True Crime with Rachel Shannon
They Left their Disabled Daughter in a Hot Car for 6 HOURS to MURDER her: Cristina Pangalangan
Thu, 03 Apr 2025
Cristina Pangalangan was a 13 year old girl with cerebral palsy, a congenital disability that affected her ability to move and speak, requiring round the clock care. To most, Cristina was a sweet, unique, and smart young girl. However, to her so called "mother", she was just an inconvenience. This is what lead to her grueling, painful death. What are your thoughts on Cristina's case? Let's discuss in the comments. Thank you guys for watching, hope to see you next time!
Chapter 1: What happened to Cristina Pangalangan?
Let's get into this truly awful case. Today, we're going to be discussing the death of Christina Pangalangan. Christina Pangalangan was born on March 28th, 2006 in Colleton County, South Carolina to Rita Frazier and Raphael Pangalangan, and she had two sisters, Ashley and Elizabeth.
Christina was born with cerebral palsy, which is a congenital disorder that is caused by damage to the brain that can happen before, during, or after birth. In some cases, the child has abnormal brain development in utero. Sometimes it's from a lack of oxygen to the brain during labor and delivery. Those are the two most common causes that I personally have seen in my healthcare job.
Chapter 2: What is cerebral palsy and how does it affect children?
It can also be caused by infections that cause swelling and inflammation around the brain. either sustained as an infant, or even if the mother gets that kind of infection while pregnant, or it can be caused by a traumatic brain injury sustained as an infant from something like a car accident or physical abuse.
So, it's not necessarily a genetic or hereditary condition like a lot of people tend to believe. Obviously, your genes can contribute to it if you already have some genetic mutation that causes abnormal brain development, but it's not a gene that causes CP itself. More so, it can be a gene that causes some other brain development issue that can lead to the child having CP.
The most common symptoms of cerebral palsy, which is abbreviated to CP, most affect the person's motor development and speech. So the most common type of CP is spastic, which means that the person will have super rigid and stiff muscles and joints. Some have high tone or spasticity all throughout their bodies, while others may have very low tone and are very floppy and weak.
There are some very mild forms of CP, which will result in things like difficulty with normal gait, such as a super stiff leg on one side. But everything else, including speech and cognition, can be normal. Sometimes it can affect one side of the person's entire body. so they can have a super stiff left leg and a very weak left arm, for example.
Some people with CP, though, you might not even know it. Meanwhile, a lot of people with CP have what's called spastic quadriplegia, and I think this is what people mostly think of when they think of CP. That means that the person won't be able to move their arms or legs very purposefully. They usually cannot walk, so they rely on a wheelchair.
At least in my experience, these are the kids that usually don't have meaningful communication or speech. Usually they'll need help with pretty much everything, including feeding, transferring from bed to chair or couch or wherever, using the bathroom. And a lot of times they will have some sort of communication device that helps them portray what they want or need to their caregiver.
Basically, someone with quadriplegic CP will need round-the-clock care. I'm explaining all of this first so you understand the case a little bit better, but also because a lot of people simply don't know a lot about cerebral palsy. It's not always the people in the wheelchair or with cognitive disabilities.
I have one child that I see in my healthcare job who is totally normal and everything with their cognition, speech, everything. They just have one spastic leg that makes the walking a little bit funky and makes them trip all of the time. But otherwise, this child is a totally typically developing child with speech and everything else.
As for Christina though, she had spastic quadriplegic CP as well as a seizure disorder. This means that Christina had more severe cognitive and speech difficulties, which made it impossible to communicate via spoken language. She needed to use a wheelchair and did not have a wide range of purposeful movement. And what I mean by purposeful movement is they might...
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Chapter 3: What led to Cristina's tragic death?
Okay, sir. And how long has it been since you got her out of the vehicle? Hello, sir?
Yes, sir.
How long has it been since you got her out of the vehicle?
