weight Taunts Led To Murder?
Were taunts about her weight the reason Monica Diaz flipped?
Monica Diaz was just a child when her mum died, and it shaped the course of her whole life.
While still getting to grips with her shock and grief, aged 8 she went to live with her aunt and uncle, Sylvia and Richard Flores.
She shared the home in Pico Rivera, California, with her half-sister Laura, and cousins Sylvia, Matthew, Richard Jr and Esperanza.
Space was tight, so the kids didn’t have their own rooms and often shared beds. But despite being a bit crowded, the family seemed happy.
Monica referred to her aunt and uncle as Mum and Dad, her cousins as brothers and sisters.
The children argued, but generally got on and regularly enjoyed family days out.
Family and friends said Monica was adored – and disciplined – the same way as Sylvia and Richard’s own kids.
However, under the surface, Monica was unhappy.
‘They make it sound like The Brady Bunch, but it wasn’t,’ she said.
She was bigger than her sister and cousins, and was taunted about her weight, particularly as she entered her teens.
‘They called me Chubby Checkers,’
Monica said.
But
Monica’s aunt claims the teasing wasn’t meant to hurt Monica’s feelings.
No big deal?
‘They had their disagreements with each other but, the next minute, you saw them hugging. Despite what she says, we were a real good family,’ Sylvia insisted.
But it wasn’t just being called names that angered Monica. At school, Monica enjoyed sports – but, while her aunt and uncle never missed her cousins’ games, they often skipped hers. To them, it was no big deal. But to Monica, it meant everything. Slowly, she began to resent the family who’d welcomed her as their own. Then she met Michael Naranjo at high school, in April 1999.
Young and in love, they were often seen walking hand-inhand, or with their arms draped round each other.
And they’d spend hours talking on the phone.
After years of feeling unattractive because of family jokes, Monica was told she was beautiful.
‘He used to say, “I love you so much. No-one will ever appreciate you like I do.” He used to call me his Cinderella,’ Monica said.
The nickname referred to the way Monica claimed she was treated by her family before finding her Prince Charming.
Michael showered her with gifts, including a personalised lighter engraved with the words, For My Little Munchkin.
The teens were inseparable – but Monica’s Uncle Richard didn’t approve. He thought his niece’s boyfriend was weird, sneaky.
He took issue with the way Michael dressed. Although he denied being a Goth, Michael wore allblack outfits with a silver neck chain, had spiky hair and a long, black trench coat.
Monica’s Aunt Sylvia tried to include Michael in family gatherings, but she wasn’t fond of him, either.
‘He was over too much. We wanted him to go home,’ Sylvia said of Michael.
Monica, then 16, and Michael, 17, were frustrated by how strict her aunt and uncle were. When Monica asked to
Richard and Sylvia didn’t approve of her boyfriend
go away with just Michael, and her aunt and uncle said no, something snapped.
Together, the teenage pair hatched a horrifying plan to get revenge on the family who Monica had come to hate.
In the early hours of 21 July 2000, while Monica’s relatives were asleep, Michael crept into their home through the back door, which Monica had deliberately left open.
Quickly and methodically, the pair worked their way from room to room, slashing at the sleeping family with knives.
The array of weapons included a dagger, a doubleedged throwing knife, and other blades – the handles of which the couple had bound with cord for a better grip.
First, they slaughtered cousin Sylvia, 13 – duct taping her mouth to silence her screams, before stabbing her in the stomach and cutting her throat.
Next, Richard Jr, 17, and Matthew, 10, were killed in the room they shared next door. Richard was cut across the throat, while Matthew was partly disembowelled.
Then Michael crept into Monica’s aunt and uncle’s bedroom. He stabbed Sylvia in the chest, torso and chin, then moved on to Richard.
Bleeding heavily, Sylvia tried to fight off her husband’s assailant. But she was unable to prevent Michael stabbing Richard, 42, in the throat.
Emergency call
The commotion woke up Esperanza in another room. ‘Call 911!’ Sylvia screamed. Esperanza tried, but the killers had cut the phone line. So she ran across the street and banged on a neighbour’s door.
Meanwhile, Michael had got on his bike and cycled home. Monica stayed behind and applied pressure to her aunt’s bleeding wounds.
Because it was so dark, no-one had recognised the killers…
By the time the Emergency Services arrived, little Sylvia, Matthew, Richard Jr, and their dad were all dead. Badly injured and rushed to hospital Sylvia, 39, was saved.
Police interviewed Michael and the surviving children, including Monica.
A bandaged injury on Michael’s arm caught their attention. He struggled to explain how it happened, so the police kept an eye on him.
Shortly after, they found both Michael and Monica’s fingerprints on the knives and duct tape used in the murders.
They also found several weapons and books about murder in Michael’s home.
It quickly became clear the couple had carefully planned and carried out the murders.
Michael Naranjo and Monica Diaz were arrested and charged with four counts of murder, one of attempted murder.
Some local media focussed on how Monica was taunted about her weight, made to feel left out by her family, as the motivation to the crime.
But, in court, the Deputy District Attorney put it more simply – the couple were sociopaths, hell-bent on committing mass murder together, he said.
Michael Naranjo pleaded guilty to the charges, but testified Diaz had nothing to do with the killings. He was found guilty.
Monica Diaz was also convicted of all charges.
They were each given five life sentences.
‘“Cold-hearted” isn’t adequate. “immoral” isn’t adequate. There’s just no way to explain this extraordinarily violent crime,’ the Superior Court Judge said.
The judge said Monica was beyond immoral...