there s a possibility that it had been deposited by the perpetrator when the deceased was strangled. it s unusual you would see just the insulation material without this other debris, such as wood, burned wood, nails, screws that have come out, and even fixtures out of the ceiling. in their search for suspects, investigators couldn t find anyone who had a motive to kill michael andrade. he never had no enemies. i never seen him mad at anybody, upset about anything. that s a person you don t even think anybody would have anything against him. so i had no idea. investigators discovered one person who was apparently angry with him, his longtime girlfriend, a fellow student, 22-year-old lilly mesias. i do remember quite a few fights between the two of them where he d be very upset, either hurt or mad at her. i don t know exactly what would happen.
she was very forthcoming. she was willing to give us a statement, willing to allow a search of her apartment, willing to allow us a search of her vehicle. michael s sister stephanie provided the first solid lead. she said michael complained about a man he saw around the apartment complex. the guy would just talk to him but the guy made him uncomfortable for some reason. he didn t say why. the guy never said anything suspicious to him or anything mean, but he said he always felt a little uncomfortable or a little uneasy around the guy just because his character seemed little bit off. unfortunately, michael never identified the man, provided a physical description or mentioned where in the complex he lived. right at that point, investigators had merely the crime, the crime scene, and a very large universe of potential suspects with not a whole lot to go on pinpointing a specific person. with no other suspects for the murder of michael andrade, investigators appeal to the publ
preservation, it doesn t matter how much someone does 13, 14 years later in an investigation, if you don t have the evidence, you don t have a case. it s usually easy to figure out how a criminal enters a crime scene. but in this case, it was far from clear. it looked like the killer vanished in thin air. and perhaps he had. getting into medical school. it s the hope and dream of thousands of students who apply each year, then pray they ll be accepted. michael andrade was one of those hopefuls. he really wanted to be a doctor. he really wanted to help people. just recently, my mom told me, she used to tell him, don t worry, michael, all your hard work s going to pay off, because
it was just they would have problems and you could tell. investigators found a voice mail from lilly to michael left at 8:30 that morning. she had left a message on michael s cell phone indicating that they were having problems and that she was done with their relationship. was it possible that lilly went to michael s apartment afterwards and there was an altercation? at that point, combined with the fact that it seemed like michael may have known the person who did this to him, she was initially a suspect. but lilly had an alibi. she was working at her part-time job on the morning of the murder and was eliminated as a suspect.
his girlfriend s apartment since he knew there were warrants out for his arrest on the robbery cases. with nothing to do, he discovered there was an attic and crawl space above the apartment. so, he looked around and discovered there was another apartment just 16 feet away, michael andrade s apartment. prosecutors believe he opened the panel in michael s bedroom closet, and when he didn t hear any sound, dropped in. but michael was sleeping and the noise woke him up. there was a struggle. luna tore the bed sheets, bound michael s hands behind his back, and strangled him to death, fearing that michael could identify him.