The Cruel Case Of Elizabeth Arellano

thank you Fort Worth Texas a busy and bustling City in the northeast of the state it has a rich and diverse history with plenty of things to see and do nearly 1 million people call this place home one of which was 28 year old Elizabeth Poulet Ariana she had been born on August the 16th 1987 in Fort Worth she was part of a big and loving family she had two sisters Johanna and Alejandra with whom she was incredibly close although her parents had separated she was very close to her mother Juanita and her stepfather Fidel who saw her as one of his own he would later say she had the ultimate respect for me as I did for her and the power as close as any father and daughter could be family was everything to Elizabeth she always put others needs before her own and was ready to give help to anyone who needed it whilst at Diamond Hill Jarvis high school she met Rodolfo Ariano also known as Rudy and the pair began a relationship they would go on to marry and shared four children together three sons and a daughter to whom Elizabeth was completely devoted she was determined to bring them up to be respectful and kind and this is behavior that she would demonstrate to them she was a deeply committed Christian and went to church regularly her kind and giving personality was reflected in her job as a medical assistant a profession she took great pride in and had done for several years her life was busy with four beautiful children and a great career it seemed to be going well for her however her marriage to Rudy would later start to fall apart due to his controlling Behavior by April of 2016 and after 13 years together Elizabeth had decided to file for divorce she had moved out of the family home and gone back to her parents house taking her children with her she was ready to begin a new chapter and take on any challenges that were coming her way this was not an easy decision for her to make but she knew it was the right one the 15th of April 2016. in spite of everything going on with her marriage Elizabeth appeared to be happy and doing well during the day that evening she had gone out with some of her girlfriends from work to a local place for happy hour giving her the chance to unwind and have some fun after enjoying the night out she headed back to her parents house in the early morning hours of the 16th of April after she pulled up outside she contacted one of her colleagues she had been out with and told them that she was back home safe as morning broke on the 16th of April Elizabeth's mother Juanita would make a worrying discovery Elizabeth was not in the house despite looking everywhere for her she was nowhere to be found as Juanita went outside she found Elizabeth's car seemingly abandoned it contained several personal items that one would expect someone to take with them if they were to go anywhere including her person phone which was still on the passenger seat the key was still in the ignition this was completely out of character for Elizabeth there was no way she would disappear and not tell anyone where she was going or what her intentions were she also would never leave her children she had seemingly pulled up outside the house and then vanished her mother knew something was seriously wrong so reported her daughter as missing as police arrived on scene a missing person's investigation was launched they needed to establish the timeline of events leading up to her going missing so they spoke to those who knew her one of which was her estranged husband Rudy the officers headed over to his house to talk to him he said that he had last heard from her at 2 39 on the morning she was last seen after she had come back from her night out according to him she said that she had arrived home and would be bringing the children to his place as soon as possible he said that she explained she was going to spend the night in a hotel once she had dropped the children off at his house when she failed to turn up he told the officers that he assumed she had decided against bringing them and instead chose to remain where she was the police needed to know what his movements had been that day in order to rule him out he said he had spent the day with one of his friends and that he had got home at around midnight saying he had stayed in his house until 7 30 am as the search for the missing mother continued a phone call to 9-1-1 from just a few hours before at 3 30 a.m would blow the case wide open the call had come in from someone doing some nighttime fishing on Lake Worth the drop from the interstate 820 Bridge into the water was 40 feet one witness said they heard what appeared to be screams on the way down after the call had come in officers had been immediately dispatched and working with the fire department and divers they entered into the water to see if they could find anything and tragically they did the body of a woman was found and pulled from the water she was still wearing her maroon scrubs from work it was Elizabeth Ariano when her body had been retrieved from the water they found that a 119 pound Rock had been tied around her neck the Tarrant County Medical Examiner ruled her death as a homicide the result of drowning and the concrete Rock weighing her down the weight had been tied around her neck to ensure that her body did not come up to the surface the police said we believe this was an attempt to conceal the body horrifyingly she had been alive when