Image Courtesy of cbsnews.com

Information Courtesy of The Charley Project

***Trigger Warning***

Today’s post discusses suicide. While every effort has been made to avoid graphic details, the post may contain information that upsets readers. Reader discretion is advised. If you need support, click here.

Disclaimer: This blog post is for informational and entertainment purposes only, and it is not meant to cause harm to anyone connected with the case. Please do not contact, threaten, harm, malign, or otherwise intimidate those mentioned in the post. Please do not release any personal information of the people mentioned in this post, and do not join in attacks conducted by others. Per U.S. law, every person directly or indirectly connected with this case is innocent until proven guilty.

***Please share this post! Your shares could bring Lucely home.***

About Lucely

Lucely “Lily” Aramburo was born on November 16, 1983. Soon after, she and her parents moved to Miami, Florida, and her parents divorced. By the time of her disappearance, her father was no longer in the picture, and she did not have contact with him.

As a child, Lily attended Shenandoah Elementary, Riviera Day School in Coral Gables, and Ponce De Leon Middle School. She loved the outdoors, especially flowers. Throughout her life, she would pick flowers to cope with stress. She even starred in the Sabado Gigante Show for several seasons, a weekly Spanish-language variety show.

Life was going well until the summer of 1997, when Lily and her mom moved to Hollywood, Florida. This required Lily to change schools to Hollywood Hills High School, a change that would’ve been difficult for many teenagers. Though she attended this new school for her freshman year, she soon fell into the wrong crowd and started experimenting with drugs. Things got to the point where she would leave for days at a time, and her mother would search frantically for her night after night.

Around the same time, Lily was diagnosed with depression. Though the diagnosis provided answers, her life continued to spiral out of control. At age 16, she dropped out of high school and experimented with other drugs, such as ecstasy and ketamine.

Once these new drugs were introduced, things reached a new level of desperation. Lily met David Lamaso in 2003, after which they began to date. Once they moved in together, she increased her dependence on drugs, and her communication with her mother became sporadic. She also reportedly became angrier, and she was also diagnosed with Schizophrenia at this time.

In 2004, Lily and David met and befriended Christen Pacheco. Christen reportedly never did drugs before meeting Lily and David, but he soon became addicted to cocaine.

Drugs continued to dominate Lily’s life until January 2006, when she became pregnant. Realizing she needed to provide for her baby, she got clean, obtained her GED, and even took Buddhism courses. While taking the courses, she met Janet Forte, who became her close friend and advocate, especially after her disappearance. She gave birth in September 2006 to a baby boy that she named Palden.

Things seemed to be looking up for Lily. Unfortunately, things began to go downhill again when Lily and David broke up in late 2006, at which point she and Christen began a relationship. She moved into his condo, and they even discussed marriage. However, many described their relationship as “troubled.” The police were called on at least two separate occasions after they got into heated arguments, and Lily reportedly admitted to her mother that she was afraid of him. Even though there were never any arrests made during these altercations, police arrested Christen on drug-related charges several times after Lily’s disappearance.

By 2007, Lily’s life was once again spiraling out of control. Due to her and Christen’s drug use and late-night parties, Child Protective Services (CPS) became involved and gave custody of Paulden to Lily’s mother. CPS then told Lily that if she didn’t get clean and stay clean, she would lose her son. In response, she was admitted to an inpatient drug treatment program and underwent regular drug testing.

A few days before her disappearance, she had tested positive for drugs, which increased her risk of losing her son permanently.

Disappearance and Investigation

Lily was last seen in the early morning hours of June 2, 2007, by her boyfriend Christen Pacheco. According to his account, she walked out following an argument between them; she was wearing only a nightgown and carried two bungee cords. Her cell phone and purse were left behind. Christen claimed to have woken up around 10 AM and discovered Lily was nowhere to be found. He searched the neighborhood for hours before contacting the authorities. He ended up reporting her missing 24 hours later, at which point he claimed that she had been suicidal.

Initially, the police didn’t take her disappearance seriously. She was an adult who had a history of running away and drug abuse. However, her mother and her friend Janet insisted that it was uncharacteristic of her to abandon her son and cut off contact with everyone.

Unfortunately, this was not the only mistake the police made. Even though Christen was the last person known to be with Lily that day, he was not questioned until years after the disappearance. At that point, he was given a polygraph test, which he reportedly passed. It wouldn’t be until years later that the public found out he had actually failed.

