i got a phone call, screaming, crying, my only question was why. we needed justice. >> she was only married four days. still on her honeymoon when she was murdered. >> is this a robbery? is this maybe some -- a drug deal that went bad? >> or was miami's sizzling night life to blame? >> what's been going on at the club scene? >> he did admit to having encounters with other couples there. >> there was no murder weapon, no dna, but there was a witness. a witness willing to betray the man she loved. >> he didn't love her, he loved me. >> would there ever be justice for a dead bride? >> you may kiss the bride. ♪

>> "mystery in south beach." first, another florida mystery. teenager, romance, and murder. >> in pain and so hurt and so sad. i would give anything for christian to be here. >> they were new to college and newly in love. the whole world ahead of them. >> he gave me this magical kiss. >> their secret romance would lead to something shattering when christian vanished. >> oh, god. my young life went out the window. >> it was tense. we were nervous. we were scared. >> i'm starting to believe that there might be more to this than just a missing person. >> where was he? did someone have something to hide? >> there was blood found in the car. >> a lovers' triangle. a circle of friends. was one of them a killer? >> this was planned. this was on purpose.

>> how could you do something so horrific? >> i'm lester holt, and this is "dateline." tonight, two dennis murphy mysteries. we begin with "circle of friends." remember going away to college? the tingling of possibility, new friends. >> it was amazing. >> sometimes disappointments when things didn't work out. >> i thought highway was depr-- depressed. didn't take it that seriously. maybe we should have. >> for three florida teenagers, the decisions they made at they started campus life had terrifying, lethal consequences. >> it seemed surreal. when we were told, we thought this can't possibly be happening. >> the story of our three begins at a high school near miami. not quite hogwarts, but erica,

pedro, and christian were as inseparable as harry, ron, and h hermoine. the trio wrestling together at doral academy, a charter school for high-achieving, smart kids. >> i moved there in 2006, sixth grade. >> for erica freeman, doral academy was a special place. >> i met people from all over the world, actually, which was really interesting. and they had a lot of opportunities academically that i don't think you'd get at an average high school. >> reporter: erika was smart, upbeat, pretty. she loved everything from skydiving to shakespeare. and in her sophomore year she caught the eye of a cute guy in class, pedro bravo. >> he was a big clown. he was kind of a funny guy around people. he was always making jokes, or tryin' to -- >> reporter: disruptive, act-out-in-class kind of guy? >> not really act out in class, but he'd act out as soon as class was over. and it was just to, you know, get a crowd laughing, or this or that. >> reporter: pedro was a fellow rock-solid student with an artistic flair.

his journals were full of sketches and doodles that friends thought showed real talent. >> he could draw anything, anything you wanted. >> reporter: robert lopez was a friend and classmate. >> anything from graphic comics to picture art -- >> yeah, very. he was very gifted in that sense. >> reporter: erika and pedro quickly became an item. teenage lovers, but with adult dreams. >> we were in a pretty serious relationship. we were a little bit more mature than the average, i guess. we didn't go out and drink. we were just very focused on school and each other. >> reporter: another sharply focused classmate in their circle was pedro's good buddy, christian aguilar. >> i met him through pedro. >> he was awesome. he was funny, and he was nice. and we were instantly good friends. >> reporter: christian was the soccer player who hit the books. the son of colombian immigrants became the all-american boy. video games, kanye west rap in

his ears, and plans to become a doctor. it sounds as though to understand christian, you have to realize how academically motivated he was. >> oh yes. he was very driven. and it wasn't like his family was pushing him. it wasn't -- it was just that he wanted to make them proud. >> reporter: these three high achieving musketeers -- christian, erika and pedro -- all doubled at prom together and posed for this snapshot in the waning days of high school. did you guys do a limo and the whole thing? >> we did do a limo. and we all showed up. we took plenty of pictures. it was fun. >> reporter: for a lot of american kids, it was for these three, graduation from high school is one of those big paths crossing in the woods. a lot of what are you going to do next? let's stay friends forever, kind of goodbyes. >> mr. christian aguilar. [ applause ] >> reporter: christian, scholar that he was, intent on pursuing pre-med, got admitted to the selective university of florida in gainesville. was christian happy when his acceptance came through? >> oh, he was so happy. he was ecstatic.

