejected and decided to maybe seek revenge.
Speaker 7:
[08:37] She's a beautiful woman. She's a dancer. She's missing.
Speaker 6:
[08:43] Surveillance footage of Debbie leaving her apartment, walking out into the Vegas night, where she disappears without a trace.
Speaker 7:
[09:04] Throw those in there. I am making pollo guisado con arroz y gandules, which is a Puerto Rican stew, and it is very popular in Puerto Rico. Debbie was always extremely proud to be Latina. She loved a good chicken dish. Some of her favorites was pollo guisado, arroz con habichuelas, arroz con pollo, which is rice and chicken, arroz con pollo. My sister was a terrible cook. There were times when she would try to make a meal for like her boyfriend. We were both born in Puerto Rico. My mom was a housemaker, taking care of me and my sister and my father. He worked for the military. And when we were seven and eight, we moved to Maryland, which was completely new to us. We were in a different world. We didn't speak English, so it was like, oh my God, two new girls, and they don't speak English. We wanna know what they're like. My sister and I were really close. My mother always dressed us alike. We were only a year and four months apart, so we always had twin outfits on. She was just like a little ball of fun. She was just tiny, just a little Debbie. Everybody always called her little Debbie. When we were little, we would always perform in front of my mom. I just remember doing these like Michael Jackson dances that we would practice in our room, and then we would go present these dances to my mom. She just loved it.
Speaker 5:
[10:55] I met Debbie in seventh grade. I think I fell in love with Debbie probably the moment I met her. Before you even see her, you're going to hear her voice. She has this very, very loud, raspy voice.
Speaker 15:
[11:08] Even the way she talked, it had this like accent, it had this like spiciness to it.
Speaker 2:
[11:14] Debbie really did love her friends. If I told her that I needed something for anything, she was like, I got you.
Speaker 3:
[11:20] Debbie always had a smile on her face, but she also had a very sexy look to her. She could really charm you with just a single look.
Speaker 5:
[11:30] When you look at her, you see this dark hair, and these dark eyes, and she's beautiful. She is beautiful.
Speaker 12:
[11:36] Of course, as friends, we all talked about goals and things we want to do. And she said she wanted to be a dancer, but I think she didn't think that dancing would pay the bills, let's say. So she buckled down, did good in school, went to college, got her degree.
Speaker 7:
[11:56] Debbie went to school for international business, and during that international business, she fell in love with law, and she took several classes.
Speaker 12:
[12:07] She was working at a very prominent firm in Baltimore, downtown, and was doing very well, very well. She had a nice condo, you know, things like that, all the things that you aspire, except she wasn't fulfilled. That one thing I think was missing, that was the dancing. Dancing at night in a club is fun, but it didn't fulfill her.
Speaker 7:
[12:34] She would go to salsa classes, and while she was working, she also decided to try to audition for the Redskins cheerleaders and ended up as a Redskins ambassador.
Speaker 4:
[12:49] Debbie was hired as a cheerleader ambassador. That's a very important public-facing role, really just a brand ambassador for one of the league's leading franchises. It's a big role to fill.
Speaker 12:
[13:02] She loved being with other girls, you know, like wearing the cheerleader outfit who doesn't love a good cheerleader skirt. She loved making the fans happy, you know, making them smile. People are cheering you on and that's what she wanted.
Speaker 7:
[13:14] I couldn't believe it, but it let me know how much potential she had.
Speaker 6:
[13:21] But still, this was not enough for Debbie.
Speaker 7:
[13:23] I remember her personally calling me one day and saying, hey, Celeste, I'm thinking about moving to Vegas. What do you think? I told her absolutely not.
Speaker 12:
[13:35] I was so upset with her. I'm like, you're going over there by yourself.
Speaker 7:
[13:38] My thoughts of Vegas was Sin City. You don't know anybody out there. Your friends ain't there, your family's not there. Who is out there?
Speaker 12:
[13:45] Nobody wanted her to go.
Speaker 4:
[13:47] But Debbie would not be discouraged. She was going to take a big risk. She was convinced she could do it. She was going to head west, and she was going to go and follow her dreams to Las Vegas.
Speaker 2:
[14:00] I first met Debbie after our initial auditions for what was the Michael Jackson's This Is It release of his documentary film. What stood out to me about Debbie when we first met was how much she talked. She just had so much to say, so many questions to ask, and so many ideas. When you're in a situation of creating a project like that, it's wise to keep your place. But Debbie was one to always just like jump in and say, why don't we do this this way?
Speaker 12:
[14:33] Debbie's specific goal at that time was to be at the front of the dance line. Every time she had a big show, she was just so excited, so excited.
Speaker 6:
[14:45] And then of course, Debbie's promoted to that feature role with Cisco. So for those that know her, when Debbie doesn't show up for the final rehearsal, they know something must be wrong.
Speaker 3:
[14:58] And the alarm started going off.
Speaker 15:
[15:01] She would have never not showed up. Or there's no other reason that she came to Vegas except to be at this point in time.
Speaker 4:
[15:10] Debbie's been missing now for 24 hours and the police are involved after the roommate called 911.
Speaker 13:
[15:20] And what is this person's name? Deborah, Debbie, Flores, S-L-O-R-E-S.
Speaker 4:
[15:28] So detectives go to the apartment to talk to Debbie's roommate to learn more about what happened the night Debbie disappeared.
Speaker 10:
[15:33] The roommate said she was going to visit her boyfriend and then was going to work, but she never showed up to work. Detectives then obtain the surveillance video from the apartment complex and it shows Debbie leaving her apartment just before 6 p.m. The security footage shows Debbie dressed nicely and she's walking down the hallway and gets into the elevator in her apartment complex.
Speaker 9:
[16:00] She was wearing knee-high boots, dark-colored clothing. She carried a bag with her. In my opinion, it was going to be her dance clothes to go to the rehearsal late at night.
Speaker 10:
[16:10] Further on, there's footage of her vehicle driving out of the parking area.
Speaker 4:
[16:15] If Debbie was planning to stop by her boyfriend's place on the way to this final rehearsal, detectives are going to have to go find that boyfriend and find out what he knows.
Speaker 12:
[16:36] Me personally, I'm thinking, Debbie must have needed a break, she probably just left, didn't want to tell anybody. Parents haven't talked to her either. Nobody in Vegas has talked to her either. Well, nobody in Baltimore has talked to her.
Speaker 7:
[16:56] It's Christmas holidays, I should be thinking about my son's gifts and Christmas and family and, no, on my mother's birthday, I flew out there. My main focus was to find where my sister was. I didn't care who, what, when, where, I just wanted to find her alive. I was out there night and day, from the moment I woke up in the morning, I was constantly driving around, I was putting her face out there, setting up volunteer groups to pass out flyers. Anytime that I would go outside, I would see the desert, like could she be out there somewhere?
Speaker 4:
[17:31] Look, this is Vegas. What's the old slogan they were using, that what goes in Vegas stays in Vegas, or something like that? Since Vegas was invented, it was a place that people disappear to, and it's, you know, by extension, a place that people disappear from, and it doesn't mean that a crime's been committed.
Speaker 9:
[17:49] Again, she could have just left, there could have been some issue, we don't know. The media is all over this, there's pressure from every direction.
Speaker 12:
[17:59] Debbie's disappearance attracted so much media attention. On the news, Nancy Grace...
Speaker 7:
[18:05] What happened to Debbie Flores? She doesn't show up for rehearsals, she doesn't show up for a show.
Speaker 12:
[18:13] Seeing Celeste crying and begging for her little sister's return was so hurtful.
Speaker 7:
[18:21] There's no hope for her, she is okay.
Speaker 12:
[18:23] She was everybody's sister, everybody's friend. She couldn't have an enemy. So absolutely, let's find this girl.
Speaker 6:
[18:33] Detectives learned from Debbie's roommate that she left her apartment prior to her final rehearsal for her show to visit her boyfriend. He was another successful Vegas performer, Jason Griffith. He was also called Blue Griffith.
