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A Psychic Predicted Missing Teen's Murder Nearly a Decade Before His Remains Were Found
"Everything she said is true," Daigle's half-sister said when reflecting on a psychic's vision of her half-brother's murder at the hands of Richard Mendoza.
Chris Daigle and Richard "Ricky" Mendoza had been best friends since they were little — even playing on the same Little League and eventually the high school baseball team. And it was 17-year-old Richard Mendoza who last saw Daigle alive on Nov. 7, 2002 before he went missing for nearly a decade.
When Daigle’s grandmother first reported his disappearance on Nov. 11, 2002, police believed he was just a struggling 17-year-old.
“He had a history of leaving. He had a history of drug use. Grandma verified that history,” Missouri City, Texas sergeant Saul Luera said on Killer Relationship with Faith Jenkins, airing Saturdays at 8/7c on Oxygen. “Could be he’s off with his friends doing drugs and he just lost track of time.”
Daigle’s best friend told police he’d gone with him to the mall on Nov. 7 and left him there, never to see him again. Despite investigating hundreds of tips and following up with dozens of friends and family, the missing persons investigation went cold for years before it was discovered that Mendoza had been responsible for his best friend's killing all along.
A psychic provides Chris Daigle's family with information about his disappearance
In October 2003, 11 months after Chris Daigle disappeared, his family turned to a psychic for answers.
“[The psychic] just starts crying. And she started saying that there were three boys. They had on hats,” said Tracie Gregory, Daigle’s mother, on Killer Relationship with Faith Jenkins. “They went down this dirt road with tree line and it was dark. And there was an argument.”
Jennifer Hayes, Daigle’s half-sister, was also listening to the psychic. "And she says, ‘Chris was shot. In the back of his head. With a shotgun,’” Jennifer Hayes said on Killer Relationship with Faith Jenkins.
The psychic said Daigle’s body was near chain link fence and offered one more piece of information to Daigle’s family.
“There was a number ‘34’ that was green and white,” Gregory said.
Despite following up and searching for Daigle themselves, his family was no closer to finding him.
“The years went by. The hope started dying,” said Jason Hayes, Daigle’s half-brother, on Killer Relationship with Faith Jenkins. “Because there’s no way Chris could go that long without contacting Grandma Wanda.”
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A friend points the finger at Ricky Mendoza as a suspect in Chris Daigle's disappearance
Chris Daigle’s mother got a job at a bar in 2007, five years after her son went missing, in the hope that his high school friends — now grown — would remember something while out having drinks. She got lucky when 22-year-old Tyler Hall became her customer in 2009, and brought up Ricky Mendonza and his girlfriend, Megan Venable.
“Megan told me Ricky was jealous of Chris because Megan was hanging out with Chris a lot,” Ian Cammack, Daigle’s cousin, said on Killer Relationship with Faith Jenkins.
Daigle and Mendoza got into a fight that concerned Venable shortly before Daigle disappeared.
“[Mendoza] just started screaming at [Venable] and he just physically charged her,” said Daigle’s friend, Brittany Parker, on Killer Relationship with Faith Jenkins. “And it wasn’t just shocking for me, it was shocking for the guys. Chris was not going to stand for that.”
Hall also shared a bombshell with Daigle’s mother: "She said she knew what had happened," Gregory said. "She was friends with Ricky. And she said that Ricky had killed Chris."
Hall said she hadn't come forward with this information because she thought Mendoza was lying and bragging about murdering his friend.
Police interviewed Mendoza but he denied ever admitting to killing Daigle.
A tip leads to the arrest of Ricky Mendoza seven years after his friend went missing
It was another year before a second person pointed the finger at Ricky Mendoza for Chris Daigle’s murder. Travis Reznicek, Daigle’s half-brother, met a man named José Lopez who claimed Mendoza killed Daigle.
“I said, ‘How do you know this?” Reznicek said on Killer Relationship with Faith Jenkins. “And he said, ‘He was at my house talking about it.’”
Police tracked down Lopez, who said he never came forward because he wasn’t sure if what he knew was true. He alleged Ricky Mendoza; Mendoza’s cousin, 15-year-old Daniel Rodriguez; and Rodriguez’s friend, 14-year-old Joshua Fretz, were all there the night Chris Daigle was murdered.
“They had taken him to a field,” Lopez said during a police interview. “Daniel and Chris were walking already. Ricky Mendoza with the gun in hand pulls the trigger, shoots him in the face. Point blank.”
In July 2011, eight years and eight months after Daigle went missing, Fretz finally agreed to speak to police. He claimed that Mendoza was angry with Daigle because he thought he’d seen Daigle kissing his girlfriend in a classroom at school.
“He would say, ‘No, like, man, this motherf-cker better not try messing around with my girl,’” Fretz said during a police interview. “You know, ‘I’m gonna whoop his ass’ or some sh-t like that.”
Fretz claimed that on Nov. 7, 2002, Mendoza suggested he, Rodriguez, and Daigle join him to pick mushrooms in a field after school.
“I looked, and I saw Ricky pulling out the shotgun at Chris, and he pulled the trigger,” Fretz said in police interview. “I saw him shoot him in the back of the head. He died instantly.”
Fretz said the three boys hid Daigle’s body in the field. Nine years after he disappeared, Fretz led police to Chris Daigle’s buried remains. Mendoza’s cousin, Daniel Rodriguez, gave police the same story.
“Both of them had reasons to be very fearful of Ricky,” said prosecutor Loretta Owen on Killer Relationship with Faith Jenkins. “They watched him kill somebody. And Ricky basically said, ‘You can’t tell anybody. You’re involved. You’ll be prosecuted too.’”
Fretz and Rodriguez, who were 14 and 15 at the time of the murder, were never charged. A jury found Ricky Mendoza guilty of his best friend’s murder in February 2013, and he was sentenced to 50 years in prison.
“He didn’t show any remorse,” Owen said. “There was no justification for what he did.”
For Chris Daigle’s family, nearly a decade after he vanished, there was closure. And his sibling believed the psychic was right about her half-brother.
“Tracie pulled out all the paperwork from the psychic. Everything she said is true,” Jennifer Hayes said. “Chris was shot in the back of his head. With a shotgun. Three boys went down this dirt road with tree line. Tracie was like, ‘Do you remember that number; we didn’t know what it was? That’s Ricky’s baseball jersey number.’”
Watch all-new episodes of Killer Relationship with Faith Jenkins on Saturdays at 8/7c on Oxygen.
