The Suitcase Suffocation // 493
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The missing child is Lucia Blix, nine years old. Please, let her come back home safely. April 16th. The kidnappers plundered meticulously. If money is what it takes to get her back, we're going to pay it. The secrets they hide. You can't talk about this. You can't write about it. Are the clues. The mother's hiding something, I know it. To find her. Tell me where she is. The Stolen Girl series premiere April 16th on Freeform and stream on Hulu.

Hi, we're Mochi Health, your long-term weight loss solution. We'll connect you with a board-certified provider to discuss your unique goals. Eligible patients can access custom-formulated GLP-1 medications at an affordable, fixed price. Deliver to their door monthly. Take our free eligibility quiz at joinmochi.com and use code AUDIO40 at checkout for $40 off your first month of membership.

That's joinmochi.com. Results may vary. Eligible GLP-1 patients typically lose one to two pounds per week in their first six months with Mochi, combined with a healthy lifestyle.

What is going on, true crime fans? I'm your host, Heath. And I'm your host, Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello, everybody. Hope you're doing well today. Big shout out to Caitlin for recommending today's case. This story will truly make your jaw drop.

It has so much he said, she said, but also a lot of concrete evidence in the form of videos that we will absolutely be playing. Yeah, I mean, this case is so twisted. There's so much toxicity in this case. There's a lot of manipulation. I really think you guys are going to be absolutely shocked. Yeah, like all the texts we're going to go into again, the audio clips of video clips.

Like, it's unhinged. So without further ado, let us dive in. All right, guys, this is episode 493 of Going West, so let's get into it. ♪♪♪

We are hearing from two very special voices for the victim in the suitcase murder trial for George Torres. Prosecutors say that he was murdered by his longtime girlfriend, Sarah Boone, who had him trapped inside of a suitcase, beat him and left him to die. The defense is saying that Sarah Boone was acting in self-defense.

In February of 2020, a 42-year-old Florida man suffocated to death after being zipped into a suitcase during what allegedly started as an innocent game of hide-and-seek. But when an investigation revealed that there had been drinking involved, an ulterior motive presented itself, and so did a suspect whose intentions hadn't been so playful. ♪♪

This is the murder of George Torres.

George Torres Jr. I know it is spelled like Jorge, but he did say it like George. So we're going to call him George. He was born on February 13th, 1978. Two parents, Blanca and George Sr. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and grew up alongside nine siblings. So huge family.

After studying at Edison High School in Philadelphia, George met and married his first wife, Dolores, and they had three kids together.

He and Dolores were actually married for 14 years, and even though their relationship ultimately didn't last, Dolores says that there was nothing particularly salacious about their breakup, and certainly nothing violent, which is very important to remember for later. George's youngest daughter, Destiny, gave a great peek into his personality, saying, quote,

Now, at some point, much of George's family moved down to Florida from Pennsylvania. And after navigating his second divorce in only a few years, since he got married and divorced again after Dolores, George decided to join them and kind of start fresh, settling in Winter Park, which is a northern Orlando suburb.

As of 2018, 40-year-old George was working as a shift manager at Ace Hardware there, and it was there in Orlando that he met recent divorcee Sarah Boone. Sarah was born in Atlanta and lived there for the first few years of her life before settling in the Orlando area, where her immediate family, which consisted of her parents and her two brothers, moved in with her grandparents.

By Sarah's account, she had suffered significant challenges in her personal life by the time she was a teenager. She said, quote,

Sarah claimed that she was forced to grow up very quickly because of all of this. She worked to help her family make money and was orphaned alongside her brothers by the time she was in her early 20s. But around that same time, she met a man named Brian Boone and they dated for a few years.

before getting married in 2004. So similar to George and Dolores, who, like I said, were together for 14 years, Brian and Sarah Boone were together for 13, and they share a son named Lucas.

But according to Brian, Sarah's drinking and erratic behavior really began to tear at the fabric of their family. And he eventually grew tired of Lucas, you know, just being caught in the crosshairs of it all. Because you guys will see as we, you know, go throughout the course of this story, just how troubled this woman is. So as their relationship soured, Sarah began to go out frequently, staying out late, gossiping.

Coming home drunk quite often. So after 13 years together, Sarah and Brian divorced in 2017, and they vowed to share custody of Lucas. After that, Brian bought Sarah out of the house that they shared together, and she moved into the Tealwood Park Apartments nearby, so still in the Orlando area.

Luke is shuffled back and forth between the two of them, spending Mondays and Tuesdays with Sarah, Wednesdays and Thursdays with Brian, and then alternating weekends between his parents.

Then, about ten months after separating from her husband, Sarah finally met George, who was also a divorcee and a single parent, at a bar near her house while she was out by herself. She explained that she found George attractive and charming from the jump, so that first night, Sarah says that they wound up talking at the bar for four hours.

