Pepita Redhair

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1:44Voices for Justice is a podcast that uses adult language and discusses sensitive and potentially triggering topics, including violence, abuse, and murder. This podcast may not be appropriate for younger audiences. All parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Some names have 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 I'm discussing the case of Pepita Redhair. Back in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic was a life-changing event. We navigated uncharted territories and tried to predict what our new normal could be. Right in the middle of all of that, Pepita's loved ones were trying to learn how and why she mysteriously disappeared in late March of 2020. Pepita's mother Anita dropped her off at her boyfriend's home in Albuquerque, New Mexico on March 24th and never saw or heard from her again. In the following weeks, Pepita's family tried to find her, but they received very little support from law enforcement or the media, who were all dedicating their time on the global pandemic as it impacted New Mexico.

3:02Unfortunately, with this lack of support came a lack of answers, and her family is still searching for the truth today. This is the case of Pepita Redhair. It's March of 2020, and 27-year-old Pepita is living with her boyfriend Nick and his parents in Albuquerque, New Mexico. But that's not where she grew up. Pepita was born on August 4, 1992 in Gallup, New Mexico. And when she was 5 years old, she moved to Crown Point with her parents and four older siblings. Crown Point is a small town on the eastern edge of the Navajo Nation Reservation. And when I say small, I mean the population was just shy of 3 ,000 residents.

3:44It's been described as a place where everyone knows everyone. Now, Pepita's family has described her as a smiley, friendly person with a big heart. They've also said that while she was growing up, she was a very active kid who didn't like to sit still. She was creative and loved to draw, write, and paint. She also started skateboarding at just 10 years old, and that carried on well into her adult years. After graduating from high school, Pepita took classes at Navajo Technical University in Crown Point. She was interested in becoming an engineer or a teacher, which really was fitting for her because she loved kids.

4:21But after a while, Pepita decided that she wanted more than what Crown Point could offer her, and she chose to move two hours away to Albuquerque. Going from a small town to the largest city in the state may be a tough transition for some, but Pepita seemed to do well. She got a job at Hot Topic and was accepted into the University of New Mexico. Then in 2016, Pepita began a relationship with a man named Nicholas K. He goes by Nick. It's unclear how they met, but we do know that the relationship progressed pretty quickly. Just six months into dating, Pepita moved into Nick's house where he lived with his parents.

4:58And at first, the relationship seemed to be going well. According to Pepita's older sister, Sheldah, the couple was very affectionate. She recalled seeing them hug a lot and saying, I love you often. Pepita had even asked Sheldah for details about traditional Navajo wedding ceremonies. It seemed like things were pretty serious. In the 2022 episode of Disappeared, Sheldah explained that Nick made Pepita all kinds of promises for their future. He said he would get a job to provide for her and would get the two of them their own house, but he never delivered on those things. Then, somewhere along the way, it became clear to those around Pepita that the relationship had become abusive.

5:37Eventually, Pepita admitted to her mom, Anita, that Nick had hit her. She said that sometimes he got out of control while drinking. Anita, Sheldah, and other relatives tried to encourage her to leave, but as we know all too well, it's not always easy for victims of domestic violence to leave their abusive partner. Unfortunately, the violence in the relationship didn't stop, and on February 6, 2020, police were called to Nick's home. The local news station KOB4 ran a special segment on Pepita's case, and during it they aired the portion of the body cam footage during this call. In it, Nick is yelling at Pepita as the officers walk into the home, but he stops once they approach them in the living room.

6:20Pepita tells the officers that they're just working things out. Nick, who appears to be very intoxicated, rambles on to them about how he's overprotective and gets jealous. A female officer pulls Pepita aside and speaks to her for about three minutes, but this body cam footage was never made public, so we don't know exactly what was said. What we do know is that officers left the scene without any charges being pressed, but they did order Nick to leave the house for the night. Then, just four days later, on February 10th, Pepita was hospitalized. On the official paperwork, assault victim is listed as the reason for the visit.

