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Welcome to the 2020 True Crime Vault, where heart stopping headlines come to life.

This is captain Tom Hoxen, well deserved.

I'm so glad you could join us on our last voyage on well deserved.

This is not right. Something's going on here.

Next thing you know, there's no 1 to get a hold of.

Oh my god. Oh my god.

Tom and Jackie Hawkes were nowhere to be found. They tell friends and family, hey. You know, we think we've sold our boat. We met this rich kid, and he really wants it.

Who's this guy?

Skyler De Leon was a childhood actor.

And he was in the Power Rangers.

So Skyler just said I had a brief case full of cash, I handed it to Tom, and he was thrilled.

Skyler De Leon told police, I don't know what happened to the Hawks. All they said was they were driving off to Mexico.

Jeez. Okay. Well, this doesn't sound good right now.

It became more and more sinister in in the fact that nobody heard from them.

We're hoping, we're thinking, we're gonna find them.

People are missing.

I think people are dead.

A Hollywood screenwriter can't come up with this.

I mean, mean, there's really no other word to describe. It's evil. Newport Beach is the dream that a lot of people think of when they think of California.

Yeah. Everybody surfs every day. Everybody goes on boats every day, and it's Southern California on steroids, is really what it is.

It's in between Los Angeles and San Diego along this gorgeous coastline. A lot of people with money live in Newport Beach, so a lot of people with gorgeous boats, including some pretty nice yachts, will pull up at the port there.

It's 1 of the few places in the United States that you can buy a multimillion dollar home and have a dock ready to accommodate a 50, 60, 100 foot yacht.

Yacht. Oh, yeah. I'm here. Yeah. I'm the captain of this boat doing an outstanding job.

Tom Hoggs was just 1 of these all around good guys. He grew up in California.

He grew up on a farm with a brother, Jim Hawkes. They liked to go surfing. They liked to go sailing.

He was in the military. He saw some fighting in Vietnam. He became a probation officer. His brother became a police officer and then later a police chief. So he came from a law enforcement family.

Eventually, Tom got married and had 2 boys, Ryan and Matthew Hawkes, and he ends up raising them after he ended up getting a divorce.

I met Tom's son, Ryan, in Newport Beach when we first started doing this story in 2009. How close were you guys growing up even?

Very close. My parents divorced when I was probably, like, 5. He pretty much raised me all the way to adulthood and, made me who I am today.

Jackie. Hello.

Hi, honey. I'm so glad to be home.

She's home.

Jackie was a very down to earth, really sweet woman.

When he met Jackie, he called me and said, hey, I finally met somebody. And if you guys hit it off, I know I finally found the right 1. And Jackie and I hit it off, and we did everything together.

They had a lot of friends, a 150 people at their wedding. The boys called her mom even though their mother was still alive.

The more you learned about Tom and Jackie, the more you liked them. They were rich in love, not so much in the pocketbook. They saved their money. They were frugal. They worked hard.

Even though he never made a lot of money in his lifetime, he was a saver, and he did invest in a couple of small properties and and made a little money on that. But really, at the end of the day, he found himself in his fifties able to retire if he wanted to, and, Jackie was all for it.

He had a dream. He wanted to buy

a boat and live on the boat. He buys the boat. It was about $300,000. Well deserved. Everybody agreed.

That's the perfect name because she was.

And we just came across these beautiful dolphins. Aren't they beautiful? I love how they play with the love.

The well deserved is a 55 foot trawler. It's kind of a smaller yacht, but you can live on it.

Tom had outfitted this vessel with everything. Inside was beautiful teak. It was immaculate.

They put in a lot of up

to date equipment, the GPS system, and all kinds of other stuff that really made it nice.

This is our GPS. You can see where our boat is, and approximately our ETA, etcetera.

Their boat was moored, in Newport Harbor right off 15th Street, and they would use their small boat to travel back and forth from the dock to the well deserved.

So the first day of our new cruising season. Jackie's kind of at the helm, and there is Isla San Pedro.

They spent their time going from Newport Beach up through the California coastline into Mexico.

We just arrived on Isla Coronado. Tom's set an anchor, and we're gonna get ready and explore.

Tom was a crazy fitness guy.

He's like an ox. Look at his muscles straining.

How to stay in shape at sea was 1 of his obsessions. He had weights that he would lift. He'd do pull ups off the side of the boat.

Here he comes. Doing his workout. He's looking good.

They had, wonderful love affair. They worked together as a team like no other. They were true first mates and captain.

I had a picture of the sun getting a little bigger. This is what cruising is all about.

So this was their life for 2 years until some pretty dramatic news came their way. Matt, their youngest son, was about to have a baby.

Alright. There he is. What a doggy.

It was gonna be their first grandchild, and this was a big deal for Tom, but it was probably an even bigger deal for Jackie.

Jackie was involved in a motorcycle accident when she was 22 years old and had some internal damage, and tragically was unable to have children of her own. When her stepson, Matt, had that baby, she really wanted to play the role of devoted grandmother.

Oh, they're so beautiful.

They were planning on selling this yacht, taking the proceeds from it, and moving close to this grandbaby.

Hi, Jake. Can you say hi to your grandpa? You're getting so big.

I think it just hit home with them how important family was.

Here's grandpa. Older than a joke grand boy.

How are you? You're not gonna poop on me, are you?

The hawks decided to downsize. They were gonna go from that huge boat to a small boat, dock it in Mexico, get a little house there, and still be close enough to go see the grandson who lived in Arizona.

So they were willing to sell the well deserved. And being very frugal, they wanted to bypass the broker and just sell the boat on their own. So they took out an ad in a boating magazine.

They went on 1 last trip to Catalina Island. Jim Hawkes, Tom's brother, brought his boat, and they all have this little party.

Okay. Here we are on Catalina Island. This is our last trip to the island because, we sold the boat, and we're all having a really good trip.

So after this last Catalina cruise, Tom and Jackie had told Jim Hawkes and other people that, you know, the sale was gonna take place in the next few days.

So we'll see what happens. Hopefully, we'll be alright, but you don't know what's gonna happen.

Next thing you know is no 1 can get ahold of them. For them just to shut off their cell phones and drop off the face of the earth is extremely out of character.

And when Ryan and his brother, Matt, tried calling them and they weren't answering, they knew something was really happening.

Ryan's in Arizona. So Ryan puts in a call to his uncle, Jim Hawkes, who lives in San Diego. He used to be the chief of police for Carlsbad Police Department. Jim Hawks jumps in his car and gets down there.

Don Treffen and Jim Hawks are looking for Jackie and Tom, so they go to Newport Beach. There, they find the well deserved, but no couple.

We were there. We looked for their car. We, you know, walked around a couple of blocks. It's kind of where they would park. Couldn't find their car.

Well deserved is there, but Tom's not around. Jackie's not around. It's pretty quickly evident to everybody that something is amiss.

Then we went over to the dinghy dock, and this well deserved dinghy was there. It wasn't properly tied, and I just told Jim, I go, this, you know, this is not right. There's something's going on here.

My uncle knew something was wrong right away. Your dad didn't tie the dinghy. Your dad didn't lift the motor down.

We met with Carter Ford, and we went out to the boat.

From a distance, you probably wouldn't notice too much. But as you get closer, the first thing you notice is that the boat was tied, that lines were hanging kinda over the side of the boat.

As we came up on the boat, I noticed that the tarps were all off. All the controls were just kinda peeled back, and there was a towel hanging out 1 of the portholes. And I got a sick feeling in my stomach. It's just like something wasn't right.

