Evelyn Hernandez called her sister on the morning of May 1, 2002. The 24-year-old single mom was nine months pregnant with her second child and struggling.
“She told me she had pain in her abdomen,” Olivia Hernandez told a reporter. “… She was not feeling well. I asked her if she had someone to take her son to school and she said no, that she had to take him herself.”
Despite her rough morning, Evelyn left her apartment in San Francisco’s Crocker-Amazon neighborhood to drop 5-year-old Alex off at Buena Vista Elementary School. She then took a Muni bus to her bank to make a deposit, bought a new wallet at Ross and returned home after picking up Alex from school. Around 6 p.m., police believe she got her mail, including a disability benefits check, and settled in for the night. At 9 p.m., she called her other sister, who lived in Richmond, to chat about Evelyn’s upcoming baby shower. Afterward, they said goodnight, as usual, and hung up.
The next day, Evelyn and Alex Hernandez vanished.
This weekend marks 20 years since the little family of three was likely murdered. Evelyn had immigrated from El Salvador as a child and attended McAteer High School in San Francisco. She became pregnant with Alex shortly after graduating — according to the Charley Project, Alex’s father was in the Navy and is not suspected in his disappearance — and worked as a vocational nurse for a time to support her growing family. She had also worked at Costco and the Clift Hotel in Union Square but was on disability at the time of her disappearance due to complications with her second pregnancy.
The father of her unborn baby was 36-year-old Herman Aguilera, a married part-time limo driver and United Airlines mechanic at SFO. According to San Francisco homicide investigators, Aguilera’s wife was aware of the relationship but did not know Evelyn was pregnant. For her part, Evelyn was allegedly done with Aguilera.
“It appears the victim had made a decision to stop seeing Herman, because she felt he would not leave his wife,” SFPD detective Holly Pera told the San Francisco Chronicle at the time of Evelyn’s disappearance. “It caused some friction, because he was paying for her apartment and wanted to be able to stay there.”
“She wanted to get on with her life,” Pera added. “She thought she had no future with him.”
Aguilera told police he had last seen Evelyn and Alex on April 30, when he went to Ikea to buy a bed for Alex, returned to Evelyn’s home and assembled it. On May 7, investigators say he reported the Hernandezes were missing; it’s not clear why Evelyn’s family, who had a baby shower planned for her, did not report her missing earlier, although it is possible police are holding back information in the case.
Police got their first clue a few days into the investigation: Evelyn’s new wallet was found near a canal off East Grand Avenue in South San Francisco. Inside was her disability check and cash, suggesting the motive for her disappearance wasn’t robbery. The wallet was discovered a few blocks from the limousine company that Aguilera worked for. When police brought him in for voluntary questioning, Aguilera said he called Evelyn multiple times on the night of May 1 but that she hadn’t picked up. He said he drove to her apartment intending to look for her but decided perhaps she was intentionally evading him and went home.
Months went by. Then, on July 24, the partial remains of a woman were found in the San Francisco Bay along the Embarcadero near Folsom Street. DNA testing confirmed the remains belonged to Evelyn. Alex was nowhere to be found.
At a memorial service for Evelyn, one of her loved ones brought a sign with a photo of Alex. The text on it read, “Where is Alex? Wasn’t this investigation important?”
SFPD detectives who attended spoke to the media afterward. “We don’t know where Alex is. Is this important? Yeah, it’s extremely important,” Pera said. “There’s three victims here.”
Since Evelyn’s body was recovered, there has been scant movement in the case. It’s not known where or when exactly she was killed, so there’s no crime scene to examine. Police presume Alex is also dead, but they can’t be sure. Over the years, some of Evelyn’s loved ones have suggested that if she had been a white native English speaker, police would have tried harder.
Aguilera has never been named as a suspect or person of interest.
Evelyn and Alex Hernandez’s case is still open. Anyone with information is asked to contact the SFPD Homicide Detail at 415-553-1145 or its anonymous tip line at 415-553-1166.