Elizabeth Salgado

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2:00have been changed or omitted per their request or for safety purposes. Listener discretion is advised. My name is Sarah Turney and this is Voices for Justice.

2:16Today's case is one that seems to have truly stumped investigators. We'll explore how a very intelligent, outgoing, and successful young woman goes missing just three weeks after moving to one of the safest cities in the United States. This is the case of Elizabeth Salgado. In 2015, 26-year-old Elizabeth Salgado was making preparations for a tough decision she made to further her career. She was going to move from Mexico to Provo, Utah for an eight-month program at the Nomen Global Language School to strengthen her English. After the program, she'd moved to Mexico City to pursue a job in her field and begin her work on her master's degree in engineering.

2:59Now, at this point, Elizabeth's already an extremely accomplished young woman. Three years prior, she got her undergraduate degree in industrial engineering. Really, she's following in her parents' footsteps. Her father, Julio, is a communications and electronics engineer, and her mom, Libra Todd, is a chemical engineer. Her family was excited for her and proud of her. But Elizabeth was a major part of their family structure. She's one of seven kids and the oldest of her sisters. In Libertad's interview with the TV show Disappeared, she explains that Elizabeth was a role model to her siblings.

3:36She was that kid who always did her homework and was studying without having to be asked to. Elizabeth was driven and kind and knew what she wanted. She was also devout in her faith. Elizabeth was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints. In 2013, she spent about a year and a half on a mission in Mexico. She also taught Sunday school. All that to say her absence is felt in her community and her family. But Elizabeth was young, extremely intelligent, and wanted more. After taking a course on business leadership, she decided that learning English would help take her career to the next level, and increase her earning potential.

4:17So Elizabeth applied for her student visa and headed to Provo, Utah. Now, Elizabeth did have family in Utah, but she also chose Provo specifically because she thought it would be safe. According to CityData.com, the violent crime rate in Provo in 2015 was less than half the national average. But there's layers to this. It's not just having family there. It's not just the low crime rate. Provo also has a large LDS community. and she thought being in a community of so many people that shared her faith would add to that safety and comfort. So while her family is obviously going to miss her, she gets their blessing to pursue this next step in her life.

4:57When she finally gets to Provo, she's excited, she's happy, but she does have one issue. She does not like her roommates. Elizabeth moves into the Bramberry Apartments with three roommates, which is a lot. There's also a language barrier. They don't know Spanish, and Elizabeth is still learning English. But it wasn't just that. According to her family, they say that Elizabeth reported back that her roommates were just kind of cold to her. They also always had a lot of people over and were messy. Elizabeth just isn't having a good time, it's not a good fit. So ten days into her move, she requests to change apartments, and luckily she's able to do so.

5:38Her new roommates are from Korea, so she still has to deal with a language barrier, but this new arrangement appears to be a lot more agreeable to Elizabeth. She says it's quiet, and she can focus on her studies and her faith. It doesn't take long for Elizabeth to find friends at her apartment complex that know a little bit of Spanish. That way they can just kind of practice their language learning with each other. She even gets a part-time job as a server at a local restaurant in just a matter of a few weeks. Of course, Elizabeth does miss home, but she speaks to her family multiple times a day.

6:11They work hard to stay in pretty much constant contact so that that distance feels a little less daunting. She also does find the community she was looking for in her church. She attends the Provo, YSA, or Young Single Adult 140th Ward. Now, if you're like me and didn't know what a ward was, it's basically just a group that members of the church are assigned to, typically based on where they live. So at this point, Elizabeth's only been in Provo for about three weeks, but has already developed a really solid support system and routine for herself. Now, she doesn't have a car or a license, so most days she walks the two miles to her school and two miles back.

6:50She might head to work if she has a shift, and when she needs transportation for something like groceries, she can call her Uncle Rudy for a ride. This is pretty much exactly what the day Elizabeth goes missing looks like. On Thursday, April 16th, 2015, Elizabeth walks to school, and by all accounts has a pretty normal day with her classmates, nothing out of the ordinary. Her school day ends at around 1.30pm, and Elizabeth starts to make the walk home. It's about 30 minutes. She made arrangements earlier for Uncle Rudy to pick her up around 5 and take her to Walmart to buy some groceries. So she has plenty of time to get home and get ready for that.