She remembers that their connection was instantaneous, saying, quote,

He was smart, and I would show up in workout clothes and disheveled hair, and I guess I kind of felt broken from being in the process of the divorce. So after that first night, they started dating, and he moved into her apartment with her shortly afterwards, which was a huge financial help, Sarah said, because she was struggling to make ends meet, you know, without her husband's income, despite receiving monthly alimony checks.

What followed was a whirlwind three-year courtship that many view, as I said, as very toxic. But despite all this, Sarah claims that they were devoted to each other for the entire span of their relationship, and that he even proposed to her three times, one of which she accepted.

But woven in with the romance and excitement of this new relationship were outbursts and violent confrontations between the two, which Sarah claimed were perpetrated almost entirely by George.

The police were called to the apartment multiple times and both George and Sarah were arrested in the various fights. For example, in July of 2018, Sarah was arrested on charges of battery by strangulation, but George later dropped the charges against her for this.

Sarah claims that George had initially been the aggressor that night. Like I said, there's a lot of he said, she said here. And she says that he had dragged her upstairs by her hair and kicked her in her right eye after seeing her talking to another man at a bar. Though in her version of events, she also says that she only strangled him to deter him from attacking her.

Now, unfortunately, as it goes in many situations like this, the responding officers reported that there was no way of knowing who originated the confrontation. Now, George was arrested four different times for battery that Sarah alleged she was the victim of. But each time she would bail him out of jail and the relationship would continue.

So today's story takes place in February of 2020, and his most recent offense to that, at least as far as police were aware, was in September of 2019 when he punched Sarah in the ear.

Now to this, George pleaded guilty, though he protested that Sarah had been equally violent towards him and he received probation. And aside from the conflict that they had with each other, Sarah was also causing many, many disputes within George's own family, including between George, his wife Dolores, and his kids. Now there are some texts that Heath and I want to talk about, but first I want to say...

That Dolores and Sarah like didn't know each other. They'd only met one time. But Dolores says that Sarah tried to engage in verbal confrontation over the phone with her just because she was angry about George's frequent communication with their shared kids. And obviously when I say shared kids, I mean Dolores and George's shared kids. Like she didn't like that they had to be in conversation at all, which is obviously insane. Yeah.

Yeah, and I think, you know, this is just, it's such a mess at this point. Like, it's very clear that both of you guys need to separate. You should not be in a relationship with each other because it's just not working. But for some reason, Sarah, instead of just saying, hey, this isn't working, she's just trying to force George to stay in a relationship with her

but then also still just causing trouble amongst the family. Yeah, I don't know why they're with each other at all. Like, I really don't. Yeah, it's just not working. But we're going to talk about that a little bit later because police are going to ask the very same question. But like, there were so many, there's so many text transcripts

There's honestly way too many to go into. I mean, think about it, like three years worth of texts and conversations. But like there's a lot of times where she was racist to him and his family. Like so many conversations between her and George from the previously year. Sorry, where she's saying she calls him a dumpster diver. She says, that's what you are. And the rest of you referring to his family saying rats, rats.

Pork chops, beans, fuck all of you. So super racist. His family is from Puerto Rico. There's actually a lot of text messages as well in an affidavit between Sarah and George's daughter, Anna. Heath and I were going through these earlier, but, you know, Sarah is kind of like picking fights with Anna and saying things that she shouldn't be saying. Like she says to Anna at one point, your dad is a piece of shit.

And then obviously Anna is defending herself. And like Anna even says, you're a piece of shit, but that's God's business, not mine. Have a good day, coke whore. Because, you know, Anna is probably just like, why are you bothering me? Like I'm the kid in the situation. Yeah, it's super inappropriate to even be having conversations like this

Absolutely. And to that, the text I just read, Sarah said, Yeah, and it's crazy because...

She is so completely unhinged. Like there's one point where she texts some person named Moe, who is, I'm assuming, a part of the family. But she says night night fucks, a.k.a. Torres's. And she says that numerous times.

And then she also says, where is it at? Night night fucks. God, that's funny. It's crazy. I mean, she's a bitch. And then she also says, get all of you. So I don't know what that means. It kind of sounds like a threat. She's very threatening in a lot of her messages. She doesn't care who she's talking to. She makes it very much known that

her negative feelings for George to the entire family as a whole. So if you guys want to go read all of those text messages, they are on the internet. You can find them. Um, but we're not going to read all of them right now because it would take us too long. But yeah, they're very crazy. Actually, I'll go ahead and include this huge document of text transcripts for you guys. We can put it on our social. So if you want to go through and read pages of text, you can. Uh, but basically, I mean, it's really no surprise. Uh,

Going back to Dolores, that she described Sarah as bitterly contentious and extremely possessive over George, remembering, quote, any chance that he had that he was able to call his kids to speak and I was present. It was a problem for George. She was very jealous of me. For what reason? I'm not aware.

