Death in the Dorms (2023–…): Season 1, Episode 2 - Christian Aguilar - full transcript

The question of, you know,
who Chris truly was

is a question
that I think about constantly.

We don't know where life
was going to take him.

What should have been
a great time of life

and a great four years,
it just became tragedy.

Christian has
essentially gone dark.

We didn't find anything.

We found no evidence whatsoever.

It really was just
a terrible story.

It was a harrowing thing
that happened

to our campus community.



All my energy was focused
on the search in finding Chris.

We were feeling unsafe.

A freshman has gone missing.

What is being done?

Thought that was in the
news, that was in the movies,

but that's not the reality.

The reality is that tragedy
out there, and it can happen.

Look, I know that every father
probably says

that their sons or daughters
are the best.

But when you were talking
to Christian,

you felt that he didn't
have a distraction

or any other thing, but you were
the world at that moment.

Chris was very in touch
with his emotions,

which I think is kind of weird
for somebody so young.



He really, truly cared
for the people in his life,

and that was something
that I think about to this day.

It's something
that definitely defined him.

I come from a family
that was not rich,

not even middle class.

We were poor family.

I was the first one
who emigrated to this country

back 35 years ago.

I was 19 at that time.

Then I brought
over here my wife.

Christian was about to be born

when she came over here
to the United States.

He was born here,

and Alexander two years after.

I wanted Christian and Alexander

to go to school,
go to university,

have the opportunity that
we didn't have in our country.

They obviously, you know,
had to learn a new language,

but I think of all the places
they could have picked,

Miami was probably
the best place for them.

It's a very Hispanic town.

My family,
mostly on my dad's side,

moved there as well.

And ultimately, I think they
picked a really nice place

to start to raise a family.

Until I was nine and Chris
was about 12, we shared a room.

And with that came
just that brotherhood,

you know, in bunk beds.

Chris was definitely a comedian.

He was always cracking jokes,
sometimes at my expense,

but that's fine.

Chris was very studious, and he
was very invested with school.

Doral Academy was a
school that from the exterior

just promised everything.

The academic drive
that was in that school,

I think that was one
of the biggest things

for even my own mom to decide.

Like, I think
this is a school for you.

Common theme among students,

we all had either parents
were born in Latin America

or we were the first generation
to be born in the U.S.

So there was
a lot of commonalities,

a lot of Spanglish
was being thrown around.

The friends he would pick
early on in middle school

ended up being
the same people he knew,

you know, senior year
towards then to high school.

Towards the end the high school,

he definitely started
to develop a plan

of what he wants to do
with his life.

He was a very
science-orientated kid,

science, tech,
engineering and mechanics.

He kind of knew
he wanted to follow that path.

When you started applying
to college,

getting into the University
of Florida became his priority.

Luckily, you know,
he did get in.

It is the number
one school in Florida.

Of course, you start to realize
that your son

is going to be leaving.

He's going to be five hours
away from your house,

and that's going to create
some type of anxiety.

But it's part of life.

They need to do it
by themselves.

I was student body
vice president from 2012 to 2013.

So I am a first generation
American.

My parents came from Haiti
and Bahamas, respectively.

I just remember
University of Florida

being really bright and sunny.

There was always like a sense
of people going somewhere.

So whether they were on the bus
to class, they're riding

their bikes
if they're going to, you know,

the right scene
to go grab lunch.

There was always like
a socializing aspect there.

People were always kind
of talking to each other.

And then I think we really
followed that up

with our academics,

because we're notoriously
hard to get into.

Getting into UF, I think,
is a badge of honor in Florida.

And I think that...

there is very much
a work hard play hard culture.

The University of Florida has
a reputation as a party school.

You did a lot
of social activity.

On University Avenue,
which we call Midtown,

the University of Florida
has a robust Greek life.

A lot of fraternity
and sorority activity.

Football, even if you don't care
about football,

like, football dominates
UF's culture

during the fall.

I remember one of my
first stories

for the Alligator
was whether local churches

were going to try
to make Tim Tebow a saint.

No joke.
That's how important it is.

