Unconventional relationship holds the answers to Florida woman’s violent murder

In April 2018, in the sleepy Florida Gulf Coast town of Eastpoint, it appeared a killer had struck.

“I received a call that a body was located .. off of Highway 98,” Lt. Ronnie Jones, from the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, told “48 Hours” correspondent Peter Van Sant.

Badly beaten and with no identification, the woman became a Jane Doe. Her killer’s identity was also a mystery.

“What you worry about then is, are they loose in our community?” said Jones. “What type of individual am I dealing with or individuals?”

Less than 24 hours later, Jones received a call about another crime scene at the nearby Sportsman’s Lodge Motel.

As investigators worked to see if the two were connected, they learned that the woman’s unconventional relationship held the answers. 

For Franklin County assistant prosecutor, Jarred Patterson, the sleepy, Gulf Coast town of Apalachicola and surrounding countryside are among the last remnants of a bygone era.

Jarred Patterson: Apalachicola, Florida is a wonderful small place … It’s certainly still harkens back to a time before there was condos on every inch of the beach and before there were high-rises. … We’re referred to here, the counties along this area of the coast, as the Forgotten Coast.

But when a couple heading to a nearby fishing pond discovered Aileen Seiden’s battered body on April 23, 2018, Patterson wondered what had brought a killer to Florida’s Forgotten Coast?

Jarred Patterson: The horror that it really was … It absolutely shocked people.

Ronnie Jones: It looked like … someone was in a hurry. Whoever it was dumped the body and took off.

Lead investigator Lt. Ronnie Jones, then with the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, says documenting Aileen’s unsettling dump site was the first of two ominous events over the next 24 hours. He was soon dispatched to the second crime scene at the Sportsman’s Lodge Motel and a bloody spectacle inside room 15.

Peter Van Sant (inside the motel room): So, what’s it like for you to be back in here?

Ronnie Jones: Uh, brings back some pretty bad memories.

Jones’ memories live in stark contrast to the tree shaded grounds of the otherwise peaceful motel.

THE HORROR INSIDE ROOM 15

Ronnie Jones: As soon as I came in, I noticed the bed. I mean, it’s — you couldn’t miss it. … I mean, this whole area was covered and had blood stains on it.

Peter Van Sant: And when you saw that kind of blood loss, what did that tell you?

Ronnie Jones: I just put two and two together and I automatically put that back to the, um, body that was found the day before.

Peter Van Sant: You did that quickly, like (snaps fingers) that?

Ronnie Jones: Had to have. … It wasn’t just somebody cut theirself and bled a little bit on the bed. I mean the amount of blood that was on this bed tells me that whoever was here was probably deceased.

Jones recalled there was a smell of vinegar in the room.

Peter Van Sant: And what did that tell you?

Ronnie Jones: That someone attempted to clean the crime scene.

A luminol test for traces of human blood revealed what an apparently hasty clean up couldn’t hide.

Ronnie Jones: The whole entire bathroom lit up.

Peter Van Sant: So, that was the scene of perhaps some of her most vicious attacks — was inside that bathroom.

Ronnie Jones: Yes.

And Jones says the shower curtain rod was a possible weapon.

Ronnie Jones: On the rod was located a palm print and also, uh, blood.

Peter Van Sant: And that’s significant evidence, right?

Ronnie Jones: That’s right.

Testing would soon confirm that it was Aileen’s blood in the motel room. Now came the gut-wrenching duty to notify Aileen’s sister, Franceasca Seiden.

Franceasca Seiden: He said my sister was murdered. … I don’t know, like, what do you do? You look for support. That’s all I could do. …I didn’t understand why, like, it was given to me, again, like to handle another loss.

While growing up in Miami, then-16-year-old Franceasca and 9-year-old Aileen faced their first tragedy when their beloved mother, Murtha, passed away from cancer.

Peter Van Sant: How did the two of you deal with this?

Franceasca Seiden: We didn’t talk about it. … because it was so fast.

Six years later, their father Frank—a successful furniture manufacturer who Franceasca says shared a special bond with Aileen —suddenly died from a heart attack. It left Aileen, then 14, an orphan, and 22-year-old Franceasca with a decision to make.

Franceasca Seiden: I signed the papers, and I became her legal guardian.

