Obscura: A True Crime Podcast

Part 2 of 2: In our conclusion to the Baby Lollipops case, we examine the final months of three-year-old Lazaro Figueroa's life, the investigation that followed his discovery, and the decades-long pursuit of justice that saw his mother convicted three separate times.VICTIM PROFILE:Lazaro Figueroa never had a chance at a normal childhood. Born in September 1987, just weeks after his father, drug dealer Fidel Figueroa, was murdered in Miami, Lazaro became the target of his mother's resentment as her lavish lifestyle collapsed. At three years old, he weighed only eighteen pounds, half what a healthy child his age should weigh. His left arm had been broken so many times that muscle tissue calcified into bone, freezing the limb at a permanent ninety-degree angle. Despite the relentless abuse, witnesses recalled him running across streets alone, a tiny figure navigating a hostile world without protection.THE CRIME:On the morning of November 2, 1990, Florida Power and Light employees discovered Lazaro's body hidden beneath bushes outside a Miami Beach mansion. His emaciated frame bore forty-three documented injuries: cigarette burns, defensive wounds on his small hands, a fractured skull, and two front teeth knocked out months apart. Brown packing tape secured a soiled diaper to his wasted body. Medical examiner Dr. Bruce Hyma determined Lazaro had endured eighteen months of systematic torture, including being bound, gagged, locked in closets, and left in bathtubs with scalding or freezing water. The cause of death was blunt force trauma from a baseball bat, compounded by starvation and extensive bodily trauma. Most devastating: Lazaro may have survived up to three days after being abandoned, lying alone and helpless before death finally came.THE INVESTIGATION:Police initially could not identify the child and dubbed him Baby Lollipops after the cartoon candy pattern on his T-shirt. The nickname stuck as investigators canvassed Miami Beach with flyers. On November 6, Martha Fleitas recognized the photograph on television and identified Lazaro. The investigation led to his mother, Ana Maria Cardona, and her partner Olivia Gonzalez Mendoza, who had fled to St. Cloud, Florida, stopping at Disney World after disposing of the body. Neighbor Mercedes Estrada reported hearing screams on Halloween night followed by a heavy thump against her wall, then silence. Her report to social services went unanswered.CURRENT STATUS:Ana Maria Cardona's path through the courts spanned nearly three decades. She was sentenced to death in 1992, but the conviction was overturned in 2002 due to a Brady violation. Convicted and sentenced to death again in 2011, that conviction was overturned in 2016 for prosecutorial misconduct. In 2017, prosecutors waived the death penalty, and Cardona was found guilty a third time, receiving life without parole. Judge Miguel de la O told her that wild beasts show more empathy for their offspring. Olivia Gonzalez Mendoza served fourteen years after pleading guilty to second-degree murder. Cardona's eldest son, Juan Puente, died in prison in 2018 at age thirty-seven. The only publicly available photograph of Lazaro Figueroa shows him in death.RESOURCES:Learn more about this case at mythsandmalice.com/show/obscuraSupport Obscura: https://www.patreon.com/obscuracrimepodcast/Our Sponsors:* Check out BetterHelp: https://www.betterhelp.com* Check out Chime: https://chime.com/OBSCURA* Check out Mood and use my code OBSCURA for a great deal: https://mood.com* Check out Progressive: https://www.progressive.com* Check out TruDiagnostic and use my code OBSCURA20 for a great deal: https://www.trudiagnostic.comSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/obscura-a-true-crime-podcast/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

On November 2, 1990, Florida Power and Light workers discovered the emaciated body of a small child hidden in the bushes of a wealthy Miami Beach home. The boy, dressed only in a lollipop-decorated T-shirt and a soiled diaper wrapped in brown packing tape, had been beaten, starved, and systematically tortured. He weighed just eighteen pounds. This is part one of the story of how a mother's resentment turned deadly.VICTIM PROFILE:Lazaro Figueroa was born September 18, 1987, into what should have been a life of comfort. His father, Fidel Figueroa, was a well-connected drug dealer who kept his family in a lavish penthouse overlooking Biscayne Bay. But fate intervened before Lazaro ever drew breath. Just two days after his birth, his father was executed in a gangland-style shooting outside a Miami riverfront bar. The murder was never solved. From that moment forward, Lazaro became the target of his mother's displaced rage, blamed for the loss of everything she had.THE CRIME:Ana Maria Cardona's abuse of Lazaro began shortly after he was returned to her custody from foster care in late 1988. Over the next eighteen months, she systematically starved, beat, and confined her son in conditions the Dade County Medical Examiner would later call the worst child abuse he had ever witnessed. Lazaro spent weeks locked in closets and tied to beds. His arm was broken and left untreated, eventually becoming fixed at a ninety-degree angle. His two front teeth were knocked out. Cardona wrapped duct tape around his diapers to avoid changing them, leaving his skin raw with bedsores. On October 31, 1990, Cardona beat Lazaro with a baseball bat, fracturing his skull. She then dumped his dying body in the bushes of a Miami Beach mansion and fled the state with her girlfriend, Olivia Gonzalez, stopping at Disney World before their arrest.THE INVESTIGATION:Miami Beach police initially could not identify the battered child, dubbing him Baby Lollipops after