>> reporter: and though all of three friends wanted to be gators, had u of f as a top choice school, only christian got in. erika was headed to a different college in gainesville, santa fe, while pedro planned to take classes near home in miami. and as graduation neared, more life decisions. erika broke it off with pedro. she didn't want a long-distance relationship. and after all, they were just 18-years-old, and the big wide world was ahead of them both. >> i wanted him to find someone and fall in love with them, and you know, live a normal life. i just didn't think he was the one for me. >> reporter: they were barely unpacked, classes just starting, when a sudden change of plans. pedro didn't want to be left behind in miami after all. as the fall semester started, he showed up in gainesville, as his friend robert remembered. >> he just visited gainesville, and that was the intention, was just to visit. and he ended up signing a lease

and enrolling for classes in the fall at santa fe college. >> maybe there was life after hogwarts for pedro, erika and christian? could the friendship be renewed and survive a five hour move up the interstate from miami? if that was indeed the hope, it was dashed with some awful news on september 21st, 2012. >> it was tense. we were nervous. we were scared. you know, what could have happened. >> reporter: christian never showed up at his dorm that night, and wasn't answering his phone. >> it's not like christian to just not answer. it's not like him not to just disappear. there was something wrong. >> reporter: christian aguilar had vanished. what could be behind christian's sudden disappearance? when we come back -- retracing his last steps. a rough neighborhood and a curious stranger. >> he tells me at one point they stop to pick up a hitchhiker.

>> he said, i want to get out. christian said, "i want to get out of the car, too." a living i take pride in them. so when my moderate to severe chronic plaque psoriasis was also on display, i'd had it. i finally had a serious talk with my dermatologist. this time, he prescribed humira-adalimumab. humira helps to clear the surface of my skin by actually working inside my body. in clinical trials, most adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis saw 75% skin clearance. and the majority of people were clear or almost clear in just 4 months. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal events, such as infections, lymphoma, or other types of cancer have happened. blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure have occurred. before starting humira, your doctor should test you for tb. ask your doctor if you live in or have been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. tell your doctor if you have had tb, hepatitis b,

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>> reporter: three teenagers,

all college freshman in comenzando en la universidad, gainesville, florida, longtime friends. but fwhoun of them -- now one of them, christian, was a no-show for meeting with his circle of friends. didn't pick up the phone. not so much as a text. >> and it got later and later. and i started calling our friends. and i'm like, "hey, i just wanted to make sure -- like, have you seen christian?" >> whether you're not getting texts back, when do you start to go from worried to really getting freaked out? >> well, honestly, all that night i couldn't really sleep. i had passed by his dorm room to see if possibly, you know, his phone died, and he couldn't answer. his phone got wet. i was thinking of all these different scenarios. and he wasn't in his dorm. where was he all night? where was he staying? where was he sleeping? where -- where is he? >> reporter: the next morning -- still nothing from christian. he hadn't come back to his dorm room. so, erika and pedro, her ex-boyfriend, together went to the gainesville police. >> so, we go to the window and we start explaining our situation. and the lady pretty much, like, laughs at me. >> so, they're blowin' you off. >> yeah. and i was just there, like --

you know, this lady better hope there's nothing wrong here. i was so upset at that point 'cause i just wanted someone to pay attention and you know this is a serious thing. >> reporter: but after all, christian wouldn't be the first college freshman to go off the grid for a bit. maybe taking a break from his studies, crashing at another dorm. but his friends were worried and the cops told them to go see if the campus police could help. >> the big thing that i wanna find out is has anybody been in contact and when was the last time they contacted him. where was the last time anybody was on contact with 'em? >> reporter: officer tim peck talked to the concerned pair. found out that pedro was the last friend to see christian the previous day. >> and he kinda walks me through the -- the day, you know, once he meets christian. they go to the infirmary 'cause christian needs to get a flu shot. then, they go back to pedro's car which is parked on campus. and then at that point they go to best buy. >> reporter: pretty routine afternoon until, pedro told him, they decided to do something a little impulsive. >> then, he tells me at one

