The location where Michelle Le was found
Crime Scene Location in Pleasanton, California
This is the location where the body of Michelle Le was found.
Her skeletal remains were found off a dirt path that is north of Verona Road in Pleasanton, California.
Le disappeared under suspicious circumstances on the evening of May 27th, 2011. She remained missing until September 17th, when a search dog located her body in this wooded area on the western side of Interstate 680, just north of Sunol.
By that point, the police had already arrested Le's former friend, Giselle Diwal Esteban, on suspicion of her murder.
When Le vanished in May 2011, there were obvious signs that she had fallen victim to foul play.
The 26-year-old nursing student was last seen at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center on Sleepy Hollow Avenue in Hayward at around 7 p.m. on May 27th. Her instructor realized that something was wrong when she walked to her car during a work break and failed to return.
The following morning, Le's white 2010 Honda CRV was found parked on a residential street called Ponderosa Court, which is 0.7 miles south of the medical center.
Traces of her blood were found inside the vehicle.
Surveillance footage at Le's workplace showed that Esteban was hanging around the parking lot that evening. A review of cell tower records revealed that both women's phones had traveled southward toward Sunol at the same time.
Within a day or two, investigators learned about a potential motive: Esteban was convinced that Le had "wrecked" her relationship with a man named Scott Marasigan, who was her ex-boyfriend and the father of her daughter.
Marasigan repeatedly assured Esteban that he did not have a romantic relationship with Le. However, his words fell on deaf ears.
Roughly two months before the murder, she sent Marasigan a text message in which she said, "You deserve to die for your lies, as does she."
Over time, Esteban's hatred grew so intense that she began stalking Le and figuring out her schedule.
The police believe that she attacked and killed the nursing student in the parking lot at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center. She then used the victim's SUV to transport her remains to this dirt road in Pleasanton. After dumping her former friend's body in the brush, she drove the vehicle back to Hayward and parked it on Ponderosa Court.
During a search of Esteban's apartment, detectives discovered a shoe with Le's blood on it.
She was officially charged with first-degree murder in December 2011. One year later, she was found guilty of the crime and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
Michelle Le: Crime scene location
The address and the GPS coordinates for this location are as follows:
Address
Verona Road, Pleasanton, California, CA 94566, USA
GPS coordinates
The latitude and longitude coordinates for the site are:
37.629651, -121.883627
Directions
The entrance to the dirt path is close to the corner of Pleasanton Sunol Road and Verona Road.
Details about the general area
Pleasanton is a city in Alameda County, California. It lies to the east of San Francisco.
Photos
Photos of the site and other related images.
Michelle Le was murdered in the parking lot of Kaiser Hospital
The police believe that Esteban attacked and killed Le in this parking lot while she was walking to her vehicle.
An instructor at Kaiser Hospital realized that something was amiss when the nursing student failed to return from her break.
When the police checked the hospital's surveillance cameras, they found footage of the victim's white SUV leaving the lot.
Coordinates: 37.632471, -122.095330
Esteban dumped Le's remains 22 miles away
Image source: Google Maps
Esteban drove southeast for 22 miles before she eventually pulled into the area off Verona Road in Pleasanton.
She parked the victim's vehicle on Ponderosa Court
After dumping the body, she drove back to Hayward and left the SUV in Ponderosa Court.
Coordinates: 37.627164, -122.096200
The remains were found roughly four months later
Le's remains were found roughly four months later, on September 17th, 2011.
The cause of death could not be determined due to decomposition.
That Saturday, a team of volunteers began searching the wooded area between Foothill Road and Pleaston Sunol Road. By that stage, they were aware that Le's phone had gone dead somewhere in the vicinity.
A woman named Carrie McGonigle discovered the body after her search dog became agitated and ran off into the bushes.
McGonigle is the mother of Amber Dubois, a 14-year-old who was raped and murdered by a sex offender in February 2009. Following her daughter's death, she began dedicating her time to finding missing people by using search-and-rescue dogs.
Scott Marasigan
Esteban targeted Michelle Le after she became convinced that she had sabotaged her relationship with Scott Marasigan.
Although Le and Marasigan dated for a few weeks in 2003, they never slept together. Following their breakup, they remained friends.
Not long after, Marasigan started a tumultuous on-and-off relationship with Esteban.
In 2005, the couple had a daughter together.
Marasigna's friendship with Le became a major flashpoint in their relationship due to the fact that he had briefly dated her in the past. This led to regular arguments and accusations of infidelity.
Marasigna and Esteban eventually broke up for good a few years later. Despite this, they continued to sleep together at various points.
In 2008, Marasigan was awarded 80% custody of their daughter.
During the late 2000s and early 2010s, Esteban frequently sent abusive text messages to her ex, in which she accused him of sleeping with Le.
He repeatedly denied these claims and explained that they were just friends.
Things finally reached a boiling point in May 2011, when Esteban's behavior became so erratic and threatening that Marasigan filed for a restraining order. The order was filed just three days before Esteban attacked and killed Le.
Map Viewer
There is more than one location associated with this entry. To view all of these places on the same map, you can use the following feature:
This location belongs to the following categories:
Crime ScenesClosest Locations
Other locations that are relatively close to this address:
The street where the Zodiac Killer shot Paul Stine
Roughly 41 miles away.
Crime Location in San Francisco, California
The location where the Zodiac Killer reported the Blue Rock Springs shooting
Roughly 47 miles away.
Place of Interest in Vallejo, California