Speaker 2:
[18:48] So when you become an artist, you have a nickname as you evolve as an artist in the entertainment industry. And so Jason Blue Griffith is known as Blue.
Speaker 7:
[18:57] I learned that Jason was a very skilled and trained and professional dancer. I learned that they were dating and they were dating for a while.
Speaker 2:
[19:06] He danced with Tony Braxton and he was in Cirque du Soleil Love. And these are like major shows in Las Vegas.
Speaker 10:
[19:15] So the missing persons detectives contacted Jason Griffith.
Speaker 9:
[19:19] Well, we went to the house where Jason and the other man by the name of Louis were living.
Speaker 10:
[19:25] Jason said Debbie was there, but he said that she never exited her vehicle, that he only spoke to her through the open window on the driver's side of the vehicle. She was only in the driveway for a few minutes and then left.
Speaker 6:
[19:38] Police also learned from Jason that he had many on again, off again girlfriends and Debbie was just one of them. After detectives speak with Jason, they find that he's cooperative and not particularly suspicious.
Speaker 4:
[19:51] Other than that, detectives have very little to go on until Debbie's car is spotted across town.
Speaker 9:
[19:58] Police found her car, a 1997 Chevy Prism. A nearby resident said it sat for several days.
Speaker 16:
[20:05] It's awful that it has happened and I just wish that somebody could have found her or something.
Speaker 10:
[20:13] The interesting thing about her car, it was kind of hidden in the backyard of an abandoned house, so it couldn't be seen from the street, but a neighbor had realized that it shouldn't have been there and called it in.
Speaker 16:
[20:24] I noticed that there was a maroon car parked over there. Grabbed my binoculars and I went out, so I looked through the binoculars and I wrote down the license plate number. First thing I noticed that it said Maryland. I called Tuesday morning, I noticed that the license plate was missing Wednesday morning. So sometimes between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, somebody come and took the plate.
Speaker 10:
[20:47] When officers in that area of town recovered the car, they found clothing in the back seat that matched the clothing on the video that she had been wearing. They found the boots that she was wearing when she left her apartment the night that she went missing.
Speaker 12:
[21:01] When the police found her car, it was very upsetting. She would never leave her purse, her dance bag, you know, those types of things in the car. She's a girl, you know, I gotta have lipstick, I gotta have whatever you need.
Speaker 2:
[21:16] That was a shock for me. I had been in that car many, many times with Debbie and with her belongings in it and everything. That to me was, that just indicated that this was, this wasn't gonna be good. It wasn't gonna turn out good.
Speaker 9:
[21:31] They searched the car, they searched the trunk. The properties around it were searched. We looked for video, nothing. There was no forced entry into the car. There was no blood in the car, except for the plate being removed and put inside the trunk. There wasn't much there.
Speaker 10:
[21:47] Discovery of Debbie's car was a critical piece of information in this investigation, and it also started steering the investigation towards a homicide, rather than just a straight out missing person case.
Speaker 7:
[21:58] My parents are in distress. They're anxious, they're worried, but they're hopeful. There were times where they kind of gave up. And thinking that she had already passed. And I wouldn't allow that.
Speaker 4:
[22:18] So the days pass. There's no body. There's no obvious crime scene. It's as if Debbie just up and vanished into thin air. So detectives hold a news conference, and they want to encourage the public to come forward. Has anybody seen her, heard from her? Anything that they could go on that might be a lead.
Speaker 9:
[22:37] Good morning.
Speaker 17:
[22:38] Thank you for attending this press conference this morning to discuss the disappearance of Deborah. We believe that Deborah was last seen on Sunday, December 12th. If anyone has any information regarding the disappearance of Deborah, that they please contact the police department through Crime Stoppers.
Speaker 6:
[22:56] While detectives wait for tips to come in, they decide to pay Jason Griffith another visit.
Speaker 9:
[23:02] All we really knew at this point was he was the last person reportedly to have seen her alive. During the interview with Jason, he did indicate that he knew that there was a domestic violence case where Debbie had been beaten.
Speaker 6:
[23:18] And Jason suggests to police that if anyone had a reason to hurt Debbie, it might be her former boyfriend.
Speaker 18:
[23:26] I mean, I could make that assessment that like, this is somebody that hurt her.
Speaker 7:
[23:47] I think it's a horrible feeling when you don't know where your loved one is, and you don't have no answers. Because the longer you're out there looking for her, the more you're thinking of possibilities, and you just keep going and going and going. Could she be out there somewhere?
Speaker 17:
[24:05] What we know is on December 14th, a missing persons report was filed by Deborah's roommate, stating that she had not seen Deborah for a couple of days.
Speaker 6:
[24:16] Investigators are looking at Debbie's romantic relationships to unearth any clues that might help them figure out where she is, including Jason Blue Griffith.
Speaker 4:
[24:26] Jason Griffith was Debbie's last known boyfriend when she disappears, and he is completely willing to cooperate with the investigation.
Speaker 9:
[24:34] All we really knew at this point was he was the last person reportedly to have seen her alive. They have surveillance video of her leaving her apartment alone in her geoprism, and she tells everybody she's going to Jason's house and they're going to watch Dexter. It's a TV show, and that's the last time anybody sees her.
Speaker 10:
[25:00] We're never hopeful to discover someone dead, but at this point, we have a firm belief that Debbie is, in fact, dead, not just missing. We have some inconsistencies in how she was last seen. By Jason Griffin's house. We have her car hidden in a different area of town from where she went missing and where she was last seen. So at this point, we're suspecting foul play.
Speaker 9:
[25:24] The reason we're here is Deborah, a very close friend of yours, has gone missing. And from all accounts that we have at this point, you're the last person to have seen her. Is it correct as far as you know?
Speaker 10:
[25:37] Yes, as far as I know.
Speaker 9:
[25:39] We all sat down and we did a rather lengthy interview of Jason Griffith. She's standing at your door. You answer the door, you say, oh, you're there. What is she wearing? As much as you can remember, it'd be extremely awful for us.
Speaker 18:
[25:54] Hair was down, wearing black.
Speaker 9:
[25:57] Some kind of a black shirt.
Speaker 18:
[25:59] Some kind of a black top with everything else was black. There was nothing that stood up.
Speaker 9:
[26:04] So I was like, everything you say to us is going to be extremely important to us. And I let him talk as much as he wanted to talk. There was no confrontation of any kind, and we just gathered information.
Speaker 4:
[26:17] Jason tells detectives that Debbie left his apartment that night, and he never saw her again.
Speaker 9:
[26:23] During the interview with Jason, he did indicate that he knew that there was a domestic violence case where Debbie had been beaten.
Speaker 18:
[26:33] It was hard for her because she had went through an abusive relationship.
Speaker 6:
[26:38] Jason brings up a situation from over a year prior between Debbie and one of her ex-boyfriends named Jamil McGee.
Speaker 18:
[26:46] I was just told that he had beat her up.
Speaker 9:
[26:49] So there was a lawsuit that was going on. We can't overlook anything. You have to run everything down.
Speaker 18:
[26:57] She said that she was, you know, beat up, bruised and stuff like that, and then she had told me that she had a case coming up.
Speaker 7:
[27:05] So, Debbie and Jamil, they met in Baltimore, and they dated for a while, and he was on the show, So You Think You Can Dance.
Speaker 2:
[27:20] I'm just going to show the world what I got, you know what I'm saying?
Speaker 6:
[27:23] They both decide to move across the country to Las Vegas in search of achieving their dancing dreams, but it isn't as romantic as it seems.
Speaker 19:
[27:32] They had a relationship that at times was slightly tumultuous.
Speaker 7:
[27:38] Debbie liked broken birds, as I would say. When she saw something wrong with someone, she always tried to do the most in trying to fix people.
Speaker 9:
[27:48] Was she afraid?
Speaker 18:
[27:49] I could make that assessment that like, you know, this is somebody that hurt her, this is somebody she would be afraid of.
Speaker 4:
[27:57] According to family and friends, their relationship was a concern.
Speaker 2:
[28:01] And I remember her getting, like, just crazy calls from him, and I would go to her apartment and stay with her, and I would just like be there just to stay with her, just so a guy can be there with her.
