The body of a bruised Miami woman led investigators to uncover how a polyamorous relationship turned murderous — and led to the conviction of the other two lovers.
A newly-released CBS 48 Hours documentary — “Who Killed Aileen Seiden in Room 15?” — revisits the mystery of how 31-year-old Aileen Seiden was found battered and bruised on the side of a Florida road, six miles from the motel where she was last seen.
Seiden had checked into room 15 at the Sportsman’s Lodge Motel in Franklin County, Florida along with two others: Zachary Abell and Christina Araujo.
Seiden’s best friend, who remained anonymous, told CBS that Abell had started dating both women at the same time in 2017, and that’s when things started to get dangerous.
“This whole dynamic started to change where one of them always seemed to be the odd man out or was jealous,” said the woman. “And at that point it just started to spiral out of control.”
She recalled her friend telling her that Abell physically abused her: “Aileen would call me… and say, ‘You have to come over here, like he hurt me again.’”
But it wasn’t just Abell who hurt Seiden, it was also Araujo, the friend told CBS.
Seiden was too afraid to tell the police, she said, because Araujo’s father worked in law enforcement.
Her friend recalled Seiden explaining “that she came from police royalty that she had gotten away with … everything in the past.” The friend added: “And there was going to be no solutions to… someone like Aileen getting hit.”
The abuse became so severe that the friend once took Seiden to the hospital, because “they have to report things,” but Seiden admitted where the bruises came from.
The friend recalled telling her friend: “Aileen, you have to break up with this guy. Someone’s gonna end up dead.”
Seiden eventually asked the friend for help while on a road trip to Franklin County with Abell and Araujo, but by then it was too late. Seiden’s body was found at the end of a cul-de-sac on April 23, 2018 — days after the murder took place in the hotel room.
“She had bruises … from head to toe, covering her entire body,” now-retired Franklin County lead investigator Ronnie Jones told CBS. “She suffered … I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Police had seen the blood-covered motel room before finding her remains; Jones recalled it didn’t take long for him to connect the two findings.
“I just put two and two together,” investigator Ronnie Jones told CBS. “It wasn’t just somebody cut [themself] and bled a little bit on the bed. I mean the amount of blood … tells me that whoever was here was probably deceased.”
More than six years after the gruesome killing, Abell and Araujo were convicted.
Araujo was sentenced to 20 years behind bars after pleading guilty to second-degree murder and testifying against Abell, according to WMBB. Abell was sentenced to life in prison and was also found guilty of second-degree murder.
