S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's time for KPBS Midday Edition. On today's show , we listen to a new KPBS podcast exploring what happens when the police investigate one of their own. Then we sit down with a reporter behind the series. I'm Andrew Bowen in for Jade Hindman with conversations that keep you informed , inspired , and make you think. When a police officer is found dead in her home who investigates , Sierra Estrada's death in 2018 was quickly ruled a suicide by the San Diego Police Department. Investigators , who were her colleagues , made no arrests , identified no suspects. But her family says there's more to what happened that night. Reporter Katie Hyson explores Sierra's story in a podcast for KPBS. It's called one of their own. We bring you the first episode now. Take a listen.
S2: This podcast contains discussion of suicide and domestic abuse. We discuss opinions expressed by others. We at KPBS don't endorse those opinions. No one has been charged with a crime relating to Sierra Estrada's death , and we don't intend to imply that anyone should be charged or engaged in wrongdoing. This is San Diego police officer Sierra Estrada playing with her beagle , Trevor. She took this video in December 2017 , her last month alive. She was 25 years old. On New Year's Eve , she went to her older sister's house. They put waves in her long hair , painted her lips red to match her floor length sparkling dress hung fake diamonds in her ears. Her parents stopped by. She said she'd see them the next weekend. She headed to a party at the Hilton Hotel overlooking the bay. Photos taken around 10 p.m. show her smiling. Radiant. The next day , her fellow officers found her in that dress on her bathroom floor with a bullet hole between her eyes. Her service gun was in her lap. A fired bullet casing was still lodged inside. Soot marked a finger on each hand. San Diego police investigated her death. Themselves almost immediately. They called it a suicide. I'm Katie Hyson. I report on racial justice and social equity for KPBS News in San Diego. And this is one of their own. It doesn't appear. Local news outlets ever reported her death , but Sierra grabbed the world's attention when she was alive. A video of her went viral in 2016. 8.5 million views on YouTube alone. The video is just Ciara doing her job.
S3: Somebody inside said , you're out here panhandling. I am.
S4: But I am not aggressively panhandling , so I don't think I'm breaking any laws. You're not.
S2: It's titled finally a Nice Cop.
S3: What's your name ? Set. Set.
S2: It was posted by a man in the nearby business called to complain about.
S3: You have every right to be here. Um. I mean , just make sure you're not obstructing the sidewalk. Of course , you know , some people are just a little intimidated. I'm just gonna take some of your info down. It's not a ticket.
S4: No problem. Get my ID out for you. Perfect.
S3: Perfect. Yeah , if you have that.
S2: He was struck by the way she treated him.
S4: The female cops are always much nicer. And I've been taping cops for the past week. And you're the first person who was nice. Yeah.
S3: Yeah. I mean , unfortunately , we can't all like police the same way. It's all discretion. It's all. You know , for me , talking to people is a big thing. And the way you talk to people is a big thing.
S4: So people caught some cops don't realize.
S2: This simple video of Cierra received more attention than her sudden and complicated death. I'm telling you this story today because seven years later , I got an email from Sierra's mom. She reached out because she saw a story I wrote about a lawsuit. The lawsuit alleged domestic violence by a male San Diego police officer against the female officer he married , and it described a department culture that both enabled it and covered it up. In five years of reporting on this beat in San Diego and elsewhere , these kinds of complaints Lanes have become familiar to me. Police departments are expected to enforce the laws that keep our society functioning , and they're given a lot of power to do that. But they're also real , flawed workplaces with conflicts and culture issues. And sometimes those flaws collide with that power , especially when they investigate one of their own. In this podcast , I explore Sierra's story and SPD's investigation of her death. How did they reach their conclusions ? Did they dig deep enough ? Would they have handled it differently if the people involved weren't their coworkers ? These questions have haunted Sierra's mother. She says Sierra's story the real story was never told her family wasn't up for talking to reporters in the shock that followed. But now they're ready. So on a clear April day , I make the hour drive north to Marietta to meet them. When I arrive , Sierra's father waves me into the driveway.
S4:
S3:
S5: Nice to meet you.
S2: Larry is retired military. It shows in his posture.
S6: You made it. Hi.
