Who Gets Remembered? Evelyn Hernandez and the Media Divide

In May 2002, 24-year-old Evelyn Hernandez vanished from San Francisco just days before giving birth to her second child. Her 5-year-old son, Alex, disappeared with her. Months later, Evelyn’s partial remains were found floating in the Bay, her unborn child never recovered. Her case remains unsolved. Her son is still missing. And hardly anyone knows their names.

Just seven months later, another pregnant woman — Laci Peterson — would go missing in Northern California. Her story dominated national headlines. Search teams, press conferences, candlelight vigils, and a media frenzy followed. But Evelyn’s story? It barely made local news.

In this episode, we walk through Evelyn Hernandez’s life, disappearance, and the chilling details of a case that never got the attention it deserved. We examine the differences in how the media — and the public — responded to two nearly identical tragedies, and what those differences reveal about race, class, and whose stories we choose to care about.

This is a story of three lives lost, justice denied, and the powerful question at the heart of so many missing persons cases:

Who gets remembered? And who gets left behind?

To see more about this case, as well as the sources used to create this episode, visit our Blog Here.

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