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Mother of missing teen: 'I'm trying to learn how to forgive them'

"The past two days have been…they've been emotional. But I think more so than anything it's been like a cinder block has been lifted off my shoulders."

On Monday, less than 24 hours after police announced the arrests of three young men in connection to the case of Elijah Moore and Enrique Rios, two Yolo County teens who went missing in 2016, ABC10 sat with Elijah's mother, Alicia, to get her reaction to the news.

"The past two days have been…they've been emotional," Moore said. "But I think more so than anything, it's been like a cinder block has been lifted off my shoulders.."

During our conversation, Moore said she'd given up hope ever seeing her son again in November 2016, when he went missing. That notion was only reaffirmed by the arrests of 18-year-old Jesus Campos; 21-year-old Chandale Shannon; 21-year-old Jonathan Froste; and David Ashley Froste, 27, of Knights Landing.

Froste and Shannon were charged Monday with two counts of first degree murder with firearm enhancements. Campos, a minor at the time of the boys' disappearance, is facing the same charges in juvenile court. Another man — David Ashley Froste, 27, of Knights Landing, California, already is in state prison, said Yolo County Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Matthew Davis. Corrections officials said he began serving a 3-year sentence last month for manufacturing drugs and injuring someone.

"I hope that they can, at some point in their lives — before their last breath is taken — that they can come to terms with what they did, repent, and see the face of God," Moore said. "As for me, I'm trying to learn how to forgive them, and walk in love, but I'm not there yet."

Both Shannon and Frost were arraigned Monday in Yolo County Superior court. During a press conference Monday morning, police wouldn't say if the body's of Elijah Moore and Enrique Rios had been found.

"I need to know what happened to him," Moore said. "As scary as that is, because I know that they did something heinous to my baby. I know this. I know it. Something, really, really wicked, I know they did. I just don't know what. And as a parent, you never, ever think that you'll have to go through this. And this is something I'd never wish on anyone. I would never wish this on anyone. So many times I thought I was going to lose my mind, but I had to be strong for my other children, and so that I could continue to stand up for Elijah."

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