Southeast
Friend who heard murder confession thought furniture heiress would end up dead in love triangle
The discovery of a dead, battered woman off a Florida highway led investigators to unravel her unconventional lifestyle and to the murder convictions of her two lovers in their “throuple” relationship.
Before her body was recovered at the end of a cul-de-sac near Highway 98 on April 23, 2018, Aileen Seiden had checked into room 15 of the Sportsman’s Lodge Motel in Eastpoint, Florida, along with her boyfriend Zachary Abell and their mutual girlfriend Christina Araujo.
A medical examiner testified that Seiden’s injuries were comparable to “the kind of thing [he saw] in motor vehicle crashes,” The Apalachicola Times reported.
Nearly all of her ribs were broken, and extensive bruising had turned the woman’s face, abdomen and upper body to an angry purple, the outlet reported.
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Aileen Seiden, 31, was found dead off Highway 98 in Apalachicola, Florida, on April 23, 2018. (Aileen Seiden/Instagram)
Initially, police were unable to identify Seiden’s body. However, soon after her body was found, they were called to a bloody scene at the Sportsman’s Lodge.
“As soon as I came in, I noticed the bed. I mean, it’s — you couldn’t miss it,” lead investigator Ronnie Jones said in a newly released CBS “48 Hours” documentary about the case, “Who Killed Aileen Seiden in Room 15?”
“I mean, this whole area was covered and had blood stains on it,” he said. “I just put two and two together, and I automatically put that back to the body that was found the day before. It wasn’t just somebody cut [themselves] and bled a little bit on the bed. I mean the amount of blood… tells me that whoever was here was probably deceased.”
Testing ultimately indicated that the blood belonged to Seiden.
Fatal attraction
Seiden was the youngest daughter of Miami businessman Frank M. Seiden, who sold furniture to luxury hotels, cruise ships and Disney Resorts, according to the Miami Herald. Seiden, Abell and Araujo lived in North Miami.
Mike Picavet, who knew the trio, told Fox News Digital that the love triangle was overcrowded, wrought with jealousy and peppered with hotheaded brawls.
“Christina and Aileen had their first fight in my kitchen [in 2017],” Picavet said this past week. “Because [Abell] brought her over, brought both of them over. Aileen threw it in Christina’s face that she’d already been having sex with Zach for a year already. And then Christina started throwing punches right away. And it was really weird because Aileen lost and got back up and she, you know, everything was calmed down, and she started saying, Well, you’re fat and ugly, too.”
From then on, Picavet said, Seiden and Araujo would trade punches often in fights fueled by alcohol, often resulting in black eyes on one or both of the women. Those fights were bookended by periods of raucous partying and drinking, he said.
Abell and Araujo started dating five years before Seiden’s murder. Meanwhile, Seiden and Abell had known each other since they were teenagers and reconnected in 2017.
Picavet, who met Abell and Araujo in a bar several years before Seiden came into the picture, said that Abell always had a “side piece” of some sort before the throuple’s relationship began.
FLORIDA PAIR, BELIEVED TO BE IN LOVE TRIANGLE, CHARGED IN ‘SAVAGE’ BEATING DEATH OF PARTNER, POLICE SAY
Zach Abell was sentenced to life in prison on second-degree murder charges in January 2024. Christina Araujo, right, took a plea deal in April 2023 in Aileen Seiden’s killing. (Broward County Sheriff’s Office)
Picavet said he did not believe that Abell was abusive. However, he said that Araujo was always “very controlling and directing” toward both of her lovers. He said that Abell tried multiple times to break up with Araujo, but things were messy because they were business partners.
“He tried so many times,” Picavet said. “He just didn’t know how to… and then also…all the threats all the time that she could make him disappear… Every time she got drunk, she’d say some weird things.”
Seiden and Abell began dating in secret, with Seiden’s best friend telling documentarians that the man led her to believe that he would leave the other woman.