S5: Nice to meet you.
S2: Sierra's mother. Julie. It was about half Larry's height and twice as loud. Their house is covered in Easter decorations. Yeah.
S7: Yeah. The holidays were so special to her. It was everything.
S2: You know her meaning Sierra. She's there too. To among all the eggs and rabbits and symbols of new life are reminders of her death. Larger than life size portraits of her hang above our heads.
S8: You look so much like her. Oh , thank look , thank you.
S9:
S2: One portrait of Sierra hangs in a circle with her three siblings , an older brother and sister , and a younger sister.
S7: My oldest daughter and my youngest daughter are watering well. Sierra was the mediator and and all the family. She could always make anybody see the other side. Cheyenne.
S2: Cheyenne. The youngest is here too. She's 31 now. Older than her older sister would ever be.
S10: People at New Sierra , they say me and her talk alike. Laugh. Um , laugh. Similar or look alike. Yeah.
S7: Yeah. Every time she laughs , I'm like , oh my God.
S2: Cheyenne and Sierra grew up together , took baths together as kids. They shared a bedroom. Years of falling asleep to nighttime chit chat and back scratches. Sierra taught Cheyenne how to drive on the freeway a secret from their mom.
S11: Yeah , we're the same zodiac sign , too. So that made it harder.
S12:
S11: We were definitely closer , though , than me and my older sister , so our relationship was really hard. Um , to lose her. Yeah. If I ever struggled in school , she'd be the first one to help me with work or anything or anything that I had trouble with going on. Sierra was the number one person who was there for me to help during any type of situation that I was going through. Um , yeah. So that's. We're really tight.
S12: What was the. You said you're both Aquarius. So. Yeah. What's the vibe ? What's the personality ? Um.
S11: We just. We're not really like the life of the party people. Like , if we ever went to a function , we're usually the quiet , the reserved watching from afar. But we seem to make an impact on the people that we do interact with. And she was the kind of like a girls girl. She'd be , um , the person you'd call if you needed , um , a maid of honor. She was that , like , to anyone and everyone she met. Uh , she would literally give you the shirt off her back to total strangers. So I don't think there was anything that she kept private. Like the way she was with her family was the same way she was out in the public. Very. Just like the girl you would want by your side through anything.
S2: Like any sisters , they fought.
S12: Like what ? What kinds of things would you get into it. Over.
S11: You know , it's so sad. With memories , they start to fade. But , um , I don't know , like movies. So she used to love to stay up late and pull , um , like , all nighters. So she just like to stay up the whole entire night. And if I was like , I can't do it anymore. I have to go to sleep. She'd be like , oh my God , come on , don't leave me hanging.
S2: Memories fade , but reminders cover the home. Sarah's locker door from the precinct's changing room hangs in the garage. It's covered in messages from her fellow officers.
S12: Truly a beautiful spirit. I will miss trying to save the world with you , but we'll always cherish our friendship forever. Your partner.
S2: In one corner of the garage , child sized handprints are pressed into the cement floor Sierras. It's a small thing that makes the house feel impossible to sell. Her parents still have her wallet. With cash inside , they can't bring themselves to spend and an expired coupon. Sierra was thrifty.
S11: So like a mason jar glass that's going to be used for Q-tips or candle glass. That's clear. Like , I can use this to hold hair ties and nail polishes.
S13: So she saved all her t shirts or jerseys , even ones when she was like , in fifth grade. Crazy softball or something , right ? Or clothes went from an apartment basically into a tote. And then so when you open a tote up , you basically smell her.
S2: A quilt made of her t shirts covers an entire wall in a room downstairs. It's a patchwork of an active , varied life.
S13: She wanted to try choir. She wanted to go out to be a cheerleader , but she wanted to try softball. But she wanted to try soccer. So she wanted to be in the military. She went to the Coast Guard Academy prep school.
S7: She went to Hell Week at the coast.
S13: She did. She did ROTC in high school and was in a leadership position there.
S7: The commanding second commander.
S13: So when she went to San Diego State in her freshman year , she told us her mom and dad , hey , there's this , uh , opportunity to be on the rowing team. I said , rowing the.
