In the early hours of November 10, 2015, a young Hispanic woman named Alize Gonzalez, age 19, was killed in an Auburn, Washington apartment. Her life was cut short during a heated argument fueled by methamphetamine. The man responsible, 31-year-old Francisco Escobedo, was present in his home with his children at the time of the incident.
The argument escalated around 2 a.m.
when Gonzalez reportedly became upset with Escobedo, leading to a physical altercation where she struck him in the face. In a sudden and violent response, Escobedo drew a handgun he had concealed in his pocket. He fired a single shot at close range, striking Gonzalez in the neck and killing her. After the shooting, he callously picked up the spent shell casing and left the apartment with the intention of disposing of the weapon.
Following the murder, Escobedo took steps to conceal his crime. He placed Alize Gonzalez's body in the trunk of his car and drove through the areas of Kent and Auburn, searching for a place to abandon her. Ultimately, he dumped her body on the side of a road in Kent, where she was discovered later that day. During the investigation, a search of Escobedo's apartment revealed blood on the carpet and a suspected bullet hole in the bedroom window, corroborating the witness accounts of the shooting.
Francisco Escobedo was arrested the day after the murder, on November 11, 2015. Initially, he provided investigators with multiple conflicting stories about the events of that night. However, he eventually admitted to his role in the disposal of Gonzalez's body. Despite his attempts to claim self-defense, a jury found him guilty of second-degree murder with a firearm. In April 2018, a judge sentenced Francisco Escobedo to 22 and a half years in prison for the murder of Alize Gonzalez.