George's oldest daughter, Anna Victoria, we were just talking about texts between Sarah and Anna, she claims that he would speak on the phone with her about three times a week for as long as they could until Sarah would force them to stop. Well, the violence between them seriously persisted. Like, at one point, they had broken up and gotten back together so many times that...

with his parents taking George in each time that his father demanded that George either move back in with them permanently or move in with Sarah permanently. They were so over that back and forth. So they're like, either you're staying here, you're staying there, but you're not going to go there and then come here over and over again. Yeah, I would be over that too because it's just too much drama and they don't want to be involved in any of that. And they're probably like, why are you even with this girl, you know, or this woman? Yeah.

So basically after that, George decided to move back in with Sarah as they tried to make things work. Sarah said that for about a month before his death, things were good between them, after he allegedly recently struck her with a curtain rod. But on the evening of Sunday, February 23rd, 2020, their problems would return in full force. Sarah says that they were both home during the day, and George wanted to spend the day relaxing with a few drinks.

She explained, quote, After they completed a few household chores, readying the apartment for Sarah's son Lucas to come over the following day,

the two split a bottle of wine they painted and worked on a puzzle together while listening to some music and i know that these activities kind of sound like early coveted activities but this was just shy of a month before lockdown and they were just doing these types of projects recently because george had attended counseling for domestic violence and the courses suggest doing calming and productive stuff like this together so this is the reason why they're just kind of doing these chill activities

So even though the day kind of seemed to be going well, no one except for Sarah will ever know what really happened inside their apartment later that night. But the following afternoon, 42-year-old George would be found dead inside of a suitcase. That Sunday evening, February 23rd, so the day of the puzzles and wine and painting, Sarah called her ex-husband Brian around 11 p.m. while Brian was asleep.

He groggily answered the phone and claimed that Sarah seemed drunk and slightly incoherent. About 12 hours later, around 11 a.m. on Monday, Brian called Sarah multiple times to make sure that she knew it was her day to pick Lucas up from school. Like Heath said earlier, she had him on Mondays and Tuesdays. And Brian actually later added that she was frequently late or absent when it was her turn to do so.

But Sarah didn't answer the phone. It wasn't until 12.30 p.m. that afternoon, so about an hour and a half later, that they actually connected. And to Brian's great shock, Sarah told him that George was dead and asked if Brian could come over.

So obviously very confused, he told her that he would help her, but that she needed to call the police immediately. Imagine the shock that Brian is going through right now. Like, you're telling me that your boyfriend is dead? What the fuck? Yeah, so call 911, get help. Like, yes, I will come over and do what I can, but you need to call the police. So she called him again, Brian again, minutes later, making sure that he was still coming. And he again reiterated that she needed to call an ambulance.

Ten minutes after their first call, he arrived at her home and Sarah still had not called the police, which I think is a really big initial red flag here. Yes, very much. Now, the story that she relayed to Brian, which she later regurgitated to police, is a wild one. She said that she and George had been playing hide and seek. Yes, like two grown adults playing hide and seek. Okay, fine. But...

Here's the kicker. She said that he put himself inside a suitcase as a joke, somehow zipping himself up inside. But Sarah had fallen asleep and unable to undo the zipper from the interior of the suitcase, but somehow able to zip it up, right? George had died from positional asphyxia.

When Brian stepped into the foyer, he spotted George's limp feet dangling out of the suitcase and said that he left immediately demanding for a third time that she call the police because, you know, he sees this. He's like, I,

I don't know what happened. I don't want any part of this. You need to call for help. I can't help you. Right. I don't want to be involved in this. So Brian, but he didn't leave the scene because he knew that police would want to speak with him too. So he waited in the car to ensure that Sarah made the call while Sarah said that she needed a Dr. Pepper and a cigarette, both of which she enjoyed while she waited for authorities to arrive.

And I know this is probably really hard to picture, you know, a man in a suitcase, especially if he got into it while he was alive and his body was intact. But if you can't go look at photos on our socials, it's basically it's a large suitcase. It's still a suitcase, but it's not a carry-on size. You'd have to check this bag on an airplane.

But George also was only 5'3 tall and about 103 pounds. But still, you know, this is a tight squeeze. The suitcase was 28 inches long, 20 inches wide, and 8 inches deep. So certainly not roomy enough to get yourself in. Yeah, definitely. And one thing I wanted to mention here is that there are some, like, different suitcases that have those zippers. Like, one zipper tab on the outside and one on the inside.

And I'm wondering if maybe that's like the kind of the purpose of those is like in case a child accidentally zips themselves up or something. Yeah, maybe so. You can get out, but it doesn't appear that this suitcase had one of those. So at the very least, you would imagine he would have had some help getting in and would have needed help getting out. Yes, very true. Well, that day, Monday, February 24th, around 1 p.m., Sarah finally called 911.

Agitated, she told them that her boyfriend was dead and that there was blood coming out of his mouth. When they implored her to perform CPR, she said that she had tried prior to making the call, but that it was pointless because George was deceased. Sarah later recalled the exact moment that she realized he was gone, saying, quote,

I was aghast. I can't describe the feeling. Terror to a certain degree. I pulled him out, and I stretched him out flat, and I began instantly trying to do CPR. And then I was trying to look for a pulse or a breath or just anything. It was just screaming over and over and over again.

