Nursing Student’s Last Moments Recorded On Video | True Crime Story

“Our primary concern was, is, and will always be to find Michelle and bring her home with us. At this point, she is still missing, and we will fight to bring her home every day until we have her with our family again.”

 

Authorities in California say human remains found in a San Francisco Bay Area canyon on Saturday are those of the missing nursing student who disappeared in May. Police declined to release any further information, saying only that the remains were identified after tests by the Alameda County coroner.

“At one point, you and Michelle were close friends, is that right?”

“I considered her my sister.”

“And then what happened?”

“She made a mistake. Scott made a mistake.”

“And then, was that when you were with Scott, or had you guys broken up, or…?”

“No, we were still together.”

“They made the mistake twice. Were you surprised to see Michelle there?”

“Yes.”

“How did it make you feel when you saw her?”

“At first, surprised, and then annoyed, and then I thought, ‘Okay, keep pressure, otherwise you’re going to lose this baby.'”

We’re going back to May 2011, Hayward, in the San Francisco Bay area of California, where we meet 26-year-old Michelle Le. Michelle was from a big family, living with her parents, her brother Michael, and cousin Christine.

“Here we are in Santa Barbara Beach. We’re having lots of fun. And here’s my brother with 15 other cousins and lots of aunts and uncles.”

Their home was always lively. Michelle’s mom had worked as a nurse, which inspired the young Michelle to follow in her footsteps, and when her mom sadly passed away, Michelle knew she had to finish what she started and make her proud. Her brother Michael said:

“Michelle stepped up in such a way when they lost their mom. She became more of a maternal figure to everyone. Michelle taught them to drive, to cook, took them shopping, and was always there to give advice.”

Michelle had patiently waited 5 years to get onto her nursing course and was finally accepted onto an accelerated 1-year nursing program. By May 2011, she was just 6 months away from graduating from the Samuel Merritt Nursing School, getting straight A’s all the way, and was doing a placement at Kaiser Permanente Hayward Medical Center in the maternity ward. Studious, selfless, and always smiling, Michelle never shied away from hard work and had a positive outlook no matter the situation.

On the 20th of May 2011, Michelle was on a rotation shift to the hospital. It had been a long day, but nothing out of the ordinary. It was Friday, and the weekend was almost here. It was also the students’ last day at the hospital, so there was a buzz of excitement about the place. Everybody was more than ready for a well-deserved break. Michelle even made plans over the weekend to visit some friends in Reno. At 6:55 p.m., Michelle told her supervisor she was going to quickly grab something out of her car. It would only take a couple of minutes. She entered the third-floor parking lot and headed to her car parked in the corner. She paused for a second before walking away from her car. She then stood still for a moment and changed direction again. 17 minutes later, her white Honda SUV sped out of the building.

It was now nearing the end of everyone’s shift, around 9:00 p.m. The supervisors wanted to get all of the students together to wrap up, but Michelle was still missing. Her purse and coat were sat in the staff room. She hadn’t signed out, and her phone was just ringing out. Concerned, her instructor grabbed someone from security, and they went out into the parking lot to Michelle’s usual space, but it was silent and empty. A few minutes later, Michelle’s car screeched back into the building and back up to the third floor. Her instructor started waving, and the car briefly stopped before reversing back, driving past them, and going back out of the building again. It went without saying, this was not like Michelle. Her instructor was not only alarmed but frankly unconvinced that it was even Michelle in that car. She wasted no time and called the police.

The following morning, there was still nothing from the 26-year-old. It had now been about 10 hours since anyone had last seen her. About 15 of her friends and colleagues had turned up at the police station. They could not stress enough how odd this was for Michelle. Something was seriously wrong, and they weren’t leaving until an investigation was underway. Officers got it loud and clear, and detectives started over in the hospital’s parking lot. Her ex-boyfriend, whom she was still friendly with, started calling around her family to let them know. Over at the parking lot, they found blood on the ground where her Honda had been.

And just an hour later, at 9:00 a.m., they located her car. It was locked and neatly parked in a visitor’s bay outside an apartment just half a mile from the hospital. Inside it was her laptop and a random ID card for Samuel Merritt University on the back seat. Michelle had no link to this person, nor would she have any business having this on her. The ID card had actually been reported stolen a couple of days before she went missing. They felt confident they could rule out a stranger being involved; someone knew her schedule, had stolen an ID to gain entry, and potentially lured her outside and took off in the car with Michelle in it. A random person just hanging around a car park waiting for an opportunity to attack or kidnap someone was just not what this was going to be.

