TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — There is a remote spot north of Tucson where a child killer left the bodies of the children he killed. One was 13. One was six. We have the story of how he was caught, put on trial, convicted, and punished.
Maribel Gonzales disappeared as she walked to visit a friend.
Isabel Celis was taken from her own bedroom, while the rest of her family slept.
“I don't often use the word evil. But I do think that that is one way to characterize the things that he did.”
Once Christopher Clements was ID’ed as the suspect, Tracy Miller had to balance the focus of a prosecutor with the heart of a mother.
“Losing your kids, I can't imagine. I get goosebumps every time I think about waking up in the morning and not having my child in his bed. That's got to be terrifying or getting the call that you can't find your daughter in Maribel’s case. I cannot imagine parents who have to live with that kind of tragedy in their lives.”
Convincing jurors Clements is guilty required a complex collection of evidence.
In the Maribel Gonzales case Sheriff’s detectives found cell phone tracking that placed Clements in the general area where that girl’s body was found. They recovered DNA but it was only a partial match to Clements.
Clements led investigators to Isabel Celis' remains five years after she disappeared. He was trying to trade information for getting unrelated charges dropped. He said knowing the location did not mean he knew who killed her.
Miller says, “Christopher Clements thought that he was the smartest guy in the room all of the time. And when you watch those interviews, and you watch the way he behaved with the FBI, he thought he had everyone fooled. And the way that he carried himself, the way that he talked, the way that he laughed throughout that interview as if this was some kind of joke, and suggesting that Isabel could have been alive when he knew darn good and well, she wasn't.”
Isabel’s remains were too deteriorated to yield DNA to connect to Clements but they were in the same remote area where Maribel’s remains were found. Tucson Police Detectives began to find patterns that pointed to Clements including cell phone tracking that said soon after Isabel disappeared, Clements phone was in the general area where Isabel’s remains were found years later.
The evidence was not enough to convince one of the 12 jurors in the Isabel Celis case. The judge declared a mistrial and a new trial began. That retrial led to the unanimous verdict required to convict.
Judge James Marner sentenced Clements to a life sentence for Maribel’s death. After the conviction in the Isabel Celis case the judge ordered another life sentence to be served after the life sentence in the Maribel case.
Tracy Miller gives the credit to a determined, dedicated team of prosecutors, detectives, and county attorney staff.
She remembers watching Christopher Clements leave the courtroom in chains, headed for prison, where he will live, until he dies.
“It's been a long seven years for people who were associated with this case. And to finally know that Christopher Clemens would be spending the rest of his life in the Department of Corrections for what he did was a relief.”