Peter Van Sant: And what did that mean? What were your responsibilities?

Franceasca Seiden: I became a parent. … I had to take her to school. I had to pick her up from school. … I had to finish my own school. I was working. … I didn’t have time to grieve. And I don’t think that she did either.

Seven years later, Franceasca moved to Los Angeles on her own. That’s when she says Aileen, by then in her 20s, began grieving their parents.

Franceasca Seiden: She started to think a lot. … She became more sensitive.

Allie: Something like losing her parents … has … long-lasting effects throughout your life. And it’s obvious that it did.

Aileen’s best friend, not wanting her name associated with this case, has asked “48 Hours” to refer to her as “Allie.” She remembers a strong and determined Aileen making it on her own in Miami.

Allie: She worked as a property manager … She lived in a great apartment, you know, she paid her own rent, she made her bills. She was very independent.

Franceasca saw that independence firsthand when Aileen made an extended visit to L.A. in 2016.

Peter Van Sant: Looking back, do you wish she had stayed with you?

Franceasca Seiden: 100% percent. … Because whatever happened when she went back to Miami is when she reconnected with Zach.

Zach was Zachary Abell, who Aileen had known since they were teenagers.

Allie: I’m not sure if he had the best reputation in high school. … At first, she wasn’t really sure about him.

But years later, she and Abell started dating.

Allie: I think in the beginning Aileen found Zach fun, but I think it changed pretty quickly.

Investigators in Franklin County would soon learn all about Zach Abell. They discovered that Zach, Aileen and another woman named Christina Araujo had all been seen in the Apalachicola area. Detectives also learned the three shared a room at the Sportsman’s Lodge Motel: room 15.

Jarred Patterson: We needed to know what happened inside that hotel room outside of three people entered and two came out carrying a body.

AN UNCONVENTIONAL PROPOSAL

Off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Captain Mike Picavet sets sail on his 50-foot boat.

Mike Picavet (on his boat): It’s kind of weird, uh, trying to remember any good times. There just weren’t. There was always some issue.

Back in 2018, Picavet would play a central role in Aileen Seiden’s murder investigation. He knew Aileen and her boyfriend, Zach Abell well.

Mike Picavet: Zach is just, um, very entertaining. … He’s very extroverted.

Picavet had met Abell by chance at a bar about seven years earlier.

Mike Picavet: He came up to me at Duffy’s and said, “Hey, I like your shirt.” And I’m like, “OK…”

Mike Picavet: And then, uh, Christina came up.

Christina Araujo — Abell’s girlfriend at the time. The two had been dating for about four years. Picavet says Araujo immediately started boasting about her powerful father.

Mike Picavet: Right outta the gate, she said, “Oh, yeah, my dad’s a major with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Department, and if we ever get into any trouble with the law, he can take care of it.” And I was like, “What?” Who says that?

Despite their odd first meeting, Picavet says he began hanging out with the couple. What followed were years of wild nights, wild parties, and lots of heavy drinking.

Mike Picavet: That was their go-to thing: “OK, we’ve gotta do shots of this, shots of this.”

But Picavet says there was an interesting power dynamic in the couple’s relationship with Araujo, who is eight years older than Abell, calling the shots.

Mike Picavet: She was very controlling and very directing. … He would follow her lead with stuff.

One day in 2016, Abell stopped by Picavet’s boat — but not with Araujo. Instead, Abell introduced Picavet to Aileen Seiden. Picavet could tell Abell now had two women in his life.

Mike Picavet: It was the weirdest thing. … If your relationship’s not working, just end it and move on.

However, Picavet says that Abell couldn’t make a clean break from Araujo, who was also his business partner.

Mike Picavet: He tried so many times. He just didn’t know how to … and then also, uh, all the threats all the time that she could make him disappear. … Every time she got drunk, she’d say some weird things.

Aileen’s best friend, Allie, says Abell and Aileen began to secretly date.

Allie: She seemed to love him so much that she was still hoping that he would, you know, decide to be with her. … He would lead her on to think, he was trying to end it with Christina.

In 2017, Aileen unexpectedly lost her job as a property manager.

Allie: She was really starting to lose control of her own life.

Allie says that may explain why Aileen eventually started working at Abell and Araujo’s used car dealership.

Allie: It wasn’t the independent life that she had always lived.

