She Left Without Her Shoes - Episode 87

The Wallet Nobody Was Supposed to Find: The Murder of Evelyn Hernandez

A nine-months-pregnant woman steps out to collect her mail on a Wednesday evening — and then simply ceases to exist. The new wallet she bought that same afternoon turns up weeks later in a parking lot one block from her ex-boyfriend's workplace, still carrying an uncashed check. How does a woman due to give birth in six days vanish alongside her five-year-old son without a single person calling police for nearly a week?

In this episode, we explore the six-day gap before anyone reported Evelyn and Alex missing, a brand-new wallet found in a fenced lot blocks from a limo company with deep ties to the man last known to see her alive, and partial remains pulled from San Francisco Bay that took over a month to identify through DNA. Was this a crime of desperation by someone facing exposure, or did investigators miss a connection that a murder defense team later tried to force into the open? The forensic science and the geography tell two stories that refuse to align.

Case Details

Victim: Evelyn Hernandez, approximately 24 years old, pregnant single mother and immigrant working two jobs; Alex Hernandez, age 5, her son.

Date: May 1–2, 2002 (disappearance); remains identified September 2002.

Location: San Francisco, California, USA.

Case Status: Both cases remain officially open with no arrests and no convictions. The San Francisco Police Department has not publicly named a suspect in over two decades.

Episode Key Points

- Evelyn's packed hospital go-bag was still sitting in her apartment when police searched it — she was nine days from her due date and left without it.

- The wallet Evelyn purchased on the day she vanished was recovered May 31 in a fenced parking lot approximately one block from a gas station her ex-boyfriend visited regularly during his limo driving shifts.

- Herman Aguilara, the father of her unborn child, waited six full days before reporting Evelyn and Alex missing — filing the report on May 7, the exact date of Evelyn's due date.

- Defense attorneys for Scott Peterson formally requested Evelyn's case files in 2003, arguing a single perpetrator killed both women — the judge denied full access and the San Francisco Police stated publicly the cases were unrelated without releasing specifics.

Evelyn Hernandez, San Francisco homicide 2002, missing persons California, Latina immigrant murder, San Francisco Bay remains, true crime, homicide, investigation, forensic science, unsolved mysteries, murder, criminal minds, true crime English.