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ABC’s 20/20 revisits the 2012 disappearance and murder of Christian Aguilar in the 2-hour special, They Know Everything. It will premiere Friday, June 20, 2025, at 9/8c on ABC and stream the next day on Hulu.
According to an ABC News report dated June 20, 2025, investigators say Christian Aguilar, an 18-year-old University of Florida freshman, was lured into a meeting with former classmate Pedro Bravo. He was never to be seen alive again.
As per the Local10 report dated March 14, 2025, Bravo was serving life without parole when officials found him dead at Okeechobee Correctional Institution amid fresh witness-tampering charges. CBS reported on August 15, 2014, that prosecutors detailed how forensic evidence such as duct tape, shovel traces, and computer searches linked Bravo to a shallow grave discovered in Levy County.
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Investigators revealed a bid to overturn the conviction through recorded jail calls and Cash App transfers, as per an article by WCJB, dated March 14, 2025. These converging findings set the stage for five chilling details that keep the Christian Aguilar case alive in Florida today.
5 key details about Christian Aguilar's murder explored
1) Jealousy over a high-school relationship set the crime in motion
Christian Aguilar disappeared on September 20, 2012, after he met with former classmate Pedro Bravo in Gainesville. Prosecutors said Bravo was “crushed” that Aguilar was dating Erika Friman, his ex-girlfriend, and lured him into an SUV under the pretext of talking about depression.
Bravo had already bought duct tape, sleep aids, and a shovel before the meeting. 20/20 reports show that journal entries recovered later mapped out a plan to “make Christian disappear.”
2) Forensic evidence linked Bravo to a remote grave
Investigators found Christian Aguilar’s blood in Bravo’s vehicle, and matched the tape on the victim’s body to the tape found on Bravo’s windshield. They further identified shovel soil that mirrored dirt at the burial site in Levy County.
Surveillance footage also captured Bravo washing the SUV at 1 am and purchasing the shovel, duct tape, and sleep aids. State Attorney Brian Kramer called the proof “overwhelming.” As per an ABC News report dated March 1, 2024, Kramer stated,
“In order for it to be something that would concern me it would have to somehow lead to the conclusion that it isn't possible that Pedro Bravo is the person who committed this murder and the evidence that he did is overwhelming,”
3) Bravo’s story kept shifting, and a late confession followed
During the trial, Bravo admitted to a fistfight but denied murder, claiming he left Christian Aguilar alive on the roadside. His account changed again in prison correspondence. As per the ABC News report dated June 20, 2025, prosecutor Tom Mullins remarked:
“He said that they fought and he left him there, like he'd said in trial, but this time he admitted that Christian passed away in his car. He panicked, and ultimately went out and buried him.”
The partial confession surfaced only after investigators uncovered secret Cash App transfers tied to a scheme to upend the conviction.
4) A prison-based plot tried to rewrite the case
Between 2023 and 2025, Bravo enlisted fellow inmate Brandon Campbell, acquaintance Kelcie Edwards, and former cellmate Michael Angelo to fabricate new testimony.
Recorded calls captured Campbell warning, “They know everything,” after detectives traced money and messages between the trio as cited in the ABC news report dated June 20, 2025.
Angelo abandoned his earlier allegation that Bravo had confessed in jail and accepted a perjury plea. Meanwhile, Edwards ultimately acknowledged her supposed eyewitness account was fabricated. According to the WCJB report dated March 14, 2025, investigators concluded the plot showed “subterfuge, lies and creation of false evidence” on an unusual scale.
5) Bravo died just before facing fresh charges
On March 12, 2025, Pedro Bravo was found dead by apparent suicide at Okeechobee Correctional Institution. It was days before he was due in court on racketeering and witness-tampering counts tied to the plot.
Local10 reported on March 14, 2025, that his death ended all appeals but left co-defendants jailed without bond. Carlos Aguilar, Christian Aguilar’s father, told 20/20, as per an ABC News report dated March 1, 2024:
"I wish he can repent. I wish he can realize that he destroyed his family and my family, and being able to, once, say the truth and accept what he did."
Together, these five elements—motive, forensic trail, changing narratives, prison conspiracy, and the defendant’s death outline why Christian Aguilar’s case continues to draw national attention. 20/20 will devote a 2-hour special to re-examine every development.
Stay tuned for more updates.
