Naman Shrestha
In the episode titled ‘Not in Life, Not in Sleep’ of Investigation Discovery’s ‘See No Evil,’ the viewers are provided with a detailed account of the 2018 murder case of Cristina Prodan. As the detectives dug deeper into the CCTV footage and other key pieces of evidence, the investigation took an unexpected turn. Apart from focusing on the surveillance footage that played a vital role in cracking the case, the episode also features insightful interviews with the victim’s loved ones and officials linked to the investigation.
Cristina Prodan’s Burned Remains Were Found in Another State
The daughter of Livia Prodan, Cristina Prodan, was a person with epilepsy, which made life more challenging at almost every step of the way. However, it didn’t stop her from having new experiences and enjoying life to the best of her abilities. With an infectious smile and laughter, she could light up any room she walked into. The Edina, Minnesota resident was also in a relationship with an Arkansas man named Joseph Porter, whom she met online via Facebook. Everything was going fine in her life, and she had a lot of things to look forward to when she went missing in the first week of January 2018.
Not having heard from her daughter for some time, Livia requested the authorities perform a welfare check on Cristina’s apartment on January 5. She let the officers into the apartment, where they found no trace of her daughter. Thus, Livia reported her daughter missing, later that day. Immediately launching a search for the missing woman, the investigators searched for any sort of evidence in and around the property and even looked into surveillance footage in hopes of finding leads about her whereabouts. While still searching for Cristina, on January 6, the police learned that her burned body was found by the New Orleans Fire Department inside a shipping container in a junkyard. Medical examiners confirmed her identity and determined that she died of strangulation.
Cristina Prodan’s Killer Was Someone Close to Her
After Cristina Prodan’s disappearance, the investigators tried to track her down through CCTV footage of the area and her cell phone. However, the investigation was turned on its head when her phone pinged somewhere in Arkansas. Upon interviewing Cristina’s family members and friends, the detectives found out that her relationship with Joseph Porter was far from ideal in the past few months. Despite being married to a man in Arkansas, Joseph lived in Cristina’s apartment. The neighbors in the area frequently called the authorities due to the couple’s heated arguments.
According to Livia, Joseph used to physically and verbally abuse Cristina regularly. In one instance, he allegedly beat her to the point that she had a miscarriage. His violence was apparently not only directed toward his girlfriend, as he even hit her service dog in a fit of rage. Following this incident, she got a restraining order against him, after which he was ordered to stay away from her and her apartment. Despite that, he made contact with her and violated the no-contact order, for which he was convicted in December 2017. Even that didn’t stop him from returning to Cristina’s place in Edina on January 4, 2018. Another circumstantial evidence that made the police suspect Joseph was the fact that his vehicle was located a short distance from where Cristina’s body was found.
In light of all this, a few days after Cristina’s murder, Joseph was arrested at his husband’s house in Arkansas, and he seemed to have burns on several parts of his body, including his face. When questioned about the fateful night, he admitted that he and Cristina had gotten into a physical altercation, which led to him punching her multiple times before putting her in a chokehold. Realizing that he had killed her, he put her body inside a large suitcase, loaded it in the back of his 1995 Honda Accord, and drove to New Orleans. There, he burned her remains inside a shipping container while also burning himself in the process. Right after his confession, Joseph Porter was charged with the second-degree murder of 27-year-old Cristina Prodan.
Joseph Porter is Currently Incarcerated at a Minnesota Prison Facility
On January 15, 2019, Joseph Porter pleaded guilty to the unintentional second-degree murder charge in connection to Cristina Prodan’s death. Admitting that his crime was cruel because he concealed her body instead of contacting the authorities, the killer agreed to a higher sentence. Initially, the recommended sentence for him was between 15 to 18 years. However, since he agreed to a longer sentence, he was sentenced to 20 years and 10 months in prison for his crimes. As of today, Joseph Porter is serving his sentence at the Minnesota Correctional Facility – Oak Park Heights in Oak Park Heights, Minnesota, while awaiting his anticipated release date scheduled for November 2034.
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