Two people acquitted in murder of Coachella Valley couple

by Junna Base November 8, 2024

Authorities believe the killings were the result of drug trafficking

Two people charged with felony murder in the 2017 killing of a Coachella Valley couple were found not guilty of murder by a Riverside County jury Friday.

But one of the two defendants on trial this week, Aaron Bernal, was subsequently found guilty of aiding and abetting the murders. Bernal was sentenced to two years in prison, but because he received credit for time served, he was scheduled to be released Friday evening, said Thalia Hayden, a spokeswoman for the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.

The other person on trial, Adilene Castaneda, was acquitted of all charges, including murder and accessory after the fact.

The jury’s verdict comes more than seven years after the May 2017 disappearance of Jonathan Reynoso, a 28-year-old from Palm Desert, and Audrey Moran, a 26-year-old from Indio, after local authorities followed up on leads in the case found the couple’s remains buried in a field in the Coachella Valley in 2020.

A total of six suspects were charged with crimes related to the disappearance and murder of the local couple. Bernal and Castaneda, both 32, appeared in court this week, while Abraham Fregoso, 32, and Manuel Rios, 28, pleaded not guilty to murder charges.

Separate trials are underway in Fregoso and Rios, with the next hearings scheduled for early next year.

Two other people, Eric Rios and Jesus Ruiz Jr., pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact and were not charged with murder.

According to KESQ, Ruiz was sentenced to two years in prison in September 2021 but released on early serve, while Rios was convicted in February 2022 and sentenced to three years and eight months in prison, according to Hayden.

How we got here: A drug deal gone wrong

Reynoso and Moran last had contact with relatives on May 10, 2017, when Moran’s sister received a selfie of the couple. Moran had told the family that she would pick up Reynoso in Brawley after he returned from a trip with friends.

Then they disappeared. Concerned family members, unable to reach Moran after a day of efforts, contacted Indio police. On May 12, 2017, a vehicle authorities said Moran was driving was spotted westbound on Interstate 10 in Beaumont.

The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department continued to investigate the case and made a major breakthrough in June 2020 when they found bones in an undeveloped desert area of Indio at the end of Enterprise Way. Around the same time, Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin filed charges against three men – Fregoso, Ruiz and Manuel Rios – in connection with the deaths.

More details emerged during a court hearing in Riverside County in March 2022, when Carlos Mendoza, a sheriff’s department investigator, summarized undercover interviews conducted in Spanish with several suspects at the jail.

Mendoza said Fregoso described how he and Reynoso were involved in a drug deal gone wrong. Fregoso said he and others involved decided to punish Reynoso and the beating led to his death, according to Mendoza.

Fregoso said Moran became hysterical after Reynoso’s death and then strangled her, Mendoza said.

Fregoso and several others then attempted to bury the bodies in the backyard of a residence. He described that the two were placed in containers and that some type of “acid” was used to decompose the bodies, Mendoza testified.

Over the next few years, Mendoza testified that various suspects were involved in concealing the location of the bodies and disposing of evidence of the murders, including setting Bernal’s white Dodge Charger on fire and dumping it in Coachella.

Investigator Dan Moody testified he searched phone locations for several of the suspects, ranging from their various homes in the East Valley to an area near Beaumont where Moran’s car was later found.

Ruiz also testified that in 2017 he helped dig a hole that he believed was used to bury the bodies in the backyard of a home on Burr Street in Indio. He later said he saw bags full of concrete, presumably used to further conceal the remains.

Ruiz said that about a year later, as he and other residents of the house were preparing to move, he was asked by Fregoso to dig up the remains to hide them elsewhere. In a process he described in his testimony as “disburial,” Ruiz described using heavy machinery to dig up dirt, stones, concrete and “some bones.” The material and human remains were then loaded onto a trailer and into another vehicle.

The next hearings for the two remaining people charged with aggravated murder, Fregoso and Manuel Rios, are scheduled for the morning of January 24, 2025 in Riverside County Superior Court.

This story includes previous reporting by Desert Sun editor Christopher Damien.

Tom Coulter covers the Middle Valley. Reach him at [email protected].

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