When Seiden lost her job as a property manager in 2017, a friend of hers told CBS that she started working at Abell and Araujo’s used car dealership. Picavet said that she lost her apartment at the same time. When Abell finally attempted to break things off with Araujo, Seiden’s friend said Araujo countered with an unconventional proposal: that the three of them date as a “throuple.”
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On April 21, 2018, two days before Aileen Seiden, left, was murdered, the throuple was spotted on surveillance footage stumbling out of the Red Pirate in Apalachicola, where they ate dinner, played mini-golf and drank heavily. (Franklin County Court Clerk)
Friends and family told documentarians that Seiden was considering breaking off the relationship in the weeks before her death. However, she shocked them when she moved in with her lovers in what her best friend called “one last chance to make it work.”
On April 7, 2018, Abell and Araujo got into a fight. Seiden picked up Abell and took him away from the house, and the pair went on a road trip.
Araujo sent more than 150 angry text messages to Seiden and Abell in a 24-hour span, according to the documentary. However, after her two lovers had been gone for about 48 hours and had reached Texas, she had a change of heart.
“If you want to come back home come back. You never have to question my love,” Araujo wrote, according to the documentary.
Abell and Seiden then invited Araujo to fly out to meet them in Texas.
Picavet told Fox News Digital that he “thought [Seiden would] end up dead there or something because [he] didn’t expect them to come back altogether.”
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Zach Abell and Christina Araujo are pictured in a photo, snapped by their friend Mike Picavet, after they confessed to Aileen Seiden’s murder at his home. (Franklin County Court Clerk)
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Ten days into the road trip, Seiden feared for her life and called her sister.
“I was like, ‘Aileen, run to the nearest gas station,’” Franceasa Seiden recalled, according to the documentary. “I said ‘run, get the — get out of there’ … ‘Go!’ …She’s like, ‘I can’t.’
Back in Florida, on their way home to North Miami, the group headed to the Sportsman’s Lodge Motel, where they decided that they would spend one more day there and continue to party. On the morning of April 22, they stocked up on Fireball whiskey and vodka at a liquor store, surveillance footage showed.
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Zach Abell and Christina Araujo are pictured on toll booth surveillance footage after Aileen Seiden’s murder. (Franklin County Clerk of Court)
That day, Seiden called her best friend and crafted an escape plan. She intended to get on a bus back home when the trio reached Tampa, their next destination. The friend bought Seiden a Greyhound ticket because she had left for the sudden road trip without her wallet.
However, Seiden’s friend never heard from her again.
On the evening of April 23, Picavet said that Araujo and Abell turned up on his doorstep.
“I was like, ‘OK, where’s Aileen?’ And right away, Christina says, ‘Oh, she ran away.’ … And I said, ‘Bull—-,’” Picavet recalled. “I said, ‘Where is she?’ And Zach right away… started to choke up, and he said, ‘She’s dead.’”
Abell told Picavet that Araujo had killed Seiden and convinced him not to call 911 when he found her body. Likewise, Picavet feared a violent outcome if he notified law enforcement.
“I was worried for my safety then, from Christina,” he told Fox News Digital. “Well, I can’t sleep in my house now. This is crazy. She knows. I know. So, you know, I could end up… she could end up killing me.”
Picavet said Araujo described where she and Abell dumped the body, and he began searching for the location on Google Maps. Ultimately, he would give police the same location where Seiden’s body was found.
After his friends had fallen asleep on his couch, Picavet snapped a photo. Then, he took to social media to find Araujo’s father, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Department Col. Tony Araujo. When he finally reached him, Picavet sent him the photo and told him that he had urgent news about his daughter.
They met up at a nearby gas station.
“I went up there … I said, ‘Christina killed somebody.’ And he says, ‘You know I’m a cop, right?’ And I’m like, ‘Yes, sir. I do,’” Picavet said. “He right away said, ‘Wait right there.’”
Zach Abell and Christina Araujo had been dating for four years when Aileen Seiden joined their relationship in 2017. (Franklin County Clerk of Court)
Araujo brought Picavet to the police station, where he made a formal statement. There, he identified a photo of Seiden’s battered body.