So, for me, being a freshman
at UF was a huge learning curve

to, you know,
have the confidence to,

you know, try and make friends
and understand cultures

that are really,
really different from yours,

especially if you come
from a place where,

you know, everyone looks
like you, speaks like you.

It can be a really,
really difficult transition.

So have like a community
is one of the best ways

for you to kind of get
some grounding.

He was studying
biomedical engineering,

and he wanted to help people

that, for example,
if they lost a hand or a foot,

that he was going to be able
to create something

to make their life a lot better.

A lot of people
going to college,

and that's the first time
in your life

when you're on your own.

You honestly couldn't imagine
the pressure put on Chris.

He was the first to go
to college in our family.

During that time,
Christian let us know

that he was going out
with Erika.

Erika Friman was in
the friend group

that Chris had
throughout academy.

Chris and Erika began dating,

just kind of getting to know
each other as more than friends.

I can remember her just
being a really nice girl,

soft spoken, shy.

I mean, she wasn't loud
like I was back then.

Everyone knew that Christian
was going to go

to University of Florida.

Erika ended up going to
the community college

near the University of Florida.

Erika was going
to Santa Fe College,

but she was trying to get to UF.

They were starting to go out.

Claudia and myself
both like Erika,

And we did like that
She came from Doral Academy

and that she was a good kid.

And if you have somebody there
that you know from your past,

it makes the journey
so much more easier.

It made sense
why they found each other.

♫ A clean break ♫

♫ Can I get a clean slate? ♫

I think he was living
his dream life with a school.

For the first time,
he felt that everything

fall into place.

And then somebody came in
and blew it up.

This is day five of the search.

What a wild confession, if true.

Depraving a criminal victim

of medical treatment.

That was on a Friday
at 9:00 in the morning.

I received a phone call.

And it was my wife on the phone.

She told me that Erika
just call her.

Christian didn't go to sleep
in his room,

and that he was missing
for almost 8 hours already.

And she says he's not answering,
so I start talking to my wife.

I immediately call his number.

It went to voice message.

Then I keep calling him.
He didn't answer.

Christian always answer,
so that got us more worried.

Then I decided, okay,
I'm going to take Alexander,

Claudia and I heading
to Gainesville.

To withdraw me from school
midday without any reason

was kind of,
you know, out of his nature.

By the time I got to him,
he just broke down.

He was mumbling, crying,
I couldn't really understand.

But he just said
something happened to Chris.

We picked up my mom
and just headed straight

from there out to Gainesville.

I got a telephone call
from my lieutenant

at Gainesville
Police Department,

asked me to respond to assist
the University Police Department

who was working
a missing person report.

My name is Randy Roberts,
worked for

the Gainesville
Police Department in 2012

as a detective
in Major Crimes Unit.

The University of Florida,
they have a very large campus.

Tens of thousands of students.

So they have
their own police department.

When I got there,
I talked with the detectives

who said that two people,
Erika Friman and Pedro Bravo,

came into the University
of Florida Police Department

to report
Christian Aguilar missing.

I found out that Erika Friman

was Christian Aguilar's
girlfriend.

Pedro Bravo
was a lifelong friend.

They were all
from the Miami area.

One of Chris's friends
after Doral Academy

was Pedro Bravo.

They met, I believe,
around middle school.

They kicked it off
pretty well to start,

and they had just been
friends since.

He originally started
out of school in Miami

and then transferred
into the community college

we have in Gainesville called
Santa Fe where Erika was.

My understanding from talking
to you UPD officers

was that having interviewed
both Erika and Pedro,

they both explained
that they were in a relationship

that had broken up
in high school.

I heard about Pedro
and Erika breaking up.

The breakup, to me, I was like,

"Okay, they broke up.
That's kind of sad."

No mention of it
was ever said after that.

They both explained
that the day before

Christian was going
to meet Pedro

at a location there on campus.

They were going to go get lunch.

They were together that evening,

and Pedro last saw Christian
near Northwest 13th Street,

close to the city limits.

Erika relayed that Christian

was supposed to come
over that night, the 20th,

and never showed up.

She was very distraught
about it.