point they stop to pick up a hitchhiker. >> reporter: pedro told officer peck and erika they drove around town for a bit. >> eventually, the hitchhiker was like, "i wanna get outta the car." and then shortly after, christian said, you know, "i wanna get outta the car, too. you know, just pull over. i wanna get out." >> reporter: and that was where the friends parted, near this auto body shop, a few miles off-campus. that neighborhood around the body shop raised alarm bells for officer peck. it had some rough spots. >> some of the area is known to be a high drug area, have some gang activity as well. so, that kinda concerned me. were they up there specifically for that reason or in the process of christian gettin' dropped off, did he -- he run into something or -- or wander into a bad area? >> i knew there was a large homeless community in gainesville. and there -- there still is. so, i was a little concerned about that. if he was in the woods somewhere, and he stumbled into a campground of homeless people, and, you know, they decided to do something to him, you know,

that was one of the options i had thought of. >> reporter: a gang area? homeless camps and a mysterious hitchhiker? there seemed reason enough to be worried. erika called christian's parents, carlos and claudia aguilar down in miami and told them christian was missing. >> what did you think? >> i know that something was wrong. >> so, it was that worrying for you that -- >> uh-huh. >> yes. >> -- this behavior was not at all like christian, huh? >> not at all. that was not christian. >> reporter: along with christian's younger brother, alex, they jumped in the car to make that long drive up to gainesville. >> i can say that car ride was the most silent car ride i've ever had. we really didn't talk. it was really quiet. we didn't know what to say to one another. >> what did that word "missing" mean to you? >> missing, at first i guess i -- maybe me -- tryin' to be positive, was maybe he went out to the party. maybe he got injured. maybe he got into a car accident. we couldn't really tell 'cause we don't know who he hangs out with. >> reporter: and once they got there, police had questions for alex and his parents, too. >> they bring us into this small, little room. and we have an officer who gave us a few questions, asking what it was, "what type of person is

christian? would he -- is he normally like this? would he usually go out? does he drink? does he do any drugs?" >> what were you seeing in christian's parents in this period? >> confused, pain. there was just pain in their eyes. >> reporter: but erika says they were all about to channel that pain into determination with more friends heading up from miami. >> i had a whole group of individuals who were now just as concerned as i was -- just as focused as i was, just as driven to find christian. i didn't feel so alone once they got there. i felt, you know, we're gonna find him. we can do this. >> reporter: christian's family and friends were hopeful he'd turn up and soon. and for officer peck, the case of the missing student got more baffling when he caught wind of a secret -- christian had been trying to hide something. was his secret the key to finding him? >> there's something else going on here that i'm not aware of, but what exactly that is i'm not sure. >> reporter: coming up --

the secret! turns out someone else knew it, too, and it was about to be revealed right there at the police station. >> do you know him? chris, too? >> yeah. >> how do you know him? >> i was just concerned that i was gonna push him off the edge. and this is my favorite -- it's the kickstand. so you're saying it does more than my mac? well technically, you said it. ♪

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-- christian had not logged on. >> we check with the hospitals, the local hospitals to see if he was in there. then we'll also check with our notes from the previous night, run his name to see if he's had any contact with us, check with the city and the county, their main dispatch center, to see if they had any contact with him. >> reporter: no sign of christian anywhere. >> still calling, still texting? >> i'm still calling, still texting. i'm sending him messages, like, you know, "we're gonna find you," you know? "i -- i -- you know, i love you so much," you know? "i can't wait to see you again," you know?

"everything's gonna be okay." trying to, like, calm myself down. >> reporter: and it was in those hours inside the campus police station, that erika disclosed a secret that christian had been keeping. it was her secret too. since high school graduation, and her break-up with pedro, she and christian had become more than friends. >> it was very exciting. we -- we thought it was great. we thought, this is us, you know, learning how to get used to gainesville. and it was like, i had my best friend with me. it was somebody who i could always turn to, somebody i did always turn to, and somebody now that was always gonna be there for me. >> who made the move for the first embrace? >> oh, he -- he did. i -- he drove to my house. and i see him, and i instantly -- we -- we hug. and i'm there. and i'm just nervous. i haven't been this nervous. and all these butterflies in my stomach. and he grabs my -- my chin and he pulls me up. and he just gives me this magical kiss. >> and you became a couple that moment. >> oh, yeah. it was, like, we -- our first date was going to a restaurant, chick-fil-a. and we just both had all those