By November 16, 2004, it's obvious something's wrong. Tom and Jackie Hawkes were nowhere to be found.

The other part to this was the well deserved, the yacht was back in its right spot in Newport Beach Harbor. Their Honda CR V was nowhere to be found, and they were nowhere to be found either. Something was really up.

And there's the kid.

What's up?

They were a very close knit family. So if they couldn't be reached over a certain period of time, all kinds of alarm bells went off.

Family and friends are already desperate. They start tracing and backtracking their steps to see what might have happened to them.

I knew they thought they might be selling the boat. That's what they were hoping to do.

They believed that they had found a a buyer to the boat, that they'd essentially gotten the price that they wanted.

They were excited. They thought we got a buyer. You know, we've got someone. We're gonna sell this boat.

Jackie told me that this person was going to be coming back to take a test drive on the boat the next day.

Before you sell a vessel, they take a seat trial. They take the vessel out. It's like a a test run-in a car.

The only thing we know about this trip is that it indeed happened, and that's because Jackie calls and leaves a message with a dear friend.

They bid me goodbye on the phone Monday morning. The next thing I heard was a voice mail from Jackie, and said that we're still at sea. I'll be in touch with you again.

Rocking and rolling. Well deserved.

She left a voice mail. It basically said that Tom and Jackie were out at sea with the purchaser and that she'd get back to them.

So as far as friends and family knew, on November 15th 2004, they were meeting some prospective buyers, and they were going to sell out a bit towards Catalina Island. The sale would likely happen, and Jackie and Tom would be home with any luck before Thanksgiving.

Before they disappeared, Tom had mentioned to family members that this guy who was a child actor was gonna be the buyer.

For me, it was a worrisome mystery. I wanted more information. I wanted to know who was this would be buyer.

Jim Hox wants to talk to whoever brought in the well deserved. So he takes out a card, and he writes on the back of it, I am a retired police officer, and I'd like to speak to whoever bought the boat. Tom and Jackie Hawkes are missing, and I need to chat with you. Leaves his phone number.

And the

person that contacted him was Jennifer De Leon.

Jim's like, look. Did you buy the boat? Yep. We sure did. And she is super duper sweet.

Jennifer has an explanation. She tells Jim that she and her husband, Skyler, bought the boat in cash in full.

Jennifer says we don't know where the hawks are, and we still wanted to find out where they are because we still need some information about how to use this boat that we now have. We bought the boat. They drove away. You know, we haven't heard from them, and we don't know where they are either.

She says, I think that they were gonna go off to Mexico.

Locals playing soccer. Oh, and there's a gringo.

And that's pretty much it. She's pretty short on that phone call.

Not surprisingly, Jim thought this might be a little suspicious, so he called Arizona to 1 of their friends.

Patricia Shoots, who they put in charge of essentially paying their bills and taking care of their finances while they were down in Mexico, because during this time, way harder to deal with that from a foreign country, especially on a boat, which may or may not have Internet access.

Tom and Jackie, if they would have sold that boat, they would have deposited that money into their bank account, but there was no activity on their account. So we knew that something was really wrong. Jim Hawkes, he told me that he was gonna contact the police department and file a missing person's report Friday morning.

Most missing persons investigations, the person's found in a very short amount of time. There's Jackie Orkin in the email. It's either lack of communication or perhaps they went somewhere else that they weren't expected to. Jim Hawkes, Tom Hawkes' brother, he had already done his homework on his own. Once our investigators start talking with him, we knew we needed to really start looking hard.

This case lands on Dave Byington's desk. And at this point, he'd been a cop a long time, and he's a cop's cop. The minute he sees Jim Hawkes and reads the details of this case, he knew this family had reason to worry.

This couple, Tom and Jackie Hawkes, had lived on their yacht in Newport. We're in the process of selling or sold the vessel to this other couple, Skyler and Jennifer De Leon.

So Newport police start digging, looking at Skyler and Jennifer. And you know what? They find stuff, troubling stuff.

Skyler happens to be a convicted felon. He's on probation. I go, jeez. So my first indication, okay. Well, this doesn't sound good right now.

Sergeant Dave Byington, he sends out a detective to go out to the boat. And so the guy gets to the boat, and he's looking around, and he sees this receipt on the floor.

That receipt on the boat, it's from Target, and it has a bizarre shopping list on it.

The minute detective Byington sees that receipt, he knows something's off.

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That's a nice 1. Good job. Oh. Uh-oh. It just got him.

That's what he said. Stab me.

I was concerned the day before Thanksgiving when I haven't heard from him.

I asked him, are you sure they just didn't they're an adventurous couple. Sure you just they just didn't take off for a week or 2. And he, without hesitation, said no. They would not just disappear.

This is captain Tom Hawkes and well deserved.

Tom and Jackie Hawkes were in the process of selling the vessel to this other couple, Skyler and Jennifer De Leon. We ran both of them to figure out because they were probably or potentially the last people to see the Hawkes. When we ran Skyler, we automatically find out that he's got a record. He had done, jail time for an armed burglary where he broke into a house with a weapon and he was on probation.

His original name at birth was John Julius Jacobson.

When I think of him when I was raising him, I still refer to him sometimes as little Johnny. He wanted to make everyone happy. He was just always right there trying to make you smile, trying trying to make things better.

Lisa Lisa left Skyler's father. You know, he was just a little kid.

Skyler grew up in a crazy house.

How how did you grow up?

Tell me

a little bit about the situation.

I pretty much primarily grew up with my dad.

And what kind of guy was

he? Not the best. Not the best dad.

And in fact, he was involved with drugs and Yes. Was frequently in trouble with the law.

Yes. He was into manufacturing speed and pretty much anything he can make money with.

His father got him into acting, but it was never about Skyler. You know, he wanted Skyler to act so he could make money off of him.

Ready and action.

He never really made it big in the business. He had parts and commercials, and I think his biggest role was probably as an extra in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. The TV series, which was pretty popular in the early 19 nineties.

You guys are great.

Now the problem is, Skyler could never remember his lines. And his dad would yell at him on the set until the producers are basically like, get that guy out of here. He's really he's upsetting Skyler. He's upsetting everyone else. And Skyler hated acting.

You're not good enough for this. You're not good enough that. Why aren't you this? Why aren't you that? There's an expectation or a level that you're always trying to rise up to, but you can never meet no matter how hard you try.

Skyler is kind of a weak kid, you know, kind of a little bit effeminate maybe. Skyler's dad pretty much despised him for that and started knocking him around.

So Skyler joined the United States Marine Corps.

He probably never would have joined the marines, but for he thought this would make him look like a man. And as much as he hated his dad, he was also always trying to impress his dad.

He said he was Marine Corps Force Recon, which for those who don't know, is 1 of the elite military forces in the United States military. He got a marine corps force recon tattoo.

He he would explain that he had had attended all these classes, and and all this training, and he had, you know, 62 confirmed kills.

When he got out of the marines, he wanted to change his name to Skyler De Leon. On the paperwork, it says, doesn't wanna be associated by the same name as his father because his father is a bad person and a criminal.

It was right before he met Jennifer that he changed his name. Jennifer Henderson grew up in a way that was the very opposite of how Skyler grew up. She had loving parents. They were very religious. They went to church.

We actually met online.

We just kinda started chatting and then, you know, we went from there to all of a sudden start talking on the phone. And, then 1 day we're like, you know what? You know, wanna wanna meet.

