Dancing on Her Grave (20 page)

“Tonight I didn’t see pink pearls like I did before. Tonight I saw white pearls as she laid them across her own tombstone. It was sad; it was like she was saying, ‘Now I’m done, now I have no purpose.’ I was driving home from a training session with the dogs while she was speaking to me, and I was actually crying, I was so sad. But I said to her, ‘Listen, Debbie, you do have purpose. You had purpose in life and you now have purpose in the spirit world. You can help others cross who have come from the same circumstances you did, and help them. And I know this is not the last time you and I will speak.’”

Debbie’s older sister, Celeste, has shown that she and Debbie still manage to “speak” in a way as well:

“OMG my little sister, Debbie, paid me a visit at work,” she wrote recently on Facebook. “They say that when you find a feather out of nowhere, out of place where there shouldn’t be any. It means an angel or a loved one is with you.

“I work in an office. No birds at all obviously. It wasn’t there yesterday. I look down underneath my desk by my feet and there’s a feather. My mom finds them from time to time
in
her house.

“Thanks, Debbie. I needed to know you were with me today. I miss you. . . .”

“Everything happens for a reason.” We’ve all heard this saying so many times throughout our lives, right? In some cases, we just roll our eyes. But in most of them, as time goes on, one realizes that this is a very appropriate saying. In this case, it was destiny.

I remember working on this case day and night. As the events unfolded, it was one of those cases where everything was a mystery; it was not predictable at all. I also never expected to get a message from my colleague Diego Arias asking me if I wanted to write a book with longtime and well-known writer Diana Montané.

I clearly remember that day. I was driving with my husband while talking with Diana over the phone for over two hours. At the end of the conversation, we felt like we had known each other for years. I told her everything I knew about the investigation, and it just became our obsession.

We both felt we needed to tell Debbie’s story: her life, her dreams, and the tragic events that ended her life so abruptly.

Diana tells me I am her Colombian daughter, and I tell her not only she is my second mom, but my angel.

Over the course of three years, I’ve experienced long and sleepless nights not only writing, researching, but also thinking about Debbie.

People ask me all the time how difficult it is to cover so many horrible stories, how I sleep at night after hearing all the terrible testimonies of victims of a crime. The truth is I cannot picture myself doing anything else. At the end of the day, if I can make a difference in someone’s life with my work, I think I’ve accomplished my mission.

Everything happens for a reason, right? Ever since we started this book, we thought, this should be a movie, and Roselyn Sanchez would be perfect to play Debbie! Well, even as I write, Roselyn and her husband, Eric Winter, are working to make Debbie’s life a movie. Debbie’s dreams were cut short, but we will make sure she’s never forgotten. She was a dancer, an amazing performer who wanted to become famous, and she will. People will know about her, about the amazing girl who had the guts to follow her dream, to believe in love, to search for her happiness, and who, unfortunately, died searching for her dreams. If I had to guess, I would say Debbie wouldn’t
change anything from her life, as she was a woman who lived life to the fullest. To this day, I talk about Debbie as though I had met her in person. I speak with Celeste often. The telephone line still makes a strong connection.

This was a story I followed up on for years. Even after the trial started to get postponed time after frustrating time, and the media kind of forgot what had happened, I always kept in contact with Celeste, her sister, an amazing and brave woman, who appreciates every sign of affection and responds to every message about Debbie.

It was a year and a half after Debora’s murder when I found out Fox International Channels and RCN (a Colombian network) were planning on launching a new Spanish network in Los Angeles, so I sent in my résumé.

I feel as if God is always sending me angels and puts them in my path. When I say angels, I mean people who somehow help you, trust you without knowing you, or give you a hand. This particular angel is Rolando Nichols, who is now the main news anchor for our network. He trusted me without knowing too much about me. Thanks to him I was given the opportunity to come live in Los Angeles and work for what is now called MundoFox national network. It was an unforgettable experience to be part of the launching of a new network, and to make history, at least in the Spanish-speaking world in the United States. It happened on August 13, 2012.

Now at MundoFox, my work has been awarded three Gabriel Awards, sponsored by the Catholic Academy of Communication Professionals for Excellence in Journalism, for two consecutive years for the best coverage of the Virgen de Guadalupe. The most recent one was for the Best Public Affairs series, a story of a woman who unfortunately ended up dying of cancer, but for whom we at the network launched a campaign to help her raise the money she needed for the hospital bills, for her family and for a treatment she never got to try.

As I said, Debora’s trial kept on being postponed. Every time we thought it could happen, Diana, myself, and Celeste, I would request vacation time to go to Las Vegas and had to end up canceling many times because the trial was off again. It finally did happen, and even though I could not go to Vegas, our local MundoFox station covered it as well as all the other media outlets.

It was a long wait before I was able to write the words Debbie and her family were waiting for, for almost four years: “Justice has been served.” Nevertheless, I know everything happens for a reason: the wait, the people I met during this journey, and what I got from it, as a human being, is priceless. On a personal level, I now strongly believe Debora wanted me to know more about her life so I could learn from her mistakes. Just like a good friend of mine always tells me, “Let go and let God.” Debbie never let go of her love for Jason. It’s hard to do it, but
we should all walk out of any circumstance that’s causing us harm, and even pain. Deep in our hearts, we have the answer.

Debbie, Diana, Roselyn, thank you for coming into my
life.

The Flores-Narvaez family was not wealthy, but sisters Celeste and Debbie never wanted for anything growing up.

Celeste Flores-Narvaez

Debbie was always a good student, and earned multiple college degrees.

Celeste Flores-Narvaez

Celeste, Debbie’s older sister, never wavered in her own relentless investigation into Debbie’s death.

Celeste Flores-Narvaez

Debbie was a devoted aunt to her two nephews, Celeste’s sons. The last call she made to her sister was to find out what to get her older nephew for Christmas.

Celeste Flores-Narvaez

The Flores-Narvaez family during happier times.

Celeste Flores-Narvaez

Debbie and Sonya, her roommate in Las Vegas, where Debbie moved to pursue her dancing career.

Sonya Sonnenberg

Debbie often worked with a friend, magician Rene Delgadillo, whose act combined magic and salsa dancing.

Shane O’Neal