Speaker 7:
[28:14] There was an allegation of abuse on his part, and he put his hands on my sister, and she took him to court.
Speaker 6:
[28:21] Debbie was granted a judgment of $250,000. In a suit, she claims that Jamil committed battery damage against her, leaving physical scarring that limited modeling and dance work that she would have been able to be hired for. Jamil denied those claims in court.
Speaker 12:
[28:37] He had really messed up things with her career, because the things that she was doing, you know, she wouldn't be able to do anymore. That's what she thought.
Speaker 4:
[28:46] But Debbie had healed enough to be back on stage. Those close to Debbie say she was planning to collect on that $250,000 judgment before she went missing.
Speaker 7:
[28:56] Wait a minute, that's $250,000. People have gone missing, have gotten hurt for less than that. That to me is a huge flag.
Speaker 9:
[29:07] Detectives did look at him. He alibied. He was not in Las Vegas at the time, but he was fully investigated.
Speaker 4:
[29:15] Jamil is completely cleared, so investigators decide to circle back and take another look at Jason. He was her most recent love interest. Who is Jason Blue Griffith?
Speaker 10:
[29:25] Debbie seemed to be attracted to Jason and only Jason, or Jason was attracted to all pretty girls.
Speaker 6:
[29:32] But if Debbie wanted a monogamous relationship, Jason was not the guy for that.
Speaker 9:
[29:37] I mean, at one point, he told me he had six or seven girlfriends going at the same time, and his excuse for this was, this is Vegas, baby.
Speaker 3:
[29:59] Jason, Jason Blue Griffith. Everyone loved him. He was very well respected in the dance community.
Speaker 2:
[30:08] People had nothing but great things to say about him as a person, as an artist.
Speaker 12:
[30:14] Debbie called me and she said, I met this guy, he's a dancer like me.
Speaker 10:
[30:19] What drew the two of them together initially was the fact that they were both dancers. In top physical shape, they really did what they did, and they were both fairly attractive.
Speaker 3:
[30:29] Not many people understand being an entertainer and using your body to express yourself creatively and in a passionate way. And both Blue and Debbie expressed themselves in that way. When it came to Blue, Debbie really loved his passion and how talented he was, how much fun they would have together, how much they laughed, their inside jokes. She felt like they were soulmates.
Speaker 4:
[30:58] The problem here was that while Debbie may have felt that she and Jason were soulmates, Jason was playing the field.
Speaker 10:
[31:04] Debbie seemed to be attracted to Jason and only Jason. Jason was attracted to all pretty girls.
Speaker 7:
[31:09] I learned that he was a playboy. He had several girlfriends.
Speaker 2:
[31:13] Debbie did want her relationship with Blue to be exclusive.
Speaker 7:
[31:17] There were rumors that there was another girl or there was others, and she was being cheated on, and Debbie didn't like that. She loved him. She cared about him deeply.
Speaker 9:
[31:27] He told me he had six or seven girlfriends going at the same time, and his excuse for this was, this is Vegas, baby.
Speaker 6:
[31:35] One of those many girlfriends is Anez Rue, an aerialist at a show called Zoomanity, and she seems to have captured Jason's heart.
Speaker 2:
[31:43] She was French. She's such a sweetheart. I remember her and I did a couple industrial gigs together in Las Vegas, and I just loved her. She's very talented.
Speaker 10:
[31:54] You do want to look at Anez to see if maybe she could be involved in Debbie's disappearance or even if she can just provide information. I wanted to start off by asking about your relationship with Jason Griffith, who you know as Blue, BLU.
Speaker 20:
[32:10] My name is girlfriend.
Speaker 10:
[32:11] Okay. And how is your relationship with Blue progressed? How has it been recently?
Speaker 20:
[32:20] Recently.
Speaker 10:
[32:22] In the last couple of months.
Speaker 20:
[32:25] Okay. No, because I was very, very happy with him for the first six months when I discovered that he in fact kept three other at least three other girls at the same time as me. One is Debbie Flores Narvaez.
Speaker 6:
[32:42] Debbie learns about Agnès and Jason dating, and she calls her.
Speaker 20:
[32:46] Debbie has always kind of been in contact with me since the first three weeks we started dating.
Speaker 10:
[32:57] Añez did receive a phone call from Debbie, where Debbie is warning her about being involved in a relationship with Jason.
Speaker 20:
[33:05] She was warning me because she had been hearing from some of my friends that I was a great girl, and she was warning me not to do the same mistake she did.
Speaker 4:
[33:16] It seems that Debbie wants Añez to know who Jason really was in her mind. He was a serial dater.
Speaker 17:
[33:22] Certainly, Debbie was not okay with Jason seeing any other women. She was aware of them. She was aware of Añez, and Añez was aware of Debbie, and there was conflict in their relationship, on both relationships because of the other woman. They weren't okay with it, but apparently that's how Jason wanted to live his life, and if they wanted to be with him, they were going to have to deal with it.
Speaker 10:
[33:46] At some point, Añez had enough of Debbie and the volatility of that particular relationship, and so she had broken things off with Jason.
Speaker 6:
[33:57] Añez and Jason get back together just in time to celebrate Jason's birthday on December 10th, the same weekend Debbie goes missing. They spent parts of the weekend together at a hotel.
Speaker 20:
[34:08] We slept at an hotel called Rumor. We wanted to do something different for his birthday. He's not partying or he's not going out to club and stuff. So we went to eat and we went to sleep at Rumor.
Speaker 10:
[34:24] What did he say about Debbie that night?
Speaker 20:
[34:26] Well, that night he was saying that he explained her for real, that not even to be friends is cool. He's telling me that he explained her and that she understood.
Speaker 10:
[34:39] And then did you have any contact from Debbie after that?
Speaker 20:
[34:42] No.
Speaker 6:
[34:44] Detectives quickly determined that Agnès is not a suspect.
Speaker 10:
[34:47] She was pretty much cleared as being a person of interest or possibly being a suspect.
Speaker 6:
[34:53] Police are stuck. At this point, they have no solid leads. And then just before Christmas, they receive a call from the Arizona State Police.
Speaker 10:
[35:07] Metro received notification that there had been a burned body found over the state line, just past the Hoover Dam on the Arizona side of the river.
Speaker 9:
[35:19] A female with long dark hair, with a very thin build, which matched the description of Debbie Flores.
Speaker 10:
[35:27] The body had been just dumped in the middle of nowhere, just off the highway, and doused with a flammable liquid, and set on fire.
Speaker 16:
[35:38] A gruesome discovery today, investigating a possible connection between the missing dancer and a body found out at Hoover Dam.
Speaker 7:
[35:45] We heard that they found the body in Arizona. I was scared.
Speaker 16:
[35:52] A source close to do three saying, it's likely the body belongs to missing dancer, Debbie Flores-Norvayas.
Speaker 3:
[35:58] Everyone was on pins and needles to find out if this was Debbie or not.
Speaker 10:
[36:03] At this point, we're suspecting foul play. This is going to be Debbie.
Speaker 7:
[36:07] Every second is agonizing.
Speaker 10:
[36:14] The body is brought back to Las Vegas, Clark County Coroner's Office.
Speaker 9:
[36:19] At Autopsy, I learned that it was not Debbie.
Speaker 3:
[36:22] When it was confirmed that it was not Debbie, it kind of gave people a sigh of relief.
Speaker 7:
[36:28] There was a glimmer of hope that my sister's still out there. She's alive.
Speaker 9:
[36:33] We have to find her.
Speaker 4:
[36:42] Oh, yes, yes, yes!
Speaker 21:
[36:44] You wanna go there? You wanna go to the house?
Speaker 6:
[36:46] What investigators are learning is that as a couple, Debbie Flores Narvaez and Jason Griffith may have brought out the very best and also the very worst in each other.
Speaker 10:
[37:01] We learned that Jason and Debbie's relationship was toxic.
Speaker 17:
[37:08] The more we learned about their relationship, very contentious, very volatile.
