Viswa Vanapalli
When the authorities discovered a badly beaten body at a campsite in California, they were shocked by the nature of the crime. As the police continued to dig in, they learned about the victim, Lora Sinner, and how her four friends were responsible for her death. Investigation Discovery’s ‘Murder Among Friends: Law of the Wild’ focuses on Lora’s tragic last moments and how Eric Rubio and Amy Stevens, two people she knew and hung out with, were part of the attack that killed her.
Who Are Eric Rubio and Amy Stevens?
In April 1998, 20-year-old Lora Sinner’s body was found underneath a firepit at a campsite. Investigation revealed that she had gone there with four friends: Paul Smith, Lori Smith, Eric Rubio, and Amy Stevens. Lora was beaten and tortured before she was finally killed. The authorities got their first big break when Amy, then only 14 years old, came forward with some information.
At the time, Amy was dating a much older Paul. Lori, Paul’s half-sister, was dating Eric, then 18. During a camping trip, the five of them went together, and Amy claimed that Lora had flirted with Paul. She added, “I just went up and hit her in the face and said, ‘That’s for flirting with P.J. (Paul).'” This led to a physical confrontation between the two, with Lori joining in soon after.
According to Amy, Lori had hit Lora’s head against a tree a few times. Then, Amy took a turn hitting Lora in the head about five or six times with a can of chili. She later asserted that she and Lori hit Lora several times with some metal bars. Amy even admitted to taunting Lora as she begged them to stop. Eventually, she claimed that Paul was the one who delivered the death blow to Lora.
When the authorities interviewed Eric, he talked about the camping trip involving drugs and alcohol. He then mentioned the fight, saying, “Amy went over, retrieved this two-pound can of chili beans, and then came over and struck Lora in the back of the head two times. Lori then stepped in, took the can from her …, and then Lori struck her multiple times in the head.”
After the fighting stopped, Paul asked the girls to get Lora cleaned up at the creek. There, they noticed she badly hurt her head; she had a cracked skull. Eric then claimed that Paul had a razor blade, adding, “He tied her up and then asked her out of the blue from nowhere … ‘Do you wanna cut your wrists or do you want me to do it?'” He further claimed that Lori and then Paul hit Lora with the dent puller, causing her death.
Eric Rubio and Amy Stevens Are Leading a Quiet Life Today
After Lora died, Eric stated that Paul asked him to help with the burial and threatened to kill him if he didn’t comply. Later, the four of them burned Lora’s things and left the campsite. Like Lori, Eric cooperated with the authorities and pled guilty to his part in the crime. He was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. As for Amy, since she was underage at the time, she was tried in juvenile court.
In the end, as per the show, Amy was handed down a 15-year sentence. While Eric was paroled out in 2015, Amy was released much earlier, in 2009. It appears that the two of them have preferred to keep their lives private since then and don’t seem to have gotten into any trouble. From what we can tell, their last known location is California.
Read More: How Did Lora Sinner Die?