his T-shirt. Detectives conducted door-to-door interviews in English and Spanish and distributed flyers throughout the community. The break came when a neighbor who had occasionally cared for Lazaro recognized him from police bulletins. The investigation led detectives to Ana Maria Cardona and Olivia Gonzalez, who had fled to central Florida. Both women were arrested within weeks. Gonzalez eventually testified that Cardona had called Lazaro the son of the devil and blamed him for her descent from riches to rags.CURRENT STATUS:Ana Maria Cardona has been convicted of first-degree murder three times. Her first two death sentences were overturned by the Florida Supreme Court on procedural grounds. In 2017, she was convicted for the third time and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Olivia Gonzalez served fourteen years for her role in Lazaro's abuse and has since been released.RESOURCES:Learn more about this case at https://www.mythsandmalice.com/show/obscura/Support Obscura: https://www.patreon.com/obscuracrimepodcast/Our Sponsors:* Check out BetterHelp: https://www.betterhelp.com* Check out Chime: https://chime.com/OBSCURA* Check out Mood and use my code OBSCURA for a great deal: https://mood.com* Check out Progressive: https://www.progressive.com* Check out TruDiagnostic and use my code OBSCURA20 for a great deal: https://www.trudiagnostic.comSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/obscura-a-true-crime-podcast/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Escambia County, FL. March 24, 2010. When Tina Brown invited twenty-year-old Audreanna Zimmerman to her trailer under the guise of reconciliation, the young mother had no idea she was walking into an ambush. What would unfold in the following hours represents one of the most horrific crimes in Florida history.Part 02 of 02.VICTIM PROFILE:Audreanna Zimmerman was just twenty years old, a young mother navigating the precarious landscape of poverty in rural Pensacola. She lived in close proximity to Tina Brown's family, sharing the forced intimacy of a mobile home park where everyone knew everyone's business. Despite the tensions that had developed between her and Brown—accusations of slashed tires, broken car windows, reports to child protective services—Zimmerman believed in the possibility of peace. When the invitation came to clear the air, she accepted it with the trust of someone who had not yet learned that reconciliation can be a weapon.THE CRIME:On the evening of March 24, 2010, Zimmerman entered Brown's trailer expecting conversation. Instead, she was ambushed with a stun gun. Tina Brown, her sixteen-year-old daughter Britnee Miller, and Heather Lee restrained Zimmerman, beat her, and forced her into the trunk of a car. They drove her to a remote clearing in the Florida woods, where the assault escalated to torture. Zimmerman was struck repeatedly with a crowbar, doused with gasoline, and set on fire. The women left her burning in the clearing, believing they had killed her.THE INVESTIGATION:Zimmerman did not die. A third of a mile away, witness Terrance Hendrick heard cries for help and found a figure so badly burned he could not determine her race or whether she wore clothing. Despite injuries that defied comprehension—her skin crackling as she walked, her jaw broken, burns covering the majority of her body—Zimmerman remained conscious. She identified her attackers by name. She told investigators everything that had been done to her. She survived for sixteen days before succumbing to thermal injuries at the University of South Alabama Burn Center.CURRENT STATUS:On June 21, 2012, a jury convicted Tina Brown of first-degree murder. On September 28, 2012, she was sentenced to death. The court found the murder was cold, calculated, and premeditated; heinous, atrocious, and cruel; and committed during the course of a kidnapping. Britnee Miller and Heather Lee were also prosecuted for their roles in the crime. Tina Brown remains on Florida's death row.Content warning: This episode contains extremely graphic descriptions of torture, burning, and prolonged violence against a young woman. Real medical and investigative details. Listener discretion strongly advised.Learn more about this case at: https://www.mythsandmalice.com/show/obscura/Support Obscura: https://www.patreon.com/obscuracrimepodcast/Our Sponsors:* Check out BetterHelp: https://www.betterhelp.com* Check out Chime: https://chime.com/OBSCURA* Check out Mood and use my code OBSCURA for a great deal: https://mood.com* Check out Progressive: https://www.progressive.com* Check out TruDiagnostic and use my code OBSCURA20 for a great deal: https://www.trudiagnostic.comSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/obscura-a-true-crime-podcast/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

On March 24, 2010, nineteen-year-old Audreanna Zimmerman was ambushed by three women she knew from her Pensacola trailer park. What followed was one of the most brutal attacks in Florida criminal history. Beaten with a crowbar, shocked repeatedly with a stun gun, and doused in gasoline before being set ablaze, Audreanna somehow survived the initial attack. Despite burns covering sixty percent of her body, she managed to walk nearly a third of a mile to a nearby house for help. Before slipping into a medically induced coma, she gave authorities the names of her attackers. Sixteen days later, Audreanna died without ever regaining consciousness. She was a mother of two.Part 1 of 2: Before the crime comes the life. This first episode traces the devastating childhood of Tina Brown, the woman who would orchestrate Audreanna's murder and become one of Florida's only female death row inmates.VICTIM PROFILE:Audreanna Redawn Zimmerman was born on April 