Allie says Aileen continued to pressure Abell to break up with Araujo for good. But when Abell finally tried to end things with Araujo, she countered with an unconventional proposal.

Allie: It was not the answer that anyone expected. … Christina came back and said, “Well, why don’t we try and all be in a relationship then?” … It now became this opportunity for this “throuple”, three-way kind of relationship.

A throuple is a romantic relationship among three people. Allie says Aileen was against the idea.

Allie: Aileen said, “Absolutely not. There’s no way. It’s never going to work.” And there was kind of crickets for a few weeks.

But Allie says Aileen later changed her mind. The trio was now a throuple.

Allie: I was in shock really. … But also a little bit happy for them that maybe this could work.

But it didn’t work. Before long, there was trouble.

Allie: This whole dynamic started to change where one of them always seemed to be the odd man out or was jealous. … And at that point it just started to spiral out of control.

According to Picavet, things escalated, leading to irrational behavior and fights fueled by alcohol. He says Aileen and Araujo traded punches often — usually resulting in black eyes — on one or both of the women; that they’d sometimes hide behind big sunglasses.

Mike Picavet: It was an everyday thing — every second day thing, I could say.

Allie remembers things differently. She says Abell was the main aggressor in the relationship.

Allie: Aileen would call me … and would say, “You have to come over here, like he hurt me again.” And I’d rush over there and photograph her and beg her to go to the police.

But Allie says Aileen refused, fearing Araujo’s law enforcement connections would work against her.

Aileen’s sister Franceasca was furious when she learned of the abuse.

Franceasca Seiden: I wanted my sister out of the situation … I wanted her out.

Peter Van Sant: It’s hard to leave.

Franceasca Seiden: It’s hard to leave. … And … I had this feeling that Christina was more … violent of the two.

Allie: It was really difficult to see her going through a time like this. It was just so hard. … And she was scared to death.

Once, Allie says the abuse got so bad, she took Aileen to the emergency room.

Allie: I took her to the hospital because … they have to report things. But she wouldn’t say where the bruises came from.

Aileen’s best friend had to deliver a hard truth.

Allie: “Aileen, you have to break up with this guy. Someone’s gonna end up dead.”

“I THINK THEY’RE GONNA KILL ME”

Allie: When Aileen was in real trouble, it was hard to get anyone to come rescue her.

The path that led to Aileen Seiden’s murder may have begun weeks earlier. In 2018, Allie was surprised that despite the physical violence in their relationship, Aileen had decided to move in with Zach Abell and Christina Araujo. The throuple was now working together, sleeping together, and living together.

Allie: Aileen was trapped in the relationship because she was trapped financially. … But she felt that that was one last chance to make it work. … It was like a one month or two-month trial.

But within a few weeks, Allie says Aileen had had enough.

Allie: Aileen … was going to move out. … She was really done with the relationship.

But Aileen’s plans to leave were halted on April 7, 2018, after Abell and Araujo had gotten into a violent fight. Allie says she got a call from Aileen on Abell’s phone.

Allie: She was going to leave and get Zach out of the house. But like to go to a coffee shop. … The next call I got was from Christina. … She was angry and furious.

Allie says Araujo threatened to report the car Aileen and Abell were driving in as stolen in an apparent attempt to keep them from leaving her behind. Allie immediately warned Aileen and Abell.

Allie: Instead of coming around and coming back, like I thought they would, they hit the gas and went to Georgia. … I said, “What are you doing, Aileen? You don’t have your phone. You don’t have a wallet. This is crazy.” … She said, “We’re going on a road trip. … This is a good thing.”

But the road trip wasn’t a good thing to Christina Araujo. She began harassing Abell and Aileen, sending a storm of angry texts: “U 2 deserve each other.” Araujo sent more than 150 texts in roughly 24 hours. All went unanswered, including this one: “My dad will be calling u.” Later, Araujo issued this threat: “you f***** me over and now I’m f****** u over“

Allie: I was just trying to tell her, “Christina …why don’t you worry about … your own life?”

About 48 hours into the road trip, Abell and Aileen were heading to Texas and Araujo seemed to have a change of heart, texting: “… if you want to come back home come back. You never have to question my love …”

For reasons that are unknown, instead of coming home, Abell invited Araujo to join them, and she flew to Dallas.