Speaker 15:
[37:13] I don't give a f**k.
Speaker 14:
[37:15] I know legally the law and I know what is legally wrong.
Speaker 10:
[37:20] And he recorded her unbeknownst to her and he questioned her.
Speaker 17:
[37:26] He videotaped her confession. Yeah, I slashed her tie. I mean, he got the whole thing on tape.
Speaker 15:
[37:31] My tie is not legal. Slashing my tires is not legally legal.
Speaker 14:
[37:35] It is damage to property that no one witnessed.
Speaker 3:
[37:38] But I knew that when you came out.
Speaker 22:
[37:41] I am admitting it.
Speaker 15:
[37:43] So you're admitting to property damage.
Speaker 14:
[37:44] Yeah.
Speaker 12:
[37:46] Debbie and Jason had a very fiery relationship. They were either on or they were very much off.
Speaker 6:
[37:54] Debbie's friend Bethany suspects that the tension exists between Debbie and Jason because they have different expectations of the relationship. She wants monogamy and is exacting revenge on her cheating boyfriend.
Speaker 3:
[38:08] Debbie, for sure, wanted a serious, monogamous relationship. Debbie was not the type of woman that was not going to agree to just be someone's side piece.
Speaker 4:
[38:24] Throughout their relationship, both Jason and Debbie call 911 on each other.
Speaker 16:
[38:30] 911 emergency.
Speaker 21:
[38:31] I have a domestic problem.
Speaker 18:
[38:32] My girlfriend would not leave my house.
Speaker 23:
[38:34] She just locked me out of one of my rooms.
Speaker 20:
[38:37] She doesn't live there?
Speaker 11:
[38:39] Nope, doesn't live here.
Speaker 6:
[38:40] And then, just a week later, another 911 call from Jason.
Speaker 8:
[38:46] I just need a squad call, please.
Speaker 16:
[38:49] Okay, what's going on?
Speaker 22:
[38:51] My girlfriend just came to the house and punched out my window. And she needs to go.
Speaker 8:
[38:55] What did she use?
Speaker 22:
[38:57] Her fist.
Speaker 8:
[38:58] Did she mean that? Is he bleeding?
Speaker 16:
[38:59] Um, she's bleeding, but that's her responsibility.
Speaker 21:
[39:02] I'm more so worried about the window.
Speaker 8:
[39:05] Okay.
Speaker 10:
[39:07] It's unusual in the moment that you would make that reaction when you're reporting that someone is hurt. But I do know that, ultimately, Debbie did a lot of damage to Jason's property. His calls to the police paint Debbie as someone who's emotional, unstable, that possibly wants to do harm to herself because the relationship isn't going the way that she wants. Now, on the other side, you have Debbie's accusations where Jason is unfaithful, Jason is violent, you know, Jason is somebody to be feared.
Speaker 4:
[39:45] And you can hear in the background of this call, Debbie is clearly upset.
Speaker 16:
[39:49] And what's her name?
Speaker 11:
[39:50] Oh, her name is Debbie.
Speaker 16:
[39:53] And her last name?
Speaker 11:
[39:54] Okay.
Speaker 13:
[39:55] What's her last name?
Speaker 7:
[39:58] What's your name?
Speaker 13:
[39:58] I can't hear you.
Speaker 7:
[39:59] What's her last name?
Speaker 11:
[40:05] Can you hear me?
Speaker 13:
[40:06] No, I can't. What's her last name?
Speaker 21:
[40:08] Her name is Debbie Flores.
Speaker 6:
[40:11] In that video that Jason secretly records of Debbie, the confessions continue.
Speaker 14:
[40:17] Nope, I couldn't take it. I slapped you.
Speaker 15:
[40:19] Okay. Now you assaulted me.
Speaker 7:
[40:22] This was after a huge fight they had. He was caught cheating, lying, manipulating and gaslighting her.
Speaker 18:
[40:31] You're admitting that you assaulted me.
Speaker 14:
[40:32] I'm admitting that I hit you, that I broke in your house, that I looked at your laptop, that I poured egg whites on your car, that I slashed three of your tires because I said I'll give him one left. I am not going to lie by anything I'm doing.
Speaker 10:
[40:48] And it was the weirdest thing to see her admitting, yes, I slashed your tires and I did only three of the four on purpose. I don't know why someone would do that, but it made perfect sense to her at the time.
Speaker 3:
[41:01] I learned this from Debbie. If you want to really get under someone's skin, instead of slashing all four tires slash three, you have to buy your tires and sets.
Speaker 14:
[41:16] But I did it because you got it.
Speaker 22:
[41:18] You do this because you think I can't prove it.
Speaker 14:
[41:20] You think when I'm slashing the tires on my car, he's like, no, no. Do you think I had that?
Speaker 22:
[41:24] No, no, no.
Speaker 14:
[41:26] You know what's going to be me when you walk out. Basically, slashing the tires is this. If you think you can f*** me and hurt with me, I'm going to be angry.
Speaker 18:
[41:34] But you do it and you make sure that there's no proof that you did it so I can't take any legal action.
Speaker 7:
[41:41] There's going to be a breaking point. And she reached that breaking point where she slashed his tires because she's had enough and they broke up.
Speaker 17:
[41:51] It had broken things off completely for several months and didn't have any contact with each other.
Speaker 4:
[42:00] In October, just two months before Debbie's disappearance, she and Jason get into another fight.
Speaker 10:
[42:07] She was in his face. He grabbed her and threw her down and he ended up pulling some of her hair out. So at that point, she had contacted the police and he was arrested for domestic violence. When Jason was arrested, she had got a restraining order against him, and even though he wasn't supposed to be anywhere near her, she would come to his house, watch TV.
Speaker 6:
[42:30] It's been almost a month since Debbie's disappearance. Police don't have a body, they don't have a crime scene, they don't even have proof that Debbie's been harmed until they receive a tip about a woman who has information vital to solving the case.
Speaker 17:
[42:46] When we were talking to her and that was my first thought is, why didn't you tell somebody about this?
Speaker 13:
[42:50] I'm scared making a statement to you.
Speaker 6:
[42:53] And what she tells detectives is bone chilling.
Speaker 13:
[42:57] Because obviously if Blue can do that to her, he could do it to me.
Speaker 6:
[43:20] Four weeks after Debbie's disappearance, Las Vegas detectives tracked down a former girlfriend of Jason Griffith in a suburb outside of Vegas. And Kalei Casorzo reveals information that will break the case wide open.
Speaker 17:
[43:34] We tracked her down at her place of work and got an interview from her.
Speaker 13:
[43:39] I'm just nervous, I'm scared.
Speaker 10:
[43:41] She wanted to remain anonymous, which tells me that she has information that she wants to put out there, but she wants to protect herself as well.
Speaker 13:
[43:51] I'm scared making a statement to you because obviously if Blue can do that to her, he could do it to me. They know where I live.
Speaker 10:
[43:59] She has been involved in a relationship with Jason, so she knows how he is.
Speaker 6:
[44:04] Kalei explains that she is terrified because she believes that Jason killed Debbie and that someone else may be involved.
Speaker 13:
[44:12] Him and his roommate.
Speaker 18:
[44:14] Which roommate are you talking about, Louie?
Speaker 13:
[44:16] Yeah, the big Puerto Rican guy.
Speaker 7:
[44:18] Louis Colombo was Jason's roommate. Jason was popular, would have a lot of women. Louis Colombo was complete opposite, but he really cared about Jason. They were best friends and he was willing to pretty much do anything that Jason asked him to do.
Speaker 17:
[44:49] It was imperative to us, find Louie Colombo, that was our goal. I thought you were gonna call me, Dana Kelly.
Speaker 7:
[44:55] I apologize.
Speaker 12:
[44:56] It cannot be overstated how important Louie's interview was to ultimately finding Debbie. There was just an avalanche of information that Louie gave to the police, helped give Debbie's family some well-deserved answers.
Speaker 17:
[45:14] Now you have the opportunity to do the right thing and have that girl's family know what happened and at least have that closure. You could tell he was scared. But he was playing the, you know, I don't know what you're talking about, you know, I don't get it, I don't know why I'm here.