But when police arrived, body cam footage revealed that Sarah seemed more concerned with getting her cigarettes and Dr. Pepper from inside the house than she was about her boyfriend's sudden and horrific death. So obviously just trying to make sense of this whole story, officers continued to ask her questions.

With Sarah reiterating what she had told her ex-husband, but adding more context for what prefaced George supposedly being stuck inside this suitcase. How they were drinking wine and playing hide-and-seek. But Sarah said that they wanted to see if he could fit inside the suitcase, which had only been left out because they were planning on donating it to Goodwill.

She said George folded himself inside and she zipped him in as the two supposedly laughed at how he was able to fit. Which that could make sense. Again, it's like I can't really see her completely forcing him in there and able to close it up without him trying to or able to get out. Yeah. But the rest, sorry, continue. Yeah, it seems like he was kind of coerced into getting in there. But the next piece of her story makes very little sense.

Because Sarah claims that she went upstairs, she forgot that he had been left inside the suitcase, and she put herself to bed around midnight. Imagine, like, even if you're really drunk, just being like, oh, what else do I have going on tonight, and walking away while he's in there. Yeah, this is such bullshit. She also staunchly denied being drunk or having had more than a couple of glasses of wine.

But here is that clip from the body cam footage. Okay.

I tried giving you CPR. The problem is, is I fell asleep. I fell asleep. When did you do CPR? This morning. When I found it. Before you called? Yes! One o'clock right now. I tried...

I was awake but I actually got out of the bed at like 12:30ish whatever so I came downstairs and I was like oh he's in the suitcase still that's when I found him and I took him out and I tried doing CPR and then I called him and then I called you guys all we had was a bottle of wine literally just a bottle of wine okay doing puzzles artwork then we decided the boy hadn't seen

That's all that happened. Okay, okay. So I don't know if he had a heart attack or what in there. Like, I don't know what happened. So how long were you doing CPR on him prior to you calling 911? You tried that all morning? Yes. Okay. And then I called him while I was doing CPR. What time did you start probably giving him a fall apart?

So, Sarah claims that she woke up around noon, meaning that she slept for 12 hours, and lounged in bed until about 12:30, when she remembered that George was still sealed inside the suitcase. But, by the time she checked on him, he was deceased. And although there's only one version of the truth,

This version would be the first of multiple from Sarah on George's death. The missing child is Lucia Blix, nine years old. Please, let her come back home safely. April 16th, the kidnappers plundered meticulously. If money is what it takes to get her back, we're going to pay it.

The secrets they hide. You can't talk about this. You can't write about it. Are the clues. The mother's hiding something, I know it. To find her. Tell me where she is. The Stolen Girl series premiere April 16th on Freeform and stream on Hulu.

Hi, we're Mochi Health, your long-term weight loss solution. We'll connect you with a board-certified provider to discuss your unique goals. Eligible patients can access custom-formulated GLP-1 medications at an affordable fixed price. Deliver to their door monthly. Take our free eligibility quiz at joinmochi.com and use code AUDIO40 at checkout for $40 off your first month of membership.

That's joinmochi.com. Results may vary. Eligible GLP-1 patients typically lose one to two pounds per week in their first six months with Mochi, combined with a healthy lifestyle. On the night that George was found dead, Monday, February 24th, 2020, Sarah went home with her ex-husband, Brian, and stayed over at his house.

The following afternoon, Tuesday, February 25th, she returned to the police station voluntarily for further questioning. And there, with the two officers, she outlined the many physical altercations between herself and George, you know, throughout the course of their relationship, including one in which he stabbed her with a steak knife.

On the evening that he stabbed her, she said that she had cooked him a dinner of steak and potatoes, but that it had not been to George's liking.

Sarah told them, quote,

Sarah then said that she attempted to crawl away from him and begged him to call 911 or even just to drop her off at the hospital, but that George refused, concerned that he would find himself in more legal trouble. Sarah added that he was drunk and that he was always the one who wanted to drink and often forced Sarah to join him.

The stab wound was apparently so bad that she required surgery and multiple follow-up appointments with doctors to repair the damage that it had done to her leg. And it was at this point that Sarah was asked by one of the interrogating officers why she was still with George if he had inflicted so much emotional and physical pain during the last few years of her life.

And finally, for the first time, she broke down in tears before responding. And here is a clip of that. I had one really bad surgery, but then it got really, really, really, really bad where I had to go like four or five more times afterwards for them to tend to it. And then poking me in the back of the leg. Right. So it's... Then why are you still with him? Everybody asks me that. When I tell you guys this, I really love him.

like I do and I feel like I can help him. But he's changed. He changed. And that's why you're still with him. Even though he's done all these things to you. And when I tell you I love him, I love him. Even when you have, when you love somebody, you have limits. Everybody tells me that. All my neighbors don't tell me that. The office, property manager. At some point, somebody

gets enough, then they have to do something to defend themselves. I would just flee. I had him arrested how many times? But you also went down and bailed him out. I know.