she had gone into the water Elizabeth ariado had been murdered her life had been ended in a way so brutal it shocked even the most tenured of officers the police were now in a Race Against Time to find whoever was responsible they were clearly capable of unimaginable cruelty and they needed to be stopped they had many theories they had to consider had she been followed home by someone from the bar had an opportunist abducted and killed her after seeing her arrive home had this been someone lying in wait one of the first things the police needed to do was establish who was where at the time of her murder and rule out as many people as possible Rudy was adamant that he was at home at the time and that he had nothing to do with it as news began to spread about what had happened people in the community were in disbelief stunned that something so brutal Could Happen a neighbor told CBS 11 how can somebody do something like that I don't understand how people can be so evil and so mean to another human being a GoFundMe was set up to help cover the costs of her funeral and before long it had raised more than eleven thousand dollars Rudy posted this to his Facebook page and various Flyers to benefits in memory of Elizabeth before long her family and friends gathered for her funeral Johanna had purchased a turtleneck for Elizabeth to wear disguising the Rope marks around her neck devastated she stood next to Rudy by her sister's coffin [Music] although Rudy appeared to be a heartbroken widower his behavior did not come across that way to investigators when they had spoken to him he didn't seem worried he didn't seem concerned even though their marriage appeared to be over she was still someone he had spent his life with and she was the mother of his children so his apparent lack of concern was strange as the police continued to investigate Elizabeth's murder they began to examine the CCTV footage from around the area and this would give them their first solid lead at 302 am on the morning she went missing a white pickup truck was seen driving away from where her parents had lived Rudy owned a white pickup truck an affidavit would later say this direction of travel would be the most direct path from the last place Elizabeth's vehicle was seen on camera and where she was found in spite of his insistence that he had been at home that night mobile phone data and mapping would also blow huge holes in his Alibi when looking into his phone records it showed that his phone had pinged close to the house Elizabeth's parents had lived in on the morning she had disappeared as the investigations continued police discovered that when Elizabeth had gone out with her friends on the evening of the 15th Rudy had made several attempts to contact her he had sent her a message asking her when she would be clocking off from work and Records showed that he had been in the vicinity of her workplace when he had tried to get hold of her he had also tried to call her but she hadn't answered phone analysis showed he had moved from her place of work to her parents home knowing that's where she was staying the picture that was being painted was a disturbing one but detectives needed to continue to build their case against him and find more evidence that contradicted what he had told them and linked him to what had happened to Elizabeth in order to do this a search warrant was issued for his house according to an affidavit the police showed the rope that had been used to attach the concrete to Elizabeth's body to her oldest son it was rope that he recognized he recalled that he had been playing with the same rope in the back garden and he had noticed when it had disappeared they also showed him a picture of the concrete he recognized this too it looked just like some concrete that had been in the garden after his father had replaced a fence for one of his friends the fence posts had been encased in concrete the same concrete was also found in his truck with the evidence piling up investigators believe that she had arrived home from her night out and he had ambushed her before she was able to get inside and proceeded to kidnap her he had then taken her to the interstate 820 bridge that ran over Lake Worth and threw her off it with the rock tied to her neck ten days after his wife's body was pulled from the water Rudy Ariano was arrested on suspicion of her murder he was then charged and held at mountfield city jail on a 500 000 Bond Elizabeth Ariana was found with a rope tied around her neck her body weighted down with a boulder but her husband has now been arrested and charged with capital murder before he was arrested he was posting on social media about helping with her burial box 4's Phil Alvarado near the scene where she was found with more Phil hi Steve it was about 3 30 in the morning on April 16th a couple of fishermen were on Lake Worth when they heard some screaming and then saw what looked like someone falling off the bridge into the water it looked like the 28 year old mother of four had jumped off the Loop 820 bridge over Lake Worth at least that's what everyone was supposed to think Elizabeth ariano's mother Juanita Galvan says in Spanish she forgives the person who killed her daughter because she doesn't want anger in her heart she won't speak her son-in-law's name she was a great mother she was great water great and we want to stay focused on the memory of Elizabeth known as Betty and stay focused on