Reader discretion: this story contains details of violence some readers may find distressing.
On the morning of April 29, 2022, a 16-year-old named Michael Moody walked into the Deming Police Department in southern New Mexico and said he was a runaway. The evening before, investigators had found 14-year-old Ashton Remondini dead off a dirt road in the desert north of town.
Moody was taken to the Luna County Sheriff’s Office. At 10:22 a.m., Detective Valerie Tyler of the sheriff’s office and Detective James Fetrow of the Deming Police Department went through his rights with him. For about the first hour, the talk was about running away. Then they told him they were investigating a homicide and asked whether he wanted his mother in the room. He did. Before noon, with her sitting next to him, he admitted to killing Ashton.
The full story of the case, from Ashton’s disappearance to the trial, is in our main article: How two teens lured 14-year-old Ashton Remondini into the desert.
The video below shows the last 23 minutes of that interview, recorded from 1:41 p.m. to 2:04 p.m. Moody sits in a grey hoodie with the hood up, his mother beside him. Fetrow comes back into the room with what he calls “one more question.”
Wicked Crime obtained the uncut recording of this session directly from law enforcement. You can watch all 23 minutes below.
What happens in the video
Timestamps refer to the player above.
00:00 – Moody and his mother sit alone at the table. She talks to him quietly about school and counseling.
01:44 – Fetrow comes back in and sits down across from them. “So I do have one more question.”
02:03 – He asks whether Rafael Camacho, the 18-year-old friend who drove that night, knew that the plan was “vengeance” for their friend.
03:02 – Moody explains why he walked into the police station.
03:19 – Fetrow asks whether Moody had heard that Ashton had been found.
05:44 – Fetrow asks about Ashton’s phone, and Moody lists what was in each of Ashton’s pockets.
06:57 – “And did Rafael know that this is for revenge?” Moody repeats what he says he told Ashton.
08:42 – “We both planned it.”
08:59 – Fetrow leaves the room. Moody and his mother are alone for about 12 minutes.
13:18 – His mother tells him her love is “Unconditional.”
14:20 – He describes hitchhiking from Arizona and sleeping in empty houses.
18:47 – Asked by his mother about drugs, he says he was on Xanax.
21:18 – Detective Tyler comes back to wrap up the interview.
22:00 – Time check: 2:04 p.m. The interview is over. His mother is walked out, and a deputy takes Moody to another room.
“Vengeance” for a friend
Earlier in the day, Moody had told the detectives about a friend, Ruben Chavez, who had died of a fentanyl overdose that February. He blamed Ashton for Ruben’s death. That was Moody’s accusation; it was never established as fact.
Fetrow’s first question in this video is about that. Did Camacho know the plan was revenge? “Knew that that that your plan and his plan was to do this to revenge?” Fetrow asks at 02:11.
“Yes, sir,” Moody answers.
Fetrow tells him he can see the change in him. “I see it’s a big relief off your chest. I can see it from when I started to now.”
Moody then explains why he came in. He says he turned himself in “knowing that you guys” (meaning the police) “probably knew about it too.”
Fetrow asks whether he had heard that Ashton had been found. “No,” Moody says. “I honestly was hoping he was.”
He describes the days afterward: “just hear screams, not being able to sleep.” Then: “I felt numb.”
The phone, the lighter and the water
At 05:44, Fetrow turns to the evidence. “So what I heard and established is a cell phone was taken from him.”
Moody answers in detail. “It was in his front left pocket. His vape was in his front right pocket, and then he had a lighter in his back right pocket.”
“So that lighter there that you took from him is the one you started with the fire?” Fetrow asks.
“Yes.”
Fetrow’s report explains the fire. After leaving Keeler Road, Moody told the detectives, he and Camacho drove farther along the dirt road, where he burned his clothes using Ashton’s lighter, and they washed their hands with water from the car. He said he broke Ashton’s phone and threw it into the mesquite. On camera, Fetrow sums it up: “So you damaged the phone. You tossed it.”
“This is for Ruben”
At 06:57, Fetrow asks the question again in a different way: “And did Rafael know that this is for revenge?”
“Because I told him about it,” Moody says. Then he describes the moment after Ashton was on the ground: “I looked at Ashton. I said, this is for Ruben.” The sentence ends in an insult.
Fetrow asks whether Camacho had also been Ruben’s friend. “Me and him both were friends with Ruben,” Moody says. Did Camacho want revenge too? “Probably not as badly as me.”
Then, at 08:42, he puts it in plain terms: “We both planned it. It’s both of our fault.”
Alone with his mother
News reports on the case said that Moody confessed. The recording Wicked Crime obtained directly from law enforcement also shows what happened after the questions stopped. When Fetrow leaves at 08:59, the camera keeps recording.
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