Speaker 10:
[45:32] Louie Colombo did not want to be involved in the investigation at all.
Speaker 9:
[45:35] So what do you want? Tell us what you want right now. It's too late, what he's talking about is it's too late.
Speaker 10:
[45:47] We knew he was going to be the weak link, but we had to have something to enticing with, and the deal was the enticement.
Speaker 17:
[45:54] We made the decision, we're going to tell him we're not going to arrest anyone. I can guarantee this, you tell us what happened, and you're not getting arrested.
Speaker 1:
[46:01] That's my guarantee to you.
Speaker 9:
[46:03] I don't know if he would ever talk, if we didn't give him the deal.
Speaker 10:
[46:08] No, I don't want to say you're making a deal with the devil, but we wanted the information that he had.
Speaker 17:
[46:13] We know you wish you could rewind it, but you can't. Now you got to go forward, and you need to tell us what happened, from the beginning all the way to the end.
Speaker 9:
[46:21] Lewis, did you kill Debbie?
Speaker 17:
[46:23] No.
Speaker 9:
[46:24] Then talk to him.
Speaker 17:
[46:25] You need to tell us what happened. Early on in the interview, it was obvious that he 100% knew what had taken place.
Speaker 10:
[46:35] Debbie showed up to the house. There was an argument.
Speaker 9:
[46:39] Just walk us through what they were arguing about. I don't know.
Speaker 24:
[46:43] They were just arguing. They were just yelling at each other.
Speaker 17:
[46:47] Okay.
Speaker 24:
[46:48] You know, they were pushing and shoving. You know, he grabbed her, she grabbed him. I split them apart. I still didn't choke them.
Speaker 17:
[46:55] There was an argument.
Speaker 24:
[46:56] There was an argument, and I pulled them off her. That's why I got her some water, and I asked them if they were going to be all right. I tried to tell her, no more arguing, no more fighting.
Speaker 9:
[47:08] She's still breathing?
Speaker 1:
[47:08] She's still talking? All right.
Speaker 9:
[47:10] What did she say to you?
Speaker 24:
[47:12] She said that she was all right.
Speaker 19:
[47:13] He's worried, and he asks both of them, can I leave you two here alone, and can you two be civil with each other? And they both say yes.
Speaker 4:
[47:25] Colomo says he leaves the house for about two hours.
Speaker 10:
[47:27] When he came home, he saw Debbie laying on the floor with a plastic bag over her head, and she was not moving and did not appear to be breathing.
Speaker 24:
[47:37] What did he say? He was like, f*** off. Like, I was like, what are you talking about? And then we watched the studio and I saw, like I was in shock, you know, I was shaking. He was like, you know, this is one of those diaper change moments.
Speaker 17:
[47:53] Jason said something to Louie about this being a change your diaper moment. So we had him explain that was a change your diaper moment. You know, hey, when I raised you, I used to change your diapers, and now it's payback time. You know, I took care of you. Now it's time to take care of me.
Speaker 24:
[48:07] He's done a lot for me, like favors and stuff, like financially and stuff. So he was like, you know, this is one of those moments.
Speaker 19:
[48:14] He was very specific about what happened afterwards. He said they had a big bin that they wind up putting her in there.
Speaker 17:
[48:22] He helped put her in the bin?
Speaker 24:
[48:23] Yeah.
Speaker 17:
[48:24] Was she cold?
Speaker 24:
[48:25] Yes.
Speaker 17:
[48:26] You know, Debbie had driven her car over to the house to watch Dexter. And so Jason decides that we need to get rid of her car. And so Jason drove her car clear across town with Louie following him, just parked her car there in this little desert dirt lot kind of area. And then Jason gets in the car with Louie and they drive back to the house.
Speaker 6:
[48:50] That night, Colombo goes to his job as a bouncer at a club.
Speaker 7:
[48:54] Jason had a date that night. He and Louis Colombo placed my sister in the garage. Jason went out that night with André to celebrate his birthday. They had a hotel room. He stayed the night. They had a good night as if nothing happened. While my sister laid dead with a bag over her head in his garage.
Speaker 6:
[49:21] Colombo says that in the following days, Jason Griffith devises a plan to entomb Debbie's body in a block of concrete.
Speaker 19:
[49:30] Then Jason winds up going to Home Depot and getting a bunch of cement.
Speaker 24:
[49:36] Because I do support concrete. Tell them to stop mixing the concrete. We can start mixing the concrete.
Speaker 9:
[49:44] Where?
Speaker 24:
[49:46] The garage. What did they do to the garage?
Speaker 9:
[49:53] How was she positioned in the vent?
Speaker 24:
[49:55] Like, sort of curled up, like it was an awkward shape.
Speaker 10:
[49:58] It's your typical blue, sterile-like storage container. So when you put a 120-pound body in there and then fill the rest up with concrete, obviously it's heavy.
Speaker 9:
[50:08] It weighed, at the minimum, 600 pounds. How long do you let it sit?
Speaker 24:
[50:13] Till the next day. Okay. I think that's when we rented the U-Haul.
Speaker 9:
[50:18] We rented the U-Haul and what else?
Speaker 24:
[50:21] A dolly and a hand truck.
Speaker 9:
[50:23] They rent the U-Haul and then Jason comes with a plan. They then drive it out to Jason's ex in Henderson.
Speaker 13:
[50:33] He had called and asked me if I would store some stuff for him. I said, all right, what is it? He's like, it's just a tub.
Speaker 10:
[50:43] She sees a U-Haul truck and she looks inside and she sees Louie and Jason trying to manhandle this big blue Sterilite storage tub.
Speaker 13:
[50:56] So I'm like, whoa, what is that? Because I kind of got a bad feeling. And he just gave me this look like, do you want me to tell you? And I was like, yeah, you think you're storing that at my house, you're going to tell me what it is. And he was like, it's Debbie. And I was like, whoa, that's, no, you need to go right now. And I was very upset.
Speaker 17:
[51:20] So once they leave Calais, they have to do something immediate. What they did was found this house that they knew was abandoned on Bonanza Way.
Speaker 10:
[51:33] The body has been in this container now for a few days and it's starting to decompose and now you have all this decomposition fluid starts leaking out of the crack in this tub.
Speaker 24:
[51:44] Yeah, so it leaked out, I guess it leaked out a little bit.
Speaker 10:
[51:50] And there's a trail of it from the sidewalk all the way up to the front door and inside the house.
Speaker 9:
[51:55] And then Jason came up with Plan B and they bought more bins, they bought more cement, they bought like a mini sledgehammer.
Speaker 24:
[52:02] So we basically broke it out of the concrete.
Speaker 15:
[52:06] The body, the body, okay.
Speaker 9:
[52:07] So you actually break up the cement.
Speaker 24:
[52:10] Break up the cement.
Speaker 9:
[52:11] And take her out. What does she look like? Louie tells us that he can take us to where the body is. So it's like an abandoned house.
Speaker 25:
[52:20] Now, the big question is, where's the house?
Speaker 24:
[52:23] On the map.
Speaker 25:
[52:24] Take us to it.
Speaker 9:
[52:27] You don't have to go in, but can you take us to the house? We gotta go, we've gotta get it.
Speaker 4:
[52:36] Louis Colombo leads detectives to a vacant house, and what they find inside takes this case from missing to monstrous.
Speaker 6:
[53:10] Jason Griffith and Lewis Colombo's problems are mounting. The bin they have deviant is cracked and it's leaking all over the wood floors in the living room of a vacant house.
Speaker 9:
[53:22] They came up with a plan. They bought more bins, they bought more cement, gloves, bleach, sealants, plastic bags, garbage bags. They bought a wood saw, a mini sledgehammer to chip her out of the cement, and a crowbar. Louie says that they chipped her out of the cement, and then Jason dismembered her by cutting her legs off.
Speaker 24:
[53:47] We had her go into two separate bins, and cut her legs off. Well, she cut her legs off.
Speaker 17:
[53:53] He did? Okay.