So they arrange a rendezvous at a local mall. They go to a movie. They spend the whole day together, and that was it. From that moment on, they were pretty much inseparable.

We dated for about a year, and he proposed to me and Catalina. We actually had 2 weddings, a quick 1 in Corona del Mar on the beach, just family, close friends, barefoot, shorts, very casual, it was very fun, and then, the big formal wedding.

Who knows why Jennifer ends up saying yes to Skyler? They're so different in so many ways. He grows up, this troubled childhood. She grows up with all these advantages. She has a little bit of a profession going for herself.

He's got no career path that we can see.

I am a hairstylist, and I've done that for 5 years, and he was actually working as an electrician. He had the job. He just hadn't started yet.

According to Jennifer's mother, she thinks that they got pregnant on their wedding night because the timing of it was just so. So, yeah, they had a little girl, Haley, and then they got pregnant again.

They really don't have a lot of assets. Jennifer is the breadwinner.

They were deep in debt. They owed nearly $90,000. They were so poor that they were living in the garage next to Jennifer's parents' home. They had no bathroom. They had no kitchen.

They had to go to the main house for that. They already had a very young daughter, and there was a second baby on the way.

You put that all together, and these 2 young people are clearly not qualified to own a 55 foot boat.

We get a search warrant to look at the boat, and they find a bunch of things that are of interest. But they find that it's number 1, it's messy, so Tom Hox has not left it that way. And they find, a receipt from a Target store.

And that receipt shows a purchase of trash bags, Tums, and bleach.

And Dave Byington goes, that's a kill kit if I ever heard 1.

If I was gonna kill somebody, you know, I'd have my clean kit, and it would be bags to get rid of evidence, you know, bleach to wipe down the scene, and maybe if I had a conscience, some Tums to settle my stomach after killing some poor people. Target security was able to pull up that specific, purchase of these items.

And they're expecting it to be Skyler. And they know what Skyler looks like because he's got a record and he's in the database, but it's not Skyler.

And I was looking at, an obese man which was not Skyler De Leon. Now, we have another little straw on the camel's back saying, okay, who is this guy, and why is this receipt on this boat, and who is this clown?

It's been 2 weeks since Tom and Jackie have disappeared. And the police go on board the well deserved, which is moored exactly where it was left.

They find a receipt from a Target store. And every time you purchase anything from a Target store, you're photographed at the cash register, and you're photographed leaving. So we get this photograph of this guy, and police trace it back, and it is Steve Henderson, Jennifer's father, who actually made this purchase. So Newport detectives go to his house in Long Beach, and they say, is this you in this photograph buying these items? We found this receipt on a boat.

He immediately says, yeah. My daughter and son-in-law purchased that boat.

It turns out Jennifer had sent her dad to the store to buy the bleach that comes in the trash bag.

Jen's father brings back bleach and some bags, all they say to help clean their new boat. So logically, police ask him, does he know where Jennifer and Skyler are?

Eve says, they're helping to clean a church right down the street. I think they're there now.

When I see a family volunteering in a church, I was put at ease a little bit with that thinking, okay, this is gonna turn out okay. The hawks are fine. These people will tell us what happened and we'll be able to locate them and close the case. I was talking to Jennifer and basically said, we are looking for the hawks. The family is very concerned.

And she said, we're really concerned too. And she was very genuine.

That's like, we've known these people or you don't really know somebody meeting them, but just your nerves kinda go everywhere and She

goes, we've been trying to reach out to them continually since we bought it. They have a lot of property clothes and stuff on the vessel. We don't know what to do. She was very specific and seemed very genuine in her concern for the hawks and finding them.

Skyler says, we purchased it, all the documents were proper, they signed them, we recorded them, I don't know what else to tell you.

We told Skyler that we needed copies of the paperwork. He told us that he had certified notarized paperwork regarding the sale, so the sale was legitimate.

He produces these documents indicating that Skyler and Jennifer had purchased the boat from Tom and Jackie Hawkes. There are signatures on it. There are fingerprints on it.

A notary public had already certified these documents that Tom and Jackie were present when selling. Everything was legitimate. Everything was on the up and up.

I was shaking my head going, okay. I still can't get a handle on this guy. The following day, he agreed to go to the Newport Beach Police Department, where we had him in a proper interview and recorded the interview. I don't see his car. We're still in the same position where we were yesterday.

These folks are still missing. Family is very concerned, and that's understandable. Skyler was very forthright. He was very, very interested in finding where the Hawks were. How did you hear about the the vessel being sold?

In, the sport fishing magazine. Sport fishing? Yeah. I get to buy it very much.

Were you looking to buy a boat?

I'm pretty much always looking. Uh-huh.

It strikes the cops odd that this young guy who doesn't really seem to have a lot of means had nearly half $1,000,000 to buy this book.

We spent, like, 4.85 on it.

Of course, 1 of the big questions is, well, hey, man. Where'd you get the money? And he goes, look. As you look into my background, you're gonna see I was involved in a burglary. In reality, that was a part of a dope rip.

That was a drug rip off.

And no matter what, truth is, it'll come out no matter what.

At this point, I already knew Scott was on probation for an armed burglary, so he's a felon. And now he said, I'm telling you, sergeant, I wanna go straight with my family. I'm a father now. I have another child on the way. So I'm trying to invest this money in a way that I could support them.

I have a bunch of money that I have no way to spend. Right. And if I bring it here, I'm gonna get in trouble. I can't really go to Mexico to spend it because I'm on probation. Okay.

I'm kinda rocking a hard place.

I go, so you're legitimizing this money that was illegal, and he copped out basically to money laundering.

It is rather disarming when you're trying to find the hawks, and he's admitting to the money laundering piece on his side. It was unusual that someone would admit that to the police.

You didn't have to you could have told me, hey, man, you know, I I inherited the money. I did whatever. You were very honest with me, and that's all I'm

asking for. Who would come up with a story that they used money laundered, drug money to buy a boat unless it was really true?

Skyler is so cool, calm, and collected. He said, look, we went out, took the vote for a a run. We all came back. We loved the boat.

So you've got the money, and you initiate a call to the Hawks? Yeah.

I called him up and told him, hey, you know, I'm ready and asked him if it's okay, you know, can you help my wife? And they said, you know, that'd be fine. Okay.

When did they meet you?

At the 15th Street?

Yeah. 15th Street.

This transaction allegedly occurred in the parking lot at the 15th Street dock, basically, on the trunk of the car with a suitcase full of money.

And that was cash. Right? Yeah. That you paid him that day.

Yeah.

I was asking what kind of container was this money in? Was it loose bills? Was it, you know, all 100? They're all $100 bills? Yeah.

Also everything. All 100.

All 100. In stacks about that big. Okay.

And I just know working narcotics that it was just a mishmash of cash. It was never something where you go into a bank vault and see perfectly stacked 1,000 of dollars in bank wrappers. So that kinda raised a flag. You flash the cash to him? Yeah.

Did you just open the briefcase, or did you give it to him and have a look

at it?

How did that No.

We went to, like, the back of the car and Uh-huh. Like, you know, here it is, and he's like, what was that thing?

Scott, it was

He was excited, but nervous.

And did he say anything that did that affect her? Is this something you got

a feeling? It was just like, let's just close this up.

According to Skyler, Tom asked him, is it all here? Skyler kinda giggled at me and said, yep. It's all there. And so they basically said, here's the keys to the yacht. Tom and Jackie drove off in their Honda.