Police arrested Abell and Araujo and charged them both with first-degree murder. However, they would not face a jury for six years due to court delays and complications.
In 2023, Araujo took a plea deal for the lesser charge of second-degree murder. Abell went to trial in Franklin County in January 2024. Because Araujo confessed to beating Seiden, she became a crucial witness in his trial.
Abell’s attorney, Alex Morris, argued in court that Araujo had the motive to kill Seiden – jealousy over Abell’s split attention – and that she was the instigator in her death.
Ultimately, the jurors found Abell guilty of the lesser charge of second-degree murder, as they were unable to decide whether he had intended to kill Seiden when he and Araujo beat her.
At his sentencing, Abell claimed that he intended to leave Araujo and had proposed to Seiden with a Ring Pop on their road trip.
“Me and Aileen were gonna go our way and leave Christina out of it,” he claimed.
Picavet is convinced that Abell did not take part in the beating that cost Seiden her life, although he did help dispose of Seiden’s body.
“I know he didn’t kill her just because I know Zach. And he, you know, he would have told me he’s innocent of the murder. He’s stupid. Stupidly not innocent for helping move the body,” Picavet said.
Picavet said he is committed to helping Abell prove his innocence in the murder and said that a hidden camera in his apartment when his friends returned to his home that night captured Araujo admitting to being solely responsible for the killing and contradicting testimony that she gave in court.
However, that small camera, disguised as an outlet, was taken into evidence by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Picavet claims that investigators were unable to pull files off it for evidence and that he hopes to get the SD card from the device back so that he can obtain the footage that could help his friend.
“Once that happens, then Zach’s appeal should be good because there the evidence is going to come out, which is new evidence that Christina’s whole testimony was bulls—. And then it’ll be hopefully good for Zach.”
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Southeast
Family member of American killed by Cuban forces in boat shootout says he was on ‘diabolical’ mission
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The brother of an American citizen killed in a brazen boat clash with Cuban forces says his sibling was consumed by an “obsessive and diabolical” push to free the island and that “no one knew” what he was planning.
American citizen Michel Ortega Casanova, who worked as a truck driver, was one of 10 passengers on a Florida-registered boat that allegedly opened fire on Cuban soldiers in an attempt to infiltrate the island.
A Monroe County Sheriff’s Office incident report obtained by Fox News noted the boat’s owner reported it stolen Wednesday after hearing about the Cuba shootout on the news.
The owner, who did not speak English, told deputies his 24-foot vessel went missing, and he suspected an employee named Hector — who had two young daughters in Cuba — may have taken it.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed an incident involving Cuban forces and a speedboat Wednesday before returning to Washington, D.C., after meetings with Caribbean Community leaders at Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport in Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool/Reuters)
Ortega Casanova, who lived in the U.S. for more than two decades, was one of four killed in the attempt. He is survived by his wife, mother, brother, two sisters, daughter and unborn grandchild.
Six other passengers, all Cubans living in the U.S., were injured. It is unclear if Hector was on board.
Ortega Casanova’s brother, Misael, told The Associated Press Wednesday that his brother had an “obsessive and diabolical” pursuit for Cuba’s freedom.
“Only us Cubans who have lived over there understand [the great suffering],” Misael said.
He said “no one knew” about his brother’s plans to infiltrate the island, noting their mother is “devastated.”
“They became so obsessed that they didn’t think about the consequences nor their own lives,” Misael said.
While Ortega Casanova’s family did not recognize any of the other passengers, Misael said, “maybe [the attempt] will justify that some day Cuba will be free.”
CUBA IS APPROACHING ITS BERLIN WALL MOMENT — AMERICA MUST HELP THEM BREAK THROUGH
Cuban Coast Guard forces reported an exchange of gunfire with a U.S.-registered speedboat Wednesday. (Yamil Lage/AFP via Getty Images)
He refrained from labeling the group heroes, describing the idea as “ignorance.”
