Non-Responsive (Maria Muñoz)
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What happened to Maria Muñoz?
About an hour into the interview is when I ask him about the needle pricking in her elbow crease. Joel, why is that there? I don't know. I asked him point blank that night. Joel, did you inject your wife with anesthesia? What? No, I love her. I love her.
I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff.
I'm Anastasia Nicolazzi, former New York City homicide prosecutor and host of Investigation Discovery's True Conviction.
And this is Anatomy of Murder.
All marriages have their ups and downs, and most couples will tell you that it takes a lot of patience and hard work to make a healthy partnership endure.
When times do get tough, there are numerous ways to cope, from confiding in friends and family, to couples therapy, to keeping a private journal, all of which can be powerful tools for healing, and in some cases, powerful testimony to a person's emotional state or the state of a struggling marriage.
But of course, some marital discord can prove too challenging to overcome, especially when it comes to infidelity, abuse, or other trauma.
And in those cases, a record of a couple's problems does not just become a window into their private lives. It can become evidence.
My name is Luis Mata Jr. I am a sergeant of the Laredo Police Department's Crimes Against Persons Robbery and Homicide Bureau here in the Laredo Police Department in Laredo, Texas.
Growing up in Texas, Luis Mata thought he might one day become a sportscaster. But his dad was a police officer right in Laredo, and he never could get used to the idea of leaving his hometown.
Laredo, Texas is a city on the southwest U.S.-Mexico border. We are a large city with a small town atmosphere in the sense that for having half a million people, we still have a lot of people that know each other if you go to the grocery stores and things like that.
That sense of community drew him to a career in law enforcement. And as an investigator, he is often given access to the private lives of his neighbors, especially when those private lives become embroiled in very public criminal investigations.
Case in point, the story of 31-year-old Maria Munoz and her husband, Joel Peyote. Maria and Joel met when she was a nursing student, and he was an ambitious nurse anesthetist 11 years her senior.
The couple married in 2011 and eventually moved to Laredo, Texas, where Joel built a successful career and Maria dedicated herself to being a supportive wife and mom to their two sons.
She was a very educated woman. She was actually a RN. However, she never got the chance to practice because right after she graduated, she became pregnant. And then that's when she basically became a stay-at-home mom.
To the casual observer, Joel and Maria appear to be a happy, attractive, and a well-off family living in an upscale Laredo neighborhood. But looks can be deceiving.
And when unresolved conflict is left to simmer just beneath the surface of any relationship, the picture of a perfect marriage can shatter in an instant.
In the early morning hours of September 22nd, 2020, Laredo police received a 911 call from Joel and Maria's home in North Laredo.
And kind of scared if she's not breathing. She may have taken some pills. Okay, what is your address?
Joel described finding his wife Maria unconscious in their bedroom. He suspected that she had ingested a dangerous amount of prescription medication. Whether it was accidental or intentional, he didn't know.
What were the circumstances of Maria's death?
A uniformed officer from the Laredo PD was first on the scene, and his body cam captured his encounter with Joel as he entered the house. Hello?
Officer De La Cruz found Joel wearing his teal surgical scrubs, performing CPR on his wife, who was lying at the top of the stairs near the master bedroom.
Like, maybe like 20, 25 minutes ago.
CPR was continued, but Maria was unresponsive. Her eyes appeared fully dilated and she had no pulse. Shortly after paramedics arrived, Maria Munoz was declared dead. All the while, her two sons, just five and two, were still sleeping only a few feet away.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What happened to Maria Muñoz?
0:01–4:22
2
What were the circumstances of Maria's death?
4:22–9:13
3
What evidence raised suspicion about Joel's story?
9:13–13:56
4
What was found at the crime scene?
13:56–19:27
5
How did Joel's behavior change during the investigation?
19:27–25:01
6
What was the significance of the syringe found?
25:01–29:22
7
What did Joel reveal about his marital issues?
29:22–33:32
8
What were the conclusions drawn from the investigation?
33:32–45:35