In today's episode, we examine a disturbing crime that rocked the community of Aurora, Colorado in 2022. On the fateful day of the killings, three members of a local family, and another man were executed in cold blood inside of their home. But what happened both before, and after the shooting itself, was what made this story that much more disturbing. - Listen to our new show, "THE CONSPIRACY FILES"!: -Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5IY9nWD2MYDzlSYP48nRPl -Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-conspiracy-files/id1752719844 -Amazon/Audible - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/ab1ade99-740c-46ae-8028-b2cf41eabf58/the-conspiracy-files -Pandora - https://www.pandora.com/podcast/the-conspiracy-files/PC:1001089101 -iHeart - https://iheart.com/podcast/186907423/ -PocketCast - https://pca.st/dpdyrcca -CastBox - https://castbox.fm/channel/id6193084?country=us - Stay Connected: Join the Murder in America fam in our free Facebook Community for a behind-the-scenes look, more insights and current events in the true crime world: https://www.facebook.com/groups/4365229996855701 If you want even more Murder in America bonus content, including ad-free episodes, come join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/murderinamerica Instagram: http://instagram.com/murderinamerica/ Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/people/Murder-in-America-Podcast/100086268848682/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/MurderInAmerica TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theparanormalfiles and https://www.tiktok.com/@courtneybrowen Feeling spooky? Follow Colin as he travels state to state (and even country to country!) investigating claims of extreme paranormal activity and visiting famous haunted locations on The Paranormal Files Official Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheParanormalFilesOfficialChannel - (c) BLOOD IN THE SINK PRODUCTIONS 2025 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What warnings should listeners be aware of before this episode?
Warning, the following podcast is not suitable for all audiences. We go into great detail with every case that we cover and do our best to bring viewers even deeper into the stories by utilizing disturbing audio and sound effects.
Trigger warnings from the stories we cover may include violence, rape, murder, and offenses against children.
This podcast is not for everyone. You have been warned.
Finding a life partner can be really hard. And at times it can be scary because in the beginning, when you first meet someone, they are always on their best behavior. They're showing you the best parts of themselves. They're treating you well, making you feel special and proving that they are worthy of your time. And typically that version of them is who you fall for.
But deep down within every human are flaws, personality traits that we aren't proud of. And usually after being with someone for a while, you begin to see those traits creeping in. At the end of the day, you can't hide them forever. But even after witnessing these red flags, You keep going back to those good qualities you saw in the beginning.
You think to yourself that surely that good person is still somewhere within them. However, sometimes that's not the case. There are people out there where once they find a partner, something changes within them. They become possessive, manipulative, controlling, abusive. And after a while, that good person you once knew in the beginning is no longer there.
The dangerous part about dating someone like this is that sometimes, even when you try to leave, they don't always take no for an answer. And they are willing to do just about anything to keep that control over you. Today's story is about just that. a man named Joseph Castorina, who abused and terrorized his girlfriend, Jessica, for years.
After realizing that he was dangerous, Jessica took all the right steps to protect herself from him. But in the end, he would hurt her in the most horrific way you can imagine. So this is the story of the Serrano family massacre. I'm Courtney Browen.
And I'm Colin Browen.
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Chapter 2: Who are the hosts and what is the story about?
Now, Jessica would put her foot down when things got really bad. She had actually left him on a number of times over the course of their relationship. But sadly, every time, Joseph would come running back to her, begging for another chance. He would give her all of these empty promises, telling her all of the ways he was going to change going forward.
And being the good person she is, Jessica would give him the chance to prove himself. After all, he was the father of her children. She wanted her daughters to grow up with their dad, so she would take him back. But without fail, after a brief period of him being on his best behavior, Joseph Castorena always reverted back to his old ways.
Joseph and Jessica had been on this vicious and never-ending cycle for years. Their relationship was plagued with domestic violence, frequent breakups, and an unhealthy obsession. Every time Jessica got back together with him, It was only a matter of time until he started being controlling, jealous, and violent.
But one of the worst times of their relationship occurred in August of 2020, when Jessica and Joseph's daughter was rushed to the Children's Hospital in Colorado. She was only three months old at the time, and she was severely injured. When the doctors looked at her little body, they saw that she had a broken arm and multiple skull fractures.
As it turns out, Joseph's abuse wasn't just towards Jessica, but his children as well. Now, following this, he was arrested and charged with felony child abuse. And this is also the year that Jessica decided to leave Joseph once and for all. It had taken her years to finally come to this realization, but she knew she couldn't live the rest of her life being afraid.
She had already lost so much because of this man. So she made the brave decision to leave. And Jessica was moving on with her life. That year, she got on Facebook and saw that she had a message from someone. She didn't know the guy, but from what she could tell by his profile picture, He was attractive, and based on his message, he wanted to get to know her better.
So from there, the two began messaging back and forth. I'm sure it was refreshing to talk to someone new, to get to know this guy. Eventually, he even asked her out on a date, to which Jessica said yes. But as soon as she did, she learned that this guy she was messaging
wasn't even real it was joseph he had made an entire fake facebook account using someone else's name in pictures he then started messaging jessica pretending to be this guy and when jessica agreed to go on the date joseph revealed that he was the person she had been talking to the entire time following that he flew into a rage
It was very clear to Jessica and her entire family that Joseph was extremely unstable. It seemed that after their breakup, his obsession with her got even stronger and soon enough his behavior would escalate.
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Chapter 3: What is the background of Aurora, Colorado and previous tragedies?
but we're going to be as thorough as we can with the search and do the best we can to reassure the community have a presence here we're going to be here for the crime scene for quite some time all of the deceased are still at the crime scene so we'll be here for quite some time and i think that should have some reassurance to the community along with the search that we're doing chief question the picture that you released on twitter was from a previous arrest it seems like less than 30 days ago can you shed light into some of those other charges
He has a history involving domestic violence, and I don't have all the details. I'd rather not go into that, but this was an accumulation of events here that led to this. So, yes.
Did this have anything to do with the custody dispute? Because that's what some relatives had told us.
Well, the children of the suspect and his domestic partner are not even in state. They are elsewhere with family and safe.
So the question, with obviously a history of domestic violence, this person was obviously not in jail, not in police custody. Is there a reason for that? Can you speak to that at all?
I can't. I don't have an explanation for that at this time.
And that's what we were wondering as well. Before the massacre, Joseph forced Jessica into his vehicle as she was leaving work. He busted her car window out with a tire iron as she was trying to leave. And then he kept her at his house against her will, holding a gun against her. And Jessica took all the right steps. After that incident, she went to the police and got a protective order.
Her whole family did, and somehow this monster was able to walk around free.
On the afternoon of October 30th, Jessica's mother was interviewed by Fox 31 Denver, and she provided more insight into the relationship between her daughter and Joseph.
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