But Brian Boone, who was also questioned by police, by the way, offered up a less than favorable view of his ex-wife. He explained that she had struggled for years with alcoholism and that her irresponsibility regarding their son bordered on neglect. She was unable to hold down a steady job and had apparently engaged in multiple extramarital affairs, which, coincidentally, she had accused George of doing.

Brian also admitted that, especially when she had been drinking, Sarah's behavior would become increasingly violent, erratic, and abusive. Well, in a move that would shock investigators based on what they later found, Sarah offered up her cell phone for them to search. This is how we have all those texts that we talked about earlier. Yes, exactly. And when they looked inside, they found the single most damning piece of evidence. Two videos showing Sarah taunting George, fraudulently,

from outside the suitcase as she watched him struggle to breathe. It's actually insane not only that she recorded this, but that they are out there and available for us to watch. Well, apparently she claims that she doesn't remember taking these, but there they are. Cannot deny their existence. And although it's disturbing knowing that he's pleading to her from inside the place that he would soon die...

We did want to play the clip so that you guys can hear their conversation because it's clear that this is not a game of hide and seek. Like, Sarah's perspective here is not lighthearted in the slightest. And here's a clip of that. Sour. For everything you've done to me. Sour. For everything you've done to me. Fuck you. Sour. Fuck you. Sour. Stupid. Sour. Sour.

That's my name! Don't wear it out. Sarah. I can't fucking breathe, babe. Seriously. Yeah! That's what you do when you choke me. Sarah. Sarah. Sarah. Sarah, I can't breathe, babe. That's on you. Sarah, I can't breathe. That's on you. Sarah. Wriggle around some. Might want to get video for it, extra. 'Cause I got this. Sarah. Wriggle around some. Sarah. Sarah, I can't. I can't breathe, babe. Oh.

That's what I feel like when you drink on me. Sarah! Fuck you! I can't hear something for you, Sarah! You should probably shut the fuck up. Sarah!

I mean, it's just so beyond horrible. He's pleading with her. He's calling her baby. He's really trying to convince her to let him out and just knowing that she never does. And all the horrible things that she is saying to him. She's laughing. She's mocking. Yeah, and you can tell she is absolutely wasted. Like, she is sloshed. Yeah, she absolutely... But it's still...

No excuse, but then knowing that Brian said that when she got drunk, she was violent and erratic. And abusive. And abusive. It really all lines up and makes sense. So whether or not she did fall asleep by mistake or passed out because she was so drunk, she knew that he was in there. I think that it was just her way of trying to punish him. And this was, you know, in my opinion, it was clearly intentional. But Sarah said, quote, my intention was not to leave him in there.

Shocked at the contents of the videos, officers attempted to show her the footage in order to ask her about it, but Sarah refused to watch, telling them, quote,

And that same day, Sarah was arrested for George's murder. Yeah, it's all coming back to her. She's like, shit, I did record that. And they found it. She probably honestly did forget. And then when they're trying to say, look what we found, she doesn't want to see what she did. Well, here's the thing. I don't think she would have given up her phone if she had remembered that she had taken those videos. So I actually believe

that she's telling the truth that she was so drunk, she took these videos and completely forgot that she did that. Well, after all of this was discovered and it all came out naturally, as many do, George's family pointed the finger at Sarah as the aggressor and claimed that it's a false narrative to paint him as the abusive one in the relationship. George's oldest daughter, again, Anna Victoria, said in a press interview, quote,

Me and my siblings actually spoke to our father that night, and we have a lot of experiences with Miss Boone that do not speak to what the media is stating she is. A victim or a gentle individual. I'm sure she's loved over there at jail due to the fact that Sarah Boone is very, very calculated. She by no means is a kind and sweet, soft-spoken woman. She is very calculated, very devious, very conniving.

My father was sheltered and berated. He was kept from us. He was the real victim in this situation. And then she added, quote, we are here to give his side the best we can from the view that we were able to see things. Captured on body camera footage when Sarah was, you know, first being questioned about the sequence of events that led to George's death, she referenced his family saying, quote, they're going to think I killed him.

When an officer responded, why would they think that? Sarah replied, they always have thought that. They always, always, always, always have thought that. I told you, it's because I'm the blue-eyed white dragon. That's what they call me. Because they don't want him to be with me. So he's basically just not really been around his family because he chooses me over them.

The blue-eyed white dragon? I mean, what the hell, lady? Obviously, we know from text messages that she was horrible to his family, so her painting herself as the victim and saying, they just don't like me, wah, wah, wah. It's like, no, you're horrible to them, what? Yeah, and you know, not to be pointing any fingers at the victim here, but it seemed like George had a part in this toxic relationship that both of them shared.