Hospital records showed that 30 minutes after Michelle walked to her car, the emergency ward in the hospital got a call from Michelle Le, or at least someone saying they were Michelle, asking to be put through to their instructor. As this wasn’t the right ward, the woman then asked the receptionist to pass a message on for her, saying that her father had had a heart attack. As they towed her car away for more analysis, Michelle’s brother Michael suddenly got a message from his sister’s phone simply saying, “I’m fine.” Another message followed: “I’m not missing. My phone has been acting crazy. It deleted everything. All these texts have killed my battery.”

All her friends then started receiving texts on mass, one after the other. Every message was a different story—everything from she had a flat tire, to she was back in Reno, she needed a social media break, she was sick and wanted a rest. Her ex-boyfriend, knowing there was now activity on her phone, texted her right away. The message he got back: “Who is this?”

By May 31st, the reward was set at $20,000, and just a few days later, it had jumped to almost 50. The Le family had hired a private investigator as well. Over 100 volunteers joined in the search, forming 14 teams, spreading out over miles and miles. The reward was going up day by day and was now sitting at $100,000.

As they dug into Michelle’s relationship a bit more, one name started coming up. Michelle had been having issues with an old school friend, Giselle Esteban. The pair had been close for years, even moving together to go to college. Giselle had had a relationship with a man named Scott, and they shared a six-year-old daughter, but things had ended on not-so-great terms, and this was when the problems for Michelle and Giselle began. Before Giselle and Scott…

Outside, the prosecution could not say that for sure, but they theorized that Giselle snuck up on her and attacked her with a sharp object. This explained the blood and how she then would have easily been able to get her into the back of the car and take off. The district attorney said:

“Sociopath, that’s what we have here. She’s laughing as she is talking about killing people. This is a planned assault, a strategic assault on someone who never saw it coming.”

Giselle was found guilty of first-degree murder, and much the same as she had been throughout the trial, she did not react at all and left the courtroom without saying a word. She did, however, later say that if she had been on the jury, she probably would have convicted herself, too. The judge said he had never seen a case with more condemning evidence in all his career. Giselle was later sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

“Two local families torn apart by a murder sparked by a jealous rage. Today, a judge sentenced Giselle Esteban to 25 years to life in prison for killing nursing student Michelle Le.”

“Giselle Esteban never apologized for killing San Diego nursing student Michelle Le. Convicted in October for her murder, today an Alameda judge says she never showed a hint of remorse.”

“He made a really great observation, and we always, we always felt sitting in trial that she felt no remorse. Um, just stared directly at our family with a blank stare.”

 

Le’s uncle, Amira Mesa, is disappointed. He says the family had hoped for a mandatory life sentence without parole.

 

“We might have to go back up there, and who knows when, anytime she’s up for a parole hearing, then it… it all comes up again in court.”

 

Michelle’s only brother, Michael, broke down as he talked about his sister’s plan to follow in their late mother’s footsteps to become a nurse. Those dreams ended when Esteban killed Le in a Bay Area hospital parking garage. Prosecutors say she snapped in a jealous rage when she mistakenly thought Le was moving in on her boyfriend. Le’s brother is now hoping his sister will be remembered many years from now. In 2029, when her killer could be up for parole:

 

“We just want them to know, after 25 years, to know how unique this case was, and to give a face to Michelle’s case.”

At this point, it’s up to the Department of Corrections if Esteban will, in fact, be paroled. Um, the judge says in order for that to happen, Esteban would have to develop a serious sense of remorse.

Giselle later gave birth to a baby boy who went into the custody of the father. There were rumors that Scott was the father, but he said this was not true, and the father’s name has never been disclosed. Michelle’s cousin, Christine, said:

“By committing the crime that she did, she only revealed her own ugliness and revealed Michelle’s beauty.”

It is a case that is as cold-blooded as they come, driven by jealousy, obsession, and an all-consuming hatred for two people that did absolutely nothing wrong. Michelle’s family continue to volunteer to help with other missing person’s cases and raise awareness. Her brother, Michael, said he knows his sister is with their mom now, and whenever his time may be, he’ll get to see them again, which makes everything a little less sad and scary.

When Michelle was first missing, Michelle’s dad spent Father’s Day searching for her. He said he was always so proud of how hard she’d worked and how busy her life was. That said, that he had never asked his daughter to spend a single Father’s Day with him, that he wished he could turn back the clock and ask her for just one.