Suvechha Sarkar
What began as a hopeful step toward a modeling career ended in an unthinkable tragedy for Kimberly Pandelios. In February 1992, the devoted young mother and aspiring model vanished after she left her home for a job opportunity. More than one year later, her remains were found in a creek, which led to the launch of an investigation that would take years to find the killer. Investigation Discovery’s ‘Lethally Blonde: A Model Murder’ features official accounts and delves into the case that gripped the attention of the detectives and the community for years to come.
Kimberly Pandelios Had Set Out For an Outdoor Photoshoot But Never Returned
The birth of Hossanna Kimberly Spector Pandelios on November 13, 1971, in Havana, Cuba, filled her parents’ lives with immense joy. In the 1980s, the family relocated from their homeland to Pennsylvania in the US, hoping to give their kid a better life. Being an immigrant came with hardships, and challenges soon began to arise for Kimberly as she had to endure bullying from fellow classmates in elementary school. In the mid-80s, she finally found her inspiration to become a model. She embraced a bold and stylish personality and became a cheerleader. As a senior in high school, she traveled to Philadelphia for a professional photo shoot driven by her dream.
After graduating from high school, Kimberly continued to pursue her goal and stumbled upon a guy named Peter. The duo shared their dreams of achieving something big one day and eventually tied the knot. Together, they welcomed a son, Nicholas, into this world before moving to Northridge, California, in 1991. There, Kimberly began taking business courses and working part-time as a model. She was balancing motherhood and her dreams, unaware of the dark turn her life would take on February 27, 1992. Kimberly left home that fateful morning for an auto magazine photoshoot but went missing. The next day, around 1:30 am, an official discovered her burning vehicle along a road near the Angeles National Forest, California.
After the fire was put out, investigators found no occupants in the car but identified that the car belonged to Kimberly from her driver’s license. They also found a lighter and liquid fuel 15 miles from the scene. Five weeks later, her planner was discovered, with some of its pages ripped out, allegedly pointing toward an attempt to cover tracks. However, with no viable leads, the case started going cold until March 3, 1993. Two hikers reportedly discovered a skull, pelvic bone, and jaw bone in a creek in the Monte Cristo Campground Area. The dental records confirmed it to be Kimberly’s remains. Although the autopsy could not determine the exact cause of death, they discovered that she was attacked with a small, hard object. It was followed by an investigation that eventually took more than a decade to find the killer.
The Killer Was Already a Convicted Sex Offender and Ran an Escort Service
When the detectives started the investigation, they suspected Kimberly’s husband, Peter. They learned that the duo was allegedly facing problems in their marriage due to her modeling career. Additionally, there was no way for them to confirm his alibi for the day she went missing. Peter alleged that he tried to find her and did not report her missing since it had not been 48 hours yet. Meanwhile, their babysitter reportedly informed the officials that Kimberly had gone to meet with a photographer named Paul, who later called back to inform the babysitter that the model had left her notebook at his place. When they followed up on this clue and checked the latter’s phone records, they could not trace any call to Paul. Besides this, detectives found nothing that could lead them to the photographer.
Officials found out about Kimberly’s $100k insurance policy, which led them to take two polygraph tests on Peter. However, the results were inconclusive, ruling out her husband as the suspect. When Kimberly’s remains were finally found, the items found on the scene reportedly indicated that it was a sexual assault. Nine years later, officials finally came across the name of a photographer, David Rademaker, while reviewing Kimberly’s planner and call records. Although he denied having any contact with her in 1992, the officials were intrigued to find out that he was convicted in 1998 as a sex offender.
When David’s ex-girlfriend, Cynthia Haddonan, was interviewed, investigators discovered that he was reportedly trying to lure aspiring models into escort services. She also informed them that he used telephone routers to cover his tracks and often used the name Paul. She reportedly recalled an instance when he had lit up a car near the Angeles National Forest and identified the vehicle from its pictures. Ultimately, Cynthia recorded his admission of burning Kimberly’s car on a recording device. In March 2004, David was finally arrested and officially charged with the murder of Kimberly in the following month.
David Rademaker is Currently Incarcerated at a Prison Facility in California
The jury trial of David Rademaker finally began over a decade after the murder in January 2006. The prosecution argued that David, a convicted sex offender, allegedly lured Kimberly to the Angeles National Forest under the pretense of a photoshoot. When she resisted his sexual advances, he drowned her in a mountain stream. They presented the evidence before the court, which included the discovery of Kimberly’s burnt vehicle and also a fingerprint on her notebook that matched David’s. Moreover, the prosecution reportedly presented his ex-girlfriend as a witness, who testified against him. Apart from this, they argued that the murder took place under the special circumstance of a kidnapping.
On the other hand, the defense contested the kidnapping charge, arguing that there was no concrete evidence proving that Kimberly arrived at the scene against her will. Ultimately, in February 2006, the jury found David Rademaker guilty and convicted him of first-degree murder of Kimberly Pandelios with the special circumstance of kidnapping. Although his conviction made him eligible for the death penalty, he was ultimately sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole on March 30, 2006. Following the verdict, David appealed his conviction multiple times, citing jury instruction errors, and also argued that the kidnapping charge was not adequately supported.
During his first appeal in the California Court of Appeal in 2007, it was acknowledged that the trial court had made an error in jury instruction. However, the court ruled that the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt and stated that it did not affect the overall outcome of the trial. David had also made a petition for a rehearing in July 2007, which was denied. Later, his appeals to the California Supreme Court and the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on August 30, 2016, similarly upheld the original sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. As of writing, David is serving his time in prison at California Medical Facility, which is located in Vacaville, California.
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