She started calling friends
and asking about him,

tried to call him on his phone.

Kept going to voicemail.

At some point during
the middle of the night,

she called Pedro Bravo to see
if he'd heard from Christian.

And she told Pedro
she was going to the police,

and he volunteered
to go with them.

My name is Brian Kramer.

I am the Executive Director
of the State Attorney's Office

for the Eighth Judicial Circuit
of Florida.

Now that Christian is missing,

UF has things that they're
going to start doing

to try and locate him.

The first of which is that
they have a campus-wide network.

Any time a student logs in...

They can tell
that they've logged in

and where they were
when they logged in.

They log in, and he isn't there.

The next sort of steps that
they're going to take

is they pull the students
class schedule

and residency information

and they're dispatching officers

to go to the class
and go to the dorm.

Find the dorm,
they go to the dorm.

He obviously is not there.

They check the class,
and he's not there.

I was driving, you know,
and I received this phone call

from the university telling us
that Pedro and Erika

was reporting my son missing.

So you driving
and you're trying to make sense

of all this, your head
is a spinning.

Honestly, nobody knew anything.

The sense we were getting
from the police department

at the time
was he's a college kid

in a college town and he didn't
show up one night.

He might have had one
too many to drink.

I had already asked
for assistance

from the Gainesville Police
Department Major Crimes Unit

to send more detectives

because we're going to need
to do a search.

UF sends out these
security alerts

every time something happens
on or near campus.

When Christian went missing,
the reporter,

the crime reporter,
Chris Alcantara,

was at a friend's house.

And he got the alert.

He spoke with his editor,
and said that it was

important enough that we need
to put up a brief right away.

We did not want to wait
for the next day's paper.

We wanted to put it
on our website

so he could tweeted out ASAP.

The article is really focused
on the result of,

hey, we've got to find this guy.

We've got to find him
as soon as possible

because he may be sick,
he may be hurt.

As I'm reading
through the Alligator article,

that's where I first read
that a student

had actually gone missing.

And I also realized that Doral
is not that far

from like where
I went to school.

And so I was just like,
oh, like this is someone

very familiar to me
in being like

from South Florida,
being first generation.

I was like, oh,
I know his parents are probably,

like, really worried.

And like in my role
as vice president,

the onus was on me to say, okay,
well, like, how can we make sure

that whatever search efforts
are going on,

that we are able to support that
as a student government?

I began tasking other detectives

with doing certain things.

One of those is
to interview Erika Friman,

and then I had called
for Detective Matt Goeckel

because Christian had a phone,

and we were trying to get
a ping done on his telephone

to find the whereabouts
of that phone.

My name is Matt Goeckel.

I was a detective
and digital forensics examiner

with the Gainesville
Police Department.

September 21, 2012.
I was sitting in my cubicle

and Detective Roberts
was rounding up a few people

that can go help with this
missing persons investigation

that was being reported
over at the university.

At this point, we're gathering
information.

We're trying to find out
where has Christian might be.

While I'm looking
at phone records,

Detective Roberts was going
to interview Pedro.

I went and introduced myself.

According to Pedro,
the day before,

him and Christian
drove together out

to Best Buy and bought a CD,

and then they drove
to a couple other locations.

At some point,
they got into a discussion

where Pedro told him
that he felt suicidal.

At that point, Pedro said that
they got into an argument.

And then Christian said,
"Let me out."

Pedro said he dropped him off
and left.

Pedro went home.

He took some sleeping medication
that was on his laptop.

He said he fell asleep,
hadn't heard from him since.

We got to University of Florida

to the police department.

It's a five-hour drive.

I made it in three hours
and a half.

We were instructed to go there

to formalize
the missing person report.

We were talking to a bunch
of different detectives

and police officers
who were questioning us,

questioning everybody
they could, and giving them

as much information about Chris
as we could

to maybe help
track down where he was.

While I was trying
to interview Mr. Bravo,

a couple other people went out

to do a search
of Pedro Bravo's vehicle.

During the consensual
search of Bravo's vehicle,

they were looking for anything

that would help them
to understand

either what has happened
to Chris

or where Chris is.

They find in the car the receipt
from a McDonald's restaurant

where Pedro Bravo
was the night before

in the middle of the night.

They've already heard a version
of the event where Pedro Bravo

is putting himself at
his apartment and sleeping.

But now they've
seen this receipt,

and it shows that he's at
that McDonald's

in the middle of the night
purchasing a meal.

The McDonald's receipt showed
a time frame of 12:54

in the morning, and it
contradicted the information

that Pedro had given me
about the time frame.

I was able to go back
and confront him

with that information.

Once I confronted him
with the receipt

and actually showed it to him,
he admitted that,

okay, Christian didn't ask
to get out of the car.

He made him get out of the car.

So, he hit him in the nose
and made him get out of his car.

The more I talked to him,
the more everything changed.

The police explain that,
you know, Pedro Bravo

said that it was a fight.

Why? Why this happen?

That got us more worry,

and I say I want
to start searching

right now with my family.

So we were thinking, okay,
where do we start?

First of all, it's too big.

You don't know...
I don't know this city.

I didn't grow up over here.

I don't know anything.

So, we went looking in the place
that Pedro Bravo indicated

that they had the fight.

When I was driving, we informed
our good friend

with the news of
Christian's disappearance.

And immediately he sent
a colleague down here

to find out and interview us.

And that was presented
that night on the news.

So, if I think about,
like, the first day

that he went missing,
it was more so like,

why aren't they able
to find him?

You know, that sometimes,
you know,

freshmen can get overwhelmed,
they don't tell people,

but this seems like
a little bit more than that.

Christian's family started
a private Facebook group.

We were given a lot
of information

through them, through there.

His background
was so recognizable to mine

that I can only imagine

how his parents were feeling
knowing that he was missing.

Why we're at University
Police Department,

once Pedro started looking
and sounding as though

he knew a lot more information
about the case,

we'd asked him for consent
to search his telephone.

I was asked to extract
the data from Pedro's phone.

We got the court order
to the phone company

to provide a record
of his phone calls.

One of the other things
that we're able to get

with this court order
is the towers

that he connects
to during these phone calls.

So it'll give us a general
vicinity of his locations

at the time of these calls.

Alright.

Shortly after Detective Goeckel

started mashing things up
with the two telephones,

he found out that the phones
were pinging

off a cell tower
at the same locations

up until Christian Aguilar's
phone was turned off.

His statements were kind
of crumbling under the face

of the evidence
that we were rapidly uncovering.

I was able to pretty clearly
put him in

the Walmart parking lot,
which he admitted to being in.

And then we were able
to effectively trace the route

that he took from the Walmart
parking lot back

to his apartment.

I'm figuring out from
records around 8:00 that night

his phone is still not
very far from his house.

It's now right near the
interstate, I-75

and Archer Road,
which is one of our main roads

here in Gainesville.

Then suddenly his phone
goes off the network.

His cellular signal cuts off.

And at that point,
we have no further idea

of where Pedro may have gone.

During the interview, Pedro made
some suicidal statements,

some indications that
he might want to harm himself.

At that point,
Pedro was Baker Acted,

which is a mandatory
mental health hold.

In Florida, there's
a law called the Baker Act,

which if you believe

that a person is a threat
to himself or others,

they can be taken in
for an involuntary examination,

for mental health
for up to 72 hours.

So I took him
to a mental health facility.

He had to be
at least be examined

by a mental health professional

to make sure he wasn't
a danger to himself.

First night,
we all stayed in the woods,

walking all that night,

screaming and yelling
and calling Christian's name.

Trying to find him.

6:00 came, and we saw
the first volunteer.

They came,
and we continue with them.

We started asking people
in English, Spanish, French,

whatever they can be,
from every culture,

come and help.

Because Christian was a student

and because we were
a student-focused newspaper,

we wanted to keep it top of mind
for all of the readers

and also everybody
in the community.

The Alligator was like
the point of conversation in saying,

well, did you read
the Alligator today?

Like, what are they saying
is kind of like the next steps?

They were really motivated
in saying he's new here.

