After her 24-year-old daughter was tragically gunned down one mother resolved to locate the killers by any means necessary.
Crystal Theobald, a 24-year-old mother of two, was shot and killed in 2006. Her mother Belinda Lane dedicated the next 10 years of her life to finding the people responsible for her daughter's untimely death.
On the evening of February 24, 2006 Crystal and her brother were passengers in her boyfriend's car driving through Riverside, CA, just outside Los Angeles. Belinda was following the boyfriend's car close behind. They pulled up to an intersection where gang members were waiting in a Ford Expedition looking for rival gang members.
Tragically, they seemed to have mistook the car Crystal was in for the gang car they were looking for and open fired on the vehicle. Her boyfriend was shot in the stomach but survived. Crystal was shot in the head and tragically died from her injuries later at the hospital.
Police later found out that neither Crystal nor anyone in the car she was in were involved in any gang activity and the incident may have been a case of mistaken identity. Following her daughter's death, Belinda began using the social media site MySpace to track down her daughter's killers.
“The last thing I got to say to her - I promised her that I was gonna get 'em,” said Belinda. “They're gonna pay.”
Crystal's cousin, Jaimie McIntyre, was the one to initially begin catfishing plan, setting up a MySpace profile for a girl named Rebecca to attempt to attract members of a local gang. Belinda then came up with the idea to make another account using her daughter's photo and the name Angel.
Belinda eventually took over the catfishing, creating dozens of fake accounts, which she used to contact anyone she saw as a potential suspect, and then relay information of their whereabouts to law enforcement. She befriended gang members on the platform in an attempt to locate the killers, determined to track down every single person responsible for her daughter's death.
Belinda’s efforts led her to Julio Heredia, who turned out to be the man who pulled the trigger. Heredia would be convicted of Crystal's murder in 2011 and sentenced to life in prison.
But that wasn’t good enough for Belinda, she knew more people were involved in the death of her daughter and she resolved herself to ensure that all parties were brought to justice. After 10 years of searching and social media sleuthing Belinda’s efforts finally paid off when police arrested 27-year-old William Sotelo in Central Mexico.
Sotelo turned out to be the man behind the wheel of the car involved in Crystal’s death. Sotelo would be convicted and sentenced to 22 years in prison for his role in the murder. After 10 long painful years, Belinda’s tireless efforts finally got justice for her daughter.
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