And Skyler and Jennifer said that was the last time that they saw them.

He was saying that

him and his wife, they were looking at, places in San Carlos. Uh-huh. He's like, we wanna get, another boat.

Yeah. I'm the captain of this boat.

They were talking about buying a home in Mexico, and we corroborate that from other sources. Tom was interested in that.

Skyler, you got nothing to do with his disappearance. Right? No. And your wife doesn't either? No.

Nobody in your family, your dad? Nobody. Right? No.

When you look at the interview, Skyler is leaning over to these detectives, and he is is so convincing.

From what I've got from him, I almost guarantee he's down there.

It's costing you all this grief. Yes.

I will just guarantee it.

But the detectives have 1 more key piece of evidence they want Skyler to take a look at. It's this video, video of Jennifer and Skyler trying to take money out of the Hawks' account in Arizona.

Why is it you guys had a power of attorney? This is a big stumbling point for the family. They said that there's no way that their family members would give power of attorney to anybody. Power of attorney, that was a pretty powerful document because what I was looking at was that Tom and Jackie Hawkes had basically gave Skyler De Leon complete control of their assets, which made absolutely no sense.

I was just sitting at home on pins and needles waiting to hear something, hear from Tom and Jackie. And the bank called, and they, told me that there was somebody trying to access Tom and Jackie's account.

Jennifer and Skyler walk in, and they have this durable power of attorney. So the bank manager looks at this, it's been properly recorded, their signatures are on it, there it's been properly notarized, and takes 1 look at it and goes, no way am I giving you access to their accounts.

The bank manager told me that, there was a gentleman by the name of Skyler trying to access their accounts. I'm thinking, oh my god. Oh my god.

Why are you here? Go down, see, Skyler.

I'm gonna borrow you for a little

bit because I had to go over. I have a few more questions on this thing. Why is it you guys have power of attorney? Attorney?

The cops think this is weird. I mean, it's 1 thing to sell somebody a boat. It's another thing to give them power of attorney. But Skyler, just smooth as silk, tells them, look, they wanted to buy some property up in Mexico.

You can't find that house in Mexico unless you're a Mexican citizen or unless you you're, like, established residency and you have a bank account and all that stuff.

Scott had volunteered a bit. He is very experienced in purchasing property there, and then he had dual citizenship. He was of Mexican descent, and that, he could, facilitate a sale, you know, since he was giving him such a great deal on the yacht, he would help him out get this money. And Scott proceeded to tell us that Tom was very interested.

I'll hook you up and get you an account down there.

I told him, like, you know, you have nothing to lose by opening up an account, and, you know, you can take care

of everything from right there.

We talked to friends and family of Tom Jacky Ochs. Sure enough, Tom had been talking to people about buying a little house in the Sea of Cortez.

He literally said I had a briefcase full of cash. I handed it to Tom, and he was thrilled. They had the money and the means now to go to Mexico, and they did. So Skyler tells detectives, I got witnesses.

Who's present? Me, my wife, daughter, Tom, Jackie, the notary, and, Alonzo.

Alonzo Mechein, his name was there in full print as a witness on this bill of sale. And when I asked Scott who is Lonzo McCheyne, he says, oh, he's a friend of mine that, I have met, and he's he's from Mexico. Well, our investigation shows that Lonzo happened to meet Skyler while Skyler was doing jail time.

Well, Lonzo McCheyne was actually a guard in the jail, and they became fast friends, really. I think McCheyne was quite young. He was in his early twenties. He lived at home with his parents. Skyler was on a work release program, so he was allowed to leave at certain points during the day.

During that time, Alonso, they would do things that friends would do. They would hang out. They would have pizza. They'd watch TV.

I'm gonna be contacting Alonzo because he's also 1 of the last people to see them. So that helps us. Okay. Good. Yeah.

Yeah. Fine.

They go

and they interview Alonzo. And Alonso tells essentially the same story. We're we're there in the parking lot. I watched Skyler hand this money over to this guy. They drive out in their car.

The other person they interviewed was Kathleen Harris. Kathleen Harris, she was a professional notary, never been in trouble a day in her life, and she told a very similar story. They were down there. She watched this transaction. She notarized the documents.

We hit a dead end in this investigation. We had a group of people who are all telling the same story. We had no physical evidence of a crime. We had no, no word from Tom and Jackie Hawkes. We had no break in the case at all.

Brother, I don't wanna keep here anymore. I appreciate you driving down here.

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So the cops are at a little bit of a dead end. They're not really sure where to go next. And so they do the thing that a lot of investigators are reluctant to do, but often is a necessary evil. They go to the media.

Turning to another story in California. This morning, police in the southern part of that state are asking for the public's help in a very mysterious disappearance. Joining us from Newport Beach, California, 1 of the couple's 2 sons, Ryan Hawkes and Sergeant Steve Schulman.

The biggest thing that we can do as a family was to reach out in the media and find someone maybe willing to talk, someone that maybe seen them know of their last location, know about their safety. You know, I think something's, wrong. I think something's missing. I think something's really wrong. But, you know, my first priority is, you know, to find about the whereabouts of my parents.

Many times when there's a missing person's case, the family might provide 1 or 2 photos of their loved 1. But in this case, Ryan came out with probably 15 or 20 photos of Tom and Jackie. So it really showed that this was a family that cared about 1 another, and that kinda brought the seriousness of their disappearance up quite a bit of a notch.

The biggest thing was their car, and if we could find their car, we know we could kinda back trace their steps or what happened to them.

Right now, our focus is on locating them and also the vehicle that they own, this 1998 Honda CR V with an Arizona license plate.

The next day, the police department gets a call from this woman who had seen the show. And she basically said, I'm looking at this car right now. I live in Mexico, and I'm in a trailer park, and it's in the parking lot.

I was so relieved. I was overwhelmed and choked up.

Please be the hawks. I wanna find them alive. I'm thinking, okay. Well, let's get down there right away.

If I

was gonna kill somebody, you know, I'd have my clean kit, bags to get rid of evidence, bleach to wipe down the scene, and maybe if I had a conscience, some Tums to settle my stomach after killing some poor people.

They tell friends and family, hey, you know, we think we've sold our boat. We met this rich kid, and he really wants it.

Skyler says, look. I purchased this boat, and I don't know what else to tell you.

Give me a brain. I mean, my 4 year old would do better than this. I wanna know the truth. I want to know the truth.

They're heading out to see

Jackie is begging. How could you do this? How could you do this to us? Everybody knew who was in charge, and it wasn't Skyler.

They scare the hell out of me. They're evil personified.

Is she the brains in the in the family?

I hate that. Yeah. I think for the most part, I'm nice person. I'm I treat everybody nice. I'm always everything like that.

Alright, folks. Here we go. Quiet, please. 5 seconds to Charlie. 4, 3, 2.

Turning to another story in California. This morning, police in the southern part of that state are asking for the public's help in a very mysterious disappearance that occurred 3 weeks ago.

We've been in a dead end for weeks, and we made the decision that we needed to get some some media attention to the case.

And that proves to be a critical turning point.

A couple by the name of Thomas and Jackie Hawkes told a friend that they were showing their 55 foot boat to a prospective buyer, but then the couple simply vanished without a trace. Days later, the boat was found in its usual spot, but the couple's car was missing.

We're splashing the license plate, the vehicle description, the picture of the hawks everywhere we could.

So it's important for the public to look out for that car because that will give us some clue as to where they went to or if, in fact, there is a crime involved.