But with the throuple united, the old problems returned.

Allie: Aileen started to call me from Zach’s phone at night saying, you know, “This is getting bad. And I don’t know what to do.” … It wasn’t until Christina arrived, that that started to happen. … I was really worried someone would get hurt.

By day 10 of the road trip, Aileen’s older sister, Franceasca was also worried. She hadn’t heard from Aileen in a while. When the trio stopped in New Orleans, Aileen finally called Franceasca and shared an alarming suspicion.

Franceasca Seiden: She’s like … “I think they’re gonna kill me.” No joke. … So I was like, “Aileen, run to the nearest gas station.” … “Go tell the person —”

Peter Van Sant: Call 911.

Franceasca Seiden: Yeah! … “Run to like —”  I said “run, get the — get out of there.” … “Go!” …She’s like, “I can’t.”

Franceasca, desperate to help, tried to get more details from Aileen.

Franceasca Seiden: If I had where the address was, I would’ve called the police then and there, but she had to go, she had to get off and she hung up. … I was extremely frustrated but I — and I was scared.

With no way to help her sister, Franceasca hoped Aileen would stay safe.

The road trip continued into its second week. The trio then headed to Panama City, Florida, but a missed exit led them to the Forgotten Coast.

David Adlerstein: The road trip is difficult to understand; partying one day and murdering the next.

David Adlerstein is a reporter for The Apalachicola Times, one of the oldest newspapers in Florida.

David Adlerstein: I’ve been covering the Aileen Seiden case since the week it happened.

On the evening of April 21, the trio — captured on surveillance footage — stumbled into the quiet peace of Franklin County.

David Adlerstein: They went to a popular restaurant, the Red Pirate, played miniature golf, partied.

At the recommendation of a local, the throuple headed to the nearby Sportsman’s Lodge Motel. They reserved the last vacancy of the night: Room 15. The next morning, on April 22, 2018, the throuple made a plan.

David Adlerstein: They decided they’d spend another day there, not get back on the road, and make it a — a party. So they got up in the morning and went to the liquor store.

Here they are in a screenshot from the store’s surveillance footage. While there, the trio purchased large bottles of vodka and Fireball whiskey.

David Adlerstein: When I went to investigate … their path that day and went to the liquor store … the clerk, she pointed out that the Fireball that they bought was the largest bottle you could buy, and this is just the three of them.

The throuple then returned to the Sportsman’s Lodge Motel.

Allie: I don’t think Aileen was having fun. I think she was just trying to maybe get by and stay alive.

Allie says she spoke to Aileen that day.

Allie: Aileen said … “I need to leave him. I’m telling you. I’m like a sex slave. He has this really scary look in his eye. It’s very scary. It’s different.” …  And she said, “I need your help.”

Allie says the two friends had crafted an escape plan: Aileen would get on a bus from Tampa – the trio’s next destination.

Allie: I bought her a Greyhound ticket because she didn’t have a wallet.

The bus would drop Aileen off near Miami and Allie would take her home. Aileen just needed to get on that bus, and she’d be safe.

Allie: And then, you know, I never heard back. I never heard anything after that…      

The next night, hundreds of miles away in Fort Lauderdale, Mike Picavet was home and alone. There was a knock at the door. It was Christina Araujo and Zach Abell.

Mike Picavet: I was like, “OK, where’s Aileen?” And right away, Christina says, “Oh, she ran away.” … And I said, “Bulls***.” I said, “Where is she?” And Zach right away … started to choke up, and he said, “She’s dead.”

The news was shocking enough, but Picavet says once Araujo was out of earshot, Abell told him what happened.

Mike Picavet: He said that Christina killed her. He woke up. … She was dead next to him. And, uh, he tried to give her CPR, then, uh, wanted to call 911. Christina said “No” and told him, “You can’t call 911.” … For some reason, he kept on saying he had to protect Christina. …And I’m like, “What do you gotta protect her for?”

Picavet says he wanted to protect both of his friends. He feared a violent outcome if he called 911.

Mike Picavet: I didn’t want them to get killed … I just wanted to make sure that … they were brought in in a safe, uh, way. … The only thing that I could think about … is to go talk to her father.

