Web of Secrets: Follow the trail that led the FBI to an alleged killer in Adelaide’s north
A father-of-four killed in Los Angeles. A fortuitous discovery in Idaho. And a master of disguise who hid in Hong Kong. Follow the trail as The Advertiser maps the web of secrets that led the FBI to an alleged killer in Adelaide.
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As the mechanics worked to fix the damaged luxury car, they diligently cleaned off what they wrongly believed was animal blood.
The young female driver had told the Californian car repair shop that she had hit a deer – but the reality was far more sinister.
Minutes earlier, police allege that motorist, Andrea Dorothy Chan Reyes, 33, had fled a Los Angeles crime scene almost 34km away after hitting a cyclist.
Detectives believe the blood found on the white late-model tinted Lexus was not from an animal.
A DNA match instead showed it was from father of four Agustin Rodriguez Jr, 46.
He died in the middle of a suburban street, in the inner LA southeast suburb of Whittier, at 7.32am on January 30, 2017.
“She said she hit a deer. That’s blood. We cleaned up that blood, thinking it’s a deer,” the repair shop owner, who did not wish to be identified, recalled this week.
“It makes me feel cold, just talking about this. It’s going to always be in my head.”
WEB OF SECRETS: FOLLOW THE TRAIL
US law enforcement, led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, launched a worldwide manhunt for Chan Reyes after she allegedly boarded an American Airlines flight and fled to Hong Kong, where she had married her husband 10 years ago.
The Advertiser last month revealed FBI special agents, from the LA field office, tracked the Filipino-born financial analyst and fraud auditor to Adelaide in April.
How and why she ended up living with new Australian boyfriend Paul Blair, 38, at Paralowie is a mystery.
An extradition battle looms in the Adelaide Magistrates Court, after which authorities hope to fly her home to face a US District Court jury.
She is accused of vehicular manslaughter, hit-run driving resulting in death and destroying or concealing evidence.
No charges have been laid but, if she is convicted, she faces up to 15 years in prison.
Almost three weeks before Australian Federal Police officers raided her home, in a new northern Adelaide subdivision, her US lawyers told police she would not surrender.
But as she is set to fight for her release from custody, the tragedy has destroyed countless lives.
Mr Rodriguez’s grieving family have fought a near two-year battle for justice to find the person who mowed him down as he rode his BMX bike, dragged him 274m and then “evaded justice”.
His partner is in a coma after trying to take her own life, and his young daughter is being cared for by devastated relatives.
“This person has no idea the hurt she has caused so many people,” said the victim’s best friend – truck driver Jennifer Foot, 48, of Whittier.
He had been riding to his retired truck driver father’s house, just 10 minutes away, where they would drive to his new warehouse job.
Known as Tin Tin or Tin, he was hours earlier celebrating his father’s retirement with his large extended family.
It was here, he told of his pride at finally having a daughter, then aged almost two, and how he wanted to give her the world.
Ms Foot, his best friend, said he was a good father.
“He was just a great guy, they don’t make … guys like him anymore,” she said.
“He could fix anything – he could change (nappies), he could mow your lawn and do your dishes. He was a real man and he is still missed by our family and our friends every single day.”
Court documents allege the married Chan Reyes, who also had a boyfriend in Las Vegas, called the panel shop 28 minutes after the collision.
The mechanics at the A-One Auto Body, in Huntington Beach, remain traumatised and angry over a belief they were duped.
Speaking at his business of 30 years, surrounded by high-end retail near LA’s southern coast, its Indonesian-born owner shuddered as he recalled finding her waiting for him that when he arrived for work that Monday morning.
“I didn’t really pay attention when she came in – she was just a customer,” he said.
He told police the car’s front bumper, headlight, bonnet, right fender and front area of the roof were damaged.
The front windscreen was also smashed. The petite Asian woman dismissed the blood and the extensive damage as a routine accident with a deer.
No further questions were asked and the car was returned as new.
Her husband, Marcus Chan – whose exact whereabouts remain unknown – later paid the bill.
Hours after the crash her father-in-law, Hilary Chan, drove her 40km to work at Harmony Health Labs, in Santa Fe Springs, where she worked as a financial controller.
It is today empty.
Speaking at his Huntington Beach home, Hilary Chan said he thought nothing of the damage, which he said was explained away as her having hit a deer.
“She’s a nice girl, actually. She’s pretty smart,” he said.
“Sometimes, something bad happens and you panic and make a bad decisions.
“She’s scared and made some bad decisions.”
A fortnight later, detectives interviewed shocked auto shop staff, who handed over all records Whittier Police Department and a vacuum bag containing broken glass and damaged car parts.
“I co-operated – I told the police everything,” said the owner.
“The story itself – it’s a scary story. I was so shocked when the police came. I was never involved with police or whatever before this.”
Just five days later, the FBI allege Chan Reyes flew out of LA Airport to Hong Kong before intelligence suggested she was in Adelaide.
Mystery surrounds her life in LA and why she was married but also had a boyfriend in Las Vegas.
The car was allegedly driven by an unknown person 1439km north to a house in Meridian, Idaho, where it was hidden in a private garage belonging to a friend of the boyfriend.
Authorities tracked the car using GPS and have not ruled out charging others.
Chan Reyes online CV states she was educated at some of the world’s leading universities, including Cambridge in Britain and the University of Southern California.
She worked in banking and as a court-appointed forensic accountant and fraud examiner. But questions remain over her marriage.
Hilary Chan laughed when asked about their “marriage”: “I didn’t know about that. I just read it and found out.”
Asked if it was a so-called “green card”, or US visa scam, marriage, he replied: “I think they were married a long time ago, but I’m not sure. They’re good friends, but they’re not living together.”
Amparo Heinemann, her landlord of a room she rented less than 2km from the crash site, told how one day she suddenly disappeared, leaving her belongings behind. She said: “I never saw her again. One day she left for work. It was two or three days later when the police … asked me questions.”
But her friends deny she had deliberately skipped town.
“She did not flee to avoid prosecution,” said one of her US-based lawyers, and close friend of 10 years, Paul Young.
“She is brilliant and I always knew her to be a good person. She was good to my family and would cook pumpkin pies for my mother.”
Her South Australian-based lawyer refused to comment and said his client, in Adelaide Women’s Prison, did not wish to speak publicly.
She is due to apply for bail next week. After being approached for comment at the $330,000 house owned by one of his relatives, Mr Blair this week threatened to “come after” The Advertiser “legally”.
Neither the FBI nor AFP would comment.
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