Probably 15 to 10 minutes. As soon as I got her out, man, I called you 10 minutes. I don't know, man. Since the time I got her, I called you immediately. This is crazy. Oh, my God. How badly is she burned? Uh, she's got... She's got her skin, man. I swear. Yeah, it's bad. I swear. I don't know what they got. Oh, my God. Do you know what burned her? I guess maybe, man, she got in the car.
She was in the floorboard, man. And the car, it's done got... Yeah, it's got hot, though. You know...
First responders arrived shortly after the call was made. When they arrived, Christina's body was lying in the grass and Larry was standing outside on the phone with 911 while Rita was inside the house. At that point, attempts were made to save Christina's life, but unfortunately, they were too late. 13-year-old Christina was pronounced dead at the scene.
Now, from the day that police arrived to the scene to question Larry and Rita and the weeks after, their stories would change multiple times. As we heard on that 911 call, Larry says multiple times that the AC was on. He was confident about that. Now, when police got there, the car was turned on and the AC was blowing, but the car was still hot.
To investigators, that told them that they had just turned that car on right before police arrived. Why? Probably because they knew that the car had been off and he wanted to make it seem like it was left on so that they wouldn't be suspected of killing Christina by leaving her in a hot car on purpose.
Then they tried saying that there had been issues with the AC because obviously they probably realized that the police realized that the car was still hot even with the AC blowing when they first arrived. So they just said that there had been issues with the AC. Then they tried saying that there must have been an issue with the air conditioner.
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Chapter 4: What did the 911 call reveal about the situation?
But it turns out that their statements actually didn't matter much, if at all, because Larry actually had home surveillance cameras that picked up their every movement that day. And it showed us exactly what we needed to know about that day. So earlier I gave you a bit of a snippet into what was going on while Christina was in that car.
That they placed her in the car, almost six hours passed, and when she was taken out, she was already dead. But when you find out exactly what happened and what they were doing while she was baking in that hot car, oh, it just gets so much worse. Let me take you through a step-by-step narration of what happened on that morning.
So, on the surveillance video, we see them carrying Christina out to the car at 11.16am on August 5th, 2019, and we see that they do not start the car after putting her in. Then we see for the next half hour as Rita and Larry argue on the lawn and then move to the porch to continue arguing until 11 43 a.m. They stay inside for about an hour before Rita comes back out at 12 29 p.m.
She then gets into the driver's seat of the car, sits there for a minute, then gets back out. She opens the rear door to check on Christina and then shuts the door again.
By 12.30 p.m., she goes back inside.
She stays inside until 1.45 p.m. when her and Larry come back out and start arguing again on the porch. At this point, Christina has been in the car for over two hours. Then they are seen just meandering about until they hug and embrace each other at the doorway of the home before going inside at 2.03pm. It's at this point that Larry and Christina had sex.
About an hour later at 3 0 1 PM, they came back outside to the porch to smoke cigarettes and continue talking. By that point, Rita goes to the car to get some cigarettes, but realize that she has locked herself out of the car. By that point, Christina has been in the car for three hours and 47 minutes.
Then Rita and Larry walk around the car multiple times, trying to yank the door handles open to see if the windows are cracked or anything. They spend 10 minutes doing this. Then they wander around in the front yard for a minute before heading in the backyard to go to their shed and get some tools and try to get the door open.
They used a coat hanger to see if they could get the door unlocked, but they were unsuccessful. After being unable to open the car, they sit on the porch for a while and swing together on the porch swing. They do that for another 15-ish minutes until they go back inside at 3.32 p.m. At this point, Christina has been in that car for over four hours.
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Chapter 5: What were the parents doing while Cristina was in the car?
Yes, sir.
And what was that reason?
To meet to go over her daughter Christina's routine about her everyday living and all that stuff, taking care of her.
Why did you do that?
Because I was going to be watching Christina.
Did you have any particular interest in this? How did this come about?
Because I was going to be a nurse, so they thought it would be best for me to, you know, kind of get the hang of her routine and all that. It might help me out. So I agreed, and that's when I went. Rita.
All right, so you go over there on the second with the idea of learning how to take care of her. What happens after that?
