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The Friday the 13th Murders sets its story in Luzerne County with a stark account of José Herran’s disappearance and presumed killing. Season 1 episode 4, Feared Silent, traces the call on a Friday the 13th, the trip to a remote trailer, and the violent acts that investigators later described in court.
The episode keeps the focus tight. Dates matter. So do small objects found years later. What starts as a missing persons report turns into a homicide file built on forensics and witness stories, with key scenes set inside a bedroom and around outdoor fire pits.
Case background for The Friday the 13th Murders episode
The story places Herran in and around Freeland, Pennsylvania, in October 2015. He knew people tied to drugs and guns. He also knew law enforcement. He was reportedly a confidential human source for the FBI who passed along tips about trafficking in the Philadelphia area. According to The Times Leader, that role is part of the theory for why he was targeted.
Scene from The Friday the 13th Murders (Image via Youtube/@InvestigationDiscovery)A pattern forms in the timeline. Herran’s mother expected a call on November 17, her birthday. That call never came. Phone records later pointed to late October as his last known activity. By 2020, charges named two men and outlined a plot that, investigators said, ended inside a trailer on North Buck Mountain Road. According to the DEA, evidence tied the killing, dismemberment, and disposal to that site.
5 chilling details in The Friday the 13th Murders S1E4
1) The bedroom floor told its own story
State police processed the trailer in May 2018. Under the carpet, the subfloor had been hastily painted. Testing showed the presence of blood, investigators testified. The episode anchors this point inside the bedroom, where Herran was allegedly shot and cut up, as later described in court. The Times Leader reported this sequence from trial testimony.
2) Three burn pits and bone fragments
Outside the trailer, teams searched three burn pits. They recovered items and male bone fragments, though DNA results were limited without a full body. The show uses those pits to guide viewers through a method of disposal that reportedly involves mixing, burning, breaking, and discarding.
3) A .22 revolver and cutting tools were seized
Search warrants turned up cutting instruments and a .22 caliber revolver that a witness identified as being in a suspect’s possession the day Herran vanished. According to the DEA, agents also seized items believed to have been used to destroy evidence. The episode frames these objects as anchors for the timeline and for later courtroom testimony.
Interview from The Friday the 13th Murders (Image via Youtube/@InvestigationDiscovery)4) The missed birthday call as a clock
Herran called his mother every year on November 17. In 2015, the call did not arrive. That silence set the outer edge of the window when he was last alive. The episode links the missed call to witness accounts and phone records, drawing a tight span from October 13 to November 17 that prosecutors later used in filings.
5) Informant status and a motive theory
Why Herran? The series presents a motive theory tied to his informant work. He reportedly passed information about drugs and firearms, which prosecutors allege angered Roberto Torner and David Alzugaray.
The Times Leader noted FBI testimony confirming his source status, while the DEA outlined how anger at Herran allegedly grew into a plan to kill him. The episode keeps the tone measured and lets that picture build through interviews.
New episodes of The Friday the 13th Murders season 1 premiere on Investigation Discovery on Wednesdays at 10:00 pm ET, with streams on Max and Discovery+ after broadcast.
Also read: 5 chilling details about the Monster of Florence case ahead of Netflix’s The Monster of Florence
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Edited by Preethika Vijayakumar
English (US)