Revenge Turned Deadly When Drug Dealers Punished Two Teenagers for Stealing Marijuana

Enrique Rios and Elijah Moore disappeared within weeks of each other. Rios's mother realized the two incidents were connected.

Jennifer Tisdale - Author
By

May 8 2024, Published 10:39 p.m. ET

The last time Lola Rios Gutierrez saw her son was Oct. 17, 2016. She told A&E that the whole family was settling in for the night and they were about to go to bed when Enrique Rios came into her bedroom. Her son was wearing his pajamas and Gutierrez had no reason to believe he wasn't about to hit the hay. However, the following morning, he was nowhere to be found. Gutierrez texted her son and said she hoped he made it to school that day, but he didn't

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Three weeks later, Gutierrez was desperate for information. She went on Facebook and uploaded videos begging for information. That's where she stumbled upon Alicia Moore who was posting about her missing son. Elijah Moore also hadn't come home. Gutierrez did a little digging and discovered her son went to school with Moore. In fact, the two young men were friends. So, what happened to Enrique Rios and Elijah Moore? Here's what we know.

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What happened to Enrique Rios and Elijah Moore?

According to the Yolo County District Attorney's Office, the day Rios disappeared is also the day Moore robbed "David Froste, Chandale Shannon, and Jesus Campos of three ounces of marijuana." David called his brother Jonathan and told him what happened after which, a revenge-seeking plan was hatched. The first thing David had to do was grab his gun from the house he shared with his brother.

The four of them knew that Rios was friends with Moore so they set out to find him and locate his pal. A witness saw Rios get into a car matching the description of one owned by Shannon. Soon after, David, Shannon, and Campos turned off their cell phones and drove Rios to a private area in Knights Landing, Calif. When Rios refused to divulge where Moore was, David shot and killed him.

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A few weeks later on Nov. 4, Campos, David, and Jonathan spotted Moore exiting a barbershop in Woodland, Calif. They pushed him into the trunk of their vehicle and picked up Shannon who was still in possession of the gun they used to murder Rios. Once again they found a vacant spot in Knights Landing where they tied up Moore using zip ties.

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Moore begged for his life and pleaded with them to let him call his mother, but his cries fell on deaf ears. David and Campos left to buy "shovels, a pickaxe, gasoline, and bleach," and when they returned, the group proceeded to beat Moore to death. They dug a hole and clumsily buried Moore's body then set it on fire and doused it in bleach when the flames got too high.

What happened to the men who killed Enrique Rios and Elijah Moore?

After Gutierrez and Alicia contacted law enforcement about their missing sons, a full-scale investigation was launched by the Yolo County Sherriff’s Department as well as the Woodland Police Department. Their investigation dragged on into the summer of 2018 and involved multiple agencies. They were able to use cell tower records, Facebook records, and Google location data to narrow down their suspects. Finally, David Froste, Jonathan Froste, Chandale Shannon, and Jesus Campos were arrested in June 2018.

Jonathan agreed to cooperate with police and attempted to lead them to the bodies of Rios and Moore but wasn't able to locate them again. Despite this, he confessed to the "two murders and pled to second-degree murder." He then testified against the others. CBS News reported that David was sentenced to life without parole. Shannon and Campos were also handed life sentences without the possibility of parole, per the Associated Press. Jonathan was given 15 years for his cooperation.

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