Episode 129: Julie Ann Gonzalez

A young mother disappears, leaving strange messages behind. As her family fights for justice, they must also face a terrible truth. What happened to Julie Ann Gonzalez?

Episode Media

Julie Ann Gonzalez (*Austin American-Statesman)*

Billboard in Austin featuring Julie’s case *(Austin American-Statesman)*

Episode Sources

Episode Transcript

Welcome back to Bite-Sized Crime. This week I’m bringing you a story that feels all too familiar, a case of a missing woman, a botched investigation, and a family seeking justice. This episode discusses sensitive topics, so listener discretion is advised.

Julie Ann Gonzalez grew up in the city of Austin, Texas. She was close to her large, tight-knit family, especially her siblings and cousins. They described Julie as kind and loving, quick to laugh and eager to make others smile.

In high school, Julie worked at her grandfather’s convenience store, where she was well-liked by the customers. She was hardworking and responsible, successfully balancing work, home, and school.

While working at the store, 16-year-old Julie befriended one of her coworkers, a young man named Aaron Breaux. Aaron was 23, and Julie’s mother Sandra was concerned about the obvious attachment growing between Aaron and her underage daughter. Despite Sandra’s repeated warnings, Julie and Aaron’s relationship grew more serious, until finally Sandra had to step in. She fired Aaron from the store, and he disappeared from Julie’s life.

Heartbroken, Julie turned to a classmate for comfort. Julie had met George De La Cruz at Crockett High School in Austin, and the two had become friends. But after her breakup with Aaron, Julie and George began seeing each other regularly, and friendship quickly turned to romance. After graduation, they decided to move in together, and not long after, Julie learned she was pregnant.

Julie had started taking classes at St. Edward’s University, but with a baby on the way, she was worried that they wouldn’t be able to make ends meet. George only worked sporadically, taking on construction jobs here and there – he didn’t seem motivated to find a steady career. Julie made the decision to drop out of college and get a job working at a local Walgreens.

When their daughter Layla was born, she became the center of Julie’s world. Everything Julie did was for Layla – she was determined to keep their little family afloat. But that was easier said than done. Even with Julie working full-time and George picking up side gigs, they struggled financially. They eventually had to move in with George’s mom and younger sisters to save on rent money.

In May of 2009, George and Julie got married, but they continued to struggle, not just financially, but also in their relationship. While Julie was going back to school and working her way up the ladder at Walgreens, George sat at home, playing on his Xbox and draining their meager bank account to fund his gaming addiction. On more than one occasion, Julie came home from work to find George on the couch, absorbed in a game, while Layla sat ignored in a dirty diaper.

As the months passed and the relationship continued to sour, George became increasingly aggressive and controlling, blaming all of their problems on Julie. Their arguments began to turn violent, and family members witnessed incidents where George would grab Julie or leave red marks on her face and arms. Julie started finding ways to avoid her husband, but George seemed desperate for her attention, desperate for control. He even went so far as to pretend he had amnesia after an accident at work, acting as though he couldn’t remember Julie or Layla. It was just an attempt to manipulate his family, and Julie didn’t know how much more she could take.

Then one day, as she walked the aisles of the grocery store, she ran into an old flame – Aaron Breaux, the man her mother had forbidden her from seeing, who had broken her teenage heart all those years ago. Excited to see each other again, Aaron and Julie exchanged information and began trading emails back and forth. Before long, they had rekindled their relationship and were talking about the future.

Of course, Julie was still married, and she knew that if she wanted to be with Aaron, she had to leave George. In December of 2009, after seven months of marriage, she told George that she wanted a divorce. She packed a bag, and she and Layla moved out.

George was furious. He refused to sign the divorce papers and did everything in his power to make their separation difficult, all the while claiming he wanted to repair the relationship. But Julie knew she wasn’t going back. She was happy with Aaron, who seemed to be the complete opposite of George – Aaron was motivated and ambitious; he had a steady job and was financially responsible. And on top of that, he was kind and gentle, and he adored Julie.

Until their divorce was finalized, Julie wanted to keep her relationship with Aaron a secret. If George found out she was seeing someone, there was no telling how he would react. She set her social media accounts to private and removed George from her friends list. She made sure to be discreet when going out with Aaron, and waited to introduce him to Layla in case the little girl accidentally mentioned him to her father.