S14: Only boat you've ever been is , you know , on the beach. I mean , she never rowing. That's a pretty tough sport.
S2: Her mom shows me a photo of Sierra's hands after a crew race. They're covered in open wounds and blisters. She demanded a lot of herself. I find more evidence of this in her high school scrapbook.
S11: I believe it is this first line.
S15: I was not one to accomplish much in elementary school.
S11: I don't know what that would mean. Why would you write that.
S15: Hard on herself ? Yeah.
S11:
S2: The scrapbook is a time capsule of the arts. Sarah was just months younger than me , so these photos I've never seen are familiar. Angled down onto side bangs and skinny jeans and raccoon eyeliner. The pages are filled with Twilight and Chris Brown notes between friends and inside jokes.
S16: This is addressed to Miss Shakira Estrada , living at 32. My hips don't lie. Court.
S11: Oh my God.
S9: It's Prada. Matthew.
S11: That's hysterical. Shakira.
S9: Shakira.
S7: Oh my. God.
S12: God.
S2: Her head seemed tight on her shoulders for someone so young. Her family says she wasn't a drinker in college. She took care of the girls who were cleaned up their throw up and made sure they got home safe. According to her family , her biggest vice might have been Monster Energy drinks.
S7: But she was obsessed with those like I via cases and monsters , right ? You know.
S11: She , like , needed those. Those were , like a necessity.
S7: I fetch breakfast burritos for her when she'd come home.
S2: She didn't date in school. She meticulously planned her workouts. The documents folder on her laptop is filled with motivational quotes to print out. Like. It's not that some people have willpower and some don't. It's that some people are ready to change and others are not. Sierra had wanted to follow in her dad's footsteps.
S13: She wanted to kind of lean in the military. I tried to convince her not to go enlisted. She was. She was a terrible test taker , even though she graduated cum laude. She just couldn't take standardized tests. So anyway , she , uh , got talked to by somebody that said he was dating and tried to go , uh , be a police officer.
S2: So instead of the military , she joined the police academy. It didn't surprise anyone in the family. It was on brand for Sierra. The academy was demanding and physical. She showed her family bruises from their wrestling matches.
S13: You have to beat each other up. It's called the shooting. Driving the academics. I knew she would get all that way.
S7: She did. Good.
S13: Good. But it's fight for your life where you're basically you're hand-to-hand combat with an instructor and he's and it's called fight for your life. So if you're ever in a struggle and the guy's going for your gun and you're wrestling each other on the ground , you have to come out the winner.
S7: And you have.
S13: The support of your. Dad.
S7: Dad. You have to show the other officers at the academy teaching that you have what it takes to do.
S2: As I'm trying to understand more about who Sierra was. Cheyenne says.
S11: I think a lot of people out there already know about her just from that video. I don't think there's anything that people would need to know more about her , because that video just shows all her character of who she was an Earth angel.
S2: Our family says they didn't see any warning signs for suicide.
S13: You know , she just moved to a new apartment. She was so happy to move in and be on her own and decorating the apartment and getting groceries that day , that weekend. So these were weren't traditional signs of someone who is grocery , someone who is. Not.
S14: Not.
S13: Thinking of the future. She was. She was thinking of the future. Yeah. Um. She left. No , there was no.
S7: Note before she died. She. And then this grocery shopping.
S2: Story continues after the break. The San Diego police investigated Sierra's death and closed the case. But for her family , it's still wide open for us.
S13: It's for me. It's. It's January 1st all the time. Holidays.
S11: Holidays.
S13: It's always January 1st , 2018. Because like , by today , I mean , it's not your fault , but it's it's always the time doesn't move on. Past that date.
S2: In their living room , they put on the DVD slideshow that played at Sierra's funeral. For the first time during my visit to the Estrada's house , it goes quiet. We watch 25 years flick by and minutes Halloween costumes and a first communion dress and a graduation cap. Sierra grows taller , blond highlights appear in her hair , then it's slicked back into a tight bun. A badge appears on her chest. The photos stop , but her mom thinks her spirit goes on.
S7: She's still doing from beyond , you know , being a good Samaritan and humanitarian from beyond the grave. You know , her soul was going through me , telling me , mom , do this , do that.
