Amber Hess should have chosen better friends.
16-year-olds Todd Hoke and Nicolas Castillo both attended Coolidge High School, in Queen Creek, Arizona. 17-year-old Amber Hess, who had just graduated from that school, lived just a little way from their houses and hung out with the two boys all the time, playing video games and talking to them on the phone.
According to Amber Hess’ mother, Candy Hess, Todd Hoke was like a brother to Amber.
Unfortunately, the circle of friends that the trio ran with was rumored to be rife with teen pregnancy and gang membership.
On the 27th of June, 2007, Amber Hess’ parents, Michael and Candy, went out of town on vacation to Puerto Penasco. They returned on June 24th and found their daughter missing.
They did find some disturbing things around the house, however. Things like blood, torn curtains and overturned furniture. There was, among other things, a missing handgun.
So the Hess family called the police and got a search underway.
A burned body was found a day later. While it could have been Amber Hess’ body, dental records had to be checked to prove it was, in fact, the missing girl. Amber, during the last moments of her life, had been beaten, stabbed and tied up. The blow that probably killed Amber Hess was a knife thrust to her aorta.
Amber’s 2002 Mitsubishi with it’s Playboy bunny sticker on the back was located on the 26th of June just down the street from one of the boys’ homes. Evidence found in the car linked Todd Hoke and Nicolas Castillo to the murder.
It helped investigators that, during the investigation, there were a lot of people willing to talk to police about what happened to Amber. Evidently the word had gotten out among the teenage community in the area that Amber had been killed before her parents had even gotten off the plane.
Amber and Todd Hoke evidently had some kind of falling out a while back, where Hoke called Amber an unkind word. Feelings were hurt, the way they always are in teenagers.
Todd planned retribution for weeks. Once he heard Amber’s parents were out of town, he saw his chance.
Todd Hoke and Nicolas Castillo invited Amber out to see ‘Evan Almighty’ on June 22nd. They had a good time.
Once they returned to Amber Hess’ house, the killing began.
After extensive investigation, a driver was found who identified Nicolas Castillo, telling investigators that he had seen Castillo drag a Hefty trash bag to a Mitsubishi that looked an awful lot like Amber’s.
Another witness claimed that early on the 24th of June, Hoke had taken a few cleaning sponges from his kitchen sink. Hoke had claimed that Castillo was going to come pick him up because they had business to take care of. That witness said that Hoke had lost his shirt and that there were fingernail scratches on his chest and arms.
Amber Hess’ iPod, as well as a DVD and a video camera belonging to the Hess family, were found in the house where Nicolas Castillo lived. A disk showing a Hess family holiday was in the camera.
Castillo and Hoke were arrested and charged with first-degree murder.
Hoke confessed and tearfully asked Amber Hess’ mother to forgive him.
I’m sure Candy Hess will get right on that.
Sheriff Vasquez stated, regarding Hoke’s confession, “There’s no remorse in either one, cocky, the only time they showed any type of emotion is when they found out they were being charged, but up until then no remorse at all, didn’t care.”
So why did they do it?
Well, it’s entirely possible that Amber Hess was pregnant. There were a lot of her friends that were pregnant, and teen pregnancy has been a growing problem in the area. I’m sure we’ll hear more about that soon, because investigators have sent her uterus off for some testing.
Pinal County Sheriff Chris Vasquez stated, “We’re sending it off to verify if that’s true or not and at this time, we don’t know.”
Maybe a pregnancy, combined with the falling out Amber had with Todd Hoke, and possibly some perceived disrespect to his fledgling gangsta ego was enough to flip that little switch that keeps people from doing horrible things.
Regardless, these two will probably spend a lot of time in prison.
Amber’s family has put up a memorial page here.
Hoke and Castillo’s next court date is set for September 17th of 2007.
Do these two deserve Hell, being so young? You tell me.
Update:
For your amusement, here is Nicolas Castillo’s MySpace page, and Todd Hoke’s MySpace page.
Here is the MySpace page of Amber Hess.
Todd Hoke and Nicolas Castillo will face trial on the 5th of May, 2009. They will be tried as adults on seven charges nearly two years after the death of 17-year-old Amber LeAnn Hess.
Both teens face charges including first-degree murder, burglary and concealment of a dead body.
Both have pled not guilty to all charges.