Like, that means he really needs
to have more support.

Teachers, parents, friends,

students that didn't
even know Christian

were definitely
involved in to finding him.

Erika, throughout the
search, she was, you know,

by our sides the whole time.

And you could see
that she was as scared

and as confused
as the rest of us.

None of us knew him personally,
but he was one of us.

So it was like very quickly
a community event,

and it wasn't only
the Gainesville community

that was participating
in the search,

it was all of Florida.

First it was people on foot,
then it was GPD horses,

then it was GPD horses and dogs.

Then it was not just GPD.

It was also other
law enforcement organizations.

The university was
trying to be proactive and saying,

like, this is a lot
for anyone to deal with,

especially if you're going out
on the ground

and you're doing the type
of search efforts alongside,

like, the police.

Like, you are under
a lot of stress

while also still
being a student.

People were going to classes,

going and doing their searches,
coming back home,

sleeping and kind of starting
all that all over.

So you have us providing,
like, mental health counseling

as that search
was still going on.

During that time,
I met for the first time

Randy Roberts.

At the beginning,
he couldn't provide to me

a lot of the details
that was going on

in the case or old information.

He just said, well,
we have a case over here

where your son is missing.

We're looking for him,
but the chances,

the more the time progress
is going to be very tiny

that we're going
to find him alive.

It was devastating.

For the first time,
I felt liked,

oh, my God,
something bad really happened.

I don't have no more
tears right now,

but the pain is in my chest.

We had volunteers from all over

the place searching.

At the same time,
I contacted on-call

State Attorney,
relayed everything

that we had against Pedro,

and they said that
criminal charges could be filed

for leaving
an injured crime victim.

I was able to contact
the mental health facility

and tell them this guy
has a warrant.

I was concerned that Pedro
may disappear without,

you know, without us knowing
where to find him.

So as soon as we had a criminal
charge that we could charge,

we went ahead and did it.

For me, at that moment,
I knew that it was foul play

because he was charged,

but we didn't know
to what extent.

Even though I did
the initial extraction

that night from Pedro's phone,

really digging into the file
system of that phone,

subsequently,
is where I found the meat

of what I think really helped us

break part of
this investigation.

And that was,
in particular, one log.

This log had the battery
percentage, it has app usage

and whether or not
it's being charged.

It's all in one file.

This was important because
during these interviews,

Pedro told Randy
that his phone had died,

you know, during the night that
he had gone home to charge it.

So looking into this log,

I'm finding that
his phone didn't die.

And then I could also see
that he was placing

in airplane mode.

He's trying to hide
his activity.

They also use the data
on his phone

to trace his route
throughout the county,

and they then went
along that route

and stopped at every business

and asked if they had
surveillance video.

So we have this gap
from about 8:00 P.M. to 1:00 A.M.

where Pedro's phone
is not showing up

on his service providers'
records.

When I compare this
to the battery log

that we had previously found,
I was able to see

a significant drop
in battery life

between about 11:00 p.m.
and midnight.

Also, we're able to see
that on the day

that Christian goes missing,
Pedro uses his

flashlight app
for about 43 minutes.

Why in the middle of the night
you need to have

your flashlight app on
for 40 minutes?

Most likely to do something
to Christian.

Law enforcement obtained
a search warrant

for Pedro Bravo's apartment.

Inside the apartment,
they found receipts

where he had purchased a shovel.

They found, deep within multiple

enclosed suitcases
in Pedro Bravo's closet,

Christian Aguilar's backpack.

In the backpack
was Christian Aguilar's wallet,

all his identification,
his credit cards.

At that point, whatever hope
there may have been

that this wasn't a homicide
was clearly dashed.

And wherever Chris was,
the things that he would have

needed to continue in his life,
he did not have with him.

They also found journals
that had writings

that pertained to Pedro Bravo's
obsession with Erika Friman.

Perhaps most importantly,
they contained a written plan

as to how he was going to get
Erika Friman back

as his girlfriend.

And part of that plan is killing
and getting rid of the body

of Christian Aguilar.

The news and the press,
they were trying to paint

this whole love triangle,
which is completely misleading.