But even without knowing about Julie’s secret relationship, George continued his downward spiral. One afternoon in January, when Julie picked Layla up from George’s house, he told her that he’d put a letter in the diaper bag and that she should read it when she got home. When she opened the letter, she saw that it was a suicide note. She rushed back to George’s house and found him unresponsive, a bottle of pills beside him. She called 911, and George was rushed to the hospital where they were able to revive him. Julie was concerned about George’s mental health – was this just another way to manipulate her, or was it a genuine cry for help?

As the weeks passed, George continued to exert control over Julie. He followed her in his car, driving aggressively and trying to scare her. He called the Walgreens where she worked as a pharmacy tech multiple times a day, sometimes showing up unannounced. He sat in the lobby of the pharmacy, staring at Julie and making snide comments, clearly an attempt to intimidate and distract her. Eventually her supervisor had to step in and ask George to leave. Julie confided in the woman, telling her that she was worried George was up to something and that if anything ever happened to her, George would be responsible.

By this point, Julie was afraid to be alone with George and was concerned about leaving Layla with him. Sometimes when she went to pick up her daughter, George would try to prevent her from leaving, blocking the door or grabbing her arm. Once, he even jumped on the hood of her car as she drove away. It got so bad that Julie asked the court for supervised visits and always took a family member with her when going to George’s home.

By March of 2010, Julie was getting desperate. George still refused to sign the divorce papers, so she planned to hire a process server as a last ditch attempt to force his hand. She just wanted it all to be over so she could move on with her life. She and Aaron were planning their future; George was her past.

On Thursday, March 25th, Julie spent the evening at Aaron’s apartment. They stayed up late watching movies before going to bed. Early the next morning, Aaron kissed Julie goodbye before he left for work, telling her that he would see her later. After he was gone, Julie got up and grabbed a pen and paper. She wrote Aaron a long letter, telling him how happy she was and how much she loved him. She loved how he made her feel special and couldn’t wait to marry him someday. She placed the letter on his bed and left the apartment, heading to George’s place to pick up Layla.

She was supposed to pick her daughter up the day before, but George had asked for one more day, and Julie had agreed. Perhaps because of the change in schedule, Julie didn’t ask anyone to come with her that day. She hoped it would be a quick exchange, and she and Layla could be on their way.

Later that day, Julie’s friends noticed an odd post on her MySpace page. At 12:21pm, Julie posted, “going away hate this bs want to run away,” and set her mood as “hate this bs”. The tone was out of character for Julie, and the post lacked her usual emojis and punctuation. Several friends and family members, including Aaron, tried to reach out to her, concerned that something might be wrong, but all their calls went unanswered. All they got were text messages from Julie saying that she was okay but wanted to be left alone.

Aaron in particular was not going to take this at face value. He continued to call Julie’s phone throughout the day, but she didn’t pick up. Finally, around 2pm, he got a text that said, “I can’t do this anymore.” Julie said she was leaving him and moving to Colorado.

Aaron immediately knew something wasn’t right. It felt like someone else was speaking for Julie. He told the person with Julie’s phone to prove it was her. He asked them what his middle name was. The response: “I don’t have time to play games.”

Throughout the day, more unusual posts were popping up on Julie’s MySpace. She said she was going to Colorado with a guy named James and that she hoped he would show her a good time. Not wanting to believe it, Aaron demanded that Julie call him and tell him the truth or else their relationship was over. She didn’t call.

Hurt and confused, Aaron didn’t know what to think, what to believe. When he got home from work that evening and discovered Julie’s letter, his confusion turned to desperation. The woman who had written this beautiful love letter was not the same woman he had been communicating with all day. Something was very wrong.

A few hours later, around 2am, another post appeared on Julie’s MySpace. “really happy for leaving austin I love this place and i miss my ay bay bay”. Her mood was set as “amused”. Again, there was no punctuation, and the odd assortment of emojis didn’t match Julie’s style. There were no updates for almost the entire day; then, at 9:40pm, another post. “Just wanted to say im okay and that people shouldnt worry about me and to stop worrying i want to enjoy my time”.

Julie’s loved ones, including Aaron, gathered at her Aunt Dora’s house that night to discuss the situation and figure out a plan. They all agreed that something strange was going on, and they needed to find out what. Julie had been planning to pick up Layla at George’s house on Friday morning, but according to George, she had asked him to keep their daughter over the weekend. This didn’t sit right with the family. Julie hated leaving Layla with George for his scheduled visitations – she wouldn’t have extended his time that much. If she really had been planning to leave town, she would have left Layla with her own family, not with George.