butterflies in our stomachs. and we just felt like -- like, "is this really happening? is this still really happening?" like, i just kept, you know, pinching myself, like, "god, this is crazy. i can't believe this." >> reporter: and in a matter of weeks, their young lives, she and christian, had changed completely. they were madly, deeply in love. >> what do you think the two of you had? >> something very rare. something you don't find every day. something amazing. something -- i don't even know how to explain what we had. it's like not a care in the world because you're just so happy to be with that person. where -- >> i mean, young -- young girls are in love sometimes with being in love, but this doesn't sound like that. >> oh no, no. this was something where you clicked on every level. >> reporter: but out of friendship and respect, they'd kept the new romance a secret from pedro, erika's ex. yet his friends knew that something was eating away at

pedro, ever since graduating from high school -- he had been in a kind of a funk. >> did he change at all? >> yes, as a matter of fact. as time went on he -- he kind of was a little more withdrawn. he was just starting to keep to himself a little more. >> i thought he was just depressed. you know? we all go through it, we all feel like, oh my gosh. >> reporter: buddy robert lopez had noticed some odd, alarming behavior. >> we all went out to this restaurant -- the swamp. it's well known in gainesville. it's right next to the football stadium. and our tab ran up to, like, $70 and he picked up the whole tab. and we asked him like, "pedro, why -- why would you pay for our whole tab? you're paying for all your classes out of pocket." and he's like, "yeah, i'm not worried about it. i won't need this money soon." >> whoa. >> yeah. that was -- that -- >> that give you an insight into -- his head at that point -- >> yeah. >> -- do you think? >> -- that was when we realized, you know, he's not doing okay. >> reporter: was pedro suicidal?

all the more reason, for erika and christian, to keep their happy romance quiet. >> i was just concerned that i was gonna push him off the edge, i didn't want him to go home that night, knowing that i was dating one of our mutual friends and him think, you know, "i'm just gonna end my life right now." >> reporter: but now with christian's disappearance, the cat was out of the bag. at the university police station that day, erika blurted it out with pedro right there in the room. >> do you know christian? >> yeah, yeah. >> how do you know him? >> i'm his girlfriend. >> you're his girlfriend? >> yeah. >> oh, i'm sorry. >> and she goes on to tell me that her and christian had started dating, but they didn't think pedro knew about their -- them dating. >> reporter: how would pedro react to hearing that? the officer sensed that something seemed to be brewing in the circle of friends, but what that was wasn't clear. for now, everyone was focused on finding christian. >> they were all feeling like we're all in this together, we're all worried about christian. he's our friend. we're trying to find out -- do

whatever we can to -- to help locate him. >> reporter: officer peck could see that erika was becoming increasingly agitated. so, as the campus cop was checking out the stories these two friends told him, he decided it was time to bring in investigators from the gainesville pd. and the first thing they'd want to do is talk to pedro bravo. >> i have to tell you one thing. >> okay. >> coming up -- a dramatic new clue! >> we find christian's backpack. >> where would this new discovery lead? >> i heard officers discussing like a love triangle. >> i'm starting to believe that there might be something more to this than just a missing person. (male announcer) it's happening. today, more and more people with type 2 diabetes are learning about long-acting levemir®, an injectable insulin that can give you blood sugar control for up to 24 hours. and levemir® helps lower your a1c. levemir® is now available in flextouch® - the only prefilled insulin pen with no push-button extension.

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town. that first whiff of freedom can lead to some less-than-responsible, even reckless behavior. but in the case of missing freshman christian aguilar, campus police had begun to suspect something sinister may have happened. they called in a veteran detective from the gainesville p.d. >> when i first walked in, there was two girls sitting in the

lobby which was erika friman and her sister. there was a male, pedro bravo, in an interview room. are you paid flow is. >> yes. >> since -- pedro? >> yes. >> since pedro of the last person to see christian, he topped the list of people detective randy roberts wanted to speak to. >> i wanted to hear the story beginning to ending e end as he had told upd so i could get a feel for what was going on. >> not missing for long -- >> me, too. in the last 48 hours, when have you seen christian? >> yesterday. >> that was -- >> pedro repeated his, of the last time he'd seen his friend. how they'd run errands, grabbed a bite to eat, swung over to best buy so christian could pick up the latest kanye west. does. that's them around 3:00 p.m., smiling as they walked around the store. >> his shirt was tattered. >> again, he said they picked up a hitchhiker in a rough part of town.