Well, I just got there, and we went over the routine pretty much, and then Rita asked me if I would watch Christina while she went on a date with Larry.
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Chapter 6: What evidence was found to suggest negligence?
Was that Larry King?
Yes, sir, her boyfriend.
And tell me about that. She left the house, I'm assuming, sometime around that afternoon?
Yes, sir. I would say about around 5, 6 o'clock. That afternoon she left.
Anybody else there to take care of Christina?
No, sir.
It was just you?
Mm-hmm.
Had you taken care of Christina before?
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Chapter 7: How did the community react to Cristina's death?
They found that Rita and Larry were not guilty of criminal conspiracy, but they found that they were both guilty on the charges of murder and causing great bodily harm. As their verdicts were being read out, Rita was absolutely shocked. She gasped and yelled out, falling over and started sobbing.
If the defendant will rise, defendants will rise. And Madam Clerk, if you will publish the verdicts.
State of South Carolina versus Rita M. Pang-Delaney. We, the jury, in the above caption, on the charge of the murder of Christina M. Pang-Delaney, find the defendant guilty.
Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
We, the jury, in the above caption, on the charge of grave bodily injury of a child, we find the defendant guilty. We, the jury in the above captioned case on the charge of criminal conspiracy, find the defendant not guilty.
You don't need to call the name of the poor person. Signed by the poor person, do you? Signed by the poor person. Yes.
State of South Carolina versus Larry Eugene King. We, the jury in the above captioned case on the charge of murder of Christina A. Pangolini, find the defendant guilty. We, the jury in the above captioned case on the charge of great bodily injury on a child Find the defendant guilty. Leave the jury in the above captioned case on the charge of criminal conspiracy. Find the defendant not guilty.
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Chapter 8: What charges were filed against Rita and Larry?
At their sentencing hearings, Rita admitted that she was negligent, but she held on to the fact that she did not do this on purpose. In the end, Rita was sentenced to 37 years for murder and another 20 years for the charges of great bodily harm to be served concurrently. Then Larry was sentenced to 32 years for murder, and he was also given a 20-year sentence for great bodily harm.
It doesn't help me clarify in my mind who is the most culpable out of this situation, or are they equally culpable? Whose conduct was the most extreme? The mother who abandons her child in that setting and
does nothing to rescue the child who chooses Mr. King and her own pleasure over the child, or Mr. King who throws the child, or he didn't throw, places the child in the back of the car and shows no concern, compassion, or anything for the child, and in effect joins with the mother in the treatment of the child.
though it wasn't his child, he initiated his role in it when he placed the child in the back of the car and when he did nothing to get the child out of the car. King is sentenced to the court on the offense of murder that you be committed to the State Department of Corrections for a period of 32 years. Great bodily injury, the sentence is 20 years. Sentences will run concurrent with
credit for any time that you've already served. Ms. Panalenga, a lot of folks have said a lot of good things about you and a lot of positive impacts that you've made on their lives. You're not being sentenced to death.
Your life goes on, but it'll go on behind bars, and you'll still have that same opportunity to make a positive impact on the lives of other people who you encounter, and I hope you do that. I simply cannot fathom a mother treating a child the way that you did. and allowing that to happen to a child, to your child, the child that you birthed. I don't know if the child at some point became a burden.
I don't know what the circumstances were that would lead you to placing the child in that situation and as if you left and went to Atlanta, Georgia or maybe we'll say, uh, not Charles to middle beach and went there and got in the beach for in a ward a few hours and then come, came back and then, uh, then decided that it's a frantic situation. You did it. You have to live with it.
And as bad as the conduct of Mr. King was yours was worse. in my mind sentence of the court is that you'd be committed to the state department of correction for a period of 37 years on murder 20 years on great bodily injury sentences will run concurrent and you'll receive credit for time served
After the death of this beautiful little girl, the public was understandably outraged. People who knew the family had expressed concern for Christina's safety to the Department of Social Services, who did nothing to provide help or resources to the family. Christina's father, Rafael, said that he was devastated by his daughter's death and he hoped that Rita and Larry would suffer in prison.
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