Finally, they decided to call the police. An officer from the Austin Police Department arrived to take the report, but after the family explained their concerns, the officer seemed to brush them off. He agreed to file the report, but since there wasn’t any proof that Julie was in danger, the department probably wouldn’t take any action. Julie was 21 years old, a legal adult; she could leave if she wanted to.

Despite this disappointing news, Julie’s friends and family were not giving up. They called everyone they knew and started hanging flyers around Austin. Surely someone had seen Julie.

On Sunday the 28th, Dora was driving through South Austin when she passed a Walgreens. She was shocked to see Julie’s car in the parking lot. It wasn’t the store Julie worked at, but maybe she was inside shopping. Dora searched every corner of the store, but Julie wasn’t there. Her hopes dashed, Dora called Aaron and Julie’s mom Sandra and asked them to meet her at the store. While she waited, she called the police.

This time, the responding officer seemed to take the case a bit more seriously. They had a missing woman, suspicious messages, and an abandoned car left less than a mile from where George lived with his mother. Dora and Sandra reiterated that Julie would never leave Layla, and she certainly wouldn’t leave her with George. Aaron showed the officer the love letter Julie had left him the day she disappeared – those were not the words of a woman who was walking away from her life.

Finally, Detective John Brooks followed up on the missing persons report by knocking on George’s door. George told the detective that Julie had come by around 11 on Friday morning to pick up Layla as they had agreed. George had been surprised when Julie asked him to keep Layla for a few more days. She said she had some stuff to take care of but didn’t say when she would be back. George told the detective that Julie had been acting strangely, and he had wondered if she was on drugs.

Detective Brooks asked George if he could take a look around the property, and George gave his permission. Brooks walked through the house to make sure Julie wasn’t there, then stepped into the backyard where he found a child’s playhouse and a storage shed. Inside the shed, a large piece of plywood lay on the floor surrounded by sawdust. Brooks lifted the plywood and saw that it was covering a large hole in the ground. The hole, which he later described as a trench, appeared to be about 5 feet long and 2 feet deep. When Brooks asked George why the hole was there, George said someone had dug it years ago for plumbing.

In spite of this unusual discovery, Detective Brooks didn’t seem too concerned. He still had no reason to believe that Julie hadn’t left of her own free will. This wasn’t a crime scene, and George wasn’t a suspect. Even the scratches on George’s face weren’t important – they were probably left there by his 2-year-old daughter. Detective Brooks thanked George for his time and left the property.

When they were told that police weren’t opening a criminal investigation, Julie’s family was furious. Detectives were ignoring clear evidence right in front of their faces. George had done something to Julie – her family was sure of it.

Investigators did bring George in for questioning a few times, hoping he might have some insight into Julie’s whereabouts. In one interview conducted not long after Julie disappeared, George told the detective that he thought Julie might have left because of her strained relationship with her mother Sandra. He also repeated his story about Julie being on drugs when she came to his house on March 26th. When the detective asked him point blank if he killed Julie, George laughed and said, “No. I have a daughter. I wouldn’t do that.”

After a few weeks, detectives seemed to lose interest in Julie’s case, but her family and friends did not. They papered the city with flyers, rented a billboard, hosted fundraisers and candlelight vigils. They even hired a private investigator, hoping that would generate new leads. They called the police department every few days to follow up, desperate to keep Julie’s case alive.

In May of 2010, Julie’s mom Sandra took the story to the Dr. Phil Show. On television, she laid out the information they had so far and explained why she believed George De La Cruz had harmed her daughter. George was also brought onto the show and agreed to submit to a polygraph, which he failed. Of course, we know that polygraph exams are unreliable and tv shows like this can be sensationalized. But the grief of Julie’s family was real, and George repeatedly denied any involvement in his wife’s disappearance. After the show, George checked himself into the hospital for a mental health evaluation and stayed there for a few days.

While the Dr. Phil Show didn’t provide any confessions, it did spur the Austin Police Department into action. After nearly two months, Julie’s case was finally being taken seriously, and it was officially transferred to the homicide unit.