Speaker 24:
[53:56] A saw. Okay, then what? Put it in plastic bags, then put it in the bin, and put more concrete on it.
Speaker 23:
[54:04] Okay.
Speaker 24:
[54:05] And then put it in the closet.
Speaker 9:
[54:07] They put the legs in one bin, and then her upper body in the other bin, and put cement in with those.
Speaker 10:
[54:13] Then they take all the tools that they used and put in the closet of the other bedroom and seal that closet door closed as well. But they leave all the cleaning agents and odor masking agents that they had to buy so that they could work with the body. They leave that all out in plain view in the living room.
Speaker 9:
[54:31] So you stored her in the closet and let it set?
Speaker 24:
[54:33] In the closet. And he asked me to go back a couple days later just to check on it. So I bought some great stuff, like door sealant, because in the closet, I don't want it to smell, so I sealed the door. Like, that was it.
Speaker 6:
[54:50] It takes a lot of coaxing for Luis Colombo to reveal what happened. And police tell him that because he cooperated, he won't be criminally charged. And while that's a relief, he is haunted.
Speaker 24:
[55:01] It doesn't change how responsible I feel. Like, you could say, oh, you don't have to feel responsible. It doesn't change the things that I've done, that I've lived with for the rest of my life. It doesn't change any of that. It doesn't change, you know, the sleepless nights that I'm gonna have, the smell that I still smell. It doesn't change any of that. Like, no, the only thing that changes is J goes to jail, possibly for the rest of his life. And like, now I feel like that's my fault too.
Speaker 10:
[55:33] He admits to his involvement to the detectives, and he admits that he knows where the body's at. So he ultimately takes two of our detectives to the location of the body.
Speaker 9:
[55:46] They have a house where they can put her body, and it's not gonna be connected to them, supposedly.
Speaker 17:
[55:54] They knew somebody that had this house that had been deported, and that the house was empty.
Speaker 9:
[56:02] After the interview with Louie, he jumped into my truck, and we had a caravan going. He was directing me, and he pointed out the house, and he said, 100% she's in there. So we're pulling into the neighborhood. This is Bonanza Way, this is where the house is. And we pulled up, and Louie told me that's the house where her body will be, this house right here.
Speaker 10:
[56:34] It's one of the original houses built downtown probably back in the 30s or 40s. It's just this tiny two-bedroom house, but it had wood flooring throughout.
Speaker 9:
[56:47] When we got here, they opened the door. There was an odor of decon, but it was mixed with chemical. You could literally smell it from my vehicle. You could smell bleach and other chemicals. And they noticed that there was decon drips on the walkway itself. I walked in, there was the original bin, which was this gigantic bin that they had about 600 pounds of cement in with her that you couldn't lift. That was in the living room. First thing I saw was the long black hair. You could see her hair mixed in with the cement because it removed all the hair from her body. There was chunks of cement that were in the bin and some plastic. The two smaller green 45-gallon bins were stacked inside of one of the closets which had been sealed. And they had taken them out and got them open enough to where they found the body. She had been dismembered in two parts and put in the two bins with cement and plastic, thinking that would help with the odor. But it never does.
Speaker 17:
[57:51] They literally did the whole Dexter thing.
Speaker 10:
[57:54] If you know anything about Dexter, the way he disposed of bodies was dismembering them.
Speaker 3:
[57:59] It's kind of fitting, don't you think?
Speaker 10:
[58:03] And that was Jason's favorite TV show.
Speaker 6:
[58:10] After almost a month missing, Debbie is finally found.
Speaker 7:
[58:17] January 7th, I was in a car with my friend at the time. She had taken me out to kind of relax a little bit. And I get a call on my phone and it says private number. And I knew right away. I answered and he said, this is detective. And I said, you found her? Said, you found her? I knew it was that phone call.
Speaker 12:
[58:49] One of my friends called and said, you know, they found Debbie. And I'm thinking, good, where the hell has she been? She's like, she's not here with us anymore. Okay, what does that even mean? And she said, yeah, like, they found her body and they definitely confirmed that it's her. Somebody with such a big personality, you don't picture things like that happening to them. I did not fed them that that was where it was gonna go.
Speaker 11:
[59:27] When I found out what happened to her, I couldn't sleep. It was all over the news 24 seven.
Speaker 6:
[59:33] The remains of a missing local dancer have been discovered.
Speaker 21:
[59:36] Sources have confirmed that the body of that missing dancer, Debbie Flores Narvaez, was found dismembered in tubs filled with concrete.
Speaker 11:
[59:46] I can't believe this is gonna be a bad dream. And I was hoping that Debbie would call me one day and say, you ready to rehearse? But I never got that call. All I have is memories of her.
Speaker 10:
[60:01] You have someone who dances for a living. Their job depends on their beauty, their athleticism, their gracefulness. And to have a body just destroyed in the manner that her body was destroyed, it's a cruel irony. It's horrible.
Speaker 6:
[60:22] Detectives now have Debbie's body. And with the evidence pointing firmly to Jason, it's time to quickly move in. As Jason finishes his evening performance, detectives haul him back to the station for another chat.
Speaker 10:
[60:37] It will be January the 8th, 2011, and 0008 hours.
Speaker 17:
[60:43] We're here to ask you some more questions about what happened to Debbie.
Speaker 10:
[61:04] January the 8th, 2011, at 0008 hours.
Speaker 17:
[61:10] We're here to ask you some more questions about what happened to Debbie.
Speaker 10:
[61:14] At this point, we knew where the body was, we knew his involvement.
Speaker 17:
[61:17] We didn't say, Kalei told us these things, and we didn't go, Louis mapped all this out, you know, told us all these things, because we were going to parse those details out and get his reaction to them. Not much further ado, I'd like for you to tell me what happened to her.
Speaker 1:
[61:33] What do you mean, what happened to her?
Speaker 18:
[61:35] I've given her my, like, what I saw.
Speaker 17:
[61:38] What was that?
Speaker 18:
[61:40] That she came to my house and that she left. I gave that account already.
Speaker 10:
[61:44] When you're dealing with somebody who thinks they're smarter than everybody else, you have to play them a little bit. You gotta give them enough rope to run with before you can yank them back to reality.
Speaker 17:
[61:53] On that night when she came over, there was an argument and it became physical, and ultimately she didn't live through it.
Speaker 25:
[62:02] You guys are putting this together based on a lot of things, but that she didn't live through it.
Speaker 10:
[62:08] If you come in mean, angry, or heavy handed, they're not gonna cooperate with you, they're gonna shut down. And the ultimate goal is to elicit a confession.
Speaker 17:
[62:21] We're in a situation where if we're confronted with some things that you end up saying, okay, all right, look, okay, look, this is what happened, it went too far, it was, I don't know, it was an accident, I didn't realize what happened, and then I panicked.
Speaker 18:
[62:40] Let's see what you guys are saying, and like, we're just at a point, like, what are you reaching for right now?
Speaker 17:
[62:44] I'm not reaching for anything, I've been in the truth.
Speaker 10:
[62:47] And now the interview becomes an interrogation, and everything changes in the interview, and now you start hitting them with facts, and you ask them direct questions.
Speaker 15:
[62:55] Did you kill Debbie?
Speaker 16:
[62:56] No, I didn't kill Debbie.
Speaker 17:
[62:58] Not on purpose or an accident?
Speaker 18:
[62:59] Not on purpose or not an accident.
Speaker 17:
[63:00] You didn't strangle her to the point where she stopped breathing? No.
Speaker 10:
[63:04] There came a point in the interview where Jason decided that he wanted his lawyer present before answering any other questions.
Speaker 18:
[63:11] You guys are gonna do your jobs, you're gonna do what you're supposed to do. I don't have anything else. Sorry.
Speaker 17:
[63:17] And so we shut it down, he was placed under arrest. You are under arrest for Debbie's murder.
Speaker 19:
[63:24] At the end of the interview, he was taken into custody, booked into the Clark County Detention Center.
Speaker 6:
[63:30] Four days later, Jason was charged with Debbie's murder. However, he was not charged with dismembering her body.