Cuban officials said many of the boat passengers, who were intercepted roughly a mile northeast of Cayo Falcones, off Cuba’s north coast, had a known history of criminal and violent activity.
Passengers Amijail Sánchez González and Leordan Enrique Cruz Gómez were wanted by Cuban authorities for their involvement in the “promotion, planning, organization, financing, support or commission of actions carried out in the national territory or in other countries, in connection with acts of terrorism,” according to the government.
Cuban politician Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla posted to X after the incident, claiming a “rigorous investigation” is being conducted to clarify the facts.
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“Cuba has had to face numerous terrorist and aggressive infiltrations originating from #EEUU since 1959, at a high cost in lives, injuries, and material damage,” Rodriguez Parrilla wrote in a post. “The defense of Cuba’s coasts, of the national territory, and of national security is an ineludible duty.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. is working to determine whether the passengers were American citizens or permanent residents.
U.S. officials said at least two of the people on the bat were U.S. citizens, and another was on a U.S. K-1 visa — which is granted to fiancées of U.S. citizens for 90 days.
“We have various different elements of the U.S. government that are trying to identify elements of the story that may not be provided to us now,” Rubio told reporters in Basseterre, St. Kitts.
“Suffice it to say, it is highly unusual to see shootouts in open sea like that. It’s not something that happens every day. It’s something, frankly, that hasn’t happened with Cuba in a very long time.”
Cuban officials said the vessel’s passengers were intercepted off the country’s northern coast. (Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto)
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Rubio said the U.S. will verify the facts independently, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Coast Guard are investigating.
Vice President JD Vance said he was briefed on the incident, and the White House is monitoring the situation.
“Hopefully it’s not as bad as we fear it could be,” Vance said.
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Florida’s Attorney General James Uthmeier said prosecutors will work with federal, state and law enforcement partners to start an investigation.
“The Cuban government cannot be trusted, and we will do everything in our power to hold these communists accountable,” Uthmeier wrote in a social media post.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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A North Carolina woman whose disappearance in 2001 triggered a 24-year search is now facing criminal charges from the year she vanished.
Michele Hundley Smith, now 63, was located Feb. 20 at an undisclosed location within North Carolina after detectives received new information about her case, the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office said.
Smith was 38 when her husband reported that she left their Eden home Dec. 9, 2001, to go Christmas shopping in Martinsville, Virginia, and never returned. Her vehicle was never found.
An extensive investigation followed, and, despite years of investigative work, her whereabouts remained unknown until last week.
The 63-year-old woman posted $2,000 bond on a failure to appear charge related to a DWI from the month before she vanished for 24 years. (Robeson County Sheriff’s Office)
Authorities said Smith told investigators she left on her own accord and referenced “domestic issues.”
Sheriff Sam Page told Fox News Digital the sheriff’s office had no prior record of domestic incidents at the home. No criminal charges are expected in her disappearance. However, following her identification, investigators discovered an outstanding order for arrest dating back to 2001.
A missing persons flyer circulated at the time of Michele Hundely Smith’s disappearance in December 2001. (Bring Michele Hundely Smith Home/Facebook)
MISSING NORTH CAROLINA MOM FOUND ALIVE AFTER 24 YEARS REVEALS WHY SHE LEFT
In a statement, the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office said that, after consultation with the District Attorney’s Office and further investigation, authorities identified an outstanding order for arrest for Smith for failure to appear.
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The order stemmed from a DWI charge issued by the Eden Police Department Nov. 11, 2001. Smith failed to appear in court Dec. 27, 2001, for that charge, the statement said.
On Feb. 25, 2026, Smith was taken into custody by the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office at the request of Rockingham County authorities. She later posted a $2,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in Rockingham County District Court March 26, 2026.
A missing mom found alive after 23 years reveals she left due to domestic issues. (Bring Michele Hundely Smith Home/Facebook)
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On Thursday, the New York Post reported it had located Smith in a trailer in a rural community near the South Carolina state line. Smith told the outlet she is trying to make amends with her daughter and the family she walked out on decades ago.