Due to a lack of attention from the police, her mother and Janet attempted to contact the media to get the word out about her disappearance. Frustratingly, none of the media outlets were willing to cover her case.

Since then, Christen reached out to Lily’s mother to report sightings of her in the Miami area. In one sighting, he claimed to have spoken to two men who confirmed that they spoke with Lily. Reportedly, her mother spoke with one of the men, and the details were so compelling that she and Janet began to focus their efforts in the Miami area. Unfortunately, nothing came of this sighting.

For Lily’s loved ones, Christen’s inconsistencies that night warrant a closer look. There are several questions that only he can answer, such as why it took him so long to report Lily missing or contact her mother. In response, he told her that he had tried to report her missing sooner, but the police had told him that he needed to wait 24-48 hours to report an adult. He also assumed that someone else in the house had contacted her mother.

Not satisfied with these answers, her loved ones tried to go to the police with their suspicions, but nothing came of it.

After that, Janet turned to the internet to share Lily’s story in the hopes of garnering more exposure and leads. Her efforts paid off when a journalist from the Miami New Times picked up the story and wrote a comprehensive article about the case, complete with statements from the police, Lily’s mother, Janet, and Christen, among others. This article came across the desks of two private investigators, who offered their services pro bono.

Despite the assistance of the private investigators, pushes for more exposure, and a detective reinvestigating her case, no new leads have developed. Over the years, there have been rumors that Lily was murdered, and there have been reported sightings, but none of these have helped the case progress.

Since her disappearance, Lily’s mother has been caring for Palden. She’s tried to keep her daughter’s story alive, but it hasn’t been easy. As of this writing, her case remains unsolved.

My Thoughts

The disappearance of Lily Aramburo is equally mysterious and infuriating. A young mother supposedly disappears early one morning after a fight with her boyfriend/fiancé. The strange part is that she disappears wearing only a nightgown and carrying a couple of bungee cords. Honestly, it reminds me of the disappearance of Monica Carrasco, which I covered in my first post.

This case was difficult and somewhat frustrating to research. Lily’s case received very little attention from police and the media, and as a result, many of the details of this case are unconfirmed, making it hard to determine what happened. Janet Forte, Lily’s friend, has done a lot of work to promote her case online. Unfortunately, the website (justiceinmiami.org) was taken down, but parts are accessible via the WayBack Machine. I scoured through the archives, looking for additional information about her case, but the only information I found discussed efforts to promote Lily’s case.

This disappearance is particularly tragic. From what information is available, it’s clear that Lily struggled. Struggled with changes in her life, struggled with mental illnesses, struggled with drug abuse. Many people prefer to distance themselves from the poor and vulnerable, especially if there are drugs involved. But I urge you to read Lily’s story (and similar stories) with compassion and an open mind. I’ve worked with vulnerable people in my personal and professional life, and the biggest lesson I’ve learned is this: you are not as removed from poverty, homelessness, drug abuse, etc. as you think you are. I say that not to scare you but to ground you in reality. Because if you ever end up in Lily’s situation, you’re going to hope and pray that someone shows you compassion and empathy.

In Lily’s case, there’s not a lot of information, but there are some theories to discuss. Most people who look at this case believe one of the following theories:

1. Lily left Christen’s condo that night with the intent to harm herself.
2. Lily ran away, possibly while under the influence of drugs.
3. Lily died or was murdered.

Let’s look at these theories one by one.

First, we have the theory that Lily left Christen’s condo with the intent to harm herself. If Christen is to be believed, she was suicidal. Even though she was diagnosed with depression, I struggle to believe this theory. If she was suicidal, why did she leave the condo if she wanted to end her life? Even though it was the middle of the night, there was a decent chance that someone could’ve seen what she was doing and stopped her. There could’ve been high school or college students coming home after a night out, a mom getting up to tend to her baby, or a child woken up by a nightmare. As far as I’m aware, no one other than Christen saw her that night, never mind stopped her supposed suicide attempt.