But Sarah seems like she's just making everything so much worse and attacking their family or his family. And it's just obviously we said in the beginning, like there's no reason for these two people to be together. But for some reason, they tried to make it work and it just wasn't. Yeah. And then kind of the inevitable happened that one of them killed the other. And by the way, nobody in George's family denies nothing.

not liking Sarah or not being open to her just due to her own behavior towards them. But Anna actually says that Sarah gave herself that nickname of the blue-eyed white dragon, that none of them actually ever said that to her. Yeah, and we don't have any texts of her calling her that, you know, or anything. I mean, they called each other some really nasty names, but again, this was all perpetuated by Sarah Boone. And this is something that Anna says as well. She said, quote,

She was definitely correct as far as us not liking her, and she should have stated that she didn't like us either, because that is very much correct as well. She, like I stated, is very evil, and how she is acting out there on the stand and within that courtroom is baffling to me because that is not the real Sarah Boone at all. But yeah, she was correct.

We do not like her. We didn't like her. That will never change. Unfortunately, I do feel bad for her and I wish her the best. But what I do wish is that my father receives his justice and she gets the time she deserves. And a slap on the wrist is not it. Yeah, it's kind of crazy. I was going back and watching some of like the courtroom videos of Sarah speaking. And there's one point where she says...

You know, I've found Jesus, and I think that I can make a really good example for other people coming to find Jesus. And, like, she's trying to, like, paint herself as, like, oh, I'm not an abusive alcoholic. Like, I've changed. I'm a lot better now. And it's like, no, you're not. Yeah, no. And to be fair, in a way, you know, her sober in the courtroom is very different than her drunkenly and belligerently texting George and George's family and how she's acting in

you know, behind closed doors at nighttime or whenever. Yeah. But yeah, you know, Anna Victoria is saying, I know that she seems this way, but this is not the person that we got to deal with. We didn't get this side of her. Yeah. And when you read those text messages, it's,

you'll see that Sarah loves to paint herself as a victim while also being like the most narcissistic person I've ever seen in my life. Well, Anna added that she and her family did try to forge a friendly, familial relationship with Sarah. Obviously, you know, their dad had dated another woman before. So it's not like they were against anybody that their dad was going to date. They wanted to be close with Sarah and anybody that was close to their dad.

They were very welcoming to her in the beginning as well, but their actions were not reciprocated. His siblings, his parents, his kids, and even his ex-wife severely mourned the loss of George in their lives.

In an interview, his ex-wife Dolores said that he was never physical with her or any of their children and said, quote, I want to say the only thing that I can say about George is that he was a ladies' man.

So it kind of seems like some of these accounts, like it's hard to believe that because Dolores doesn't have anything to lose here by telling the people in the court that George was not abusive. It's not to say that what Sarah experienced sometimes, like,

the stab on her leg or being hit in the head with a curtain rod it's not to say those things didn't happen because sure she could have also brought that side out of him because she was already like that I mean we know that she was her ex-husband said she was very true um but it's just to at least say that he was not that way with anybody else yeah I mean abuse is never okay in any situation like this but it definitely is kind of an interesting perspective here

Well, while Sarah awaited her trial, she was actually offered a plea deal to plead guilty to manslaughter charges in exchange for a modest 15-year sentence. But she declined. Yeah, she's not taking responsibility, even though that is a great offer, by the way. Yeah, it really is. And to nobody's surprise, Sarah was so high-maintenance and challenging to work with that she cycled through nine attorneys by the time her trial actually commenced.

After firing her eighth lawyer, Sarah designed a poster that kind of appeared as if it was purchased off of Etsy or possibly designed on Canva. And the poster read, quote,

Jeez. Well, after listing all of the traits that she would require, including, quote, Sarah wrote, quote,

epic opportunity awaits. And then she added her name and prisoner number and concluded with, quote, invest in the oppressed. Believe. I'm not even shocked, but I am. She's such a fucking loser. Are you joking? I mean, she's so making light of it. Like, what did you say you said? Um...

Ready for your close-up on national television? Like, bitch, you're... You killed somebody. Yeah, she's taking this as like she's some sort of celebrity and that she needs... She needs a celebrity lawyer that's going to help her get off. Invest in the oppressed. Yeah, you are so oppressed. Yeah, it's just so dumb. Well, this brought her her ninth and final attorney, James Owens, who was secured only a month before her trial was set to begin.

James obviously requested more time because you didn't really have a lot here, but the request was denied given that Sarah was the one who had been causing these disruptions. Yeah, so they're like, we're not helping you anymore, Sarah. If you want to get nine attorneys and waste our time, that's on you. Exactly. Well, because of Sarah's struggle to retain an attorney and setbacks due to COVID, the case suffered many delays, but her trial finally began on October 18th, 2024.

In his opening statement, Prosecutor William Jay told the court, "...this defendant zipped George Torres shut in a suitcase. She was able to do this because at the time of his death, he weighed 103 pounds. She did this with a malicious intent to punish him, and then she went to sleep and left him to take his final breaths on this earth alone."

In court, Sarah's story changed yet again, as she and her lawyer, James Owens, made a play for a strategy that was part self-defense and part battered woman syndrome.