>> mid 50s, i couldn't tell because he a big, white, bushy beard. around that. >> how else was he dressed? hat? >> he had a cowboy hat. >> detective roberts pressed pedro about lou and why he and christian parted ways that night. pedro revealed that after dropping off the hitchhiker, he and christian got into an argument about a girl, but it had nothing to do with erika. remember, christian and erika had been trying to keep their new relationship a secret. this was about another girl from high school altogether. >> i made a comment about this girl he had a crush on for like three years,ya and he poured hi heart out and didn't work out. he got mad. he was silent for a few minutes, and then highway toe told me to car, he wanted to get out. >> what did you do? >> i was angry, too. i stopped the car and said, "fine, get out." >> the investigator listened with a skeptical ear as pedro described driving away, stopping

at mcdonald's, and then going home to bed, with no idea something had happened until his phone rang at 4:00 a.m. and erika told him that christian of missing. >> got up and tried to go back to sleep, but i couldn't. like i was -- i felt kind of guilty because i dropped him off on the road. i was afraid what if something happened, what if he's lost now. >> pedro let them search his car if i any clues related to christian, and bingo. they found something interesting. >> they found the receipt showing that someone, him or someone else using his vehicle, had made a trip to mcdonald's during the night. >> mcdonald's, where pedro claimed he'd eaten right after christian had jumped out of the car. call it 7:00 p.m. and change. and yet, the receipt was timestamped much later. 12:54 a.m., more than five hours later than he told them. >> you went to mcdonald's in the middle of the night. maybe you forgot -- maybe you forgot something else. >> the back and forth with detective roberts started

sounding more like an interrogation. >> leave things out kind of like -- >> like you -- >> it make you look like you did something bad, you know. >> as for the story about the hitchhiker, the cops checked it out but couldn't come up with anything. >> we checked surveillance video in the area where they said he dropped him. looked and didn't find anybody. he checked area businesses to see if there was someone like that that that matched the description of the him hiktchhi didn't find anyone. >> was pedro hiding something? >> is there anything we need to change about where you went, what times? >> well, there was. just whether it seemed the interview was -- just when it seemed the interview was ending, pedro decided to keep talking. there was something he'd left out. >> one thing i have to tell you because -- you're right, i can't keep everything from you, and i have to tell you one thing. >> okay. >> that one thing was huge. >> like in the scuffle with chris, it wasn't really an argument. i made the comment about his -- girl he had the crush on. he got angry at that.

and -- then he came back with, "maybe you should just -- maybe you should [ bleep ] kill yourself." that's when i turned around and punched him straight in the face. >> a fist fight. this was a new detail he'd never mentioned. pedro was now admitting to leaving his buddy by the side of the road bleeding from a sock in the nose. >> now i'm starting to believe that there might be something more to this than just a missing person. >> but what? while investigators tried to figure it out, they decided they couldn't let pedro go home. they charged him with depriving a victim of medical care. for bloodying christian's nose and then leaving him on the side of the road. >> i had a suspicion that, you know, the meeting took a wrong turn, and that they got into an argument. what could have happened? what exactly is pedro capable of? >> meanwhile, the search for christian was only getting bigger. and for his family and friends, more desperate. what's going through your head? is it like it's me, like, i'm in

the woods, i'm trying to find you, where are you? >> yeah. i think when we were searching, it was more just to do something because you feel so useless and so helpless. so you're there looking. >> posters are going up? >> we're hanging posters. we're handing out flyers during the football game. it was football season. >> gainesville police were doing their own searches, too, as they focused more and more attention on pedro paragraph oh abravo an story. they executed a search of his apartment less than two days after christian had gone missing. what did they find stashed way up in pedro's clot ♪ >> we found christian's backpack -- closet? >> we found christian's backpack, hidden inside of pedro's backpack, hidden inside a suitcase. >> why would a friend have another friend's backpack? >> that's our concern. why would he hide his backpack so excessively because it was very well hidden. we thought is pedro trying to cover up. >> pedro has gone from being a person of interest to a suspect in the disappearance. >> yes. it was very quickly that that

happened. it's hard to swallow something that huge when it's, you know, this is somebody you've known for so long. >> ark erika had to face the possibility that maybe she and christian hadn't been so good at keeping secrets. maybe pedro had known all about their relationship, and it had sent him over the over. >> i overheard police officers discussing that i -- like a love jealous rage kind of thing, like a love triangle i think they had said. >> how did you bear up with that? >> didn't want tong of that. i couldn't -- want to think of that. i couldn't imagine somebody doing something so horrible -- especially somebody as smart as pedro. >> but when the crime scene techs processed pedro's suv, there it was -- blood. now the police believe pedro hadn't just punched out christian, they believed he killed him. on the friday a week after pedro bravo had helped report his good friend missing, he was charged with first-degree murder. >> with the blood evidence, with