While George was in the hospital receiving treatment, his mother Victoria discovered the trench under the storage shed. She wanted to believe the best of her son, but she was becoming more and more suspicious that he might have actually been involved in Julie’s disappearance. She decided to call the police.

Victoria gave investigators permission to search the house and property, much like George had done back in March, but there was only so much they could do without a warrant. Finally, on May 14th, police obtained a search warrant and combed every inch of the property. Inside the house, they found Julie’s car keys and debit card. They confiscated George’s Xbox and computer. They also found a photograph of Julie that had been ripped up and taped back together.

Outside, investigators found a knife on a picnic table and boxes of ammunition in the shed. Behind the shed, a mound of dirt and what looked to be a burn pit, scraps of clothing and a purple shoelace left behind in the ashes.

Investigators also got to work examining Julie’s and George’s digital trail. On the day she disappeared, March 26th, Julie’s debit card was used to make several credit transactions around Austin. Julie always used her card as debit, so these transactions stood out, especially because they wouldn’t have required the user to enter a PIN.

The transaction list showed that the card had been used at a local Walmart as well as at the McDonald’s inside the store. When investigators checked the surveillance footage from the times the card was used, they didn’t see Julie. Instead, they saw George, pushing Layla in a shopping cart. He used the debit card to buy baby items and a video game, which investigators had found at his house when serving the search warrant.

Investigators also analyzed Julie’s cell phone data. On March 26th, her cell phone was in the vicinity of George’s house for over three hours, which was very unusual considering that Julie always made it a point to be there as little as possible. That day, over 100 texts came from Julie’s phone while pinging off the tower near George’s house. In the afternoon, Julie’s phone was traced to the Walmart where George had used her debit card; that night, it was at a Best Buy where George purchased equipment for his Xbox.

George’s Xbox was also analyzed, and although he usually played video games around the clock, there was no activity on March 26th until very late that night, almost as if he had been busy doing something else.

Of particular interest was detectives’ discovery that the local AT&T branch had received a call at 9:46 that morning from someone complaining that their phone service was out. Workers determined that there was a damaged underground cable that ran right through George’s backyard. It appeared that someone had hit the cable while digging with a shovel.

Early in the investigation, detectives had spent a lot of time looking into the mysterious “James” that Julie had posted about on MySpace, the mystery man she had supposedly run off with to Colorado. But now, as they pieced together the trail of data, it was clear that James didn’t exist. The strange MySpace posts had been made at the same time and from the same IP address as posts that George had made on his own account. Detectives believed that George had been in possession of Julie’s phone and had sent fake messages to her friends and made fake posts to throw them off the scent.

But if George really had killed Julie, why had he done it, and why that day?

It was obvious that George was angered by the divorce, that he wanted to maintain control over Julie. In the months after she moved out, George had become increasingly erratic and violent, and Julie had been scared of him. She had gone to great lengths to protect herself and her daughter, and had made it a point to hide her relationship with Aaron from George. But in the end, George had discovered the truth.

Although Julie had blocked George from her MySpace, she was still friends with his cousin, and it appeared that George had used that cousin to spy on Julie’s posts. Days before she disappeared, Julie posted a picture of herself and Aaron on a trip to the zoo. That picture was later found on George’s cell phone. It seemed as though Julie’s moment of happiness had pushed George over the edge.

In September of 2013, three and half years after Julie Ann Gonzalez disappeared, George De La Cruz was charged with her murder. Prosecutors knew they would have an uphill battle, especially because Julie’s remains had not yet been found, but they believed they could get a conviction.

When the trial finally took place two years later, the case against George was damning. Multiple witnesses testified to his abusive behavior, and experts spoke to the mountain of digital evidence that had been gathered during the investigation. An inmate at the county jail testified that George had confessed to him, claiming that he and Julie had gotten into an argument when she fell and hit her head.

It took the jury only six hours to find George De La Cruz guilty of the murder of Julie Ann Gonzalez. He was sentenced to life in prison.

After the trial, Julie’s family expressed their relief at the verdict but also their sadness that they still didn’t have Julie. Her mother Sandra told KVUE, “All along my goal has always been to find Julie. That hasn’t changed.”

Julie Ann Gonzalez was a beautiful, bright young woman with her whole life ahead of her. She was a devoted mother and a beloved daughter, sister, and friend. She was on the verge of escaping her past and creating a new future for herself and the ones she loved.

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic abuse, please contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or text START to 88788 for free and confidential help.