7:29During her walk, Elizabeth's phone gets a text from her sister Sarah who asks what she's doing. Again, her family, and especially Sarah, stayed in pretty much constant contact with her. And Sarah gets back a short text that Elizabeth's already left school for the day. In her interview with Disappeared, Sarah says this just wasn't like Elizabeth. She explains that she was usually really affectionate in her responses and just kind have kept their conversation going. This text is just odd. Sarah texts again, but this time there's no response, and her mother is getting very worried. When Rudy gets to Elizabeth's apartment at 5pm to take her to Walmart, there's no answer, and when he calls her cell phone, it goes right to voicemail.

8:15Like I said, her walk home is only about 30 minutes. She should definitely be home by now. So Rudy drives to Walmart thinking maybe Elizabeth's there. He goes aisle by aisle looking for his niece, but she's nowhere to be found. So he goes to plan B. He drives to Elizabeth's work thinking maybe she picked up a last-minute shift for extra cash and just forgot to tell him. But she's not there, and she's not scheduled to work at all that day. It seems like Uncle Rudy is just kind of stumped at this point, and assumes that she has to be off somewhere with friends or something and just forgot about their plans to go to Walmart.

8:51So he just goes home thinking he'll hear from Elizabeth soon. But the next morning, back home in Mexico, Libertad is having none of it. She wakes up with anxiety after not hearing from Elizabeth all night. And when she checks her phone and sees no messages or calls from her, she fears the worst. She calls her brother Rudy and asks him to go to Elizabeth's school to see if maybe she's there. And he complies. But when he gets there, he's told that there's no classes on Fridays, Elizabeth isn't here. And whoever he speaks with suggests that maybe Elizabeth went to Vegas for the weekend. Now, I'm sure that this human was just trying to reassure Rudy that everything would be okay.

9:34But for those who knew Elizabeth, something like going to Vegas was just not a likely scenario for her, especially without telling her family. So Rudy goes back to Elizabeth's apartment to talk to her roommates, but they say they haven't seen her either. At this point, Libertad calls in another brother, Elizabeth's uncle Rosenberg. He used to live in Provo, but he's now in California, so he's not far. He calls Elizabeth's work and finds out that she didn't show up to her shift or call in. This is when they report her missing to the Provo Police department. Really, like the school, the Provo PD aren't extremely concerned at first, but they do look into it.

10:16They go to her apartment and also ping her phone, which I thought was pretty impressive for day one of this investigation. But her phone was off and they weren't able to get a location. Pretty quickly, it becomes clear that no one has seen Elizabeth since school on Thursday. And I have to give credit where credit is due to the Provo PD. I don't know how they do it, I don't really know why in some cases it'll take years to get something like cell phone information or bank records, and here they can get it in days. But that's exactly what they do, they check her bank account and see that there's been no activity.

10:51While there are these great efforts to find Elizabeth, everything is pointing in the worst direction. It's a tough situation. Elizabeth's only been in Provo for three weeks. Outside of family, basically everyone she knows is someone new to her. So her family and investigators just try to collect any information or any leads that they can. And pretty quickly, her family expresses concern over a male classmate of hers that was apparently pretty aggressive in his advances towards her. And when Elizabeth rejected him, he was pretty upset. So they do track this guy down, they talk to him, they search his car and his home, but they find out that he was at school when Elizabeth went missing.

11:37His alibi checks out, and they move on to the next lead. Elizabeth's family tells the Provo PD about a construction worker who came into her work and apparently not only hit on her, but was telling her to quit her job, he'll take care of her. Again, another pretty aggressive situation that she just wasn't comfortable with. So they get to work on tracking him down. In the meantime, they interview her classmates and teachers, and ultimately the Provo PD just couldn't find any evidence to suggest that anyone in this group was involved with her disappearance. But they are able to nail down what she was last wearing when she went missing.

12:15Blue jeans, a red shirt, a jean jacket, and tall boots. She was also carrying a denim book bag with a red strap. They're also able to confirm that it appears Elizabeth was taking her normal route home from school that day. So they focus on that route. And luckily, it's not like Elizabeth was in some rural area when she went missing. She's walking down some pretty major streets filled with people. So investigators go to local businesses to start pulling surveillance from the 16th. And a tale as old as time, there's nothing. Either there were no cameras, the camera was facing the wrong way. Whatever it was, there was no video of Elizabeth.

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15:05Terms apply. As investigators try to piece together what happened to Elizabeth Salgado, the media starts picking up her case, and it garners the attention of Ed and Elizabeth Smart. As I'm sure most of you are aware, Elizabeth Smart was 14 when she was abducted from her home. But thanks in large part to her own efforts, she was recovered alive. She's told her stories so many times in so many formats that if you would like more information about her, I highly suggest hearing it directly from her. But Elizabeth Smart's case garnered just an insane amount of media attention, which of course is incredibly helpful in recovering missing persons.

15:47So, eight days after Elizabeth Salgado was last seen, Elizabeth Smart and her father Ed join the Salgado family for a press conference. And it does exactly what it was intended to do. It stirs up even more media. The next day, there's a massive search for Elizabeth. About 300 volunteers come out to help. They walk Elizabeth's route and the surrounding area, but they don't find anything. Not a shoe, not her book bag. There's no trace of Elizabeth anywhere. Now, at that press conference the day before, the Provo PD also discusses trying to track down that construction worker I told you about earlier.

16:28The one that was hitting on Elizabeth and said that he wanted to take care of her. While the press conference doesn't seem to crack this lead, after speaking with the manager of the restaurant, he starts to keep an eye out for the man in question. And he does eventually come back. Her manager really does go above and beyond, and really potentially risks their life to follow this man home. But that's how they find out who he is. And kind of like the guy from school, this man opens his home to police, they confirm his alibi, and they leave confident that he likely did not harm Elizabeth. Now, while all this is happening, a lot of Elizabeth's family is stuck in Mexico.

17:09They are thousands of miles away with no way to get to Provo, Utah. They've applied for emergency humanitarian visas, but they aren't going through very quickly. Luckily, after some time, Salt Lake City's Mexican consulate steps in to expedite the process. And on April 29th, two weeks after Elizabeth was last seen, both of her parents and two of her brothers make it to Provo. And it seems like they don't waste a minute of time. They're going on the news, organizing marches, going door-to-door asking about Elizabeth, and posting flyers not just in Provo, but all around the state. But these efforts, unfortunately, just don't amount to answers about Elizabeth.

17:52Detective Ringel with the Provo PD says that at this point, they really have nothing. But while they have Elizabeth's parents in Utah, they decide to collect her DNA, and all of Elizabeth's information is put into NamUs for potential future identification. And while this next development does not come from NamUs, it doesn't take long for remains to be found that investigators think might potentially be Elizabeth. At the end of April and into May, her parents are notified that a woman matching Elizabeth's description has been found deceased in a suitcase in a neighboring county. Now this ultimately is not Elizabeth, But that doesn't detract from the pain that this kind of discovery causes.

18:35In fact, according to reporting by Pat Reavy for Deseret News, paramedics had to be called to help Elizabeth's parents control their blood pressure after they got this news. But again, after days of agonizing over this information, they are told that it's not Elizabeth. The woman who was found in the suitcase has been publicly named, but her case has since been closed, and I couldn't find any information as to whether or not her family would like her case to be shared in the media at this point, so I don't feel comfortable saying her name. But I will say that it appears that she was killed by someone close to her and her case is not related to Elizabeth in any way.

19:16But Elizabeth's family, the police, and the community are not giving up. They're posting flyers, local businesses donate$50 ,000 towards a reward for information leading to Elizabeth. Elizabeth's case is garnering a lot of attention, but we know that media and true crime is a double-edged sword. With the good comes the bad, if not the absolutely deplorable. Elizabeth's uncle Rosenberg gets a call essentially demanding a ransom for Elizabeth. In the Disappeared episode, this is like some huge, exciting moment, and for me, it's just devastating. Rosenberg doesn't hesitate, he jumps in his car and starts driving to the bank.

19:58And he calls detectives on the way. They trace the call back to an abandoned house in Texas and learn that it was just a big group of scammers. Just a devastating blow. They are pretty much back at square one. And it seems like now investigators are really just trying to eliminate possibilities. Around June, they give Elizabeth's two nearby uncles voice analysis test and the FBI administers polygraph test. And they don't do well. Rudy's test comes back inconclusive and Rosenberg fails. So the Provo PD digs deeper. They analyze their phones, get some warrants, and they're both extremely cooperative and eventually essentially cleared by police.

20:43But this didn't stop the public from pointing fingers. Now, people are free to believe whatever they want, but I think it's important to highlight here that this suspicion on her uncles slowed down the momentum of her case. Donation slowed down. Less volunteers started showing up for searches and rallies. It really was an overall blow to the investigation as people began to walk away from the case. By the one-year mark, Elizabeth's mother, in Libertad is still in Utah trying to find her daughter, and the Smart family is still by her side to help. But in June, Libertad decides it's time to go back to Mexico to be with her other children.

21:22We again see the case slow down. But then, just after the third anniversary of Elizabeth going missing, her remains are found. On May 11, 2018, a hiker goes off trail at Hobble Creek Canyon to use the restroom, and they see a school along with some clothing and call police. By the 23rd, the remains are confirmed to be Elizabeth's, and her family is notified. They really don't say much, just that they believe this is a homicide. Obviously, this is not the news that anyone wanted in this case, but her family is finally able to lay her to rest in June 2018. And this does mark a pretty major shift in her case.

22:08Because her remains were found in an unincorporated territory of Utah County, her case is transferred from the Provo PD to the Utah County Sheriff's Office. This is when the active homicide investigation begins. But unlike the early days in her investigation where the Provo PD were always talking to the media, that's not what happens with Utah County. If there are developments in this case, they're either not making it to the media or they're just not telling people in general. But Elizabeth's family hires private investigator Jason Jensen who does speak to the media. Now, the timeline of this is pretty hard because sometimes Jensen finds things years before he announces them, sometimes he gives us a vague update, and years later we get more information.

22:54So bear with me here, but in April 2020, Jensen finds a pretty promising lead. He says he finds out that Elizabeth attended a church activity just a few days before she went missing, and that just kind of sits for a minute. In March 2021, he announces that his team searched the area where Elizabeth's remains were found two years prior in 2019 with a metal detector, and they found a penny underneath some growth and leaves. Jensen told KSL TV that they found this penny basically right in the middle of where Elizabeth's remains were found, where they presume her body was lying. This penny was tested at Intermountain Forensics and male DNA was found.

23:36Jensen says the next step was to create a full DNA profile to identify whoever could have touched it. It seems that both Jensen and Elizabeth's family are pretty hopeful that this might lead to some type of answer, but as far as I could find, nothing comes of it. This penny is a hot topic in this case. The main argument is that something like a penny, something that passes through so many hands, even if you do identify whose DNA it is, how are you going to use that in court? It's something that is extremely difficult to prove. But I just want to say that just because it can't be used in court doesn't mean that it won't bring answers to her family.

24:16And if that DNA matched to somebody, let's say at her apartment complex or from her church, it's at least a starting point. That's how I feel. But Utah County is not having any of this. They make a public statement. They say they searched this area a year before Jensen did in 2018 with a metal detector and didn't find anything. They don't have confidence in this evidence. But then, just a few months after this is announced, something really strange and devastating happens to the Salgado family. Elizabeth's Aunt Miriam goes missing near Zion National Park. This episode is brought to you by Rakuten.

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