Sergeant Shulman, what do we know about the buyer of this boat, and is there any suspicion attached to them?

Well, our detectives are conducting an investigation, and, I'm not at liberty to discuss their interview.

And what Skyler says is, look. I bought the boat from these people, and last I saw was they were leaving the parking lot with a suitcase full of cash that I paid them.

He was saying that

him and his wife, they were looking at, places in San Carlos.

Uh-huh.

He said, well, now I'm going down there and get myself a house and get another boat down

there. Once the press hit, immediately our tip line started going off.

We get a call from a retired, couple that lived in San Miguel, Mexico.

And I I go and put it on speaker, and this gal says

I'm looking at this car right now.

It's right there, and she snapped a photograph of it and sent it to us, and here we are looking at the Hawk's vehicle.

100 of miles away in Ensenada, Mexico, another piece of the puzzle has been found, the Hawk's SUV.

This was the first break in the case, and they were pretty excited about it.

That car was the missing piece that we needed to solve the case.

And then the next question, well, are they there with

the car? We're hoping, we're thinking, we're gonna find them.

Please be the hawks. I wanna find them alive.

At first, the family and friends are thinking, alright. They're in Mexico. There's a little glimmer of hope.

The cops make it down to Ensenada right away.

Mexican authorities were taking the lead, and they knock on the door of the house.

The guy who owns the house comes out and starts chatting with them.

They're speaking in Spanish, but I'm making enough out of what's going on.

And the guy says, now let's sell my car. This belongs to some friends of mine. And they're like, okay. Tom and Jackie Hawkes? No.

And in English, I hear Skyler De Leon.

I remember Byington just kinda looks at me and just goes, Skyler murdered these people.

And I go. And at that moment, I then I just said, any possibility that the hawks are still alive died right there, unfortunately. Because as soon as I heard that, I go, no.

They called me on their way up. Like, yeah. We got it on a back of a flatbed truck.

And that was key to you.

It was key. It was so essential.

The fact that Skyler dropped that car off, huge break.

Skyler De Leon has already told police, I don't know what happened to the Hawks. All they said was they were driving off to Mexico.

They realized that Skyler De Leon and Jennifer, who was also described, had been down there. They had now witnesses who knew them, and they said they gave us this car.

Skyler had befriended this gentleman's son years earlier, and Skyler was a avid surfer. He would go down and surf, and he would stay with that family.

That family had no idea who that car belonged to, or the circumstances.

I was about 99% sure that my parents were murdered, but I still had 1% hope, but when they found that car, that 1 percent was wiped out.

The same day the Hawkes' car is found down in Mexico, Skyler De Leon is back in Newport Beach talking to the police.

Skyler shows up, and he brings his little daughter, Haley, with him. I guess he's thinking you can't arrest me if I've got a toddler with me.

This is the big urgency we have right now. These people are still missing.

Mhmm.

I am I'm fearful that they are not alive.

Newport detectives wanted to interview them as much as possible because this story was starting to fray around the edges.

You're saying you have nothing to do with their disappearance? Yeah. You, as far as you know, they're alive? Yeah. And what you've told us so far is the truth regarding you getting, money smuggled up here.

Hey. Yeah.

And Skyler knows immediately I'm in trouble. Skyler became nervous, and that little girl, maybe she sensed it.

I've only got this oh, Clovidol, baby. Got you.

Tissues, ma'am?

The baby suddenly spits up all over him, and so it interrupts the interview.

I'm gonna I'm gonna leave the bag or deal right with it.

Oh. Okay.

There goes Skyler thinking he's a free man, but not for long. The very next day, Skyler is under arrest.

Police have arrested 25 year old Skyler De Leon on suspicion of money laundering after he bought the couple's boat.

Prosecutors say the investigation continues. They have not ruled out the possibility there may be more arrests in connection with the murders of Thomas and Jackie Hawkes. After a brief break in court, De Leon returned teary

eyed. At the

time, I can remember in court, he seemed like such a little man. And in his 1 of the first court hearings, he started crying. And at first, you kinda think, do they have the right guy? The police searched De Leon's little apartment in the garage, and it's a treasure trove of evidence.

They go through top to bottom, this little garage turned apartment, and what do they find?

1 of the first things detectives find is they find Tom and Jackie's laptop.

And the most heartbreaking part of

all, they find a video camera.

Well deserved. What's the name of the next boat or whatever?

The film that was in it was of all the hawks adventures out at sea, and then it abruptly ends.

And suddenly, the footage cuts to Skyler and Jennifer.

Skyler and Jennifer were using Tom and Jackie's camcorder to record their family Thanksgiving.

There's no way Tom and Jackie would have left that camera behind.

I was at their house the night it was searched by Newport Beach PD. And Jennifer was just flat lined just watching beginning of her life as she knew it come to an end. At that point, I knew that Skyler had killed the haunches. What I didn't know was the extent of Jennifer's involvement.

Did you know anything of this alleged crime?

Police have arrested 25 year old Skyler De Leon Skyler De Leon is now in custody. Arrested yesterday at his home in Long Beach. Police won't say if De Leon is a suspect in the hawk's disappearance.

They get Skyler out of the house and arrest him, and they go inside.

It's during the search of Jennifer and Skyler's little makeshift apartment that they come across another interesting find.

A fellow detective of mine, Jay Short, had found a business card.

An LAPD officer named Joe Bejena, he's a detective assigned to Interpol. And basically, it's his job whenever there's a crime committed, that Mexican police need to investigate, he's their liaison officer.

It's curious to us why Skyler De Leon had this business card in his property.

That's an interesting clue. Why is your business card in the home of our suspect? And that's when we first heard the name John Jarvey.

Come to find out, detective Bahena had been helping the Ensenada State Police come up here to California because of John Jarvey, who was found with his throat slit.

John Jarvey was a petty counterfeiter, and he met, Skyler De Leon while they were both serving time in the Seal Beach Jail. They kept in contact afterwards.

Jarvie, after he's freed from jail, keeps in contact with Skyler because he remembers being promised a big score.

Skyler has told him that he's from a wealthy family and he has big time investments, and he starts telling him, in fact, I've got a really sweet investment that I'm gonna get into.

All John Jarvey needs to do is give Skyler 50,000 dollars in cash, and then they'll go down to Mexico, do this big score.

Skyler is on this work release program, which allows him to leave during certain parts of the day. They drive down to Mexico, Jon Jarvey's thinking, you know, I'm gonna make some great money here.

And they drive down to, Mexico outside of Ensenada.

Except, John Jarreve didn't come back.

Skyler takes him down to a ravine, slits his throat, and leaves him to die on the side of a road in Mexico.

There never was any deal in Mexico. He took my brother down there. It was specifically with the role of murdering him.

That evening after Jarvey disappears, Skyler's gotta hurry back. Not home, mind you, to jail. Don't forget, he's still in jail while this is going on. So he has to hurry back from the border so he can make his nightly check-in over at the jail.

My wife wakes me up, Jeff, there you gotta get up. Your brother's been murdered in Mexico.

Thinking of his last minutes, what they must have been, that's what I wake up to every night.

When you think of how good of a con man Skyler was to convince this man to take out $50,000 and drive him across the border and then slit his throat and leave him to die on the side of the road. It's horrifying.

Mexican police had interviewed Skyler De Leon way back in 2003 about the murder of John Jarvey, but that case was totally unresolved until the Newport Beach case came along.

