depressed, we just did not take that seriously and, you know, we maybe we should have. for three florida teenagers, the decisions they made as they started campus life had terrifyingly, thiel consequences. it all seemed so surreal when we talked about it, we were like this can t possibly happen. the story of our three begins at a high school near miami, not quite hogwarts but erika, pedro, and christian were inseparable as harry, ron, and her my knee. a trio of friends, laughing and wrestling through adolescence together after the academy, a charter school for high achieving smart kids. i went there in 2006 for the sixth grade. for erica freeman, the academy was a special place. i met people from all over the world actually, it s really interesting, and they had a lot of opportunities academically but i don t think you would get an average high school. erica was smart, upbeat, and pretty she loved everything
it was for these three. graduation from high school is one of those big crass crossing the woods. a lot of that what are you gonna do next? let s stay friends forever kind of bodies. mr. christian aguilar. christian, scholar that he was and intent on pursuing premed got admitted to the selective university of florida, in gainesville. was he happy when his acceptance came through? he was happy. he was ecstatic. and although all three friends wanted to be gators, having it as a top school, only christian got in. erica headed to a different college in gainesville, santa fe. while pedro planned to take classes near his home in miami. and, as graduation neared. more life decisions. erica broke it off with pedro. she didn t want a long distance relationship. after all, they were just 18 years old. the big wide world was ahead of them both. i wanted him to find someone and fall in love with them, and live alone normal life.
that with some of the options that i had thought of. a gang area? homeless camps? and a mysterious hitchhiker? there seemed reason enough to be worried. erica called christian s parents, carlos and claudia aguilar bound to miami. and told them christian was missing. what did you think? i knew that something was wrong. was that worrying for you? his behavior was not at all. not at all christian. that was not christian. along with christian s younger brother, alex, they jumped in the car to make that long drive up to gainesville. i could say that that car was the most silent car we ve ever had. we didn t talk, we did know what to say to one another. what were they missing in? you miss saying. maybe trying to be positive. it was just him, maybe he went out to a party. maybe got injured, maybe got into a car accident. we couldn t tell. because we don t know who he hangs out with. and once they arrived, police had questions for alex and his parents to. he brings us int
what do you think the two of you had? something very rare. something you don t find every day, something amazing. something, i don t even know how to explain what we had. it was like not a care in the world because you are so happy to be with that person. young girls are in love sometimes of being in love but this doesn t sound like that. oh no, no, this is someone where you clicked on every level. but out of friendship and respect they kept the new romance a secret from pedro, erica s ex. yet his friends knew that something was eating away at pedro ever since he graduated from high school, he had been in a kind of funk. did he change at all? yes as a matter of fact as time went on, he was kind of a little bit more withdrawn, he was starting to keep up with himself more. i thought he was just depressed, you know.