Unsolved with Steve Gregory

Hour #1 - On September 30th, 2017, Andrew Chavez and his girlfriend Clotee Reyes were at a birthday party in Lancaster, CA, and during an argument in the street they were gunned down from a drive-by shooting; Hour #2 – Lancaster, CA May 12, 2022, Shawna Donahue, the mother of Andrew Chavez, contacts us and wants to talk about her son’s death, the controversies, the theories on why he was killed, a...

On January 27th, 1996, a body of an unidentified woman was found near some trash in a hilly area next to Gilman Springs Road and Highway 60 near the city of Beaumont. A forensic pathologist found the woman had a surgical cesarean scar indicating she had given birth. The woman was wearing jewelry, was well kept, and had undergone expensive dental work. All these years later, detectives have no idea...

Case #1 - On September 30th, 2017, Andrew Chavez and his girlfriend Clotee Reyes were at a birthday party in Lancaster, CA, and during an argument in the street they were gunned down from a drive-by shooting; Case #2 - Riverside, CA, December 25th 2016, 10:06 PM, 22-year-old Cassey Verrette and her then boyfriend were sitting in a car when 3 men walked up and opened fire. Verrette was hit 3 times...

On January 16th, 2014, a wildfire broke out in the San Gabriel Mountains and quickly spread through the Angeles National Forest. The 2,000-acre wildfire destroyed six homes and damaged many others. One of the most challenging crimes to investigate is arson, especially wildfire arson. We speak with Captain Russel Tuttle with the United States Forest Service. Tuttle breaks down the methods of federa...

On September 26th, 2004, 20-year-old Willie Pigram III was cruising with his friends in a Lowe’s parking lot in Hawthorne, CA. As Pigram slowly drove his slick green El Camino a couple guys approached his car and opened fire into the driver's side window – hitting Pigram multiple times at point blank range. LA County Sheriff’s Detectives say it’s most likely a case of mistaken identity. Pigram’s f...

The Major Crimes Bureau is made up of people who do the ‘dirty work’, the ones who sit in their cars for hours at a time to watch one person, the ones who dress like a homeless person to blend in. Steve speaks with Sgt. Mike Maher, a 31-year veteran of the LA County Sheriff’s Department. Maher is a Detective Team Sergeant and oversees task forces and operations that tackle things like Murder for H...

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Detectives are trying to figure out how and why an up-and-coming film student went missing and is presumed dead. In February of 2015, Ray Collins, Jr. was last seen leaving his parents’ home in Chino, CA to meet a prospective client in Compton, CA. A few days later, Collins’ car was found abandoned in a residential area. We speak with the detectives in charge of this c...

Steve does a recap of cases covered in Season 1 and previews Season 2 which begins April 2nd, 2022. Steve also takes phone calls. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We speak with Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Claudia Apolinar. In September of 2020, Apolinar and her partner were shot point blank range as they sat in their patrol SUV at a Metro station in Compton. While they were rushed to a hospital, the department’s homicide bureau immediately began working to find the shooter. It was one of the largest manhunts in the department’s history. We’ll talk a...

January 15th, 1947, the body of Elizabeth Short was found mutilated. Someone had performed an hemicorporectomy, the act of cutting a body in half at a specific point of the body. The woman who first spotted the body in a vacant lot thought it was a mannequin, mostly because the skin color was so pale, a result of Short’s fluids and blood being completely drained from her body. In this episode we s...

In 2008, Mark Leonard was shot and killed in the parking lot of the car wash he and his wife owned in Compton, California. Detectives say it’s a possible drug cartel revenge hit. But Leonard had been out of the drug dealing business for years. His wife, who was pregnant with their child, helped him clean up his life, buy his own business, and welcome God into his life. Detectives say they know the...

In 2019, 19-year-old Erin Lavender and 17-year-old Dalelaja Hearn were in the city of Carson attending the memorial of a friend who had died from a drug overdose. They, along with 3 other friends, were sitting in the front of a car across the street from the memorial when 2 people in hoodies walked up and opened fire. Hearn and Lavender later died at a hospital. We also speak with the Fontana Poli...

19-year-old Cesar Rodriguez had been an LA County Sheriff’s Explorer since he was 15 years old. On August 28th, 2011, Rodriguez and his friend Larry Villegas were gunned down following a party in Whittier – 2 weeks prior, Rodriguez had just applied to become a deputy. We also highlight the shooting death of Jason Cortez, a photographer who was visiting LA from Virginia when he was shot in the back...

In 2010, Minerva Gonzalez walked her kids to school as usual. But, by the time her kids got home from school, Gonzalez had been beaten beyond recognition. Gonzalez’ home had been broken into twice before and Fontana Police say there had been a rash of ‘panty thefts’ from homes in the area. Also, we explore the tragic death of Diego Reza, an 18-year-old who was shot and killed while driving home fr...

For at least 16 years a man had been terrorizing girls and women in the city of Los Angeles. He would target them, rape or assault them, and then disappear. We speak with detectives Sharlene Johnson and Danetta Menifee from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery Homicide Division. They tell us about efforts past and present to find the man they say could have attacked at least 39 women, the y...

‘Man in a Box’ is a case from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. Detective Art Alvarado tells us about the challenge to identify the ‘Man in a Box’ and try to figure out how the man ended up buried alive in a metal container along a dirt road. Also, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Detective Theo Baljet tells us about the shooting death of a young man in 2020. No clues, no witnesses, no a...

Steve speaks with DEA Agent Kyle Mori about 'El Mencho', the Kingpin behind one of the largest drug cartels in North America, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or CJNG. The cartel is behind most of the drug trafficking in Southern California. Detective Eric Ogaz with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department talks to Steve about Scott Echols, an 8-year-old boy who, in 1992, answered the door...

Anthony Velasquez and his father, Manuel, are arrested by the LA County Sheriff's Cold Case Unit in connection with the deaths of 3 people over a 4-year period in the East LA area. Also in this episode, a tragic case from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Cold Case unit – the discovery of a newborn at a trash sorting facility. Detectives are trying to find the identity of Baby Jane Doe #45 and t...