I don't think John Jarvey's homicide would have ever been solved had it not been for our department getting involved. Absolutely not.

But then police are looking for a break in the Hawke's case.

The other person they interviewed was Kathleen Harris. Kathleen Harris had no criminal background at all. She was a professional notary. Never been in trouble a day in her life.

I'm still trying to track

that quote down. I just walked

them today, and they're still,

they're still looking for it.

Kathleen Harris was a notary who was introduced to the De Leon's.

She says she was there when Skyler bought the boat from the Hawks.

I drove down to Newport and met Skyler and his wife and, the couple.

Her story was that Tom and Jackie Hawkes had signed these documents in front of her.

She watched this transaction. She notarized the documents.

It just didn't make sense. There's no way Kathleen Harris saw Tom and Jackie Hawkes.

We had interviewed Kathleen Harris, I wanna say 4 or 5 times, and she would not come off her story.

And I got there, and I just notarized the documents.

Keith and I were having a pretty heated argument about it. I told him.

I said, you need to have someone else interview Kathleen Harris. And he goes, fine. You wanna interview her? You call her in and interview her.

This is more. He, okay. Hi. Hi. I'm Keith.

Colin.

Nice to meet you.

I just remember trying to confront her to tell the truth.

I'm asking for your help.

I know. Are you part

of these people's disappearance? No. Did you hurt these people No. That are missing?

No. I knew she was lying. I just I knew it just by her nonverbal, her body language.

Language. There's no doubt in your mind that 2 people signed these documents in front of you. Right now, see if you're hesitant no. Bullying. This is this is what I'm talking about.

Listen to me really well. Tell me right now the truth. Those people that are missing sign those documents is what you're telling me. Yes. I don't believe you.

You were hesitant to begin with. Tell me the truth, Kathleen. I'm Tell me the truth. How am I?

She was nervous. Her voice was cracking. She was looking down.

Kathleen, these people didn't sign these documents in front of you, did they?

When I filled out the log, they have to sign it and put their thumbprints.

Okay. And you took their thumbprints?

I'm 90%

sure. No. There's no money. Kathleen, there's no money. It's either a 100 or nothing.

You're you're being wishy washy. Yes.

I did.

Kathleen, give me a break. I mean, my 4 year old would do better than this. Honestly Kathleen, no. Honestly. I wanna know the truth.

I want to know the truth.

I know, and I'm telling you what happened.

She stuck to her story. She didn't come off it. She didn't

change it.

I remember Keith coming out saying, I'm sorry. And I'm thinking, are you kidding me? I think I think I think you pushed her. I think we got her. The next call we got was from an attorney representing her, say that she wanted to come in and make a statement.

And she finally says, no, we were not in the parking lot like I said before.

She'd never met Tom and Jackie Hawkes. She was given documents and paid in cash to backdate the documents, and that was 1 of the most significant breaks we had in the investigation. Because now we knew Skyler and Jennifer never had that notarized with Tom and Jackie, and that that was that was false.

That was the first domino to fall, then we started pressuring everybody else that because we knew everybody else had lied to us too.

You know, likely this case very easily could have never been solved. It could have like that just been another unsolved missing person's case, except for 1 thing, Alonzo Meche. He's about to give cops the break they need to bring the convictions they need.

Still no sign of Thomas and Jackie Hawkes, but bit by bit, police are slowly beginning to unravel the mystery surrounding their disappearance.

Good morning, Lonzo. Good morning. We just wanna know what you know. Lonzo McShane was actually a jailer in the Seal Beach City Jail where Skyler was serving time, so that's how they meet.

We focused on Alonzo because we thought he would be a weak link too.

He, is gonna save his own skin. He's not gonna go down for this.

He turned himself in, and Alonzo Machane took us detail by detail through the conspiracy to murder Tom and Jackie Hawkes.

When I met Skyler, he started talking about that he had all this money, that he was a part of the Power Rangers.

The chilling details were laid out by 1 of the people who was on board that yacht and who took part in the murders.

He said that he was gonna do something that he was gonna make some money, couple

$1,000,000. Skyler tells him that he's an international hitman.

He gets his contracts out on people and they're all bad people because he'll only kill bad people, he will kill good people. So he's a an assassin with, you know, with a conscience.

He said, what I do is just take him out to see and toss him over for him.

Skyler promised Alonzo $1,000,000.

All you had to do is kill this couple, and we could get their boat and their savings. And for whatever reason, Alonzo Machane thought, that's a good idea. I'll go along with it.

Alonzo and Skyler go aboard the well deserved.

Tom had worked in probation. He'd worked with ex cons. His suspicions immediately went up, meeting Skyler De Leon and Alonzo Machin, because it just didn't seem like the type of guys who could afford to buy a yacht, going for more than $400,000.

So what does Skyler do to solve that problem? He immediately calls Jennifer and says, you gotta bring Haley down, their 1 year old, and put these people at ease.

Jennifer shows up and she completely charms Jackie. Jackie, the 1 who wanted to go and play with her grandson.

My stepmother definitely felt hook, line, and sinker for that, for that woman and her, baby.

That's actually the linchpin in the whole thing. Like, had it not been for that, Tom and Jackie Hawkes would still be alive today.

At the same time, Skyler's sizing up Tom, and he knows he's gonna need more help because he can't overpower him on his own.

He started sizing up mister Hawkins. He said, well, I could take him, but it's better to have somebody else.

Skyler realizes that they're gonna actually pull this thing off. They need to get a big guy to sign on to this.

Skyler meets John f Kennedy through a mutual friend who Skyler had worked with.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was an original founding member of the Long Beach Insane Crips, so he became the muscle in this whole scheme.

They're leaving Newport Beach Harbor like they've done many, many times before. On board is Skyler De Leon, Alonso Machenne, and John f Kennedy. Tom and Jackie Hox think they're just taking this boat out for a test run. They have no idea what's in store for them.

A Long Beach gang member, a Seal Beach jail security officer, and Skyler De Leon. Weird. So they leave Newport Harbor and set a course out towards Catalina.

As they're heading out, the plan kinda goes into formation.

At some point, they get Jackie and Tom separated.

Skyler and John Kennedy went downstairs with Tom Hawkes. Meanwhile, Jackie's in the kitchen, and she hears this this ruckus.

And Alonzo knows, oh, it's going down. It's going down right now.

That struggle is Kennedy overpowering Tom Hawkes.

He was able to restrain Tom Hawkes long enough to get him handcuffed. Meanwhile, it's Alonzo's job to seduce Jackie Hawkes.

Jackie's here. Lonzo's here. And then, that's where Thomas Hawkes, Skyler, and Jeff Kerr on the bottom, and Jackie hears the the commotion. She looks down this way, and this is where Lonzo overpowers her.

They're, laid down next to each other on the bed. Jackie was was pleading for her life.

She was

saying, you know, I just wanna

see my grandson. Jackie has

daughter.

Jesus, courageous, God, we trusted you, and why are you doing this?

Mister and missus Hawkes tied up together.

Tom is stroking her hand trying to comfort her.

And this is when you're the part about, stroking her hand and curves down here to put her at ease. I don't like being down here.

It's 1 of the most pointed things I've ever heard in my career. It's okay, sweetheart. We're gonna be together. Where we're going,

we're gonna be together. Each of them

is brought up to sign documents. It's essentially turning the boat over to Skyler De Leon and giving him access to their bank accounts.

You need to sign this, and if you cooperate, we'll let you go.

