The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts.
All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold and Missing.
I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski, and this is Cold and Missing, where we cover
cold cases and unresolved missing person cases.
I'm flying solo this week.
My co-host, my husband, Eli Sulkowski, is busy with some work projects, so it's just
me, but without further ado, let's get into this week's episode.
Today I have for you a cold case.
Now just as a content warning at the top, this case does involve a young person.
Today I have the case of April Marie Sanchez in San Jose, California, and this case takes
place in the month of April of 2003.
But first, a little bit about April Marie Sanchez.
April was 16 years old in 2003.
She was born November 29, 1986, and she would be 36 years old today.
Her family and friends describe her as a happy teen who worried about others more than herself.
Her mother, Diana Ruiz, says, quote, she was so full of life, she wanted to live.
She was spunky, vivacious.
She was tough, but deep down inside, she had a good heart, end quote.
April was a part of a gang, but she had begun to turn her life around.
Her mother was in the hospital in early 2003, and once her mother is discharged, everybody
notices a change in April.
She was focused on her mother's healing.
Her mother says, quote, she just realized if I give my mom a hard time, she's not
going to be around much longer.
She'd say, don't worry, mom, things are going to be different, end quote.
She had just entered 10th grade at Foothill Continuation High School in San Jose, and
she wanted to study cosmetology after high school.
And now, a timeline of events.
On Friday, April 18, 2003, April is hanging out at her boyfriend's house with friends.
She calls her mom from her boyfriend's cell phone to let her know she's safe and she
would be back later.
Now, April hangs out at her boyfriend's house late Friday night into early Saturday morning.
So Saturday, April 19, April leaves her boyfriend's house around 1230 a.m.
The house was located near Keys Avenue and 6th Street, and she was headed to her mother's
house, which was near McLaughlin Avenue and Story Road.
It would take about 25 minutes to walk the 1.3 miles.
To get home, April would have had to pass Roberts Avenue, where another large party
was happening that evening.
According to police, April was not seen at the party, but she never makes it home.
Diana, her mother, starts to worry when April doesn't show up, and she calls the boyfriend's
cell phone back.
She says, quote, he told me she had left walking.
I don't believe that.
My daughter, if she was walking, she would have stopped at a payphone and told me.
That didn't happen.
My daughter hadn't called.
I knew something was wrong.
End quote.
Diana calls April's friends to try to find her, and she'll eventually call Juvenile
Hall, where an official there advises Diana to wait 24 hours before reporting April missing.
So Diana takes that official's advice.
But at around 830 a.m., a man was walking his dog near Phelan Avenue and Roberts Avenue
when he finds April's partially clothed body on a creek bank.
Her body is about halfway between her boyfriend's home and her mother's.
Diana, after not hearing from April all day, calls police at 10 p.m. to report her missing.
Within 10 minutes, police are at her door asking her to come downtown.
On Monday, April 21st, family and friends gather at the spot where April's body was
found and place a white cross and hold a memorial service.
Her mother is there and says, quote, I'm trying to figure this out.
To lose my daughter like this, I feel so empty.
End quote.
On Tuesday, April 22nd, police announced that they are investigating April's death as a
homicide.
And while there were no obvious wounds on the body, such as a bullet hole or a stab
wound, other marks left on her body indicated a homicide, but they didn't go into detail
about what those marks were.
Sergeant Steve Dixon says, quote, it might be an acquaintance homicide or it might have
been a stranger.
We really don't know.
End quote.
Police do look at possible gang ties.
The area that April was found in was in a rival gang's territory, and there was graffiti
on trees of the rival gangs not far from where her body was found.
But police do believe it was a crime of opportunity.
On Wednesday, April 30th, April's funeral was held at the Cathedral of Faith in San
Jose.
And then this case goes really cold.
I couldn't find really any updates, not even a lot of the cases we cover.
They're usually, you know, yearly updates, especially when these things go unsolved,
maybe at the five, the 10 mark.
But really, you don't hear anything again until April 19th, 2022.
So last year, local media run April story on the 19 year anniversary of her murder.
The San Jose police said at that time, there were no significant updates on her case and
it remains unsolved.
So if you know anything about what happened to April Marie Sanchez on Saturday, April
19th in 2003 in San Jose, California, you are encouraged to call the San Jose police
at 408-277-8900.
And her case number is 03-109-0320.
And the sources for today's podcast come from the Oakland Tribune, the Enterprise Record,
the SF gate, KRON4, and Mercury News.
But that is the case of April Marie Sanchez.
And I felt really sad about this.
And I, you know, I feel like I do say that after a lot of the cases that I cover and
research that I do feel bad that there isn't more coverage or more known on this case.
I obviously have a lot of questions regarding this case, as I'm sure listeners do too.
I wonder about the friends and the boyfriend.
You know, she called her mom to let her know she was safe there, but she never called to
say she was leaving, which, you know, based off of the quote from her mother, Diana, that
does seem to be April's normal mode of operation is to update her mother and to let her know.
But if she did leave the boyfriend's house and was walking home, you know, there was
a big party that she kind of would have had to pass by according to police.
And as I mentioned, she was not seen at the party.
But that doesn't mean that somebody from the party didn't see her.
I just really feel for April and her family because it seems like because she was kind
of labeled as like a tough girl and like a tough kid that the time and care wasn't
really given to her case.
You know, I see, you know, the vast difference in what was available surrounding her case
versus, you know, what was available for some of the other cases that I've covered.
It was very remarkable to me.
And just as a reminder, April is 16.
She is a child in this story.
And I think that is something that was lost in a lot of the original reporting.
She is sometimes referenced as a teen, which is true.
But a lot of times they kind of just mention her age as a one off, but then kind of treat
her as an adult, which doesn't feel fair because she you know, she was a child.
And even if she had been in trouble, that doesn't matter.
There was a child who was murdered.
I just feel really bad for April's family and that they haven't been supported by the
media and you know, the local community and trying to or I'm sure they have been supported
by their local community, their family, their friends, but like the local news, the local
news outlets, you know, they haven't been supported by the larger community in bringing
this case to a resolve to some closure and her family really deserves that and she deserves
justice.
So again, if you know anything about what happened to April Marie Sanchez in April of
2003, please call the San Jose Police Department at 408-277-8900.
Thank you for listening.
Again, I say this all the time, but while you're in your podcast app getting ready to go to
your next show, if you could go ahead and leave us a review if you're an Apple podcast
or rate us five stars, thumbs up, whatever the metric is in your favorite podcast app,
we would greatly appreciate it.
If you want to follow us, I'll have some photos of April Marie Sanchez up on our Instagram
that's at cold and missing and just search that in your Instagram and we'll pop right
on up.
And if you're enjoying this podcast, please tell your friends, your family, your coworkers
about this podcast so we can get these names back out there and people can just be aware
of these cases all around the world.
So that's the goal of this podcast is just to keep these names active, keep these cases
active and keep them active in the minds of as many people as possible.
So thank you for being a part of that.
It really means the world to me.
Thank you for being here.
I appreciate you.
And I hope you have a good week and stay safe y'all.