Speaker 1:
[63:37] Morning Judge, we received a copy of the indictment.
Speaker 9:
[63:39] We would waive its formal reading.
Speaker 1:
[63:41] It's going to be a not guilty plea.
Speaker 7:
[63:44] I was scared to go to the arraignment. I didn't know what I was going to face, but I was sitting there and I'm looking at this evil person, and I was trying to control myself, and I just couldn't, to the point where I just couldn't, and I screamed out. I hope you rot in hell, because exactly where I wanted to put him was in hell, and I just wanted him to rot in there, the way that he allowed my sister to rot for weeks.
Speaker 19:
[64:25] Most of the families we have to deal with, this is the worst day of their life, the losing of a loved one. And I can only imagine what goes through victims' minds when they see the killer for the first time.
Speaker 7:
[64:38] And for those two seconds, it felt so good, but at the same time, I was stuck in a situation where I couldn't do anything about it, and I had to wait.
Speaker 12:
[64:46] Most people would be very surprised to know how much has to go on behind the scenes in order to get a case to trial. The delays in the criminal justice system can be difficult for families.
Speaker 7:
[64:57] When you watch Law and Order, it takes like two weeks, right? Reality is that it took about four and a half years to go to trial.
Speaker 19:
[65:06] He had no defense to, I didn't kill Debbie. The evidence was overwhelming. And so then how do you beat self-defense? In Nevada, we have to disprove self-defense beyond our reasonable doubt. This isn't going to be a case about self-defense. It's going to be a case about murder, a choice to commit that murder because he wanted something. Thank you.
Speaker 15:
[65:33] Let's go ahead and have you proceed, Mr. Banks.
Speaker 25:
[65:36] The government does not have proof of criminal intent for first-degree murder. Our main points were Jason was afraid and there's a hell of a lot more going on in this case. Okay, this guy killed his girlfriend, tried to hide the body of him. It's not that simple. It's a case about state of mind, self-defense, and it's about second guessing. The evidence is going to show that he was scared, that he was afraid, that she was violent, and that Jason Griffith was defending himself in December 12, 2010.
Speaker 6:
[66:22] Prosecutors call almost two dozen witnesses to help reconstruct the events leading up to Debbie's death and its aftermath. One of those witnesses was Kalei Casorzo.
Speaker 19:
[66:32] Kalei Casorzo was a former lover of Jason, who both Jason and Louis Colombo were going to attempt and store Debbie's body and the cement on her back patio.
Speaker 5:
[66:45] What did you do seeing this item that they wanted to place in your house?
Speaker 12:
[66:49] Of course, they didn't tell her immediately that Debbie was inside.
Speaker 13:
[66:53] I asked what the heck it was.
Speaker 5:
[66:56] And what did the defendant say?
Speaker 13:
[66:57] He asked if I really wanted to know. And I said, yes, if you're going to put that here, I need to know what it is. And kind of, he just said, it's Debbie.
Speaker 5:
[67:07] And what was your reaction?
Speaker 8:
[67:09] I was shocked.
Speaker 13:
[67:12] Kind of, my head kind of started to spin. Like, I couldn't comprehend it.
Speaker 15:
[67:21] State's next witness?
Speaker 19:
[67:23] Louis Colombo. Louis Colombo was present for the beginning of the incident and was one of the essential witnesses to what happened that night.
Speaker 24:
[67:32] When I walked in the door, I had to just look at him for a second. He was just sitting there and then he said something like, he's like, I messed up.
Speaker 19:
[67:44] When you walked back to the studio, what did you see?
Speaker 24:
[67:48] Saw Debbie laying on the ground of the studio.
Speaker 19:
[67:51] Did she appear alive or dead to you?
Speaker 24:
[67:55] She appeared dead.
Speaker 19:
[67:57] Who does the cutting?
Speaker 24:
[67:58] Jason did.
Speaker 7:
[67:59] What did he use?
Speaker 4:
[68:00] A handsaw. On cross-examination, Jason's attorneys don't hesitate to tell the jury that Louis Colombo was given immunity in return for his cooperation in this case.
Speaker 1:
[68:15] Our attempts to undercut the credibility of testimony is, number one, anytime a person testifies with a grant of complete immunity, that automatically makes that person's testimony potentially suspect. That is a big factor in what a jury will look at on whether they believe Mr. Colombo or not.
Speaker 7:
[68:42] I was so upset that he was on the stand. Did he take her breath? No. But do I consider him just as bad as Jason? Absolutely.
Speaker 19:
[68:54] Ultimately, could he have been prosecuted? He could have. And that's often the case in the criminal justice system. We oftentimes have to make that choice, which is how badly do we need this person?
Speaker 12:
[69:07] It cannot be overstated how important Louis' statement was with regard to the prosecution of Jason.
Speaker 19:
[69:15] So after four days of presenting evidence, we were confident that there was no doubt that the jury knew Jason killed Debbie. It was really at that point we turned it over to the defense that the real fight in the trial started.
Speaker 12:
[69:29] Jason was a born performer. He was comfortable in front of a crowd. And certainly as he made his calculation about whether or not he should take the witness stand, I'm sure he looked at those jurors and he thought to himself, I got this.
Speaker 7:
[69:52] It was about two and a half weeks, I think, the trial lasted. And I have to portray this strong woman when inside, I'm breaking down slowly, but I'm still holding it together, hoping that we will get justice for my sister. I ask at this time if the defense is prepared to call their first witness.
Speaker 6:
[70:16] We are, Judge.
Speaker 4:
[70:17] While the defense calls Debbie's ex-boyfriend, Jamil, and they call Jason's ex-girlfriend, Agnes, to the stand, their case really comes down to just one person.
Speaker 1:
[70:29] The defense calls Jason Griffith.
Speaker 6:
[70:31] In claiming self-defense, Jason was compelled to testify, and his lawyers quickly sought to portray Debbie as someone that he was genuinely fearful of.
Speaker 1:
[70:41] We never argue to the jury that Jason is, you know, Mother Teresa, an outstanding citizen. What we argue to the jury is he acted reasonably.
Speaker 6:
[70:52] Do you recognize that?
Speaker 18:
[70:54] It was a note that was left on my car at the Mirage.
Speaker 1:
[70:56] What's your understanding of who left you this?
Speaker 18:
[70:57] Debbie left me that note.
Speaker 1:
[70:59] I will kill you before I let another bitch have you. I will find you wherever you hide. Love always your destiny. Is that what it says, Jason?
Speaker 18:
[71:07] Yes, sir.
Speaker 1:
[71:08] The prior acts of domestic violence in the 911 calls would lead any reasonable person to believe when there's another incident of violence that perhaps your life might be at risk.
Speaker 13:
[71:20] What's going on?
Speaker 18:
[71:22] My ex-girlfriend is off.
Speaker 1:
[71:24] She came to my job today, harassed me at work.
Speaker 13:
[71:28] She's been making threats.
Speaker 22:
[71:29] She's been following me around town.
Speaker 18:
[71:31] Like this harassment stuff, we can stop.
Speaker 1:
[71:35] You said on the 911 call that Debbie was making threats. Tell the jury what kind of threat she was making to you.
Speaker 18:
[71:43] Oh, she's talked about slashing my tires again. She talked about burning my house. Talked about killing me. I'll f***ing kill you. I'm not going to let nobody be with you.
Speaker 25:
[71:53] The volume of calls, I thought we did a decent job at showing that that was part of a pattern. He's on the receiving end of the harm.
Speaker 12:
[72:06] Debbie's history and Jason's history and the tumultuous nature of it was particularly relevant, in this case, to the defense because they, of course, wanted Debbie to look as crazy as possible, as volatile as possible.
Speaker 7:
[72:22] Throughout the trial, I would see that my mother was angry. I would just kind of grab her and hold her arm, like, I know, Mommy, and don't let this make you emotional.
Speaker 19:
[72:38] It was the cross-examination of Jason that the whole case was probably going to come down to. Some of the stuff Debbie did was true, right? She did slash his tire and all of this other stuff. But when it came to the one thing he's hung his hat on, he was lying and I could prove it.