But there was something very interesting about the way Jackie Hawkes with an s signed her name. It's h

a w k. She's smart enough to to mess up her signature. She signs it hawk instead of hawks with an s.

She was sending a signal. I'm doing this under duress.

And it looked like somebody went back later and put in an s totally inconsistent with any way she'd ever signed her name. This is a woman who knows that she is going to her death. This is a woman who knows that she is about to be murdered, and she is sending this flare up into the future for somebody to make it right.

Meanwhile, Skyler, he's upsetting the GPS to go out to the deepest point in the ocean. That's 35 100 feet. That's the deepest place.

Then Skyler said he has seen a, an anchor.

Went to the front and grabbed this huge anchor and brought it back, put it in the back of the boat.

And they handcuffed them to the anchor. And at that point, Tom, his fight instinct kicks in.

He kicks backwards, and he kicks so hard, he kicks Skyler in the groin and hard enough that he almost falls over. That was the last act of defiance.

Skyler stands up with a smirk, tosses his huge anchor off the side of the boat.

The weight of the anchor, it goes tight. And suddenly, they're being pulled across the deck. Jackie's head knocks into the side.

Boom, and

you can hear it.

And then out an open door, and they both fall into the ocean.

They were very much alive when they were dumped into the ocean.

The weight of the anchor pulls them down to the bottom of the deepest part of the sea.

Skyler gives Otto, woohoo, after happens and then leans overboard and watches until the water becomes still. And that's what happened.

Well, Skyler acted maybe while this was happening.

Was calm because, the most normal thing.

And then it actually turned the boat around.

Then Kennedy found a fishing pole.

Besides, he's gonna fish on the way back to Newport Harbor.

John f Kennedy, took a beer from the Hawke's fridge.

Takes 1 of Tom Hawke's beers.

No problem. Just send it to people's lives.

Let's have a beer.

Ridiculous.

It's hard to believe anybody could do such a terrible crime, especially a guy like mild mannered Skyler De Leon, and then there's the motive.

Was it just for the boat? Was that it? But maybe that wasn't all as we learn later.

What else should we know?

Here.

Is that flowers? Is that him?

Once Skyler was arrested, Jennifer was still out of custody. We still really didn't have enough information or or evidence against her to prosecute her on on much of anything at that point.

She, at the time, she stuck by her man.

Alright. We are rolling. How confident are you that Skyler had nothing to do with Tom and Jackie Hawkes presumably being murdered or at least missing? I am very confident, as confident as I can be that Skyler will be home

soon.

What we still don't know is Jennifer's role.

There was a split of opinions within Newport Beach PD. Some thought she was the ice queen and the second coming of Satan herself, and others thought that she was just the dutiful wife who got caught up in her husband's nefarious dealings.

Did you know anything about the crime? No.

We extended immunity to Jennifer. We said, look, tell us what happened.

It was the ultimate offer. It was a get out of jail free card. All she would've had to do was testify against her husband. And incredibly, she turned it down.

She had a chance to save herself, and she chose to stick by Skyler.

They almost completed each other. Jennifer and Skyler, before they met, hadn't committed any crimes that we're aware of really as individuals. But when they met, it was like fire and gasoline.

Do you have any fear? I know it's been speculated that they may arrest you. Most definitely. Not knowing if, you know, if that is something that happens is to constantly be wondering, you know, I I nurse my son. Is this the last time I'm gonna nurse my child?

Hey, Hailey. Is this

the last time I'm gonna tuck Hailey into bed? I mean, it's it's terrifying. Good girl.

23 year old Jennifer just beat behind her 25 year old husband, Skyler, as their attorneys enter their plea. Jennifer De Leon is finally arrested, and that is really surprising because she was not on the boat at the time of the murders. And at that point, everybody's wondering, well, how did she play a part? The attorney for Jennifer De Leon, who just gave birth to her second child several weeks ago, says she wants her tried separately.

The first person to go in trial was Jennifer De Leon, and I think that she was still operating under the belief that she could blame Skyler for everything that had happened.

De Leon's attorney during trial insisted she did not know what her husband was planning until after the Hawks were killed. She only did what she did out of fear of her husband.

The defense for Jennifer was that she was not a part of this whole thing. She didn't know it was gonna happen. She was forced into it.

But as the evidence unfolded, nobody bought that. Everybody knew who was in charge, and it wasn't Skyler.

How much in charge was Jen?

I think our probably we had our roles reversed.

Is she the brains in the in the family? I

hate that. Yeah.

Skyler did not make a move without running it by Jennifer. At every significant event during the murder of Tom and Jackie Hawkes, he called Jennifer. They get down to Newport Beach, he calls Jennifer. They get on the boat out to sea, he calls Jennifer. They get out where they tie Tom and Jackie Hawkes to that anchor begging for their lives.

First thing

Skyler did is call Jennifer. She knew exactly what was going on because Skyler kept

her informed before exactly

what was going on because Skyler kept her informed before, during, and after the murders.

That woman was physically not on the boat during the murders, but she was absolutely on the boat with guidance in spirit.

Jennifer was always on Skyler for the nice things. She wanted to move out, and she put a lot of pressure on Skyler to make that happen for her.

Well, I mean, she wanted that fairytale life.

Jennifer is seen with a grin on her face as they're trying to take money out of the Hawks' accounts after they murdered them.

And her whole defense was she was terrified of Skyler, and she only went along with it because she was afraid that Skyler might kill her too. And she has a gigantic grin on her face. The look of a woman whose financial problems and debt problems are about to be solved, not somebody that's afraid of the man that she's with.

For her to say that she was not involved in any way was an outright lie.

Jennifer De Leon was convicted of murder and sentenced to life

in prison. Jennifer De Leon, mother of 2, guilty of their murders.

She was convicted of the murders of Tom and Jackie Hawkes and received a sentence of life without possibility of parole.

Although her family suffers because she's loved, they'll still get a chance to see her, say their last words, and say their thoughts. They'll be seeing her through plexiglass. But, you know, to see my parents, I have to look through 36100 of the cold Pacific Ocean.

So here's the question. Why did they do it? Why did they go after these complete strangers? Murder them so coldly. Was it just for the boat?

Was that it? But maybe that wasn't all as we learn later.

During the investigation, there were some points that came up where Skyler's, gender identity was questioned. That he was, believes he was transgender and that that was possibly a motive for not only the Jarvie homicide, but the Hawkes homicide to facilitate payment for his, transgender surgery.

I interviewed Skyler De Leon in jail in 2009. Just before the interview, Skyler was rushed to the hospital after an incident at the jail.

He actually tries to cut his own penis off in in jail.

I basically took a ripped piece of sheet and tied it around my lower extremity, then I went to cut it off.

Had this been something you've been thinking about for a while?

Yeah. For a long time.

Tell me about what's behind that. Well,

I guess it's something that I've always always felt, like, as soon as I could remember, and, like, always wanted.

To be a woman?

Yes. But I I'm not attracted to guys, and but I wanted the surgery.

So then when you get to jail, why did you figure you were never gonna get the surgery, so might as well try it yourself?

I guess so, kind of, in a way. I just said, you know what? I'm I'll do it myself, but they they got to me too quick.

So you're still a man?

Unfortunately.

Skyler De Leon had put money down to get a sex change prior to this crime.

We found actually a a receipt where Skyler had paid $500 to a surgeon who specialized in gender reassignment surgery.

I mean, he lies so much. You never know when you're getting wrapped up in yet another con job. Maybe he just wanted to say, how can I do it? I'm weak. I'm frail.