Was not the truth, and that the
truth was completely different.

So after we'd found
some journals,

we brought Erika back in.

They interviewed her,
and she was able to relate

more about the relationship.

She was able to give us
a history of, you know,

what had happened.

As high school was coming
to an end,

Erika makes the decision
to separate from Pedro Bravo

and tells him,
"The nature of our relationship

is not healthy or positive,

and I don't really want to even
remain friends with you

'cause I just don't think
it's going to be healthy."

So when Erika arrives
in Gainesville,

she reconnects with Christian
at an event

that they both end up at.

And that ends up sparking
a relationship

between the two of them.

While this is going on,

Bravo is spending the summer
pining away about Erika...

...and wondering
how he can get her back.

What Erika doesn't know and
what Christian doesn't know

is that Pedro is getting
information from other people

that this relationship
is happening.

He ultimately makes a decision
that she knows nothing about.

He abandons
his full-ride scholarship

to the university in Miami

and decides to enroll
at Santa Fe Community College

in Gainesville, Florida.

It's not until around
the beginning of September

that he makes his presence
known to her.

So he does this in a way
that it's kind of like,

"Hey, I'm here.
I want to try and be friends."

He wanted to meet up
with Christian because

he was depressed
about his school situation.

He wanted to speak
with Christian

because Christian's his friend.

So from Erika
and Christian's side,

Pedro was asking
for this meeting

to ostensibly discuss
his depression.

That, of course,
is all subterfuge and a lie.

He knows good and well
what's going on,

and he has already
made the decision

about what he's going to do,

and he's effectuated that plan
to kill Christian Aguilar.

Well, the information
that Erika relayed

was completely different
than what Pedro told.

So it added a lot of fuel
to the fire.

We were on the right track
as far as what happened

and who may have been
responsible for it.

The student population
at UF was shaken.

As the details
started to come out,

it almost got even scarier.

The next step after
the search warrant on the house

was a search warrant
for his vehicle.

So, we secured his vehicle,
had it towed to secure storage.

During a full
forensic analysis of the car...

they find duct tape

and the samples from the carpet

that contained
Christian Aguilar's DNA.

They were able to obtain
a Gatorade bottle

that contained a mixture
of Gatorade and diphenhydramine,

which is a sleeping agent.

We believe that he was trying
to get Christian to drink

this stuff to make him drowsy
or something

before he committed the crime.

Along with samples
of the floor mats

that will contain
Christian's DNA

and a mixture of blood
and fluid from his lungs.

The evidence was sufficient
at that point

to determine that
Christian Aguilar was dead.

I remember the police
sat us down in a room.

And I think at that point we
were so focused on the search,

we hadn't had any time
to really process anything else.

And police told us that
they were going to charge

Pedro with murder.

In that moment, I think
that's when it all felt real.

That's the very first time
that I think I just...

I think that broke me for a bit.

Finally, we all took a moment
to... just grieve.

The Gainesville Police
Department has charged

Pedro Bravo with the murder
of Christian Aguilar.

So, when we found out

that the reason
Christian was missing

was because of his friend Pedro,

it made me so, so, so, so sad
for Christian's family

because, again, you trust
that the environment your child

is going to be in
is going to be great

and you try to make sure
that they have community there.

You don't expect that community

to also be the ones
to bring them harm.

No, I told my wife and my son,
"I'm not leaving Gainesville

until I don't find Christian."

And then one day...

I make my wife pray with me
with something

that was
the most difficult prayer

that I have done in my life,

that we going to find
Christian... dead or alive.

And she goes, "No, I'm not going
to pray like that. Alive."

And I say, "No, we're going to
accept whatever God has for us.

And we must."

And she prayed with me that day.

It is October 12, 2012.
It's approximately 3:05 p.m.

What time did y'all
get out here today?

We got out here this morning

looking for places to hunt,

checkin' stands
and cutting some jasmine down.

There were two individuals
who were in the woods.

They smelled the odor
of decomposition.

And I said,
"I smell something over here.

Either there's a giant
rattlesnake or an alligator

or something's dead
around here."