the on the kids her family says they'll take them in but they miss their mother the person everyone says was the glue of their family is gone somebody must have seen some because there's always somebody out there you know and if if they did somebody seen some please come forward this is how she would want us to be to be together and and Fort Worth Police are actually asking the public anybody else who may have seen something that night that looks suspicious they're asking for them to come forward is grieving but they're also also on a mission they're rallying to raise the couple's four children but they also want North Texans to know that Elizabeth's life was so much bigger than how she died she was a lovely lovely mother I want to say a lovely daughter to the world she was Elizabeth Ariano a murder victim whose body bound with rope and a concrete Boulder was pulled from Lake Worth everybody you met will tell you my sister always had a great smile on her face I mean she was on top of all of us constantly she looks like a mini monster you know so that was her that's why she was the good of the family the couple has four children ages four to twelve but family members insist they have not been orphaned I have three kids now I have seven we're all going to come together and we're all a family my sister Alejandra and we're going to take care of those kids they're our priority right now and our main concern a witness also spoke to the local media who observed his behavior the day after his wife's death an extra neighbor who didn't want to be seen on TV says the day after Elizabeth Ariana was killed her husband sat in a pickup in his driveway playing music and drinking beer as her devastated family tried to come to terms with what had happened to her and come to terms with who was responsible they spoke to the media about Elizabeth and how much she meant to them Rudy Ariano continued to deny any involvement but he was soon forced to make a decision if he entered a plea of not guilty and if he were convicted by a jury at trial then he would face the death penalty with this in mind he took a plea deal a plea deal her family had agreed to and on Wednesday the 30th of January 2019 Rudy Ariano entered a plea of guilty to the kidnapping and murder of his wife Elizabeth thus taking the death penalty off the table for the family of his wife a chance to face him in court after he pleaded guilty to that crime a grieving mother collapses after coming face to face with her daughter's killer he was also confronted by the victim's Furious sisters you are a monster I hate you I hate you you're a piece of Ariana Ariana's coldness was shocking just two hours after he had brutally murdered the mother of his children he had posted a meme to Facebook that said how long can one go without drinking before they die and he commented I'm already worried he had pretended to be the devastated husband Crying by his wife's coffin he had lied to the people that had loved and cared for him people that he had known for years he offered no explanation he offered no apology Rudy Ariana was subsequently sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole his defense lawyer said that the plea deal was the correct resolution Elizabeth's family said they took comfort in knowing he would never ever be released Johanna Elizabeth's sister gave an emotional Victim Impact statement you brought all of us from being able to enjoy the wonderful and beautiful human that she was she she will continue to miss on all the holidays she will admit that on all the high school graduation her future grandchildren and most important the right to live the happy to be happy and enjoy being the great mother that she was how dare you how dare you take matters into your own hands she also recalled standing next to him at Elizabeth's funeral she said you knew what you did yet you stood in front of her body crying with me you told me the day of her burial that you wished it was you in there and how you just wanted to lay there with her that when you married her you knew it would be until death do you part but didn't know that it would happen so soon you're a coward Elizabeth's stepfather Fidel also spoke about her children the Children Cry often they messed their minds very much he took her away from them and now he will spend the rest of your life Behind Bars wandering what would have become of them thank you outside the courtroom Elizabeth's family spoke to the media she lived for those kids they were her world and we're going to continue to talk about her every single day like we still do and remember her and keep her memory alive always always a devoted mother and much loved daughter sister Aunt friend and colleague she had an enormous impact on those she knew and those she helped to care for her sister Johanna said that her family will continue to keep her memory alive and talk about her with her children for those who knew and loved her they will never forget what a kind thoughtful an amazing woman she was for those of you that like to listen on the go we now have our episodes in podcast form and you can now find this via the link in our description box or by searching truly criminal podcast on your podcasting platforms [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Truly Criminal

Views: 454,308

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Id: RoxRH_V6OAw

Length: 19min 46sec (1186 seconds)

Published: Sat May 27 2023