Christina’s father, Colonel Tony Araujo. The one, Picavet says, Christina had always bragged could make her problems go away. When Abell and Christina fell asleep on the sofa, Picavet took a photo of Abell and Araujo on his couch, and says he went online to search for Christina’s father — a man he had never met.

Mike Picavet: So, I was panicking, trying to find his phone number.

When Picavet finally got ahold of Colonel Araujo, he didn’t immediately reveal the deadly news.

Mike Picavet: I said, “I gotta talk to you. It’s about Christina. It’s very important.”

Picavet says Araujo’s father directed Mike to meet him at an odd place: a gas station.

Mike Picavet: So I went up there … I said, “Christina killed somebody.” And he says, “You know I’m a cop, right?” And I’m like, “Yes, sir. I do.” … He right away said, “Wait right there.”

Picavet says Araujo’s father then brought him to the sheriff’s office to make a formal statement.

Mike Picavet: He did what was the right thing to do. … He … got two other people to ask me all the questions.

Later that day, Picavet was shown a photo, and he was the one to identify the battered body of Aileen Seiden. With that confirmation, police descended on Picavet’s home as Abell and Araujo were about to leave. They were arrested and brought back to Franklin County. The pair was later charged with first-degree murder. It would take almost six years before they would face a jury — and by then, only one of them would stand trial.

WHAT HAPPENED INSIDE ROOM 15?

For almost six years, Franceasca Seiden lived in agonizing limbo as her sister Aileen’s case — complicated by having two defendants — faced delay after frustrating delay.

Franceasca Seiden: (crying) You’re healing, you’re doing the things that you need to heal and then you’re stopped. … And now you’re gonna get ready for this big moment. … and then it stops again.

Finally, in January 2024, at the Franklin County Courthouse in Apalachicola, Florida, Zach Abell was about to face trial. He had pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and would stand before the jury alone. Eight months earlier, Christina Araujo took a plea deal for a lesser charge of second-degree murder.

Peter Van Sant: So, she admitted taking part in this?

Jarred Patterson: Yes. … she implicated herself … in the actual beating of Aileen.

After studying a mountain of evidence, prosecutor Jarred Patterson believes Abell was more responsible in Aileen’s murder. And the state is relying on the jury believing Araujo’s version of what happened inside room 15.

Jarred Patterson: The only one who has told us anything about what happened in that room is Christina Araujo.

David Adlerstein: Once Christina made her plea deal, she would become the prosecution’s star witness.

Print reporter David Adlerstein, camera in hand, was there as Christina Araujo transported the courtroom back to the evening of April 22, 2018. Araujo testified that she, Zach Abell and Aileen were relaxing in the room at the Sportsman’s Lodge Motel after a day of heavy drinking.

JARRED PATTERSON (in court): When Zach drinks, does he act differently?

CHRISTINA ARAUJO (in court): Yes … He becomes very aggressive, very mean.

Abell became violently enraged, says Araujo, when Aileen posed a seemingly innocent question.

CHRISTINA ARAUJO (in court): She said, “Christina, guess what?”

Peter Van Sant: And she looks over at Christina and says, hey “Christina, guess what …” How would that sentence be finished?

Jarred Patterson: I have no idea ’cause she never got to finish it.

CHRISTINA ARAUJO (in court): Zachary got up immediately and went over to her, and was in her face, hitting her. … He’s just yelling at her, telling her, “You always start problems.” (crying)

Araujo admits to also hitting Aileen as she demanded to know what she was about to say. She never got an answer.

CHRISTINA ARAUJO (in court): And I got so frustrated, I just went and got — I left the room.

After stepping outside room 15 for a few minutes, Araujo claims she returned to find Abell and Aileen in the bathroom.

CHRISTINA ARAUJO (in court): When I opened the door, he had something white in his hand, like if he was poking at her.

Jarred Patterson: The medical examiner was able to identify small circular bruising to the body of Aileen that … could be consistent with a shower curtain rod.

Like the shower curtain rod investigators recovered that had palm print impressions in Aileen’s blood.

Peter Van Sant: Whose palm was it?

Jarred Patterson: The palm print belonged to Zach Abell.

The assault continued near the beds says Araujo, where she says Abell reached for his wooden walking stick.

CHRISTINA ARAUJO (in court): He hits her several times with it. … When he hit her in the – the back though, the stick broke.