And he walked over there
towards me,

and he could smell it too.

And when they found
the source of the odor,

they noticed
that it was a human body.

I talked to Randy Roberts,

and he says, "We found a body,

but we are
in the process to identify it.

It looks like it's your son."

And they show me one
of the things that, as a father,

you don't want to see...

A photograph.

It's a shoe.

And I knew that was...

that was Christian.

We, as a family, believe that...

our Christian has been found

and our prayers have been heard,

and...

we're going to be
having the honor

to take Christian back home

and have his funeral.

There was just
an outpouring of sadness

at the University of Florida.

We wrote a story
about a candlelight vigil.

It's interesting
because the quotes in the story

are from people talking about

how they wished
that they'd known him.

They're other freshmen
who are saying like,

"He sounded like
a really great guy.

Like, he sounds
just like somebody

I would be friends with,"

which I think is another
terrible layer to this.

Like, UF didn't get
to know Christian.

I attended the vigil.
It was solemn.

We need to be able to understand

that this is hard
for his family,

but also celebrate
that he was with us

and we considered him
like family as well.

22 days without eating properly,

sleeping properly
with the stress that I have...

I collapsed
when I buried my son.

And I got what they call
post-traumatic stress.

They start giving medicine.

And I was going to...

a new battle...

Going to the trial.

I don't think anybody
in the family

or any of our friends

even knew how to prepare
for the trial.

Pedro maintains
that he's not guilty.

He entered a plea of not guilty.

We were obviously worried
and anxious hearing some stories

about people who, you know,
get let off with murder.

We didn't want Chris's case
to be one of those cases.

The person who did this
can might walk away.

It's a weird situation to...

go from a three-week search

and then a two-year period

of going through
several court dates

and then finally the trial.

This was the moment where
we can close this chapter...

If it's done right.

We want justice,

and we will continue to be here,

you know, as many times
as is needed.

We all stayed
for every second of the trial,

no matter how tough it got.

The state put up
dozens of witnesses.

The defense put up one... Pedro.

After two weeks of trial,

the jury received the case.

There were nine counts.

They included murder,
kidnapping and poisoning.

Finally the jury came back
and gave their verdict.

The defendant is guilty
of first-degree murder.

Pedro Bravo was sentenced
to life in prison

without
the possibility of parole.

It was a pain that is unbearable
for any family to take.

The victory
of giving life in prison

without the possibility
of parole...

is fair.

Do I hate Pedro?

No, I have...

going through
a process of trying

to forget him, but not yet.

I haven't heard from him
or his family saying,

you know, "I'm sorry."

They still believe that they can
fool the rest of the people

by saying, "No, he's innocent."

Well, my son was not killed
by a ghost.

He was killed by Pedro Bravo.

We did get a sense of relief

once the verdict was read.

Almost a sense of that...

a chapter in this very long book
is finally complete.

Once the trial ended,

my parents and I began to help
other families of people

who were going through
similar situations.

We created a foundation
for Christian in his memory.

The focus is
search-and-rescue dogs,

which played a huge role
in the search for Chris.

I have two dogs that are trained
for search and rescue,

and we have participated
in successful

and unsuccessful searches.

You know, something like this
can be changed to love

instead of hate.

People will
always remember it...

The way that the community
came together,

not only in the search,
but also in the memorials.

That's a lasting impact to me.
That's what stands out to me.

When I think of Christian,

I just think of somebody
who sought out

to just do something great
in this world.

And he, along with people
in our social academic circle,

motivated even myself
to be better,

whatever that means.

But I always worked hard because
of people like Christian.

Everybody in the community

is, in one way or another,

associated with the university.

They care very deeply
about the students.

They want them to be safe.

They want them to get
a great education.

It hurts everyone when we lose
one of these children

that are so incredibly precious.

The University of Florida

decided that they were
going to give Christian

his biomedical engineer degree.

The first Latin American
to receive it in Florida.

♫ I'll be alright ♫

He graduated,
so he is officially a Gator.

♫ I'll be alright ♫

♫ Ooh, ooh, ooh ♫

♫ Yeah, I'll be alright ♫