Teresa Guzman, a 22-year-old mother of three, vanished from Las Vegas, Nevada, in December 2008. She was last seen by her family during that month and has not been heard from since. Those close to her insisted she would not have abandoned her young children. Teresa, who only spoke Spanish, had expressed a desire to relocate to either Colorado or Oklahoma with her children. However, her estranged husband, Francisco Vazquez-Rosas, was against her taking the children.
For months after her disappearance, there was no official report filed, as Vazquez-Rosas allegedly spread a rumor that she had left him and their children for another man. This delayed the investigation significantly, with her brother-in-law ultimately reporting her missing in May 2009, approximately five months after she was last seen.
The investigation took a dark turn when Guzman's young children began to speak about what they had witnessed. In December 2009, one of their daughters, who was five years old at the time, told a relative that she saw her father choke her mother, place her in a closet, and then into a trash bag. Her seven-year-old sister recounted a similar story, stating she saw her father put her mother in a garbage can after a fight. These chilling accounts led police to focus their investigation on Francisco Vazquez-Rosas. During questioning, he failed a polygraph test and eventually confessed to her murder, though his confession was later ruled as coerced by a judge and the murder charge was dismissed in April 2010. In his confession, he claimed that on December 13, 2008, he and Teresa argued at an apartment on South Nellis Boulevard because she was planning to leave with the children. He stated the argument turned physical, leading to her death.
According to his now-dismissed confession, after realizing Teresa was dead, Vazquez-Rosas panicked and hid her body in a closet before later disposing of it in a trash bin. Authorities believe her body was likely taken to the Apex landfill, and as a result, her remains have never been found. Despite the confession being thrown out, prosecutors moved forward with a new indictment based on other evidence, including the testimony of their children. The children reportedly told a grand jury that 'daddy killed mommy.' Vazquez-Rosas's defense attorney suggested that Teresa might have left on her own or been deported, as both she and her estranged husband were undocumented immigrants from Mexico. However, her family in Mexico reported that they had not had any contact with her. The case of Teresa Guzman is a heartbreaking story of a young mother who disappeared under suspicious circumstances, with her body never being recovered, leaving her children and family without answers or closure.Last Seen: Dec 1, 2008