S2: Julie believes Sierra sends her strangers to help.
S7: She sends him to me because.
S2: She hears the footsteps of her ghost upstairs.
S7: Because we can hear him walking.
S2: She visits mediums who give her all the answers the police never did.
S7: Maybe her presence sees her.
S2: But she sees signs everywhere.
S7: She kept pulling me to this area.
S2: In numbers and nature. She shows me a large vase and Ziploc bags full of bird feathers.
S7: Since the air is done. Yeah. The angels have left me feathers.
S11: Oh , my gosh , that's a lot.
S2: Larry , who is not sold on angels or ghosts or mediums offers another explanation for finding feathers.
S13: We walk the dogs.
S2: Julie is undeterred. Maybe , she says , Sierra Spirit is at the table with us right now.
S7: They know everything about us. Everything they were doing. I'm sure Sierra is sitting right here. Thanks for showing up. Sierra , there's.
S2: She believes Sierra is invested in their quest for answers and justice because she doesn't believe Sierra killed herself.
S7: I will tell you flat out to your face. And anybody that my daughter did not kill herself. She did not kill herself.
S2: Sierra worked hard to keep her life in order. But no one's life is as simple as they plan.
S7: You don't know what Sierra went through the week before she died. She broke up with Eric.
S2: Next time on one of their own. We look at Sierra's complicated reality with her boyfriend , another San Diego police officer.
S17: She had so much , like , optimism and so much like like she was living for the future. But I do know that that relationship kind of tore her down.
S2: If you or someone you know have thoughts of suicide or need emotional support , please call or text 988. Help is available 24 over seven. One of their own is produced by me , Katie Hazen and edited by David Washburn with support from Elizabeth Hames. Mix and sound design by Emily Jankowski.
S1: That was the first episode of the new KPBS podcast One of Their Own , which explores the story of Sierra Estrada. More details at KPBS. After the break , we sit down with reporter Katie Hyson to hear about the process behind the podcast. Stay with us. Welcome back to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Andrew Bowen in for Jade Hindman. We just heard the first episode of One of Their Own , a new KPBS podcast. It explores the tragic death of San Diego police officer Sierra Estrada in 2018. Eight years later , her family is still fighting for transparency and accountability. Joining me to talk about the podcast is Katie Hyson. She covers racial justice and social equity for KPBS. And Katie , welcome.
S2: Hi , Andrew. Glad to be here.
S1: I want to start with how this story got on your radar. Sierra died on New Year's Day in 2018 , so just shy of eight years ago.
S2: She had seen other reporting I'd done about a lawsuit that alleged domestic abuse by a male San Diego police officer against the female officer he married , and she said that her daughter's story had never been told. And once I started digging through Sierra's case files , I had more questions than answers and I had to follow the thread.
S1: So this is a five episode series. One thing that strikes me is that you dedicate the entire first episode just to introducing us to Sierra , who she was , how she's remembered by her family.
S2: Um , it was really important to me that the listeners care about her life before we started picking apart her death. I've lost someone I love to a violent death. And the news headlines really reduced her whole personhood to the worst thing that happened to her. And I never want to cause that pain for anyone else. And so for me , Sierra's family trusted me with her story. And that's her whole story , not just how she died.
S1: I'd you point out that a simple short video of Cierra being labeled a quote , nice cop actually got more attention than her death. Tell me about that video and why you wanted to include it.
S2: Yeah , it's this hugely viral video , but what's funny is that it really is just Sierra doing her job. It's a very normal interaction , but for the person being police , her kindness and her respect were very out of the ordinary. And for her family. That video shows the core of Sierra's character. I wanted to use the actual tape because Sierra is the main character of her own story , right ? But she's not here to tell it herself. And as an audio storyteller , I wanted to take any opportunity I had to include Sierra's own voice in the story.
S1: This is really such a sound rich series. There are so many details that bring the story to life. I loved that video at the open with her. Playing with her dog just made me think of my own dog , you know , and how dogs are crazy when you're telling them to stop.