The dealbreaker for me is her lack of shoes. I can understand leaving your wallet and phone behind, but to leave your shoes behind? I mentioned in the Monica Carrasco case that running outside barefoot puts strain on your body. Even if you’re just walking, it’s still incredibly uncomfortable and painful. The pavement is rough, and you could step on things like rocks, sticks, and broken glass and hurt yourself. Why would she have subjected herself to this discomfort and pain when there were suicide methods more accessible at the condo?

With all of this in mind, I believe that the suicide theory is the least likely.

The next theory we have is that Lily ran away, possibly while she was under the influence of drugs. I’ll admit that drugs can make you do some strange things, but I also find it hard to believe this theory. If she was under the influence, how could she have gotten so far away that no one would’ve found her? If she was in the middle of the woods, then it’s plausible. However, she disappeared from a condo in a more urban area. Besides, she was barefoot, which would’ve slowed her down considerably. If she was in the immediate area, someone would’ve found her.

The only way I see this being possible is if someone picked her up as a hitchhiker. But again, there’s no evidence that this happened. No one reported seeing unusual vehicles or suspicious people near Christen’s condo that night. Not only that, but this theory and the suicide theory completely ignore what Lily’s loved ones have said: she would never leave her son. She was working hard to regain custody. If she wanted him back that badly, why would she leave? She was already in hot water over the positive drug test. Abandoning your child would only cause more trouble, and it would further increase your risk of losing custody forever.

While this theory isn’t out of the realm of possibility, I still don’t think it’s likely.

The last theory is that Lily either died or was murdered that night, and someone concealed her body. We know that she and Christen had a rocky relationship, to the point where the authorities were called to break up their fights multiple times. She even told her mother that she was scared of him.

There are a myriad of possibilities under this theory. One notable possibility is that Lily overdosed and died, and Christen disposed of her body in the 24 hours between her disappearance and the authorities being contacted. There have been plenty of instances where people panicked after an accidental death. Rather than calling the police, they conceal the body and hide evidence. I can see this as a possibility here, especially since there were drugs involved.

But even with this theory, there are still issues. If it was an accident, why would someone like Christen go through the effort of concealing her body? I imagine charges like concealing a corpse would carry stiffer punishments than a drug possession charge.

That leads to another possibility, that Christen was responsible for Lily’s death. The fact that their arguments were bad enough for police to get involved is a massive red flag for me, as is the fact that Lily admitted to her mom that she was scared of him.

Domestic violence is a serious problem that doesn’t go away on its own. Without aggressive intervention, it can end in one or both partners being seriously injured or dying. If Lily died during an argument with Christen, that would motivate him to stay quiet after all these years. He would’ve likely received a severe punishment, especially since this wasn’t the first time police intervened during their arguments.

The only problem is that we have no evidence of any of this. Christen has never been named a suspect, never mind arrested and convicted. Between the lack of evidence and cooperation with authorities, we have almost nothing to work with here. It’s almost all speculation and hearsay.

Lily deserves better. In between her mental illnesses and drug abuse, she was still a person. She was a daughter, a mother, and a friend. She doesn’t deserve to be forgotten. She deserves her day in court, just like every other victim.

Even though most of the world forgot about her, you don’t have to. Talk to your loved ones about Lily, especially if you know anyone in the Miami area. Share this post on social media. Don’t let her continue to be forgotten.

“They say you die twice. One time when you stop breathing, and a second time when somebody says your name for the last time.”

-Banksy

***

If you’re looking for more information about the disappearance of Lucely “Lily” Aramburo, there’s not a lot of information. Janet had created a website to discuss Lily’s disappearance, but it has since been removed. As a result, a lot of the information available hasn’t been confirmed. The most comprehensive source I found was episode 41 of the Trace Evidence Podcast. The following sources helped me as I wrote this post:

• The Charley Project
• Disappearedblog.com
• Community United Effort: In Support of Missing Persons
• Defrostingcoldcases.com
• NAMUS
• Trace Evidence Podcast

If you have any information about the disappearance of Lucely “Lily” Aramburo, please contact the Miami-Dade Police Department at 305-418-7200.

---

Announcements

Make sure to share today’s post on social media. The more we share this post, the higher the likelihood that Lily’s case gets solved.

If you enjoyed today’s post, make sure to subscribe by entering your email in the box on the right-hand side of your screen. (On mobile? Visit the “About True Crime Musings” page and scroll to the bottom of the page.)

---

What do you think happened? Let me know in the comments.