Speaker 12:
[72:56] So what he testified to was that one night he came out of the mirage and he came to his car and there was a note on his car.
Speaker 19:
[73:04] You find that note on the car, right? So now you believe in Debbie, what you've said so far. Yes. And you guys continue to have conversations, at least now, unlike before. You have a written threat to kill him, right?
Speaker 18:
[73:24] Yes.
Speaker 12:
[73:25] And he told the jury that that was written by Debbie, that he was absolutely terrified, that this was proof that she wanted to kill him.
Speaker 19:
[73:35] If I get to this, you have a chance to change your answer.
Speaker 18:
[73:40] I don't need to change the answer, sir.
Speaker 19:
[73:42] Do you recognize that number?
Speaker 18:
[73:43] Yes, I know that number.
Speaker 19:
[73:44] Whose number is it?
Speaker 18:
[73:45] It's Lou's number.
Speaker 19:
[73:46] It's the morning of May 22nd of 2010.
Speaker 18:
[73:50] Okay.
Speaker 19:
[73:51] Okay, so that's the morning that the incident with the car occurred.
Speaker 18:
[73:54] Yep.
Speaker 19:
[73:55] Here's Mr. Colombo's text to you. I really thought you would know it was me.
Speaker 12:
[74:01] The note was actually written as a joke by Louie. And what we knew from the text messages is that Jason knew that the note was written by Louie. And he absolutely knew it as he sat on the witness stand and he testified before the jury.
Speaker 19:
[74:15] His entire testimony, both direct and his cross-examination, there was no way around it. He lied.
Speaker 7:
[74:23] I'm going to ask the officers of the court to please come forward and be sworn to take control and custody of the jury.
Speaker 12:
[74:32] Once you have given the evidence to the jury and you've given the case to the jury, you literally just sit and wait.
Speaker 7:
[74:40] In the anxiety of what if this doesn't go the right way? What if he gets away with it?
Speaker 12:
[74:46] There is a roller coaster of emotions while you're waiting for a verdict. Time kind of stands still.
Speaker 7:
[74:54] It just felt like forever and the jury stood up and when the verdict came in and they said, Guilty of murder of the second degree. It was a moment of justification that everything I did for her was for that moment. I was able to breathe and just let go for a second. I just remember thinking to myself, I hope that I did her proud.
Speaker 19:
[75:28] The judge didn't have a lot of discretion. A second degree murder conviction, there's two possible sentences. There's a life sentence, and then there's a term of years, which is 25 years. Both of them have minimum parole eligibility after 10 years. Jason was sentenced for a second degree murder to 10 years to life.
Speaker 7:
[75:49] And I've already had to go to parole twice, to plea with the parole board to keep him in.
Speaker 19:
[75:55] There is no sense of closure for them, but I certainly think it's better for them to have to show up to a parole hearing than having to realize that he's completely free of the criminal justice system.
Speaker 6:
[76:10] Today, Jason continues to serve out his sentence at High Desert State Prison, waiting for his chance at freedom. Many of the people who helped put him behind bars have long since moved on from the case. But there's one final twist to the story.
Speaker 8:
[76:30] Hello, this is a prepaid debit call from an offender of the Nevada Department of Corrections, High Desert Correctional Center. This call is from a correction facility and is subject to monitoring and recording.
Speaker 4:
[76:54] Since his conviction for the murder of Debbie Flores-Navaez in 2014, Jason Griffith has been waiting for his chance at parole.
Speaker 23:
[77:02] Here I am 15 years later, with excellent behavior, no infractions, no trouble, working seven days a week, taking classes, doing everything I can, and they won't give me a second chance.
Speaker 4:
[77:16] Jason has never agreed to a television interview before. He called 2020 From Prison to speak for the first time.
Speaker 23:
[77:22] Debbie Flores is dead, and she did not deserve to die. I'm not trying to get out of responsibility. I'm not trying to diminish what this situation is by any means.
Speaker 6:
[77:36] Jason's most recent parole hearing was in 2025. Debbie's sister Celeste was there ready to oppose his release.
Speaker 7:
[77:45] I knew that I would be facing parole for him. And this time around, when I walk in, the assistant at the front desk told me, well, you're the first one here. We're also waiting for his wife. I'm sorry, what? Yeah, his wife, Kalei. I thought I was hearing things when she said his wife and then she said her name, Kalei. There was only one Kalei. I was damn near shaking because I had to deal with this woman again who knew my sister for three weeks that she was missing. There are no words. I just, I couldn't speak. I was so angry.
Speaker 6:
[78:43] At the parole hearing, Kalei spoke on Jason's behalf.
Speaker 7:
[78:48] All I heard was, we just want to apologize to you, Celeste, and I'm sorry, and I just, I just lost it, and I just kept crying. I will never accept your apology, ever. They both deserve each other, and I hope karma finds them and delivers it every day, fresh on a plate.
Speaker 23:
[79:17] I put myself in that situation. If it was my sister, how would I feel? So, I hope if never accepting my apology also provides her a level of peace, then that's what she deserves.
Speaker 8:
[79:30] There was anything I could say to Blue.
Speaker 12:
[79:32] I would let him know that you hurt a lot of people. You took someone from this earth that was very loving, caring, and meant a lot to a lot of people. Why? There wasn't any other way to resolve whatever it was in that moment. Killing somebody is not the way to resolve anything.
Speaker 23:
[79:58] I want to say that I am sorry that this situation ended the way that it did. And I'm sorry that it cost everyone involved. It cost them so much hurt, so much pain, so much loss. And I'm, I'm responsible for that. I should have been better. I should have done better. I should have figured out something else, anything else.
Speaker 7:
[80:23] Depression is, it's an everyday fight. The more I talk about my sister, the easier it has become. The more I talk about my emotions. I think I thought that if I bottle it in, I don't have to feel it. I don't have to show it when I should have been talking about it and screaming about it and yelling about it and crying about it.
Speaker 12:
[80:42] I just really miss my friend. I wish she was here.
Speaker 20:
[80:46] Are you taking this?
Speaker 7:
[80:47] No.
Speaker 5:
[80:49] You can hear Debbie come into a room before you see her. You smile before she even walks into a room and you hear her voice. You already know what's coming in. This energy, this love, this caring person.
Speaker 3:
[80:59] She was so beautiful inside and out. Her spirit was so warm, so welcoming.
Speaker 2:
[81:07] It's so tragic that her life was cut so short. It's very heartbreaking and she had so much to live for. She was a star.
Speaker 7:
[81:21] I took her home to Puerto Rico. And we took her to her cemetery where she lays to rest, and she sits on this beautiful mountain, where she oversees this beautiful valley. I always visit her, and I talk to her. I definitely feel as though her spirit is still with me.
Speaker 10:
[81:54] It's so clear that Debbie's spirit is still being felt. By now, Jason Griffith has served 15 years of his sentence. He's been denied parole twice, most recently in 2025.
Speaker 22:
[82:03] And David, Debbie's sister, Celeste, says while it's painful, she is attending every parole hearing in hopes that Jason will spend the rest of his life behind bars. That's our program for tonight. Thanks so much for watching. I'm Deborah Roberts.
Speaker 10:
[82:16] And I'm David Muir. From all of us here at 2020 and ABC News, good night.
Speaker 25:
[82:50] I have great news.
Speaker 4:
[82:52] Malcolm in the Middle is back.
Speaker 16:
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Speaker 4:
[82:55] In a four-part event.
Speaker 22:
[82:57] All I had to do is stay completely away from my family.
Speaker 21:
[83:00] Your biggest problem is that we exist?
Speaker 1:
[83:04] Everyone's invited to the Can't Miss Reunion of the Year.
Speaker 21:
[83:06] This family's behavior is toxic to me. You'll just take turns fighting and creating disaster.
Speaker 11:
[83:11] That's what families do.
Speaker 4:
[83:13] Malcolm in the Middle, life still unfair. Now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers.
Speaker 22:
[83:18] Terms apply.
Speaker 4:
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