Sarah admitted that on the night that George died, the pair had been fighting and that she had been scared to release him from the suitcase for fear of what he might do to her. Yeah, and her original story is, we were having fun and I forgot. Yeah, so obviously nothing's really lining up with her stories here. But also, sorry to keep interrupting you, Heath, but for her to say now at this point that she was scared, if that were true, you would have said that out of the gate. Yeah, absolutely. She's just making this up on the spot.

She claimed that she was frightened that he would break out of the suitcase and beat her, and that in her confused and fearful stupor, she went upstairs and she put herself to bed. She claimed that the idea of him crawling inside the suitcase started innocently enough, saying, quote,

But George then grew angry, causing Sarah to be fearful of what would happen if he were released. Sarah said, quote,

But in the video, like I said earlier,

he's calling her baby. He's being really gentle. He doesn't know that he's being recorded. So, you know, he's in a dark suitcase. He can't see. So that had to, in my opinion, have been a more genuine response on his end because I doubt she said, hey, by the way, I'm about to make a video of this. So act accordingly. Yeah, exactly. There's no way that he's trying to cover up

his gentle nature inside that suitcase because, like you said, he doesn't know he's being filmed. Yeah, and even if he was angry, it's like, you zipped him up in a suitcase. Of course he can be angry. I don't know a single person. Like, I'm a claustrophobic person. Yeah, me too. Like, thinking about small, dark spaces like that and somebody purposefully, like, mocking me because I'm stuck in a situation like that, I think most people would be pretty angry because

But he doesn't appear to be angry, he's just like actually pleading with her like, I can't breathe, can you please let me out? But Sarah said that George's hand then began to come out of the suitcase as if he was going to break out of it and come after her, so she started to shake it. She explained, quote,

Her defense attorneys also claim that George may have had a pre-existing heart condition that, when exacerbated by stress, caused George's death, but that it was merely an accident, not a murder, and certainly not Sarah's fault.

But like we said, the video Sarah had taken that night told a very, very different story. And thankfully she recorded it because what other case have we ever talked about where somebody actually records the act? To be honest, I can't think of any off the top of my head. Well, for anybody who did skip that clip earlier, I want to read a transcript of what transpired while George was in the suitcase.

So you know what went down. So through slurred words, there are a lot of curse words coming up. And as George called her name in a panicked tone of voice, Sarah said, quote, for everything you've done to me, for everything you've done to me. And remember, by the way, she is drunk right now. So a lot of this doesn't make a

ton of sense. I feel like that in particular is almost saying I put you in there for everything and I'm keeping you in there for everything you've ever done to me. Yes, exactly. But then she stopped to giggle before saying, fuck you, fuck you, stupid. George continues to plead with her calling her name and she spat back, that's my name, don't wear it out.

Starting to panic, George says, Sarah, I can't fucking breathe, babe, seriously. To which Sarah responded, yeah, that's what you do when you choke me. She laughed again as he continued to moan her name. And when he said again that he can't breathe, she said, that's on you.

Through even more giggles and clear impairment, like she is barely intelligible at this point, she slurs, real ransom, but I want to get video for it extra because I got this real ransom. When he moaned again that he couldn't breathe, Sarah said, that's what I feel like when you cheat on me.

He continued to moan her name and plead with her to let him out. And Sarah seems to lose her patience yelling, fuck you before saying, you should probably shut the fuck up.

When they showed this in court, as you guys can imagine, three of George's family members walked out of the courtroom. This caused her attorney to seize the attempt to buy more time and request a mistrial, saying that their actions could have influenced the jury. But imagine being them watching a video of your dad, your son, your loved one in a suitcase that eventually killed him.

pleading for his life. Like, it is horrific. Yeah, and the defense is just trying to use that so that they can get a little advantage in the courtroom. Like, that's just so sad. Also, as if his family is trying to influence the jury. They're just trying to get out of there. They have real emotions. This is real to them.

But luckily, the judge ruled against this motion. And Sarah later told police that her words in this video, everything she was saying was not meant to be malicious, even though it sounds so unbelievably conniving. And she says that she thought George was crying wolf.

I mean, I don't think you can cry wolf when you're literally trapped in a suitcase with no way out by yourself. And also, when you being trapped in a suitcase ends up with you being dead. That's not crying wolf. Not at all. Well, at some point that evening, Sarah says she placed the suitcase upright, shifting him inside of it. And she also admitted to hitting the suitcase with a baseball bat. This, I mean, all of this screams intention.

George was found to have scratches down his back, contusions to his forehead and skull, and a cut lip. The couple's next door neighbor, Vincent Battaglia, he was actually brought in to testify that he frequently heard outbursts and altercations coming from their apartment. And he also said that Sarah had asked him to keep quiet about hearing them.

On the night that George died, this neighbor, Vincent, also remembered hearing loud thumps that shook his bedroom wall, which he believes was Sarah throwing George down the stairs inside the suitcase. So not only did she zip him up in there, she was actually, you know, throwing him down the stairs and beating the suitcase with a baseball bat. Like, that's crazy. It's insane.