I'm practically a woman. Right? Maybe it's just yet another con job.

I mean,

should we walk away from this program, this interview,

A former child actor will stand trial for murder in a scheme to steal a yacht from a retired couple.

They disappeared 4 years ago.

Their bodies were never recovered.

My family and I have been waiting for this day for a long time.

So Scotto De Leon goes on trial in the fall of 2008, 2 years after his wife had been convicted. He's charged with murdering Tom and Jackie Hawkes and also John Jarvey in Mexico.

Ryan Hawkes sat just feet away from the man who allegedly murdered his father and mother, Thomas and Jackie Hawkes, for their boat and their life savings.

I want him to know that I'm there. I want him to realize, you know, you know, this is what he took for me and the rest of my family.

Jurors also deciding if De Leon killed John Jarvey. Prosecutors alleged De Leon took $50,000 from Jarvey, slit his throat, and dumped him in Mexico.

For us, the trial was not about revenge. It's about protecting society from this man to do more damage.

To my surprise, when Skyler's attorney got up, he went to a large flip chart.

Stood before jurors and in bold letters wrote, Skyler is guilty of all 3 murders.

Because we were going to lose anyway. He was going to get convicted.

They had the evidence, and they had somebody who was there confess.

If I tried to mislead them during the guilt phase, then they're not gonna believe me when I when I get up there and talk about the penalty phase.

His defense was that Skyler had been abused as a boy. He was abused at the hands of his father.

Not only in the in the physical abuse, the sexual abuse, the emotional abuse, but the abandonment issues. Everybody in his life basically abandoned him at 1 time or another.

When you think about your childhood, what do you think about it?

I hated it. I mean, there's lots of time I wished I was dead. I I hated my childhood.

When Skyler was caught biting his nails, John would stick toothpicks up in between his nails into his finger beds because that would teach him.

Your dad physically abused you, beat you?

Yeah.

And then he had a friend who sexually abused you?

Yes.

So how does that terrible childhood have any relevance to the situation we're in today, where 3 people are murdered at his hands? So you try to explain as

best you can who the person is and hopefully get some sympathy from the jury that may that might impact on whether they vote to impose the death penalty or not.

I think the defense attorney did the best he could, but he didn't have much to work with.

There's only 1 problem with Skyler's defense. You have to believe him, and he's a proven liar.

He is a pathetic figure in a lot of ways, and he has a hard time telling the truth.

In my 26 year career as a prosecutor, Skyler De Leon is the best liar that I've ever seen. For example, he said he was, Marine Corps Force Recon.

To hear Skyler tell it, he was this deadly trained sniper. He was sent to the Middle East where he would take care of business for the government.

He did join the marines at 1 point, but even that, he wasn't successful at. He left after about a couple of weeks, went AWOL.

You told people you were a sniper.

Oh, yes.

You weren't, but you told people that.

Yeah. Give

me a little insight of that, Scott. Why would you do those things?

I don't know. I guess just trying to impress people I was around, I guess.

Skyler seemed happy to talk about his gender surgery, but he didn't wanna talk about his murder victims. John Jarvey. Was he a friend of yours?

Acquaintance, I guess. Just somebody I'd met at the jail. I mean, I didn't even really know him that good.

Did you kill him?

I can't go into that.

Skyler De Leon is 1 of the most haunting figures I've ever interviewed. How he tied these poor people up in an anchor and threw them off the boat while they were still alive. It was just the worst thing I could ever think of. Should we walk away from this program, this interview, knowing only that you cold bloodedly killed 3 people? No.

What else should we know?

Personally, I don't think I'm the person that they portrayed a 100%. I mean, I think generally good person just with a really bad decision. For the most part, I mean, I'm nice person. I'm more I treat everybody nice.

What do you want people to know about Skyler De Leon?

To get it out there, I'm sorry. 1 thing, you know? Take some things back.

It's it's

probably 1 of the biggest things.

Ryan Hawk, who is the spokesman, of course, with the family, the son, told us that your apology is more about you. You're sorry that you got caught, but you're not really sorry about his family, his parents.

Well,

I would say, you know, I'm I'm definitely sorry to his parents. I wish he could take back the time and give him back, you know, his parents because it's like now I I realize what he's lost.

De Leon was convicted for the murders of Thomas and Jackie Hawkes.

Skyler was convicted of the murder of Tom and Jackie Hawkes and also John Jarvey.

The jury took 2 days to find him worthy of being sentenced to death. I don't think there was any surprise.

The jury recommended the death penalty. That's what the former child actor got.

A few months after Schuyler's convicted, another accomplice, John f Kennedy. He was the muscle. He's tried, convicted, and sentenced to death.

It's a big relief. We've been waiting for this for a very long time.

Skyler has finally, I think, become the person that she has always wanted to be.

Skyler De Leon and John Fitzgerald Kennedy received the death penalty. They're on death row. Jennifer De Leon received 2 licenses in her involvement, and she's in prison now.

At the end of the day, they all get what they deserve. Only Alonzo will ever see the light of day again.

We decided that a 20 year sentence was appropriate for him, given his cooperation, given his instrumental role in the prosecution of all these other people that were involved

in the conspiracy. Justice was served because these people were found guilty, but it's never a win because Ryan and Matt lost their parents. Missus Jarvey lost her son. Now that the governor has taken the death penalty off the table, you know, they're getting 3 squares a day and living their life, so I've, really mixed feelings on that.

Skyler has finally, I think become the person that she has always wanted to be. Skyler is now legally a woman. She has filed court papers, and she has changed her name from Skyler Julius de Leon to Skyler Preciosa De Leon.

And it's worth remembering, I know I do, that even as we were interviewing him, Skyler was already planning how he could live with women in jail and not men. There's some talk about the 1 of the reasons you wanted to do this, you wanted to be in the women's jail?

Yeah. I'd I would rather be because I I get along a lot better with female than I do with the guys. So if I'm gonna be doing time, at least maybe I could do it with females and guys.

Over time, he was growing more and more effeminate looking. He asked for female underwear and a bra, and eventually, as the criminal justice system has been kinda changing with the culture, he she was allowed to start wearing those things, and she wants to be called a she.

He's receiving hormones on the state tax dollars. I think he's petitioned to have the surgery done, but you shouldn't be rewarded for for brutally murdering 3 people so you can get your way.

Any chance they get to take advantage of the system, to get some sort of benefit that they think they deserve, we are sending the wrong message.

The lingering thoughts I have about the case are just the senselessness of it, stupid people doing stupid things, and vicious things.

This case is probably the 1 of the few that just sheer evil is involved.

I was a prosecutor for 26 years. This is a case I will personally never forget.

They're evil personified. Scariest people I've ever met.

I had a recurring nightmare for years where Skyler is running, and I've gotta chase him and tackle him. And it's, 1 of the most gratifying things in my career to have jury make the right call, and not just once, not just twice, but 3 times with Jennifer, with Skyler, and with John Kennedy.

Tom and Jackie Hawkes were murdered more than 15 years ago, and this is 1 of the cases that I still think about. When I am looking out toward Catalina Island and I look at the ocean, I think of them.

Hi, Jackie.

I'm so glad you could join us on our last voyage and well deserved. Got a few boats here on old Carolina. So we'll miss it for a while, but we'll be back.

Thanks for listening to the 2020 True Crime Vault. We hope you'll join us Friday nights at 9 on ABC for all new broadcast episodes. See you then.