the backpack being hidden, and with him being away and not heard of for so long, that's when we decided to upgrade the charge to murder. >> pedro, your high school boyfriend, in your life a long time, is charged with the first-degree murder of the guy you're describing as the man of your life. >> yes. it's exactly what happened. very strange, strange life i have. >> but there's an axiom in homicide work -- no body, no case. investigators hadn't found christian's body. so what else were they finding out about pedro bravo? coming up, the case heads in to court, and the star witness -- >> i don't want to be around him. i just wanted him gone. >> the young woman at the center of it all now facing pedro and a painful past. >> got really emotional. you know, i got really -- i got really upset like, why do you want to show me this?

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>> reporter: as pedro bravo sat in jail, charged with the murder of his friend christian aguilar, the search for christian continued. his family clinging to hope, but fearing the worst. >> you're there looking all day, from sunrise to sunset, with people you are meeting along the

way, a bunch of volunteers, police officers. >> reporter: but after three weeks of searching -- >> just down this road here is where those two men found human remains on friday afternoon. >> reporter: two hunters walking through some acreage came across a body buried in a shallow grave. it was christian. >> in a way we had expected it. we were just waiting for that phone call to actually happen. >> reporter: erika could not absorb the news. >> you never want to just accept that kind of news. but at least we were able to find him. >> state of florida versus pedro bravo. >> reporter: earlier this month, nearly two years after christian died, his high school friend pedro was on trial for murder. he pleaded not guilty. erika, your personal belief, do you believe that pedro killed christian? >> yes. >> reporter: why? for what reason? >> i think it was -- i mean, a mixture of jealousy academically, and a mixture of jealousy involving me. >> reporter: central to the prosecution's case, simple high school geometry, a love triangle. christian, his new girlfriend

erika, and her ex, pedro bravo. a motive as old as time, the prosecutor said. >> mr. bravo's plan is not just to murder christian aguilar. that's just a part of it. he's got to reunite with erika. >> reporter: the prosecutor painted a picture of a teenager not just depressed over the break-up, but obsessed with getting erika back. and his star witness was the very object of pedro's obsession, a very nervous erika. >> i didn't want to see him. i didn't want to be around him. you know, i didn't want his family near him. i just wanted him gone. >> reporter: with pedro barely looking at her, erika read just some of the non-stop text messages pedro had been sending her. >> i came all this way, and i miss you like crazy. and i love you despite everything that's happened. and maybe i'm stupid, but i can't help the feeling. and i'm so sorry. i'm so, so sorry. >> reporter: on the stand, the

prosecution asked erika to read out loud sections of pedro's journal, thoughts that would show the jury just how fixated on her he was. >> i can win her back. i will win her back. i want to give up everything to be with her again. >> reporter: but it was the sight of an evidence bag containing christian's backpack, his personal stuff from a carefree, happy time, that caused erika to lose it on the stand. >> i got really emotional. you know, i got really thrown back. i was just, like, why do you have to bring this out? why do you want to show me this? >> reporter: and the prosecution wasn't done. there was more to its theory of motive. despite their best efforts, christian and erika hadn't done a very good job concealing their relationship from pedro. >> pedro went into christian's facebook and email accounts and read conversations between erika and christian. >> reporter: so christian was the romantic rival, and he needed to go, said the state. >> we know that he knew about it prior to them going off that

day. >> reporter: and this wasn't simply a crime of passion, the prosecution charged. it was a cold, premeditated murder. the prosecution alleged pedro started plotting his friend's murder on september 16th, four days before christian disappeared. >> he's at home, and he's on his computer. >> reporter: google searches were found on pedro's laptop. questions like, what is chloroform? can rubbing alcohol knock someone out? and, what kinds of murders get solved? and here on security video is pedro at a walmart buying a sleep aid product, 55 yards of duct tape, and a hunting knife. in his hand was a shovel he'd just bought at lowe's. >> he literally bought the murder starter pack. >> reporter: and, as the prosecution theory goes, pedro used those items to drug and strangle his friend, right inside his car.

