Cynthia Alvarez's double murder case — A detailed case overview

Cynthia Alvarez was a 15-year-old teenager who, along with her 16-year-old boyfriend Giovanni Gallardo, killed her mother, Gloria Villalta, and her stepfather, Jose Lara. On October 12, 2011, Lara and Villalta were murdered inside their mobile home in Compton, California.

After killing Villalta and Lara, Alvarez and Gallardo loaded their bodies into Villalta's jeep and drove to a vacant Long Beach parking lot. They buried Lara there, but kept Villalta's body in the back of the jeep as they went shopping for an upcoming Halloween party.

Initially, law enforcement considered it to be a case of burglary, since the entire house was ransacked. However, upon interrogation, authorities discovered Cynthia Alvarez and Giovanni Gallardo to be the culprits. The complete investigation is documented in Snapped season 26 episode 8, titled Cynthia Alvarez. The episode aired on October 20, 2019.

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What is the story of Cynthia Alvarez?

Alvarez grew up in a trailer home with her mother and stepfather (Image via Pexels)

As reported by Oxygen, the Snapped subject, Cynthia Alvarez, had a troubled childhood. She was very young when her father was deported to Honduras and was raised by her stepfather, Jose Lara, and her mother, Gloria Villalta, alongside her sister Dayana.

As reported by the Los Angeles Times, Alvarez suffered from learning disabilities from childhood. As a result, she was enrolled in special education classes at school. As per Oxygen, she claimed that she suffered from diabetes and partial blindness, but had to do all the household chores.

Alvarez was raped by her stepfather (Image via Pexels)

She said that her mother, Gloria Villalta, often beat her violently for the smallest mistakes and kept her as a "slave." As per Oxygen, the Snapped subject, Cynthia Alvarez, was raped by her stepfather, Jose Lara, from 2007 to 2008.

In 2010, Alvarez met Giovanni Gallardo at Dominguez High School in Compton. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, Giovanni, too, had cognitive disabilities with an IQ of 57. The two soon began dating. However, Alvarez claimed that Gallardo soon started abusing her by drugging her and threatening her with knives and firearms, as per court records.

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The murder of Gloria Villalta and Jose Lara

Gallardo decided to kill Lara after discovering Alvarez's abuse at his hands (Image via Pexels)

As reported by the Los Angeles Times, Cynthia Alvarez's parents disapproved of her relationship with Giovanni Gallardo. Gallardo claimed that Lara threatened him, while Villalta reported him to the police. He also said that when he discovered that Alvarez had been raped by Lara, he talked about killing him. Later, when Villalta pressured Alvarez to end her relationship with Gallardo, they started planning to kill her, too.

As reported by the Los Angeles Times, on October 12, 2011, Gallardo came to Alvarez's mobile home with a "murder kit" that contained a mask, a baseball bat, and rubbing alcohol. Reportedly, Cynthia Alvarez was communicating with him using hand sign gestures and by writing notes in a spiral notebook.

Gallardo used a baseball bat to kill Lara (Image via Pexels)

According to Oxygen, at one point in time, Cynthia Alvarez went outside the mobile van, while Gallardo went inside and strangled Villalta to death. After that, both of them reportedly dragged Villalta's body to the bedroom, tying her with tape. They then waited for Lara to arrive.

As Lara entered the house through the front door, Gallardo reportedly struck his face with a baseball bat twice. When Lara started defending himself and fighting back, Cynthia Alvarez took the baseball bat and hit him multiple times. Cynthia then brought out a knife and handed it to Gallardo, who used it to kill Lara, as per the Los Angeles Times.

The dead bodies were carried to a vacant lot in a jeep (Image via Pexels)

Both of the bodies were then loaded into Villalta's Jeep Cherokee and carried to an empty lot in Long Beach. They buried Lara's body there, while Gloria's body was kept in the backseat of the vehicle. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, the body was left to decompose in the car backseat, and then later buried in an empty car lot in Norwalk, California.

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Investigation into the murders committed by Cynthia Alvarez and Giovanni Gallardo

A jogger discovered the decomposing body of Villalta (Image via Pexels)

As reported by Oxygen, on October 15, 2011, a jogger discovered Villalta's body. It had undergone advanced stages of decomposition when the authorities reached the scene, but they managed to identify her.

On October 17, 2011, Lara's boss contacted the police when he failed to show up for work. Soon, authorities reached Villalta and Lara's residence to find it ransacked completely. Initially, they thought it was a case of robbery, but soon discovered the notes Alvarez and Gallardo had written, as per Oxygen.

Investigators interrogated Cynthia's trailer home and found the spiral notebook (Image via Pexels)

When the news of Gloria Villalta and Jose Lara's death began to spread, Gallardo's mother brought him and Cynthia Alvarez in for questioning.

When the Snapped subject was interrogated, she narrated the complete chain of events. Soon, Gallardo also admitted to the murders, implicating both himself and Alvarez.

As reported by CBS News, on October 21, 2011, both Cynthia Alvarez and Giovanni Gallardo were charged with two counts of murder. In January 2014, they were sentenced to life in prison. Gallardo does not have a possibility of parole, while Cynthia Alvarez will be eligible for parole after serving 51 years.

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Check out other articles to learn more details about other cases on Snapped.

Edited by Ankita Barat