The 20th of April, 2012, began just like any other day for the Celis family from Tucson, Arizona. The sun had set after a day filled with the usual hustle and bustle, the final hours spent at a little league game that kept everyone out late.
The house slowly wound down and Sergio and Becky put their children to bed before Becky retreated to the master bedroom. The television flickered in the living room, broadcasting a Diamondbacks game. Sergio lay down on the couch to watch the game. It wasn’t long before he fell asleep.
Becky was the first to wake up the next morning. She moved silently around the house, getting ready for work. The boys, Sergio Jr. and Julian, were still asleep, as was their six-year-old daughter, Isabel. Sergio was still fast asleep on the couch. As the first light of dawn broke through the windows, she slipped out the door and drove to the hospital where she worked.
It wasn’t until around 8AM that Sergio stirred awake. He glanced at the television, now playing a morning news program, and turned it off. He expected to find Isabel awake, watching cartoons or playing in her room. After all, she had a baseball game that morning, and she was usually the first one up on such days, excited and full of energy.
But the house was eerily silent. He walked down the hall towards Isabel’s room. Pushing open the door, he felt his heart drop. The bed was empty but had clearly been slept in. He called her name softly, then louder, but there was no response.
Panic set in as he searched each room, waking up his sons and frantically searching every corner, every hiding place, but Isabel was nowhere to be found.
Desperate, he ran back into Isabel’s room.
With shaking hands, he grabbed his cell phone and sent a text to Becky saying Isabel was missing. From the hallway, he heard his son, Sergio Jr., call out from Isabel’s bedroom. Sergio rushed over, heart pounding in his chest, and found his son pointing at the window.
The screen was bent and propped against the outside wall, and the window was ajar. He didn't know it at the time, but he would spend the next five years under a cloud of suspicion until what happened to Isabel finally came to light...
This week’s episode of Morbidology takes a look at the case of Isabel Celis. You can listen to episode 282 of Morbidology across all podcast platforms, or watch our documentary on YouTube:
𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐞: https://bit.ly/4er5o8L
𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐲: https://bit.ly/4fEZlOP
𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐓𝐮𝐛𝐞: https://bit.ly/3Cl69CO
