Dateline: Secrets Uncovered on Oxygen - Who murdered Christian Aguilar?

The upcoming re-airing of Dateline: Secrets Uncovered on Oxygen is set to take a look back on the murder of college freshman Christian Aguilar, an 18-year-old from the University of Florida. The events that transpired between Christian and his friend, Pedro Bravo, still send chills in the city of Gainesville, Florida.

Dating back to 2012, this case was a part of Dateline: Secrets Uncovered season 9, which originally aired on June 12, 2020. The synopsis for the episode read:

"In high school, Christian, Erika and Pedro formed a tight trio: best friends who excelled at academics and shared big dreams; when they went to college something changed; it started with a secret romance and ended in tragedy."

Many details about the case were not out in the open then, but it has now been solved and wrapped up, with the perpetrator getting their punishment.

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What happened to Christian Aguilar?

Christian and Erika (Image via Erika Friman)

Christian Aguilar, Erika Freeman, and Pedro Bravo were all high school friends in Doral, Florida, who also went to the same college after graduating. The relationship between the trio was a rather strained one, as Erika and Pedro Bravo used to date in high school. Erika broke things up in their senior year.

Sometime later, Erika started going out with Christian, leading to tension between the friends. Pedro solidly believed that Christian had gone behind his back to date Erika. Later, it was revealed that Pedro had a long-term plan of gaining Erika back from Christian.

On September 20, 2012, Erika Friman filed a missing persons report after not hearing from Christian Aguilar for a long time. Christian Aguilar was reportedly supposed to meet her the night before, but he never showed up. Pedro Bravo accompanied her when she went to the authorities.

According to Oxygen:

"The day before, he [Pedro] and Christian had gone to grab a bite and then to Best Buy to get a Kanye West CD."

This made him the last person who saw Christian alive, making him a key figure in the investigation. During the talk, Pedro confessed he had suicidal thoughts and was hence taken into custody.

He added that he and Christian picked up a hitchhiker while they were out, and the man carried duct tape. He then said they got into an argument after dropping the hitchhiker, and he dropped him off on the side of the road.

However, Bravo's statements kept changing. One statement claimed that he had punched Christian multiple times during their argument before leaving him on the side of the road.

Pedro was arrested for failure to render aid and was kept in custody as police looked deeper into the case.

Soon, a search of Pedro's car and a deep dive into his relationship with Christian untangled the case significantly. Police discovered that Pedro was behind the murder/disappearance. Soon, Christian's body was also found in a shallow grave.

Analysis of the crime revealed that the murder was a premeditated one and that Pedro even maintained a journal with his plans of winning Erika back.

Pedro was ultimately sentenced to life in prison at the age of 20.