Naman Shrestha
With a 9-month-old son to take care of and a whole new chapter awaiting with her potential fiancé, Lucely Aramburo left his Miami condo in the late hours of the night and vanished into thin air. When the police did not take her case seriously, her family and friends made sure that they moved heaven and earth to find their beloved Lily. The episode titled ‘Midnight Walk’ of Investigation Discovery’s ‘Disappeared’ takes us into the depths of the disappearance case of the 23-year-old mother by covering the police investigation and including exclusive interviews with her loved ones.
Lucely Aramburo Disappeared After Storming Out of Her Fiancé’s Condo
On November 16, 1983, Lucely “Lily” Aramburo came into the life of Lucely Zaldivar and her father as a little bundle of joy in San Francisco, California. Not long after, they moved to Miami, Florida, only for the parents to soon get divorced. Lily thus grew up under the loving care of her mother and attended Shenandoah Elementary, Riviera Day School in Coral Gables, and Ponce De Leon Middle School. Fascinated by nature and flowers, she used to pick flowers in order to cope with whatever was stressing her out, something she learned early on and continued doing throughout her life. Though she gained popularity among her peers when she starred in the Spanish-language variety show ‘Sabado Gigante Show’ for multiple seasons.
Lily’s stable life turned around when she and her mother moved to Hollywood, Florida, in the summer of 1997. This move meant that she had to change schools and fit in with her new peers. So, she enrolled at Hollywood Hills High School, where she ended up associating with the wrong crowd and sooner rather than later, began using drugs recreationally. She would leave her house for days while her mother stayed worried and searched for her night after night. Eventually, the 16-year-old Lily was diagnosed with depression, after which she dropped out of high school and experimented with different kinds of drugs, including ecstasy and ketamine. In 2003, she crossed paths with David Lamaso, whom she began dating.
Things got from bad to worse when they moved in together as Lily became a lot more dependent on drugs, all the while her relationship with her mother deteriorated. Drug addiction was not the only thing she was battling at the time as she had also been diagnosed with Schizophrenia. Within a year or so, Lily met Christen Pacheco, who soon got her hooked on cocaine too. Nevertheless, when she realized she was pregnant with David’s child in 2006, she understood that her responsibilities had doubled. So, she got rid of her addiction, obtained her GED, and joined Buddhism courses. During these is when she met and became close to Janet Forte. In September 2006, she became a mother as she gave birth to Palden. At the age of 23, she felt as if she had brought her life back on track but it all went downhill again in late 2006 when Lily and David broke up.
That’s when Lily and Christen started dating. Things moved fast between them as Lily moved into his condo and they even discussed getting married. But their relationship was far from butterflies and rainbows as the police had gotten involved a couple of times after receiving calls of domestic quarrels between them. Although Christen was not arrested or charged for any of those fights, he was taken into custody several times for drug-related charges – mainly after Lily’s disappearance. Given the couple’s drug use and late-night parties, Child Protective Services (CPS) intervened and gave custody of Paulden to Lily’s mother. The officials also warned Lily that she could lose her son for good if she did not do something about her addiction soon.
Following that condition, Lily got herself admitted to an inpatient drug treatment program and went through regular drug testing. But just a few days before she went missing, she tested positive for drugs. Because of that, she was ejected from the program and lost her chance to win back the custody of her son. On June 1, 2007, Lily and Christen had invited over a couple of friends to their condominium. What started out as a fun night turned into something negative as around 2 am on June 2, Lily allegedly walked out of the condo, which is located at 7600 Southwest Street 82, after an argument with Christen. As per his account, she left behind her personal belongings, including her cell phone and purse. He thought she would come back after a while and went to sleep.
But upon waking up around 10 am and finding out that Lily was still not back, Christen claimed that he searched the neighborhood and then reported her missing, about 24 hours after her disappearance. When the police arrived and launched the search for his partner, he told them that she was suicidal. Given the lack of evidence, the investigators dismissed the case by claiming that Lily was a drug addict who ran off yet again.
Lucely Aramburo Remains Missing But Her Mother Hasn’t Lost Hope to Learn the Truth
When Lily’s mother, Lucely, and friend, Janet Forte, noticed that the detectives were neglecting the case due to the youngster’s history of drug addiction and running away from home, they became frustrated. But after two years of hitting dead ends, the case was taken over by the homicide bureau and new detectives, who conducted a proper investigation into the case and uncovered several lies, mistakes, and unanswered questions. One mistake was that authorities had never once questioned Christen, even though he was arguably the last person to see his fiance alive that fateful night. At the same time, Janet played her part in doing everything she could to find her friend by creating a Facebook page Help Find Lily Aramburo to raise awareness about the case online.
When the detectives took a polygraph test of Christen, he failed. In his defense, he told CBS News, “It burns me up that they keep coming back up to us. We had nothing to do with her missing. She walked out of my apartment, on her own merit. She left.” Meanwhile, Lily’s mother said, “The baby meant everything to her, she has a reason to stay alive. But I am realistic enough to realize that she may not be alive…I know somebody out there knows something.” However, Christen claimed that he spoke to two men who said that they spoke to Lily. When he told her mother about it, she spoke to one of them and according to the details mentioned by him, she and Janet focused their search on the Miami area but to no avail.
In order to garner more leads, Janet went online to share Lily’s story. Fortunately, it was picked up by a journalist from the Miami New Times who wrote a detailed article about the case. Even though the article reached thousands of readers, including a couple of private detectives, the case did not develop any further. Ever since she vanished, her mother, Lucely, had been taking care of Palden. As of 2021, while it is believed Lily has long since passed, Lucely has remained hopeful that the truth about her daughter’s vanishing would emerge someday.
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