Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
July 26 th 2015 m 6:08 pm. a panic 911 call comes in from an apartement complex in santa cruz , california. a young girl is missing and her mother is beside herself.she had last been seen riding on her scooter around the the complex and she had not been seen since after 5 pm.
her mother gave the officers the all- important descriotion eight years old four foot tall about about 48 pounds,brown hair, wearing a black helmet and a purple dress.last seen riding a little white scooter. named madison middelton .
It was now all hands on deck to find the eight year old hwo had seemingly disappeared in a space of a fews minutes.
Eight year old madison middleton know as maddie lived with her mother laura, she was the only child and she and her mother and father michael were a tight trio .
the family lived in the tannery Arts center apartement complex. a really unique campus .
that provides affordable living for families and and artists ,a place they can live and create art toghether in their little comunity. every on in the complex was close , they would all creates things and spend times togther. all the children would hang out in the ourt yard and and play games.
for a young girl that loved all things creative it was the perfect place for her to grow up . she would often paint little toy animals and create plays and stories with hem. she loved to sing ,dance and daw. her mother laura sais madddie was such a generous child always the first to try and help someone or stand up for someone that was on their own or needed supprort.
she was bright intuitive and curious never without a smile on her face.everyone in the apartment complex knew her as shatty maddie and shw would talk to anyone and everyone always making friends and entertaining people.
July 26 was a sunday maddie was enjoying the last part of her weekend her friend took him over and and was now playing board game with her mom laura. maddie was waiting for them to finish and desided she was going to play with her new present while they wrapped the game. she had jsut got a scooter a few days before and couldn´t wait to it around the courtyard before it got dark .
at 4 pm she was seen by several neighbors , she was also spotted a few times after this ,just riding around and having fun. occsionally she stopped to talk to a other children but was happy to be by herself. at 5:07 pm she wsas seen going past some mailboxes ,this was the last time anyone saw maddie.after this she vanished.
her mother laura thought she migh have met another friend and starting going door to door. there were around 100 apartments in the eight acre complex.but with each person that answered saying they hadn´t seen her .the panic was mounting. she was nowhere.
officers rapidly descended on the apartments and got to work without hesitation. her family said that although maddie was confident she knews not to wander off by herself.go to far or talk to people that she didnt know .so detectives knew her disappearance was out of character.
dispite this an amber alert was not issued because they said the case did not meet certain criteria .
An amber alert is an emergency alert system that sends out information about endangered missng or abducted child.
an ectensive search was now underway which included the involvement of the santa cruz police departement. as santa crue´s sheriff´s office search and rescue team and a k-9 unite ,b ut it was soon dark and they hadn´t found anything.
by 11 am the next day ,50 FBI officers were on the case going door to door in the area and requesting evryone look in their garages and check their bins ,gardens and cheds.
by this point the complex had already been searched top to bottom and the hunt for maddie was now spreading into the outer areas.
joyce Blashke ,santa cruiz police spkersperson ” we´re not calling this a kidnapping ,we´re still early on in our investigation where we´re calling it, this is we´re looking for a lost child.
police stopped vehicles entering the Tannery parking lot. and looking for any informatiuon or signs of msising madison maddie middleton.
hundred of volunteers arrived to search, police had now received over 1000 tips and it was clesar to see how this case had resonated with the public and how much they were trying to help to bring her home.
As the police approached the 24 – hours mark, they decided to refocus their search back inwards. with such sa small window of time in which she suddenly vanished they felt confident thats the answers lasy in the apartment complex. somewhere.
They started a more thourough and intense search of the buildings.
july 27 th . 8:00 pm. just over a day after the search for maddie had started it came to a painful and a abrupt end at 8 pm on july 27th her body was found in a bag inside a recycling bin in the first floor garage of the appartment complex.
One of the investigators said
“everyone´s heart sank when they found her
but they quickly regrouped as the missing person case was now a major homicide investigation.
no sooner had this happened police annonced that they had made an arrest .
News:” police in santa cruz california have a 15 year orld boy under arrest inconnection with the disapperance and apprent death of an eight year old girl
More shocking still the suspect lived in the apartment complex
at 9 pm on july 28 th the broken community came together for a vigil
Because of his age the tennager´s identity was protected but all this changed when santa cruz county district attorny jeff roselle issued a statement he announced that they had sufficient evidence against him and he would be charging the teen as an adult not only for murder but also for kidnapping and sexual assults
” the law allows under certain circumstances with certain types of offenses a determination as to wether or not you want to charge someone as an adult or wheter or not they´re charged as a juvenile based on the information thar we know at this point, there do appear to be charges ,that can be filed as an adult and we are absolutely considering that and these are the type of charges and the type of offenses that are and can be charged also.
and with this name was released.
The supect in custody turned out to be Adrian Jerry Gonzales as AJ. and he had lived in the apartement for the last six years with his mother .it was a bombshell for the neighbors and the fact that he could have been involved left them shocked.not knowing any details, everybody at first thought that this must have been an accident and AJ had panicked and tried to cover it up. everybody described him as likable and polite often spending time ouside with the other children. teachen them how to do yo-yo tricks and play the piano. he even worked as a councelor for the younger children .everyone loved and trusted him and this was an unfathomable thing to process.