on 9/20 at 4:11 that blue blazer pulls in. they showed the jury surveillance cam video of pedro's suv in a walmart parking lot. investigators believe inside the vehicle the murder is going down. >> they sit there for a long period of time, and then pull up a little further and sit there for another long period of time. >> when he leaves that parking lot, christian aguilar's dead. he murders him in the car. >> reporter: forensics confirmed that was christian's blood that investigators had found in pedro's suv. and they had discovered even more intriguing evidence in the trunk, an empty gatorade bottle caked with residue from a sleep aid and an antihistamine. >> putting those two combinations together in a large quantity would cause someone to lose consciousness. >> reporter: once christian was dead, pedro had to get dispose of his friend's body. and the tale of how that happened, the prosecution said, was told by pedro's phone.

his iphone had been on airplane mode for more than five hours that night, but investigators could see that pedro had used an app, the flashlight app, for 48 minutes. >> he's using the flashlight. he's burying chris' body. >> reporter: and the prosecution had yet another piece of physical evidence it said tied pedro beyond a reasonable doubt to the murder. duct tape. >> when we found christian aguilar's body he had duct tape wrapped around his ankles, his wrists and his neck. a piece from his ankle was identified as being torn from the same piece of tape that was inside pedro bravo's windshield. >> reporter: when pedro was done burying his friend, the prosecution said, he stopped at mcdonalds for that bite to eat. then he drove to a car wash. >> so at 1:00 in the morning, we have pedro bravo pulling up to a car wash and washing his vehicle for 12 minutes. it tells me that he's trying to get rid of evidence. >> reporter: when he got home, pedro washed his clothes, and crawled in bed in time to get

erika's 4am phone call asking of christian's whereabouts. >> who duct taped him? pedro bravo. who put him in the grave? pedro bravo. who killed him? pedro bravo. >> after calling nearly 50 witnesses to the stand, the prosecution rested its case. the defense, though, thought it needed only one witness in response: pedro bravo was about to take the stand. coming up -- he would have a dramatically different story to tell. >> did you drink the concoction that was in the gatorade bottle? >> yes, drank the concoction that was in the gatorade bottle. >> could the evidence presented against him actually help clear him? iness. and energy. happiness is the most attractive form of beauty. the one that comes from deep within. [ male announcer ] discover rénergie lift multi-action, our #1 lifting and firming moisturizer from lancôme. to visibly tighten all facial zones. see younger looking skin. this is what makes people remember you. [ male announcer ] rénergie lift multi-action by lancôme.

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the prosecution's portraits of pedro bravo was clear and unforgiving. highway was so fix -- he was so fixatesed on winning back his former girlfriend, he would kill anyone who got in his way, anyone. >> didn't think it would be safe for anyone to be out in the real world with normal people.

i think he could be borderlaine sociopath. >> the defense had a flip side -- >> 18-year-old, charter academy, he had issues that he wanted to talk to his best friend about. >> his best friend. that's what the defense said christian was it pedro right up to the time he disappeared. his lawyer insisted that pedro never saw christian as a romantic rival. that's because he didn't know that christian and erika were dating until that day in the police station. >> how do you know him? >> my boyfriend. >> now the jury was about to hear from pedro himself and only pedro. the sole went for the defense. and when he took the stand, the jurors didn't see some hulking psycho killer but a pale, intelligent, lovesick boy in a tidy suit. >> i graduated from doral academy, yes. >> with any distinctions? >> i graduated magna cum laude.

>> although he denied any malice toward christian, pedro did concede another element of the state's case. he was desperate to rekindle his relationship with erika friman. >> i still loved her. like i was still very enamored with her and really wanted to get back with her. >> and whether it became clear that she -- when it became clear that she wasn't coming back, he told the jury he sank into a deep depression about erika and everything else in his sad, disintegrating life. >> basically how i felt like a failure. everything's a mess. everything feels like a mess, and i feel like i'm breaking apart piece by piece. >> that's why he made plans to hang out with christian that afternoon. he wanted help from his old friend. >> chris was one of the people i could talk to about this because he had also gone through the same thing. >> so how did that man-to-man talk end up in a fist fight? pedro says it started after christian said something terrible. >> and he tells me, why don't you go [ bleep ] kill yourself. >> what happened next? >> i turn around, and i hit him