Kriti Mehrotra
When Celina Anne Petersen was found brutally murdered in a narrow alley in Seattle, Washington, on the morning of February 15, 2015, it left her entire community absolutely terrified. The 26-year-old seemed to have no known enemies, so the idea of heinous killer/s being on the loose made locals fear for their own lives, as per ID’s ‘See No Evil: Life After Midnight.’ It took the authorities a while, but with public tips, surveillance footage, and witness statements, they eventually brought the matter to a close.
Celina Petersen Died From Extensive Injuries in the Area She Always Called Home
Born on December 1, 1988, to Celeste Petersen and Robert Petersen, Celina Anne Petersen grew up in the diverse South Park neighborhood of South Seattle. A kindhearted individual, she made friends with people from all walks of life, with there always seeming to be a mutual sense of affection and care among them. She was also quite loyal, always making sure to be there for her loved ones no matter what. However, as per the show, Celina had opened up to a few of her closest ones about allegedly struggling with alcohol use by 2015. The 26-year-old was reportedly having problems with her family due to the same, so she was mostly couch-surfing at her friends’ places.
Therefore, Kristy Beaver wasn’t surprised when her best friend showed up at her doorstep shortly before midnight on February 14, asking to spend the night. Kristy later revealed she usually would have said yes, but things were different that night because her boyfriend had planned a night-in for Valentine’s Day and she didn’t want to fight with him. According to Kristy, Celina was understanding about the situation and left just after the clock struck 12, promising to see her in the morning. She never did, though. On the morning of February 15, her loved ones learned she had been killed.
Around 8 am, a resident leaving for work stumbled upon Celina’s remains in an alley near 12th Avenue South and S. Sullivan Street and immediately called 911. First responders reportedly arrived at the scene minutes after the call, only to find a woman lying on her back in the middle of the alley, with blood matting her hair and covering her face. She didn’t have a purse or ID on her, but a local officer identified her as Celina, following which her remains were transported to be autopsied. As per the report, she died from extensive injuries across her body, including severe blunt-force trauma to the head, multiple stab wounds, and manual strangulation.
Surveillance Footage Proved Significant in the Investigations into the Murder
When officials were processing the crime scene, they noticed a black belt, a straight-edged screwdriver, and a crushed coffee cup scattered around near Celina Petersen’s remains. They could have mistakenly disregarded a couple of these items as trash since it was an alley, but they also realized it was a relatively clean one in a residential area with dustbins all around. Therefore, not only did they bag everything as evidence and sent it for analysis, but they also followed up on the coffee cup because they recognized it came from the nearby Union 76 gas station. Their hunch panned out as security cameras from there, businesses in the vicinity, and private residences captured the victim throughout the early hours of February 15, 2015.
Celina was seen at the gas station around 1:30 am, and the video also captured two men walking just a few feet behind her as she entered the establishment. A few hours later, at 4:33 pm, she was seen walking away, holding her black purse in one hand while her other arm was bent, as if she were holding a coffee cup. Investigators thus put out an internal bulletin in the hopes of identifying either of the two men so that they could ask them if they knew the victim, what happened to her, or anything else. Within days, an officer identified the man in a baggy plaid shirt and with long hair as Emanuel Jaime-Rodriguez, revealing he was now in custody for an unrelated crime.
When 20-year-old Emanuel was questioned in connection with Celina’s case, he claimed to have no knowledge of her or her homicide – although he did identify himself in the footage. Detectives then uncovered video from a different camera that captured the victim walking alongside a strange man within minutes of leaving the gas station, but he was soon identified as her friend. Since he was now also in custody for an unrelated offense, detectives immediately questioned him, and he claimed he’d bumped into his friend by chance that night. He further stated he had no alibi, but he’d parted ways with her sometime around 4:45 am to go home. Yet, he said, he had noticed 3 men following them, and they were so close that he had once even turned around to tell them to give the duo space.
Witness Statements Helped Identify Celina Petersen’s Assailants
Celina’s friend’s accounts were verified after officials reviewed additional footage, including one that captured Celina’s last known movements. She was seen walking northbound on 14th Avenue South toward South Cloverdale Street at 4:45 am, holding her purse in one hand and her coffee in the other. Moments later, three men — one wearing a blue plaid shirt and having long hair — could be seen walking in the same direction, not slowing down their pace or paying attention to anything else. As if that’s not enough, surveillance cameras also caught the same 3 men together at various times between 5:00 am and 5:45 am near the alley where Celina’s remains were found at 8 am.
What’s even more imperative to note is that when the 911 caller was initially questioned, they claimed to have heard a woman’s scream at 5 am. However, they added, they hadn’t investigated it or raised any alarms about it because they had heard no other sounds in the minutes after. As time passed, detectives reportedly interrogated Emanuel again, carefully avoiding revealing too much about what they knew, but he still refused to acknowledge anything.
Things changed in April 2016 when an anonymous tipster called the Seattle Police Department to report they knew who was responsible for Celina’s murder. They claimed a friend named Cristen Parada-Rivera had confessed to them, only for investigators to then learn he lived less than 2 miles from the crime scene. The 24-year-old local landscaper also looked like one of the three men following the victim in the surveillance videos, so he was quickly arrested.
Emanuel Jaime-Rodriguez and Cristen Parada-Rivera Are Currently Serving Time in Prison
When Cristen was interrogated after his arrest, he admitted he had killed Celina with a cement block from the alley and a screwdriver. However, he also tried to claim that he alone was responsible for the crime by refusing to name the other two men seen with him on video. Since his DNA alone was present on the screwdriver and the belt, he could have succeeded in taking all the blame, but officials had already long identified Emanuel. When the latter was interrogated this time around, he confessed to confronting Celina that fateful night because she had taken some money from him previously, only for the confrontation to turn fatal. Yet, he also refused to identify the third man with them.
In the end, while Cristen pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2018, for which he was ultimately sentenced to 220 months (18.3 years) in prison, Emanuel was convicted of the same charge by a jury and was handed down 23 years. Therefore, today, at age 33, Cristen is incarcerated at the medium-security Coyote Ridge Corrections Center in Connell, Washington, whereas 30-year-old Emanuel is imprisoned at the mixed-security Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, Washington.
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