LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — In addition to the newly-released video related to the Lesly Palacio case, 13 Action News also obtained a grand jury transcript.
WARNING: Some of these details may be disturbing to readers
The transcript begins with Palacio’s sister describing the events of the night she had last contact with her sister.
She told the grand jury about the last message from her sister via text and how she didn’t come home after going out with Erick Rangel-Ibarra.
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She also described going to the Rangel’s home a couple of days later and observing Rangel's mother and sisters loading a truck with furniture while wearing rubber gloves.
The next witness, a man who claimed to be Rangel-Ibarra's friend, told the grand jury that Rangel-Ibarra had called him and asked him to bring a can of gasoline.
When the friend asked why, Rangel-Ibarra reportedly responded “I killed a bitch.” He also said that she was dead in the back seat of his truck.
The friend claimed that he didn’t believe Rangel-Ibarra and made an excuse not to help him.
Next, the lead police detective told the grand jury how they made the connection between the victim and Erick Rangel-Ibarra and his father Jose Rangel, who has also been arrested.
The detective described the numerous surveillance videos that showed Erick and Lesly drinking heavily throughout the night of her disappearance.
At this point, the grand jury is shown the videos taken at the Rangel residence.
The first video shows a man and woman, who appear to be Rangel-Ibarra and Palacio, arrive at Rangel’s home at 6 a.m. in a truck that is left in front of the residence.
The next video at 7 a.m. shows a man coming out of the house, tossing something small into the truck, and driving away. The truck and driver return about 15 minutes later
At 7:26 a.m., 2 men are observed on the video dragging a body out of the home and loading it into the truck.
After the truck drives away, one of the men who was later identified as Jose Rangel begins spraying water on a patch of rocks and grass near the driveway.
After walking the grand jury through the videos, the police detective begins describing the discovery of Palacio’s body on Sept. 9, 2020, in the Valley of Fire park.
According to the detective, the body was in a state of decomposition and was only partially clothed. The female body, which had not been identified at that time, was not wearing pants and her thong underwear was not in the correct place.
The detective also described finding the woman’s pants nearby along with marks in the dirt that indicated she had been dragged.
The detective also revealed that an autopsy did not determine the cause of death for Palacio and they were still waiting for toxicology results.
The next detective to speak to the grand jury described the arrest of Erick’s father, Jose Rangel.
According to the detective, Rangel turned himself in at the San Ysidro (San Diego) border and allowed himself to be extradited to Clark County.
During an interview with the detective, Rangel initially said he learned about the case while he was in Mexico.
However, he then began to describe what happened the day Palacio disappeared.
Rangel told the police detective that he was in the garage when his son, Erick, came downstairs shirtless with Palacio’s body in a sheet.
He said that Erik was “freaking out” and he decided to help his son get the body out of the house because he didn’t want other members of the family to see it.
Jose Rangel reportedly told the detective that he did not notice any trauma to Palacio’s body or observe any blood or vomit. He did notice she was not fully clothed.
Rangel said he did not expect to see Erick again that day, but he turned up at his daughter’s apartment in the afternoon and was making weird statements about killing himself and Jose and about other people coming to kill him and/or the family. Jose said that is when he decided to leave the country with his son.
Rangel told the detective that his son indicated that he and Lesly had drank a lot before she died and that she may have overdosed on narcotics. Rangel denied that his wife or daughters knew anything about what happened or had any involvement in any way.
The transcript concludes with the interview of another homicide detective who describes how he gathered evidence related to the case from the Rangel residence.
At this time, Erik Rangel has not been arrested and his location is unknown.
