If you can't get enough of true crime, then look no further. Netflix's new offering, Why Did You Kill Me?, will hook viewers who are fascinated by gang violence, quests for justice... and MySpace.
The hour and a half long documentary tracks the family of the late Crystal Theobald. Her mother, Belinda Lane, stopped at nothing to expose the people involved in her daughter's murder. She even went so far as to create fake profiles on the social networking platform to gather information about those responsible, and her heroic efforts ultimately broke the case.
But before you binge-watch the entire thing, here's a breakdown of the tragic true story of Crystal Theobald's death, and how her family brought her killers to justice.
Who was Crystal Theobold and how did she die?
Crystal Theobald was born in 1982, and was killed when she was just 24-years-old. At the time, she was living with her family in Riverside, California. She had two daughters from a previous relationship, and had begun dating 2o-year-old Juan Patlan.
Her family paint a portrait of a loving family woman. Speaking in the Netflix documentary, her cousin, Jaimie, tearfully recounts: "She’d play baby dolls with me… she really opened up my imagination."
Crystal was killed on February 24, 2006, in a drive-by gang shooting while in a car with her brother and boyfriend at around 8:40 PM by an individual who got out of a white Ford Expedition. Juan was driving the vehicle to a 7/11 store, which was near where she lived, and her mother, Belinda, was in another car ahead. CCTV footage shows her brother Justin cradling her body in the aftermath of the attack, in which Juan was also left wounded.
She was rushed to hospital but passed away two days later.
Why was Crystal Theobold shot?
Despite her death being related to gang violence, it was only a tragic consequence, as Crystal herself was never involved in any form of organised crime. She was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time.
She was killed by members of a local gang named, 5150, who were looking for members of their rival gang, MD, in a car very similar to the one that the mother-of-two was in. 5150 had reportedly heard that MD were trying to kill some of their members, and so attempted to go after them by following their vehicle.
They lost the correct car, and instead spotted the Theobald's family vehicle. In the Netflix documentary, Manuel Lemus, a member of the 5150 gang, explains that after hearing that MD were allegedly going to attempt to murder one of their own, another member of his gang, Julio 'Lil Huero' Heredia, was determined to "take out" whoever was behind the proposed attack.
How did Crystal's family use social media to find the killer?
Unfortunately, law enforcement proved to be little help, and Belinda and Jaimie eventually took matters into their own hands.
Speaking of her distrust of the police, Belinda says in the documentary, "If I had an issue, it wasn’t the police I called". She says that she was convinced that law enforcement was affiliated with the 5150 gang, which were notorious in their local area. Regardless, she helped the detective on the case, Rick Wheeler, identify a suspect – but it was the wrong guy.
Then, Jaimie had a lightbulb moment; utilising social media. She created fake MySpace accounts where she pretended to be an attractive young woman to connect with members of 5150 in a bid to gather information. Using a real photo of Crystal, under the name 'Angel', she even used her cousin's real personality to create someone that was "easy to fall in love with".
"I was obsessed with it. I knew how to make it look like this girl on MySpace is real. It looked like I belonged. My typing was acting," she states in the documentary.
Who were the killers?
Unsurprisingly, Jaimie quickly began to find the experience too upsetting to continue with. She handed the account over to Belinda, who took the catfishing experiment one step further by riling gang members up against each other. Over a 10 year period, she worked tirelessly to find out who had killed her daughter, and in the documentary, she says that she would have continued to do so until her death.
Her efforts finally paid off in 2016 when one of the fake accounts led her to William 'Jokes' Sotelo, who was the driver of the white Ford Expedition. Belinda took the information she gathered to the police, and they were able to bring Sotelo in for questioning. During his interrogation, he blamed Julio 'Lil Huero' Heredia.
In 2020, Sotelo was sentenced to 22 years in prison for voluntary manslaughter. Per NBC, it was discovered that Sotelo was the person who drove the car, and prosecutors said that Sotelo and Heredia were both firing the shots that killed Crystal.
As the documentary shows, tracking down her killers would not have been possible without the devotion of her family. Wheeler himself conceded that Belinda was "instrumental" and that without her help "[Sotelo and Heredia] would likely still be outstanding right now."
Why Did You Kill Me? is available to stream on Netflix worldwide now...
(Feature Image Credit: Netflix)
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