“the dreams in which i´m dying are the best i´ve ever had.
but othe argued his social media posts pointed to someone who was far more trubbled than anyone had realized. with many of his posts having disturbing captions .
what had initially drawn police to AJ that day was that hw was watching them intently as they searching the bins.and in the second the officers realized that maddie was in there. he started to run. despite he fact he wouldn´t have been able to even see what they have found.he had been helping in the searches and involving himself in the investigation from the beginning.
asking everyone questions about what they knew and if anyone had heard anything,something that seemed innocuous but when police questioned him after he ran away. they realized something was very wrong.and he did had something to hide.
they wouldn ´t go into detail about what he had said or what evidence they had uncovered in his apartment which was likely due to to his age and how much they were allowed toi reveal.
an examination of maddies body came in the following day and it was determined that her mouth had ben bound wuth tape. she had been beaten and raped before being strangled and stappbed it was such a monstrous crime and what poor madie had gone through was horrendous.
after being formally interviewed AJ admitted to what he done. had lured maddie into his apartment by offering her som ice cream, maddie knew AJ well and trusted him.As she was helping herself to the ice cream he attacked her from behind after he bound her asnd assulted her ,he strungled her before forcing her in into the bag she was later found in. as he was doung this, he realized that she was still alive he subsequently stabbed the neck. medical examiners concluded that she had utlimately died of positional asphyxiation from her position in the recycklin bin.
district attorney jeff roselle said” we are going to bring him to justice he is looking at life in prison.he also said that he thought being charged and tried as an adult was the onyl appropriate course of action and that AJ was a sexual deviant with no place in society
judge salazar agreed with with jeff roselle and determined that AJ´s trial should go through the adult court system instead of the juvenile one.he cited prop 57 which was passed by voters and allowed jugdes to descide wether or not a teen should be tried as an adult
AJ entered a plea of not guilty.despite his admissions.but his defense team were fighting hard to transer his case back to juvenile court using the controversial Senate bill 1391 which had just com into effect.
SB1391 prhibits anyone 14 or 15 years old from being tried as an adul, they also said that the reasons behind why he did what i hid stemmed from a tough home and school life and being socially awkward but people that knew the Gonzalez family said that this was simply not true.
his mother reggie had left his father when the relationship had turned violent. and her children were her biggest priority.they said AJ was showered with love and affection and he came from a caringfamily that had done their best giving their situation ,they said that although reggie had battled drug and alcohol issues , she was now clean and doing her best to repair any damage that had been done.
The police and prosecution said that numerous people have tougher upbringings than most and and this is not the outcome .they said ,using his mother and his upbringing as some kind of justification for what he had done was heartbreaking.
Thousands of people signed a petition to stop SB 1391 applying to AJ ´s case but i twas in vain.when after much deliberation and appeals by AJ´s defense team the supreme court ruled that his case schould be transferred to a juvenile court .
This was met with huge backlash and the community were horrified that something so awful could shappen to someone so vulnerable and be met with potentially just a few years in prison, judge salazar also expressed his feelings saying his hands were tied by the change in i the law and he had no choice.
he said : allowing all 14 and 15 year olds accused to first -degree murder and other violent offenses to remain in in juvenile court is not promoting public safety because not all of them can be safely rehabilitated.
following this decision in april 2021 Adrian Jerry Gonsalez changed his plea
he finally pleaded guilty to six felony counts including the kidnapping ,rape, and murder of maddie more than five years prior before his senencing AJ said he hoped the family would forgive him one day.
maddies father michael said he has accepted his daughter´s loss and he has forgiven AJ.
Laura said her daughter´s death left her suffering with depression anxiety and post – traumatisc stress disorder resulting in her being unable to work.
Even AJ´s attorney expressed his relief that this was all coming to an end , so thtat maddie´s family did not have to go through any more than they already had
In the adult court system AJ was facing 126 years to life in prison .but the juvenile court system gave a very different sentence.
People gathering outside the santa crus county courthouse protesting the sentencing . under california law Gonzales must be sentence here as a juvenile.gonzales was 15 , almost 16 years old when he killed maddie middleton, because of that he was a child at the time at the murder.he will be released in jsut 4 years when he turns 25.
Judge salazar imoposed the maximum sentence he possible could given the circumstances.the law as it stands now determined that AJ´s maximum term of confinement ends when he turns 25 . this would be in october 2024. there is no garantee he´ll be released in 2024 however as the court can be petitioned to extend his time.
Allthough district attorney jeff roselle said :”he sadley believes it might be.i think its likely he will be out at 25 and i think its an absolute travesty of justice and i think it´s unsafe for the community he,said.
AJ must also register for life as a sex offender and pay twenty two thousand dollar in i restitution fees
Maddies grandfather Dan said that the sentencing ignores all the evidence pointing towards him. being a danger to society . he also predict that SB1391 will have dire consequences for future cases.
A celebration of life was also held where hundreds turned up and the mayor Don Lane commemorated her life by declaring october 5th,2015 as madison Midlleton day, her birthday.