On October 25th, 2024, after just 90 minutes of deliberation, a jury unanimously convicted Sarah of second-degree murder. I mean, 90 minutes is very fast. They all...

They were all very confident about what happened that night. I don't know why you wouldn't be. And on December 2nd, 2024, so a little over a month later, she was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. So she could have taken those 15 years and she is now going to be in there until the day she dies. Yeah, and what's even crazier is what's coming up next because...

When she was permitted to read a statement to the courtroom following her trial, Sarah chose to take absolutely no responsibility and instead blamed those around her, as she had done since the ordeal began over four years prior.

Speaking at a rapid pace, reading off of a stack of papers that she wrote from prison, she spoke for nearly 20 minutes and concluded by saying that she forgave herself. You forgive yourself? Crazy. Well, her diatribe reeked of textbook narcissism, as I mentioned, and also just lacked all accountability. After comparing herself to kintsugi, which is the Japanese art of repairing a broken piece of porcelain or ceramic art,

by filling its cracks with gold, she told the court, "...in my wisdom and with all of my repairs then, now, and ongoing, God is, has been, and always will be my artisan. All of my gold is forgiveness. This has held me together, made me shine brighter and overcome the damage caused by George Torres and the Torres family."

The justice system, Orange County Corrections Department, social media, scoundrel detectives, infamy, defamation, ongoing constitutional rights violations, second-degree murder forced into being pro se. Just as gold is very precious, forgiveness is invaluable. My God, I mean, I just can't believe the first thing she listed was overcome the damage by George Torres. As we said earlier...

you know, obviously it was clear there was abuse on both sides. So I understand you wanting to heal from that and overcome that because that's horrible as well. But this is at the trial for you murdering him. So for you, like who is going to feel for you now when you are pointing fingers at all the true victims of this story? Yeah. And she's, she's got a laundry list of people that she wants to blame. She wants to blame everybody but herself. And,

And she actually continued on to say that she forgave George as well. Well, refusing to let George be viewed as the victim and allowing his family to have the last word, Sarah rattled off a lengthy list of offenses that George had committed against her. She read from her letter quickly and curtly, telling the court, quote,

When you forgive, you heal, and when you heal, you move forward. My goal begins with George Torres, and every time he's slapped me, kicked, punched, spit on, raped, stabbed, choked, laughed at, pushed, pulled, dragged, whipped, tripped, stole from, lied, terrorized, threatened, humiliated, forced, degraded, made me cry.

Every time he tried to end me, defeat or destroy, I forgive George for beating me senseless for trying to sleep because I had to go to work or my son's field trip the next day, for ruining my deceased family's heirlooms, traditions and keepsakes, my son's furniture, destroying the television that we watched together, for wrecking our townhome by breaking windows, punching holes in the walls and doors, ramming his entire body into glass doors,

kicking in my front and back doors over and over and over, for breaking or removing the locks from all the doors, and sometimes the knobs altogether, so I had nowhere to feel safe, including the sacred space of my son's room, where he beat me bloody on his bed.

Sarah continued on to list dozens more accusations, including saying that he had abused and threatened to kill her two dogs after they tried to protect Sarah during a physical altercation between the two of them. She alleged that he stole her money, beat her frequently, and forced her to consume alcohol with him, once even to the point where she urinated on herself.

She described him as a violent, deadbeat alcoholic who strived to keep Sarah away from her friends, family, and son, which is strangely what George's family accused Sarah of doing to him.

To conclude her rambling, backhanded apology that showed little humility or true contrition, Sarah stated flatly, quote, I forgive George for lying, for him trying in so many ways, so many times to end me with his terrifying love.

She concluded all this by saying,

She implicated his family and friends and implored them to think of what they could have done to save both of them. After her conviction, she penned a 28-page letter, an even longer iteration of her 20-minute statement to the court, to the judge, chastising his decision.

Sarah wrote, But Sarah did go on to say that she had forgiven him too.

Only a few months after her sentencing, Sarah has already and since obtained a 10th attorney and has begun the appeal process.

Thank you so much, everybody, for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. What a wild story. I mean, it was so senseless and so tragic all the way around. I want to post... I don't know. I kind of want to post the video...

of him in the suitcase, but I feel like it's just such a horrific thing to post. Yeah, I think it would be maybe a little bit too insensitive. If you do feel like you want to go see that video, it is out there on the internet, but I don't think we're going to post it. But we will post photos from this case. It is on YouTube if you do want to go see it. Remember, we will also post the text messages. This whole story is such a mess. There is so much to it, and it's just absolutely insane. So thank you again so much to...

to Caitlin for sending this one in and for anybody else who wants us to cover a particular case on Going West, send it over to our email goingwestpodcast at gmail.com. Thank you in advance. Thank you all for tuning in and we will see you again on Tuesday. All right, guys. So for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger.

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