Jarred Patterson: We had actually found pieces of that wooden staff in the hotel room … we didn’t realize the significance of it until we found the other piece in the vehicle that contained our victim’s DNA.

Araujo says she watched in terror as Abell began using that stick to sexually assault Aileen.

David Adlerstein: Christina’s description of the crime was … horrifying to listen to. … Aileen clearly suffered a terrible death.

Adlerstein recalls the medical examiner saying Aileen’s injuries reminded him of those he had seen in motor vehicle crashes.

David Adlerstein: As a reporter, I try very hard to not be emotional. I distinctly remember … fighting back tears.

Araujo claims she eventually put herself between Abell and Aileen, and the attack finally stopped. Aileen was badly beaten but still alive, she says. And the exhausted trio just fell sleep.

CHRISTINA ARAUJO (in court): I didn’t think she was gonna die from it.

Araujo claims it wasn’t until she woke up the next morning that she realized Aileen was dead. She says she only participated in the coverup out of fear of what Abell might do to her.

David Adlerstein: She seemed to me genuinely remorseful … Others had different opinions.

Peter Van Sant: Who is Christina Araujo in your book?

Alex Morris: Manipulative, cunning, a chameleon. … I think that there’s evil in her.

Alex Morris is Zach Abell’s attorney. He says Christina Araujo acted alone.

Alex Morris: I believe that she is the murderer.

Morris says, it was Christina Araujo who beat Aileen, and that photo taken by Mike Picavet at his home after the murder shows she had injuries to her hands and feet.

Peter Van Sant: Which tells you, Christina must have been the attacker.

Alex Morris: That’s right.

Araujo was the one with homicidal intent, says Morris, triggered when Abell and Aileen took off with her in the rearview mirror. And he says those threatening texts that she sent to Abell’s phone before joining them on the road trip read like a confession.

Alex Morris: There are threats of bodily harm to both Aileen and Zach in the messages.

Peter Van Sant (reading Araujo’s text): “You come near me hoe, I will kill you.”

Alex Morris: I think it speaks for itself. And that’s exactly what happened.

After Aileen’s murder, Morris says Araujo wiped down the motel room—using the vinegar that Ronnie Jones would later smell. He says Abell’s palm prints on the curtain rod got there when he moved it during the cleanup.

Alex Morris: He was instructed to pick the curtain rod up over there and put it over there.

Peter Van Sant: By?

Alex Morris: Christina.

A toll booth surveillance photo from after the murder shows that Christina Araujo, and not Zach Abell, was the one driving the car. And therefore, Morris says, she was the one in control.

Alex Morris: The evidence indicates Christina to be … the one giving the directions … and had everything to be able to manipulate the situation.

Manipulating Zach Abell, says Morris, because of those threats she had been making for years about her father’s influence in solving her problems.

Alex Morris: Bottom line is Zach was fearful of Christina’s father.

Abell chose not to testify. When Morris made his final arguments to the jury, he concluded the evidence showed there was only one person who wanted Aileen Seiden dead.

ALEX MORRIS (in court): They haven’t proven any motive as to why Mr. Abell would be interested in murdering Ms. Seiden, but I’ll tell you where motive lies and it’s clear as day, and that’s with Ms. Araujo.

Alex Morris: The motive being: I want rid of the person who’s taken my man.

Peter Van Sant: So jealousy?

Alex Morris: Yes.

In his closing, Patterson said Christina Araujo already accepted her role in this crime. He asked the jury to hold Zach Abell accountable for his part by finding him guilty of murder.

JARRED PATTERSON (in court): They lived together. …They worked together. They own a business together. … They went to the Sportsman’s Lodge together. … They emptied out the room together. … They ran away together. …  They got arrested together. The only thing they didn’t do together was kill Aileen Seiden? No way.

But who would the jury believe?

A QUESTION UNANSWERED

Ronnie Jones: She wasn’t born here. … And she didn’t live here. But she was left here. And she’ll always be remembered by Franklin County.

Residents of Florida’s Forgotten Coast will now long remember Aileen Seiden, says Ronnie Jones. Almost six years after her death, the community waited for justice for the stranger they now had come to embrace as one of their own.

Peter Van Sant: What was going through your mind as the jury begins its deliberation?

Ronnie Jones: Make it quick.

