‘48 Hours’ to feature local case Saturday

For six years, readers in Franklin and Gulf counties could follow, if so inclined, the tragic tale of a young woman bludgeoned to death in 2018 in an Eastpoint motel, and the lengthy court proceedings that were ultimately resolved earlier this year.

On Saturday night, about two million television viewers, in the United States and around the world, will have a chance to explore for themselves what happened.

The CBS true crime show “48 Hours” will present an episode “Who Killed Aileen Seiden in Room 15?” this Saturday, Oct. 19 at 10 p.m. ET. It will also be available on Pluto and Paramount, and will be accessible online in the weeks following the airing.

The show is hosted by one of 48 Hours’ most veteran and distinguished reporters Peter Van Sant, who offered an insight into the upcoming episode last week from his home in New Jersey.

How 48 Hours handles its detailed exploration of the case will be up to the perceptions of the viewing audience, but for those unfamiliar with the murder of Seiden, the basic facts are clear, as established by a 12-person jury in January, and a plea deal the previous year.

On April 23, 2018 at the Sportsman’s Lodge, Seiden, 31, was beaten to death by two people with whom she was staying, Christina Araujo, 44, of Palm Beach County, and Zachary Abell, 36, of North Miami Beach. The trio, who for a number of years had a close relationship, had traveled to Franklin County from Dallas, Texas, and were looking for a place to stay the night.

After the bludgeoning, Abell and Araujo dumped Seiden’s body in a cul-de-sac just off U.S. 98, and then headed to a friend’s house in Miami-Dade County. After hearing scattered details of what had happened, the friend notified Araujo’s father, the undersheriff in Palm Beach County, and within days, the two were arrested by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and extradited to Franklin County, where they remained jailed over six years.

“It’s a fascinating tale, a strange look inside a psychology of three people that remains a mystery,” said Van Sant. “It’s a strong side of the human psyche that we witnessed and explored in this case, and it’s a mystery unsolved for us.”

In handling the story, Van Sant worked closely with Ronnie Jones, the retired detective from the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office turned owner of the High Five Dive Bar, for whom this was his last case.

“Ronnie Jones was such an impressive investigator,” he said. “Ronnie could fit into the homicide unit of any big city. He is wise, he is perceptive and he’s clever in his analysis. As someone who owns a bar and socializes on a daily basis, Ronnie was a fantastic character.”

The CBS production crew also did interviews with Abell’s defense attorney Alex Morris; with Assistant State Attorney Jarred Patterson, who prosecuted the case; and with David Adlerstein, editor of the Apalachicola Times, which covered the case extensively.

Van Sant and his team interviewed Seiden’s sister, Franceasca, who lives in California; Michael Picavet, the friend to whose house the couple fled and who later testified at trial; and a close friend of Seiden’s who chose to remain unnamed on the air. He said they reviewed the statement made by Araujo’s father at his daughter’s sentencing, but did not do an interview with him.

While 48 Hours did ask for and receive the handful of autopsy photos that Circuit Judge Frank Allman allowed to be released at Abell’s trial, the show chose not to air them.

“I’ve never looked at autopsy photos in our career on the show,” Van Sant said. “We never put those on.”

In reviewing the case, what did strike the veteran Emmy Award winning journalist was just how savage the beating had been.

“This is just horrific,” he said. “This woman suffered unimaginably prior to her death. I’ve had only one other case where the violence reached this level. It’s shocking and it takes a lot to shock me.”

Aruajo, who had taken a plea deal in 2023 before Circuit Judge Jonathan Sjostrom, testified for the prosecution at Abell’s trial and in her appearance on the witness stand, she said that what precipitated his first blow was when Seiden turned to Araujo and said “Guess what?”

“We don’t know what was going to be said,” Van Sant said, noting that in his statement before sentencing, Abell had told the judge he had proposed to Seiden during a stop on their way to Dallas.

“Was it going to be they were in love? She might have been about to say that that was the nature of their relationship,” Van Sant said. “These two had been in a romantic rivalry in this throuple.

“So much of what these three did to one another, from fistfighting to lovemaking, I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said. “Their throuple was in trouble all the time. It was as bizarre and strange a relationship as I have ever covered on 48 Hours and it went on over and over and over again.”

Van Sant, 71, began his career as a devoted television newsman, moving up from local news stations on the West Coast to being correspondent for CBS Evening News, first in Atlanta and later in London.

His career included award-winning coverage of medical helicopter crashes, to the collapse of the Soviet Union, the first Gulf War, reunification of Germany, famines in Africa and in North Korea, the September 11 attacks, Hurricane Katrina and the Virginia Tech massacre. He also interviewed celebrities who have included Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Garth Brooks, Nick Nolte, Lee Ann Womack, and Ronnie Dunn and Kix Brooks.

His career success led him to a groundbreaking show that was the predecessor of 48 Hours, in which hard news stories were filmed, literally, over the course of just 48 hours.

“It was basically a hard news magazine, cameras on the shoulder, everything on the move, very avant garde,” Van Sant said.

The show took him everywhere, from American streets deeply immersed in the crack epidemic, to overseas events in Riga, Latvia, where he would meet and fall in love with his wife.

“No one had ever done anything like this,” he said. “I literally wouldn’t get any sleep for two days.”

As the news magazine evolved its format, CBS executive Leslie Moonves would ultimately settle on the true crime genre, where it has stayed for several years.

“True crime is one of the hottest topics in the world today,” Van Sant said. “Les Moonves had the idea of making this solely a true crime show, and to take our CBS News journalism ethics and apply it to a topic that everyone is fascinated in.

“It goes to the heart of human nature, who we are as a civilization and how we treat each other,” he said. “This for me was a new challenge and fascinating. We are news people and we cover what people find interesting. What is more important than human life, people having the ability to live every day without fear of crime. 

“It is incredibly important, the canary in the mine shaft of our country,” Van Sant said. 

He acknowledges that true crime spans a gamut of varying degrees of quality.

“In the true crime genre, there are journalists who are the Steven Spielbergs of the genre, and people who are tabloid trash writers, it covers an entire spectrum,” he said. “We bring ethics and tradition, and cover this in as sensitive and journalistic fashion as we can. We cover things and give the victims dignity and give them a voice. We don’t enter a story with a preconceived notion. We let the story take us where it leads us.

“We come in with our eyes wide open,” Van Sant said. “I felt sorry for Aileen Seiden, she was vulnerable, and she needed some leadership in her life. She saw people who could play that role for her. The whole thing is a tragedy.”