6:59But that's really all we know. As of this recording, we don't have any information about the altercation that may have led up to this, nor are there any details about the injuries she may have been treated for. What we do know is about a month after this, Pepita came to her mother's home in Crown Point. And this wasn't abnormal. She would often go back and visit her family. She went back so often, in fact, that her mom kept her room exactly the same for her. But this visit was different. Anita says that Pepita came to her home with a black eye and busted lip. She said that Nick had hit her and she wanted time away from him.

7:36But on March 24th, Pepita wanted to go back to Albuquerque. Anita already had to make a trip into the city to visit her son. When Pepita found out she was going there, she asked if she could get a ride to Nick's house. Now at this point, Anita begs her to stay. By then, the COVID-19 pandemic was raging through the US. Anita was hoping that Pepita would stay at her home in Crown Point so they could do lockdown together. But Pepita insisted on going back. She told her mom that she loved Nick and felt like there was nothing for her in Crown Point. So that afternoon, when Anita gets in the car to head to the city, Pepita gets in the car too.

8:15Pepita's niece also came along for the ride. and according to Anita, they spent that time together just chatting and giggling. They stop at a McDonald's to get some food, and then they go to Nick's house. When they get there, Pepita asks them to stay parked outside. She wanted to go into the house first before bringing her stuff in. So Pepita goes in, and after a few minutes, Anita asks her granddaughter to go knock on the door and see what's going on. At this point, it's getting late, and Anita has to head back home. Eventually, Pepita comes back out with Nick, who Anita says appears intoxicated.

8:52According to an interview she did with KOB4 News, Anita said she told Nick that day, quote, Please take care of my daughter. Don't be hurting her. End quote. Then Anita pulled away from Nick's house, not knowing it would be the last time she would ever hear her daughter say, I love you. The next morning, Anita checked her phone and there was no text from Pepita, which was very unlike her. Even though they lived miles apart, Pepita kept in constant contact with her mom and siblings. She would send a good morning text to her mom every single day. But on March 25th, there was nothing. Anita immediately knew that something was wrong.

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12:19After not hearing from Pepita for two days, Anita finally called Nick on March 27th, but his response did the opposite of easing her concerns. He said Pepita had left, and he didn't know where she was. Now, we do know that sometimes she would leave Nick's house when things got too heated. Pepita once told Anita that she had a friend who she would stay with whenever she needed somewhere to go, but even when Pepita left, she always kept in contact with her mom. Again, Anita knew that something was deeply wrong with this situation, and she wasn't going to just take this answer and move on. She immediately called the Albuquerque Police Department to ask for help, but as we hear all too often, they didn't take the situation seriously.

13:07They gave Anita all the excuses we've heard before. She's an adult, she can leave if she wants to, she'll probably turn up soon. Knowing that she was on her own, Anita got to work. She printed up flyers, made the two-hour drive to Albuquerque, and began walking around the city. When she still couldn't find her daughter, she went back to the APD. They were once again dismissive, and told her to go to the Navajo Nation Police Department to file a report. Which, if you're like me, you might be thinking that doesn't make a lot of sense, because Pepita didn't live on the Navajo Reservation in Crown Point.

13:43Anita felt the same way, but wanting any help from authorities that she could get, she gave them a call. And as expected, they told her to go right back to the APD. Once again, they were not helpful. Anita later said that they didn't take her seriously because she didn't live in the same home as Pepita. In an interview with KOAT News, she also said, quote, They said that my daughter was a drunk. They assumed that she was gone and that she was not important. End quote. To complicate things even more, COVID-19 restrictions were now greatly impacting New Mexico and the rest of the U.S. Police departments were changing procedures, face-to-face meetings were limited, news stations were focused almost entirely on the pandemic, and resources were stretched thin.

14:30But this didn't stop Pepita's family. Her sister Sheldah also took action. On March 28th, she went to the home of Nick's family, the last place she knew Pepita to be. Now, it's important to note that the house is surrounded by a large metal gate made of cement and iron, so she's not able to knock directly on the door. Basically, she stands outside of the gate yelling for Pepita. She says that someone inside the home closed the blinds but never came out to speak with her. And of course, during all of this, Anita was still calling and texting Pepita's phone. That's when, on March 30th, something extremely concerning happened, Anita finally received a response back from the phone.

15:13Only it wasn't Pepita. A man texted Anita to say that he bought the phone from someone named Darren for$30. Now obviously, this was terrifying to Anita. She explained to him that it was her phone before she gave it to her daughter, who was now missing. She even offered to buy the phone back, but when she tried to coordinate a time to meet, he stopped responding. So Anita reaches back out to Nick, and while he doesn't give a lot of details about the phone, he does tell her a new story. He says that he and his father had gone to a local Circle K on March 27th, and that when they got home, Pepita was just gone.

15:55With police refusing to help, all Anita and Sheldon could do was keep their boots-on-the-ground investigation going. They kept in the area talking to Nick's neighbors, and while some of them knew who Pepita was and remembered her for being friendly and kind, no one had seen her. Then in early April, her family coordinated their own grid search in the nearby West Mesa. You might remember that name from when I covered the unsolved West Mesa murders back in 2025. Once again, Anita did ask for assistance from the police department, only to be told no. Unfortunately, they didn't find anything during the search.

16:34But as we see time and time again with families, they persevered. They posted flyers at bus stops because Pepita frequently rode public transportation. They also had kind of this ingenious idea of passing out flyers along with candy and water to get people to take them. And it worked. One day, they were handing out flyers in the city when someone approached them. This person told them that Nick was telling people that Pepita had recently passed away from an overdose. And this wasn't the only rumor they heard around this time. They got multiple phone calls from people saying that they saw Pepita all around the city.

17:11Anita and her family checked out every single lead, but Pepita was never there. Then, one day Anita received a call from an anonymous woman, who said that Pepita was at a place called City Park. She abruptly hung up before giving any more information. So, Anita and Sheldon drove to the only city park they knew of, but when they arrived, the only people there were a couple sitting on a bench. And Sheldon did approach them, but the woman definitely wasn't Pepita. She showed them a flyer, but they said that they hadn't seen her. They weren't ready to give up on this lead, though. Sheldon got into Google Maps and typed in City Park.

17:51That's when she found a location with the same name that appeared to be a hotel. So they got back in the car and drove over there. And when they got to the hotel, they later described having this uneasy feeling. When they turned into the parking lot, they saw a man on a bike with a walkie-talkie who stared at them as they pulled in. As they drove around, they saw two more men, also on bikes with radios intently watching them. Then they drove near a line of vans, all with tinted windows and all different state license plates. It was definitely a sketchy situation, but unfortunately it did not result in finding Pepita.

18:29But this really opened their eyes to a new alternative to what could have happened to Pepita. They later said that this was the moment they began to consider sex trafficking as a possibility. And while Anita, Sheldah, and other relatives continued searching, they received a tip with heartbreaking results. They got a call from someone saying they saw Pepita at a grocery store. So Sheldah immediately dropped what she was doing, left work, and rushed to the area. While she was driving up to the store, she passed someone walking that she thought was Pepita. She immediately parked her car and began running to her.

19:07When she yelled out, the woman turned around and Sheldon's heart sank. The woman looked exactly like Pepita, but she was a little bit taller with longer hair and didn't have the distinct moles on her chin like Pepita. Sheldon apologized and said that she was just looking for her sister, and this is what's even more heartbreaking. The woman explained that she knew who Pepita was because she had already been approached about possibly being her. In that moment, Sheldon realized that not only this call, but possibly other calls were likely attributed to this woman and not her sister. She later recalled the pain she felt when she had to tell her mom that this woman was not Pepita.

19:51It was definitely a setback, but they didn't allow this to defeat them, and it was around this time that something happened that should have forced the authorities to finally activate their search for Pepita. This episode of Voices for Justice is sponsored by TaskRabbit. I don't know about you guys, but I have a to-do list that seems to be never-ending. Especially because I am constantly fixing up my house, I am constantly looking for cool vintage pieces, and really just trying to make it my oasis. That's when I turn to TaskRabbit. If you aren't familiar with TaskRabbit, they can you with skilled taskers in your area for moving, furniture assembly, home repairs, yard work, mounting, and more.