David Adlerstein: I was told by the jury foreman that when they first went in … there was 10 in favor of first-degree premeditated murder with two holdouts.

After about five hours of deliberations, the jury reached a consensus.

JUDGE ALLMAN (in court): In the case of the State of Florida vs. Zachary Ray Abell … the defendant is guilty of the lesser included offense of second-degree murder.

Second-degree murder just like Christina Araujo. Adlerstein says the jury foreman told him they just couldn’t decide if Abell had actually intended to kill Aileen.

David Adlerstein: They knew that, uh, Christina had pled guilty to second, and I think they eventually said … we’re going to give him the same.

Mike Picavet: It doesn’t tell me that they’re equally responsible.

Mike Picavet says even with the verdict, he is convinced his friend played no part in Aileen’s death.

Mike Picavet: To me, there’s an innocent man sitting in jail.

Ronnie Jones: I think they’re both just as guilty as the other.

Now retired from law enforcement, Ronnie Jones spends his days tending his bar in Apalachicola. He says he’s still left wondering what really happened inside room 15.

Peter Van Sant: Is this case a mystery to you?

Ronnie Jones: It’s not a mystery on exactly what happened, but exactly why it happened … That is what still bothers me to this day. Why?

Like what Aileen might have been about to say that sparked the attack.

Ronnie Jones: It was my understanding in the rumors … that she was fixing to disclose the fact that she was pregnant.

Peter Van Sant: Pregnant. And was she pregnant? Did you learn that at the autopsy?

Ronnie Jones: I was at the autopsy, and she was not pregnant. … I don’t know if she thought she was or not.

When it was time for sentencing, Abell finally spoke and told the courtroom another twist in this tortured story.

ZACH ABELL (at sentencing): I had stopped, and I had grabbed a Ring Pop. And I proposed to her with a Ring Pop and asked her to marry me. And she said, “Yes.” … And me and Aileen were gonna go our way and leave Christina out of it.

Peter Van Sant: Zach spoke at his sentencing and said that he’d actually proposed to Aileen during this trip.

Franceasca Seiden: Uh, I think that is just … BS. … Uh, it’s a great story, but no.

JUDGE ALLMAN (at sentencing): I have been in the justice system in one form or another, for 40 years, rarely have I seen the sort of injuries … that I saw on Aileen Seiden.

The judge told Abell he wished he could impose a harsher punishment before sentencing him to the maximum: life in prison.

Jarred Patterson: In the state of Florida, life means life, we don’t have parole.

At her sentencing, Araujo’s father Colonel Tony Araujo set the record straight. He said he never used his influence to benefit his daughter, and he recalled the conversation he had with her after the murder.

COL. TONY ARAUJO (at sentencing): “You will own up to the truth. You will accept responsibility. You will be the voice of the victim, and you will testify under oath in a court of law. … And then whatever is sentenced to you, that’s fine.”

Jarred Patterson: There was no agreement with her as to the length of sentence … She gave her statement with the knowledge that she could still receive life in prison.

CHRISTINA ARAUJO (at sentencing): I think about that day every day of my life. … The details haunt me, and the memories keep me up.

The judge acknowledged her cooperation, and sentenced Araujo to 25 years.

Ronnie Jones: Justice has been served. He won’t beat up anymore females; neither will she.

Allie: I think that every woman kind of thinks, “I would leave if I was in that situation. I would just get up and leave. I would never tolerate that.”

Aileen’s best friend Allie hopes there will be more compassion for those trapped in abusive relationships.

Allie: It’s always that, “I’m sorry. It’s never going to happen again.” …  and you believe it, because you’re in love and things are good 95% of the time. But the 5% that are bad are so bad.

Peter Van Sant: With your sister gone, how do you want her to be remembered?

Franceasca Seiden: I want her to be remembered as a sweet, loving human being whom … unfortunately had … lost her parents at such a young age, but she was still so sweet. Like she was such a sweetheart. Her soul was so kind.

Christina Araujo is scheduled to be released in 2043. She will be 63 years old. 

If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233

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Produced by Lauren A. White and Richard Fetzer. Marlon Disla and Phil Tangel are the editors. Ryan Smith and Tamara Weitzman are the development producers. Chelsea Narvaez is the associate producer and Cameron Rubner is the broadcast associate. Anthony Batson is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.