You need to know more about who you hang out with, who your new friend is, who your sister is dating. Use an online criminal background check to learn what you need to know about who you know. People You’ll See In Hell recommends NetDetective, Intellius, US Search or Background Searcher. Take this simple and easy step to keep you and your family safe by knowing who you’re dealing with.
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wHAT THE…? Planned, cold and calculated. Young or not, there are evil, black hearts at work in this situation.
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I am Todd Hokes step-grandfather and I put some of the blame for this terrible murder on me. If I would have stepped in and been a grandparent to this young man the way my grandfather did me when my parents split this may not have happened. I hope and pray that Ambers parents can forgive me.
Rodney Rodenberg
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I feel bad for that guy.
I think that one thing that people don’t understand. Well sometimes I guess the blame can be put on the environment that the POS was brought up by but I think I’m starting to believe that it is in each one of them.
Something deep.
Something that’s goes un-noticed because so many of the times they “were such a nice person”.
I think it’s something that there’s no stopping, just slowing down.
Look at all the constant threats ya know? I don’t think the blame can be put on this Rodney guy. I think it’s good that he did what he could to prevent this from happening sooner to someone else. I’m not saying it’s ok that it happened to Amber; I’m just saying it could’ve been anyone and could’ve been worse if the guys did it at an earlier age. They would’ve possibly got off easier and sooner. Make sense?
The bottom line is that I think it’s embedded within each person who commits these awful crimes and it’s just a matter of time.
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i think they should free nick castillo hes a very nice young guy…please forgive him..i love u nick…
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i think they should free nick..hes a very nice guy….please forgive him….we all love you nick…we still rmember u here from Rowland Heights,CA.. always aka MORENA
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Tiff reply on April 24th, 2008:
fuck that they should never free either of the guys that killed the poor young girl…
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The Danger Zone reply on November 1st, 2008:
Hey Julie… Yeah, let’s free him… Then he can come by your house and kill you… After all, it’s so kewl to have a guy around that likes to beat and kill girls right… I mean seriously, what’s kewler than beating the fuck out of a girl and burning her body…
I know… Doing it a second time…
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So we should free murderers because they’re nice? What a wonderful suggestion, why don’t we just let Nick and all the other “nice” criminals in jail free and send them over to your house. Whoever voted “No” has to be either mentally retarded or related to one of the two killers.
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Oh that makes me sick! I moved into the Hoke home they were renting and have seen that young man around my neighborhood. Makes me want to move. Grandfather above do not blame yourself! Todd is old enough to make his own decisions.
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Updated with new trial information and MySpace pages.
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IF THEY LET HIM OUT THATS KOOL MAYBE THAT WAY HE CAN COME DOWN TO THE HEIGHTS SO THAT WE CAN KICK IT WITH THE HOMIES…….NICK STAY UP HOMIE AND DONT FORGET THE TRUE HOMIES U HAD IN THE HIEGHTS ALRATOS
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?? Did I really just read that last comment…supposed gang members are so fucking dumb (all of them even the real ones). If they could only see how pathetic they look to the rest of the world…they are so incompetent (they kill each other too, funny). The only reason why I have ever even give them a second thought is because they breed children, whom I feel sorry for (we have to pay for them). Yep, it’s true a lot of ghetto skanks hook up and these incompetent woman and men are too lazy to get on birth control even though it’s fucking free at planned parenthood (they probably don’t have a ride). Anyway, guys like you “CHRIS” should have been aborted too bad your mom was too lazy and ghetto to get on the pill or abort (probably catholic) sucks you had to be born.
Gansters suck. Get a job and get your skanks off welfare.
The word “skank” is a ghetto word, I am actually not proud I used it, I believe it must come from Chris’ people, because it did not come from me. Oh well it’s fitting.
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Miwist reply on November 1st, 2008:
Yeah, gangsters suck. They’re actually amusing to me. I have a 12 year old son that occaisionally tries the gangster, macho shit. Puberty? immaturity? I don’t know - but what’s funny is the fact that I know it’s a 12 year old acting like a fucking moron - and then I see these 20 year old gangster hardasses acting like a 12 year old that’s acting like a moron - and they’re so stupid they don’t realize how stupid they are.
They can continue killing each other and going to prison, I don’t care. Doesn’t bother me to see the herd thinned a bit - too bad the little cock roaches keep breeding.
But here’s the deal - I have no sympathy for the victim either. If you play with matches, you’re gonna get burned.
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