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22:01They request a welfare check on Pepita at Nick's house. And since the APD was still operating under constraints due to the COVID lockdowns, it's not actually clear if they went out to Nick's home or just contacted him over the phone. But it has been reported that they made contact with him on this day. He told them that he didn't know where Pepita was and hadn't seen her in weeks. And it seems like this may have shaken a few things up, because finally, on April 19th, almost a full month after Pepita was last seen, Nick called the APD to report her missing. And again, the department still wasn't conducting interviews in person, so rather than meeting with Nick to take the report, a detective called him back while sitting in their squad car.

22:48So we finally hear from Nick. The detective does ask him why he waited so long to report her missing. And Nick doesn't really give a direct reason. He just says that they'd gotten into a fight that day. He adds that in the past, Pepita would leave when they got into a fight. But he also tells the detective that she would always come back. Nick also claims that he's heard from Pepita. He says that the night before she went missing, the two of them were out when they ran into an unhoused man. He can't remember the man's name for sure. He says it was something like Jeremy or Laramie. But since this man had nowhere to go, Nick invited him to come back to the house to drink with them.

23:29Then the next morning, the man left. Nick said that only about five minutes after that, he and Pepita started fighting. Then she left. So Nick tells the detective that when he got this text from her, he assumed that she must have been with this man. then the detective asks if she took anything with her Nick says no just the clothes that she was wearing and one of his jackets then the detective asks if she took any essentials with her and again Nick says no in total the conversation lasted for about 11 minutes afterwards the detective did issue a be on the lookout for Pepita but other than that it's pretty unclear what other investigative steps may have been taken now eventually anita hears about this call she hears about nick's story about this man and she is determined to track down this lead so shilda suggests that anita posts on facebook letting people know that she's looking for a man who pepita may have been with named jeremy or laramie and someone actually responds On June 3rd, 2020, a man named Laramie got in touch with Anita.

24:43According to her, Laramie said that he did know Pepita and was friends with her, but she wasn't with him. And Anita says that Laramie told her that he hadn't seen Pepita since March 10th, which was his birthday. According to the story, Pepita had given him a cupcake, and this, for some reason, made Nick very jealous. Laramie says that Nick and Pepita then began to argue, and as he walked away from them, Nick struck her But I do have to say that during our research for this episode, we found different accounts that conflict with this version of events KOB News reported that Laramie told a detective that he may have seen Pepita at a Walgreens on March 27th And that's when she gave him the cupcake then he said that he watched her get on a city bus with two men he didn't know obviously these are two completely different circumstances and you may be thinking that it should be pretty easy to confirm which story is true or at least go back to laramie and figure out what happened but unfortunately it appears that laramie passed away in september of 2021 and it's unclear how many follow-up conversations if any that law enforcement was able to have have with him.

26:00Now, KOB also reported that investigators looked into reports that Pepita may have been seen after March 27th. According to their reporting, one bus passenger reportedly told investigators that a woman matching Pepita's description borrowed a phone and used it to send a text message. That text was supposedly sent to a man named Antonio, also known as Jimmy. Jimmy later stated that Pepita sometimes stayed with him when she needed space after arguments with Nick. He said that she did contact him on March 27th asking for a ride from Coronado Mall, but when he responded asking exactly where she was, he never received another reply.

26:41Jimmy has always maintained that he never met up with Pepita that day. Unfortunately, it is unclear if this was ever connected to the sighting on the bus. and this is really where the trail appears to end then on may 10th about a month after nick filed a missing persons report he finally allowed papita's family to come get her belongings and unfortunately this was far from a civil meeting according to her family's private investigator who was kind enough to speak with us for this episode anita and shilda were only met with hostility when they went there they say that nick's sister came out and started yelling the what happened to Pepita was Pepita's fault.