Find My Friends app helps uncover a murder
"48 Hours" and CBS News contributor Maria Elena Salinas investigate the death of a Binghamton University nursing student and the international search for her killer in "The Murder of Haley Anderson."
It was March 2018 and Haley Anderson was a nursing student at Binghamton University. Graduation was right around the corner and so was a nursing job at a hospital not far from her hometown on New York's Long Island. In an exclusive interview with "48 Hours," Haley's mother Karen Anderson told CBS News' Maria Elena Salinas she was thrilled at the prospect of having her daughter home again and was planning a big celebration. Karen never dreamed that Haley would not make it to her graduation.
It all started in the early morning hours of Thursday, March 8. Haley and her roommates had been up playing board games and drinking, when they finally went to bed around 4 a.m. Haley's roommate and close friend Josie Artin, who also spoke only to "48 Hours," says that by the time she woke up Haley was gone. At first, Artin says she wasn't concerned. "When I first didn't hear from her, I didn't think, 'Oh, something terrible has happened.'"
Haley was very independent and capable, says Artin. She also had a lot of friends and dated a lot. It never occurred to Artin or Haley's other roommates that their friend might be in trouble. It wasn't until later that night, when Haley didn't show up to a gathering at a local bar, that they began to worry. Haley had never stood them up before, and it wasn't like her to disappear off social media or let repeated phone calls go unanswered. So one of her roommates decided to track Haley's iPhone using the app "Find My Friends," and found that Haley's cellphone was at fellow nursing student Orlando Tercero's apartment.
After connecting with Haley at a party, Tercero became her friend with benefits. His roommate Jesse Bua told "48 Hours" that Orlando cared deeply for Haley. But it was a friendship fraught with tension. Says Bua, "Sometimes they were bickering… and other times they would laugh hysterically… and other times they kept their distances and wouldn't see each other for a little bit."
Artin says Tercero was extremely jealous of anyone Haley spent time with and started driving by their house, often stopping by uninvited. When Haley's iPhone appeared to be at Tercero's apartment, Artin and another roommate, Mishela Topalli, went in search of their friend.
What they didn't know was that Tercero's sister had already called the police. Her brother had left her a concerning voicemail and she wanted someone to do a welfare check. Police knocked on the door, and when no one answered, they left. Tercero's car was gone, and it seemed that no one was home. Artin and Topalli also knocked and got no answer, but knowing that Haley's phone was still inside, they decided to climb through a window.
Within hours, police would find security camera footage from several different locations that became evidence in a murder case.
Starting with a camera at Tercero's house that captured him and Haley first entering his apartment — and ending with cameras at JFK International Airport that showed Tercero boarding a plane home to Nicaragua.
Born in Miami to a well-to-do Nicaraguan family, Tercero held dual citizenship and was raised in Nicaragua. When he fled there, authorities in the United States worried that he got away with murder.