The Unsolved Murder of Evelyn Hernandez

Seven months before Laci Peterson’s disappearance and murder, another pregnant woman went missing. Later, her torso washed up near the Embarcadero in San Francisco, California, under the Bay Bridge. The fetus was never found. While Laci Peterson’s case received worldwide coverage, Evelyn Hernandez, a legal immigrant from El Salvador, became lost in the press. The most horrible part of Evelyn Hernandez’s case is that she didn’t go missing alone. Her five-year-old son Alexis Geraldo Hernandez went missing alongside her. Who murdered Evelyn Hernandez, and what happened to Alexis?

Who was Evelyn Hernandez?

At 14, Evelyn immigrated to the US from El Salvador to live with her mother. She became pregnant with her first child in high school. At the time of her disappearance, she and her son lived in the Crocker-Amazon neighborhood of San Francisco, which lies just south of the Mission District. Evelyn worked as a vocational nurse and volunteered at her son’s school. By all accounts, she was a loving, involved mom.

On May 1, 2002, 24-year-old Evelyn Hernandez and her 5-year-old-son, Alexis (who family and friends called Alex), went missing just five days before Evelyn’s second baby’s due date. She planned on naming the baby Fernando.

On April 30th, the day before their disappearance, Evelyn spoke via phone with her boyfriend, Herman Agularia, and her sisters, who lived in East San Francisco and Virginia. She and her sister in San Francisco were planning a baby shower and were finalizing arrangements. On May 1, 2002, Evelyn picked Alexis up from preschool in the Mission District and then stopped by an ATM. No one ever saw them again.

Gone Without a Trace

Herman Albert Aguilera, Evelyn’s boyfriend, reported the pair missing one week later. Evelyn spoke little English and didn’t own a car. Both hers and Alexis’s passports were found in their apartment. These facts, combined with how excited Evelyn was about the new baby's arrival, ruled out that she left town suddenly. Still, police hoped she had gone off to have the baby in private, but as the months wore on with no sign of Evelyn, this seemed less likely.

A day or two after the disappearance, Evelyn’s wallet was found in a parking lot in South San Francisco. Inside it was $40 in cash and a disability check made out to Evelyn. The area around the parking lot was searched, but nothing tying Evelyn or Alexis to the area was found.

The Married Boyfriend

Herman Albert Aguilera, a 36-year-old married airplane mechanic, was less than excited for the birth of his and Evelyn’s baby and had tried to distance himself from the relationship. He had forgotten to mention to Evelyn that he was married until she announced she was pregnant. Evelyn, who had been burned once by Alexis's father (who was in the Navy and had no contact with Alexis and did not contribute financially to his son), told Aguilera that she would come after him for child support.

Initially, Aguilera cooperated with investigators but found himself a lawyer and stopped speaking with police. Aguilera has not been ruled out as a suspect but also isn’t the focus of the investigation.

Aguilera frequented the gas station near the parking lot, where authorities recovered Evelyn’s wallet. However, Aguilera maintains he was home with his wife when Evelyn and Alexis disappeared.

Evelyn Hernandez’s Remains Wash Up in SF Bay

In August of 2002, Evelyn’s remains washed up in the Embarcado of San Francisco. Her body consisted of mainly a torso. Her head, hands, and feet were missing, as was her nearly full-term baby. Due to the amount of decomposition, it could not be determined if the baby had been removed via c-section, naturally, or expelled in a coffin birth. The cause of death was also unable to be determined.

Sidenote about bodies found at sea

The longer a body stays in the ocean, the more likely it will lose limbs due to animal predation and decomposition. Many bodies that have been in the water for extended periods of time are discovered with missing limbs, i.e., shoes washing up with feet inside.

The Laci Peterson Case: Media Sensation

On Christmas Eve of 2002, 27-year-old Laci Peterson went missing from her Modesto home. Peterson was a friendly, beautiful, young mom-to-be who seemed to have everything going for her. This includes major family support and missing white woman syndrome.

Twiggy Damy, a friend of Evelyn Hernandez’s, told the SF Chronicle in April 2003: “This girl (Laci), she’s white, they have money, and there is a family behind her. Who cares about Evelyn? The first time I heard Laci’s case, I got flashbacks from Evelyn because it is the same case. That’s very hard to see why one gets more attention than the other.”

Many of Evelyn’s friends and family created fliers of her and Alexis and distributed them throughout the Bay Area, and organized search parties to no avail. They couldn’t drum up any interest in the case with the media or the police.

When Peterson went missing, her family jumped into action, speaking with the press, holding interviews, vigils, and organizing search parties. This can make all the difference in whether a case languishes in the news or becomes front-page fodder.

For Evelyn, police didn’t hold their first press conference until a month later, when the homicide unit took over the case. This delay led to the loss of potential eyewitnesses who may have seen Evelyn and Alexis. It’s rare for pregnant women to go missing, so police should have jumped into action as they did with Laci Peterson.

At the time of Peterson’s disappearance, 30 police officers were tasked with her search. This included helicopters, dogs, bicycle and horse-mounted officers, and water rescue units. Nearly 900 civilians helped search for Laci Peterson as well. Modesto is a much smaller city than San Francisco. The police aren’t spread as thin, so it stands to reason that more resources to focus on a missing person. Chandra Levy, the Washington DC intern who disappeared while having an affair with then-Representative Gary Condit, was also from Modesto. This gave the Peterson case a boost from the get-go.

The media also didn’t do Evelyn any favors. The SF Gate reported that the SF Chronicle published no less than 32 stories on Laci Peterson, four on the front page. In stark contrast, the Chronicle only ran four on Evelyn Hernandez and none of them on the front page. Let’s remember, Laci is from Modesto, some 90 miles from San Francisco. Evelyn lived in San Francisco, and her local paper hardly reported on her disappearance and murder.

But let’s face it, Laci Peterson is a perfect horror story. She was young, beautiful, came from a good family, she had everything going for her when she went missing. Then there’s her cheating husband, who is a grade-A liar. On the other hand, Evelyn was an unmarried legal immigrant, who had her first child as a teen, and she was dating a married man who got her pregnant with her second child. Hardly the perfect news story. Laci Peterson was the prototype of the American Dream. Evelyn Hernandez was not.

Closure for the Petersons

On April 13th, 2003, A well-preserved male fetus was found in a marshy area of San Francisco Bay’s Point Isabel Regional Shoreline Park north of Berkeley. One day later, the body of a recently pregnant woman was discovered a mile away from the first body. The woman’s body had had its limbs and head removed. No cause of death could be determined. During Scott Peterson’s (Laci’s husband) trial, the judge sealed Laci’s autopsy files.

Only Evelyn's body was recovered. What happened to her unborn child and her five-year-old son remains a mystery.

Laci Peterson’s husband, Scott Peterson, sits on death row at San Quentin Prison in California for the murder of his wife and unborn son Connor.

Sources

Much of this information was gathered from SF Gate, ABC News, and the Charlie Project.

Author's Note

Cynthia is an award-winning short story writer who is currently editing her first full-length novel. Cynthia lives in Portland, OR, with her husband, son, and two kitties, where she plays with Legos, reads, performs impromptu dance parties and bakes.

If you enjoyed this article, consider clicking that adorable little heart button.

Similar Articles

Thinking of trying Vocal+? Don't pay full price. Get your first month for a fraction of the cost.