13, 1990, and was just nineteen years old when her life was taken. A young mother of two, she lived in a Detroit Avenue mobile home park in Escambia County, Florida. Despite the volatile environment of her neighborhood, Audreanna believed she had patched things up with the women who would ultimately kill her. She visited them as a friend on the day she died.THE CRIME:The murder of Audreanna Zimmerman stemmed from escalating disputes between trailer park neighbors. Accusations flew about slashed tires, broken windows, and reports to child protective services. The situation reached its breaking point over a romantic entanglement. On that March evening, Tina Brown, her sixteen-year-old daughter Britnee Miller, and neighbor Heather Lee lured Audreanna into a trap that would end with her burning in the Florida woods.THE INVESTIGATION:Audreanna's dying declaration proved crucial to the case. She identified all three attackers before losing consciousness. Physical evidence corroborated her account, including a bloodied crowbar and stun gun, a piece of hair weave, and DNA evidence recovered from Brown's vehicle. Authorities waited until Audreanna's death to arrest the suspects, ensuring murder charges that could not be plea-bargained down.CURRENT STATUS:Tina Brown was convicted of first-degree premeditated murder in 2012 and sentenced to death. She remains the only woman currently on Florida's death row at Lowell Correctional Institution. Her daughter Britnee Miller, who was sixteen at the time, received a life sentence. Heather Lee accepted a plea agreement and received twenty-five years, with a scheduled release in 2031. Brown's multiple appeals have been denied, most recently in May 2024.This episode examines how decades of trauma, addiction, and unresolved rage shaped the woman who would commit this unthinkable crime. Part two will cover the night of the attack in full detail.RESOURCES:Learn more about this case at https://www.mythsandmalice.com/show/obscura/Support Obscura: https://www.patreon.com/obscuracrimepodcast/Our Sponsors:* Check out BetterHelp: https://www.betterhelp.com* Check out Chime: https://chime.com/OBSCURA* Check out Mood and use my code OBSCURA for a great deal: https://mood.com* Check out Progressive: https://www.progressive.com* Check out TruDiagnostic and use my code OBSCURA20 for a great deal: https://www.trudiagnostic.comSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/obscura-a-true-crime-podcast/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

On March 13, 2020, a long-simmering domestic conflict in Des Moines, Iowa, erupted into fatal violence. Paula Marie Thompson, a 50-year-old claims processor, was beaten to death with a crowbar by her adult son Christopher inside the home they shared on Pleasantview Drive. Her body would not be discovered until five days later.VICTIM PROFILE:Paula Thompson was 50 years old at the time of her death. She worked as a claims processor and was known among friends and coworkers as hardworking and responsible. Behind closed doors, however, Paula struggled with a volatile home situation. Her 32-year-old son Christopher still lived with her, financially dependent on her despite years of unemployment and sporadic work through temporary agencies. Paula had confided to friends that she was afraid of Christopher, tired of the drinking, and tired of supporting an adult who showed no progress toward independence.CASE SIGNIFICANCE:This case represents a devastating example of domestic violence that did not arrive suddenly. Paula Thompson spent months warning the people around her. She told friends she was afraid. She contacted her son's probation officer multiple times between December 2019 and March 2020, expressing growing fear. She even appeared in a Facebook video whispering to a friend that Christopher was "going to kill" her. Despite these warnings, Paula could not escape the danger living inside her own home.CONTENT WARNINGS:This episode contains descriptions of domestic violence, blunt force trauma, and animal cruelty. Listener discretion is advised.KEY CASE DETAILS:• Paula and Christopher argued on March 13, 2020, both having been drinking. Christopher retrieved a crowbar and struck his mother multiple times in the head. He remained in the home with her body for five days before confessing to a friend over the phone.• Christopher also killed Paula's cat with the same crowbar, later disposing of the animal's body in a trash can. He pleaded guilty to animal abuse in addition to the murder charge.• On March 18, 2020, Christopher walked into the Polk County Jail and confessed. He was subsequently found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.RESOURCES:This episode draws from court documents filed in Polk County, Iowa, including criminal complaints and the Iowa Supreme Court opinion in State v. Thompson. Additional sources include reporting from KCCI Des Moines, KCRG, and the Des Moines Register. For anyone experiencing domestic violence, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is available 24/7 at 1-800-799-7233.SUPPORT OBSCURA:For extended episodes, bonus content, and ad-free listening, join us on Patreon at patreon.com/obscuracrimepodcast. Visit mythsandmalice.com/show/obscura for episode resources, sources, and additional case information.Our Sponsors:* Check out BetterHelp: https://www.betterhelp.com* Check out Chime: https://chime.com/OBSCURA* Check out Mood and use my code OBSCURA for a great deal: https://mood.com* Check out Progressive: https://www.progressive.com* Check out TruDiagnostic and use my code OBSCURA20 for a great deal: https://www.trudiagnostic.comSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/obscura-a-true-crime-podcast/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy