The Beginning: The Sad Story of Alexandra Anaya(Part 1 of 2)

It's been more than 18 years since 13-year-old Alexandra(Alex) Anaya vanished from her home in Hammond, Indiana. Alexandra was a vivacious young athlete who loved volleyball and soccer. She was loved and known for the huge hugs she gave to her loved ones. She was also an avid animal lover who had a dream of being a veterinarian.

Sadly, her life was cut short by a tragedy so horrific, it shook the whole city of Hammond.

The Beginning

Alexandra Anaya was born on February 10, 1992, in Merrillville, Lake County, Indiana, to Sandra Anaya. The identity of her father is not publicly known(at least from the research I have done). She had two younger twin sisters, Romy and Roxy Heredia, who saw her as their role model.

When the mystery that took her life came, she was a 7th-grade student at Clark Middle School student.

In the early morning of August 13, 2005, Alexandra's mother, Sandra, came back home at around 3:am and met her awake. About an hour later, when Sandra was about to leave the house again, she briefly talked with Alexandra and made sure she locked the door before she left. Unknown to Sandra, that would be the last time she would see her lovely daughter alive.

Later that morning by 6:45 am, Sandra was back home to her daughters, but the door was unlocked. She entered the bedroom and Alexandra was not there. She looked around for her but there was no sign of her. What could have happened? Where did she go? She wondered.

In her frantic state of mind, Sandra continued to look for her. Still no sound, no sign, no Alexandra.

As time passed, Sandra picked up her phone and called her family, and other people in her life seeking any help in finding her dearly beloved daughter. Then she called the Hammond Indiana Police Department to report Alexandra missing.

Initially, the police department considered this a case of teenage runaway. Sandra didn't want to believe this because she believed she had a good relationship with her daughter and there was no apparent reason she might choose to run away from the home. However, she still harbored the thought that Alexandra might have run away since this is common among teenagers.

Subsequently, the police officially reported Alexandra missing and an extensive search was launched by the authorities and volunteers. These search efforts yielded no positive results.

Three days later, a family speed boating in the Little Calumet River ran into what they believed to be a mannequin floating in the waters. Unfortunately, it was not a mannequin that they had seen, it was a body bound in chains with arms, legs, and head missing. The family quickly reported the sighting to the police who then called Sandra.

They called Sandra to get some clues to identify the body they had recovered. She told them Alexandra was wearing a golden chain with a round religious medallion, and that she had a scar on her left chin and had a sprained ankle. Sandra had no idea the body that was found had no head, no arms, and no legs.

Since none of the clues gotten from her mother proved helpful, the authorities decided to do a DNA test. They collected a DNA sample from Sandra and weeks later came back with the most horrifying news Sandra had ever absorbed; the body discovered floating on the water was Alexandra's.

Who could have done this? was it Sandra's ex-partner and the father of her two twin daughters, Rudolfo Heredia?

Just before this tragedy unfolded, Rudolfo had been a headache, wreaking havoc in Sandra's home.