“My daughter is forgiving me. We are in contact, so leave me alone,” she told the outlet.
Smith’s neighbors said she had “been here for years and years” and mostly keeps to herself.
“We asked why she didn’t come out of the house much, and she said her husband passed. He passed last year. … She was really sad about it. She said she was depressed and stayed inside,” the neighbor said.
Michele Hundely Smith disappeared after leaving her home in North Carolina to go Christmas shopping in Virginia in December 2001. (Bring Michele Hundely Smith Home/Facebook)
In a 2018 interview on “The Vanished Podcast,” her daughter, Amanda Hundley, said her mother’s marriage was unraveling under the weight of alcohol abuse, infidelity and escalating marital arguments.
Smith had recently lost her job at a veterinary practice after being fired for drinking on the job, Hundley said.
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“My dad didn’t like the fact that my mom hid her drinking. I knew about it, and I was the only one. And I felt, you know, I was young, and I felt obligated not to say anything to betray my mom,” Hundley said on the podcast.
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According to Hundley, her father suspected the drinking but did not fully understand the extent of it until after Smith vanished.
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“He said, ‘Do you know where she kept the bottles at?’ And I showed them we had a little red building outside, and it was full of rum bottles, the empties, the ones that she had already drunk,” recalled Hundley, who was 14 at the time.
The couple’s relationship had also deteriorated. Hundley said both her parents had affairs during the marriage. She described frequent arguments that “got physical a few times.”
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Atlanta-area police blast parents over vodka martini packed in school lunch: ‘That is NOT apple juice’
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An Atlanta-area police department issued a blunt notice to parents after officers claimed a child brought a vodka-based beverage to school — tucked beside Doritos in a packed lunch.
The City of South Fulton Police Department sounded off about the incident in a now-viral Facebook post, warning parents to “CHECK. THE. LUNCHBOX.”
“Say Twin… Before you send them babies off to school… CHECK. THE. LUNCHBOX. Because why are we getting reports of juice boxes sitting next to… Cutwater margaritas??” the department wrote.
Officials also shared a photo of the alleged lunchbox, containing what appears to be a child’s lunch, Doritos and a Cutwater Lemon Drop Martini.
The police department shared a photo of a Cutwater canned cocktail in a lunchbox. (City of South Fulton Police Department via Facebook)
“That is NOT Capri Sun. That is NOT Apple Juice. That is a whole ‘Parent had a long night’ starter pack,” the department wrote. “Now little Johnny done pulled up to 3rd period talking about: ‘Who want fruit snacks?’ knowing good and well he got a Lemon Drop Martini in the zipper pocket.”
Cutwater Lemon Drop Martinis, as found in the lunchbox, are 11% ABV ready-to-drink cocktails made with vodka, triple sec, lemon juice and natural flavors.
They come in 12-ounce cans, similar in appearance to a soda can.
The City of South Fulton Police Department issued a statement after the apparent mishap. (City of South Fulton Police Department via Facebook)
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The department said it understands mornings can be hectic, but issued a stern notice to parents to “TIGHTEN UP.”
“Your child shouldn’t be the only one in the cafeteria with a beverage that requires an ID,” authorities wrote. “If it says 12% ABV… it does NOT belong next to a PB&J.”
Officials also provided a “quick parent checklist,” with items including: “Homework,” “Lunch packed,” and “Alcoholic beverages.”
Boxes of Cutwater Tiki Rum Mai Tai and Strawberry Margarita canned cocktails. (Gado/Getty Images)
“Check the lunchbox before the Fulton County Schools Police resource officers gotta do inventory at recess,” the department added.
It is unclear if any parents or students were disciplined in relation to the mix-up.
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Fulton County Schools did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
The City of South Fulton, Georgia, is a rapidly growing municipality located about 20 minutes from Atlanta and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
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