S2: So not the actual interview tape , but the little sounds you hear in whatever setting you're in can really set a scene for the listener and make them feel like they're there. And the joy of podcasts is that you can layer that on really richly without having to ration out every second , like you do in a radio story. Um , and honestly , even if it weren't my artistic choice , it was sometimes unavoidable in this family that's so large and vibrant. So when I talk with Sarah's older sister , you'll hear her little niece playing with dolls and clattering around on the table. And when I talk with her younger sister , you'll hear her mom kind of puttering around , getting chores done in the background. And at first I was thinking like , oh , all this noise is ruining the tape. But then ultimately , I feel like listeners are going to feel like they're right there at the table with the family in this podcast.
S1: You could have presumably written a text story about this , but you made it a podcast. Talk about what is unique about the podcast format as a medium for investigative journalism.
S2: Yeah , as you know , as much work and time and labor as this project was , I would do every investigation as a podcast if I could. I think one , it gives you the gift of time and space to tell the story. You can let all the complicated layers of a story like this breathe and include so many different , conflicting perspectives. And there's time for good storytelling. I can build up the characters and help the listener feel connected , which makes them care about something they might not think about all the time , like police oversight and hearing from hearing people's voices directly , I think really helps with that. Um , yeah.
S1: So this is a really complicated story.
S2: Um , primary source documents were huge in this. I have this thick accordion folder of , like , thousands of pages of documents I relied on , and there was a lot of detail shared in interviews that would have made for a great podcast , honestly. But I didn't include it when we didn't have that extra backing behind it. Ultimately , I never set out to solve what happened to Sierra. I never saw it as my role to choose a side or vindicate one perspective over another. But really as a reporter , to hold SPD accountable for choices they made in this investigation and as a storyteller , to hold these perspectives and tension with one another and allow the listener to explore for themselves.
S1: This podcast covers sensitive issues death , suicide , domestic abuse and reporting on those issues can be really challenging , especially when you're speaking to loved ones who are grieving. Can you talk about how you approach that ? Yeah.
S2: Serious. Um , family have been carrying this flood of not just grief , but on unanswered questions and doubts and anger for so many years , and they haven't talked about it with the press until now , and it really did feel like opening up a floodgate. So I listened a lot. I waited a long time in between asking questions compared to a normal interview. I spent hours and hours at their house. I think every time I visited I was usually there around noon until about dinner time. I think one misconception people have is that people don't want to talk about traumatic experiences , but in my years of reporting , I've always found that they want to talk about it. It's just that no one usually asks or is willing to sit in the discomfort with them.
S1: And when it comes to a podcast like this , I think a lot of people don't understand the degree of fact checking and editing that's involved. What was that process like for you ? Yeah.
S2: The behind the scenes of this process honestly could fill a whole docu series , but I think that would probably be very boring for a viewer. Um , I don't know if people know. We check every word in these scripts and and we check it against primary sources , documents , Photographs experts. It's not that people were interviewing purposefully lie , but people just get details wrong when we speak off the cuff like everyone does. So I'll give you I'll give you one example. I was told by multiple people that the party Sierra went to on New Year's Eve was a court party. It was the police department's party. But I'm always checking , right ? I'm never just taking someone's word. And the wristband Sierra wore from that party was listed in the property on her person in the autopsy report , and I looked up the wording on the wristband and tracked down the actual party from eight years ago , and there were a lot of cops there , but the police department didn't put on the party themselves , so we don't phrase that as the department's party in the podcast. And you can imagine that's that's just one phrase of one line of 2.5 hours of podcast.
S1: Yeah , that's a lot of work.
S2:
S1:
S2: I hope that anyone who can relate to parts of Sierra's story can see their own situations more clearly and feel less alone. And I hope that it opens some conversations about things that we find it hard to talk about. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Well , I hope that too. I've been speaking with Katie Hyson. She covers racial justice and social Equity for KPBS. Her new podcast is called One of Their Own. Episodes one and two are both out now. You can take a listen at KPBS or wherever you get your podcasts. Katie , thank you so much for joining and sharing your reporting process with us.
S2: Thanks , Andrew.
S1: And that's our show for today. I'm your host , Andrew Bowen in for Jade Hindman. Thanks for listening to Midday Edition. Have a great day.
